Search >> Greeley, Horace (1811-1872)

Editor, Reformer, Lecturer, Travel Writer, Politician.

Horace Greeley arrived in New York City in 1831 with only twenty-five dollars in his pocket. He spent a few years working as a type-setter and printer before turning to journalism. His first article appeared on March 22, 1834 in the New Yorker.

In 1841 Greeley founded the New York Tribune, which “set a new standard in American journalism by its combination of energy in newsgathering with good taste, high moral standards, and intellectual appeal” (Nevins). Greeley “was an egalitarian who hated and feared all kinds of monopoly, landlordism, and class dominance” (Nevins). He became a follower of Fourierism and spoke against Southern slavery and wage slavery, asking “How can I devote myself to a crusade against distant servitude when I discern its essence pervading my immediate community?” (Tribune, June 20, 1845).

As the Tribune grew in popularity, it became a place of employment for many Pfaffians, including Bayard Taylor, William Henry Fry, Charles T. Congdon, and F. J. Ottarson. Greeley’s association with Pfaff’s grew out of his friendship with Henry Clapp, Jr., whom he had met in Paris. Clapp once described Greeley as “a self-made man that worships his creator” (Winter, Old Friends 62). Greeley was also acquainted with Walt Whitman who felt that Greeley contributed to discussions and ideas but was not a great man. However, Whitman acknowledged that “I ought to like him--and do--for he was very sweet and kind to me” (qtd. in Schmidgall, Intimate with Walt 209).

In addition to his journalistic work, Greeley also wrote about his travels--Glances at Europe (1851) and An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859 (1860)--published some of his lectures in Hints Toward Reforms, and edited a collection of public records entitled, History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension or Restriction in the United States (1856). Greeley’s popularity declined after the Civil War, in part because of his vacillations during the war. The decline can also be attributed to the fact that "he would not take a clear position about it" and “before the Civil War the Tribune had been Horace Greeley; after the war there was no such close identity” (Nevins).

In 1871, Greeley ran for the office of President of the United States. His campaign was filled with hardship and disappointments as critics mounted an “exceptionally abusive campaign” against him (Nevins). He “was attacked as a traitor, a fool, an ignoramus, and a crank, and was pilloried in merciless cartoons by Nast and others [including Frank H. T. Bellew]; he took the assaults much to heart, saying later that he sometimes doubted whether he was running for the presidency or the penitentiary” (qtd. in Nevins). Greeley’s bid for office failed miserably and he was left bitterly disappointed and hurt, feeling as though he was “the worst beaten man who ever ran for high office” (qtd. in Nevins). In 1872, he returned to the Tribune eager to resume editorship of the paper. Unfortunately, Greeley discovered that there was no longer a place for him there. After this “last blow,” his “mind and body broke, and he died insane on November 29” (Nevins). Dignitaries including the President and Vice-President of the United States attended his funeral. His failures were soon overshadowed by his numerous contributions to society as one of the “dominant figures in the literary and intellectual stratum” (Boynton 328).

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References & Biographical Resources

Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. 9 Jun. 1860: 3. [more about this work]

Quelqu'un claims "no offense" to Greeley is intended when he tells the General to make "office-seekers" its "property" (3). [pages: 3]

Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. 15 Sep. 1860: 3. [more about this work]

Quelqu'un claims that Barnum's Albino children bear a "striking resemblance to Mr. Greeley" (3). [pages: 3]

A Bohemian. "Sixes and Sevens [Copied by request from the first number of the Saturday Press, [October 23, 1858]]." New York Saturday Press. 30 Dec. 1865: 346-347. [more about this work]

A Bohemian. "Sixes and Sevens." Saturday Press. 23 Oct. 1858: 2. [more about this work]

Allen, Gay Wilson. The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman. New York: MacMillan, 1955. [more about this work]

Whitman shared Greeley's opinion that the Crystal Palace Exhibition was "a thing to be seen once in a lifetime" (120).

According to Brooklyn journalist Charles Skinner, in 1858, compared with Whitman's dress (or affected costume), "Even Horace Greeley, who affected a rustic make-up was more conventional in his costume" (212).

Clapp worked for a while with Greeley and Brisbane to try to "popularize the doctrines of Fourier and socialism" (229). [pages: 73,120,169,177,212,229,389,427,433]

Andrews, Stephen Pearl. Love, Marriage, and Divorce, and the Sovereignty of the Individual: A Discussion by Henry James, Horace Greeley, and Stephen Pearl Andrews, Including the Final Replies of Mr. Andrews, Rejected by the Tribune. Boston, B.R. Tucker, 1889. [more about this work]

Baldensperger, Fernand. "Introduction." American Reconstruction: 1865-1870. New York: Da Capo Press, 1969. 13-31. [more about this work]

According to Baldensperger, Clemenceau saw Horace Greeley as "the perfect type of a political journalist, enterprising and clean, struggling for the enlightenment of the masses, firmly advocating well-defined principles" (19). [pages: 19]

Boynton, Percy Holmes. A History of American Literature. New York: Gin and Company, 1919. 513 p. [more about this work]

"Bryant, Irving, Halleck, and Greeley led the way for a succeeding group of self-educated men" (325).

"During his fifteen years in New York, Greeley and Bryant, two newspaper editors, were perhaps the dominant figures in the literary and intellecgtual stratum" (328). [pages: 325, 328, 385]

"Brigham Young’s Two Hours with Horace Greeley." New-York Saturday Press. 27 Aug. 1859: 2. [more about this work]

Brockway, Beman. Fifty Years in Journalism Embracing Recollections and Personal Experiences with an Autobiography. Watertown, NY: Daily Times Printing and Publishing House, 1891. [more about this work]

Brockway discusses the Tribune staff in general and Greeley's role more specifically. [pages: viii, 70, 71, 98, 117]

Brougham, John. The Light of Home. New York: American News Co., 1868. [more about this work]

There is an entire chapter called "Horace Greeley."

Clapp, Henry Jr. "A New Portrait of Paris: Painted from Life." Saturday Press. 13 Nov. 1858: 1. [more about this work]

Clapp references an anecdote by Greeley about one of his "compositor's" views on drinking (1). [pages: 1]

Clapp, Henry Jr. "Mr. Greeley." New-York Saturday Press. 2 Jun. 1860: 2. [more about this work]

Clapp, Henry Jr. "[Editorial Comments]." New-York Saturday Press. 26 May 1866: 4. [more about this work]

Greeley's "change of hat" is announced (4). [pages: 4]

Congdon, Charles T. Reminiscences of a Journalist. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1880. [more about this work]

[pages: 111, 119, 215-232, 249, 266-275, 317, 324, 330, 339]

Derby, J.C. Fifty Years among Authors, Books and Publishers. New York: G. W. Carleton and Co., 1884. [more about this work]

Greeley was editor and publisher of the New Yorker fifty years prior to Derby's writing (approximately 1830s). This paper was discontinued in 1841 (127). Greeley founded the New York Tribune that same year; the paper "soon became the favorite newspaper of the booksellers, and especially the publishers of books" (128). Aside from lecturing and editing the Tribune, Greeley also authored several books (131). Derby cites Greeley's The American Conflict as his "most important and valuable book" (131).

Derby also reprints Stedman's poetic tribute to Greeley p138-140.

Greeley was one of several promiment literary figures to gather at the home of the Cary sisters in the 1850s (250).

According to Derby, "The names of William Cullen Bryant, Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, and Henry Jarvis Raymond are recorded in the permanent political and literary history of our country." By Derby's estimation, these men were "the four great editors who names and whose fame became national through the journals, of which they were the controlling spirits as well as through authorship, all of them having been writers of books" (352-353).

Halpine was one of Greeley's "great favorites" (427). Greeley ran for President in 1872; Halpine's the "Flaunting Lie" had been popularly misattributed to him and was used against him by Southern politicians (428). [pages: 72,127-140,143-145,194,203,205,222-224,247,248,250,259,268,270,295,316,317,338,339,352,360,362,423,427,428,482-484,639]

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004. 379 p. [more about this work]

Mentioned in the 1861 chapter. [pages: 54]

Figaro [Clapp, Henry Jr.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 10 Feb. 1866: 88-89. [more about this work]

In a note after his postscript, Figaro mentions that Greeley has been elected President of the American Institute (89). [pages: 89]

Figaro [Clapp, Henry Jr.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. 7 Apr. 1866: 4. [more about this work]

Figaro reprints one of his imitations of the "facetise" in the Saturday Press (4). [pages: 4]

Guarneri, Carl J. The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America. Cornell, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. [more about this work]

"In 1832 a young American student named Albert Brisbane met the Frenchman, by then a frustrated and bitter old prophet, and was promptly converted. When Brisbane returned to America, his energetic and persistent propogandizing--boosted immeasurably by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune--created a burst of Fourierist activity in the nothern states almost overnight" (2).

It appears that the Tribune under Greeley endorsed Fourierism, and Greeley was active in Fourierist organizations and activities (36).

A section about Horace Greeley's interactions with Fourierism: "Horace Greeley: Association and the Whigs" (36-46). [pages: 2, 36-46]

Hemstreet, Charles. Literary New York: Its Landmarks and Associations. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1903. [more about this work]

Greeley helped Poe buy Briggs out of the Broadway Journal in 1845 (159).

Hemstreet mentions that Taylor was not very well paid to the Tribune because "Greeley did not believe in high salaries" (206).

Hemstreet mentions that Greeley's home at 35 Nineteenth Street is still standing at the time of his writing. Greeley's next door neighbor was William Allen Butler (246). [pages: 159,202,205,206,246, 245-n/a(ill)]

Hyman, Martin D. "'Where the Drinkers & Laughers Meet': Pfaff's: Whitman's Literary Lair." Seaport. 26(1991): 56-61. [more about this work]

Identified as one of Pfaff's "guests" (61). [pages: 61]

Kellogg, Clara Louise. Memoirs of an American Prima Donna. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1913. [more about this work]

Kellogg recalls singing at Greeley's funeral, stating, "I knew Horace Greeley personally and recall many interesting things about him; but, naturally perhaps, what stands out in my memory is the fact that, a few days before he died, he came to hear me sing Handel's Messiah, being, as he said afterwards, particularly touched and impressed by my rendering of I know that my Redeemer liveth. When he came to die, the last words that he said were those, whispered faintly, as if they still echoed in his heart. It may have been because of this fact that it was I who was asked to sing at his funeral." [pages: 209]

Leland, Charles Godfrey. Memoirs. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1893. [more about this work]

[pages: 237, 318, 343]

Miller, Tice L. Bohemians and Critics: American Theatre Criticism in the Nineteenth Century. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1981. [more about this work]

Owner of the New York Tribune (24).

Stephen Ryder Fiske's grandfather, Haley Fiske, was "a close personal friend of Horace Greeley" (102). [pages: 13, 19, 24, 30, 82, 102, 129]

"Miss Emma Hardinge [from the London Saturday Review]." New York Saturday Press. 17 Feb. 1866: 97-98. [more about this work]

[pages: 98]

Morris, Roy Jr. The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. [more about this work]

[pages: 19]

Nevins, Allan. "Horace Greeley." Dictionary of American Biography. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC. [more about this work]

Odell, George C.D. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VIII (1865-1870). New York:Columbia University Press, 1936. [more about this work]

Odell mentions that he was "in the chair" for Anna Dickinson's lecture called "Something to Do," February 29, 1867 (227). Greeley lectured January 7, 1868, on "Self-Made Men" at the Brooklyn Academy (388). He spoke at the Masonic Temple on Dec. 8, 1867, on "Temperance" (406). Greeley also spoke at Apollo Hall on "Self-Made Men," February 23, 1869 (515).

Greeley spoke during the 5th Anniversary celebration of the Brooklyn Library Association, Dec. 29, 1869, at Dr. Porter's Chruch. This event seems to have been highly noted among one of many "church fairs and festivals" written about in the "amusement" columns of the Brooklyn Times (687).

Greeley lectured on "Self-Made Men" at Town Hall in Queens (?) March 1, 1870. Odell notes the "comical enough" admission fee of 30 cents (690). [pages: 227,388,406,515,687,690]

Odell, George Clinton. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VI (1850-1857). New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. [more about this work]

Listed as part of the Lyceum lecture series at Williamsburgh during the 1850-51 season (109). [pages: 109]

Odell, George Clinton. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VII (1857-1865). New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. [more about this work]

Spoke as a part of the lectures given by the Hamiltonian Literary Association at the Odeon from Oct. 1859 to March 1860, at Williamsburgh (302). Greeley also appeared at a meeting on Jan. 14, 1863, of the Ridgewood Junior Temperance Union at Lee Avenue Sunday School (539). [pages: 302, 539]

Parry, Albert. Garrets and Pretenders: A History of Bohemianism in America. New York: Covici, Friede, 1933. [more about this work]

Parry writes that Clapp helped Brisbane and Greeley "introduce Fourier's social theories in America" and that "he defined Greeley as a self-made man who worshipped his creator" (44). [pages: 44]

Personne [Wilkins, Edward G. P.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 4 Feb. 1860: 3. [more about this work]

Personne reports that there was an argument when Greeley ran into Strakosch (3). [pages: 3]

Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New-York Saturday Press. 7 Apr. 1860: 3. [more about this work]

Mentioned in a discussion of quarrels in several of the intellectual and artistic spheres. [pages: 3]

Seitz, Don Carlos. Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne): A Biography and Bibliography. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1919. [more about this work]

[pages: 139, 221, 261, 331]

Spofford, Harriet Prescott. "Clara Louise Kellogg." Our Famous Women: An Authorized Record of The Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times. Hartford, Conn. : A. D. Worthington, 1884. 359-385. [more about this work]

Spofford states that Clara Louise Kellogg sang I know that my Redemmer liveth at Horace Greeley's funeral and that, during his final days, Greeley spoke of Kellogg as one of the most remarkable women he had known (383-384). [pages: 383-384]

Stansell, Christine. "Whitman at Pfaff's: Commercial Culture, Literary Life and New York Bohemia at Mid-Century." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 10.3 (1993): 107-126. [more about this work]

Greeley was the subject of Clapp's "best-remembered quip": "a self-made man, who worshipped his creator" (120). [pages: 120]

Starr, Louis Morris. Bohemian Brigade; Civil War Newsmen in Action. New York: Knopf, 1954. 367 p. [more about this work]

Starr claims that the history of journalism tends to be slanted towards examining the editorial process; Starr claims "we have more studies of Horace Greeley than of all the newsmen in his century" (vii). Starr also writes that Greeley's New York Tribune is an "archetype among newspapers of the day," and uses this paper to help focus the narrative of his history (viii).

Clapp's opinion of Greeley was as follows: "He is a self-made man who worships his creator" (4).

Of the increasing pace of the news and the press' emphasis on opinions rather than facts, Starr notes that Greeley realized that "the paper that brings the quickest news is the thing looked to." Starr also notes that the emphasis on editorial commentary helped to contribute to Greeley's fame (6).

Southern postmasters refused to deliver the Tribune and sedition laws were passed against the paper in Texas because of the letters from Charleston that were printed in the paper. In one instance, a Georgia editor invited Greeley to visit "the land you have lied and re-lied on" in a poem that ended:
"You can lower your chin, and open your mouth,
While your neck strains the rope you are tied on" (8).

Starr refers to Greeley, Raymond and Bennett as "those titans of newspaperdom" and notes that their offices were all located in a small area of New York near City Hall Park. Theirs were the "only eight-page dailies in the United States" and were vital news sources for the country (11).

Starr writes that visitors came to the Tribune offices "daily, during the afternoon visiting hours, hoping for a glimpse of Greeley's fabled white coat." Starr recounts the visit of Albert Deane Richardson during this time period and notes that although many came to catch a glimpse of Greeley, Richardson was unable to see him as Greeley was on a lecture tour and Dana often managed visitors and office business (14). According to Starr, Dana was "Blunt, decisive, by turns profane and charming, a Brook Farm idealist annealing into a man of the world after years of exposure to Greeley's irascible ways and the bitter disillusionment of a trip to Europe during the revolutions of 1848, he ran the paper with an iron hand. On more than one occasion he had thrown out Greeley's abstractions from Washington to make way for news -- once for a divorce story. It was the talk down in Pfaff's that he edited Greeley's editorials as well, and the Sunday Mercury hinted that he had been known to veto them" (15).

Of Greeley's fame, Starr writes: "Already the myth of Horace Greeley, the moralist in shining armor, the poor Vermont boy with a hatful of type who had worked hard and lived right and made good, the homely philosopher, the eccentric personality, the national oracle, towered almost frighteningly over the man himself. 'His entrance into a tavern, much more into a lecture hall, raises gratulating shouts,' Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, 'and I could scarecly keep the people quiet to hear my abstractions, they were so furious to shout Greeley! Greeley! Greeley! Catch me carrying Greeley into my lecture again!...I had as lief travel with...Barnum" (17-18). Part of Greeley's fame was the uniqueness of the Tribune, as "the paper seemed to suggest that its readers were as sophisticated as its editors, and that they shared the world between them." In addition, "Backed by Greeley's willingness to give battle for a cause, his broad humanitarianism, and his remarkable talent for getting himself on newsprint, the paper's fighting qualities kindled something like personal devotion. The Tribune was scarcely a newspaper in 1861; it was an article of faith" (17). Starr also notes that during the height of the Tribune's popularity, "people thought Greeley still edited the Tribune, and every word that went into it -- 'including shipping news,' Charles Congdon added wryly. But the Tribune, with 212 employees, including twenty-eight editors and reporters in 1861, was no more pure Greeley than was teh myth he had become" (18). According to Starr, Greeley had the talent of attracting talented writers to the Rookery to cover for his own personal shortcomings; at the Rookery, Greeley "created an atmosphere in which they thrived; yet, in a sense, he was their prisoner." According to Starr, the staff of the paper kept the Tribune committed to anti-slavery while Greeley's own stance wavered and he sometimes feared what the editorials would say (18).

According to Starr, at the Tribune "Their [the staff's] loyalty was not to Greeley's politics, but to his idea of journalism...Such men gave superb implementation to Greeley's credo: that the newspaper must provide American society with leadership -- moral, political, artistic, and intellectual leadership -- before anything else" (19). Sensing changes in the newspaper industry, Greeley moved out of the office he shared with Dana in 1854 and moved to a more remote portion of the building, leaving Dana in "pratical command" (19).

As the press sped up and "the leisurely days when one might edit with an eye for literary nicities and philosophical disputation were gone," Starr asks "How would the Tribune fare in this era?" He claims that the paper did not change much, with "Greeley and Dana serenely running news inside and advertising out; the most exciting paper in politics seemed to be the most conservative in journalism. There was another sign, more monutmentous, that the Tribune woudl go right no being the Tribune, come what may." This event was the loss of the Tribune's Washington correspondent, Pike, to the foreign service. Greeley sent Dana to Washington to hire a replacement and hired Fitz Henry Warren. Despite his loud nature and commanding presence, "Warren appeared to fit Greeley's bill of particulars" in his involvement in politics and anti-slavery stance and his past newspaper writing career (32-33).

In discussing the Tribune's error in its "On to Richmond" campaign, Starr defends the logic of the failed strategy but discusses the reprecussions for Greeley and the paper. According to Starr, "Now Horace Greeley was a broken man. He took to his bed with an attack of 'brain fever,' visions of death flitting before him. He wrote to Lincoln: 'This is my seventhy sleepless night.' He would 'second any movement you may see fit to make,' but he despaired of the Union cause. Dana loosed a thunderclap in his absence, an editorial demanding the resignation of the entire Cabinet. Agonized, Greeley publicly repudiated it. Fitz Henry Warren's letter of resignation, assuming the burden of responsibility for 'On to Richmond,' he quite properly refused to print. Rallying to one of his finer moments, Greeley wrote an editorial titled 'Just Once,' acknowledging his responsibility for waht appeared in his paper, offering himself as a national scapegoat, coming to grips with what was the real 'great error' of the Tribune in a paragraph that read:

Henceforth I bar all critcism in these columns on Army movements, past or future...Correspondents and reporters may state fact, but must forebear comments.

According to Starr, Greeley made sure that his Washington correspondent Sam Wilkeson was sure that he was serious about this point, insisting that he wanted distance between news and opinion: "I want a man at Washington to find out all that is going on or preparing and calmly report it, writing Editorials separately, to be submitted to criticism and revision here, instead of embodying them in dispatches..." According to Starr, "Objectivity was a principle all but unknown to journalism, but if teh results of Greeley's change of heart were difficult to discern in Tribune dispatches, the seed had been planted" (52-53). The error in the "On to Richmond" campaign caused the circulation of the paper to drop significantly, and Greeley was remarked negatively upon as "General Horace." While the paper still had the largest circulation, the Sunday edition was discontinued and the paper's influence was weakened (54-55). According to Starr, Dana, not Greeley, was primarily responsible for beginning the "On to Richmond" campaign, as Greeley was not in the office when Dana ran Warren's piece that called for the Union army to advance (34-35).

In one of Dr. Malcolm Ives's editorials in the Herald the "ultra Pro-Slavery Democrat, and, at the same time, a professed believer in the divinity of monarchical institutions," had "called for the arrest and imprisonment of Henry Ward Beecher, Wendell Phillips, and Greeley" (77).

According to Starr, at the Rookery (the Tribune office), one could seen "men wading through a sea of exchanges -- hundreds of dailies and weeklies sent by editors in hope that something would strike Mr. Greeley's fancy, and because they, in turn, must see the Tribune" (117).

According to Starr, when Gay took over for Dana at the Tribune, he had "inherited all of Dana's authority, and more. Greeley might cavil and carp, but he knew well enough that his managing editor must command unless he himself were to give up his lecturing, his far-flung correspondence, and his leader-writing for a job for which he had very little taste or judgment. It was enough for him that Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune remain indistinguishable int he public mind." Greeley told JAmes R> Gilmore in the winter of 1862 that he had "relinquished control." Gilmore had never written for the paper in fear of Greeley's editing; Greeley replied, "But I have not resigned the blue pencil...You would not report to me but to Gay; and he is of your way of thinking." From then on, Greeley was only responsible for the editorials he wrote (117-118).

In a discussion of the preference of editors to keep the identities of their war correspondents anonymous or under the cover of a pen name, Starr writes about the different choice of editors. Some writers were allowed men names or initials, while editors like Bennet insisted on anonymity. Some writers, however, were allowed to identify themselves, as Starr quotes Sam Wilkeson's explaination of the "prevailing view" to Gay: "The anonymous greatly favors freedom and boldness in newspaper correspondence. I would not allow any letter writer to attach his initials to his communications, unless he was a widely known & influential man like Greeley or Bayard Taylor...Besides the responsibility it fastens on a correspondent, the signature inevitably detracts from the powerful impersonality of a journal" (195).

Starr notes that during the rivalry between the Herald and the Tribune the "poor, ragged Greeley" was often attacked, and despite council to ignore the jabs, could not always ignore the Herald (235).

Starr notes that Lincoln sought Greeley's and the Tribune's support: "having Greeley 'firmly behind me,' he wrote once, 'will be as helpful to me as an army of one hundred thousand men.'" According to Starr, Greeley "held aloof" (127), though he writes later that Greeley and other writers attempted to force Lincoln's hand (129). Under pressure from the intermediarly James Gilmore who reported that Greeley was growing impatient, Lincoln would issue a proclamation in 1862 on slavery (127). Lincoln would later arrange for Greeley and the Tribune to receive insider information via Gilmore and Robert J. Walker in exchange for Greeley's public support; Starr notes that "The scheme bore little fruit for either party, and existed only briefly" (159).

Greeley attempted to persuade Villiard to soften his report of the battle at Fredericksburg, as "Greeley refused to let the Tribune assume sole responsibility for the dreadful news...but Monday morning's Tribune would carry the first authentic details of the most terrible repulse of the war" (166). After this battle, Greeley began to seriously discuss the idea of foreign mediation; this proved to be a controversial position for some, prompting Wilkeson to quit the Tribune (169, 196). Evidently Greeley's position also worried Gay, for who, according to Starr, "The constant threat of Greeley's insisting again on plumping for a negotiated peace haunted him"; Gay's job during this period was largely to "counteract" Greeley (289).

During the draft riots (July 13, 1863) that occured in response to the conscription laws and tensions between runaway slaves and immigrant workers in New York, cries of "Tribune office to be burned tonight!" and "We'll hang Horace Greeley to a sour apple tree!" were heard (221). The mob marched to the Tribune offices that evening, where they yelled for the demise of the paper and Greeley. Greeley was in a meeting with Theodore Tilton of the Independent and informed of what was going on outside. Greeley agreed with Gay that the offices should be armed, but did not want arms brought into the building. Greeley also chose to remain in New York rather than fleeing the city for his safety; Greeley and Tilton had an dinner engagement that Greeley wished to honor. As the two men left the Tribune building, they passed through the mob untouched (222). The violence against the newspaper's offices, continued, however, with a mob of more than two thousand gathered outside; at about seven that evening, the mob began throwing pavement stones and breaking the windows of the bulding. The mob entered the counting-room, where they broke the furniture and began a fire that the Tribune staff fought to put out. Tom Rooker and the building engineer were positioned in the press room, ready to puncture the boilers and spray the rioters with hot water and steam. One hundred and ten police men arrived to fight the crowd, which they did, killing some of the rioters. The mob was driven out of the Tribune offices, where "Gay helped clean up the wreckage and succor the wounded until the amublances arrived. Feeling like a Parisian during the Terror, he saw the Tribune to press, on schedule. It is described as the first day of the most violent civic disturbance in American history" (223). The rioting continued the next day (July 14), and the fighting in the streets between the mob and the army and police was more violent. Gay stayed at the Tribune offices all night and ordered that the walls be lined with reams of wet newsprint to help lower the fire hazard. The regular business of the paper - reporting and editing - continued. Gilmore brought a wagonload of old muskets from Governor's Island to protect the building, making it an "arsenal" by the time Greeley arrived. When Greeley came to the offices, he ordered the guns be removed: "Take 'em away! Take 'em away! I don't want ot kill anybody, and besides they're a lot more likely to go off and kill us" (223). Starr suggests that Greeley would have thought differently of matters had he not gone home before the previous night's raid and fight. Gay ignored Greeley's orders and instead wrote a letter to his wife (a Quaker) about their escape plan and the situation at the offices as the rioters congregated in front of the offices (223-224).

During Lincoln's re-election campaign, like the President, Greeley was nearly certain that he had lost the election (323). Greeley also privately supported Chase during the election (314). By September 6, 1854, however, Greeley abandoned his plan to nominate someone else, and, as public sentiment towards Lincoln increased, the Tribune publicly announced its support of the re-election of the President (326-327). Gay and Greeley predicted early that Lincoln had carried New York during his win (333).

Extra page numbers: 221-224,235, 239,266,289,291,292,312,314,323, 326-327,333,348-349 [pages: vii,viii,4,6,8,11,14,15,17-19,32-33,34-35,52-55,69,70,71n,77,96-97,99,100,104,116,117-118,124-125,127,128,129,157,159,166,169,195,196]

"The Young Men of the New York Press." The Independent. 7 Jun. 1866: 4. [more about this work]

“It is a striking fact that the number of young men prominently connected with the New York press as writers is greater now than at any former period… the chief editorial work in these journals is done by men between the years of twenty-five and forty” (4).

“Horace Greeley is like a father among sons in The Tribune office” (4).
[pages: 4]

Thomas, Lately. Delmonico's: A Century of Splendor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. [more about this work]

Greeley frequented the Delmonico's restaurant on Chamber's Street (124).

He presided over a dinner held at Delmonico's for Charles Dickens, which cost about $3000

Greeley refused to preside over a meeting of the New York press club unless female members of the press were allowed to attend. [pages: 113-114, 124, 139]

Traubel, Horace. Intimate with Walt: Selections from Whitman's Conversations with Horace Traubel, 1888-1892. Ed. Schmidgall, Gary. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001. [more about this work]

Whitman disucsses how he was often in Washington. Whitman states that Greeley contributed to discussions and ideas but was not a great man. Whitman also discusses Greeley's New England smartness and said, "I ought to like him - and do- for he was very sweet and kind to me...I always felt drawn." [pages: 209]

Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume II, Crane-Grimshaw. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. [more about this work]

In recounting Greeley's anti-slavery actions during the late 1850's, Appleton cites his indictment in Virginia for "circulating incendiary documents"- The Tribune. In addition, Appleton claims The Tribune as greatly stimulating the north's movement to make Kansas a free state. [pages: 734-741, 735(ill.)]

Wilson, Rufus Rockwell. New York: Old & New; Its Story, Streets, and Landmarks. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1903. [more about this work]

As a demonstration of his statement, "New York's growth during the quarter century that preceded the Civil War nowhere more clearly manifested itself than in the development of its daily press," Wilson notes that Greeley's Tribune, "a four page penny sheet," was first publised April 10, 1841, at No. 30 Ann Street (372). Greeley was thrity at the time and had lived in New York for ten years after learning the printing trade in Vermont. Before establishing the Tribune Greeley had spent his time in New York "occupied generally in directing the fortunes of some popular publication." "He had already proven himself a powerful and persuasive writer, with a gift for keen satire and fine invective, and he made the Tribune an advocate first of the Whig and later the Republican principles the like of which, for vigor and moral earnestness, had never been known in America" (372). By the end of three months, the Tribune's circulation reached fifteen thousand copies; "Its career thereafter was one of steadily increasing prosperity, and its editor, whose breadth of vision widened with the years, remained until his death in 1872 the strongest individual force in journalism" (372-373). [pages: 372-373]

Winter, William. Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909. 407 p. [more about this work]

Greeley was the "eccentric founder" of "The New-York Tribune." Winter remarks that "in the early days" of the paper, Margaret Fuller was "a contributor to that paper and, more or less, to the perplexities of its eccentric founder, Horace Greeley" (31).

Winter states that Clapp knew Greeley well, and the two men were in Paris at the same time. Clapp described Greeley as "a self-made man that worships his creator" (62).

When Winter arrived in New York in 1859-'60, Greeley was publishing the "Tribune" "in a low, common building at the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets,--where its palace now stands." Winter notes that at that time, the "Tribune" was "devoted to Anti-Slavery" (136).

Winter contrasts Curtis's speaking style to Greeley's, saying that "Horace Greeley, with whose peculiar drawl and rustic aspect his [Curtis] princelike demeanor and lucid and sonorous rhetoric were in striking contrast" (241). [pages: 31,62,136,241,242]