Greeley, Horace

On 10 April 1841 Greeley published the first issue of the daily New York Tribune. This publication, the first daily Whig paper in New York City, brought him national fame and enormous journalistic power, despite such rivals as William Cullen Bryant's Evening Post, Henry Jarvis Raymond's New York Times, and James Gordon Bennett's Herald. Later in 1841 Greeley took on Thomas McElrath as a business partner, and The New-Yorker and the Log Cabin were merged into the weekly Tribune. Over the years, in biting, witty editorials, Greeley crusaded against slavery, the conditions of penury, an unchecked aristocracy, suppression of women's rights, and capital punishment while supporting peace movements, vegetarianism, labor rights, Fourierist communities, and high tariffs. He also railed against tobacco, alcoholic beverages, and marital infidelity.

Under Greeley's guidance, the Tribune became one of the great American newspapers. By 1860 the Tribune in all its formats--daily, weekly, semiweekly--would reach a circulation of nearly 300,000. Renowned as a "political Bible" and distinguished for its excellent reporting of local, national, and global events, the Tribune in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s featured a galaxy of brilliant writers, among them, Solon Robinson on agriculture; Bayard Taylor on travel; Charles Dana, the managing editor; George Ripley and Margaret Fuller, the latter a close friend, on literary topics; and James Pike on Washington affairs. Perhaps the most intriguing Greeley reporter was Karl Marx, who wrote about European affairs in the 1850s. Greeley believed that while his editorials represented his personal perspective, a newspaper should be an open forum for the competing and colliding views of talented spirits. In this way, he sponsored an intellectual democracy.

GREELEY, Horace, a Representative from New York; born in Amherst, N.H., February 3, 1811; attended the public schools; apprenticed to the art of printing in East Poultney, Vt., 1826-1830; worked as a journeyman printer in Erie, Pa., in 1831, and later in New York City; commenced the publication of the Morning Post January 1, 1833, but it was soon discontinued; published the New Yorker 1834-1841; edited the Log Cabin in 1840; founded the New York Tribune April 10, 1841, and edited it until his death; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the unseating of David S. Jackson and served from December 4, 1848, to March 3, 1849; was not a candidate for reelection in 1848; visited Europe in 1851 and was chairman of one of the juries at the World’s Fair in London; commissioner to the Paris Exposition in 1855; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860 from Oregon, being denied a place on the New York delegation; unsuccessful candidate for Senator in 1861; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1867; at the close of the Civil War advocated universal amnesty, and in May 1867 offered bail for Jefferson Davis; unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress; nominated by the Liberal Republicans in Cincinnati in 1872 and by the Democrats in Baltimore for the Presidency, but was defeated by Grant; died near New York City November 29, 1872; interment in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 1858, Illinois joined Kansas as a battleground in the war between slavery and freedom. Here a leading Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas, faced a former Illinois congressman and railroad attorney, Abraham Lincoln, in the race for a U.S. Senate seat held by Douglas. To the consternation of Lincoln and most Republicans, Horace Greeley supported Douglas, a Democrat, against Lincoln, a Republican. Why? Many have attributed Greeley’s support for Douglas simply to his erratic and inconsistent political behavior. But in fact, Greeley’s consistent strategy that year was to divide the Democrats by backing an anti-Lecompton man who had broken with his party and his president, which would help elect a Republican president in 1860. Strategically, Greeley had his eye on the next presidential election, when his old mentor William Henry Seward would probably be the front-runner. Lincoln was an unknown figure outside Illinois. Tactically, Greeley thought defeating Lincoln and returning a renegade Senator to divide the Democrats in Washington was a perfectly reasonable strategy.

Horace Greeley’s most famous legacy was probably his injunction to “Go West, Young Man!” Millions did, of course. Whether or not Greeley ever said these exact words, generations of school children recited or remembered them. Westward expansion in search of land and freedom constituted one of the major trends in American history. Greeley both articulated and reflected that trend. But he also fused European and American ideas of freedom into a single republican philosophy grounded in free labor and the right to rise or fall by dint of one’s own hard work.