Horace Greeley.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 165, 7 January 1873, Page 7

Horace Greeley.

(By " One who Knew Him," in the "Age") Through something like twenty thousand miles of wire the electric fluid flashes to us the intelligence that Horace Greeley, journalist and politician, died at New York on Saturday last. At any other time the announcement of the death of a man who has played so important a part in the history of the United States during the past thirty years as Greeley has would have created a profound sensation, but when we remember that only the other day his name as the opponent of General Grant for the Presidential chair was in everyone's mouth, that though defeated in his candidature for the chief Magistracy of the Union he was still regarded as a great living power—it is hard indeed to realise that death has stepped in and taken him out from the ranks in which he was foremost fighter. The question that naturally arises to one's mind upon hearing that Greeley died within a short period of his defeat is one perhaps that never can be answered, but until more is known of the manner of his death the popular idea will be that he succumbed to the force of circumstances; that had his dream of ambition been realised, he would have lived to enjoy his triumph. Those who knew him best, however—even those whose intercourse with him was of short duration —will never believe that any disappointment could seriously affect Horace Greeley, much less kill him outright. He had only ! ! the one idol in his heart, only one possession in which his very existence was bound up, and that was the paper of which he was the originator in 1841, and the editor to the day of his death, the New York ifribune. To prove how deep was the I pride which Greeley took in his work, it is joaly necessary to recall his own words I when describing the motives which induced |him to start the Tribune. He said: "I 'cherish the hope that the journal I projected and established will live and flourish i long after 1 shall have moulded into forgotten dust, being guided by a larger wisdom, a more unerring sagacity to discover [the right, though not a more unfaltering ireadiness to embrace and defend it at any personal cost; and that the stone which covers my ashes may bear to future eyes •the still intelligible inscription, ' founder jof the Neiv York Tribune.'" The writer's (acquaintance with Greeley commenced in [the beginning of 1863. At that time 'Greeley was about fifty years of age, and =in the very zenith of his intellectual power. [.He lay under the stigma of being a " Copperhead," that being the name given to all Lthose suspected of sympathising at heart with Confederacy. Greeley never took the trouble in so many words to deny the imputation. He continued to advocate a •conciliatory policy towards the " rebels," pieedless of the taunts liberally thrown at prim by the Republican party as one who Jwouhl purchase peace at any price, even at the cost of Federal unity and national honour. Time and circumstances proved in the long run that Greeley was throughout that terrible period in the country's history a loyal Unionist, although that pyalty did not take the form of unrelenting vindictiveness towards his countrymen in the seceded states. Before the decisive was fired from Fort Sumpter, Greeley forked hard to bring about a settlement pf the quarrel between North and South hj means of a conference on neutral ground, and some such conference did take place on [the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls—low barren of good results the sad story of rtlie subsequent five years showed. During [tin 1 , war the Tribune always counselled [moderation, and when the southern armies surrendered to Grant and Sherman it was jtlie first to plead for mercy towards a vanquished foe, Greeley himself becoming one ;0f the sureties for Jefferson Davis when [the ex-president was released on bail. Mucl i ►capital has been made of Greeley's personal appearance and eccentricities of manner. •That he was sloven in dress, and anything N a Grandison in deportment, there is no Nying; but, as a matter of course, these i* v ere greatly exaggerated by his detractors, Hio never lost an opportunity of holding peculiarities up to ridicule. I Oreeley's parents were originally from Monderry, in the north of Ireland, and hj some generations previous to Horace's (Mb followed the occupations of farmers N blacksmiths. He was born at AmN, N.H., in 1811, and until 1826 he repined under the paternal roof there and in Nmont, to which state his father removed Plß2l. lu 1826 young Greeley became [ apprentice in the printing office of the f'Hhern Spectator, a little paper published f East Poultney, Vt. Ln his business he f° n became very proficient, and before he f t ' le . °ffi ce be was not only an excellent jNpositor, but possessed the rare faculty | wing able to set in type paragraphs of | ew s without having first reduced his

ideas to writing. To this habit Greeley used to trace his terseness of style, its practice naturallyinducing the use of the fewest possible words necessary to the proper construction of a sentence. Upon leaving Poultney ho went to Erie, P. A., and after working there a few months removed to New York city in 1831, arriving with ten dollars in his pocket. Here he worked at the !; case" for about a year and a half, during which time he contracted an intimacy with a Mr Story, who, in 1833, joined Greeley in starting the Morning Post, a two-cent, paper, which had a very ephemeral existence. But out of the Morning Post the Neto Yorker sprang, and this in turn merged, in 1841, into the New York Tribune, with Mr Greeley as chief editor. The Tribune was started with a borrowed capital of one thousand dollars, and a list of 600 subscribers. For the first week or two its prospects were very cloudy, but a scandalous attack having been made upon it by a rival paper, public opinion turned in its favour, and in the fifth week an edition of 6000 was sold, increasing to 11,000 before the journal was two months old. Since then the Tribune has yearly widened its borders, until its circulation will now bear comparison with the leading London papers. The principal epochs in its history have been its advocacy of the doctrines of Fourier; its quarrel with the unprincipled politicians of the Sixth Ward; its libel suits with Cooper, the founder of the celebrated Cooper institute ; finally, its advocacy of moderation during the late civil war. In 1848 Mr Greeley went to Congress for three months, and while there carried on a bitter war against the mileage system—a system by which United State Congressmen manage to pay themselves handsomely for their services to the country. In 1857 he visited Europe, and on his return to America he published the result of his observations in a series of moderate and very readable papers, published in the Tribune. The more recent events in Mr Greeley's career have already been touched upon ; those immediately preceding his death are too fresh in the memories of our readers to require recapitulation at our hands.