n .^T' ^f?^ J.SK •* sr'<St>y£iiLZJIU fi Jfe' K ^. LINCOLN ROOM LM\ ERSITi' OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 3IE3IORL-\L tl?e Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HO\T HORNER atid HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER mt r%tM m^ * 7 m^^K^ • ^ l^^z^/^^ : : ^MERIC^N ORATORS ^ND REFORMERS. HORACE GREELEY, THE EDITOR, BY FRANCIS NICOLL ZABRISKIE. FUNK & WAGNALLS. NEW YORK LONDON i8 & 20 AsTOR Place. ^ 9^ 44 Fleet Street. All Rights Reserved. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by FUNK & WAGNALLS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. b iv PREFATORY NOTE. myself of various sketches and estimates which have appeared from time to time in the period- ical press, especially at the time of his death, from those whose information and judgment made their words of the highest authority. I have consulted also letters which have been since collected, have availed myself of personal recollections by mutual friends, and drawn upon a lifetime of familiarity (though not of private acquaintance with himself) with the sayings and doings of perhaps the most incessantly ac- tive and conspicuous of Americans and New Yorkers for a generation. And, lastly, I have made good use of several works on the history and characteristics of American journah'sm. I wish to make special acknowledgment of the courtesy and kindness, in these researches, of the Librarians of the College of New Jersey, and of the Theological Seminary of Princeton. Princeton, N. J., October 12th, 1S89. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PACK The Hour and the Man 9 CHAPTER II. Early Days 22 CHAPTER III. Training and Tramping 35 CHAPTER IV. Attempts at Life 50 CHAPTER V. Incipient Journalism 61 CHAPTER VL The Tribune 76 CHAPTER VII. The Tribune {Continued) 93 CHAPTER VIII. The Editor iii vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. i-ACB Orator and Aithor 132 CHAPTER X. The Reformer 148 CHAPTER XI. The Reformer {Continued) 166 CHAPTER XH. The Politician : As a Whig 186 CHAPTER XHI. The Politician: The Free-Soil Struggle 205 CHAPTER XIV. The Politician: With the Republican Party 224 CHAPTER XV. The Politician : The Civil War 239 CHAPTER XVI. The Politician : Reconstruction 258 CHAPTER XVII. The Candidate for Office 271 CHAPTER XVIII. The Closing Scenes 291 CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER XIX. PACE Home Life and Travel 299 ^ CHAPTER XX. Friends and Co-Laborers 319 CHAPTER XXL Personal Characteristics 344 CHAPTER XXn. Rf suM:fe AND Estimate 367 i7^e«»! HORACE GREELEY, CHAPTER I. THE HOUR AND THE MAN. The public career of Horace Greeley exact- ly spans what may be called the era of transi- tion and development in our country's history. By his public career we understand the period from his beginnings as editor in New York, in 1833, to his death, in 1872. When, on January ist of the former year, he made his first journalistic venture in the abortive attempt to establish a penny news- paper, the first break was made in the tradi- tional and almost sacred idea of a journal as a slow, costly, and unwieldy vehicle of informa- tion. Up to that time the ** blanket" or folio sheet, with its meagre news and occasional heavy essay by way of editorial, and its adver- tisements addressed to the wants of the larger dealers of the business community, distributed almost wholly to subscribers, and sold only over the counter and in business quarters at lO HORACE GKKELEV. the price of sixpence, was the type of a New York journal. Those who are familiar with the Journal of Commerce of to-day, or the Courier and Enquirer of a generation ago, will realize what we mean. The little one-cent Morning Post, though it soon set beneath the horizon, was the morning star of the Sun, the Herald, the Tribune, the Times, and the World, —all of which were not only cheap (beginning, at least, as penny papers), but were of manage- able size, quivering with enterprise, abounding in brief editorials, and crowded with readable matter for the million. This process of jour- nalistic development has been one of the most striking signs and achievements of the times, and has done more than almost any other agency to evolve and shape the America of to- day. It was no less of an era, which was now to open, in the establishment of what is known as the independent press. By this we do not mean a neutral or even non-partisan press, but one which was not dependent for its support upon the subsidies of political cliques and par- ties. It had been taken for granted that no paper could be established or supported except as a party organ, absolutely controlled by the political powers in return for Government patronage, or opposition funds. The editor, THE HOUR AND THE MAN. II therefore, was virtually owned, as well as the paper virtually mortgaged ; he was placed there to take care of the interests of a party, a com- mittee, or a candidate. A high authority has " said : There was no such thing as an inde- pendent paper in those days. The editors were simply party hacks, and not journalists. The Washington Globe, the Richmond Enquirer^ ' the Albany Argtis, were the thunderers, ' but the Richmond Junta, the Ritchie Cabinet, and the Albany Regency furnished the lightning. From a few * organs ' like these the smaller papers took their cue, and followed suit to their lead." This state of things was strikingly ex- posed by Mackenzie's publication, in pamphlet form, of a once famous correspondence found in the New York Custom House, involving the political intrigues of the Democratic leaders of New York, the Albany Regency, for secur- ing the support of the Courier and Enquirer j as well as the candid and business-like appeals of James Gordon Bennett for the pecuniary as- sistance of the State Committee in establishing the Globe, and afterward the Pennsylva7tian. The rebuffs which Bennett met with opened his eyes to the fact that the time was ripe for a new departure. The people had become distrustful of a hireling press and an automaton editorship, and the very party leaders and can- didates were beginning to find more harm than 12 HORACE GREELEY. benefit from this system. If, as Mr. Jesse Hoyt said, "recent developments have had a tendenc}- to satisfy the people that its con- ductors, or many of them at least, are as ne- gotiable as a promissory note," it was not won- derful that " the press has lost some portion of its hold upon public confidence. It was then that Bennett's discoven.' took place of ** the holiow-heartedness and humbug- geiy of these political associations and political men ;" and, ** flinging himself loose from the slough," he regained his liberty and indepen- dence completely. The Herald appeared on May 6th, 1S35, and its immediate success proved the truth of his diagnosis of the public mind, and effectually broke the spell of a slav- ish and purchased journalism. Six years were still to elapse before Horace Greeley was to burst the cjrcs v.-i:h which his }.'0ung hands were tied, and ess:.;.- the stii. more adventurous course of ar. :r. dependent pB.rty paper ; but he had cor.vir.cti h:;^".?eh' by the twofold experi- ment of a ':.'.:- i ::j:: ar.i of an attempted po- litical neut:-h:y. that his time had come to join the nev^^ rc'gimc. Doubtless much of the success, both of the cheaper and of the independent press, was due to the contemporan," and rapid increase of facilities for circulating newspapers and for ob- taining news. When the Sim was issued, in —3 THE HOUR AND THE MAN. 1 1833, there were only two short railroads in the United States, one from Albany to Schenectady, and the other from Charleston to a point on the Savannah River. There were few steamboats, and those comparatively slow and infrequent. Papers had mostly to be distributed by stage-coaches and post-riders these last being the pioneers even of the mail routes, and riding at intervals of a week or a fortnight. But the opening of more speedy transit went on rapidly from this date. The Albany and Schenectady Railroad was extended to Utica the next year. In 1835 Boston shot out roads to Lowell, Providence, and Worces- ter ; within three or four years these two latter were extended to Stonington and to Springfield. In 1837 the Baltimore and Wilmington began the line of connection between the national capital and the Northern cities. In 1840 there were nearly four million miles of mail route by railroads and steamboats ; in 1859 ^^^ number of miles had grown to nearly thirty-two millions. It was not till 1838 that steam navigation was established between this country and Europe, the first trip of the Sirius and the Great Western taking fifteen days to cross the ocean. The foreign mails were even then re- ceived only once fortnight a ; previously they had been dependent on wind and weather. Even by the fast steamboats of the Hudson, 14 HORACE GREELEY. SO late as 1844, it was sometimes a week before the election returns were sufficiently received to determine the result in the State of New York. The magical era of the telegraph was not far in the future—Morse completing his line between Washington and Baltimore on May 27th, 1844. Submarine telegraphs began to be successfully worked under various rivers and bays even earlier; in 185 1 cables were laid between Calais and Dover, and in August, 1858, the Atlantic cable united Europe and America.