at peace, justice and prosperity may
reign." New Jersey rejoices, through her freely chosen representatives,
to name for the presidency of the United States the Princeton
schoolmaster, Woodrow Wilson.

_HENRY W. GRADY_

THE RACE PROBLEM

Delivered at the annual banquet of the Boston Merchants' Association, at
Boston, Mass., December 12, 1889.

MR. PRESIDENT:--Bidden by your invitation to a discussion of the race
problem--forbidden by occasion to make a political speech--I appreciate,
in trying to reconcile orders with propriety, the perplexity of the
little maid, who, bidden to learn to swim, was yet adjured, "Now, go, my
darling; hang your clothes on a hickory limb, and don't go near the
water."

The stoutest apostle of the Church, they say, is the missionary, and the
missionary, wherever he unfurls his flag, will never find himself in
deeper need of unction and address than I, bidden to-night to plant the
standard of a Southern Democrat in Boston's banquet hall, and to discuss
the problem of the races in the home of Phillips and of Sumner. But, Mr.
President, if a purpose to speak in perfect frankness and sincerity; if
earnest understanding of the vast interests involved; if a consecrating
sense of what disaster may follow further misunderstanding and
estrangement; if these may be counted upon to steady undisciplined
speech and to strengthen an untried arm--then, sir, I shall find the
courage to proceed.

Happy am I that this mission has brought my feet at last to press New
England's historic soil and my eyes to the knowledge of her beauty and
her thrift. Here within touch of Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill--where
Webster thundered and Longfellow sang, Emerson thought and Channing
preached--here, in the cradle of American letters and almost of American
liberty, I hasten to make the obeisance that every American owes New
England when first he stands uncovered in her mighty presence. Strange
apparition! This stern and unique figure--carved from the ocean and the
wilderness--its majesty kindling and growing amid the storms of winter
and of wars--until at last the gloom was broken, its beauty disclosed in
the sunshine, and the heroic workers rested at its base--while startled
kings and emperors gazed and marveled that from the rude touch of this
handful cast on a bleak and unknown shore should have come the embodied
genius of human government and the perfected model of human liberty! God
bless the memory of those