Charles Anderson Dana (American National Biography)

Charles Dana was managing editor of the New York Tribune for thirteen years. While it is Greeley's name that is generally associated with the Whig Tribune of the 1850s, Dana contributed far more to that paper than has been recognized. One of Dana's more memorable accomplishments was the acquisition of Karl Marx as a regular correspondent….

Dana and Greeley came to have sharp differences in the mid-1850s, differences that were fueled by what Greeley viewed as Dana's impetuous actions during the senior editor's frequent absences from New York. The secession crisis further deepened the rift between the two men. While Greeley believed that compromise was still possible even as the slaveholding states were threatening to secede, Dana, like most Republican radicals, felt that secession was unconstitutional and would lead to war. Following the firing on Fort Sumter and the secession of the upper South, the Tribune, at Dana's urging, proclaimed: "The nation's war-cry: Forward to Richmond!" When the untrained Union troops were defeated at the disastrous battle of Bull Run, the Tribune was widely blamed--and most Tribune staffers believed that Greeley held Dana responsible.