Cornell Aniversity Library

Prefuse 4. Bunn

 

 
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William Ordway Partridge, Sc.

THE GREELEY MEMORIAL MONUMENT
At Chappaqua, N. Y., unveiled February 3, 1914
The University of the State of New York (4%. -
Division of Archives and History

PROCEEDINGS AT
THE UNVEILING OF A
MEMORIAL TO

HORACE GREELEY
AT CHAPPAQUA, N.Y.
FEBRUARY 3, 1914

WITH REPORTS OF OTHER GREELEY CELEBRATIONS RELATED
TO THE CENTENNIAL OF HIS BIRTH, FEBRUARY 3, 1911

PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE STATE HISTORIAN, PURSUANT TO THE
PROVISIONS OF CHAPTER 643, LAWS OF 1913

ALBANY
1915
Ko
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Regents of the University
With years when terms expire
1926 Puiny T.Sexton LL.B. LL.D. Chancellor - - Palmyra
1927 ALBERT VANDER VEER M.D.M.A. Ph.D. LL.D.
Vice Chancellor Albany

1922 CHESTER S. Lorp M.A. LL.D. - - - - — New York
1918 Witiiam NotrincHaM M.A. Ph.D.LL.D. - — Syracuse
1921 Francis M. CarPENTER ~ - — -— - — — Mount Kisco
1923 ABraM I. Erxkus LL.B. D.C.L. - - - - —- New York
1924 ADELBERT Moor LL.D. - - - - - — - Buffalo
1925 CHARLES B. ALEXANDER M.A. LL.B. LL.D.

Litt.D. - - - - - - - = - = - Tuxedo
1919 JOHN MoorE - - - - —- - ~ — — — Elmira
1916 WALTER Guest Kettocc B.A. - - - — — Ogdensburg

1917 (Vacant)

1920 (Vacant)
President of the University
and Commissioner of Education

Joun_H. Fintzy M.A. LL.D. L.H.D.

Assistant Commissioners

Tuomas E. Finecan M.A. Pd.D. LL.D. For Elementary Education
Deputy Commissioner of Education

Cuar.Les F. WHEELOCK B.S. LL.D. For Secondary Education

Aucustus S. Downine M.A. L.H.D. LL.D. For Higher Education

Director of State Library

James I. Wyver, Jr, M.LS.

Director of Science and State Museum
Joun M. CrarkE Ph.D. D.Sc. LL.D.

Chiefs and Directors of Divisions

Administration, GEorcE M. WiLEy M.A.

Agricultural and Industrial Education, AnTHUR D. Dean D.Sc.,
Director

Archives and History, James A. Hoven B.A., Director

Attendance, James D. SULLIVAN

Educational Extension, WILLIAM R. Watson B.S.

Examinations, HarLaN H. Horner M.A.

Inspections, Frank H. Woop M.A.

Law, Frank B. GILBERT B.A.

Library School, Frank K. WatTerR M.A. M.L.S.

School Libraries, SHERMAN WILLIAMS Pd.D.

Statistics, Hrram C. Case

Visual Instruction, ALFRED W. ABrams Ph.B.
DEDICATION

This “ Report is intended as a tribute to Horace
Greeley’s memory and to testify to the honor and
esteem in which the people of the State of New York
hold the patriotic services and civic virtues of Horace
Greeley.” Extract from chapter 643, Laws of 1913
A SELF APPRECIATION

My life has been busy and anxious, but not joyless. Whether
it shall be prolonged few or more years, I am grateful that it has
endured so long, that it has abounded in opportunities for good
not wholly unimproved, and in experiences of the nobler as well
as the baser impulses of human nature. I have been spared to
see the end of giant wrongs, which I once deemed invincible in
this century. And to note the silent upspringing and growth of
principles and influences which I hail as destined to root out some
of the most flagrant and pervading evils that yet remain. I realize
that each generation is destined to confront new and peculiar
perils —to wrestle with temptations and seductions unknown to
its predecessors; yet I trust that progress is a general law of our
being, and that the ills and woes of the future shall be less crush-
ing than those of the bloody and hateful past. So looking calmly
yet humbly for that close of my mortal career which can not be
far distant, I reverently thank God for the blessings vouchsafed
me in the past; and with an awe that is not fear and a conscious-
ness of demerit that does not exclude hope, await the opening
before my steps of the gates of the Eternal World— Recollections
of a Busy Life (Greeley).

10
 
CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction, James Austin Holden....... ccc cece cece ceccuccccuneucuses II
Why the Centenary was Held, James Austin Holden..............0.000% 17
The Statue at Chappaqua Inaugurated February 3, I9II................. 29
Address Of Jacob: Erlich isa.pes say de seiiee eeees- axe due bias Hews nanaisaiene 31
Address of General Stewart L. Woodford.............. cee ceseeees 32

A Personal Impression of Horace Greeley, Mrs Gabrielle Greeley
Clon d eH wed soa Ormam ican arte na eee ate dk aah ous Misa Bae 33
Address: of Daniel Po Havsiccicsaseatda ee se ahd oveeds © ones Kacbes 35
Address of President John I. D. Bristol...............cccceeeeeeeee 36
Greetings sacuu Sasa Quien Sabian es Mase had an acaemeoale ad assase amin 38
New York City Hall Memorial Meeting...............0cc ccc ceeeeceeees 43
Opening Address by Albert E. Henschel................0.00ceeeaee 44
Address of General Horatio C. King.......... ccc cece cence cee e ees 46
Address of Major General Daniel E. Sickles...................00.. 53
Address of William G. McAdoo............ ccc cece cece eee e seen eeee 54
Address of Rev. Dr Leighton Williams............... 0.0000 cc ce eee 55
Address of John .MeNatight...s...ccacsce dieu neeebed acca oe dae leen 59
Exercises at Greeley’s Birthplace, Amherst, N. H..................0.00. 63
Address by Albert E. Pillsbury........... 0... cece cee cece eee eeenes 64
Greeley Honored in Colorado............. ccc cece cece cece tenets eenees 81
Address by Mayor George M. Houston............ ccc ce eeee eens 81
The Founding of Greeley, Colorado, Ralph Meeker................ 85
Address of Professor Oliver Howard............ ccc cee eee eee neeee 89
Address of Colonel Charles A. White.................000. cece uee .. 96
Commemorative Exercises by Typographical Union No. 6............... IOI
Address of the Chairman, James Tole............ 0c. cc cece ee eee ee 101
Horace Greeley and the Cause of Labor, Albert J. Beveridge....... 104
Horace Greeley as a Journalist, William H. McElroy.............044 109
TLeetter$* sx dasuioumieni addons aus oucueucd celoacaniaiialed. dee aa aniseed II9
The Dedication of the Monument, February 3, I1914........-....-eeeeeee 125
Introductory Remarks: o.ici4ccceee vee eave wdeneed oo tendae pace’ 125
Address and Invocation, Rev. Dr F. M. Clendenin.............0004. 126
President’s Address, John I. D. Bristol... cc... cece eee eens 128
Horace Greeley and Woman Suffrage, Edith Dorothea Bedell...... 134

Acknowledgment on Behalf of the School Children of Chappaqua,
Perry: Brevoort: TUPn eres sacs meidiscn ce teaain wien be ta oaks Suuwlele 135
Address :of-Jacob: “Frli¢hiist wows cceian cOicee ead gave wen eh oateemicene 136
Address of Albert E. Henschel...... 2.0... cece ccc cece eee ee 137
Horace Greeley, The Journalist, Richard E. Day............0..045 140
Horace Greeley and the Printers, Marsden G. Scott..........-2.45. 143
Original Manuscripts of Horace Greeley............ ccc cee eee ence eens 149
Studies and Reminiscences..........0. cece eee ce eect ences stereeeeences 155
Horace Greeley as a Colonist, Ralph Meeker...........ccecceeeeee 155
Horace Greeley, Political and Social Leader, Richard E. Day...... 169

A Wonderful Decade: Horace Greeley — Orator, Editor, National
Benefactor; Joseph BE. Kings csccccee cis eceisceiecssesecias owunes 175
Newspaper Comment ............ See Ce er ee 179
Characteristic Utterances by Horace Greeley........... 0. cee eee ene 189
Campaign (Addrésses Of 1872 s.. ce.c-daases fxlecuetaslsesbanesarvinigre ana givicletnips sienascte ete 211
Extracts front Addresses, sees sc adaeules chose veccks thong aes Se ebessem east 217
Some Recollections of Horace Greeley. From an interview of the State
Historian: with Chester S. Lords 0.0 sca ccc acess eieee ba carywnees bee 225
Notes for a Lecture on Temperance............00ccseeecceeeceee eeiees 231
Horace: ‘Greeley’s: Life. Story. cs sacauscccceauhvad ei ceeodile Seaak sued cence 237
Ghronology; ISlIs1872) i250 ss, ssadeeseeesas noueet nee hdanweee nese nes 240
Appendix: src c0c.Seiints ieead Cl eee neGre a tinaasaoe baeels ante eons 245
Biographical Material on Horace Greeley..............ccccceceeeeeeees 249

TVG © eis roe aa aaenar lied Wah wake euaten nine eta dca dee eet sw ees Bs irene aerate ... 261
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING

PAGE
The Greeley Memorial Monument..............0c cc eeeeeeeeees Frontispiece
Horace Greeley (autographed) ......... 0... ccc cece cece eee eeeeeaeee 10
Political Badges of the 1872 Campaign.............cccccceceee eee eeee 12
The Office and Memorial Boulder............. 0. ccc cece cece cece ne eeees 14
Albert- FE. Hensehely 2028 weenie cacwhouandareedes Foe anes Nad neem ase 18
The First Paper upon which Greeley Worked................- 0020s eee 20
The Chappaqua; Monument: iiaesscctvinitices dio awe dos aouaw ere nears dae 24
Home in the Woods, Concrete Barn, Barn as Residence................. 30
Clendenin Residence, General Stewart L. Woodford...............0000e 32
Horace Greeley and Family........... ccc cece cee teen neces en eeeane 34
John 1s D. Bristol: ccs sh. cbieeeecaag aes cue ganass seetbaoe eetecag aees 36
Général HoratioG. Kine. es.c305 ecawes woes Oh ge eee 5 4 PRA a Oe eee yee 46
Facsimile of Famous Bail Bond........... 20... ccc cee cee eee e eee ees 52
The Old White Coat and Candidacy Reception..................0.000008 56
Av PAVOTIES! PiChiRes aasG ocala ct ca cvowva cea heae saws wa baeed diaheas saree ens 58
Birthplace: Marker cevictees ie neGae cae eee a asa aed 64
Albert: Fi, Pillsbury sic nccicinlos ieee santa titi wsowsuamere nes a azmeaiidvonts 66
Greeley at-Different Agess. cs cuxtaccage ees Cold sdiditanuwteedirae cages 70
Photograph of Greeley at Different Periods........... 00.0... c cece eee 74
Greeley’s Birthplace (tailpiece on)......... 0. cece ccc e eee eee eee eee 77
Ralph Meeker 2. sua wade nas cae anewtncn eee aon ae Pee ED 86
James: ‘Tole sce: iiseastuiyele. MACS ARAL toate Ca Ae atatuinn eae 102
Hoiise at Poultney; Vtescevccscaeneeeis vedea csawecearueerebdaiesee vas 104
Eront Youth: to: Old: A@es 6.3354 suincciee ina hs aitcuuansdes neem aig etate II2
Campaign: Of 1860e..cnscd eds x nceuaae bt eteedai we dar sae aaa hameeelege 118
Group of Men who Voted for Greeley......... 6... ccc e cece eee ee eee ee 125
Dr and Mrs Clendenin and Daughter............ 2.0 cee ccc ce eee eee ences 126
Persons Prominent in Monument Unveiling............... 00.0. c ee eeee 128
Speakers at Monument Dedication............. 0. ccs cence eae paints 134
Jacob <Prlich..; + tecuisaise ase ram aca ngs haa ewnene nie seeds esha doles 136
William Ordway Partridge: 2.14 ccsctovee cog aceetud sees iis Uiene ewes 140
Rev. and Mrs Frank M. Clendenin. ........ 2.0 ccc cece cece eet ener eee eees 146
Reproduction of Letter Advocating Home Rule............-.-2.0. +2005 150
Teeter: to Robinson: soscai eit cahegeagagan daaldanmeds oo: shad debe aioriatboaa 150
Greeley’s First School House (tailpiece on) ......-.. 6. cece eee cee eee 152
Another (Robinson: Letter. gives cscs ieewactiasy Sid Ge Beaman eens 152
Advice. to-@ Young’ Lady ssscns44 secnesen sie denne svaes ieaediseeaa see es 152
Nathan’: Cook: MéékeP iiahes. cawcicuatoncay area ica eenecaneaeewere nes 158
The First Issue of The New Yorker.......... 0... cece eee eee eens 170
The First Issue of The -Tribtinessicio.ct¢oaseatest akanakaupaleghesiede ad 174
Senator George A. Slaterai.ccaiiatscs oakiareoinig sea eagense Sheena 180
Senator Tames: Di. McClelland: 0ccnce 5 saci ecards adios eee ete poems 184
The: Lincoln: Peace Letters ccc20:dia4 bh sce caveat sage sea tvex tied 190
Joht Browniorms sachin se wa pest aes a eeac amines hapeethmgbedia eects 198

AG Ghappaqua: djocacdgieeasnnelinua waa ds heal are one welsaaloia sears -. 206
FACING

PAGE
The: Favorité: Portrait saceccs cxciesceccs secede gaa ecoae iene waseeeu ses 212
At THis (Desk: sc.ntncansedes aeaatitieaads Sa hoedbwiantogeesnetsd sweden miae 226
Greeley, the Lecturer..........2csecescenceeceesencceevene “auaeelmenres +.» 232
Greeley’s Daughters, and Mary Woodburn..............cceceeeeeeeeees 238
In Memory of the Chappaqua Farmer...........cccceeee eee e cece ee eees 240
Victor Guinzbure sc cisiccscacss 4 ON R0a 9 eV ada eeu ea ba eas owes ewes ee 242
Greeley’ MoOntment: 2.0.5. o.snusiel eh bo scavsiaiaedid dos spine heiera wale nee Ay Sela eee 246
The Greeley Statue in Front of Tribune Building....................4- 248

The Guinzburs: Plaque wcocise jesusicewwataccweweaceieeacssa gewaeaseaes 261
INTRODUCTION

It was late in the spring of 1872 that the hitherto united and
powerful Republican party had been attacked, not only by foes
from without, but by friends from within. It was the year for
presidential election. The country was still bleeding, weary and
war-torn from the great conflict. Almost like a bolt from the blue
came the announcement that at Cincinnati a new party had
been formed, and that this segment of the older party had named
itself the “ Liberal Republican” and had chosen as its standard-
bearers, Horace Greeley, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, for
Vice President.

The writer, a youngster at the time, will never forget the impres-
sion made upon him at the announcement of these nominations.
With members of his family, he was enjoying his first car ride on
the way to Troy for a visit. When the train reached Saratoga,
the conductor came into the car with a railroad telegram in his
hand. From every man in the coach came the question, “ Who
was named by the new party?” When the name of Horace
Greeley was mentioned, while not unexpected, still there was a uni-
versal expression of dissatisfaction from the Democrats, and of
disgust from the Republicans. My political ideas as a boy had
been based on the strongly partisan but divergent and opposing
views of two excellent local weeklies at home, as well as the Weekly
Albany Argus, and the Saturday night issue of the Troy Times,
all of which I read with attention, care and resultant pleasure.

My father, who had served worthily as an officer and then as
assistant surgeon, in the famous (original) “Iron Brigade,” had
decided ideas as to the general patriotism of Horace Greeley,
with which I naturally became quite familiar.

The conception I then had of Mr Greeley, therefore, based upon
the written and spoken word of the day, was that of a rather
savage and eccentric editor, whose course in the Civil War had
left much to be desired. Time, however, has since, as it so often
does for all of us, radically moderated my views as to Greeley’s
honesty of purpose and his good intentions toward both North and
South.

At that date, however, the patriotic blood in me was as much
upset over the nomination as were the more practical spirits of the
men around me in the car, and my first introduction to a presiden-
tial campaign came as a thrilling and unforgettable incident, whose
intense interest other, and later, campaigns have of necessity lacked.

It
I2 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Greeley, of all men, was the least desired by the Democrats and
the last looked for by the Republicans, who feared his trenchant
pen and his popularity in the South, gained through signing the
bail bond of Jefferson Davis, the Ex-president of the Confederate
States of America.1_ A few weeks later, on July 9, 1872, the Demo-
cratic national convention assembled at Baltimore. Greeley and
Brown were rather perfunctorily endorsed by the Democrats, and
the national campaign was begun. Greeley’s acceptance of the
Democratic nomination on July 12th, as taken from a local paper
in the writer’s possession, shows not only the spirit and sentiment
of Greeley at the time, but his diplomacy in handling what he him-
self says was an embarrassing position. To the committee of Dem-
ocrats who waited on him in New York, he spoke as follows:

Mr Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee of the Convention:

I shall require time to consider how to reply fitly to the very
important and, I need not say, gratifying communication that you
have presented to me. It may be that I should present in writing
some reply to this. However, as I addressed the Liberal convention
of Cincinnati in a letter somewhat widely considered, it is, perhaps,
unnecessary that I should make any formal reply to the communica-
tion made, other than to say I accept your nomination and accept
gratefully with it the spirit in which it has been presented. My
position is one which many would consider a proud one, which, at
the same time is embarrassing, because it subjects me to temporary —
I trust only temporary — misconstruction on the part of some old
and lifelong friends. I feel assured that time only is necessary to
vindicate not only the disinterestedness, but the patriotism of the
course which I determined to pursue, which I had determined on
long before I had received so much sympathy and support as has so
unexpectedly to me been bestowed upon me. JI feel certain that time
and in the good providence of God an opportunity will be afforded
me to show that while you, in making the nomination, are not less
Democratic but rather more democratic than you would have been
in taking an opposite course, that I am no less thoroughly and
earnestly Republican than ever I was. But these matters require

1JIn an obituary, the National Quarterly Review of December 1872, pays
him a glowing tribute and cites Greeley’s letter showing what sacrifice the
signing of the bail bond involved. “He had but one great aim — to promote
by voice and pen the greatest good of the greatest number. . . American
slavery, in the days of its power, had no heartier hater than Horace Greeley,
no more formidable foe; but yet, when at last it lay crushed with the
rebellion which it caused, there was no inconsistency in his advocacy of a
general amnesty toward its old supporters. . . . And here we are reminded
of that characteristic letter, which must ever remain a conspicuous jewel in
the life of this man: ‘My Friend: Of course I threw away the senatorship
in 1866 —knowing that I did so—and did myself great pecuniary harm in
1867 by bailing Jeff Davis; but suppose I hadn’t done either? Fither God
rules this world, or does not. I believe He does. Yours, Horace Greeley.’”
 

 

From collection of State Historian J. A. Holden
POLITICAL BADGES OF THE 1872 CAMPAIGN
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 13

gtave consideration before I should make anything that seems a
formal response. I am not much accustomed to receiving nomina-

tions for the presidency, and can not make response so fluently as
some others might do.

I can only say that I hope some or all of you, if you can make it
convenient, will come to my humble farmer home, not far distant
in the country, where I shall be glad to meet all of you, and where
we can converse more freely and deliberately than we can here, and
where I shall be glad to make you welcome — well, to the best the
farm affords. I hope that-many of you, all of you, will be able to
accept this invitation, and I now simply thank you, and say farewell.

The results of this campaign long ago became history. Although
not a strong candidate politically, General Ulysses S. Grant, who
with Henry Wilson opposed Greeley and Brown, was extremely
popular. The glamor of the war still hung over the country, and
whatever administrative faults the Republican candidate was al-
leged to possess, they were hidden by the cloud of hero worship
which still obtained throughout the North. On the other hand,
Greeley was handicapped by the fact that for over thirty years he
had mercilessly attacked the Democratic party, sparing neither it
nor its greatest men, the lash of his sarcasm and the goad of his
criticism. And even the fact that he was its candidate did not win
forgiveness, as was shown when he received a lesser number of
votes for President in New York State than Horatio Seymour did
four years before. The campaign was bitterly and violently car-
ried on in the press and on the platform. Greeley himself wrote,
“T hardly knew whether I was running for President or the peni-
tentiary,” while Grant said, “I have been the subject of abuse and
slander scarcely ever equaled in political history.”

October 30th, after a lingering and painful illness, Mrs Greeley,
wife of the candidate, was called to her eternal rest. Greeley’s
physical strength had been severely taxed in the campaign, and this
additional burden broke him down. It needed but the result of the
election, which came on November 5th of that year, when Greeley
received 66 electoral votes, all from southern states, while Grant
received 272, to bring about a physical collapse. Two days after
the election he published the following card in the Tribune:

The undersigned resumes the editorship of the Tribune, which he
relinquished on embarking in another line of business six months
ago. Henceforth it shall be his endeavor to make this a thoroughly
independent journal, treating all parties and political movements

with judicial fairness and candor, but courting the favor and
deprecating the wrath of no one.

Glens Falls (N. Y.) Republican, Tuesday, July 16, 1872.
14 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

If he can hereafter say anything that will tend to heartily unite
the whole American people on the broad platform of universal
amnesty and impartial suffrage, he will gladly do so. For the
present, however, he can best commend that consummation by silence
and forbearance. The victors in our late struggle can hardly fail
to take the whole subject of southern rights and wrongs into early
and earnest consideration, and to them, for the present, he remits it.

Since he will never again be a candidate for any office, and is
not in full accord with either of the great parties which have hitherto
divided the country, he will be able and will endeavor to give wider
and steadier regard to the progress of science, industry and the
useful arts, than a partizan journal can do; and he will not be
provoked to indulgence in those bitter personalities which are the
recognized bane of journalism. Sustained by a generous ‘public, he
will do his best to make the Tribune a power in the broader field
it now contemplates, as when human freedom was imperiled, it was
in the arena of political partizanship.+

But his day was done. His wife’s death, the loss of the presi-
dency, a position which he had confidently expected to fill, with
other depressing matters, brought about the condition which caused
his death, within a month of the election of President Grant. Of
all the tragedies of politics which have blackened our history, the
story of Horace Greeley must be considered the saddest and most
unnecessary.

He should never have been nominated to the highest position in
our system of government; his friends should never have allowed
it. His forte was the occupancy of the editoria! chair, not that of
the executive, nor the politician.

With his death came that revulsion of feeling so characteristic of
the American people, and which so generally marks their treatment
of great citizens, after their death. The very papers which had
vilified and misrepresented Horace Greeley, his ideals and actions,
now carried the blackest turned rules, and had the most to say in
favor of Horace Greeley, not the candidate and martyr to public
opinion, but Horace Greeley the man. High on a pedestal of uni-
versal public esteem, was erected the reputation of this most won-
derful product of our American civilization.

An unknown writer, in the Tribune Almanac for 1873, said in
this connection:

The obsequies of Mr Greeley were of a kind rarely accorded to
any save great public characters. In the pulpits of New York and

of other cities, upon the subsequent Sunday, allusions were made to
the event. The remains were taken to the city hall, where they

1From Glens Falls Republican, Tuesday, November 12, 1872.
 

 

THE OFFICE
From an old print

 

 

MEMORIAL BOULDER
Erected at Amherst, N. H., by that state
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 15

were visited by an immense concourse of the population. Upon
the day of the funeral the streets were thronged by a crowd of
respectful spectators, anxious to show their respect for the departed.
Among those who attended the funeral were the President and Chief
Justice of the United States, several heads of departments, many
representatives and senators, and State and city officials. The ser-
vices were conducted by Rev. Dr Chapin, pastor of the deceased,
and by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. After these the procession
moved to Greenwood, where the remains of Mr Greeley were
deposited. :

It seems meet and right, after the hundred years which complete
the cycle from his birth in Amherst, N. H., to the erection of a
permanent memorial in Chappaqua, N. Y., where he spent the final
years of his life, following that farming practice to which he had
turned for a relaxation from editorial work, that the State of his
adoption, to which and for which he had given of the best there was
in him, should now, as a tribute to his memory, present this com-
pilation describing his life, work and achievements, and containing
the accounts of the observances of the centenary of his birthday,
in IQII.

Although more than twoscore years have passed since Horace
Greeley went to his reward, wherever newspaper men gather and
the record of the press is rehearsed, his name is still recognized
and esteemed as that of America’s most wonderful and powerful
editor.

In 1846, almost at the outset of his great career, according to his
biographer, Parton, Horace Greeley penned these words which may
well stand for his eternal epitaph: “If, on a full and final review,
tay life and practice shall be found unworthy my principles, let due
infamy be heaped on my memory; but let none be thereby led to
distrust the principles to which I proved recreant, nor yet the ability
of some to adorn them by a suitable life and conversation. To un-
erring time be all this committed.”

In whatever Greeley undertook, no one ever questioned his sin-
cerity. To the side he espoused he brought his extraordinary abil-
ity as a writer, his cogent power as a thinker and his moral force as
a public man. Although seldom successful in his political aspira-
tions, he nevertheless, up to the time of his candidacy for President,
wielded a greater influence through the columns of the Tribune
than most other leaders of the Republican party did, or have since
that day- A strong advocate of abolition, he carried it, as he did

everything, to the farthest possible point. He was an ardent pro-
16 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

tectionist, and was one of the pioneer advocates of woman’s rights,
at a time when they were not so popular as now.

Taken all in all, Horace Greeley was one of those rare characters
. Which appear once in an age and, like the comet flashing athwart the
sky, make a brilliant path across human events and then disappear,
their exact like possibly never to be seen again.

In commemoration of this great life, therefore, the Division of
History of The University of the State of New York submits this
publication, in the hope that another and younger generation to
whom he is all but unknown may learn from it somewhat of the
man who in the days of newspaper giants, towered above them all.

James Austin HoLpEN
Albany, N. Y. State Historian

February 3, 1915
WHY THE CENTENARY WAS HELD

BY JAMES AUSTIN HOLDEN

The centennial observance of the birth of Horace Greeley had its
origin in a rather peculiar way. While browsing around in an old
Eookshop, Albert E. Henschel, of New York, well known for his
many years’ connection as secretary and then counse! with Andrew
H. Green, the famous philanthropist, publicist and father of Greater
New York, found among other books, a small quarto volume. This
work bore the inscription, “Oration at the Grave of Horace
Greeley.” The oration was by L. M. Lawson, and was delivered
at Greeley’s grave in Greenwood cemetery, May 30, 1889, before
Horace Greeley Post, no. 577,G. A. R. This find took place about
1909.

The thing that especially caught Mr Henschel’s eye in this patri-
otic and eloquent oration was the statement that Greeley “ was born
in a hamlet called Amherst, in New Hampshire, in 1811.” This
pointed out the near completion of one hundred years since Greeley
was born, and inspired Mr Henschel with the thought that the cen-
tenary of a man who had wrought such immense good to his coun-
try and mankind should not be allowed to pass into oblivion with-
out due notice and worthy observance.

Knowing that John I. D. Bristol and Jacob Erlich, both of Chap-
paqua, Mr Greeley’s home for many years, were greatly interested
in having a memorial to Mr Greeley erected in that place, Mr Hen-
schel called their attention to the fact that no more appropriate time
could be chosen than this for bringing before the public, in connec-
tion with the approaching centenary, the suitability of the erection
of such a commemorative design as Mr Greeley’s friends had long

‘had in mind.

According to Mr Erlich’s very valuable scrapbook, containing
the original correspondence in regard to this matter, on May 14,
1909, he wrote to Mr Bristol suggesting a meeting for the purpose
cf considering some testimonial to the character, and to commemo-
rate the life, of Horace Greeley. Mr Bristol replied on May 17th.
“T very heartily reciprocate your wishes in the concluding para-
graph of your letter as to a conference to some convenient time to
both of us. Your suggestion is in line with progress, and notwith-
standing failures in the past, success in that direction may yet be
achieved.”

17
18 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

On May 25th Mr Bristol again wrote to Mr Erlich regarding 4
meeting to take place at the home of Mr Guinzburg in Chappaqua,
on of about June 15th. This meeting was subsequently held and
was the nucleus for the organization of the Chappaqua Historical
Society, from which was appointed what was known as the Horace
Greeley memorial committee, consisting of the following persons:
John I. D. Bristol, president, Victor Guinzburg, vice president,
Jacob Erlich, treasurer, Edwin Bedell, secretary, Morgan Cowper-
thwaite, George Hunt, Wilbur Hyatt, George D. Mackay, John
McKesson, Jr, Hiram E. Manville, A. H. Smith, L. Thompson,
Albert Turner.

The preliminary work of the committee was successfully accom-
plished, and circulars were prepared and sent out calling the atten-
tion of various organizations, schools, educational institutions, and
prominent individuals of the United States to this proposed memo-
rial. A tentative program embodying suggestions for the obser-
vance of the centenary by schools and educational institutions was
then drawn up and sent broadcast throughout the country. A
sketch of the life of Horace Greeley, with brief extracts from his
writings and biographical notes, was also written and published by
Mr Erlich and mailed with this tentative program.

Space will not permit the insertion of the many interesting
letters which were received by Mr Bristol and Mr Erlich from the
heads of educational institutions throughout the United States, all
of whom were heartily in accord with and in favor of the projected
celebration.

Among a few of the noted educators who concurred and gave
their heartiest approval were Booker T. Washington, William H.
Maxwell, superintendent of schools of New York City, President
Arthur T. Hadley of Yale, President J. G. Schurman of Cornell,
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York, Chancellor Henry M. Mac-.
Cracken of New York University and Samuel T. Dutton of the
Teachers College, Columbia University.

Among individuals and outside organizations that supported the
idea were the City Club of New York, the Quoin Club of the same
city, the New York (City) Historical Society, H. L. Bridgman,
the Arctic explorer, Mayor Gaynor, John P. Mitchel, then president
of the board of aldermen and now mayor of New York City, Mrs
Bayard Taylor, Mayor George H. Houston of the city of Greeley,
Col., and many other distinguished persons of all grades and shades
of creed and political opinion. Among later correspondents who
approved were Hon, Smith Ely and R. Fulton Cutting,
 

ALBERT E. HENSCHEL
Originator of the Greeley memorial volume, and promoter of the centenary
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 19

Encouragement was received by the committee, in addition to
that from outside sources, from members of Mr Greeley’s family.
Dr and Mrs Frank M. Clendenin, the latter of whom was his
Gaughter, Gabrielle, both responded cheerfully to suggestions of
the Greeley memorial committee to facilitate the labors attendant
upon the centenary and its proper observance; while Mr Greeley’s
granddaughter, Mrs Nixola Greeley Smith Ford, who has inherited
some of his journalistic genius, gave valuable aid to the com-
mittee, as did her sister, Miss Ida Greeley Smith.

Among the letters received by Mr Erlich were two of special in-
terest, as they have a distinct historical and biographical value.
One was from Colonel William Conant Church, of the Army and
Navy Journal, who, under date of January 24, 1911, writes:

_ In response to your request, I send two slips for deposit in crypt,
inclosing $2 in accordance with your notification.

My father, Rev. Pharcellus Church D. D., who passed the closing
years of his life at Tarrytown, N. Y., was some eighty-two or three
years ago a pastor in East Poultney, Vt. Among members of his
congregation was the editor of the Northern Spectator, published
in that town. One day this gentleman called my father’s attention
to a printer’s boy he had in his office and asked that he be allowed
to introduce him. He said he was not much to look at but was a
remarkable lad. His name was Horace Greeley. Thus my family
associations with Mr Greeley, whom I knew well in his later life,
dates back to about the year 1827 or 1828.

Another member of my father’s congregation at that time was
George Jones, who subsequently joined with Henry J. Raymond
and Mr Wesley in establishing the New York Times. Thus it
appears that the two men instrumental in establishing two of the
great New York dailies originated in the same little hamlet among
the hills of Vermont.

The other letter, dated January 13, 1911, was from John R.
Kendrick, a publisher of Philadelphia, who said:

I have your favor of the 11th, and in reply would say that, per-
sonally, my interest in the memory of Horace Greeley is because
of the fact that he was partly reared in the same town where my
father was born, and the two were playmates for a time. I refer
to the village of Poultney, Vt., where Horace Greeley learned the
printing trade, though he left there in early life. My father kept
up Mr Greeley’s acquaintance for many years after they grew into
manhood.

In a postscript to this letter Mr Kendrick says, “ Mr Greeley
boarded with my grandfather in Poultney way back prior to 1830.”

The work of the centenary was also enthusiastically supported
and forwarded by Typographical Union No. 6, of which Mr Greeley
20 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

was the original president, by the American Scenic and Historic
Preservation Society, and the Society for Ethical Culture, all of
which took formal action in the direction of a successful observance.

September 15, 1910, the Chappaqua Historical Society, organized
for the objects shown in the following extract from its by-laws,
took an active part in the promotion of the Greeley memorial statue:
“ The object of this society is to foster and perpetuate all historical
data and reminiscences in connection with Westchester county and
especially of Chappaqua; the preservation of historical papers and
documents relating to those subjects and particularly to Horace
Greeley ; the erection of historical tablets; and other objects common
with societies of this character.”

About this time the New York World, the Press, the Tribune
and the Times heartily approved, by editorials and in their news
columns, the plan for erecting a statue to commemorate this cen-
tenary, the comments of the World and the Press being specially
strong in their approbation. In an editorial, which is pronounced
by Rev. Dr Clendenin in an undated letter to Mr Erlich, “ one of
the best summaries of his [Greeley’s] life that have been written,
excépt his own summary of his life found in his ‘ Recollections of
a Busy Life,’”1 The New York World of September 17, 1910,
says, under the caption, “ Horace Greeley’s 100 Years:”

To the many persons still living who remember Horace. Greeley
as a daily figure in the life of New York the one hundredth anni-
versary of his birth, which falls on February 3, 1911, will have a
special significance. By those of a later generation no less is tribute
due to the memory of a man who played a part as editor, antislavery
leader and ardent supporter of the Union that made him one of the
leading characters of his century.

The moral force and energy that Greeley brought to his work gave
him a personal influence that today is difficult to appreciate under
changed conditions. The blows he struck for freedom when the
fight against human slavery was a doubtful cause and most needed
recruits were the expression of convictions that ignored popular ill
will and ‘personal danger. He was a dangerous combatant whose
conscience told him that he was right regardless of majorities and
minorities, and time and events have fully justified the enlightened
doctrines that he preached with unsparing vehemence.

Merely as the man who brought about the nomination of Lincoln,
Greeley would deserve a fitting monument. In journalism, in politics
and in public life he exercised extraordinary power, and in the main
that power was the result of moral ideals that can never die. It
is well that steps should be taken at once to bring about a fitting
observance of the centennial of his birth.

1 Page 420.
 

Rev. F. M. Clendenin collection

THE FIRST PAPER UPON WHICH GREELEY WORKED

the early part of the 19th century

tics in

i

power in northern New York pol

The Spectator was a
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 21

It was finally decided that February 3, 4, and 5, 1911, should be
set apart for the observance of the centenary. Hon. John A. Dix,

then Governor of the State of New York, issued the following
proclamation :

Albany, February 3, 191r

It is fitting that the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Horace
Greeley should be widely commemorated. Sprung from the plain
people, Horace Greeley was the embodiment of the heroic spirit of
genuine American democrats. He was a great man in an age of
great men, a giant among giants, a journalist-statesman possessed
by a veritable passion for liberty and justice. He gave to his country
and to the world an inspiring example of a staunch and brave patriot,
who hated wrong of every sort, but loved his fellow men as he loved
himself. Horace Greeley planted the seed of national reconciliation.
The complete triumph of his principles and his influence came after
his death, when universal amnesty was declared and the states of
the North and South forgot the bitter strife of Civil War and
joined hearts and hands as brothers under a flag that will float
forever as the ensign of a free and reunited nation. It is indeed
well to pay tribute to the memory of the son of New England whose
life and achievements lend luster to the history of the Empire State
and of the United States.

Joun A. Dix

The Senate, on February 3d, passed the following resolution,
cffered by Senator Thomas F. Grady:

Resolved, That the Senate of the State of New York on this the
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Horace Greeley recalls his
great service in behalf of the people and institutions of this country
and his commanding place among the humanitarians of his time.
That as a lover of freedom to all, without regard to race, religion
or color, that as a patriotic and courageous citizen devoted to the
National Union, that as a man of noble character and uncommon
ability, whose great sympathies were ever with the oppressed and
struggling, and as the ‘most distinguished of newspaper editors in
his day and generation, whose pen guided public effort and cham-
pioned fearlessly every worthy cause, he left to his country an
example of sterling American citizenship which has been and ever
will be an inspiration to the youth and manhood of the land.

Resolved, That out of respect to the memory of Horace Greeley
and to afford its members an opportunity to participate in the more
formal ceremonies of the day, the Senate now adjourns to meet
tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11.45 o’clock.

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree
to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative. Whereupon,
the Senate adjourned.

1 Extract from the Journal of the Senate of the State of New York for
February 3, IQII, v. I, p. 102.
22 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

In the Assembly, Alfred E. Smith said:

Mr Speaker, before moving to adjourn I desire to state that it is
fit and proper that the Assembly take notice of the fact that one
hundred years ago today in the little town of Amherst, in the state
of New Hampshire, Horace Greeley was born. Proper and fitting
ceremonies to celebrate that event are taking place today and
tomorrow, both at his birthplace and at his place of residence in
later years in Westchester county. During his lifetime, because of
his great strength and force of character, he occupied a very
prominent place in our civil and political life. He was the leader
of thought in affairs of city, State and nation, at one time the can-
didate of our party for the presidency of the United States. It
seems, therefore, fit and proper that when the Assembly adjourns
today on this anniversary of his birthday, it adjourn out of respect
to his memory.

On motion of Mr A. E. Smith, the House adjourned until Satur-
day, February 4th, at 11.30 o’clock a. m.*

The board of aldermen of the city of New York adopted this
resolution, which appears in their minutes, as No. 2752, under date
of January 31, IQII:

By the vice chairman:

Whereas, The one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Horace
Greeley will occur on February 3, 1911, and the recognition of this
event must revive useful lessons and stimulate our youth to emulate
the noble virtues and heroic patriotism of a great character in our
country’s history, therefore

Resolved, That the Horace Greeley memorial committee is hereby
permitted to use the aldermanic chamber on Friday, February 3,
1911, at 12 o’clock m., for the purpose of holding appropriate
exercises.

Which was adopted.

The mayor of Greeley, Colorado, emphasized the local celebra-
tion by issuing the following:

On February 3, 1911, one hundred years will have passed since
the birth of Horace Greeley, and, while the educational institutions
of the United States have planned in a very general way to observe
that day as one of great importance in the history of the nation, to
this community the day should have a peculiar significance.

Therefore, on February 3d, will not this community meditate
upon the character of the man for whom our city was so appro-
priately named, and dwell for a time upon the simple elements of
his wholesome character, and while congratulating ourselves upon
the heritage of a good name and the good traditions of our beginning,

1Extract from the Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York,
for February 3, I9II, v. I, p. 185-86.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 23

may we not receive a yet stronger regard for the obligations to main-
tain and improve that heritage.

On that day will all public buildings, residences and business
houses, please display the American flag and as far as possible place
in view portraits of Horace Greeley.

Georce M. Houston
Mayor
Greeley, Colorado, January 21, I9II

In their proper places in this work will be found accounts of the
Greeley memorial meetings which took place at Chappaqua, at
Greeley, Col., and at the city hall, New York, February 3d, and
at the New York Theater under the auspices of Typographical
Union No. 6, on February 5th. At the same time, as heretofore
stated, the various schools throughout the country held special
exercises in honor of this centenary.

The chief result of all this work was the ultimate securing of a
statue, with a suitable pedestal, as a permanent memorial at Chap-
paqua. The work of designing and casting the statue was intrusted
to the famous sculptor, William Ordway Partridge. The result
was extremely satisfactory as a work of art, and a most lifelike
representation in bronze of Mr Greeley was cast at the Roman
Bronze Foundry from Mr Partridge’s model. The statue is about
9 feet 6 inches in height and stands on a pedestal of Pompton pink
granite about 10 feet high. The architect of the pedestal was
William Henry Deacy, of Ossining and New York City.

The statue faces toward the little village of Chappaqua. Sur-
rounded by an ornamental coping, forming a protective plaza, it
rises in the valley, the most prominent object in sight from the
hilltops and the country round about.

All the famous Greeley statues show him seated. Mr Partridge,
however, has conceived him as standing, his chin slightly raised, as
if looking off toward his farm lands in a moment of relaxation.
His right arm hangs easily by his side, and in his hand is a news-
paper slightly crumpled by the firm grasp. The position is an easy
and unstrained one, and the facial expression betokens Greeley’s
well-known simplicity and ideality of character.

At Chappaqua on February 3, 1911, on a site given by John I. D.
Bristol, ground for the monument was broken by the members of
the Chappaqua Historical Society, at which time took place the
observance of the centenary which is noted elsewhere.

A bill relating to the statue, and making an appropriation of
$10,000, was introduced in the Legislature at Albany by Hon. J.
24 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORE

Mayhew Wainwright in the Senate, March 5, 1912, and by Hon.
George A. Slater in the Assembly on the 6th. Among those who
supported and urged the passage and executive approval of this
bill, were Judge Alton B. Parker, Professor George W Kirchwey
of the Columbia School of Law, Hon. W. G. McAdoo, now Secre-
tary of the Treasury, and many other men noted in statecraft and
politics.

The bill passed both houses of the Legislature, but Governor Dix
could not see his way clear to give it his signature because of the
then depleted condition of the State treasury, and thus the bill
failed to become a law. Nothing daunted, however, by the lack
of the funds sought from this legislation, the erection of the statue
was begun by the committee, and was carried to a successful end
by private contributions, donations and subscriptions from many
sources.

Before the Legislature of 1913 Mr Henschel finally appeared as
a representative of the Horace Greeley memorial committee and
secured the introduction and passage of the following bill:

Aw Act authorizing a report relative to the unveiling of the monu-
ment to be erected in commemoration of the centenary of the birth
of Horace Greeley, and making an appropriation therefor.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1 The official known as the State Historian and Chief
of the Division of History, of the Department of Education, is
hereby authorized to prepare and have printed a report to the Legis-
lature relative to the unveiling of the monument to be erected in
this State in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of
the birth of Horace Greeley, together with a record of memorial
exercises held in celebration of said event, and such other matter
as said official may deem suitable and appropriate. Said report is
intended as a tribute to Horace Greeley’s memory and to testify to
the honor and esteem in which the people of the State of New York
hold the patriotic services and civic virtues of Horace Greeley.

§ 2 For the purpose of carrying out the objects of this act, the
sum of fifteen hundred dollars ($1500), or so much thereof as may
be necessary, is hereby appropriated.

§ 3 This act shall take effect immediately.

This met with legislative and executive approval and became
chapter 643 of the Laws of 1913.

It is in accord with the provisions and mandates of this act that
this publication, containing the accounts of the chief observances
of the centenary, as well as the proceedings at the unveiling of the
 

William Ordway Partridge, Sc.

THE CHAPPAQUA MONUMENT
Unveiled February 3, 1914
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 25

monument and permanent memorial at Chappaqua, is presented to
the public. An attempt is thus made to secure as permanent a
record of America’s greatest editor and newspaper man, with type
and ink and paper, those essential accessories of his craft, as will
be furnished by the colossal and imperishable statue in bronze which,
so long as grass grows and water runs, will stand in the little
country town, which he loved next to his beloved Tribune, as a
tribute born of the affection and regard of his countrymen.

In the compilation of this work, the editor has been very for-
tunate in having access to the great collection of Greeley material
in the possession of the Rev. Dr Clendenin and his wife; as well
as to the collections of Jacob Erlich and Albert E. Henschel, who
have spent years and considerable sums of money in gathering a
great amount of Greeleyana and data referring to the subject of
this memorial.

Owing to the fire which several years ago destroyed Mr Greeley’s
house at Chappaqua, with its large amount of manuscripts, letters
and papers, a definitive history of Horace Greeley can never be
written, at least from the original sources. Relying as we have
had to do, then, on the printed records, it is believed that this work
will furnish to the world as near an approach to a final life of the
great editor as is likely to be presented, at least to this generation.
THE STATUE AT CHAPPAQUA
INAUGURATED
THE STATUE AT CHAPPAQUA INAUGURATED
FEBRUARY 3, I911

Though many observances of the centenary of Horace Greeley’s
natal day were held throughout the country, there probably was
not one that could evoke a keener interest than the exercises at
Chappaqua. There, in that rural settlement, the chosen home of
Horace Greeley, in the concrete barn built by him and since trans-
formed into a dwelling, lives his only surviving daughter, Gabrielle,
with her husband, the Rev. Dr Frank M. Clendenin, and their
daughter, Gabrielle.

Here are clustered their Lares and Penates. In this home, suit-
ably decorated, were assembled and exhibited the chief relics that
were to remind the neighbors and lovers of Greeley, of old asso-
ciations, and of the unflagging work that he had done for his
country and for humanity at large.

The lower floor of the house was filled with examples of his
handwriting. Many of these manuscripts belong to Doctor and Mrs
Clendenin, but many others were lent by friends and members of
the Chappaqua Historical Society.

There were two large scrapbooks filled with manuscripts of his
political writings, among them, one of a lecture on Lincoln written
just before Mr Greeley’s death and which was never delivered.
Jacob Erlich lent the manuscript of Mr Greeley’s work on political
economy, a facsimile of Jefferson Davis’s bail bond signed by Mr
Greeley, and other Greeley mementos. There was the correspond-
ence between Greeley and Ezra Haight on the purchase of the farm
at Chappaqua. There were several copies of the “ Clay Tribune,”
published by Greeley and McElrath, which preceded the Tribune
of today, and one of the papers on which the future editor did his
work in 1826. Before the fireplace downstairs stood the sentinel
armchair that he had used from the time he was nineteen years old,
while in a corner of the room was the desk he used for the last ten
years of his newspaper life, and across from it was the flat-topped
table that preceded the standing desk. There were the rare first
copies of the various journals he published and edited. Among
the many other objects of interest were the marble bust made of
Greeley when he was but thirty years old, by Hart, the famous
Kentucky sculptor, the cradle in which he was rocked, the case at
which he set type, in Erie, the copy of the first newspaper which
he himself set up and in which he stuck the type for articles of his

29
30 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

own composition, the flag that waved over the Tribune building
during the Civil War, and the resolutions of the board of aldermen
of the city of New York as well as of the city of Detroit. The
New York resolutions are those referred to in a letter by Mayor
Havemeyer to Samuel J. Tilden, requesting him to prepare the
presentation address on tendering the engrossed resolutions to Mr
Greeley’s family. There were many photographs and engravings
descriptive of his life, a number of his published works, and the oil
painting of Greeley’s son, Arthur, whose pet name was “ Picky”
and whose early death wrought a deep and permanent sorrow into
Mr Greeley’s soul.

Before the exercises of the day there was the regular annual
meeting of the Chappaqua Historical Society, held always on the
anniversary of Mr Greeley’s birth.

There were present among others, besides the members of the
society and family, General Stewart L. Woodford, Walter L. Mc-
Corkle, vice president of the Southern Society of New York, James
Wood, Daniel P. Hays, and General Edwin A. Merritt, then 84
years old. The following attended as delegates from Typographical
Union No. 6: James Tole, C. M. Maxwell, William F. Wetzel, John
F. Crossland, C. D. Dumas, James H. Dahm, S. W. Gamble, James
P. Farrell and James D. Kennedy. ©

The following gentlemen who were present, declared that they
had voted the Greeley ticket in the presidential campaign of 1872:
Charles Haines, lawyer, of Bedford; D. Cox, retired, of Hawthorne;
J. J. Birdsall, of White Plains; George Hunt, merchant, Chappaqua;
W. I. Halstead, merchant, Mount Kisco; J. D. Bailey, builder,
Chappaqua; Theodore Carpenter, retired, Mount Kisco; A. J.
Quimby, retired, Chappaqua; Elliot H. See, Pleasantville; W. H.
Fisher, retired, Chappaqua; Edwin Bedell, editor of the Chappaqua
Item; General E. A. Merritt; Moses Wanzer and D. Rousseau.
These old Greeley voters were photographed later in the day.

Among Mr Greeley’s relatives were Mrs Andrew W. Ford, who
was Nixola Greeley Smith, and Miss Ida Greeley Smith, his grand-
daughters; Dr Horace Greeley, of the Brooklyn health department,
a grandson; Mrs Fanny Storey, a grandniece, and Miss Gabrielle
Clendenin, another granddaughter.

Secretary Bedell read letters and telegrams from those who could
not be present, including the following from Ex-mayor Seth Low:

When I was in Clarksburg, W. Va., a little while ago, I was shown

the original indictment which had been found there against Horace
Greeley, with a copy of the New York Tribune upon which the
 

“THE HOME IN THE Woops”
Destroyed by fire in 1877

 

From an old print
HIS CONCRETE BARN
One of the first of the concrete constructions. Made
into a residence after the burning of ‘‘ Home in
the Woods”’

   

THE BARN AS A RESIDENCE

Transformed from the concrete structure into the Clendenin
residence

ae
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 3r

indictment was found, for inciting insurrection among the slaves.
Times have so changed that it is hard for any one now to think
himself back into a time when slavery existed in the United States.
We do well now to honor, whenever we can, the memory of the brave
men who wrote and suffered in the cause of human freedom when
it was a hard and unpopular thing to do. Horace Greeley was one
of those doughty champions, and I am glad his memory is kept green
in the place [in which] he had his home for so many years.

Dr Frank M. Clendenin opened with prayer, after which Mr
John I. D. Bristol, president of the society, introduced the treasurer,
Mr Jacob Erlich, as the first speaker.

ADDRESS OF JACOB ERLICH

We are gathered here today to honor and help perpetuate the
memory of one of America’s illustrious men. We may well rejoice
that there lived among us a man so simple, so great, so noble as
Horace Greeley.

A born genius, early manifesting signs of extraordinary intellect,
with little schooling, by great industry and perseverance, and not-
withstanding endless hardships, he lifted himself till he held pre-
eminent rank among the public men of his time. An uncompromis-
ing leader for his ideals, he was the militant champion of purity,
honesty, patriotism and justice.

Those nearest him, loved and honored him most.

Slavery found in Horace Greeley its mightiest and most deadly
foe. By years of reiteration in the Tribune, which he founded —
the most powerful organ of public opinion of the time — he exposed
the giant wrongs of human servitude. He laid the foundation for
the great upheaval of public opinion which gave to the Union cause
the spirit and the logic by which its battles were won.

Horace Greeley knew the condition and needs of his country,
as few men knew them. His voice was heard, his influence felt,
in every part of the Union. That the noble lessons of such a life
might find abundant fruitage in coming generations, we have caused
appropriate exercises to be held in the public schools of the country.

As time goes on, Horace Greeley will be better known, appre-
ciated and judged by his achievement.

In closing, I can do no better than to quote the words of that
distinguished jurist and statesman, whom we have with us today,
General Stewart L. Woodford, while presiding over the New York
Electoral College in 1872. On this occasion, referring to the un-
32 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

timely death of Mr Greeley, who had been the unsuccessful candi-
date for the presidency, General Woodford said:

We gather under the shadow of great sorrow, for he who was
the competitor of the successful candidate for the presidency lies
silent forever in death. he day which shall record the election of
the one, will witness the burial of the other. This victory of the
approval of the nation which has come to the one living, this greater
victory, which has come to the other, of peaceful entrance into the
rest of Heaven, make this gathering forever memorable.

To him who shall continue our President; to us who shall give
the formal vote for his reelection; to all the children of the Republic,
the life and memory of Horace Greeley shall remain as an inspiration
to kindlier, broader patriotism, to more faithful performance of duty.
Thus comes from the grave the higher call to nobler living.

ADDRESS OF GENERAL STEWART L. WOODFORD

General Woodford, in memories of Mr Greeley, brought tears
to the eyes of many as he spoke feelingly of his friend. The general
told of first knowing Mr Greeley in the editorial rooms of the
Tribune in 1854 and 1856.

“He was the power on the Tribune,” said General Woodford,
“but yet most gracious and kind to the youngsters who were
permitted to work for the paper. He was a leader of the press
and the Republican party, whose name, I think, he suggested, and
in the fall of 1856, when Frémont ran for President, he would
often go in the evenings from his office to some ward meeting,
where in his quaint and simple language he did so much to enforce
his views on the voters.

“Mr Greeley was a delegate from Oregon to the Republican
convention in 1860, and I was a delegate from the Fairfield district
of Connecticut. In those days delegates did not have to live in the
states they represented. I have lived long enough to thank God
for the divine work of Abraham Lincoln, and in that convention
it was Horace Greeley, more than any other man, who’ forced the
nomination of Lincoln. His nomination was due to the courage
and domination of Horace Greeley.

““Mr Greeley’s work is done, but his influence will abide while
this nation lives. His work for the slaves, clean politics and
organized labor will ever live. His work for sound currency no
banker can ever forget. His words were ‘ The way to resume is
to resume.’

“ He lived a life that was devoted to charity, to brotherhood of
man, to labor, to the development of national resources and to the
strengthening of the National Union. His was a great life.
 

THE CLENDENIN RESIDENCE

At Chappaqua, Greeley’s cradle on the hearth, and picture
over mantel

 

GENERAL STEWART L. WOODFORD

Addressing gathering in parlor, Greeley homestead at Chappaqua, birth
centenary exercises, February 3, I9II
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 33

“ The greatest thing Mr Greeley ever did was when he went on
the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, which was a great pledge of
brotherhood that secured the unity of the nation.”

Rev. Dr Clendenin then read the following paper prepared by
Mrs Clendenin:

A PERSONAL IMPRESSION OF HORACE GREELEY
MRS GABRIELLE GREELEY CLENDENIN

Friday evening was always the brightest and happiest of the
whole week at Chappaqua, for that was sure to bring my dear father
home. The whole house was alive with happy preparation. The
very pine trees pointed tiny little fingers down the wild woody
road to show the way he was coming. How eagerly I remember
watching a certain little pink gingham frock being ironed in which
I was to go and meet him. I used to sit between two patriarchal
oak trees till in the distance the familiar figure was seen, slightly
bent forward, his arms loaded with good things, entering the gate;
and then I would fly to meet him. How my little arm used to crook
itself up and take as much of his load as it could, and how somehow
the burden was always lifted just a little higher, so my help was
only an empty form. We used often on these walks to talk of a
wonderful pony he was looking for and which arrived, sleek and
round, and mischievous, one birthday morning.

The first thing when we reached the house was to seek mother’s
room where the dear inmate for years struggled with a terrible
cough. From there, carried in triumph on his back, I would ride
down to dinner. After dinner, sitting around the table, he would
call for Dana’s book of poetry and read to us many of his favorites.
I look now at the familiar lines and smile to think how incompre-
hensible they must have been to my childish mind, and yet I loved
the reading, and thought like the wise men of today, I “ knew it all.”
I used frequently to pipe up at those happy times “ Papa, please
tell us a ‘nanydote.’” One of the anecdotes still remains in my
mind, of a certain sea captain who traveling for his company used
to bring in very long bills. One of the charges they especially
objected to was three pounds for “a cocked hat” to be worn on a
visit to an Indian prince. The next time the accounts were more
wisely itemized, and they expressed themselves as perfectly satisfied.
“ Ah,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye, “the cocked hat’s there,
but you don’t see its”
34 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

At one of the home gatherings some one, fearing I was being
petted too much, said: ‘“ Mr Greeley, don’t flatter the child.”

“ But,” I answered in his defense, ‘‘ Pussy just loves flatty, and
if gentleness and a great loving heart injure anyone, he would have
given me some excuse for being spoiled.

I remember one incident of his indulgence. One day he brought
home. an umbrella with a wooden dog’s head as a handle. My
covetous little heart proceeded to set itself upon that canine effigy.
In vain papa offered me a whole dog, but I pleaded that no other
head in the world would be like that head, and the result was he
sawed it off and went back to town with a handleless umbrella.

I can not recall my father speaking a single harsh or unkind word
to either my dear sister or myself, but I can recall today an occasion
in which I longed to give myself a good shaking. Papa was en-
grossed in his paper, and no word or inquiry of mine could rouse
him. So, to get his attention at any price, I began tearing away
little bits of his newspaper. I must have reached at length the
article he was reading, for gently rising, he lifted me by my arms
(for my legs I made instantly limp) and so deposited me outside
his locked door without a word. Howls of indignation from me
brought anxious inquiries. from a relative, but he made no explana-
tion; neither did I. My humiliation was too great at being ignored.

The faces of people are children’s books, from which they read
searchingly. Scanning earnestly his dear face, so full of the sun-
shine of purity, so bright with humor and wisdom, a deep im-
pression, never to be effaced, was made upon me at the terrible
sorrow I saw written there when he came home and told of
Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Never again did I see that look
till the one he loved to call “ Mother” passed away. Then it settled
down with a grief from which he never roused himself. I never
could trace any signs of disappointment at the presidential cam-
paign going against him, but rather a quiet and humorous philos-
ophy. I think his main regret would have been for those faithful
friends who had followed a lost cause. The Saturday before
mother’s death he walked with me to Saint Mary’s School, where
he had placed me a few days before. Little did I think as he left
me at the door, we should meet on Monday at the side of that
dear mother from whose face death had smoothed the cares and
sufferings of years. From that time he could not sleep, and he
seemed not to care to eat. The mainspring of his home had broken.
The one who, though sick unto death for years, had been such a
force and strength at home, holding up the noblest and highest

x”
ATINVA GNV AUTHAAD ADVAOH
Aajaetyy) sIyl epl aTpeuqey Aapary IA

014241109 ujuapualD

 
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 35

examples to her children, teaching us that truth must be followed
at any cost yet reaching down in womanly tenderness to the smallest
animal, or going out in the snow, though sick herself, to protect
some poor drunken man whom the boys were pelting, telling me
never to laugh at such a one, for they were suffering from a terrible
disease ; yes, the look he had worn when Lincoln was killed came
back to stay. The heart that could love and work for others could
break when the highly-strung chords were strained too far. I
have had to listen to long explanations about his disappointed am-
bition. To die or live for the good of his laboring brothers and
sisters was the only ambition I could ever discover in that great
loving heart. He had no tears to shed at his wife’s funeral. But
as he turned away from the simple plot at Greenwood he said:
“That vault will be opened for me in less than a month.” And it
was not the first of his prophecies to be sadly fulfilled.

Years afterwards a society man told me how one evening, near
midnight, when Delmonico’s was filled with gay pleasure-seekers,
he caught sight for one moment, in the light which streamed across
the pavement from the doorway, of an old man in a white coat
carrying the baskets of two little ragged girls, evidently taking them
to a place of shelter from the storm. So do I love to picture him
again. The world of the prosperous and thoughtless was little
affected by his life, but as he fades into the darkness of the night
of oblivion, I like to think of him as one who desired ever to bring
the homeless and wretched to shelter, and to carry burdens for them.

ADDRESS OF DANIEL P. HAYS

Daniel P. Hays, who had been a neighbor of Mr Greeley for
many years, told of first meeting him at the farm of Abram J.
Quinby, where Mr Greeley spent his summers before buying the
farm that was afterward his home.

“T remember him as a man of a kind and loving nature, who felt
strongly the brotherhood of man. He stands out in my memory
as a character almost divine, and in what he did for humanity he
was greater than presidents or kings.

“In what he contributed to the election of Abraham Lincoln and
the freeing of the slaves he was one of the greatest men the country
has ever produced. He did not sign his name to the Emancipation
Proclamation, but he labored for it for years, and his work was
one of the great contributory causes that made that proclamation

possible.
36 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

“He was a national and world-wide character and yet was a
friend of the humblest.”

Mr James Wood and.General Edwin A. Merritt gave the assem-
blage their personal reminiscences of Horace Greeley.

The exercises were interspersed with appropriate music rendered
by the St Thomas Mandolin Club of Pleasantville, consisting ot
Miss Beatrice Griffin, piano, and mandolin players as follows: the
Misses Anna C. Dicket, Margaret B. Moehmer, Mary V. McCormac,
Helen R. Moore, Elma C. Connor, Mary A. McCarthy, Katharine
M. McCarthy and Elsa A. Doll.

Later the ladies of Chappaqua served tea to the visitors; among
them were Mrs Bristol, Mrs Turner, Mrs McKesson, Mrs Erlich,
Mrs Busselle, Mrs Guinzburg, Mrs Mackay and Mrs Cowperth-
waite.

After the reception the guests were asked to meet at the west
side of the railway station, near the old Pines Bridge road, where
Mrs Clendenin had chosen the spot for the erection of a monument
to her father. It is near the route taken by Washington’s retreating
troops after the defeat at White Plains.

After the group of Greeley voters had been photographed and
some time spent in examining the Greeley relics, the assemblage
proceeded to the site chosen for the Greeley statue, where the loca-
tion had been railed off and a small platform laid. The populace
of neighboring Westchester villages was out in force to witness the
interesting ceremonies. Mr Bristol then spoke as follows:

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT JOHN I. D. BRISTOL

Tradition has given to some localities of our country the designa-
tion of hallowed ground. This monumental square should be in-
cluded. Here Washington’s army passed, after the defeat at the
battle of White Plains. No trappings of modern warfare — the
gaudy uniform, the waving of regimental banners, the martial
strains of military bands, or any of the paraphernalia characteristic
of armies — shared that long and weary retreat of hardship and
suffering. On this same old Revolutionary Pines Bridge road, but
a little way farther on, still stands the Quaker meeting house of
Chappaqua. There Washington halted with his wounded. The
church became a hospital, its pews the cots of the wounded, its
prayers the last feeble words of dying patriots; and yet, amid all
these terrible circumstances of war, from which a fatal depression,
despondency and discouragement could well have had their birth,
 

JOHN I. D. BRISTOL

President Chappaqua Historical Society. To his efforts are due the statue
and permanent memorial to Greeley at Chappaqua
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 37

the sublime love of country remained, and the struggle for liberty
and independence went on to a grandly successful close. What a
lesson all of this for every lover of our wonderful Commonwealth.

Through every privation, and through suffering that can never
be told, the men of the Revolution were the creators of our country.
With the dawn of its second century, that nation’s existence was
threatened. Among the many illustrious names of its saviors that
of Horace Greeley will ever be associated.

And it is well, indeed, that here in Chappaqua, with all the recol-
lections that cluster about his name, where he had his home for so
many years, and in this historic valley that he loved; and where,
amid adjacent parks to be dressed in the living beauty of the
landscaping art, nature can well be said to slumber upon a bed of
scenic loveliness — we erect a monument to the man whose memory
we revere.

During the later years of his life, when he had become a mighty
power in the progression of the nation’s greatness, his preeminence,
above and beyond all misrepresentation, detraction, ridicule, and
the ever slow-growing faith to newer and better things, was every-
where conceded. He grew into the hearts of his countrymen not at
a bound but by degrees.

The ages are ages of slow transition; but there are times ‘when
in the culmination of mighty events evolution moves faster — when
men see clearer — when even the conscience of a great nation is
suddenly enlightened, and the long-buried right looms up among
the minds of its people as the sudden flash from a beacon light
sheds its clear beams over the waves and mists of a dangerous coast.
The writings of Horace Greeley were the beacon rays of encourag-
ing truth that reached the farmer boy when the labors of the day
were over, as well as the college student in the hours of his studies.

Horace Greeley appealed to no limited class; but, as his mind
was above all creeds and all party platforms, the manifestations of
his mentality were for all normal men without distinction of race
or condition. There is a simple explanation in all of this: he lived
through his higher faculties and knew not the selfishness and the
perverted ego that ever lessen innate greatness. Such men are of
a strength and stature to seize the torch of truth that occasionally
flashes into being among humanity’s millions, and shed its rays to
the inner consciousness of every mind capable of thought. The
underlying cause of the greatness of Horace Greeley lay in his
dignity of character, his simplicity, kindliness, courage. steadfast-
ness, his wonderful love of right, his splendid benevolence, and his
38 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

universal love for his fellowmen. To him Chappaqua and the
nation this day dedicate the monument that is to arise upon this
historic spot; and it would be well for future ages that it bear the
inscription : .
TO
HORACE GREELEY
THE MOST EXALTED PRIEST IN THE CHURCH
OF THE
BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

Mr G. D. Mackay followed, and at the close of his happy remarks
he displayed a silvered spade with ebony handle, upon which was
an engraved plate, which he presented to Mrs Gabrielle Greeley
Clendenin and conducted her within the rail. Mrs Clendenin then
took the spade and broke the ground for the site of the statue.

GREETINGS
The following telegram from Amherst, N. H., was read:

Old Amherst, which gave him birth, celebrates with you, who
gave a home, the hundredth anniversary of Greeley’s birth, and
extends to you most cordial greetings and desires for delightful and
inspiring exercises.

The following reply was telegraphed to Amherst :

Your kindly greetings regarding centenary exercises here to the
man who made Lincoln President, greatly appreciated and recipro-
cated. The birthplace and the home of Horace Greeley should ever
be places of pilgrimage for true Americans.

The letter which follows was received from the vice president of
the Southern Society of New York:

New York, February 4, 1911

Rev. Frank M. Clendenin
The Rectory
Westchester, N. Y.

My Dear BRotTHER CLENDENIN:

I regret exceedingly that I was compelled to hurry away from
the hallowed scenes of yesterday and take this first opportunity to
explain to Mrs Clendenin and yourself that the president of the
Southern Society, Mr McAdoo, notified me only late in the afternoon
of Thursday that he would be unable to attend at Chappaqua,
pursuant to the kind invitation which had been extended to him as
executive of the Southern colony in this city.

I had two appointments for the afternoon of yesterday, which I
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 39

had to switch off to the evening, and as they were quite important
T was compelled to hurry in order to attend to them. I would so
much have enjoyed remaining for the tea and the exercises at the
site of the proposed monument.

I will treasure the recollections of the day and its doings so long
as life is permitted to me, for so much that I recall of my boyhood
days is associated.with the great man in whose memory we gathered
on yesterday.

My father was an old line Whig, as all the people were .in my
section of Virginia. He was a subscriber to the Log Cabin and after-
wards a subscriber and daily reader of the Tribune.

The Tribune, if I may use the expression, not at all irreverently,
was his political Bible and he did not hesitate to go anywhere that
Mr Greeley suggested he should go.

As a small boy IJ can remember, on the days that it rained and
we were not able to go to school, the wanderings of myself and my
brother to the garret of our old colonial home, then diving and
delving in the great barrels of copies of the Tribune, all of which
my father preserved religiously. I dare say that some of them are
there in that home yet.

The agricultural feature of the paper appealed to my father, and
any suggestion that came from the Tribune as to the preparation
of the land for crops, the sowing and reaping of the same, caring
for the orchard or vineyard, the flowers of the garden or hedge
was immediately followed.

Just before General Woodford rose to address the meeting of
yesterday, I asked him if he would refer in as grateful terms as he
could to that act which bound Mr Greeley closely to all people of
the Southland; and, when in his peroration he summed up in such
choice words my suggestion, it fired me to the core, and, although
it would have been rude indeed for me to have said one word,
particularly in view of the splendid, systematic program which the
president of the Memorial Association had cut out, I would have
dearly loved to have said to your good wife, her daughter, to you,
and to those of the friends of Mr Greeley around you, how grateful
our people were in appreciation of the magnanimity of this great-
hearted man who had convictions and the courage of them, and
regardless of all the pressure brought upon him had performed that
act which neither General Woodford, the Union League Club of
this city or many of the staunch friends of Mr Greeley could under-
stand or fathom.

I do hope that the opportunity will soon come to me again to
meet Mrs Clendenin and I thank you so much for all the courtesy
which you extended to me as the representative of an organization
here in this city which is only too glad to go upon record in grateful
memory of one of the great men of the past century.

With kindest regards to Mrs Clendenin, believe me to be

Sincerely and fraternally yours

Wa tter L, McCorkle
NEW YORK CITY HALL
MEMORIAL MEETING
NEW YORK CITY HALL MEMORIAL MEETING

Flags flew from every staff on the city hall in honor of the
Greeley centenary, and a number of buildings in Printing House
square, notably the Tribune Building, were decked with flags and
bunting.

The decorations of the aldermanic chamber, in which the meeting
was held, were arranged under the direction of City Clerk P. J.
Scully. The chamber was draped with flags, and here and there
was hung a portrait of the great editor. One huge banner bearing
the arms of the municipality was suspended from the middle of the
gallery railing, directly in front of the entrance, and in the middle
of the escutcheon, surrounded by the beavers and barrels of the old
Dutch settlers, with the solemn Indian on one side and the sailor
on the other, was a picture of Greeley. Another picture was hung
in the middle of a large national flag behind the president’s chair
on the highest platform of the dais, and the desk at which the pre-
siding officer sat was similarly draped witth the stars and stripes.

Almost every seat in the chamber was filled, although the hurried
preparations did not allow for timely public notice that such a meet-
ing would be held.

Besides the speakers of the occasion, there were present Ex-
congressman Thomas J. Creamer, John Quincy Adams 3d, sec-
retary of the Municipal Art Commission, William O’Connor, sec-
retary to the president of the board of aldermen, Patrick J. Scully,
the city clerk, Francis P. Bent, vice chairman of the board of alder-
men, Supreme Court Justice Woods, of Brooklyn, Louis E. Stern,
William Erving, and many other old friends and admirers of Mr
Greeley whose names were not recorded.

Through a misunderstanding, the Chappaqua Memorial commit-
tee were of the impression that the city authorities were making
preparations for the city hall meeting and therefore had made no
arrangements for speakers. When on January 31st this error was
realized, Mr Erlich was commissioned to enlist the activities of
Mr Albert E. Henschel toward getting speakers and making general
arrangements for the city hall meeting. On the morning of Feb-
ruary Ist Mr Henschel received the following letter:

My Dear HENSCHEL:

I do not know whether Mr Mitchel has arranged for speaking.
Will you take the meeting in hand? as I shall be at Chappaqua where
I am to speak. Would suggest as speakers, Hon. John Purroy
Mitchel, Albert E. Henschel, Esq., General Stewart L. Woodford,

43
44 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Judge Greenbaum, St Clair McKelway, Professor W. E. DuBois,
eine Choate, Joel Benton, Poughkeepsie, Chauncey M. Depew
and others.

Very sincerely
Jacor ERLicH

Mr Henschel immediately set, to work telephoning and scurrying
about. It was extremely fortunate that General Horatio C. King
was able to set aside his professional labors to prepare the historic
address for this occasion. But he was instrumental also in securing
the attendence of General Daniel E. Sickles.

Mr Don C. Seitz, of the World, was requested to speak, but he sug-
gested, in his stead, the editor in chief of the Evening World, Mr
John McNaught. Mr William McAdoo, who is now Secretary of
the Treasury, was secured through the kindly offices of Mr Stewart
G. Gibboney. As the then president of the board of aldermen, Mr
John Purroy Mitchel, was prevented by official duties from pre-
siding, he deputed the vice chairman of the board, Mr Francis P.
Bent, to take his place.

OPENING ADDRESS BY ALBERT E. HENSCHEL

The Horace Greeley memorial committee of the Chappaqua His-
torical Society has devolved upon me the honorable function of
representing them in these memorial exercises and, in their name
and behalf, I bid you welcome.

The hundredth anniversary of Horace Greeley’s birth might well
receive fitting recognition in this historic, public center, so close to
Printing House square, whence that great and good man exerted
his lofty influence as editor, statesman, philanthropist and patriot.
We, the beneficiaries of his untiring work, are met in reverent grat-
itude to pay tribute to his memory, to recount the things he has done
for us and to profit by the lessons of his life.

He was above all a typica! American, an exemplar of purity in
thought and action, of whom Lincoln said, “I consider him inca-
pable of corruption or falsehood.”

His life was dedicated to the advancement of his fellowman, and
journalism was to him only a means to this end. If he desired
office, it was not for selfish aggrandizement but to promote the
public cause. The Tribune, which he founded. was made the
forum for free discussion. It became the reservoir of the best and
most reliable information—a popular university. The personal
influence of his pen has not been exceeded since his day. The ser-
vice for which he will be best remembered is his successful warfare
on slavery. He gave us Abraham Lincoln. When the civil con-
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 45

flict was over, he preached amnesty, reconciliation, forgiveness —
to make this reconstructed Union a nation based on brotherly love.
Now, that the wounds of that dread contest are well-nigh healed, we
behold in southern prosperity, the prophecies and hopes of Horace
Greeley fulfilled. /

Greeley was a practical idealist. He labored for free homesteads
for the landless on the public domain, protection to American in-
dustries, cheap postage, the construction of the Pacific railroads,
irrigation and many other internal improvements. He was the
strongest advocate and truest friend of the rights of labor, freedom
of conscience, the sacredness of the family tie, and he encouraged
all who were struggling for liberty anywhere in the world. He
loved farming and handicraft. He opposed wrong, cruelty, oppres-
sion, injustice. Slavery of mind or body was his abomination; he
opposed .capital punishment, denounced the repudiation of state
debts or failure to pay interest on them, and execrated officials who
were faithless to the public trust.

Our civilization has absorbed much of his teachings.

Charles A. Dana said of him: “ What a noble and useful career
it was. No citizen has ever exceeded him in virtue, in fidelity to
the principles of freedom and progress, in unswerving devotion to
this republic, or in love for that great unity of humanity, in which
every individual is but a fragment, an atom, seen for the passing
hour, and living and acting but to disappear at last.”

What Mr Dana said of him was typical of the expressions of the
press generally. Thus we find Mr Greeley referred to as the
“noblest American,” the “ foremost reformer,” the “ friend of the
millions,” as “ greater than his generation,” as “ the faithful servant
of the people” and as “ the friend of humanity.”

As time goes on, Horace Greeley’s work will be more and more
appreciated and recognized. The great force of his life continues
because all his labors were grounded in the immutable principles of
truth, benevolence and justice.

It is now with great pleasure that I introduce to you the pre-
siding officer of this meeting, the Hon. Francis P. Bent.

Mr Bent thereupon assumed the duties of chairman in a brief
address, expressing his thanks for the distinguished honor of pre-
siding upon such an historic occasion. Chairman Bent then intro-
duced General Horatio C. King, of Brooklyn, as the “ Soldier,
patriot and statesman, eminently qualified by his walk in life and
the services he had rendered to his country, to deliver the historic
oration on Horace Greeley.”
46 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

‘ADDRESS OF GENERAL HORATIO C. KING

From the humble cottage of a poor country farmer to the can-
didacy for President of the United States, from a tramp journeyman
printer to the head of the editorial fraternity in the metropolis and
nation, are transitions scarcely possible in any nation other than
our own great republic. One hundred years ago today this pe-
culiarly American’ product was born in a one-story and gambrel-
roofed farmhouse at Amherst, N. H. The parents appear to have
had no higher aim for him than that afforded by the vicinage and
were ready to apprentice him to the village blacksmith, but Horace
had higher ambitions and desired to learn the trade of printer. The
poor returns from the New Hampshire farm compelled the removal
of the family to West Haven, Vt. Bright, active, energetic and
precocious, at eleven years of age young Greeley sought employment
as apprentice in a newspaper office in the town of Whitehall, N. Y.,
and was rejected because of his youth. This was in 1822. In 1826
he answered an advertisement in the Northern Spectator at East
Poultney, Vt., where he worked for six months for his board and
thereafter for about four years for $40 a year and board. The
paper suspended and left him without a job. He had lived most
sparingly, sending almost his entire earnings to his bankrupt father.
He was then about twenty years old and was thrown upon the world
as a journeyman printer. Up to this time he had not worn an over-
coat, but on his leaving East Poultney his friends presented him
with a second-hand one. He had fourteen months of this expe-
rience, working on the farm at Erie, Pa., to which his father had
removed, when he could not find employment at his trade. His
education was confined entirely to the common school, but he was
an omnivorous reader, entered heartily into politics, was prominent
in the village debating society, was looked upon as somewhat of an
oracle, and did some part of the editorial work on the Spectator.

His ambition craved greater opportunities and with all his worldly
goods in a bundle slung over his shoulder, he walked to Buffalo.
thence went by canal boat or towpath to Albany and by tug to New
York. He had $10 in his pocket when he entered the great city
in 1831. For fourteen months he did compositor’s work in various
newspaper and job offices, including the Evening Post, the Commer-
cial Advertiser and the Spirit of the Times, on the last of which he
served longest. In 1833 he made his first independent venture in
conjunction with Francis V. Story and printed a penny paper under
the title of the Morning Post, which died in three weeks. But the
type and fixtures remained, and became the foundation of a job
GENERAL HORATIO C. KING
Principal orator at City Hall, New York, February 3, 1911

 
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 47

office which the two young men ran. The firm prospered and after
another year (in 1834) the thirst for editorship grew strong again.
He had indulged it to some extent on the papers named. And now,
with about $3000 capital, he, in conjunction with his brother-in-law,
started the New Yorker, a literary weekly. About this time Bennett
asked him to join with him in starting the New York Herald, which
he declined, preferring to go it alone. He published and edited
the New Yorker for seven years. His success attracted the atten-
tion of William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed, who engaged him
to edit the Jeffersonian, a Whig journal in Albany, until 1839, when
it was discontinued. In the Harrison campaign he published another
political sheet called the Log Cabin, which did much to promote the
election of William Henry Harrison in 1840. Its circulation reached
the unprecedented number of ninety thousand. He had become a
leader, a man to be consulted and an influential political factor. The
paper suspended with the election of Harrison, but after a few
weeks was resumed, continuing until on the toth of April, 1841,
it was merged in the New York Tribune.

This brief résumé of his early life brings us to the period when
he entered upon the great work of his career, for save a single
term in Congress, Mr Greeley never swerved from his duties as
editor and political leader. His love for country life led to the
purchase of a farm at Chappaqua, a happy resort and rest from
the exacting and exhausting duties of a great newspaper.

It is on his development of the Tribune that his chief claim to
greatness rests. Zabriskie in his life of Greeley says: ‘‘ He was
essentially if not exclusively a publicist. Private and personal mat-
ters had no interest for him, as compared with public affairs, the
politics of his country, the great movements of the nation and the
questions of reform which related to social progress. He wanted to
be and he rejoiced to be an editor, that he might bring to bear a
great engine of information and propulsion upon these worldwide
and human interests. In this endeavor it has been well said, ‘he
put away from him all thirst for renown, all appetite for wealth,
all desire for personal advantage. He never counted the cost of his
words; he never inquired what course would pay or what would
please his subscribers. He held in magnificent disdain the meaner
sort of editor who strives only to print what will sell and held him
as bad as the parson who preaches to fill the pews.’ . . . He
was a true knight errant, because his lance was always at the service
of the weak, the downtrodden and the wronged.”

It is not my province to give a mere biographical sketch of this
48 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

great American. This is accessible to you all. I desire instead to
recall a few of the most striking episodes in the life of this distin-
guished American. The first to which I will refer was the contest
in the second Republican national convention held in Chicago in
1860. So great was the popularity of Senator Seward with his
party in the East that practically no other candidacy was thought
possible. The break between Seward and Greeley made the latter
a somewhat strong and unexpected opponent of the New York
Senator. His commission as a delegate from Oregon gave him the
opportunity he sought, and he was strenuous in his efforts, visiting
and addressing the delegations against Seward and in favor of Bates
of Missouri. Those who came to the convention not pledged for
Seward awaited the consolidation of the opposition and the ballot
disclosed the strength of the several favorites thus: Seward 173%
votes, Lincoln 102, Simon Cameron 50%, Chase 49, Bates 48 and
a few scattering. There had loomed high in the horizon during the
previous two or three years a quaint character, who was later to
occupy a place in the hearts of his countrymen second only to that
of Washington. He had been in the Illinois legislature; he had
been one term in Congress without arousing special comment; but
his oratorical contest with the little giant, Stephen A. Douglas, for a
seat in the United States Senate had at last attracted widespread
notice and comment. His defeat for the senatorship made him a
presidential possibility. It was Abraham Lincoln, whom the West
pushed to the front as the dark horse of the convention. On the
third ballot Seward had but 180 votes, and Lincoln had increased
to 231%, lacking only five of majority. Then followed the usual
panic and stampede and the nomination of Mr Lincoln was made
unanimous. While Lincoln was not Greeley’s candidate and Bates
was, to Mr Greeley was attributed Lincoln’s nomination. Henry
J. Raymond, another great editor, wrote to his paper, the New York
Times, from Auburn, on his return homeward from the convention,
and gave the credit wholly to Mr Greeley’s influence and efforts,
imputing these efforts to a “ personal hatred secretly cherished for
years.” This assumption was repudiated by Mr. Greeley’s friends,
but his opposition was undoubtedly the result of the severance of the
so-called partnership of Seward, Weed & Greeley in 1854.

The second episode to which I desire to call your attention is
the attitude of the great editor with his enormously influential
journal immediately preceding and during the first year or so of
the Civil War. Mr Greeley was not alone in his belief that the
South would not carry out the threats of attempted withdrawal
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 49

from the Union. He shrank from the ordeal and expressed the
“hope never to live in the Union whereof one section was pinned
to the other by bayonets.” The familiar expression is also attribute
to him, “ Let the wayward sisters depart in peace”; and, whether
true or not, it is simply on a par with the answer to me by Edwin
M. Stanton when, in the winter of 1860, I was a law student in
his Washington office — “ Oh, I would let the South go; they will
be clamoring to get back in three years.”

Public sentiment was greatly unsettled as to the best policy, which
was particularly true of New York City, whose commercial pros-
perity rested so largely on southern trade. I was witness to this
uncertainty and to the radical change which followed the attack on
Sumter. I had left my home in Washington to continue my law
studies in New York City, and had gone to the courthouse about
10 a. m. on some professional duty. When I passed through Print-
ing House square, all was quiet and peaceable. An hour or so
later, when I emerged from the courthouse, I found the square
alive with more than twenty thousand noisy and aggressive men,
directing their attention to the Sun office, shouting for the display
of the national flag. News of Sumter had been flashed over the
wires. Its magic had consolidated public opinion in favor of the
preservation of the Union, and suppressed all sentiment in favor
of secession. The mob, earnest but not angry, demanded a like
display from the Tribune, then the Times, next the World, then
the Commercial Advertiser, the staid old Evening Post and finally
the Journal of Commerce away down in Pearl street, near Wall
street ferry. There was much hustling and some delay in securing
the necessary bunting, but the unfurling of each flag was received
with cheers, and, when the last ensign floated from the Journal of
Commerce staff, the vast crowd melted away as speedily as it had
come together.

In the prosecution of the war, Mr Greeley made mistakes as did
thousands of others. One of these was in urging our undrilled and
unskilled battalions to an encounter with the Confederates in a
defensive position of their own choosing. “On to Richmond” was
not without its good results, for it disclosed to the people that the
war was not to be a picnic, but that the South was in deadly earnest.
Mr Seward’s prophecy that the war would be over in sixty days
lulled people to sleep, and even President Lincoln appears not to
have realized the stupendous task before him. When Senator John
Sherman sent for his brother, General Sherman, who had been
teaching in Louisiana, and they together had an interview with Mr
50 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Lincoln, General Sherman told him of his observations in Louisiana,
that men were drilling and getting ready for a protracted war, to
which Mr Lincoln nonchalantly replied, “ Oh, well, I guess we will
be able to keep house” - and Sherman went away disappointed
and angry.

The newspapers did a great work in keeping up the martial spirit,
encouraging enlistments, backing the President and Congress, and
none greater than the Tribune, but there were times when the
patience of the officers at the front was sorely tried by the improper
information of projected movements which leaked out through the
zeal of overzealous reporters. The President, too, had his troubles
from that part of the press, including the Tribune, which urged upon
him the issuance of an emancipation proclamation before he deemed
that an opportune time had arrived. It was to Mr Greeley’s open
letter in the Tribune, addressed to the President, which he entitled
the “ Prayer of Twenty Millions” — an appeal for the immediate
emancipation of all slaves, that Mr Lincoln made his famous reply,
in which he said in part: “My paramount object is to save the
Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. . . . What I
do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps
to save this Union, and what I forbear I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union. . . . I have here stated
my purpose according to my views of official duty, and I intend
no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men
everywhere should be free.”

That Mr Lincoln was right we now are convinced in the light of
history. The army in the East had met with almost continued
defeat. The first Bull Run, the wretched disaster at Ball’s Bluff,
the terrible Seven Days’ battles on the Peninsula and the withdrawal
of McClellan’s army; the frightful fiasco of General Pope with the
Army of Virginia, which closed with a second defeat at
Bull Run, gave no opportune moment for the issuance of a procla-
mation which could not affect slavery within the Confederate lines.
So Mr Lincoln waited the outcome of Lee’s invasion of Maryland.
By their frequent victories, the southern soldiers and their people
had come to regard themselves as invincible. Elated with success
and encouraged by the blundering of the War Department, the
southern army crossed the Potomac. Victory on northern soil
insured the recognition of the Confederacy and the early end of the
war. The disastrous check by McClellan at South Mountain and the
awful slaughter and defeat at Antietam and retirement of Lee’s
army to Virginia afforded to Mr Lincoln the opportunity to launch
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 51

the proclamation, when it would be received and read by the dis-
heartened South after great and unexpected defeat, as well as by
the world at large, with special emphasis.

Mr Greeley’s ‘* Prayer of Twenty Millions” to the President was
written in August; Mr Lincoln’s reply was dated August 22d; the
battle of Antietam was fought on the 16th and 17th of September;
and the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued on the
22d of September, or within a month of Mr Greeley’s appeal.

The third and last episode upon which I shall dwell exhibits in
the highest degree the greatness of his character. No one doubts
now that the capture of the fleeing President of the dead Confed-
eracy was more unfortunate for the North than for the captured.
In the light of history it was a blunder. When, after the close of
the war, Thompson, Ex-secretary of the Interior befcre the war
and a high official in the Confederacy, was captured, it is related that
the Assistant Secretary of War asked Mr Lincoln what he should
do with him. In his quaint and characteristic way Mr Lincoln is
said to have replied: ‘“ Well, sir, if I had a wildcat by the tail and
he wanted to get away, I’d let him go; wouldn’t you?” He prob-
ably wished Mr Davis had succeeded in making his escape. The
head of the Confederacy became a white elephant on our hands.
It is true that his close confinement was due in part to the angry
feeling in the North and West over the assassination of Mr Lincoln,
but the protracted delay in bringing him to trial was a blunder and
inexcusable. While unsuccessful rebellion is regarded by many as
treason, it is not so judged by the world at large, and it was evident
that Mr Davis could not be dealt with as a traitor. He was im-
prisoned for nearly two years and during that period was subjected
to some unnecessary severity. At last Mr Greeley grew weary of
the dilatory movements of the Government and, backed by men of
prominence and means, he demanded the release of the Ex-presi-
dent on bail. He went to Richmond for that purpose, and in open
court signed the bail bond. The country rang with the censure of
narrow and short-sighted men. The far-sighted editor had really
relieved the nation of a disgraceful dilemma and ought to have
received unstinted praise. But even some members of the Union
League Club took up the matter and commenced proceedings for
his expulsion. This brought out the full force of Mr Greeley’s
righteous indignation. The strength and pungency of his pen were
never better evinced than in this letter from which I quote:

I shall not attend your meeting this evening. ‘ I do not
recognize you as capable of judging or even fully apprehending me.
52 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

You evidently regard me as a weak sentimentalist, misled by a
maudlin philosophy. I arraign you as narrow-minded blockheads,
who would like to be useful to a great and good cause, but don’t
know how. Your attempt to base a great enduring party on the
heat and wrath necessarily engendered by a bloody civil war is as
though you should plant a colony on an iceberg which had somehow
drifted into a tropical ocean. I tell you here that, out of a life
earnestly devoted to the good of human kind, your children will
recollect my going to Richmond and signing the bail bond as the
wisest act, and will feel that it did more for freedom and humanity
than all of you were competent to do, though you had lived to the
age of Methuselah. I ask nothing of you, then, but that you pro-
ceed to your end by a brave, frank, manly way. Don’t sidle off
into a mild resolution of censure, but move the expulsion which you
purposed and which I deserve if I deserve any reproach what-
ever. . . . I propose to fight it out on the line I have held from
the day of Lee’s surrender. So long as any man was seeking to
overthrow our government, he was my enemy; from the hour in
which he laid down his arms, he was my formerly erring coun-
tryman.

The club held its meeting but refrained from either expulsion or
censure.

I must leave to others to enlarge upon other features and inci-
dents of his career. One of the saddest pages to me in the political
history of this nation was his futile effort to reach the presidency,
and my heart aches even now when I recall the pitiless attacks made
upon him by the opposition press and particularly in the caustic
and virulent cartoons of Thomas Nast in the then Republican Har-
per’s Weekly. There was one particularly bright star in all the
somber darkness. Henry Ward Beecher wrote to him:

You may think, amidst clouds of smoke and dust, that all your
old friends who parted company with you in the late campaign
will turn a momentary difference into a life-long alienation. It
will not be so. I speak for myself, and also from what I perceive
in other men’s hearts. Your mere political influence may for a time
be impaired, but your power for good in the far wider fields of
industrial economy, social and civil criticism, and the general well-
being of society, will not be lessened, but augmented.

Mr Greeley barely survived this terrible campaign; his wife fell
ill and died in the closing weeks of his canvass. After the election,
he was stricken with severe illness and partially recovered so that
he made an effort to resume work, but in a few days was compelled
to return home, and died November 20, 1872.

lis career has no close parallel in American history. The stories
told of his eccentricities would fill a volume, but his great heart and
   

 
   
   
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 

  

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FACSIMILE OF THE FAMOUS BAIL BOND FOR “JEFF DAVIS
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 53

mind were always true to the highest ideals. His unexpected and
well-nigh tragic death silenced or softened the asperities of his
political enemies. The whole city appeared to have turned out for
his funeral. The body lay in state in the city hall, where it was
viewed by many thousands who were not attracted by mere curiosity.
Says a contemporary writer: ‘“ The poor shed tears over him; the
laboring man stopped work that he might pay a last tribute of
respect to him who spent forty years in working hard for the benefit
of workers. A more spontaneous manifestation of universal sorrow
has not been seen in this generation.”
We do well to celebrate the centenary of such a man.

ADDRESS OF MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES

There was much cheering when Major General Daniel E. Sickles
entered the aldermanic chamber, hobbling on his crutches and muf-
fled in a military great-coat. General Horatio C. King hastened to
the veteran and gave him an assisting arm to the platform.

When the long burst of applause had subsided, General Sickles said
he would speak from his chair, “ because of a little accident that
occurred at the Battle of Gettysburg.”*

The General recalled the thousands who wept at the bier of
Horace Greeley when he lay in state in the city hall not so many
years ago.

Greeley and he, the general continued, were not always friends.
After he had raised several regiments among the Democrats of
New York, he said Greeley attacked him, saying that he was such
a rabid Democrat he would be sure to go over to Jeff Davis at the
first opportunity. He had offered to disband the regiment and
retire himself, he declared, if his presence in the army inconven-
ienced the President in the least degree. But Lincoln laughed his
qualms away.

When the actions of his troops at Williamsburg and several other
battles had convinced Greeley that they were as loyal as any in the
army, the editor opened a subscription to present him with a sword,
“better than I could buy myself,’ as the General put it. Greeley
and he then shook hands, and they remained friends from that day
to the end.

“Horace Greeley will be most conspicuous in the history of
American journalism; but he was more than a journalist. He was

1 The general's reference was to a wound he had received on the second
day of the battle, which necessitated the amputation of one leg.

General Sickles died in New York City May 2, 1914, aged 90 years.
54 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

a character by himself. He was a statesman, intelligent, able, inde-
pendent, patriotic, courageous, usually right, sometimes wrong,
always frank and generous in dealing with enemies as well as
friends.

“T am glad to pay this tribute to my friend, an ornament to New
York and to America, who will be honored and remembered for
many generations to come.”

CHAIRMAN BENT: It is highly appropriate that we should hear from
a representative of the South and a gentleman who has rendered
distinguished public service to the people of the two states, New
York and New Jersey, in the way of great public improvements.
I have the honor to introduce Mr William G. McAdoo.

ADDRESS OF WILLIAM G. McADOO

As a southerner, I am glad to join in honoring the memory of the
great man whose one hundredth birthday we now celebrate. True
genius was personified in Horace Greeley, and with it was blended
a certain measure of that eccentricity which seems inseparable from
the genuine type. But these eccentricities count as nothing when
compared with the rare qualities which made him one of the most
conspicuous men of his time.

No two men on the northern side of the great conflict between
the states, hold a higher place in the esteem and admiration of the
South than Lincoln and Greeley. Wholly unlike in temperament,
they were amazingly alike in their love for the common people,
their detestation of wrong in all of its phases, their unselfish devo-
tion to the public weal, their lofty and inspired patriotism. Each
had courage of the highest order, a quality which, in its physical
as well as in its moral sense, appeals to the spirit of the South.
Neither Lincoln nor Greeley was an Abolitionist before the war;
each was willing to leave slavery undisturbed in those states where
the constitution sanctioned it; each was opposed to its extension
into the national territory; yet, when the war came, they were
unflinching partizans and fought with the implacable resolution of
high purpose and deep conviction. We respect and honor them for
that. They were not demagogues, but men. In their great souls
there was not room for hatred, malice or base passion. Their love
for humanity and justice dominated them, and was the mainspring
of every action.

I do not mean by this to claim that Greeley was as great a man
as Lincoln. Greeley had weaknesses and vanities arising from a
 

HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 55

craving for political power which led him into many errors, and
which have, for a time, obscured his greater qualities and his claims
to the high place in history which he unquestionably deserves. Lin-
coln’s character was singularly free from these defects.

One of the acts of Greeley’s life that provoked the harshest con-
demnation at the time was his signing the bail bond of Jefferson
Davis; and yet, to all men who admire heroism, this act alone should
establish Greeley’s claim to greatness. It required a higher courage
to do this than to charge the belching cannon on the heights of Get-
tysburg. Greeley had everything to lose and nothing to gain in
doing it. His sense of justice, of humanity, of patriotism, com-
pelled him to it. He vindicated patriotism and constitutional gov-
ernment at a time when the nation needed inspiring example and
he accepted serenely the bitter denunciation to which he was sub-
jected, in the firm belief that history and posterity would do him
justice.

I have no patience with the men of the South, if there be any, who
can not see and appreciate the greatness of Lincoln and Greeley;
nor have I any patience with the men of the North, if there be any,
who can not see and appreciate the greatness of Lee and Jackson.
Virtue and greatness and patriotism are no longer limited by sec-
tional lines in this resplendent union of “ indissoluble and indestruct-
ible states.” Horace Greeley’s life demonstrated that

“Great truths are portions of the soul of man;
Great souls are portions of eternity.”

CHAIRMAN BEnT: Rev. Leighton Williams, our next speaker, has
not omitted the study of temporal questions in his zeal for the pro-
motion of spiritual welfare. I know you will be pleased to hear his
appreciation of Greeley.

ADDRESS OF REV. DR LEIGHTON WILLIAMS

Horace Greeley was a noble yet pathetic figure among the fore-
most sons of the Republic. It is today one hundred years since his
birth, and nearly forty years since his too early demise. Yet he
still lives in the affections of his countrymen. The words of Bayard
Taylor at the unveiling of his monument in Greenwood cemetery
are as true now as when he wrote them:

A life like his can not be lost. That sleepless intelligence is not
extinguished, though the brain which was its implement is here

slowly falling to dust; that helping and forbearing love continues,
though the heart which it quickened is cold. He lives, not only
50 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

in the mysterious realm where some power and grander form
of activity awaited him, but also as an imperishable influence in
the people. Something of him has been absorbed in a multitude of
other lives, and will be transmitted to their seed. His true monu-
ment is as broad as the land he served. This, which you have
erected over his ashes, is the least memorial of his life. But it
stands as he himself loved to stand, on a breezy knoll, where he
could bathe his brow in the shadows of branches and listen to the
music of their leaves.

Long will he be remembered as one of the most typical of Amer-
ica’s sons, comparable with Benjamin Franklin and Henry Ward
Beecher, as one of her offspring the most faithfully and broadly
incarnating what is most worthy in her development. Well do !
remember his dress and figure in all its picturesque negligence
and native dignity, a modern Cincinnatus returning from the plow,
the strap of his bootlegs appearing over the trousers tucked within
them, the upturned collar of his overcoat, the flowing, high colored
neckcloth and the broad felt hat shading the rough but kindly coun-
tenance. He was a true democrat in the social if not in the political
sense of the term, the sincere and ardent friend of the plain people,
loyally and lovingly identifying himself with them. He combined
within his single personality in an unusual degree the threefold ideal
of liberty, equality and fraternity, which still forms the motto of
our sister republic of France, and is no less essentially the basal
principle of our free institutions.

I count it a high privilege and honor to represent here today in
these exercises the ministers of religion in this city. There is also
a certain personal interest for me in this occasion to which I hope
you will permit me to allude. Among the group which gathered
about the “Albany Triumvirate,’ as it was termed, composed of
Thurlow Weed, William H. Seward and Horace Greeley, was an
uncle of mine, James Bowen, who became a very close and intimate
associate of all three of the chief leaders. For his sake, as for
theirs, I am glad to speak today.

I would speak briefly of three marked characteristics of Mr Gree-
ley’s personality which illustrate the strength and beauty of his
religious nature. And first among them may be mentioned his
enthusiastic idealism.

Mr Greeley was no Aristotelian, but a Platonist through and
through. For him, as for the ancient philosopher, ideas had a real
existence. With him also intellect was suffused at. all times with
lofty emotion. His ideas were to him objective realities, his con-
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HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 57

enthusiasm and an unquestioning and uncalculating devotion. To
him they were never mere abstract propositions to be debated by for-
mal logic with clearness of brain and coldness of heart. Rather did
they with him, as with Ezekiel in the Valley of Vision, clothe them-
selves with flesh and stand before him, an army of living men. He
gave ungrudging advocacy and support to a large variety of new
and unpopular reforms, to temperance, to vegetarianism, to aboli-
tion, to early social experiments, like that at Brook Farm, to spirit-
ualism, or as we now more generally label it, psychic research. On
all these topics he wrote and spoke courageously, and often with the
full knowledge of the sacrifice of personal interests which was
involved. Hence this letter, such as few could truthfully pen:
“My Friend: Of course I threw away the senatorship in 1866 —
knowing well that I did so—and did myself great pecuniary harm
in 1867 by bailing Jeff Davis; but supposing I hadn’t done either?
Either God rules this world or He does not. J helieve He does.
Yours, Horace Greeley.”

He was a true knight-errant in journalism, a chevalier without
fear and without reproach, lacking often, doubtless, in prudence,
in patience, in perseverance, in tact, but seldom or never in tender-
ness, in courage or in loyalty. He reminds me strongly in these
respects of Charles Kingsley and of Charles Dickens.

A lofty idealism was the atmosphere which he breathed at all
times, and which gave a certain grandeur to even the dull routine of
a life of tireless industry and imparted a chaste beauty to all that
he wrote, so that it might be fittingly said of him, as Samuel John-
son said of Oliver Goldsmith: ‘There was almost nothing which
he did not touch and nothing that he touched that he did not adorn.”

I would speak also of his broad and truly catholic sympathy for
the poor, the oppressed, the enslaved, the young and the struggling.
One of his early, boyish encounters was an effort to protect a
fugitive slave, while the splendid act of later years which proved
so costly, so almost fatal to his deeply cherished and highly natural
ambitions, was his signing Jefferson Davis’s bail bond. Place these
two acts in juxtaposition across the span of his whole public career,
forming as they each do characteristic acts of one or the other of
the contending factions, then in the throes of a life-and-death strug-
gle, and you measure the breadth of Mr Greeley’s sympathy.

Of his strong, wholesome interest in the great productive indus-
tries of the country, agriculture and manufactures, there is not
time to speak, nor of his kindly sympathy for the cause of labor and
wise counsels to wage earners. His advice to young men, coined
58 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

into the proverbial phrase, “ Go West, young man,” is an illustration
of his clear-sighted interest in the settlement of the western states
of the Union, while his advocacy, immediately on the close of the
Civil War, of general amnesty and of universal suffrage witnesses
to the breadth of his toleration and equal brotherly regard for both
black and white races at the South.

Above and beyond the actual state of the Republic, he descried
the far peaks of a distant commonwealth of man which he ardently
sought to reach and realize. Thus he pictures it:

“A community or little world wherein all freely serve, and all are
amply served; wherein each works according to his tastes or needs,
and is paid for all he does or brings to pass; wherein education is
free and common as air and sunshine; wherein drones and sensual-
ists can not abide the social atmosphere, but are expelled by a quiet,
wholesome fermentation; wherein humbugs and charlatans find their
level, and naught but actual service, tested by the severest ordeals,
can secure approbation, and none but sterling qualities win esteem.”

We do not marvel that such a man should have gathered about
him a band of able, high-minded men, many of whom have achieved
well-deserved fame, Ripley and Dana, John Hay and Bayard Tay-
lor, and others of equal note.

But the few minutes still allotted to me must be given to a notice
all too short and inadequate of Mr Greeley’s religious opinions, or
rather of his standpoint with regard to such matters.

Like Mr Lincoln, he early broke with many of the strong, dog-
matic opinions held by his parents and early associates. Neither
the dogmas of Protestant orthodoxy nor the ecclesiastical institu-
tions and rites of Christianity had for him strict binding force and
authority. Nor, on the other hand, was he completely satisfied with
a rationalistic philosophy and a merely ethical world-plan. He was
deeply grounded in an experimental idea of religion, and sought,
with an undiminished ardor throughout his life, for an enlarging
experience of the unseen world. Two brief quotations from his
own words will seem to set forth with clearness his point of view.
The first citation is from his “ American Conflict”:

“T offer it as my contribution toward a fuller and more vivid
realization of the truth that God governs this world by moral laws
as active, immutable and all-pervading as can be operative in any
other, and that every collusion or compromise with evil must surely
invoke a prompt and signal retribution.”

And again, in “ Recollections of a Busy Life,” he beautifully
states his own personal hope of immortality:
 

‘Clendenin collection
A FAVORITE PICTURE
From a steel engraving greatly liked by the family
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 59

“So, looking calmly, yet humbly, for that close of my mortal
career which can not be far distant, I reverently thank God for
the blessings vouchsafed me in the past; and, with an awe that is
not fear and a consciousness of demerit which does not exclude
hope, await the opening before my steps of the gates of the Eternal
World.”

I can not close without pausing for a brief moment to contem-
plate the sorrow of his last disappointment. He became a candi-
date for the presidency with high ideals and radiant hopes. In
the midst of the campaign he was called back to the deathbed of
his dearly loved wife. Her death was speedily followed by his
overwhelming defeat at the polls. His own sudden and fatal illness
occurred within the month. He seemed to drink the cup of human
woe to its last bitter dregs, and yet how nobly did he pass from
this earthly and mortal stage. To whom shall we liken him —to a
Samson Agonistes, to Oedipus at Colonus, or King Lear? Dis-
crowned and undeceived at last, but not dishonored.

And yet not so much in sadness as in hopeful seriousness would
we take leave of one so true and so brave. Of him may we say,
as says Milton of his hero:

“Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.”

CHAIRMAN BENT: There would be something lacking in these
memorial exercises if we did not have some printer or editor taking
part. We have happily with us the editor in chief of the Evening
World, Mr John McNaught, who will give us some ideas of Mr
Greeley as a journalist.

ADDRESS OF JOHN McNAUGHT, EDITOR OF THE NEW
YORK EVENING WORLD

Horace Greeley is one of the few men who, after doing great
work in the world, are honored for what they were more than for
what they did; a man whose character outshines his fortune, who
is remembered for his warm humanity, rather than for his service
or his fame.

As revealed in journalism, his character was marked by traits of
such contrariety as to make their union in one person appear like a
paradox. He had an ability for prompt decision that acted with
the sureness of an instinct, but was accompanied by a reflective
power that endowed him with the sageness of a philosopher. He
60 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

had such consistency of temper that lines of conduct adopted in
extreme youth were held steadfastly throughout life; yet such was
the elasticity of his mind that he could make his politics and his
journalism conform to the demands of the time and the tastes of
the multitude at every moment. Moreover he had a curious pur-
blindness as to little things that was in marked contrast to the
clearness of his vision of the larger issues of the country and of
the age.

By reason of these contrary faculties his philosophy and his
career present a surprising array of seeming inconsistencies at once
picturesque and perilous; aberrations of word and of action that
sometimes amazed his foes and at other times astounded his friends.

In the main, the clearness of his intellect and the largeness of his
sympathy enabled him to recognize, to understand and to appreciate
every great human movement of his time whether at home or
abroad. He stood not only for the abolition of slavery but for the
abolition, as far as possible, of all the hard conditions under which
labor in his day had to do its work. With an equal zeal he urged
the upbuilding of the West by individual enterprise and welcomed
from Europe every creed of socialism that tended to increase the
practice of cooperation and to promote the brotherhood of man.

Shakspere says “ our judgments are a parcel of our fortunes,”
but Greeley’s life story refutes the rule. His fortunes were a
parcel of his judgment. What he did was the inevitable result of
what he thought. Never was his life more consistent in all its parts
than when it seemed to be inconsistent with environment.

When the abolition of slavery was the supreme issue of the time,
he worked with the party that stood for abolition. When a recon-
ciliation of North and South became the supreme issue, he worked
with the party that stood for reconciliation. The change was an
inconsistency in politics, but it was an absolutely consistent per-
sonality. No act of his life was more in harmony with its guiding
principle than that of signing the bail bond of Jefferson Davis. It
was a revelation of his soul.

When he died, men said, “ The Tribune will be his monument,”
but it was a vain saying. No paper could continue his influence
after he was gone, nor could it remind men of his personality. He
survives in the brightness of his own fame. Through the night of
the past his character shines distinct as a star. Our America will
be very different from what it is before there will ever be needed
either a newspaper or a monument to impress his memory upon
the people or to recall to them the inspirations of his genius.
EXERCISES AT GREELEY’S BIRTH-
PLACE, AMHERST,,N..A.
EXERCISES AT GREELEY’S BIRTHPLACE,
AMHERST, N. H.

At Amherst, N. H., Horace Greeley’s birthplace, commemorative
exercises were held February 3, 1911.

A little way out of town, on the road to the east, still stands the
quaint, story and a half, unpainted New England farmhouse in the
midst of rocky fields, where Greeley first saw the light of day. The
house remains unchanged, with its wide, sloping roof and huge
middle chimney. Mrs Clendenin thus describes the birthplace of
her father: ‘“ The little house was built in the old-fashioned way
of great open fires and hewn timbers; so that it still nestles beside
the roadway dignified by a tall elm tree, and looking out through
its small panes of glass over miles and miles of glorious rolling
country, the sweet air perfumed by the native pine trees; while
many a pretentious modern building has fallen into decay before its
time.” Greeley said of the house he was born in: “ The house was
then quite new. It was only modified in our time by filling up, and
making narrower the old-fashioned fireplace, which having devoured
all the wood on the farm, ravenously yawned for more.”

Trains, automobiles, sleighs and all means of conveyance brought
people from near and far to join in the exercises of the day. The
gathering in the town hall was one of the largest in its history.
Dinner was prepared by Amherst women and served at 12.30 o’clock
on the lower floor of the town hall.

There were a few relics. of a century ago in the building, which
were viewed with interest by the throngs of the curious who visited
the place, but the more important and interesting mementos of
Greeley were in the town hall in charge of Rev. C. E. White. They
consisted of rare old daguerreotypes, papers, letters and other things
of that nature, once owned by Horace Greeley or relating to him
and contemporaneous with his early days.

The anniversary committee having the exercises in charge were:
Rev. Charles Ernest White, chairman, Judge William D. Clarke,
Representative L. F. Wyman, Edward P. Fowle and Harold H.
Wilkins.

The exercises were opened at 2 o’clock, on the second floor of the
town hall, which, by the way, is the historic courthouse which
erstwhile rang with the eloquence of Daniel Webster, of Franklin
Pierce, and other noted sons of New Hampshire.

A brief, felicitous address of welcome was delivered by Rev.
Charles E. White, as chairman, who concluded by calling upon Rev.

63
64 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Dr Thomas Chalmers, pastor of the First Congregational Church at
Manchester, to offer prayer. Following the invocation the Harvard
male quartet of Boston sang Homer’s “ The Trumpets Call.”

Chairman White then read telegrams of greeting from the mayor
of Greeley, Col., from Chappaqua, N. Y., and from several other
sources. Special interest was manifested in a letter from Mrs
Gabrielle Greeley Clendenin, of Chappaqua, inclosing a letter
written by her father, Horace Greeley. Her own letter is as
follows:

My dear Mr White and descendants of my dear father’s neighbors:

I greet you, and thank you for observing his centennial. You
know how dear you all were to his heart. I used to think he re-
garded you as his honored kinsmen. He never was too busy to see
any one from Amherst.

Two fires have consumed almost all my family treasures, but
I am sending you one of the most interesting letters I have, hoping
it will be where all can see it in the future.

I have visited Amherst, and I think it is a beautiful place. Besides
its dear associations to me, please say to those met to honor my
dear father, “ my heart will be with you on that day.”

GABRIELLE GREELEY CLENDENIN

After a selection, “ Love’s Old, Sweet Song,” by the quartet,
Chairman White read letters of tribute to Horace Greeley from the
editors, respectively of the Philadelphia Enquirer, the New York
Evening Post, the Washington Post, the Washington Herald, the
Brooklyn Eagle, the Hartford Courant, the Boston Transcript, the
Springfield Republican and other newspapers, and from William
Dean Howells. Greetings from the New Hampshire Press Asso-
ciation were extended by John W. Condon, and from the Weekly
Publishers’ Association by Arthur B. Rotch. Especial enthusiasm
was aroused by the announcement that the state legislature had
voted to appropriate money for a memorial boulder to mark the
birthplace of Greeley, and that the Governor had signed the measure,
which was introduced by Representative Edward L. Welch, of
Franklin.

The oration of the day was pronounced by Hon. Albert E. Pills-
bury of Boston.

ADDRESS BY ALBERT E. PILLSBURY, FORMER
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MASSACHUSETTS
“The journalists are now the true kings and clergy. Henceforth
historians, unless they are fools, must write not of Bourbon
dynasties, and Tudors, and Hapsburgs, but of Broad-sheet dynas-
 

BIRTHPLACE MARKER
At Amherst, N. H., near ‘‘ Greeley house ”’
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 65

ties, and quite new successive names, according as this or the other
able editor, or combination of able editors, gains the world’s ear.”

Thus spake Thomas Carlyle in 1831. In the same year, perhaps
at the same moment, there found his way into the city of New
York a raw country lad from New Hampshire, who had it in
charge of fate to make the American kings and clergy bend before
the first “ broad-sheet dynasty”? known to the New World. The
people of his native town and blood, the tillers of the soil that
produced him, are gathered here in his memory. The eager interest
which the world takes in every point and circumstance of the life
of a noted personage extends to the place of his birth, and this
accident has made many a place otherwise insignificant a place of
pilgrimage. Today this modest New Hampshire town claims and
holds a wide attention as the spot where a famous and historic
character first saw the light of day one hundred years ago.

The story of Horace Greeley is the familiar fireside tale of a
boy who worked his way from sordid poverty to honorable fame
and’a place in history, by the power within him. Greeley is unique
even among what are called self-made men. He made the ascent
In spite of personal faults and weaknesses that would have stopped
the way and ruined the prospects of any but a man of compelling
genius. The people always made merry of his foibles, but he
secured and held for a generation a commanding influence over
public opinion and the councils of the nation. The man who did
this calls for attention.

We must take a look at the Amherst boy, the ten years of Horace
that belong to this town. It will interest this audience to observe
that Amherst may take credit for developing, even in ten years,
most of the traits that afterward made him famous. When he had
become a celebrity the usual crop of boyhood tales began to appear,
many of them absurdly exaggerated, as he declared, but there are
some that rest on his own authority. There is no doubt that as a
boy he was a prodigy. A frail, odd, tow-headed child, nervous and
sensitive, timid of manner and squeaky of voice, he seemed to have
eyes more for print than for anything else. He learned to read,
nobody ever knew how, before he could speak plainly, and never
left off reading. It is said that he could read any book or paper
upside down, and there are indications that after he grew to man’s
estate he may have read some things by this process of inversion.
If reading came to Horace by nature, as Dogberry said, writing
came not at all. The crow’s tracks that followed his pen were all
his life a national laughter. A typesetter in the Tribune office once
66 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE:STATE OF NEW YORK

said that, if Belshazzar had seen that hand-writing on the wall, it
would have killed him on the spot. Horace had to educate himself,
and he did it, on the whole, so much better than schools or colleges
did it then, or do it now, as to inspire him with a lifelong contempt
for colleges and college graduates — the most ignorant of all horned
cattle, as he called them. He used to walk down the road to meet
the weekly Farmer’s Cabinet, and absorb the whole contents of
the paper on the way home. He scoured the neighborhood for
books, and read by the light of the fire, as Abraham Lincoln did,
everything in print that he could lay hands on.

Unlike Lincoln, he did not mingle much in the sports and games
of the other boys. He sometimes went fishing, but he never would
use a gun, and it is said that he stopped his ears at the sound of a
gun. He seems to have had a woman’s horror of bloodshed and
slaughter, that followed him through life and probably affected his
public conduct on one or two notable occasions. He was easily
first at school, and cried if by any mischance he lost the place at the
head of the class. A biographer says that he had read the Bible
through, and beaten the town in spelling school, in his fifth year.
His reputation extended beyond the town limits. The Bedford
school committee voted that no pupil from any neighboring town
should be admitted to their schools ‘‘ except Horace Greeley.” He
was a good-natured boy, a favorite in school and among the
neighbors. He tried to smoke at five years of age, and never tried
again, never touched liquor after his thirteenth year, though liquor
was then so common that he describes in his “‘ Recollections ” the
tables set with rum and brandy in front of hospitable doors at the
ordination of President Lord in this village, and if swearing is, as
somebody has called it, only the unnecessary use of profane lan-
guage, Horace Greeley, boy and man, can probably be acquitted of
all personal vices.

They picture Horace as wearing in summer the remnant of a
palm-leaf hat, a tow shirt never buttoned at the neck, and tow
trousers with legs of diverse lengths, and in winter the same with
jacket and shoes. Like all farmer’s boys of those days, he had to
take his share of work, and some rough work. He rode the horse
to plow, and was thrown off, helped his father for a while in a
sawmill, picked stones a good deal, which he did not like, and picked
hops in the season, which was more like play, for it brought the
young people together in a sort of neighborhood frolic, as some of
the oldest here may remember.

In the winter of 1821, before Horace was ten years old, he had
 

ALBERT E. PILLSBURY

Former Attorney General of Massachusetts
Speaker at centenary observances, Amherst, N. H., February 3, 1911
. HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 67

to take leave of this place of his birth. Debt and misfortune drove
the Greeley family from Amherst to Vermont and thence to a
Pennsylvania wilderness. Horace’s young ambition had already
devoted him to the “art preservative of all arts,’ and he was
resolved to be a printer. After many rebuffs, in the spring of 1826
the tall, pale, awkward boy, as he described himself, was found at
the case in the printing office of the Northern Spectator, at East
Poultney, Vermont. In his nineteenth year he had mastered the
trade, was first in the village debating society, and the local cyclo-
pedia of everything political. But the Spectator failed, and he lost
his place. He had no money, no prospects, no influential friends,
and, after looking here and there for work and finding none, the
forlorn and friendless lad started afoot, with stick and bundle, on
the journey that ended after many stormy years at the threshold
of the White House, which he was not to enter. He drifted about,
seeking and finding here or there a job at the case, and finally,
on the 17th day of August 1831, the young tramp-printer brought
up in New York City, his bundle on his back and ten dollars in his
pocket, dreaming, perhaps, but knowing as little as the world knew
of what was before him.

We must pass by the struggles and ventures of his early years
in the city, the Morning Post, his first bantling of three weeks, the
New Yorker, successful everywhere but in the till, the Jeffersonian,
the Log Cabin, of the famous Tippecanoe campaign of 1840. They
made reputation for him, the Log Cabin a national reputation, but
no money. The next trial proved to be the master stroke. On the
1oth day of April 1841, Horace Greeley issued the first number of
the New York Tribune. From this time he was making history.
The Tribune was to become an American institution, and to wield
a more direct and powerful influence upon the recasting of the
American nation than any other product of the newspaper press.

We can not speak of Greeley without speaking of the Tribune.
They were one and inseparable. The paper began as a Whig journal,
devoted to Clay and a tariff for protection, and with the strong
leaning which Greeley always had toward all social and political
reforms — too strong a leaning, perhaps, though, while his mind
was open to all the “ isms,” he really embraced few or none of them.
He was antislavery, though not an avowed abolitionist, from the
day when he witnessed the rescue of a fugitive slave in Vermont.
The infamies of the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, and
the fugitive-slave law of 1850, stirred Greeley’s soul to its depths
and put him into the forefront of the political free soil and anti-
68 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

slavery movement. Thenceforth the slave power had no bolder or
more resolute antagonist, nor any whose blow was more direct or
deadly. He openly encouraged resistance to the fugitive slave law,
heaped contempt upon the Dred Scott deliverance of the Supreme
Court, which he justly declared to be “ of no more authority than
the opinion of the loafers in a Washington barroom,” rallied the
country to the defence of bleeding Kansas, and led the way in bring-
ing all the antislavery forces together in the Republican party. The
historic character and influence of the Tribune grew out of the
slavery question more than any other. It began to be a public
force at the time when slavery was pushing all other questions
aside, and its power grew as the heat of the conflict waxed fiercer.
The slave oligarchy felt Greeley’s steel in their vitals, and it was
not long before they paid the Tribune the high compliment, which
it shared with Garrison’s Liberator, of an attempt to exclude it
from the mails in the slave states.

From the late forties the Tribune was the leading newspaper of
the country. In a letter written thirty-nine years ago today,
February 3, 1872, Greeley said that in ordinary times the circulation
of the daily had been 40,000 and of the weekly 120,000 copies.
Figures never measured the influence of the Tribune, which ex-
tended far beyond its own readers. In Greeley’s time a leading
newspaper was a social and political power, addressed to thinking
people and read for its opinions not less than for the news. It
usually represented a real character, and often a great character.
It had a constituency, built up by the public confidence in the man
behind it. Of all these Greeley was first in the eye of the people,
and the Tribune spoke with his voice. Founded in protest against
the rowdy journalism of the Jefferson Brick type, so justly stig-
matized by Charles Dickens, it was clean, independent, honest and
fearless. Greeley talked to the people in their own tongue and,
as it were, face to face. A habit of signing his articles with his
name or initials gave them a direct personal element, and many an
honest countryman who never saw Horace Greeley felt that he had
talked with him and knew him. On occasions he could smite with
a rough and heavy hand, whose blow was terrible and sometimes
fatal. Greeley was neither nice nor polite in his choice of words.
Naturally the most peaceable and kindly of men, he was hot of
temper and a master of vituperation. The much-quoted “ You lie,
you villain,’ was not an every-day affair, but he answered the fool
according to his folly, and never stuck at epithets if he thought they
were deserved. The clearness and vigor of his style, the open
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 69

sincerity of his opinions, and the universal confidence in his in-
tegrity, gave him a hold on the popular mind unparalleled in
journalism.

The Tribune found its way into every nook and corner of the
northern states, and followed the tide of emigration to the West.
With the farmers, who regarded Greeley as one of themselves, it
was especially strong. Every other newspaper quoted it, and some-
body said that no country editor put pen to paper until the Tribune
had told him what Greeley thought. It was not only the most
widely read but the most universally talked about. Toiling and
thinking multitudes absorbed it, believed it, and voted by it.
Fletcher of Saltoun said that he who can make the ballads of a
nation need not care who makes its laws. The real leader and ruler,
in whose hands all lesser men are puppets, is the man who shapes
the course of public thought. Such was Horace Greeley. In the
critical period when the forces of public opinion were aligning
themselves for the final struggle with the slave power, a moral issue
was uppermost, and the appeal was to the moral sense. Greeley
reached and stirred the public conscience. It must be reckoned his
greatest service to the country that he gave the Tribune a place with
the Liberator, “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the ‘“‘ Biglow Papers,’ and
the stirring lyrics of Whittier, as one of the great moral forces that
settled the public resolve against slavery and steeled the nation for
war.

The Tribune made Greeley the best-known man in America.
Never holding public office but to serve out three months of an
unexpired term in Congress at the end of 1848 — in which fragment
of time he broke up the abuses of the mileage system and brought
in the national policy of the homestead laws—he was the most
public character in the country. The oddities of his appearance
and manner, the patriarchal head and face, the old hat and old
white coat, the cravat awry, the shapeless trousers, the shambling
gait, celebrated and exaggerated in print and caricature, made him
one of the sights of New York, and would have been recognized at
any crossroads in the United States. As the Tribune was more
talked about than any other paper, so Greeley himself was more
talked about than any other man. His name was familiar to every
tongue, and his character to every man who could read. Any bright
schoolboy could have told what “H. G.” stood for, and any in-
telligent citizen could have told what Horace Greeley stood for.

It was not the Tribune alone that did this. Greeley’s activities
were many and amazing. Politics and journalism never monop-
70 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YCRK

olized the energy of this phenomenal mind. He was always at
work for the social and industrial welfare and progress of the
people. Whittier called him “ our later Franklin.” There is poetic
license in this comparison, but it may be doubted whether there has
been since Franklin’s any more widely useful life. With the
Tribune on his shoulders, he contributed to other newspapers and
magazines, delivered addresses on all sorts of occasions, lectured
before country lyceums as the fashion then was, spoke from the
stump in political campaigns, produced volumes of travel, social
reform, agriculture, political economy, and one work of permanent
historical value. “ The American Conflict” would have made an
enduring reputation for him if he had written nothing else. His
part in politics was not merely the part of a writer and speaker.
For many years the noted triumvirate of Seward, Weed and Greeley
had a direct and powerful hand upon the political machinery of
New York and of the nation. With unbounded faith in the future
of the country, and eager for its development, he was one of the
first to urge a Pacific railway when such a project was laughed at,
and Greeley’s persistent “Go West, young man” became the rally-
ing cry of a national movement that peopled new states.

All his industry and success never made him rich. He had no
love for money, and he was never a business man. Swindlers could
overreach him and impostors get money from him, though the con-
stant appeal to his easy benevolence was sometimes too much for
his temper. A solemn-looking character hung about his desk one
day until the hurried editor demanded his errand. “I want you
to give me a contribution” said the stranger, “to save thousands
of our fellow creatures from going to hell.” “I won’t give you a
blanked cent,” was the reply. “ Not half enough of them go there
now.” Greeley was a Universalist.

We are here to remember Horace Greeley, not to praise him.
His character presents a strange combination of strength and weak-
ness. He was wise as a sage and simple as a child, fixed in con-
viction and erratic of judgment, full of benevolence to every living
creature, and almost as full of prejudices, a lover of man and a
hater of men. The pugnacity of his honest nature struck out fiercely
at every rogue, hypocrite and humbug, and at some just men and
causes. Where there are blows to give, there are blows to take.
It is no wonder that this dynamic man of peace was more abused,
admired, vilified, hated, trusted and followed, than any other man
of his time.

With the approach of the rebellion, Greeley became a greater
 

bees esos
From Americana collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York

GREELEY AT DIFFERENT AGES

1856 1848 1865
1869 1869 1872
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 71

figure than before. His place in journalism had long been first.
He was about to take a larger place in the history of the country.
In his erratic course through this period there are some episodes
that can not be recalled with satisfaction. His impulsive tempera-
ment betrayed him into conduct which has left shadows upon his
reputation, but there is no stain upon it. His integrity of character
and purity of motive were never questioned.

In the historic contest of 1858 between Douglas dnd Lincoln,
Greeley’s mistaken sympathy with a Democrat in revolt against a
Democratic administration, and his views of party policy, led him
to advocate the reelection of Douglas. Naturally and justly resented
by the Republicans of the West, this was more than atoned for two
years later. In the Republican convention of 1860, at Chicago,
Greeley cast all his strength against Seward, the leading candidate,
and cleared the way for the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. This
act was charged to personal resentment against Seward, and not
without some reason, but Greeley was more than justified by the
results. In the light of subsequent events, the man whose influence
was decisive in making Seward give place to Lincoln as the leader
of the nation through the throes of civil war appears a chosen
instrument in the hand of Providence.

In the perilous years of President Lincoln’s administration, the
wisdom of his attitude in refusing to move faster than the people
moved made every leader of public opinion an important character.
Of the leaders of public opinion the man who wielded the power
of the Tribune was second only to Lincoln himself, and his mistakes
could not escape notice and criticism. There was no purer patriot,
no more loyal friend of freedom and of the Union, than Horace
Greeley, but he was subject to the limitations of his nature. When
the revolt of the slave states was threatened, Greeley scouted it,
declaring that the South could no more unite on such a scheme than
a parcel of lunatics could conspire to break out of Bedlam. When
secession actually began, he at first advised that the rebellious states
be allowed to go in peace. So potent was his influence that Presi-
dent Lincoln was moved to interpose against the further expression
of such views. There was no more of this after the attack on
Sumter. When rebellion had fairly unmasked its front of war,
the Tribune raised the cry of “On to Richmond,” and the popular
clamor drove our raw levies into the disaster of Bull Run. Despite
his just disclaimer of personal responsibility, the public fury at the
defeat was turned upon Greeley, always a sensitive man in spite of
his fighting traits, and drove him into a fever that threatened his
72 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

life, in which he addressed to the President a despairing letter that
made Lincoln, as his biographers say, “ sigh at the strange weakness
of human nature.”

Greeley’s impatient temper could not await the cautious and sure-
footed steps of the great President toward the freeing and arming
of the slaves. The “ Prayer of Twenty Millions,” published in the
Tribune, of August 19, 1862, protesting against the slow enforce-
ment of the confiscation acts upon the slaves of rebels in arms,
drew from the President a public reply, personally addressed to
Greeley, which stands out as one of the most striking examples
alike of Lincoln’s political sagacity and his wonderful power of clear
and direct statement. In this letter is the much-quoted, misunder-
stood and perverted declaration, “If I could save the Union with-
out freeing any slave, I would do it.” It is a singular proof of
human fatuity that people who read our history, and some who
write it, even in the light of what followed still profess to believe
that Lincoln would have allowed slavery to be preserved, and quote
this letter for the proof. He declared that his purpose was to save
the Union, and every student of Lincoln’s life knows that there
never was a time after 1854 when his unerring and prophetic vision
did not see that the Union could not be saved with slavery. When
he had become President, with the issues of war in his hands, there
were occasions when the duty of preserving a united North com-
pelled him to temporize, and to be all things to all men. It is plain
that he seized the occasion of Greeley’s protest to make this public .
declaration only because it would help to disarm the hostility of
northern conservatives to the policy of emancipation on which he
was already resolved. He could not yet publicly declare that he was
resolved upon it, though this can almost be read between the lines,
especially of the opening passage of his letter. But it need only be
remembered that, at the moment when Lincoln penned this letter
to Greeley, on the 22d day of August 1862, there lay upon his table,
ready-winged for its flight, the proclamation of freedom, which had
already been announced to the cabinet council and a month later
was given to the world.

In 1864, when final victory was in sight, Greeley seemed appalled
at the continued outpouring of blood and treasure, called for a
cessation of hostilities, and urged the President to negotiate for
peace with rebel agents then in Canada. The tactful President met
this demand by promptly deputing Greeley himself upon the mission,
which came to nothing.. He did not favor the renomination of
Lincoln, and predicted his defeat if nominated, though supporting
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 73

him vigorously in the campaign. The patient President believed
and declared Greeley incapable of wilful misconduct, and Greeley
afterward atoned, so far as he could, for his attitude toward Lin-
coln in his lifetime, acknowledging him to be “ the one providentia!
leader, the indispensable hero of the great drama.”

Upon the collapse of the rebellion, Greeley’s benevolent impulses
led him to take ground at once for universal amnesty and universal
suffrage. The freedman should vote, and the rebel should be
forgiven. In line with this conviction he made, on invitation, a
journey to Richmond, in 1867, to become bail for the release of
Jefferson Davis from further military custody. This generous if
misguided act raised a storm of denunciation. The Tribune was
assailed with a chorus of “Stop my paper,’ the sale of the
“American Conflict” came to a standstill, and even Greeley’s per-
sonal and social standing was threatened. A leading club called
him to account with a view to expulsion; to which he rejoined with
characteristic vigor, “ You evidently regard me as a weak senti-
mentalist, misled by a maudlin philosophy. I arraign you as narrow-
minded blockheads, who would like to be useful to a great and
good cause but don’t know how.” The club did not pursue the
subject. When the fifteenth amendment had been ratified, Greeley
declared “ the books closed,” that all the crimes of rebellion should
be overlooked and all remembrance of them merged in complete
reconciliation. He failed in judgment here, as he had at other
critical periods. Even the contemptuous rejection of the constitu-
tional amendments by the rebel states had not taught him that the
snake was only scotched, not killed. The South was still deter-
mined, as it is today, to preserve the substance if not the form of
slavery, and after almost half a century we find it still in open
rebellion against the Federal constitution, by fraud instead of force,
with Greeley’s hope of universal or even impartial suffrage yet
unrealized.

We come to the climax, and the catastrophe. In May 1872, the
Liberal Republican convention, at Cincinnati, nominated Greeley
for the presidency. This futile but not unpatriotic movement was a
Republican revolt against President Grant, led by eminent and high-
minded men whose confidence was shaken, perhaps to soon, by the
mistakes of his first administration and the sinister influence of
worthless camp-followers about him. The Cincinnati platform,
unexceptionable in tone and character, followed Greeley in declar-
ing for universal amnesty and impartial suffrage, and Greeley’s
letter of acceptance expressed his belief that the people, North and
74. THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
South, were ready to “clasp hands across the bloody chasm” —a
phrase that passed into a popular shibboleth. Forthwith upon this
nomination all the vials of partisan wrath were opened and poured
out upon him. He had asserted ‘his independence of party, the
mortal sin of politicians. All that he had done for the party, and
for the country, was forgotten in a moment. Calumny outran itself,
and Greeley was lampooned, abused and reviled with a brutal ferocity
unknown even to the prize-ring of politics. The Democratic
convention, meeting at baltimore in July, adopted the Cincinnati
candidates and platform, and Greeley accepted the nomination. This
sealed his fate, though it was not otherwise doubtful. Myriads of
Republicans in sympathy with the movement refused to see that
Greeley, who did not alter his position by the breadth of a hair, had
not gone to the Democratic party but that the party had come to
him. They would not support a candidate bearing the Democratic
label. He made a campaign tour of New England and the Middle
West, rising to his highest level in a series of dignified, temperate
and statesmanlike speeches, and achieved a popular vote of nearly
three millions in a total of less than six millions and a half, but
every northern state was against him. The distrust of Greeley’s
new alliance was not unnatural or unfounded, and Greeley himself,
with all his virtues, did not strike the popular instinct as a safe
candidate for the presidency. Apart from this, the military prestige
of President Grant would have carried all before it. The people
remembered the victorious general, and they forgot everything else.
Greeley’s defeat was foreordained at Appomattox.

He was recalled from the strife of the campaign to the bedside
of his dying wife, who was taken from him on the eve of the elec-
tion. Widowed and defeated, his fortitude was still unshaken, and
no sooner was the result of the political contest declared than he
promptly resumed the editorial chair of the Tribune. But the
calamities that could not subdue this resolute spirit were too much
for the physical frame. The overworked brain gave way, and on
the 29th day of that same month of November, with little warning,
the country was startled by the news that Horace Greeley was no
more.

At the dramatic culmination of this illustrious and useful life,
and the pathos of the closing scene, there was a recoil from the
extreme of abuse to the extreme of eulogy. All classes and condi-
tions of men joined in the universal expression of public loss, to
which probably every press and almost every pulpit in the United
States made its contribution. The city of New York turned aside
 

i a
From Americana collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York
PHOTOGRAPHS OF GREELEY AT DIFFERENT PERIODS
In upper left-hand corner, with B. Gratz Brown

872 1866 1872
1869 1872
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 75

for the funeral observance. Crowds surged through City Hall to
view the dead face of the friend of the people until the doors had
to be closed against them. The highest officials of the nation and
of many states followed him to the grave, through silent and un-
covered throngs, never seen before nor since save at the obsequies
of Lincoln and Grant. It was not the empty honor often paid to
official station, for he held none, nor to success, for he died under
the shadow of defeat. It was a sincere and unaffected tribute to
the patriot, the friend of humanity, the tribune of the people.

It has been unworthily said that he died of wounded vanity at
the judgment passed against him in the election. Such empty
detraction can neither be proved nor disproved, but it is not likely
that the ordinary abuse of a presidential contest, even followed by
defeat, would have put an end to his life or seriously disturbed him.
In the warfare of politics, Horace Greeley was an old soldier. No
man knew better than he that the loudest clamor of a presidential
campaign is nothing but the squealing and scrambling of a herd of
mercenaries to get their noses into the public trough or keep them
in it. As Hosea Biglow said or sang:

They march in percessions, an’ git up hooraws,

An’ tramp thru the mud for the good o’ the cause,

An’ think they’re a kind o’ fulfillin’ the prophecies

Wen they’re only jest changin’ the holders of offices.
Greeley was not to be frightened or hurt by the thunder of the
captains and the shouting, and he well knew the fortune of war.
Even in defeat, it was not wholly adverse to him. He received a
great popular indorsement in the vote at the polls. But he was cut
to the heart by the malice of enemies and treachery of friends. He
was tortured with fear of disaster to the Tribune, the child of his
affection. He had taxed his physical powers beyond endurance, and
domestic calamity fell heavily upon him at the moment when out-
raged nature was strained to the breaking point. Surely there is
enough here to account for his taking-off.

A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in
his own house. Happily it is not left to his native town or state to
remember Horace Greeley. Many biographers have told and still
tell his story, the working printers placed above his grave in Green-
wood cemetery a memorial bust, cast in type-metal, his statue was
raised on the spot dedicated by the city of New York as Greeley
square, and towns and counties in the far West bear and perpetuate
his name; while New Hampshire talks of a statue to the president
who fed from the hand of slavery and went to the verge of treason
76 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

in holding out hope to a slaveholders’ rebellion — leaving to distant
states the pious duty of commemorating her son who lost the presi-
dency but kept his honor and kept faith with freedom.

The loss of the presidency was no misfortune to Greeley. It
would have added little, perhaps nothing, to his permanent reputa-
tion. Fortunate that he escaped the fate of some in that illustrious
line for whom oblivion would be a happy exchange. A man of
genius, with the faults that usually attend upon genius, he was not
of the stuff of which Presidents are made. High character and
purity of purpose ‘he had, but not the cool and balanced judgment,
the ‘‘ sure-footed mind” and “ supple-tempered will” that ought
to be found in the head of the nation. In temperament he was less
a statesman than moralist and reformer, though what overflowed
from Greeley into the field of statecraft would make the reputation
of many statesmen. He had a human interest in which many
greater men are wanting. It is enough for his fame that he had a
foremost part in forging the weapons that struck down rebellion
and saved the Union that slavery would have destroyed. A great
citizen, whose example was the shame of every hypocrite and
coward, who never stifled his honest thought nor bent his knee to
power, whose character and voice of authority made legislatures
listen and statesmen sit at his feet, he will be remembered when
Presidents are forgotten.

Horace Greeley was first and last a great journalist, holding that
this character may be made superior to any official station, and
doing much to vindicate the claim. His influence permanently raised
the level of the American newspaper and the thought of the Ameri-
can people. The real power of the press in this country began with
Greeley, and if it did not end with him, it has gained nothing since.
The Tribune had no higher merit than its absolute independence,
alike of the slave power, which ruled the country then, and the
money power, which rules the country now. We know in what
contempt the great editor would have held the modern advertising
machine, boasting its circulation but without character or courage to
print anything that might disturb the balance of a ledger. Better,
would he say, better the honest opinion even of a bad man than the
dumb oracle that sits with hand on mouth and points to a bargain
counter.

It was in the character of journalist that Horace Greeley wished
to be remembered. Not long before his death he left this testimony
to the world, in solemn and pathetic words that sound of prophecy
and requiem. “ Fame,” he said, “is a vapor; popularity an acci-
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 77

dent; riches take wings; the only earthly certainty is oblivion; no
man can foresee what a day may bring forth; while those who cheer
today will often curse tomorrow; and yet I cherish the hope that
the journal I projected and established will live and flourish long
after I shall have moldered into forgotten dust, being guided by
a larger wisdom, a more unerring sagacity to discern the right,
though not a more unfaltering readiness to embrace.and defend it
at whatever cost; and that the stone which covers my ashes may
bear to future eyes the still intelligible inscription, ‘ Founder of the
New York Tribune.’ ”

 

From an old print
GREELEY’S BIRTHPLACE AT AMHERST, N. H.
GREELEY HONORED IN
COLORADO
GREELEY HONORED IN COLORADO

' pale

. In Greeley, Colorado, Horace Greeley’s one hundredth birthday
was celebrated by the entire community —the town and country
round — while Denver, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Long-
mont, Fort Collins and other cities in the state sent delegations to
join in the exercises of the day and evening. Mayor George M.
Houston, an enthusiastic admirer of Mr Greeley and a true colonist,
had sent letters to leading people inviting them to assist in honoring
the centenary of the great man who had done so much to make the
colony a success. He also set on foot a movement for erecting a
monument to Mr Greeley.

The result was a general holiday, with schools closed and business
of every kind suspended. It was an ideal Colorado day, the town
gay with flags and bands of music. A notable feature was the
participation of schools and churches in the celebration. As was
to be expected, the older colonists took special delight and interest
in reviewing and living over again their early labors at town-planning
and city-building and recalling with pride the stupendous growth
and success of their colony.

Among the notable citizens who came to the colony with Greeley
and who took part in the celebration were Oliver Howard, 70 years
old; Henry T. West, 87; Charles A. White, 74; John Leary, who
is in his 80th year; and the following, all of whom are over 7o:
Richard Armstrong, Mr and Mrs W. M. Darling, Ovid Plumb, Dr
G. Law, M. B. Knowles and George W. Fisk. In all there are about
75 of the original colonists now living.

Professor R. W. Bullock talked to the pupils of the upper grades
in the morning at the high school exercises, and in the afternoon
Mr D. D. Hugh talked to the children of the lower grades. Special
evening exercises were held in the Methodist Church, the largest
church in town, where the principal speeches were delivered in
eulogy of Mr Greeley’s wonderful life of achievement. First in
morning exercises was Mayor Houston’s address to the pupils of
the schools of Greeley, who were assembled in the auditorium of
the high school.

ADDRESS BY MAYOR GEORGE M. HOUSTON

A year ago I had the pleasure of speaking to you on the general
topic, “ Seeing Visions.” In talking today about the man we love
and revere, it has occurred to me that the homely virtues of this

81
82 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

plain and splendid American can best be appreciated under the title,

““ The Great Heart.” And therefore, what I shall say to you of
“The Great Heart,” is in my mind truly and directly biographical
touching the illustrious commoner — the plain American citizen for
whom our town is named.

We have been told that biography is the best history, and so it
is. In fact, if we could get true biographies, we should have true
histories. Much of history, I am sorry to say, is untrustworthy,
and many so-called warriors and statesmen have been eulogized in
history, too often because they had biographers whose business it
was to make reputation greater than manhood and character.

Horace Greeley was not that kind of man. He told the truth as
he saw it, and would not swerve from what he deemed the righteous
course to win any man’s favor. His integrity and love of justice
and fair play rise to mountain heights, compared with the things
that are so often referred to, as Greeley’s peculiar ways and dis-
regard of personal appearance and dress. As the years pass, the
memory of alleged eccentricities fades, leaving his noble character
and moral greatness; his genius and infinite humanity growing
brighter and brighter on the pages of history.

Mr Greeley was bitterly criticised because he made himself ob-
noxious to certain political associates in Congress, who had little
sympathy with his demands for common, every-day honesty on the
part of congressmen who were in the habit of getting the largest
possible sums of money out of the Government for mileage, in the
good old days when Robinhood flourished in Washington, and Jesse
James and his kind were doing business in the West — when con-
tractors were looting right and left for the benefit of themselves
and their political allies in the national capital.

My young friends, I should fail miserably in my duty if I did
not call your attention to the real statesmen of our country, the real
statesmen of today, who are the direct descendants of that glorious
type of men, of whom Horace Greeley was the head, in the New
York Tribune, in the sixties and early seventies, men who had con-
victions and were not afraid to call a spade a spade.

When Thomas Jefferson was recounting the incidents of his
own life, he made small mention of the, to him, insignificant fact
that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence, and
of the facts that he was sent on missions of state to foreign courts,
and was twice made President of his country; but the far-seeing
statesman felt himself not immodest in asking credit for the fact
that he had added to the agricultural wealth of the country, by the
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 83

introduction of new plants, by the purchase of the Mississippi val-
ley, and by securing in the Government a change in the law of
descent of property, so that lands held by the father should descend
equally to all his children, and not entirely to the eldest offspring.

In short, the author of the Declaration of Independence was a
good farmer, and though, in the language of John Lord, “ Jefferson
held the readiest pen in America,” he found his supreme interest in
the ways of the land and the husbandman. Likewise Horace Gree-
ley, a vigorous writer and clear thinker, saw above all the fog of
schemes in legislative finance and political chicanery, the real sources
of his country’s wealth and happiness in the labor and fostering care
of the plain American farmer.

Horace Greeley knew that our greatest victories were to be won
amid the arts of peace, from well-tilled fields and honestly con-
ducted business, not on battle fields with shouting captains and
roaring guns. I suspect that he was much like our own David
Boyd, long a colony trustee, to whom the colony owes so much —
a man impatient with shams, vigorous and fearless in a good fight,
and thinking less of victory than the joy of being right, only pray-
ing for sunshine and good crops; not too careful about the sound
of a phrase; not too much worried over baggy pantaloons or frowzy
hair. David Boyd was terribly concerned about honest results;
deadly in earnest for the success of a worthy friend, a poor, down-
trodden toiler on land or sea; a true and undying friend of true
men and women; of animals in the field and birds in the air.

Many, I know, will remember Mr Greeley as somewhat eccentric :
but, when I think of it, there at once arises a picture of those days
of 60 and ’61, when the country was swept by the great conflict,
when many great souls were tried in that storm of passion and hate;
and then I see the later days when the war had spent itself, and
peace once more dawned on the land, but:the cemeteries and hos-
pitals were full of the dead and dying, treasuries and granaries were
empty, millions of homes dark and desolate and the nation filled with
bitterness.

Then began the long years of atonement and forgetfulness. The
hour had come for reconstruction and conciliation. Horace Greeley
welcomed the southern people with outstretched arms. No matter
what critics and enemies may have thought of him in the past, all
agreed that in the crisis of much opposed reconciliation, his acts
showed that he was a great man. Greatness is somewhat hard to
define, and still harder to recognize fully. We may be entertaining
true greatness, right here in our own town, and yet with our im-
84 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

perfect mental vision, may entirely overlook the budding genius of
today who may astonish the world tomorrow.

I think that the surest test of human greatness lies in the bound-
lessness of magnanimity and forgiveness. Napoleon was a great
general, great lawmaker, great engineer and even great literary
man and financier, and, we will admit, a great emperor, as rulers go;
but-I shall have to agree with Wendell Phillips, that he who showed
no mercy to Toussaint L’Ouverture was not a great man. And by
the same test I shall say that Horace Greeley, who could so far
forget the fearful and bitter past and his merciless assaults on the
southern leaders of the slave power as to sign the bail bond of
Jefferson Davis, was indeed a great man.

Marcus Cato admonished the Roman youth against the evils of
passion and wasteful luxury, only to spoil the lesson by his ever
famous “ Carthage must be destroyed,’ but our good Horace Gree-
ley was faithful to a more righteous star, and he pursued the con-
sistent course of a man worthy to be, as he was, a great adviser of
his countrymen, and set the example then so much needed, of. for-
getting past wrongs, and becoming himself absorbed and thoroughly
busy with the duties of the new day.

His was the great heart that would let bygones be bygones, and
help foolish and mistaken partisans begin a new life and forget
past grievances in the triumphs of brotherhood and love. It was
the inspiration of Horace Greeley’s teachings in the New York
Tribune and on the platform, that has caused these fields to be
plowed. Men like Frémont, the Pathfinder, Kit Carson, the scout
and guide, and Custer, the great warrior, little dreamed that these
dry, desolate plains would some day become even more fruitful and
productive than the luxuriant fields of their boyhood. :

Mr Greeley was a far-seeing, practical man, and was among the
first to warn us that the soil could be abused and robbed of its
fertility; even in Colorado, that it was our heritage, and not to
be wasted, but to be renewed and strengthened for those to come
after us. He incited no youth to seek glory at the cannon’s mouth,
but rather to follow the ways that lead to prosperity and happiness.
If it is true that a man’s spirit, though lost to its former habitation,
has been lent to those who survive, there is no place so fitting to
retain and domicile the spirit of Horace Greeley as this town and
community ; and I am convinced that, were he alive today, he would
be profoundly happy on his one hundredth birthday to behold a
city and countryside so typical of his ideals, a place of charming
homes and fruitful gardens, brought to perfection here in what
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 85

had been one of nature’s neglected places, now a marvel of fertility
and beauty.

Mayor Houston read a paper prepared at his request by Ralph
Meeker, telling how the Greeley colony came to be founded by his
father, Nathan C. Meeker, and how Mr Greeley gave the enter-
prise his powerful editorial support in the New York Tribune,
and unswervingly stood by the movement until his death. As Ralph
Meeker was the original secretary of the colony, and attended all
the meetings held in Cooper Institute during the memorable winter
of its organization in 1869, he was able to tell the true story of
how that successful colony was formed and financed, as if by
magic, and by Mr Greeley’s support was made the greatest colonial
success since the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock.

THE FOUNDING OF GREELEY, COLORADO
BY RALPH MEEKER

George M. Houston, Mayor of Greeley, Colorado:

In answer to your request for a paper on the founding of Greeley
and its colony, to be read at the hundredth anniversary of Horace
Greeley’s birth, I would say that the proposition to erect a monu-
ment to his memory in the town bearing his distinguished name,
should receive the support of all citizens and friends of the colony,
far and near. Horace Greeley was an honest man, unselfishly
devoted to the country and all humanity. One of his strongest
characteristics was his detestation of falsehood and misrepresenta-
tion of every kind.

Were Mr Greeley alive today, he would be the first to resent
the statement, officially sent out from the town of Greeley, and
widely circulated through the West, that he was the originator and
founder of the Greeley colony, and that he sent out N. C. Meeker of
the Tribune’s editorial staff, to act as director and general promoter
of the enterprise, in line with his famous saying, “ Go West, young
man, go West.”

The facts are that Mr Greeley knew nothing of Mr Meeker’s
plan to start a colony in Colorado, until informed by one of the
Tribune staff, on Mr Greeley’s return from a trip to the country,
and while Mr Meeker was absent at his home in New Jersey. But
Mr Greeley instantly favored the proposed colony enterprise. Both
were ardent advocates of the cooperative plan of country and subur-
ban settlements, and both had been active members of Fourier
phalanxes that were early established in the United States, Mr
86 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Greeley being a member of the North American Phalanx at Red
Bank, N. J., and Mr Meeker an officer in the Trumbull Phalanx
at Braceville, O., some twelve miles west of Warren, in what is
known as the Youngstown region. It was while Mr Meeker was
connected with this phalanx in 1843-44, that he first became ac-
quainted with Mr Greeley through correspondence regarding the
establishment of the phalanx at what was then known as Brace-
ville. From that day Mr Meeker was a warm admirer of Horace
Greeley.

From that time, four or five years before the Mexican War, my
father’s ambition was some day to found a colony in the Far West,
free from certain impractical features of Fourierism. It was not
until the Lincoln campaign, followed by the election of Mr Lincoln,
that Mr Meeker renewed his correspondence with Mr Greeley,
which led to the publication in the Tribune of a series of letters
from Dongola, Ill., concerning political, industrial and social con-
ditions in the Southwest, and particularly in southern Illinois, then
chiefly in sympathy with the South.

Mr Meeker’s graphic descriptions and quaint observations on
the impoverished conditions of that part of the country, together
with his pen pictures of the home life of the natives, most bitterly
opposed to Lincoln and the war, won favor in the Tribune office,
and Mr Greeley telegraphed Albert D. Richardson, a Tribune
stockholder and war correspondent then at Cairo, ‘ We want to
keep N. C. Meeker.” Mr Richardson, a warm friend, was there
organizing the Tribune’s war news service in the Southwest, and
Mr Meeker was the Tribune’s only correspondent at the Battle of
Fort Donelson, when General Buckner surrendered to General
Grant.

At the close of the war, Horace Greeley called Mr Meeker to the
editorial staff of the Tribune. He was given wide latitude, and
wrote editorials on social and industrial topics, besides writing up
the various noted communities of the United States, from Oneida
to Salt Lake, with its wonderful irrigation system. While making
his first trip to the Mormon settlements in Utah, he was snow-
bound. Trains on the Union Pacific were blockaded by the heavy
snows of the early spring in 1869, and travel was temporarily sus-
pended west of Laramie. So Mr Meeker took advantage of the
delay to visit Colorado and the already famous mining city of
Denver — then without a railroad or many inhabitants.

The route was along the foothills south, by way of La Porte
and Boulder. There was little or no snow on the sunny slopes to
 

RALPH MEEKER
First secretary of Greeley colony, Colorado
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 87

impede the four-horse stage coach driven at “ Overland Express”
speed. He was so charmed with the scene, the shining peaks of
the Snowy Range, the Great Plains stretching from the Rockies
to the Missouri river, with the exhilarating ozone of the mountains
that, when he returned to New York, he told his family that he
was going to start a colony in the Rocky Mountain region of
Colorado.

Mr Greeley was absent at the time, but a few days later at Del-
monico’s he said to John Russell Young, then managing editor of
the Tribune, “I hear that Meeker is going to take a colony to Col-
orado. Tell him to go ahead, and I will back him in the Tribune.
I only wish that I could go myself.” Mr Meeker was grateful for
the message, and soon issued a call in the Tribune inviting families
to join the colony.

Now, as the proceedings of the meetings held in Cooper Institute,
following the call, were published in the Tribune, the Herald and
other newspapers from time to time, the facts as to the founding of
the colony are a matter of public record, together with Horace
Greeley’s editorials in behalf of Mr Meeker’s venture. He was
not only deeply grateful to Mr Greeley for accepting the office of
treasurer of the colony, but at the organization meeting, Mr Meeker
refused to have the colony bear his name, as was suggested by the
members of the committee. He insisted that the honor should go
to Mr Greeley, who then was elected treasurer of the organization.
Subscriptions came in rapidly, and in a few weeks after the locating
committee announced that a site had been selected, nearly a hun-
dred thousand dollars was in the treasury for purchasing the lands,
and building the necessary irrigation canals to water the farms and
gardens.

As before stated, Horace Greeley detested liars and pretenders,
and, were he alive today, he would pay his respects to certain state-
ments in so-called history in regard to the founding of the Greeley
colony. But, as Mr Greeley once wrote, ‘“‘ No man can overtake a
lie, which ten men will read, where one reads the truth and be-
lieves it.”

I do not blame those who have honestly been led astray in this
matter, but there were certain so-called leading citizens who crowded
into the colony in after years, for what there was in it for them-
selves and the political adventurers working for graft and rum on
the outside who knew better and yet continued their misrepresenta-
tions simply “to get even” with a dead man, who had established
a successful colony on an antiwhiskey basis with all that sobriety
88 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

and industry stand for. Some ten years later, when the head of the
first Greeley board of trade sent circulars broadcast, stating that
the colony was founded by Horace Greeley, and omitted all ref-
erence to N. C. Meeker, or the historical facts in the case, I asked
him what he meant by such statements — robbing a dead man of his
honors. “ Oh,’’ he sneered, “if Greeley didn’t found the colony,
he ought to have done it, so it’s all right any way.” Such ignorance
and mendacity react on the town, for there are important men
and women alive today who know the truth as it appears in the files
of the Tribune and other New York papers of the years 1869-71.

And here is myself for instance; my own testimony. I was the
first secretary of the colony in New York; I signed the receipts
for the $90,000 that had been received by the cashier of the Tribune
office. Daniel Frohman, who was then-in the business office of the
Tribune, gave me much assistance in keeping the records, handling
from thirty to a hundred letters a day, which had to be answered in
the absence of Mr Meeker, the president, then traveling with the
location committee in Colorado. Often I have been asked, ‘‘ What
is the matter with those Colorado liars? Can’t they read? Don’t
they believe the records and Horace Greeley’s own editorial testi-
mony as to the origin of the colony?”

I suppose that human nature is the same in all ages and lands.
Honest, decent men are outnumbered by self-seeking rascals. The
game of grab and misrepresentation, like crooked politics, is popular
with the average business highwayman, east and west. As Mr
Greeley said of the breed, “‘ They prefer lies to the truth.” When
Richelieu founded Odessa in Russia, the men to whom he refused
crooked contracts eventually got into power and forced him to
leave the city. As he walked down the granite steps he had built,
leading down to the sea, to take ship for France, he carried all his
worldly possessions in a hand bag, and finally died in Paris a broken-
hearted man. Today Odessa, the Chicago of Russia, is filled witi
monuments in honor of Richelieu.

My father originated and founded the Greeley colony, and raised
the money that made it a success. Without that money and Mr
Greeley’s friendship there would have been no colony. Mr Meeker
spent all his own funds in the work, and borrowed more to help
out in making improvements on the outskirts of the town, leaving
others to occupy the choice sites for their homes. One street was
named after him, but all the streets named by my father were
changed to numbered streets by partisan officeholders, chiefly later
arrivals, and more or less opposed to the ideas of the old colonists. A
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 89

new municipal system of town government in accordance with the
state laws enabled the office-grabbing clique partly in sympathy
with the whiskey interests, to show the old colonists that a too
strictly temperance town was not popular with up-to-date poli-
ticians.

But in addition to all this, Mr Meeker was never forgiven by the
Republican machine politicians of Colorado for swinging a majority
of the colonists for Horace Greeley in the presidential campaign
of 1872. That he should make his Republican newspaper, the
Greeley Tribune, an independent paper, and work in an “ unholy
alliance’ with the hated Democrats, to elect Horace Greeley Presi-
dent, was little less than a crime; and, when the ticket was defeated,
the machine Republicans, overwhelmingly entrenched behind corrupt
politics in Denver, always shouting for the old flag and an appro-
priation, had no further use for Mr Meeker; and, when it was
proposed to place his portrait among those of the other pioneers
in the State Capitol, it was promptly voted down by the political
ring then in control of state politics. They forgot that the territory
was strongly Democratic until Mr Meeker brought his colony there
and won a handsome Republican majority for the first time in the
history of Colorado. ,

Later came the tragedy of White river, when Mr Meeker lost his
life in the Ute massacre while trying to educate the Indians in the
ways of industry and civilization. Such was the fate of Colorado’s
best friend; not only founder of its most successful colony but tre
first to advocate practical upland irrigation and beet sugar produc-
tion in Colorado, as the files of the newspapers and records of that
day will show.

Happily, more true men came to the colony than corrupt and
worthless ones, and the original spirit of the organizers continued to
sway public sentiment, until the gospel of thrift and decency became
thoroughly established with the aid of live churches and good
schools.

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR OLIVER HOWARD

Professor Oliver Howard, one of the faithful original colonists,
who pursued his literary studies while carrying on a dairy and fruit
farm, who wrote stories for the Youth’s Companion, and finally
served as editor of the Greeley Tribune, prepared an address on
Mr Greeley, which was given as follows:

One hundred years ago today this 3d day of February 1911,
go THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Horace Greeley was born in the town of Amherst, New Hampshire.
He was a frail little fellow and his parents were fearful that they
could not raise him; but he lived to become a strong man and as the
founder of the New York Tribune became one of the greatest edi-
tors that ever lived, his influence extending into the homes of
millions.

While people in other sections of the country may think of him
as a great journalist, we of Union colony, and the city of Greeley,
Colorado, have reason to think of him and speak of him today as
our “ Patron Saint” who not only gave us his name, but who sym-
pathized with our upbuilding and watched our progress with a hope
that was an inspiration to our people.

During the last three years of Mr Greeley’s life he did that which
will forever be remembered with gratitude by the inhabitants of
this city of our ardent affections that bears the name of the great
editor.

While Mr Greeley did not originate the scheme for the founding
of Union colony and the city of Greeley in northern Colorado, it
may not be too much to say that but for the help and sympathy he
gave to Nathan C. Meeker, the projector of the enterprise, there
‘would have been no colony and no city. It was the great New York
Tribune that told a vast number of people that N. C. Meeker wished
to found an ideal community consisting of “temperate, moral, in-
dustrious, intelligent men who would like to make homes in the far
West.” “ The persons with whom I would be willing to associate,”
Mr Meeker continued in the Tribune call, “must be temperance
men and ambitious to establish good society; and those who are
idle, immoral, intemperate, or inefficient need not apply for they will
not be recewed: nor would they feel at home.”

Mr Greeley saw in this proposed association of earnest, efficient
people the hope of establishing a community uncursed by many of
the vices that civilization seems an heir to; and so with words of
encouragement, by the loan of money to Mr Meeker, and more
than all by the generous fostering of the project in his great paper,
the colony became a remarkable success. On the 12th of October
1870, Mr Greeley paid a visit to the town named in his honor.
Nearly the whole population of the place welcomed him with three
rousing cheers. Says Captain Boyd in his valuable ‘“ History of
Greeley ”

“He was conducted to the Greeley Tribune building, where it was
arranged he should address the people. A hasty stand was erected
in front of the office and from this he talked to the people in a calm,
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL gI

fatherly way giving them what he believed good, practical advice.
He found fault that so little had been done in the country compared
with the town.”

In the beginning Mr Greeley had been made the treasurer of the
colony and out of consideration for the favors that he had shown
the colonists and the work he had done in their behalf, certain par-
cels of land were donated to him.

After the death of Mr Greeley, November 29, 1872, an appeal
was made to the town of Greeley to contribute toward a monument
in Greenwood cemetery, New York, to be erected to the memory
of our patron saint. Mr Meeker replied that his city could con-
tribute nothing to the proposed monument, being already engaged
il raising a monument to the memory of Horace Greeley greater
than could ever be raised elsewhere.

What Captain Boyd has so eloquently said regarding the founder
of this colony and city, N. C. Meeker, might as properly be para-
phrased of the man who aided our people by word, sympathy and
money and for whom the city was named. They are raising to him
a monument more enduring than brass. Every brick block, every
church, every schoolhouse, every beautiful residence erected in
Greeley, is a monument to him. Every tree planted, every lawn
clothed in grass and bordered with flowers, every field waving with
grain in and around Greeley is a monument to Horace Greeley.
Every bird that sings in the branches of our trees that border the
fields and every bee that hums in our clover lawns or fields of alfalfa,
sings or hums a requiem to Horace Greeley.

On the 23d of November 1872, just six days before his death,
Mr Greeley wrote for the last time to Mr Meeker. That letter,
written by a dying man, was one to touch the heart of every citizen
of the place bearing the name of this friendly sponsor. At that
moment Mr Greeley must have been suffering as few men have ever
been called to suffer. The sale of his great history had ceased
because he signed the bail bond that set Jefferson Davis free; he
had met defeat. terrible defeat, as a candidate for the Presidency
of the United States; he had campaigned over a vast territory, mak-
ing marvelous political speeches, with little time for rest or recuper-
ation; numbers of his old friends had turned against him; never
was a public man more cruelly caricatured than the great editor
by Thomas Nast; the dearest aspiration of his life had met with
swift and terrible defeat; he had watched by the side of his dying
wife till for a month he had not slept one hour in twenty-four; he
knew that his brain was on fire, for he had said that unless his wife
92 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

passed away soon he would reach a grave before her. In the midst
of all his disappointments and sorrows,. knowing full well that his
end was near, he could still think to say “ precious, trustful, hope-
ful words.” Here is the letter:

Nov. 23, 1872

Friend Meeker: I have yours of the 7th instant. I presume you
have already drawn on me for the $1000 to buy land. If you have
not, please do so at once. I have not much money and probably
never shall have; but I believe in Union colony and you, and con-
sider this a good investment for my children.

Horace GREELEY

This is a good time to dedicate ourselves anew to the splendid
principles that he enunciated at the founding of our colony. He
believed in total abstinence from intoxicants. He dared to stand
fearlessly with the temperance party when ridicule was in the air.
Never was there a man with a more sublime courage. The stand he
took for the release of Jefferson Davis from prison he must have
known would be generally unpopular with the ex-soldiery of the
North, as was his advocacy of general and complete amnesty for
the men who had so lately tried to destroy the government he loved
so well; and yet time has proved that he was in the right.

Mr Greeley’s religious convictions were as settled as any he held.
He was a Universalist. He illustrated the beneficence of the great
Ruler of the earth by drawing from human history the truth that
love and forgiveness are more potent than hatred and revenge.
From this thought it was but a step for him to conclude that it
would be impossible for the Eternal Father to condemn any of his
children to never-ending torment.

George W. Bungay, who knew him well. says of him: ‘“ He had
no peer in the realm of newspaperdom. Horace Greeley was him-
self a king. He dared to do right. He wanted the slave to have
a fair chance. He was the brave champion of the rights of man
irrespective of color, creed, condition or nationality. He was a
political reformer, excellent writer, philanthropist and agricultural
teacher. The weekly Tribune was read each week by more than
200,000 people. Mr Greeley was happy in the consciousness that he
was receiving the golden opinions of all sorts of people.”

Strange as it may seem to the educators of today, Horace Greeley
commenced attending school at the age of three, being carried, dur-
ing bad weather, on his father’s shoulders. But he had learned to
read children’s books considerably earlier than this. At his mother’s
knee he had learned numerous poems and legends handed down
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 93

from her Scotch-Irish ancestors. At the age of four he was able
tv read ordinary books, it making little difference to him whether
the book was upside down or sidewise. It is told of him that he
attended spelling schools, being even at the age of three a remark-
able speller, and sometimes he would have to be awakened from
sleep when it came his turn to spell. He had no legal right to attend
a certain school, but the school committee passed a resolution that
no one should be allowed to attend their school from outside the
district except Horace Greeley. As his years increased he read
everything he could lay his hands upon, reading even while running
errands; and what he read he remembered so firmly that he came
to be looked upon as authority.

The boy Greeley was determined to become a printer, and
offered his services at a printing office at the age of eleven but was
refused as too young. After various experiences in printing offices,
at the age of twenty he entered New York City, perhaps in imitation
of Franklin’s uncouth entrance into Philadelphia. The parallel be-
tween the two men caused the poet Whittier to refer to him as
“the later Franklin.” He was now a tall, slim youth with almost
white hair and pale blue eyes. He had a habit of wearing his hat
on the back of his head that gave him a decidedly green appearance.
As to clothing, he hardly made a respectable appearance, as he gave
the greater part of the money that came into his hands to his father,
who was always in need of it. After many disappointments the
shabby young printer was set to work on a polyglot Bible, a job so
difficult that few printers would stay with it. When Mr West, the
office boss, came in he said to the foreman: “ Did you hire that
fool?” The foreman said that this was the best he could do and
he had to have hands. ‘ Well,” said the master, “ pay him off to-
night and let him go about his business.”

While the other printers were tittering and making fun of the
new printer, one of them made three distinct daubs upon the flaxen
hair of Greeley with printer’s ink. The abused youth took no notice
whatever of this indignity but worked away on his polyglot Bible,
steadily and silently. That night the boss was surprised to find that
young Greeley had done the most correct work that had yet been
done on this unwelcome job and then there was no thought of send-
ing him adrift.

That night Horace spent an hour cleansing his dishonored locks.
This incident of the printer’s ink, and the failure to resent the insult
with his fists was characteristic of the boy and the man; for Horace
Greeley when personally attacked was a nonresistant and meekly
94 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

bowed his head to injuries, that, with many a man, would have re-
sulted in bloodshed.

In 1834 Mr Greeley began editing his paper, The New Yorker,
but after six years it went under, the firm owing him $10,000, all
of which was sunk; but the debts continued to harass him, causing
him to say: ‘‘ For my own part, and I speak from sad experience,
I would rather be a convict in State’s prison, a slave in a rice swamp,
than to pass through life under the harrow of debt.”

In 1841 the New York Tribune was started and Thomas Mc-
Elrath entering into partnership soon after, the journal was soon
established on a firm and paying basis. Mr Greeley had definite opin-
ions on all subjects, and, if he made fast friends, he also made bitter
enemies; but the plan of employing noted people to write for the
Tribune, such as Bayard Taylor, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley,
Charles A. Dana and Moncure D. Conway made it indispensable
to intelligent people of all parties.

Mr Greeley visited Europe twice, acting once as a judge at the
world’s fair in London and later being pounced upon and sent to
prison for two days while in Paris through an unwarranted attempt
to make him pay a certain artist $2500 for the breaking of a statue
at a time when Mr Greeley was a director of the world’s fair at
New York and hence claimed to be answerable for the damage done.
He served for a few months as a representative in Congress, where
he created great excitement by obtaining the figures and showing
that the congressmen were drawing pay from the treasury for mile-
age by computing the same by the most roundabout routes to and
from Washington; he also made a vigorous kick at the franking
abuses, but neither of these wrongs has ever been redressed.

In 1859 he crossed the continent by stage coach to figure out the
possibility of a great Pacific railroad, and after visiting Denver,
which then consisted of one hundred log cabins built of cottonwood,
turned northward to Fort Laramie, mentioning the crossing of the
Cache la Poudre, and oddly enough claiming even then that this
country would one day be settled up.

In many matters Mr Greeley was the most inconsistent of men.
For instance: while decrying the running in debt, he cared little for
money, and, although receiving in his later life $10,000 per annum
as editor of the Tribune, he seems to have been unable to save
against a rainy day. The amount of his private charities no one
but himself ever knew, but they must have been very great. Men
who he knew perfectly well would never repay him a single cent,
would come and borrow of him time after time. The congressman
HURACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 95

who had gambléd his all away or the unfortunate man of family
stranded in the‘city would seek out the great editor asking financial
aid, and, after Mr Greeley had shown them that their stories were
a tissue of lies, he would hand out the money, saying: ‘“‘ Now don’t
come back again.” But many of them were sure to come again to
get his money. There was one worthless son of a rich father, who
would no longer pay his son’s foolish debts, who obtained in a
course of years some $15,000 of Mr Greeley. Only in one instance
was he ever repaid a loan and that was $5, which upon investigation
proved to have been repaid him by an insane man. And as for
beggars, Mr Greeley said that New York City was the worst in the
world, beggars even starting out with the deliberate intention of
begging money for a farm.

While Mr Greeley was clean in his person he was careless in his
dress. Beethoven was not more addicted to the bath than Mr Gree-
ley; but his clothing never seemed to fit. Still he always considered
himself well dressed. The most absurd stories were told of him on
purpose to annoy him and sure enough he was annoyed. One of
his city editors made some suggestion about his neck-tie, which had a
fashion of slipping around under one ear. Said the editor: “ You
don’t like my clothing and I don’t like your department. You'd
better attend to that and leave me alone!”

There were multitudes of people who actually believed that “ Old
Horace” went about with one shoe and one boot, his pants tucked
into the boot; that he daily dressed before a glass and purposely
disarranged his clothing; that when election returns came in, he
turned somersaults in his office. At length the lies that were
circulated about him became so absurd that no one believed them.

Mr Greeley married in 1836 and was the father of seven children,
only one of whom survives him, his daughter, Gabrielle. In his
“ Recollections of a Busy Life,” in the chapter entitled “ My Dead,”
is told the affecting story of the loss of his little six-year-old
“ Pickie,” a charming little fellow as beautiful as he was intelligent.
He was attacked by Asiatic cholera and died that same day. Mr
Greeley says: ‘When at last the struggle ended with his last
breath, and even his mother saw that his eyes would never again
open on the scenes of this world, I knew that the summer of my life
was over and that the breath of its autumn was at hand, and that
my further course must be along the downhill of life.”

This short and imperfect review of the lifework of Mr Greeley
will close with an extract from his writings:
96 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

My life has been busy and anxious but not joyless. . . I

‘ i

have been spared to see the end of giant wrongs which I once
deemed invincible in this century, and to note the silent upspringing
and growth of principles and influences which I hail as destined to
root out some of the most flagrant and pervading evils that remain.

I realize that each generation is destined to confront new and
peculiar perils —to wrestle with temptations and seductions un-
known to its predecessors; yet I trust that progress is a general law
of our being and that the ills and woes of the future shall be less
crushing than those of the bloody and hateful past.

So, looking calmly, yet humbly, for that close of my mortal career
which can not be far distant, I reverently thank God for the bless-
ings vouchsafed me in the past; and, with an awe that is not fear
and a consciousness of demerit which does not exclude hope, await
the opening before my steps of the gates of the Eternal World.

ADDRESS OF COLONEL CHARLES A. WHITE

Colonel White was unable to be present; his address, read by Miss Bertha
Whitman, is as follows:

This being the centennial of the birthday of that great editor,
Horace Greeley, the person after whom the city of Greeley was
named, it is fitting and proper that our schools should observe the
day in paying tribute to his memory.

Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, N. H., and started in life
with few opportunities, yet he rose by his own efforts to a leading
place among the editors of his time; and only one editor belonging
to his class, Henry Watterson, of the Louisville Courier-Journal,
of Kentucky, is alive today.

The house in which Horace Greeley was born stands today in
that little town of Amherst. It is a one-story building, with a garret
unfinished. The eaves can almost be touched by a tall man standing
on tiptoes. The building has never been painted, or had not been
in 1889, when I stood near the ground upon which it stands. It
is the intention to honor this landmark this year by a monument.
and the old house of a poor boy who worked himself to the top
rung of the ladder of newspaper work will ever be an object of
interest in the years to come.

Horace Greeley was one of the editors who could stand at the
case, compose and set up the editorials. How many editors are
there today who can do it?

The interest that Mr Greeley took in the success of the Union
colony of Colorado, through the columns of the New York Tribune.
made the little settlement of Greeley better known in the United
States than many of its cities of 50,000 people or more. There can
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 97

be-no doubt that to Mr Greeley’s interest in our colony ‘enterprise
may be attributed, in a measure, the success that attended our efforts.
This beautiful city of Greeley today is a monument everlasting to
that great editor and patriot whose name it bears. We would show
our hearty appreciation for the generous services he rendered the
colonists while he lived. Let us, therefore, today pay our most
loving tribute to his memory.

May the boys and girls of Greeley public schools imitate the
example set by this great editor and strive earnestly to gain the top
rung of the ladder.
COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES BY
TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION NO. 6
COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES BY TYPO-
GRAPHICAL UNION NO. 6

The printers have always regarded Horace Greeley as peculiarly
one of their own. Their interest in, and affection for, Greeley has
been manifested at every opportunity. Typographical Union No. 6
was originally formed under the name of the “ New York Printers’
Union,” of which Horace Greeley was the first president. The
history of Typographical Union No. 6 was published in 1913 by
the New York State Department of Labor in a “Study of a
Modern Trade Union and Its Predecessors.” According to this
history, the union had taken steps to celebrate Greeley’s natal day
in the year 1909, but later on determined to defer the celebration
until 1911, Greeley’s hundredth birthday anniversary.

On November 30, 1910, Mr Jacob Erlich wrote a letter to Mr
James Tole, president of the union, asking him to arrange for
“ appropriate exercises on Greeley Day,” to which Mr Tole promptly
replied that he would refer the letter to a committee already “ work-
ing upon the matter of properly celebrating the centenary of the
birth of our first president.” The committee was composed of
John F. McCabe, chairman, John F. Lane, William F. Wetzel, John
F, Crossland and James H. Dahm, secretary.

Typographical Union No. 6 observed the occasion on Sunday
afternoon, February 5, 1911, at the New York Theater. The
history which we have mentioned gives in part the following ac-
count of the memorial meeting, at page 637: :

The auditorium, proscenium boxes and balconies of the theater
were crowded with printers and their friends, among whom were
a number of prominent personages. President James Tole of
Union No. 6 presided, and on the stage, besides invited guests, were
many of the former presidents of the organization. The musical
program consisted of soprano solos by Mme. Alma Webster Powell,
and violin selections by Miss Marie Deutscher, together with several

appropriate numbers by a large orchestra conducted by Professor
Max Schmidt.

The addresses follow:

ADDRESS OF THE CHAIRMAN
JAMES TOLE, PRESIDENT OF TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION NO. 6

It is fitting that Typographical Union No. 6 should today bring
to a close the three-days’ series of celebrations of the birth of
Horace Greeley, its first president. Greeley was noted for many

101
102 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

things, but we wish to remember him as Horace Greeley the printer.
What emotions are stirred by the mere utterance of those simple
words! From 1850 to I91I, in the counting of time, is but the
passing of a shadow. Yet in the fleeting of years nations and
peoples have run the gamut of change; heroes have disported their
laurel wreaths and passed away; statesmen and great men in all
lines of endeavor have enjoyed the sweets of their greatness, and
have then stepped from the gaze of the moment. But we have
been endowed with the blessed faculty of memory — that memory
which at bidding conjures to the mind the glories of the past and
maintains our veneration of those to whose examples we owe so
much.

It is, therefore, with more than pride and gratitude that we of
the printing craft speak and think of Horace Greeley as a printer.
Should we not be proud, indeed, to remember that in the hour of
his greatest triumphs he, too, was proud that he was a printer?

And how grateful are we that the first line written in the glorious
history of our organization emanated from so great a mind. For
on January 1, 1850 — sixty-one years ago — the New York Printers’
Union was organized, and Greeley was its first president.

The inspiring figure of Horace Greeley has surely spurred on to
ambitious heights many of our craftsmen who followed him, and
who themselves have attained to high honors in the land. Notable
names might be mentioned of those who, like the subject of the
day, left the printers’ case to take their places in the highest in-
telligence of the day.

The printers’ trade has been described as “ the art preservative.”
It is more; it is the avenue through which was approached the
wonderful career of this immortal American, whose impress upon
the social and political history of our country is written in lines
of grateful remembrance. It may be that, when the present fades
away in the shadows of the past — when the children of the future
shall have become the molders of the nation’s destiny, when the
press of new and strange things fills the public mind — it may be
that the world at large will but hazily think of the commanding
intellect of the printer in honor of whose memory we are now
assembled.

But the “ art preservative of all arts’ — the art of which he was
so ardent a disciple — keeps forever the indelible record of his life,
forever furnishing deepest inspiration, encouraging ambition to
great achievements.

No grander character springs from history’s pages than this man,
 

 

JAMES TOLE
(Foreman, New York Globe pressroom)
Speaker at centenary observance, Typographical Union No. 6, February 5 ,1911
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL , 103

who, first perceiving the need of reforms in trade conditions then
existing, was the first to set about effecting those reforms. No
union printer of the present day can fail to appreciate the efforts
of this pioneer to establish the craft upon a basis deserving the
respect of the community. Who shall say that the widespreading
influence and power of the International Typographical Union are
not due to the energies of those who laid our foundations more
than half a century ago?

The man who began by putting into type the thoughts of others,
who later aspired even to the highest honor within the gift of his
countrymen — was a printer. Never forgetting his early training
and associations in a printing office, it is a matter of record that
among his most active work in New York City was that in the
direction of elevating his chosen craft, and the success of his labors
is now evidenced in the position of influence of the present union
of 7000 members, of which he was the first president —a union
then of 27 members.

Since the stirring days of his activities in our ranks others have
appeared and performed their allotted duties among men; men and
times and conditions have changed; adversities have been met and
conquered; we have been torn by strife and at times have been
forced almost to the last issue in order to maintain our integrity.
But throughout it all—even in the darkest hour, when hope was
ebbing low —there was always before us the indomitable spirit of
the man who set our ship afloat, the man who knew how to battle
for right, whose fearlessness and determination are today the pride
and glory of every American union printer.

Fitting it is, then, that on this day, in various parts of the
country, assemblages such as this one have gathered together to pay
tribute to the memory of this great American. Men of the journalist
profession are today extolling the qualities of the genius whose
magic has widened the scope of their endeavors, and whose name is
linked forever with the highest and purest ideals. They will speak
reverently of him not only as the leading editor of his time, as the
greatest power in journalism of his day, but also as an astute states-
man, a true and keen observer of the trend of events.

Journalist, statesman, thinker, reformer, man of affairs he was,
leaving behind him the ineffaceable record of his greatness! But
our fondest thought of him is of the man in all his simple earnest-
ness, the worker in the ranks of his fellow men, ever striving for
the general uplift of mankind and thinking of himself merely as
Horace Greeley — the printer.
104 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

HORACE GREELEY AND THE CAUSE OF LABOR
ALBERT J, BEVERIDGE, UNITED STATES SENATOR

The labor problem is the fundamental problem. Believing this,
Horace Greeley was, in his time, the prophet of a brighter day for
those who toil. The great journal which he founded became, in a
critical period, the trumpet of American conscience; yet even above
his fame as one of the most brilliant journalists the world has
produced stands his renown as a champion of the rights of labor.

The welfare of men, women, and children who must eat their
bread in the sweat of their faces was his deepest concern. Wise
counselor of the toiling masses, he also was a fearless fighter to
better their conditions. What Horace Greeley believed in, that he
fought for.

Even in his early manhood Horace Greeley saw that simple and
sublime truth that the laborer is not merely a commodity, but a
human being, and therefore that every phase of the labor problem
can be solved only from this Christian viewpoint.

The old and savage theory that the workingman is merely mer-
chandise like a sack of flour or a bucket of coal or a threshing
machine; that the life energies of man, woman and child should
be bought in a labor market at the lowest price which the com-
petition of hunger made possible; that the employer need not think
of the employee as a human being but only as a working animal to
be used until exhausted and then cast aside — that idea is the child
-of brutal barbarism.

It came down to us from the hideous past. It has built more
‘hovels and prevented the building of more homes; placed more
broken human beings in their graves and filled the abiding places of
mankind with more misery and woe than all the wars that have
cursed the world. This apparently is extreme; vet it is but a care-
fully guarded statement of facts established by history and statistics.

To Horace Greeley this idea of human labor was horrible. It
would be better for the nation and all the world if the master minds
directing the material forces of our time could see this as Horace
Greeley saw it.

It would be better if the principle of brotherhood should enter
into all our industry and commerce, making human the harsh prin-
ciple of commercialism —the principle of profit at any cost, of
gain at any sacrifice, even the sacrifice of human happiness and life.

And, indeed, more and more is this transpiring. More and more
the principle of brotherhood is making its conquest of our industrial
 

Specially taken for this work
HOUSE AT POULTNEY, VERMONT

Where Horace Greeley lived when he began his newspaper career.
(Building still standing)
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 105

and commercial life. More and more the idea that the laborer is
a human being serving his employer in fellowship for their mutual
welfare is overcoming the idea that the workingman is a mere tool,
a senseless mechanism to be used only for his employer’s profit
until his industrial effectiveness is gone and then thrown helpless,
hopeless and ruined into the great human scrapheap like a wrecked
machine or ashes of burned-out fuel.

For the present progress and final triumph of the idea of the
laborer as a human being as much if not more credit is due Horace
Greeley than to any other single American intellect. His declaration
that “Man was not made merely to eat, work and sleep” went to
the hearts of his countrymen when he uttered it and comes to us
today like the burning words of the Hebrew prophets.

His battle cry was, “ A place for every man and a man for every
place.” He declared that ‘“ Dives might perhaps give Lazarus a
steady job of oakum-picking, or even gardening, in order to keep
the crumbs about his table for his dogs exclusively, without-at all
recognizing the essential brotherhood between them or doing any-
thing to vindicate it.”

For an hour I might quote such utterances of Horace Greeley.
But he did not stop with these splendid generalities. With the vigor
of conviction he gave them point and substance by concrete plans
for labor’s betterment.

He was among the greatest of the advocates of organized labor.
He saw not only the inhumanity that the toiler suffered from want
of organization; saw not only that the disorganization of labor and
the organization of capital made possible “man’s inhumanity to
man” which “ makes countless thousands mourn,” but also he saw
that lack of organization among laborers caused incredible waste
and loss.

It was Horace Greeley who declared that “ The aggregate waste
of labor and faculty for want of organization in any year exceeds
the cost of any war for five years, ruinous and detestable as all
war is. It is palpable fatuity and criminal waste of the divine
bounty to let this go on interminably.”

And so Horace Greeley preached the righteousness and wisdom
of the organization of labor. He was our great American cham-
pion of the brotherhood of toil. Not even today does any economist
more thoroughly understand the philosophy of the organization of
labor than Horace Greeley understood it three-quarters of a century
ago. And no man today expounds with more guarded thoughtful-
ness or brilliant argument the common sense and beneficence of
106 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

organized labor than did this journalistic tribune of the people from
early manhood to the very sunset of his life.

He thought, spoke and fought for improved labor conditions in
every phase of labor’s activity and life. He believed labor entitled
to higher wages. Horace Greeley thought that labor, which, jointly
with capital, produces this wealth, should get an increased and
increasing share of it. .

Even in that day Greeley was shocked at the lightninglike accumu-
lation of riches in the hands of a few who did little to earn them
and the appalling increase of the thousands who asked only an
opportunity to work that they might eat.

No clearer light ever has been thrown on unjustifiable industrial
and financial inequalities than Horace Greeley’s remorseless analysis ;
few stronger denunciations of this wicked condition ever were
pronounced since the time when the Divine Equalizer gave to man-
kind his sacred message two thousand years ago.

But in nearly all he said and proposed for the welfare of the
workingman, Greeley was carefully practical; he did not propose
to cure between morning and nightfall all the injustices we have
inherited from the beginning of time. But.there were some things
upon which he did insist as immediately necessary and not to be
compromised. One of these was a shortening of the laborer’s work-
ing day. At that time it was both law and usage to employ labor
at the lowest possible point to which the fear of starvation could
drive wages, and then compel the laborer to work as many hours
as the employer chose without consultation or consent of the man
who did the work. So laborers were compelled to work twelve and
fourteen hours, and for even longer periods, every working day.
Greeley proposed to shorten this period of toil, either by agreement
or by law, to a maximum of ten hoursa day. The employers thought
this meant their business injury — even their bankruptcy. Greeley
showed them, instead, that shorter hours and higher wages meant
the employers’ increased prosperity.

It was the same conflict between a blind and sordid selfishness
on the one hand and a wise common-sense and humanitarianism
on the other hand that occurred in England a few years earlier,
when Shaftesbury and Saddler and the other British labor reformers
began to fight for the idea of the laborer as a human being. But
no English reformer ever put the argument for shortening hours
of labor more compellingly than did the American Greeley.

Aside from the economic folly of an unlimited working day,
its crass injustice shocked Greeley’s honest soul. Of this stupid
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 107

wrong he said: “It would be as sensible and just to prescribe that
a pound of meat or sugar or coffee should consist of just as many
ounces as the buyer should see fit, after the price had been settled,
to exact, or that a bushel of grain should consist of an indefinite
number of quarts, as that a day’s work should consist of ten, eleven,
twelve or thirteen hours’ faithful labor, just as the purchaser of
that labor should think proper to require.”

The fact that in nearly fifty trades there is at the present time
an eight-hour day by agreement between employers and their or-
ganized employees; that as a result there is an increased and better
product, a sturdier, happier and more enlightened laboring class;
that there are more homes and fewer hovels for these laborers, and
that those homes have more books, music and comforts than ever
before, is due to this humane agitation for a shorter day of labor,
of which Horace Greeley was one of the first and greatest American
apostles, and to the steady, intelligent efforts of organized labor.
of which Horace Greeley was one of the first and greatest American
champions.

Child labor is America’s peculiar industrial shame. It is a crime
against manhood labor —every child laborer at childhood wages
takes the place of a man laborer at manhood wages.

It is a crime against the humane business man — his goods, made
by manhood labor at manhood wages, must meet his competitors’
goods made by child labor at childhood wages.

It is a crime against childhood — every little one has an inalien-
able, a sacred, right to grow into sound-bodied, clear-brained, pure-
souled maturity.

It is a crime against society; it pours into our citizenship a
stream of people weakened in body and mind.

It is an insult to our religion, whose founder said: “ Suffer little
children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the
Kingdom of God.”

Horace Greeley was against it. Even in his day, when greed had
scarcely begun to chain us to this body of death, he sought to
restrain it. It was Horace Greeley who declared: “ The State
has a right to see and ought to see that the frames of the rising
generation are not shattered nor their constitutions undermined by
excessive toil. She should do this for her own sake as well as for
humanity’s. She has a vital interest in the strength and vigor of
those who are to be her future fathers and mothers, her defenders
in war, her cultivators and artisans in peace. . . . For whatever
108 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

service it may be necessary to employ labor . . . there will always
be found an abundance of adults if proper inducements are offered.”

Thus spoke Horace Greeley when child labor in America was a
pleasant pastime compared with the black brutality of child labor
in America today.

What would he say now if he could see the reeking sweatshops,
the clouded coal breakers, the thundering mills where scores of
thousands of little ones are being sacrificed to Mammon in the name
of a false prosperity.

Here is how he summed up his unanswerable arguments for a
higher estate for those who toil: “A better social condition, en-
larged opportunities for good, an atmosphere of humanity and hope,
would insure a nobler and truer character, and that the dens of
dissipation will clear to leave those whom a proper education has
qualified and whom excessive toil has not disqualified for the im-
provement of liberty and leisure.”

“Our Eden is before us, not behind us,” said Horace Greeley.
And that is true. It is a long, long march before us and we can
reach it as all marching armies reach their destination, only by a
step at a time.

There are those who are impatient with this slow progress — they
want to reach the end with a single stride. Let us not blame them,
for hard conditions justify their impatience.

There are those who resist any forward step whatever — they
think humanity’s advance means their financial loss. Let us not
biame them either, but merely pity them that the lust of gain has
blinded them to the fellowship of man.

Most of the labor reforms which Greeley proposed and for which
he fought already have been realized in part and ultimately and
soon will be realized entirely.

The ten-hour working day for which Greeley battled, against the
unlimited working day of his time, now has grown into the eight-
hour day from the same arguments and facts which Greeley used.
It ought to be universal in all trades.

From ocean to ocean organized labor is now a fact as permanent
as the Government itself.

The holy crusade against child labor now moving militantly for-
ward will not cease until this stain is wiped entirely from our flag.

In short, the day is dawning when the evils that Greeley de-
nounced and the principal reforms which he proposed will be ac-
complished, and the multiplying millions who produce the wealth
of the land in peace and carry its muskets in war will more largely
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL I0Q

enjoy life, liberty and pursuit of happiness which is their inalienable
right.

And when the sun of that day is fully above the horizon its glad
light will reveal Horace Greeley as the heroic figure of that notable
epoch for those who toil— Horace Greeley at once that epoch’s
prophet, philosopher, orator and soldier of the common good.

HORACE GREELEY AS A JOURNALIST
WILLIAM H. MCELROY, FORMER EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE

On the 17th of August 1831, Horace Greeley, then twenty years
old, came to New York City looking for work. He carried his
entire fortune — upwards of ten dollars — in his pocket. He knew
nobody, he bore letters of introduction to no citizen, desirable or
undesirable. His nearest friend was two hundred miles away.
Nevertheless the boy was hardly to be pitied, for he resolutely
declined to allow poverty to blight him. On the contrary, he forced
it to bless him by using it as a spur to worthy endeavor. Lacking
visible friends, the voice of God in his own soul must have cheered
him with the assurance that he could enlist in his service if he
chose — and young Horace Greeley chose — friends invisible but
most powerful —a goodly company, composed of trustworthiness,
industry, perseverance, patience, courage.

The sister of another prominent American told me this story of
her brother. He had risen from poverty and obscurity to riches and
honor, had become one of the foremost men of his country. One
afternoon as she was sitting with him in his library his son came in.
The son was a gay young man of fashion and something of a
sport.” He had been out driving and entered the library jauntily.
carrying his whip in his hand. His father gazed at him a moment
and then said, with a sigh, “ Jack, do you know that I am inclined
to pity you?” Jack,— young, handsome, without a care, an heir to
a fortune, naturally was amazed. “ Why in the world do you pity
me, father?” he asked. ‘ Well, my son,” his father explained, “1
am inclined to pity you because you will never have the benefit of
the disadvantages under which I labored at your age.’’ Horace
Greeley, in the days of his youth, had the benefit of a number of
first-rate disadvantages.

In his essay on “ Representative Men,’ Mr Emerson writes:
“When Nature removes a great man people explore the horizon for
a successor. But none comes and none will. His class is ex-
I1o THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

tinguished with him.” But the passing away of some great men
does not seem the extinguishment of their class. They go, but their
class survives. That is to say, sooner or later they are succeeded
by men who remind us of them, who perform the sort of work
which they performed. But it was emphatically true of Horace
Greeley that “his class perished with him”; that we shall not see
his like again. He was not only a great man but a great man of a
rare sort. He has been studied from many points of view but has
not been adequately painted, for his was a personal equation of
which it may be said what Daniel Webster said of eloquence.
“Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way; they can not
express it.”

The theme which has been assigned me, Horace Greeley as a
Journalist, does not call for a survey of his career from all points
of view, but simply for a consideration of the character and
significance of his work in his chosen profession. Many circum-
stances combined to make him what he was—the foremost
journalist of his generation. He was preeminently a manly man.
a man who did his own thinking and not thinking which he inherited
or was dictated to him. He was generously endowed with moral
energy, intellectual resources and sympathy, of the affirmative sort,
for all sorts and conditions of men, especially for the poor and
oppressed. He loved work as ardently as Romeo loved Juliet. It
was given him to labor in the most important, and therefore the most
stimulating, newspaper field in the United States. He flourished at
a time when there was special need of him — a time when the supply
of food for the mind and soul furnished by the newspapers of the
country was sadly unequal to the demand. Just as John was called
to go crying in the wilderness, “bearing witness to the Light,”
Horace Greeley would seem to have been called to serve as guide,
philosopher, friend to thousands of his countrymen all over the
land. His equipment for such a task included, among its essentials,
the pen of a fluent, forcible writer. It was wickedly said of a cer-
tain rhapsodical poet that “ He had nothing to say but he said it
splendidly.” Mr Greeley had much to say that was well worth
listening to on a variety of topics of general interest, and he knew
how to say it. He was a master of what has been called the art of
putting things. His literary style was as frank and unaffected as
his own nature. Sometimes, in the heat of a political canvass or
in reply to a wanton attack or in the stress of one of his numberless
controversies, his output of heated superlatives was very large.
Charging his ink with vitriol, he indulged in imprecatory adjectives
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL III

and substantives, losing sight of the sound old caution, “ Strong
without rage, without o’erflowing full.”

His brother journalists of the press of the metropolis, William
Cullen Bryant, Charles A. Dana and Henry J. Raymond, all college-
bred men, excelled him as a writer, in certain particulars. Bryant,
the poet-editor, was more profound and polished, Dana was his
superior in versatility and scholarship, Raymond was more brilliant,
more philosophic. But none of them surpassed him in mental
robustness, none in pungent, unambiguous expression. When he
undertook to call a spade a spade, he did so with precision — in
terms which rendered it impossible for the reader to suppose that
he was referring to a shovel. —

It is to be added, in enumerating the sources of Mr Greeley’s
strength as a journalist, that after the Tribune became well estab-
lished he made a large number of lecture tours. He addressed
lyceums, agricultural societies, mechanics’ institutes, chambers of
commerce and other bodies in various parts of the land, and in
addition did his share of stump-speaking here and there. He was
thus brought into personal contact with the people, and gained, at
first hand; an insight into their needs and aspirations which added
sensibly to his practical efficiency. He was proficient in few of the
arts of oratory and still was a popular speaker— your mere
elocutionist, however accomplished, is not listened to as attentively
as the man behind the gun, although the man distinctly falls “ below
Demosthenes or Cicero.” When Mr Greeley rose to speak, his
hearers said to one another, “ We will now hear from the man
behind the Tribune.” I have said that, although not an orator (in
the academic sense of the term), he was, nevertheless, a popular
speaker.

Andrew D. White, the distinguished ex-president of Cornell Uni-
versity, said of one of Mr Greeley’s speeches which he was privi-
leged to hear (and Mr White was a good judge of such matters) :
“T never heard a more simple, strong, lucid use of the English
language.” That was Horace Greeley, with tongue or with pen —
simple, strong and lucid.

I have thus glanced — there is time only for a glance — at funda-
mental things which went to the making of Greeley the journalist
and rendered him an influence whose extent and force it would be
difficult to overestimate. From the Atlantic to the Pacific he came
to be looked up to as the chief educator of his profession, the lead-
ing molder of public opinion, an inspiration to wholesome, progres-
sive, broad-gauge living. More than that, the masses, as they be-
II2 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

came acquainted with his personality, grew fond of him; for they
felt, and felt truly, that
“His heart was made of simple, manly stuff,
As home-spun as their own.”

It is to be noted that these parishioners of his did not invariably
say amen to his utterances. Now and then they distinctly disagreed
with him. Now and then they made light of some scheme of his
for accelerating the approach of the millennium. Now and then
they resented his attitude touching party principles or policies or
leaders. Now and then they called him a visionary. Not a few of
them repudiated his war policy and greeted his signing of Jefferson
Davis’s bail bond with “curses red with uncommon wrath.” But
one thing they did not do—they never really doubted him, never
withdrew their confidence from him. Their faith in the man was
founded on a rock. So it is that what Lowell said of another
illustrious American is emphatically true of Horace Greeley — he
was a “ standing testimonial to the cumulative power of character.”

Mr Greeley edited three newspapers before starting the Tribune —
preliminary flights to test the machine. The New Yorker was his
first venture—a weekly, so the prospectus ran— devoted to
“current literature, politics and general news.” It began in March
1834, and was discontinued in September 1841. Its demise was due
largely to the distressing circumstance that very many of its sub-
scribers never paid their bills. In his “ Recollections of a Busy
Life,’ Mr Greeley states that. when the paper stopped, these delin-
quents, who became permanent in their delinquency, owed him ten
thousand dollars. (It would appear from this that there were some
bad people in New York even in “the good old days.”) Mr
Greeley’s next newspaper was the Jeffersonian, a weekly campaign
sheet in the interest of the Whig party. Price fifty cents a year.
It was published in 1838-39 and was succeeded in 1840 by another
and much more important campaign paper, the Log Cabin. That
was the year when Willian. Henry Harrison was elected President
of the United States, and it is scarcely too much to assert that the
Log Cabin did as much to elect him as any other agency employed
in the canvass. It was, in fact, an ideal campaign paper, made up
of short, telling editorials, trenchant and witty paragraphs; wood
cuts, crude but entertaining and effective, and “ Tippecanoe”
songs, words and music, so “catchy” and so expressive of the
popular feeling that the country became vociferously vocal during
that Harrison campaign. With the Log Cabin Mr Greeley com-
pleted his newspaper novitiate; for on the roth of April 1841, he
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HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 113

issued the first number of the journal which was to win him im-
perishable fame — the New York Tribune.

All these papers, differing from one another in some respects,
had one noteworthy characteristic in common. They were clean
papers, wholesome papers, papers which did not pander, papers
which declined to make friends with the mammon of unrighteous-
ness. In his “ Recollections,” Mr Greeley directs attention to the
fact that the Jeffersonian “ carefully eschewed abuse, scurrility and
railing accusation.” The Log Cabin, which he states was “ more
lively and less sedately argumentative” than its predecessor, was
like it in avoiding abuse, scurrility and railing accusation. That it
was determined not to strike any foul blows is attested by a letter
which Mr Greeley wrote to one of his correspondents. In this
letter the correspondent is informed that “Articles assailing the
personal character of Mr Van Buren [who was General Harrison’s
competitor for the presidency] or of his supporters can not be
printed in the Cabin.” As for the Tribune, it made clear in its
prospectus that it was bent upon conforming its conduct to a high
moral standard. This is the essential part of the prospectus, ‘‘ The
Tribune, as its name imports, will labor to advance the interests
of the people and to promote their moral, social and political well-
being. The immoral and degrading police reports, advertisements
and other matter, which have been allowed to disgrace the columns
of our leading penny papers, will be carefully excluded from this,
and no exertion spared to render it worthy of the hearty approval
of the virtuous and refined and a welcome visitor at the fireside.”

Words are always cheap, but Mr Greeley conducted the Tribune
in accordance with what he thus promised. He made it the con-
servator of whatever things are pure, lovely and of good report.
He made it hospitable to science, to literature and the other arts,
fine or useful. Its columns were open to the discussion of any
cause — including some vagaries — which was decent. It was a
powerful and persistent champion of the rights of labor. Such was
its devotion to freedom and such its efficiency in battling against
her enemies, that Harper’s Weekly, in its leader on the death of
Mr Greeley, did not hesitate to declare that, ““ No single force in
educating the nation for the terrible struggle with slavery was so
powerful as the Tribune.” Horace Greeley, as thus revealed, was
a good and faithful servant of the people, a stalwart promoter of
the civilization which really civilizes.

A certain publication was once characterized as a newspaper
“ for which there is always a market but never an enthusiasm.”
II4 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr Greeley, while not lacking a decent respect for the almighty
dollar, aimed primarily to furnish his readers with a paper which
would command their enthusiasm. “To do good,” he said in one
of his occasional addresses, “is the proper business of life; to
qualify for earnestness and efficiency in doing good, is the true
end of education; the sum of all the knowledge in the child is the
consciousness that he lives not for himself, but for his Creator and
his race.” Mr Greeley’s course as a journalist was in harmony
with that exalted conception of the purpose of human life. He
did, indeed, labor strenuously to make his paper marketable — an
eight-hour law for others but a sixteen-hour law for Greeley, would
seem to have been his way of disposing of one phase of the labor
question — but it was not in the man to strive for material success
at the expense of principle. It followed, of course, that the assump-
tion that a newspaper is a “ business enterprise,” never impressed
him. His career justified the inference that in his view a newspaper
is not a business enterprise in any sense which puts it in a different
class, so far as moral obligation is concerned, from that in which
the business enterprise of preaching the Gospel belongs. In other
words, it was Mr Greeley’s conviction that the editor of a newspaper
in his sanctum in the discharge of the duties of his vocation, is
just as amenable to the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, the
precepts of the Sermon on the Mount as the minister in his pulpit
in the discharge of the duties of his vocation. It behooves the
minister to preach the truth as he sees it, whether men will hear or
whether they will forbear. It no less behooves the editor — so Mr
Greeley held, and he “ put his creed into his deed ’’— to print only
what he himself regards as reputable, whether men take or refuse
to take his paper.

Mr Greeley had a decided opinion on the much-mooted question
as to what a newspaper ought and ought not to print. One of the
current New York dailies takes for its motto, “ All the news that’s
fit to print”; the motto of another is “ All the news that is news.”
Charles A. Dana, in an address before a newspaper association,
defined news to be “anything which interests the people.” He
went on to say that, “ Whatever Divine Providence permits to occur
I am not too proud to print.” Mr Greeley, on the other hand, in a
letter written to Mr Dana while that gentleman was a member of
the Tribune staff, exclaimed, “Oh, my friend, the wisdom which
teaches us what should not be said, that is the hardest to be ac-
quired of all!” Mr Greeley did not believe in reporting “ whatever
Divine Providence permitted to occur.” He drew the line some-
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL II5

where. Divine Providence permitted Sodom and Gomorra to occur.
But, judging from the convictions which Mr Greeley expressed on
the subject of newspaper publicity, he would have held that an
unvarnished report of the doings at Sodom and Gomorra, when the
lid was off, would have been eligible only for the wastebasket.

Mr Greeley was profoundly in earnest. There was nothing per-
functory, nothing lukewarm in his journalistic work. His utter-
ances had their root in strong convictions. Henry J. Raymond was
credited with saying to a friend that he himself never finished a
sentence without a profound feeling that it was only partially true.
Mr Greeley was too thoroughgoing, too decided in his opinions,
to have experienced such a feeling. It is related of Charles Sumner
that once in the United States Senate, while he was indulging in
a peculiarly fierce philippic against slavery, a fellow senator ven-
tured to ask him to consider the other side. “ Sir,’ thundered
Sumner, “ there isn’t any other side.” When Greeley sat down to
express his views on slavery, protection, Whiggism, Republicanism,
Henry Clay, or on any of his other favorite themes, there wasn’t
any other side, so far as he was concerned. He wrote with the
serene confidence of one who is enunciating axioms, and, although
his utterances did not invariably harmonize with one another —
the utterances of progressive men seldom do — there was an air of
something very like infallibility about them. It was not unnatural,
therefore, that the Tribune came to be regarded by many of its
readers as of only less authority than the Bible itself. Mr Depew,
at the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Tribune, brought
out this circumstance in his own characteristically racy way. We
quote from his address: ‘“ ‘Why do you look so gloomy?’ said a
traveler riding along the highway in the Western Reserve, in the
old antislavery days, to a farmer who was sitting moodily on a
fence. ‘ Because,’ said the farmer, ‘my Democratic friend next
door got the best of me in an argument last night. But when I
get my semiweekly Tribune tomorrow I’ll knock the foundations
all out from under him.’ When I was a lad in the country,” Mr
Depew continued, “I have frequently observed a man drive in ten
miles to the village post office for his weekly Tribune, and the same
person, when term closed, came up to the academy for his boy. I
could see no difference in the affectionate tenderness and eager
pleasure with which he grasped his paper or embraced his son.”

What a political journalist Horace Greeley was! In a popular
government such as ours, a government through parties, politics
is virtually a continuous performance. While he was as yet but a
116 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

little more than a baby he became immersed in politics and he
remained immersed in them as long as he lived. He may not,
indeed, have compiled election returns in his cradle, but he informs
us that he was “an ardent politician when not yet half old enough
to vote.” In his “ Recollections” he recollects more politics than
anything else. He came to know the political complexion of the
entire country about as thoroughly as a ward leader knows the
politics of his ward. One of the stories illustrative of his genius
for remembering election figures relates that a messenger came
into the Tribune office the night of a presidential election with
telegrams, one of which read that a certain small town in southern
Ohio had given the Republican ticket a majority of two hundred.
Mr Greeley listened while the telegram was being read and then
observed, “ That town gave us two hundred and twenty majority
the last time.” He was an indefatigable and enthusiastic party man,
striving with all his might for Whig or Republican success. Never-
theless, he refused to allow politics to interfere with the exercise
of his private judgment. To employ a political phrase, politics
never got the delegates away from his independence. He per-
manently retained the captaincy of his own soul. “TI accept un-
reservedly,” he once wrote, “the views of no man, dead or living.
“The master has said it,’ was never conclusive with me. Even
though I have found him right nine times, I do not take his tenth
proposition on trust; unless that also be proved sound I reject it.”
In accordance with this unreserved declaration of independence was
the fair warning which he addressed to whom it might concern, in
starting the Tribune, that the paper was not going to be a sub-
servient party organ. “ Earnestly believing,” he frankly said, “ that
the political revolution which has called William Henry Harrison
to the chief magistracy of the nation was a triumph of right, reason
and public good over error and sinister ambition, the Tribune will
give to the new administration a frank and cordial but manly and
independent support, judging it always by its acts and commending
those only so far as they shall seem calculated to subserve the great
end of all government — the welfare of the people.” To the same
effect, but more emphatic, is the account which he gives in his
“ Recollections” of the place in New York journalism which he
intended that the Tribune should make for itself. ‘‘ My leading
idea was,” he explains, “the establishment of a journal removed
alike from servile partisanship, on the one hand, and from gagged,
mincing neutrality on the other. . . . I believed there was a
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 117

happy medium between these extremes —a position from which a
journalist might openly and heartily advocate the principles and
commend the measures of that party to which his convictions allied
him, yet frankly dissent from its course on a particular question,
and even denounce its candidates if they were shown to be deficient
in capacity or (far worse) in integrity.” Roscoe Conkling once
affirmed that he did not know how to belong to a party a little.
Mr Greeley fought a good fight for the Whig party and for the
Republican party. Neither of these organizations had in its ser-
vice a stouter champion than he. But, although he did not belong
to them a “little,” but a great deal, he did not belong to either so
much as to hesitate to criticize party measures or party representa-
tives whenever the conclusion was forced upon him that they
deserved criticism. ‘‘ To thine own self be true” was an admoni-
tion to which he ever rendered implicit obedience.

I have thus touched upon the leading sources of Mr Greeley’s
conspicuous success as a journalist. It was a logical success — the
natural result of a wise use of great gifts and great opportunities.
Wendell Phillips, while sharply assailing the newspaper press, paid
it what was really a superb compliment. He gave it as his opinion
that America owed to the newspapers one-half, if not more, of her
development. It is not too much to assert that Horace Greeley
contributed in a greater degree than any other journalist of his
day to that development, by his incessant activity in behalf of the
forces which make for progress of the best sort.

I am tempted, before concluding, to tell two stories about Mr
Greeley of which I am especially, fond. One of them was a favorite
of George William Curtis, and this is his version of it:

“ When Horace Greeley was in Paris he was one morning looking
with an American friend at the pictures of the Louvre and talking
of this country. ‘ The fact is,’ said Mr Greeley, ‘ that what we need
is a darned good licking.’ An Englishman who stood by and heard
the conversation smiled eagerly as if he knew a nation that would
like to administer the castigation. ‘ Yes, sir,’ said he complacently,
rubbing his hands with appetite and joining in the conversation,
‘that is just what you do want.’ ‘ But the difficulty is,’ continued
Mr Greeley to his friend, as if he had heard nothing, ‘ the difficulty
is that there is no nation in the world that can lick us.’”

The other story was told me by the late Clinton B. Fisk — for
whom possibly some of you failed to vote when he was the Pro-
hibition candidate for the presidency in 1888. I met Mr Fisk at
a Rutgers College dinner, and in the course of conversation Mr
118 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Greeley was mentioned. “I knew Mr Greeley very well,” said
Mr Fisk, “and had many a long talk with him. After the Civil
War we were accustomed when we met to discuss it from many
points of view. I recall an occasion when Mr Greeley concluded all
he had to say in regard to a certain point by remarking, * Clinton,
the more I think of it the more firmly convinced I become that just
as soon as the war was over we ought to have freely and fully
forgiven all our southern brethren — the devil take them!’”” The
story illustrated what his war policy always revealed, his loving
kindness toward the South, and emphasized in a droll way, that in
spite of that loving kindness, he had become very tired of the
southern question.

Members of Typographical Union No. 6, you may well be proud
that this illustrious American who began the battle of life as a
typesetter, a veritable printer’s devil, was one of the founders and
the first president of your organization. You do well to celebrate
the centennial of his birth, for to ponder upon what Horace Greeley
was and did is an exercise at once pleasant and profitable. It is a
potent incentive to worthy living. It refreshes our faith in human
nature. It is full of encouragement to the youth of our land who
find themselves, as he found himself when a lad, poor and friend-
less, at the foot of the ladder of fortune. Mr Greeley has taken
his place in history as one of the leaders of the journalism of the
nineteenth century. He had his eccentricities, his weaknesses, his
limitations. No man of his day had more fun poked at him or
was a more frequent target for caricature. But he could have dis-
posed of his critics by saying to them what Cromwell said to the
artist to whom he was sitting for his portrait, “ Paint me as I am,
warts and all.” Cromwell could afford to be thus painted because
he was Cromwell. Today Horace Greeley looms large, and his
shortcomings seem but the small dust of the balance because they
were the shortcomings of such a man. One of his biographers
asserts that Mr Greeley never was a “man of the world.” No, he
was not; but a man does not have to be that sort of a man to be a
man of the best kind. Indeed, there is the highest authority for
holding that to “become as a little child” is to attain to what is
best in manhood. Mr Greeley possessed in its fulness the childlike
spirit. He had a child’s enthusiasm, a child’s tenderness of heart,
a child’s confiding disposition, a child’s unsophisticated simplicity.
His life was a strenuous one, full of vicissitudes. Neglect, appre-
ciation, joy, sorrow, failure, success, obscurity, fame — he experi-
enced all of them but was overcome by none. He knew how to be
 

From collection political tokens State Historian J, A. Holden
CAMPAIGN OF 1860

Badges worn by partizans of the principal parties of that period with
arare ‘ Jeff Davis” medalet
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL Tig

abased and how to abound and in all times of his prosperity and
in all times of his adversity he kept faith with the ideals which
dominated his soul when, before he had attained to man’s estate,
he came to New York to seek his fortune. It is as a journalist
that I have been considering him, but because what the catechism
calls “the chief end of man” is not achievement but character, I
prefer, in closing my address, to contemplate Mr Greeley apart from
his vocation as a member of that Brotherhood of Man whose wel-
fare he did so much to promote. When Walter Scott realized that
for him the “inevitable hour” was about to strike, he gave his
son-in-law, Lockhart, to whom he was devotedly attached, a fare-
well greeting, and, although Sir Walter was one of the leading
literary lights of his age, literature had no place in that valedictory.
He simply said to Lockhart, so one of his biographers tells us,
“Be a good man, my dear.” If Horace Greeley, in response to the
numberless expressions of love and admiration which his one
hundredth birthday has inspired could send a message to you and
the rest who celebrate him, we may be sure that he would say
something which would make for the betterment of all classes and
conditions of humanity. There was much in his sterling manhood
which suggested Abraham Lincoln. They had their differences in
war times, but were ever closely allied by the fervent, unselfish
patriotism which they possessed in common. So there is full warrant
for believing that the centennial message of Horace Greeley would
harmonize with, and perchance re-echo, the solemn admonition which
Abraham Lincoln addressed to his countrymen from the hallowed
ground of Gettysburg, ‘‘ See to it that government of the people,
by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

LETTERS

So far as is known, the oldest printer in the metropolis who holds
a certificate of membership signed by Horace Greeley as president
of the New York Printers’ Union is Charles Vogt, who was born
in 1823. We quote part of his letter, which was read at the
meeting:

“A desire to add a meed of praise and admiration to that of the
host of others has induced me to note a few incidents in the life of
Horace Greeley, that grand old man, whom I saw quite early in
his professional career ; when he was exerting all his intellectual and
physical powers to achieve success in establishing the New Yorker
in 1838, when the office was located in the rear building of 29 Ann
street. There were three hands besides myself — Mr Bowe, the
120 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

foreman, Mr Winchester and Mr Swain, who set up the piece of
music that always graced the last page of that popular newspaper.
Mr Greeley would often ‘lend a hand’ when the paper was behind,
by setting up a few stickfuls. His bent attitude while standing at
the case, and bobbing motion while setting type, are vividly impressed
on my memory. If he ‘ pied’ a line, his proverbial equanimity was
not disturbed thereby. Apropos of pie, it was his custom every
Saturday at noon—the paper having been printed and mailed —
to provide what was designated as a ‘pie gorge,’ to which
we were freely invited. About a dozen good-sized pies, fresh
from the famous pie bakery of Russel, in Spruce street, would
grace the imposing stone. Ample justice was done to the
delicious pastries, especially by the great editor himself, who, re-
leased from the week’s toil and anxiety, gave full rein to his natural
flow of humor, and indulged in witticisms and anecdotes that were
a feast for the soul, besides being a digestive assistant. ;

“ Notwithstanding the financial difficulties that beset him while
publishing the New Yorker, he never failed to pay his hands
promptly every cent they had earned. He seemed to regard that
obligation as a sacred one; and so, too, with regard to the same ob-
ligations to the Tribune printers. He was truly the workingman’s
best friend in all that the term implies, as his newspaper fully evi-
denced.”

These letters were received from Mr W. D. Howells, the author,
and Mr H. M. Alden, editor of Harper’s Magazine:

Hamilton, Bermuda, Jan. 17, 1911
Dear Mr McCase:

I should be glad and proud to come to No. 6’s celebration of the
Greeley centenary. But I am almost a hundred years old myself,
by my personal almanac, which has been sent forward by two attacks
of the grippe, and I can only join you in the cordial sense of unity
which never ceases to bind printers together. Greeley was one of
the best of us, and we ought to keep his memory green.

Yours sincerely
W. D. Howe Lis

New York, January 26, 1911
Dear Mr McCase:
As I live in the country and am much enfeebled by recent illness,
I am unable to accept the kind invitation of your committee to the
meeting commemorating the centenary of Horace Greeley’s birth.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL iat

Along with Lincoln and old Ben Franklin, Horace Greeley ranks
as a singular type, eminently original and individual, of the plain
American ; and it is peculiarly fitting that this centenary of his birth
should be celebrated under the auspices of Typographical Union
No. 6, of which he was the first president.

With hearty sympathy with your undertaking

Yours faithfully
H. M. ALDEN
THE DEDICATION OF THE MONU-
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THE DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT,
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The statue itself, picturesquely located, overlooking the grounds
which Greeley so dearly loved and on which he found rest and
recreation in rustic, open-air employments and in farming, is the
logical climax of the sentiments aroused by the centenary memorials
held in Greeley’s honor in many different parts of the country.

Here we may well recall what Greeley said of his “ house in the
woods ” as he affectionately called his Chappaqua home: “I think
we all as we grow old, love to feel and know that some spot of earth
is peculiarly our own— ours to possess and to enjoy, ours to im-
prove and to transmit to our children.”

Though the weather was unfavorable, the roads and fields were
thronged with people intent to see the enduring memorial and to
listen to the eulogies that were to form part of the ceremonies of
the unveiling. So eager and interested was everybody in what was
going on that no one seemed to care for the wind or the drizzling
rain.

The holiday spirit was in the air, and there was evident a feeling
of satisfaction that Chappaqua village had at last a statue worthy
of her hero and of the affection that was felt for him by the old
friends who knew him and by the younger folks whom the tradi-
tion of their elders had taught to love him.

Benignant, beaming and thankful, in mien and feature very like
her father, was Mrs Gabrielle Greeley Clendenin, the picture of
joy, as she pulled the string that drew apart the banner of the
Stars and Stripes, revealing the wonderful bronze figure upon its
beautiful pedestal. The goal had been reached. The people felt
that the labors of the memorial committee of the Chappaqua His-
torical Society had been crowned with success.

The well-arranged program for the unveiling of the statue was
carried out under the careful supervision of President John I. D.
Bristol, who neglected nothing to do justice to the occasion.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Rev. Otis Tiffany Barnes, Pastor of the First Congregational
Church at Chappaqua, was the temporary chairman, and addressed
an assemblage of some eight hundred people in the following words:
We have assembled here this afternoon to honor the memory of
a great and good man, Horace Greeley. At a considerable expendi-
125
126 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

ture of time and labor and thought and money, a statue of this
famous man has been erected, and we are at this time to witness its
unveiling and its formal dedication with appropriate ceremonies.

It is my privilege to welcome you to these exercises in the name
of the Chappaqua Historical Society, a society founded to per-
petuate records of great lives and noteworthy events connected with
our community, “to summon up remembrance of things past” —
lest we forget. We, the people of this community, are proud of
the fact that the name of Chappaqua is inseparably joined with the
name of this great, good man. We admire his wisdom, we reverence
his character, we cherish his high ideals and principles, we honor
him for his influence in national affairs and for his associations in
the life of this community. We are glad that strangers are met
with us today — representatives of city, State and the press.

To one and all we extend a cordial, hearty welcome —to the
members of his family, to those who knew and loved him, to his
friends and associates and to all who have come out of interest or
curiosity. We welcome you, and we would bid you remember, as
we listen to the addresses which are to follow, that, in the words
of the poet:

When a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken :
The light he leaves behind him,
Lies upon the paths of men.

There is light upon our paths today, and it shines from the life of
Horace Greeley.

The invocation will now be pronounced by the Rev. Dr Clendenin.

ADDRESS AND INVOCATION
REV. DR F. M. CLENDENIN

For the little book I hold in my hand, I searched the land over
for some twenty years but in vain, there being as far as I could
learn but one copy left in the world. This copy I could secure with
neither love nor money, but last year the owner of it — Mr William
Erving — gave it to Mrs Clendenin with some very tender and
affectionate words regarding her good father.

It is a book which, humanly speaking, kept Horace Greeley in
New York, making it the center of his active life, for, when he was
about to leave New York, discouraged because he could not find
employment there, he was given the work of setting the type of
 

DR AND MRS CLENDENIN AND DAUGHTER GABRIELLE
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 127

this little New Testament, printed by John T. West & Company
in 1832. How nearly he came to returning to some country print-
ing office, his own words show: “TI returned to my lodging on Sat-
urday evening, thoroughly weary, disheartened and disgusted with
New York, and resolved to shake its dust from my feet next Mon-
day morning, while I could still leave with money in my pocket,
and before its almshouse could foreclose upon me.” From this book,
which in so many ways deeply influenced his life, it would seem
fitting that I read some words before the invocation which is to
follow.

(Dr Clendenin here read the Beatitudes from the fifth chapter of
Saint Matthew; and offered the following prayer:)

O God our Father, the fountain of all wisdom, the source of all
strength, we, Thy children, desire to invoke on this and on.all our
work Thy Heavenly benediction.

We thank Thee for the courage that has enabled Thy servants
in every age to bear witness for truth and righteousness and to
defend by word and deed the downtrodden and oppressed.

Especially we thank Thee for the life and work of him whose
image and memorial we here this day unveil.

We thank Thee for his stainless and upright life, for his clear
vision of duty, for his fearless loyalty to what he believed to be
the truth, for his unflinching devotion to the cause of the slave and
his undying hatred of all tyranny and of all injustice and wrong.

We pray Thee, Almighty God, that, as this memorial shall stand
here through the years to come, men may see in it the image of
an honest and fearless life, and that discouraged hearts, as they
pass by, may find new courage in this silent presence, and may
see in it how neither poverty nor obscurity, loneliness nor misun-
derstanding need dismay a man who strives for the best, in the
fear of God, and with the gifts that God has given him.

We thank Thee that in his life we may recall the example of
one who truly loved his neighbor as himself and who also so regu-
larly bowed head and heart in deep and reverent worship of Thee.
Bless and prosper, we pray Thee, this place and village which for
so many years gave rest to his body, with cheer and comfort to
his mind and heart. Guide and keep this land and nation he so
truly loved. And grant that, having served Thee in our generation,
we may await like him “ with an awe that is not fear and with a
consciousness of demerit which does not exclude hope, the opening
of the gates of the Eternal World.” We ask this and all else in the
name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
128 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr Barnes: It is most fitting, of course, that a member of Mr
Greeley’s family unveil the statue. This honor has been given to
Mrs Clendenin, daughter of Mr Greeley, who will now unveil the
statue.

The statue was unveiled by Mrs Clendenin, amid the cheers of
the assemblage.

Mr Barnes: Most of us know, I suppose, that this statue was
erected largely through the tireless labors of one man, who is now
to address us, a man who in many ways has benefited our com-
munity, a man who, becoming vitalized by the life of Horace Gree-
ley, resolved that his statue should be erected here. We speak of
Horace Greeley as the Grand Old Man of Chappaqua. I want to
introduce to you a grand man, the Grand Young Man of Chappa-
qua, one who, though advanced in years, yet with the passage of each
year grows younger and brighter and more blooming — the Grand
Young Man of Chappaqua— our genial friend and neighbor, Mr
John I. D. Bristol.

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

JOHN I. D. BRISTOL, PRESIDENT OF THE CHAPPAQUA HISTORICAL
SOCIETY

Crowding upon my mind, on this splendid occasion, are the epi-
grammatic utterances of those great Americans whose names are
so dear to us, whose achievements constitute so much of our history,
and whose lives afford such grand examples for all to emulate.

These ever-living expressions were born in periods when men
rose to heights of grander manhood: in the early struggles for
national life; during the dark Revolutionary days when the fate
of an infant nation hung in the balance of war and desolation; when
the stirring events of the War of 1812 were rapidly making history ;
during the mental strain of the Rebellion’s exciting days; and in
the later periods, when peace followed war — calming the fears and
passions of men.

These inspiring American utterances are our inherited legacies —
the constellations that will ever gleam in the enduring skies of
national memory. They are the utterances that created, fostered.
sustained and perpetuated that American patriotism and mentality
which must, in the end, evolve a long-continued era of progression
that will ultimately prove the parent of a nobler humanity and es-
tablish the universal brotherhood of man.
 

Albert E. Henschel Miss Ruth Erlich
2 John I. D. Bristol, president
Edwin! Bedell, secretary Miss Edith Dorothea Bedell

PERSONS PROMINENT IN MONUMENT UNVEILING, CHAPPAQUA,
FEBRUARY 3, 1914

 

.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 129

In.the Virginia House of Burgesses, in May 1765, a new member,
a young American at the age of twenty-nine, introduced a resolution
opposing the stamp act, and, in supporting his measure, said: “ Cae-
sar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George
the Third ——” (“ Treason!” cried the speaker of the house, and
from all parts of the assemblage the cry was echoed.) History
relates that, “ with a voice of thunder and the look of a god,” the
young orator continued, “ may profit by their example! If this
be treason, make the most of it!”

Were not these words of Patrick Henry the forerunners of a
newly created mentality, which, ten years later, received with uni-
versal acclaim his immortal utterance: “Give me liberty, or give
me death!” ?

The foundation of all goodness and all greatness is the quickening
intensity and the stimulated association of the mental faculties from
which these higher and grander traits of character are derived. The
firm and emphatic promulgation of the action of these faculties,
through the medium of expression, has everything to do with the
growth and cultivation of a like mentality in others.

What political “ grafter’”’ or demagogue of today can read the
reply of General Reed, of Revolutionary fame, when offered a
tempting bribe, and not feel a sense of burning shame at his words:
“IT am poor, very poor, but your King is not rich enough to buy
me! ”?

What American can ever be unpatriotic, in recalling that Nathan
Hale, when he was about to-be executed as a spy, said: “I only
regret that I have but one life to lose for my country!’’?

What mind can fail to be inspired to a greater sense of right and
goodness, by these words of President Garfield: “A noble life,
crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the pride and
pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the earth”?

When perverted caution acts, and despair with depressing touch
blights our hope, how cheering are the words of that naval wonder,
John Paul Jones, who, when asked by the captain of the English
ship, Serapis, if he had struck his colors, sent over the smoke-laden,
wave-tossed ocean, this characteristic reply: “I have not yet begun
to fight!”

Or, when oppressed with difficulties that o’erwhelm our personal-
ity, how inspiring it is to recall the epigrammatic signal of General
Sherman, wig-wagged from the heights of Kenesaw to the foe-
surrounded General Corse at Allatoona: “Hold the fort! 7 am
coming!”

 
I30 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

As “Peace hath her victories no less renown’d than war,” so
are great utterances in peaceful times no less inspiring than when
the land is rent with calls to arms, the parades of soldiers and the
sorrowing for the dead and dying. How true it is, that the national
conscience has been grandly stimulated by one of the most sublime
utterances of men, that of Henry Clay, who said: “I would rather
be right, than be President!”

So, too, Daniel Webster’s “ Liberty and Union, now and forever,
one and inseparable!” and Abraham Lincoln’s “ Government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth” are words that have made history, for such utterances are
the foundations upon which nations are built.

When Washington, at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, in the
modesty and worth of his character, said, amid the wild cheering
of his troops, “ Let posterity cheer for us,” he left in these words
an inspiration for all who strive to benefit humanity.

American thought and mental progress, those great factors of
human happiness, are closely associated with the many epigrammatic
utterances with which the pages of our history abound. We can
allude to but few of these — regretting the omission of so many
with which the student of history is familiar and which have added
to the lasting fame of Stark, Paine, Lawrence, Perry, Jackson, Cal-
houn, Taylor, Toombs, Ingersoll, and hundreds of other Americans
on whom Time will bestow the chaplet of growing reverence.

The utterances of these men are characteristic of their greatness.
A sentence that lives through the ages, is but an expression of the
mind that gave it birth. How more wonderful by far, the mentality
whence the expression emanated!

The man whose earthly immortality we are seeking today to
perpetuate by the unveiling of this magnificent monument, gave
utterance to many great truths. From his twenty-fourth year, in
1834, when the first number of the New Yorker was issued, down
through the seven years subsequent to April toth of 1841, the birth-
day of the New York Tribune, and especially in the columns of
that widely known publication, the intellectual and moral supremacy
of Horace Greeley was manifest in utterances that were peculiarly
his own, and these utterances had much to do with the real progress
that humanity has made.

And, though an agitator of tremendous power, there breathed
through the speeches and writings of Horace Greeley, the tones
of moderation and of candor, and ahove all, the rare spirit of a
gentle humanity. He was a master of the language of the higher
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 131

faculties of men. Gifted as he was, with a supreme knowledge of
human nature, he knew that, normally, reason does not storm, con-
scientiousness parade in the grotesque dress of bluster, nor benevo-
lence advertise its good deeds.

With what a feeling of admiration and wonder do we contem-
plate today, the wide and varied range of the utterances of this
one man! His opposition to human slavery, his liberal religious con-
victions, his strong advocacy of temperance, his all-powerful argu-
ments in favor of the protection of American industries, his fre-
quently expressed opinions on the practical affairs of life, including
marriage and divorce, the constant calls upon him for addresses at
agricultural fairs, and the discussions of the great questions of the
day upon the lecture platform — all gave him opportunities such as
fell to the lot of no other American, to give utterance to views and
suggestions befitting these great occasions. And can any one at
this day doubt that the wide popularity of Horace Greeley arose
from the able manner in which he satisfied the growing intelligence
of his large and numerous audiences?

One of the most famous of his utterances — a sentence of but six
words — sent, it is estimated, over two million of the younger and
brighter men of the East into the western states. After securing
their fortunes and competencies there, many of them returned to
their eastern homes and became leaders in finance, science, educa-
tion, and reformatory measures. And all were thankful to our
great adviser for having said, “ Go west, young man, go west!”

As the mind of Horace Greeley was chiefly manifested through
its higher faculties, his talents were, naturally, associated with the
great economic reforms of the day. Had he lived in our time, we
feel that he would have been chiefly noted in two directions — the
radical reformation of our currency system, and as an advocate of
universal peace. Had Greeley and Webster been of our generation,
the great Massachusetts Senator, echoing the praise he gave to Alex-
ander Hamilton, might well have said of our Chappaqua reformer:
“He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams
of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public
credit, and it sprang upon its feet.”

Certainly, Horace Greeley could not have rested under the pres-
ent growing financial plight of our own and other countries, arising
from the lessening gold value year by year being held as uniform
and unchanging, with the result that all necessities of life must rise
in the scale of price to meet a wholly fictitious standard.

General Grant, in his letter of May 29, 1868, accepting the nomi-
132 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

nation to the presidency, placed upon the enduring records this
sublime utterance: “‘ Let us have peace!” Had Horace Greeley
lived in our day, the question of universal peace with him would not
have been a minor one, to be restricted to the dissemination of peace
literature, after-dinner speeches, or as a factor in the education of
school children.

In place of all of this, our great reformer would have advocated
some such measure as the sending of a national committee of ten
or twenty eminent Americans to the Court of St James, with con-
vincing peace arguments, and looking to the addition to that com-
mittee of the same number of prominent Englishmen, for a like
visit to the War Lord of Germany. Then, with the addition of the
same number of leading Germans, the committee would have pro-
ceeded to Paris; and so on, in a round of visits to all the great cap-
itals and rulers of the world, carrying with it the unanswerable argu-
ments of peace, with the ultimate result that a universal treaty
among all intelligent and progressive nations would have been en-
tered into, and-war and its ravages be no more.

When we consider that the war expenditure of the United States
during the last fiscal year—a period of peace — amounted to the
enormous sum of $470,063,369, while the salaries of all teachers
in the public schools of the country in 1911 —the latest available
data — were but $266,678,471; that the cost of one of our great
battleships exceeds that of any one of several of our most prominent
colleges; that the cost of firing a single one of the great guns of
these floating fortresses of steel would maintain a college student
for ten months; and that, under the militia law of January 21, 1903,
as amended by the act of May 27, 1908, over sixteen million of our
citizens are subject to military duty — should we not be appalled at
these indications of the primitive and undeveloped mental condition
of our legislators responsible for these barriers upon the road of
progress ?

Were but a small proportion of this enormous expenditure ap-
plied to the perpetuation of the name and fame of our great scient-
ists, educators and reformers, by means of statues in the public
squares of our cities and the playgrounds of our schools, a grander
mentality of American character would be apparent in but a few
generations to come.

To what other economic uses the enormous war expenditures of
the United States could be devoted, if all of the nations of the world
were to be converted to lasting peace! It would revolutionize our
roads, our harbors, our public buildings and our libraries; house
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 133

all of our insane in homes of mental recovery; employ all of our
Edisons, Marconis and Burbanks, for a lifetime of public education;
and establish free colleges and seats of learning in every state of
our Union.

The Chappaqua Historical Society has had no governmental aid
in the erection of this splendid depiction of greatness. It is the
result of the love and reverence borne by nearly two hundred people
for the memory of him who was philosopher, reformer, and Ameri-
ca’s greatest editor — him whom the gentle Whittier called “ Our
later Franklin.” Comprised in the list of contributors to this work,
are the millionaire and the man of limited means, the teacher and
the scholar, the citizen of foreign birth and American-born, the man
and the woman; and this great committee of representative Ameri-
cans, on this, the one hundred and third anniversary of the birth of
him who knew no fear when Right stood by his side, is consecrating
this splendid example of the sculptor’s art to Chappaqua, to beau-
tiful Westchester county, to the country and to the future of our
land.

Who can imagine or dream of the wonders that will evolve during
the years that this statue is to endure? Our country’s growth, its
prosperity, the discoveries and inventions in all the material things
that will so greatly enhance the happiness of its people, its develop-
ments in education, art and economics, the newer and more just
treatment of the criminal and the insane, the adjustment of the
many vexed questions of capital and labor, and the evolvement of a
new political economy and a greater statesmanship — all of which
were favorite and constant topics of thought and discussion with
Horace Greeley.

May this statue recall and aid to perpetuate for future genera-
tions, the intellectual power, the goodness, the kindness, the great-
ness and the marvel of intuitive perception that knew and felt the
wants of the people in all walks of life, possessed by the man of
whom Bayard Taylor has said: ‘“ There were three things which
he could never learn: to mistrust human nature, to refuse help when-
ever he could give it. and to disguise his honest opinions.”

This generation is wiser and better in that Horace Greeley was
so commanding a figure in the generation that preceded it. What
a lesson for the future of the race! One great man of one genera-
tion, making millions better in the generation that follows! How
powerful a factor in evolving all that is great and good within us.
arises from the emulation of the character of those rare children
of Nature, about whose brows are entwined the wreaths of goodness
134 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

and intellectual power! They are the moulders of the mental des-
tiny of the race! They are the men whose portraits, in the grandeur
of art, should adorn the walls of our schoolhouses! They are the
men whose statues, in ever enduring bronze, should grace the parks
of our land! They are the men of whom poets will write, as Ed-
mund Clarence Stedman has written of Horace Greeley:
He lives wherever men to men
In perilous hours his words repeat,
Where clangs the forge, where glides the pen,
Where toil and traffic crowd the street;
And in whatever time or place
Earth’s purest souls their purpose strengthen,

Down the broad pathway of our race
The shadow of his name shall lengthen.

At this point, Mr Bristol assumed the chairmanship of the
meeting.

PRESIDENT BristoL: In introducing to you our next speaker, it
seems fitting to say that, wherever the pathway of civilization leads
and in all lands where refinement has had its birth, the surest sign of
a truly evolved manhood is a respect and reverence for woman.

Horace Greeley, very early in his life, strongly evinced this splen-
did trait of character. It is well, therefore, that a woman should
address us.

A great pleasure is now afforded ottr committee, in making you
acquainted with Miss Edith Dorothea Bedell.

HORACE GREELEY AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE
EDITH -DOROTHEA BEDELL

I have been asked to say a few words today, because, as captain
of this district of the New York Suffrage Association, I represent
the cause which Mr Greeley at one time advocated — the cause of
woman suffrage.

Woman suffrage is no longer an experiment, as it was in Mr
Greeley’s time. It has existed in many countries for years; and its
success is shown by the fact that it is slowly but surely spreading
over the whole world. Women are now voting in Australia, New
Zealand, Finland and Norway; and in our own country in the states
of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado,
Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Illinois and in Alaska. In Wyoming,
where women have had the franchise since 1869, suffragists for the
last twenty years have had a standing challenge to their opponents
 

 

Perry Brevoort Turner Marsden G. Scott
Richard E. Day Litt.D.
William Henry Deacy Jacob Erlich

SPEAKERS AT MONUMENT DEDICATION
Chappaqua, February 3, 1914
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 135

to find, in all Wyoming, two respectable men who will assert over
their own signatures that woman suffrage has had any bad effect
whatever. So far there has not been a single response.

To me, many of whose ancestors fought in the Colonial Wars,
in the War of the Revolution, in the War of 1812, whose great-
great grandmother, a friend of Jenny McCrea, was one of the young
girls who strewed flowers in the path of General Washington on his
way to take command of the Continental army, with all the tradi-
tions that this involves, it is humiliating to be obliged to ask men
of an alien race, as I have done in this town, if they will consent
to give me the vote in 1915. And yet we women have to ask them
in order to obtain it. Our men have thoughtlessly placed us in that
position.

After the Civil War Mr Greeley asserted that women were more
fit to cope with civic problems than men who had been away from
home for several years, fighting. He has been accused af leaving the
suffragists in the lurch when it came to the final test. But, whether
he did or not, as he believed in woman suffrage, I hope that his
statue here will be a constant reminder to the men of Chappaqua
that they themselves will be obliged to help decide our fate — the
fate of New York — in 1915,

PRESIDENT Bristot: After hearing Miss Bedell, the conclusion
seems irresistible that the girls in our school today, as well as the
boys, will hold the suffrage destiny of our country in their hands
in but a few years.

We should, therefore, call upon one of our school children to
speak of the usefulness this monument will have in molding their
future.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Master Perry Brevoort Turner.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ON BEHALF OF THE SCHOOL
CHILDREN OF CHAPPAQUA

PERRY BREVOORT TURNER (EIGHT YEARS OLD)

On behalf of the school children of Chappaqua, and in their
name, I have been delegated to express our thanks to the Chappaqua
Historical Society for this beautiful statue of Horace Greeley.

It will always be an inspiration to us; and, when we look upon it,
we shall be reminded how a poor, struggling boy was not only able
to educate himself, under the most trying difficulties, but became one
of the foremost men of his time.
136 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

PresIDENT BristoL: One of the great workers in the cause of the

creation of a proper memorial to Horace Greeley was Mr Jacob
Erlich, the treasurer of the Chappaqua Historical Society, and of
its Horace Greeley memorial committee.
» Without Mr Erlich’s efforts, we doubt that the statue would now
have graced this site. Our unveiling committee greatly regret that
Mr Erlich is confined to his home by illness. We all know how
much he regrets his utter inability to be with us.

His daughter, Miss Ruth Erlich, has kindly consented to read
what her father would have said to us, and we now take great
pleasure in presenting Miss Erlich.

ADDRESS OF JACOB ERLICH
(Read by Ruth Erlich)

Greeley’s life is one about which every American should know
something. The centennial of his birth was celebrated in many
parts of the country, and particularly in this place where he had
built his homestead and lived to the end of his days.

From the devotion and tribute that had their chief stimulus in
the painstaking efforts of the Chappaqua Historical Society this
statue has grown.

‘In niy connection as treasurer of the Greeley memorial committee,
] had abundant occasion to realize how firmly rooted were the re-
spect and affection of all people who knew him personally or felt
the direct influence of his fruitful public labors. It may not be
amiss at this point to say a few words of thanks to the members
of the society and people from all parts of the Union whose con-
tributions made up the fund for this statue. But, while these finan-
cial aids were useful and necessary, we can not overestimate the
genius of the sculptor who presents to posterity a lifelike image of
the man whom we all delight to honor.

During the celebration of Greeley’s centennial, three years ago,
I had occasion to make reference to the most important events of
Greeley’s career. It will therefore be unnecessary to retravel the
same ground. Let me, however, call attention to some things inter-
esting to review.

Greeley was consulted by Cyrus W. Field concerning the Atlantic
cable. As president of the American Institute he did much for
agriculture. He was especially interested in the sewing machine,
and was the first to mention moving platforms. Through the tre-
mendous influence wielded by his pen, in the New York Tribune,
 

JACOB ERLICH
To whom is due much of the credit for the Greeley centenary
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 137

of which he was the founder, he naturally and logically became one
of the founders of the Republican party. His opposition to Seward,
by the whirligig of politics, resulted in the nomination of Lincoln
by the newly formed Republican party, and thus the position he
took made a most profound chapter in the annals of our country.

He not only brought about the nomination and election of Lincoln
but hastened the issue of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation by
his passionate appeal in the Tribune, entitled “The Prayer of
Twenty Millions.”

The labors of the Greeley memorial committee are approaching
their close only in so far as the work connected with the monument
is concerned.

The study of so grand and noble a life has elevated our civic
ideals and broadened our sense of the humanities. This monument
means the opening up of new ways to honor the character that it
represents and thus will be fulfilling the high mission for which it
is intended.

PRESIDENT BrisToL: In the darkest hour of money-raising toward
completing the greatest work of the Chappaqua Historical Society,
Mr Albert Edward Henschel proposed the introduction of a bill
in the Legislature of the State of New York, appropriating $10,000
to enable our society to complete this memorial undertaking. The
bill unanimously passed both houses, but was vetoed by Governor
Dix.

Prompt efforts for financial aid were made in other directions,
but were productive of slow results. This arose from the natural
order of things, chief of which is the lack of reverence for art works
of this character in this great country of ours. Some hundreds of
dollars are still needed, to complete the tablet and other details.
We shall, no doubt, raise this money.

We are also indebted to Mr Henschel for securing the passage
and approval by Governor Sulzer, of the $1500 appropriation bill
for making a permanent record of this day’s proceedings.

You should all know Mr Henschel, and I now take great pleasure
in introducing him to you.

ADDRESS OF ALBERT E. HENSCHEL
There is probably no man, other than Franklin, whose activities
have more deeply penetrated the well-springs of American life
than Horace Greeley. His name is brought before us whenever
138 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

we dig at the bottom of the great things that make up American
progress and civilization today. This has made Greeley’s name a
household word.

He was first and always an American. The next great charac-
teristic I wish to bring out is his superb moral courage. To instance
one illustration of many, let me carry you back to the year 1846,
when prejudice and narrow-mindedness were more rife than today.
He had the sublime fearlessness to defend the memory of the much
calumniated Thomas Paine, in the discussion with Henry J. Ray-
mond, on the subject of “ association.” These are Greeley’s words:
“As to poor Tom Paine, . . . Jam unable to account for the bit-
terness of vituperation with which you assail him. That to him,
more than to any other man, this country is indebted for the impulse
to its independence from Grreat Britain — that its separation from the
Mother Country was more ably and cogently advocated and justified
by him than by any other writer —that his voice cheered the dis-
comfited defenders of our liberties, as they tracked with blood the
frozen soil of New Jersey on their retreat before the overwhelming
numbers of the enemy in the winter of 1776, and reanimated the
people to make the efforts and sacrifices necessary to secure our
freedom —I confess, seem to me to entitle him to some measure
of kindly regard at the hands of every American citizen.”

It was the same kind of moral courage that made him defy the
public passion of the hour in signing the bail bond of Jefferson
Davis, after having defied the powerful hosts of slavery in the
North as well as in the South for vears until his life battle was
crowned in the triumph of freedom over slavery.

He always had a word of hope and cheer for the downtrodden,
and worked out practical means for the extension of social justice.
He never failed to take part in any movement for the general good.
At the great mass meeting of the New York Early-closing Asso-
ciation in 1864, he said: ‘‘It is not the effort of one class to
injure or pull down another, but an effort to benefit both classes
by simply limiting the hours of labor.”

When Greeley died, the people realized that they had lost a true

friend. How he felt with and for the people, is well shown in
one of his letters, written in 1854: “I am ready to follow any
lead that promises to hasten the day of northern emancipation.
But, remember that editors can only follow where the people’s
heart is already prepared to go with them. They can direct and
animate a healthy public indignation, hut not ‘ create a soul beneath
the ribs of death.’” ;
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 139

In a speech delivered at Jeffersonville, Ind., about two months
before he died, he spoke of his humble life as a farmer, a mechanic,
a printer and told how he devoted the rest of his life to the vocation
of printer and editor. He spoke of his sympathies “with the
immense majority of mankind who in all ages are required to
subsist by their own manual industry.” He then proceeds: “I
was, in the days of slavery, an enemy of slavery, because I thought
slavery inconsistent with the rights, dignity and highest well-being
of labor. . . I was anxious next that our country’s unity
might be preserved, without bloodshed if that were possible — by
means of bloodshed, if that dire necessity should be fastened upon
us. For, friends and neighbors, bloodshed is always a sad neces-
sity — always a woeful necessity —and he who loves his fellow
man must desire to make it as short as possible, so soon as peace
can be restored, to efface as speedily as may be every trace not
merely of blood on the earth, but of vengeful feelings from the
hearts of his fellows. Such has been the impulse of the course 1
have pursued throughout the last few eventful years. My life
has been an open book; all could read it. My thoughts have been
given to the public warm and fresh.”

Thus we have from his own lips a portraiture of his lite
purposes.

The sincerity of these purposes, the untiring, sleepless zeal to
bring to reality his beautiful ideals of human brotherhood and
freedom, his absolute fearlessness in the prosecution of what he
believed to be the right, his uncompromising warfare upon the
frauds and hypocrisies of the age, his labors for the advancement
and education of the masses, his instinctive sympathy for every
member of the human race, give us a picture of a high and mighty
soul, fit to take rank with the best and noblest lives that have
adorned the earth. Justly may we apply to him the words he used
in speaking of another, that he was “ faithfui in heart and purposes.
to Justice, to Freedom, and the inalienable Rights of Man.”

PRESIDENT Bristot: We all regret the unavoidable absence by
illness, of Mr William Ordway Partridge, through whose genius
this remarkable likeness of Horace Greeley is preserved to us in
the standard bronze of the country.

Mr Partridge has requested me to present his respects and regards
to you, and to state how deeply he regrets not being present on this
occasion.

We all feel that Mr Partridge would have experienced a supreme
140 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

pleasure at the moment of the unveiling of one of his most stuccess-
ful works. We also know that he has accomplished the difficult
task given to him, with artistic fidelity.

It is not generally known that a recent legislative enactment
empowers the expenditure of $1500 by the State of New York,
for recording the unveiling exercises of today in a proper and lasting
form, for official distribution.

The State Historian, Hon. James A. Holden, not being able to
be with us on this occasion, is well represented by Dr Richard E.
Day, chief clerk of that office. Our committee has invited Doctor
Day to address you, and it now affords me great pleasure to intro-
duce him.

HORACE. GREELEY, THE JOURNALIST

RICHARD. E. DAY, DIVISION OF HISTORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK

The State work with which I am associated has been devoted
largely to the deeds of soldiers. The occasion which brings us
together here concerns the fame of one whose victories were emi-
nently peaceful. Statesmen and lawmakers, after military heroes,
have filled the amplest place and won the readiest honors; but
Horace Greeley’s distinctive achievement did not place him with
these. The entire period of his office-holding was brief. Had he
been elected to the presidency in 1872, his administration would
have been marked by those high virtues of independence and
integrity which stamped his whole history; but whether it would
have been a political success, in view of the advanced character
of the policies to which he stood committed — whether he did not
stand too far in advance of the nation to be able to lead it by his
own enthusiasm, is a speculative question, which I need not try to
answer. It is quite as certain that Mr Greeley was not a politician
according to the uses of the term which prevail at the present time.
How little he enjoyed political domination or cooperation, he showed
when he announced the dissolution of the firm of Seward, Weed
and Greeley by the withdrawal of the junior member. No, with
highest honor to politicians of the better sort, I can not think that
Greeley was great as a politician. So, if we discard from con-
sideration some other features of his manifold activity, we have
the newspaper man — one of the most noteworthy that our country
has produced.

In the short time at my disposal I will not undertake to compare
 

WILLIAM ORDWAY PARTRIDGE
Sculptor of the Greeley memorial statue at Chappaqua
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL I41I

the founder of the Tribune with other great journalists who are
numbered among his predecessors, contemporaries or successors;
but no other has filled so completely the era in which he lived,
molded its opinion and action so potently, stirred its emotions so
deeply, and represented national aspirations so triumphantly. It
was, as we all know, an era of personal journalism. The day of
the dueling editor had about passed; the day of the horsewhipping
editor had come. I have never read or heard that Mr Greeley ever
whipped anyone. But he played his part in the personal discus-
sions which distinguished the passionate politics of his time, and
frequently defined his position toward an opponent with striking
vehemence and that perspicuity of phrase in which he never had a
master. It would be a delight to one whose boyhood was nourished
on Greeley’s Tribune to dilate on the exceliences of that manly
style, so trenchant, so compact, so free from artificial ornament,
so decisive in its deadly swing. We have a school of journalism
in the city where Horace Greeley did his work; we are to have
many in America, I hope. And in’these schools, I trust, the most
famous of his editorials will often be exhibited to budding journal-
ists, not only as illustrations of a remarkable era in journalism and
politics, but as models of newspaper English.

Yet few writings are kept alive very long by qualities of style
alone ; and that which is vital in Greeley’s productions is the quality
of character. Few editors, however versatile, can long sustdin the
drain of a daily fresh appeal to their readers unless they carry to
their desks at night or morning an earnestness that propels them
over discouragement and weariness, and an enthusiasm which makes
the old world new each day. By honesty of heart and clearness of
mind he sometimes outstripped the thought of the public which he
had created, and outran the slow-moving sentiment of the nation.
This he did in his efforts to hasten the reconciliation of North and
South. When he signed the bail bond of Jefferson Davis — an act
as enlightened and far-seeing as it was courageous — his conduct
corresponded with the principles which shaped his course as a
public guide and teacher. Among the men of his generation were
some who could interpret popular sentiment, and calculate its motion
better than he. Abraham Lincoln possessed that intuitive gift.
Horace Greeley’s genius was that of the political seer, who antici-
pates the sentiment of tomorrow. This made him the prophet of
national reconciliation; and this I am inclined to regard as his
crowning glory. As the memories of the Civil War are translated
into the common traditions of the American people, and national
142 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

pride learns to embrace all that belongs to American valor and
steadfastness, the fame of the northern abolition editor who broke
with a radical school of political thought, and became the herald of
a real peace, will be exalted more and more.

At the time of Greeley’s death, he was described as our second
Franklin; and the likeness has impressed more than one mind. It
was suggested by romantic features of the early careers of the two
eminent printers, and enforced by a certain kinship of intellectual
cast. Their interest in the practical side of life, their attachment to
a philosophy which emphasizes the humbler virtues, and perhaps
their command of the resources of idiomatic expression contribute
to the resemblance. But we must be careful lest we press this
likeness too far. The cool, suave art of the American who repre-
sented the province of Pennsylvania in England, and the United
States at the court of France, was foreign to Greeley’s talent and
temper. For diplomacy he seemed little fitted. It sometimes ap-
peared to be his business to create difficulties rather than to smooth
them away. This is the destiny of men whose perception of the
moral character of issues is keen and prompt.

It is undoubtedly true, as is asserted, that journalism of the
Greeley type is passing, and with it the rule of overmastering
personality. The new journalism means the organized cooperation
of many trained workers, directed not to the expression of one
person’s thought, but to the interpretation of all the thoughts that
agitate society. Whether the labor of the newspaper man will gain
or lose inspiration by the change, is a matter too complex to examine
here. Inspiring it has been in the past; and inspiring it will always.
be while the moral element persists in the forces which move
humanity.

PRESIDENT BristoL: To Mr William Henry Deacy we are under
many obligations, as the architect of the beautiful pedestal of
Pompton pink granite upon which this statue is placed.

We have heeded Mr Deacy’s advice, and his work manifests his
splendid ability. Mr Deacy’s absence, through illness, is regretted,
but you have his regards and good wishes. The existence of the
pedestal, as designed by him, silently bespeaks its praise.

The name of Horace Greeley has ever been closely associated
with printers, and printers with type. It is proper, therefore, that
we hear from Mr Marsden G. Scott, president of Typographical
Union No. 6. Mr Greeley was long a member of this union, and
its first president.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 143

HORACE GREELEY AND THE PRINTERS
MARSDEN G. SCOTT, PRESIDENT OF TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION NO. 6

It is my privilege to bring to these ceremonies the modest tribute
of New York Typographical Union No. 6. More than threescore
years ago the man to whose memory this beautiful monument is
unveiled today, advocated the formation of a union of the men
employed in the printing offices of New York City. Such a union
was formed in 1850, and during the first year of its existence
Horace Greeley served as its presiding officer.

Greeley had worked as a journeyman printer, setting type for
low wages and working long hours. When he rose to distinction
as a journalist, he did not desert the men who had been his asso-
ciates in the composing rooms. Greeley held that the basis of all
moral and social reform lay in a practical recognition of the right
of every human being to demand of the community an opportunity
to labor and to receive decent subsistence as the just reward of
such labor. As an employer Greeley paid the highest prices to his
printers and as an employer he urged the struggling printers to
unite to improve conditions in their trade.

“T joined the union,” said Horace Greeley in 1850, “in the hope
that something good would come of it. I expect good from it.
But I recommend no strike, no hasty attempt at coercive measures.
I would suggest a committee of the coolest heads among the journey-
men to confer with employers and agree upon a scale of prices.
It is by a union of all, or at least a majority among the journeymen,
that this object can be achieved. Let them be as one man, united
and determined to stay united, and all fair and honorable concessions
will come, without strikes or vain parades or noisy vaporings.
Remember, in union —and in union alone — there is strength.”

In the columns of the Tribune in September 1850, Mr Greeley
said: “There ought obviously to be some uniform standard or
scale to be appealed to in case of difference as to the proper com-
pensation for any work done. Anarchy, uncertainty and chaos on
this subject are all against the fair, regular, live-and-let-live em-
ployer who wants good work done by good workmen and is willing
to pay for it; and benefit only the niggard who calculates to enrich
himself by grinding the face of the poor and robbing labor of its
honest due.”

Times change and men change with them, but upon the principles
which Horace Greeley advocated more than sixty years ago there
has been erected a trade union which we are confident would have
the enthusiastic approval of Horace Greeley were he alive today.
144 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Horace Greeley was one of our first leaders to urge a system of
industrial peace in the printing industry. He was an earnest ad-
vocate of conference, negotiation, conciliation and arbitration
between employers and employees. These principles are the prin-
ciples advocated by the men in the forefront of trade unions today.
They are principles which have stood the test. They have produced
satisfactory results. Their worth has been demonstrated, and we
shall not cast them aside.

Half a hundred journeymen printers elected Horace Greeley to
the presidency of Typographical Union No. 6. Today we have a
membership of more than seven thousand and our International
Union has a membership of more than seventy thousand. Through
our International Union we have established a home for aged and
infirm members at Colorado Springs, to the support of which our
union contributes as its share $12,000 annually.

We have established an old age pension system, through which
more than two hundred members of No. 6 received $48,500 in
pensions last year. We have established a mortuary insurance
fund, through which the relatives of deceased members of No. 6
received $40,500 last year. The payments from these two funds,
throughout the jurisdiction of our International Union, amount
approximately to half a million dollars a year.

Our International Union has established a course of instruction
for apprentices and journeymen, and we in New York are con-
tributing to the support of a school where two hundred apprentices
are receiving instruction in printing.

Aside from our beneficial features, we are interested in a cam-
paign for more sanitary conditions in workshops, that the ravages
of the white plague may be further checked and the health of our
members be more fully protected.

We have established a national arbitration system for the adjust-
ment of disputes and the readjustment of wage scales with the
American Newspaper Publishers’ Association, and we hope in the
near future to establish a similar system in the book and job
printing industry. When this is done we shall feel that we have
completed a system for negotiating with employers based on the
simple recommendations made by Horace Greeley in 1850.

The name of Horace Greeley has its place in our country’s
history as the nation’s greatest editor. He was an intellectual giant,
who molded public opinion. He was fearless in his advocacy of
the rights of labor. He was unswerving in his loyalty to the govern-
ment under which we live.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 145

We of the Typographical Union have a deep affection for the
memory of this great man. We feel that in a measure he belonged
to us. He was our first great leader. His wise counsel led to the
organization of our union and, through following his wise counsel
given 64 years ago, we hope to establish industrial peace in the
printing establishments of New York City and throughout the
jurisdiction of the International Typographical Union of North
America.

PRESIDENT BristoL: Before the unveiling events of this day shall
have wholly passed into the record, it seems best to give a brief
summary of the work of the Horace Greeley memorial committee,
acting under the auspices of the Chappaqua Historical Society.

First, there was the selection of the monument site. Several
Chappaqua localities were considered, with the result that ground
was broken on this historic spot, memorable with events of the
Revolution, three years ago today — the centenary of the birth of
Horace Greeley.

The site of the statue was finally left to the decision of Mrs
F. M. Clendenin, the daughter of the great editor.

In August of the following year, the statue was delivered in
Chappaqua. By this time all funds were entirely exhausted. Fur-
ther work ceased for some months, when additional funds were
obtained.

The plans for the pedestal were then prepared. The subcom-
mittee having this work in charge visited several of the great statues
and monuments, and decided that no other stone than the famous
Pompton pink granite would wholly comport with all of the statue’s
requirements. This was especially true as to the greatly needed
enduring qualities.

A contract was finally entered into with a granite company, and
a partial payment made. This company failed, with an uncompleted
pedestal upon its hands. A long delay ensued, pending the selection
of a second contracting company. \Wéith the pedestal under way,
the entire working plant of this company was destroyed by fire.

Another long period of discouraging work lay before the memorial
committee, but this we must say was well performed, with the
significant result that the contracting company finally completed
the beautiful pedestal which we see before us.

Following this, the entire plant of the contracting company was
shut down, with contracts covering thousands of cubic yards of
stone unfilled, owing, we understand, to labor troubles. The pedestal
146 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

—the only work ever completed by this company — was placed in
position in January of this year, the Chappaqua Historical Society
taking charge of it on the r7th of last month, and we are unveiling
it today.

In the interim between the delivery of the statue and the placing
of it upon its pedestal, it was carefully guarded, in a substantial and
proper covering, in the open air, thus avoiding all risk from fire
and the cost of insurance.

In concluding the ceremonies of today, the Chappaqua Historical
Society desires to thank this large and attentive audience for their
cheering presence, and to extend hearty wishes for peace, happiness
and prosperity to all.

The following letter was received by the president of the Chap-
paqua Historical Society a few days after the ceremonies.

The Rectory
Westchester
New York City
MY DEAR MR BRISTOL:

Now that the first storm is beating upon that splendid statue of
my father, I want to tell you how happy you have made his
daughter. I just love that statue, and where it stands is so well
chosen. Thank you and each one of that faithful committee, and
from that cloud of the great departed may he thank you by being
an inspiration of this generation, so that our children may be simple
and true and brave and honest Americans.

Faithfully and gratefully yours,

GABRIELLE GREELEY CLENDENIN
Feb. 6th, ror4
 

RZ. AND €ts FRANK Wo CLZVITNIN (G\ BRIELLE GREELEY)
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS OF
HORACE GREELEY
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS OF HORACE
GREELEY

The New York State Library has come into the possession of
several letters of Horace Greeley, which the editor of this work
has had reproduced for the purpose of showing the peculiar hand-
writing of Mr Greeley, which for years has stood as the example
par excellence of illegibility and peculiarity. All sorts of anecdotes
and jests have been built around his handwriting. With a little
care, however, his manuscripts can be read, as, while the letters
are wonderful in construction, there is a uniformity about them
which enables one, even though not an expert, to decipher them.

The second reason for inserting them in this work is to show
the wide range of interests in which Mr Greeley was involved.
The letters to William E. Robinson came at a time in our history
when certain great matters were in the making, and Greeley’s in-
structions to him to look after legislation at Washington convey a
certain illuminating characterization, which shows conditions as
they were at that time. His letter to the young lady regarding the
borrowing of money is characteristic, especially in view of the fact
that Horace Greeley was invariably an easy victim for every derelict
printer and professional panhandler in the country. His offer to
loan money to a friend without the latter’s asking for it, is decidedly
indicative of his mental attitude toward money.

The third reason for publishing these letters is on account of
their historical value and for their preservation in a medium where
they may be accessible to any one interested in Horace Greeley and
his idiosyncrasies. The letters have been given in their chrono-
logical order, with such annotations as will make the meaning clear
to the understanding of the reader.

New York, March 23, 1845
GENTLEMEN

Yours of the 21st has reached me barely in season to be answered
before your Festival — not in season to allow me to unite with you
in its celebration, even though my engagements did not forbid it.

I profoundly regret my inability to comply with your kind invita-
tion. Knowing well many who will be with you on this occasion,
and cherishing a grateful regard for the Sons of Old Ireland who
reside in and near Albany, and especially for their patient and
generous efforts to enlighten the American People as to the justice
and necessity of Repeal, I should have derived great pleasure from
an evening’s Social intercourse with them. Allow me to cherish

149
150 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

the hope that an opportunity may yet be mine, and meantime to
propose to you the following sentiment:

The Right of the Irish People and of every People, to control
their own Domestic Legislation — In defiance of Power, and Pride,
and Bayonets, and Falsehood, it shall yet be nobly triumphant.

Yours, most truly
Horace GREELEY

.

Messrs. William Cooney Committee of Invitation

New York, March 21, 18 46
FRIEND ROBINSON: ?

I think your letters are better since you were expelled from the
House —if you should ever contrive to get expelled from the
Senate also, I am confident they will be No. 1. You write fuller,
freer and more to the purpose. Nothing like stirring a man up
now and then.

Your invitation to the Supper on St Patrick’s Day came too late,
owing to a failure of the Mail. I met Robert Tyler at the Young
Friends of Ireland’s Dinner. Rev. Mr Burke made the best speech.

Try to send me bills introduced or reported when you can. They
are always useful. Corwin” has promised to present and move the
printing of the Land Reformer’s Memorial. He says he will do so
as soon as the Oregon * question is decided, but he may on Monday.
Whenever he does, be sure to report him fully.

We paid the $25 note when presented. I believe there is not
much due you now, but you can draw a little ahead if you need it.
We have spent all our change on expresses, but never mind. We
mean to make more some time.

Yours, truly,

Horace GREELEY

1 William Erigena Robinson was born in Ireland in 1814, and died in
Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1892. He emigrated to America in 1836, and early engaged
im newspaper writing, becoming contributor to the Tribune and also its cor-
respondent. He was at one time editor of the Trish World, and was at all
times influentially active in everything that related to the welfare of his native
country. He was elected to Congress for several terms.

° Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, the celebrated orator and statesman, was a
United States Senator from 1845 to 18so.

2 The dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the Oregon
territory was terminated by treaty June 15, 1846, when the boundary of the
United States west of the Rocky mountains was established at the 49th degree
of north latitude to the channel between Vancouver and the mainland, running
thence down this channel, through the strait of Juan de Fuca to the sea.
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LETTER TO ROBINSON
Regarding the Young Friends of Ireland banquet. Has paid a $25 note.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL I51

New York, Dec. 15, 1846
FRIEND ROBINSON:

Send me every bill introduced into Congress that you can con-
veniently get, especially every one that relates to the Public Lands.
Address them to me personally.

When you have been three weeks writing for us, draw for your
pay, send me the draft, and I will remit you the balance. I try
hard to get something ahead, but can’t get out of debt to save me.
I have been expecting to do it by selling to March, and that, it is
possible, may not take place. I won’t give my concern away, for
it is worth the time I put on it—vvaluing every thing we have at
$60,000. Our materials cost $15,000; our Lease is readily worth
$5,000; our Books and Stereotype plates have cost us many thou-
sands, and our paper has been built up by hard work and is
profitable. It has carried me through a good many bad spots, and
I can’t give it away now.

Yours,
Horace GREELEY

New York, Jan. 6, 1868
My FRIEND:

You ask me if it would be right for one to borrow money in order
to establish in trade. I answer that I consider it highly unadvisable.
Many have done so with success; twice as many, I think, have failed
to repay, and have thenceforward dragged a heavy chain to their
graves.

I can not realize that it is your duty to support your parents and
educate your sister. I think the latter might earn the cost of her
own education.

I would not advise you to borrow the money you speak of even,
were it pressed upon you. Life is too full of hazards. Life, even,
is precarious; health still more so. I think one should try to so
order his affairs as to be always at liberty to die. Would you be
resigned to die having borrowed $1,000 and spent it on your own
education?

I will not urge the possibility that you might wish to marry one
as poor as yourself, yet feel that you could not do so without
152 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

injustice to your creditor. In this case, you would refuse to marty;
but death will not be refused, nor sickness, even.

I conclude that you ought not to run into debt.

Yours,
Horace GREELEY
Miss Helen R. Marshall,
Kennett Sq.
Penna.

 

From “' Recollections of a Busy Life"’

GREELEY’S FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE
 

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STUDIES AND REMINISCENCES
STUDIES AND REMINISCENCES

HORACE GREELEY AS A COLONIST

Mr Ralph Meeker contributes the following account of Horace
Greeley’s connection with the founding of the community which
bears his name.

Three things in Horace Greeley’s career will go down in history
as permanent contributions to his noble fame: (1) founding the
Tribune; (2) bailing Jefferson Davis; (3) association with suc-
cessful cooperative colonization. They are a complete answer to
unfriendly critics, who called him an impractical dreamer and saw
neither wisdom nor good sense in his far-sighted policies. He was
always a friend of new movements for industrial improvement and
social reform. He had no patience with vain pretenders. Sincere
almost to austerity, he was true to himself and was always ready
to welcome new ideas for uplifting humanity.

When Charles Fourier’s cooperative social and industrial system
was introduced into this country, and Brook Farm and similar
Fourier phalanxes were established in several states, Mr Greeley
gave the new gospel of industrial cooperation much space in the
Tribune, as the writings of the French philosopher had been trans-
lated into English.

While his friends, George Ripley, afterward literary editor of
the Tribune, Charles A. Dana, later managing editor, Nathaniel
Hawthorne and other geniuses were trying to make a success of
transcendental Brook Farm, one of the first of American phalanxes,
near Roxbury, Mass., Mr Greeley joined the North American
phalanx at Red Bank, N. J., while Nathan C. Meeker, of East
Cleveland, O., was one of the founders of the Trumbull phalanx.
It was situated on the Mahoning river, at Braceville, O., about
forty miles southeast of Cleveland. This was in 1844-45. Three
years later the Brook Farm organization dissolved, and about the
same time the Ohio phalanx became bankrupt, chiefly because cer-
tain of the Ohio members absorbed the earnings of the industrious
men, while refusing to do the manual labor allotted them by a
majority vote of the phalanx.

The rules of the organization required members to perform ap-
pointed tasks. In addition to a library, school, lecture room, com-
munity hotel and house of worship, there were saw and grist mills,
a machine shop and forge and other industrial establishments, be-

155
156 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

sides a large community farm, where bountiful crops and thrifty
young orchards were coming into bearing, when the phalanx
disbanded.

The fact that fever and ague was to ravage the settlement in that
rich valley of the Mahoning river did not seem to have occurred
to the ardent disciples of Fourier. When the treasurer defaulted,
the association went into bankruptcy, and Mr Meeker was glad to
escape with half his fine library and his family, his young wife and
two infant sons, Ralph and George, who were the first born in
the Trumbull phalanx.

Mr Greeley received Mr Meeker’s reports of their experiences
from time to time and did what he could to aid the struggling
community, all of which served to deepen the friendship between
the two men. But this failure did not destroy their faith in a
properly conducted system of social and industrial cooperation.

Mr Meeker assured Mr Greeley that such an organization, estab-
lished on sound business principles and honestly managed, would
be a success. Thus it was that years later, when Mr Meeker dis-
covered in Colorado an ideal region for founding a colony on a
Rocky mountain stream, the Cache la Poudre river, in sight of
Long’s peak and the Snowy range, Mr Greeley was enthusiastic
and said, “Go ahead with your colony and I will back you in the
Tribune.” Then Mr Meeker issued his famous “ Call.” The result
was electrical. Nearly a hundred thousand dollars were received in
subscriptions for land and irrigation canals, in a few weeks, and
despite many trials, much misrepresentation, to say nothing of open
hostility on the part of established cattle interests, which claimed
first rights to grass and water on the open range of the Great
Plains, and the hostility of the whiskey element, which bitterly
resented Mr Greeley’s advice to Mr Meeker, the president, “ Have
no rum, and no fences in your colony,” the scheme was carried out
after years of opposition.

Mr Greeley had so much faith in Mr Meeker and the colony,
that he accepted the office of treasurer and allowed subscriptions
to be received at the Tribune office, where Mr Meeker was agri-
culture editor. Because of Mr Greeley’s friendship, Mr Meeker
named the colony in honor of his editor-friend, and this is why
the largest and most important town in northern Colorado is known
the world over as Greeley.

When the Farmer’s Club in New York sent a committee to in-
spect and report on the new colony, they refused to believe in the
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 157

32-inch radish and 4-pound potatoes, raised that first season in
Greeley, on virgin prairie—on the open plains which for years
had appeared on school maps as a part of the Great American
desert. The owl-eyed experts from the New York Farmer’s Club,
without tasting them, said the radishes were monstrosities not fit
to eat, that the potatoes must be excrescences, worthless for food.
The marvelous success of the colony, backed from the start by Mr
Greeley, the thousands of car loads of sugar beets and potatoes
shipped annually, simply confounded the men who had so long
called Mr Greeley a city farmer, a theorist and an impractical!
dreamer.

Mr Meeker’s often ridiculed predictions, published in the first
years of the colony, that sugar beets that had made France and
Germany rich, and apples and other fruits could be produced in
Colorado, have all come true; and three-quarters of a million of
dollars in a single season have been paid the Greeley farmers for
sugar beets, and as much more for potatoes and onions, saying
nothing of fortunes from the highest grade wheat in the world.

Something of the Tribune’s interest in the project is exhibited
in the extracts from its columns which are appended:

Emigration to the West

We are often tauntingly asked, “If you are so fond of farming
and country life, why don’t you try them?” Our answer is short
and simple: We do. Every one of us who can afford it has his
home in the country, and spends there all the time that he can
snatch from pressing duties, and hopes for the day when he can
enjoy there more and more hours of each week, and ultimately all
of them. At present, the oldest of our writers is wintering on his
own place in Florida, as he has done for several past winters; the
rest of us would gladly do likewise if we might. But Work has
claims to which Comfort must defer.

Mr Nathan C. Meeker—for many years connected with the
Tribune, as he expects to be for many more— proposes to plant a
colony in an admirable location discovered by him during his recent
trip to the Rocky mountains. It combines remarkable healthfulness
with decided fertility and facility of cultivation, an abundance of
serviceable timber with water in plenty for irrigation as well as
power, beauty of landscape and scenery with exemption from dis-
agreeable neighbors; and a railroad will soon bring it within three
days of St Louis and five from New York. Knowing Mr Meeker
(who is a practical farmer) to be eminently qualified for leading
158 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

and founding a colony, we advise temperate, moral, industrious,
intelligent men who would like to make homes in the Far West to
read his letter herewith published, and, should his plan suit them,
write to him (not us) on the subject —New York Tribune, December
4, 1869.

A Western Colony
MR MEEKER’S CALL

I propose to unite with proper persons in the establishment of a
colony in Colorado Territory.

A location which I have seen is well watered with streams and
springs, there are beautiful pine groves, the soil is rich, the climate
is healthful, grass will keep stock the year round, coal and stone
are plentiful, and a well-traveled road runs through the property.
The land is either subject to entry under the homestead law, or it
has not yet been brought into market, but it can be settled upon
without other cost than $18 for 160 acres. In addition, the Rocky
mountain scenery is the grandest and the most enchanting in
America. I have never seen a place which presents so many
advantages and opportunities.

The persons with whom I would be willing to associate must be
temperance men, and ambitious to establish good society, and among
as many as fifty, ten should have as much as $10,000 each, or
twenty, $5000 each, while others may have $200 to $1000 and
upward. For many to go so far without means, can only result in
disaster. After a time, poorer people can be received and have a
chance.

My own plan would be to make the settlement almost wholly in
a village, and to divide the land into lots of 10 acres, and to divide

these into 8 lots for building purposes, and then to apportion to
each family from 40 to 80, even 160 acres, adjoining the village.
Northampton, Massachusetts, and several other New England
towns and villages were settled in this manner, but some improve-
ments are suggested. Since some outlying tracts will be more
desirable than others, a preference may be secured by selling them
ut auction, and the proceeds of such appropriated to the use of the
colony ; and all the lots of the village should be sold, that funds may
be obtained for making improvements for the common good —
such as the building of a church, a town hall, a schoolhouse, and
for the establishment of a library, by which means the lots will be
worth five or ten times more than they cost; and one of the very
first public institutions should be a first-class school, in which not
 

NATHAN COOK MEEKER
Founder and president of Greeley colony, Colorado
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 159

only common but the higher branches should be taught, including
music. The town of Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, adopted this
plan on a large scale, and several hundred thousand dollars have
already been obtained.

Some of the advantages of settling in a village will be: easy
access to schools and to public places, meetings, lectures, and the
like, and society can be had at once. In planting, in fruit-growing,
and in improving homes generally, the skill and experience of a
few will be common to all, and much greater progress can be made
than where each lives isolated. It seems to me that a laundry and
bakery could be established, and the washing and baking could
be done for all the community; but other household work should
be done by the families. In all this, the separate household, and
the ownership of property, should be without change; and I only
propose that, if there are any advantages in cooperation, they could
be secured by a colony. Cheap rates of passage and freight could
be secured, while many things, which all will want in the commence-
ment, can be bought at wholesale. There are some other advantages
which I think such a town will possess, and they are important;
but in this announcement I do not think proper to mention them,
and, besides, there are of course disadvantages.

Farmers will be wanted, nurserymen, florists, and almost all
kinds of mechanics, as well as capitalists to use the coal and water-
power in running machinery. Inasmuch as millions of acres of
excellent grass are in the vicinity, and which for years will lie
open, stock can be kept by each family, and at a small expense
it can be cared for by herdsmen employed by the people. The
profit of stock-growing can be considered certain, for the locality
is not as far from the Missouri river as Texas, whence immense
numbers of cattle are driven. Besides, railroads are nearly com-
pleted, and a railroad is almost certain to pass through the land I
refer to. The establishment of a colony would hasten the day.

After the colony shall be organized, it will be proper to appoint
a committee of good men to visit the country and fix on the location,
for there are other places, and a choice is to be made.

The first settlers must of course be pioneers: for houses, mills.
and mechanic shops are to be built, that families may come with
few privations, and as long as six months will be required.

Whatever professions and occupations enter into the formation
of an intelligent, educated, and thrifty community should be em-
braced by this colony; and it should be the object to exhibit all that
is best in modern civilization.
160 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

“In particular should moral and religious sentiments prevail; for
without these qualities man is nothing. At the same time, tolerance
and liberality should also prevail. One thing more is equally im-
portant. Happiness, wealth, and the glory of a state, spring from
the family, and it should be an aim and a high ambition to preserve
the family pure in all its relations, and to labor with the best efforts
life and strength can give to make the home comfortable, to beautify
and to adorn it, and to supply it with whatever will make it attrac-
tive and loved.

This is in the vicinity of the mining region, which is destined to
be developed more and more for years to come; and, besides silver
and gold, there are all other kinds of metals; and the market for
every kind of farm product is as good as in New York, perhaps
better. It is a decidedly healthful region; the air is remarkably
pure, summer is pleasant, the winter is mild, with little snow, and
agues are unknown. Already, consumptives are going thither for
their health, and tourists and visitors will find great attractions
during the summer. Mineral springs are near, and perhaps on the
locality I have referred to. Deer, antelope, wild turkeys, prairie
chickens, and speckled trout abound; but at present there are too
many wolves and bears.

I make the point that two important objects will be gained by
such acolony. First, schools, refined society, and all the advantages
of an old country, will be secured in a few years; while, on the
contrary, where settlements are made by the old method, people are
obliged to wait 20, 40, and more years; second, with free home-
steads as a basis, with the sale of reserved lots for the general good.
the greatly increased value of real estate will be for the benefit
of all the people, not for schemers and speculators. In the success
of this colony, a model will be presented for settling the remainder
of the vast territory of our country.

Persons wishing to unite in such a colony, will please address
me at the Tribune office, stating their occupation and the value of
the property which they could take with them.

N. C. MEEKER
New York, December, 1869
New York Tribune, December 4, 1869.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 161

Colonization

THE ORGANIZATION OF A WESTERN COLONY

Room no. 24, Cooper Institute, was crowded to overflowing yes-
terday with gentlemen from all parts of the country, to attend the
colony meeting, which was announced in the Tribune a few days
ago. Horace Greeley was appointed chairman. He opened the
meeting with a brief address, as follows:

This is a meeting of persons who propose emigrating in a colony
tothe West. The first thing to be done is to organize. One man can
do the work of 100 men. I believe that there ought to be not only
one, but 1000 colonies. Still I would advise no one who is doing
well to leave his business and go West, unless he is sure of better-
ing his condition. But there are many men working for wages who
ought to emigrate. I dislike to see men in advanced life working
for salaries in places where perhaps they are ordered about by boys.
I would like to see them working for themselves.

I do not know whether emigration is the best remedy, but I think
so. New York is filled with people, yet there are thousands who
want to come hither, never thinking that the cost of living eats up
the greater part of their earnings. Mr Meeker does not wish to give
the locality of the place where it is proposed to establish the colony,
for speculators will flock in and buy up all of the desirable land.
That is the way things are done nowadays.

Mr N.C. Meeker, the originator of the colony movement, said:

The number of persons expressing by letter a desire to join the
Colorado colony, so-called, is over 800, and it will undoubtedly ex-
ceed 1000, and according to the statement of the writers they are
worth considerably more than $1,000,000, perhaps near $2,000,000.
I judge that one-half are worth $1000 each, that a fair proportion
are worth from $3000 to $5000, while there is a fair representation
of those worth $10,000, and from this up to $50,000. There are a
good many young men unmarried, worth generally from $200 to
$500, and some more. All trades, professions, and pursuits are rep-
resented, many are educated, and the majority are farmers. Fully
one-half are church members.

A great many inquiries have been made which I had no time to
answer, and if I had little could be said at this stage of the move-
ment. Of danger from the Indians it is to be said that no fears
need be entertained, and if they were troublesome, the young men of
the colony proposed alone would be glad to settle with them. I will
row state some of the difficulties which are presented in the found-
ing of the proposed colony. Every enterprise will be opposed by
difficulties, and if they are not foreseen a failure may confidently be
predicted. It is not likely that more than half of those proposing
to go will do so; perhaps not more than 300. Now, if each is to
have 160 acres of land, this will make 48,000 acres, and the distance
from the proposed village to a large portion of the farms must be
162 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

from 2 to 334 miles, and it will be seen at once that to accommodate
all with land near this town is impossible— in short, it will be im-
possible to reside in town and at the same time have what is called
a western farm near by. Some could do so, it is true; but, so far as
possible, a fair division should be made. It is a question, then,
whether the land adjoining the town should not be divided in parcels
of from 3 to Io acres, for the growing of grain and food for the
family, which in addition to the town lot, would furnish ample sup-
port. Then larger tracts could be owned further away. If the
people are to live in a village, so as to enjoy all the advantages of
schools and the like, something must be surrendered in the way of
ambition to own much land near by, for to unite the two, however
desirable, is impossible. Such small parcels will be all that mechanics
and professional men can work, and farmers themselves can keep
pretty busy on 10 acres. It is to be considered that in connection
large quantities of land are open for the growing stock, which should
be the leading pursuit of the colonists, and it is the only source from
which much money can be expected. I take it that if men want to
own large farms, the colonial plan is not one suited to this object.
Still, upon the basis of small holdings, near the town the increase
in value will be fully equal to the increase in value on isolated farms.
I throw out these points that people may see for themselves how
matters must stand. It is to be noted that lots and land were held
in some of the best New England towns in precisely this manner,
not because land was dear, but because there was no other way to
accommodate the majority.

Another difficulty lies in undertaking to occupy all the land under
the Homestead. Land speculators are keen to perceive opportunities,
and whenever they find great improvements on foot they are ready
to enter large tracts, that, at a future day, may sell at a high price.
This they call making an investment. I had thought of the prob-
abilities in this case, but I was not strongly impressed with it, because
the low price at which land can be bought of the Government made
‘it evident that the difficulty would not be serious. The advantages
of taking up land under the Homestead, by which one is obliged to
occupy the ground five years before a title can be secured, over the
buying at $1.25 an acre, are not great. I have now come to the
conclusion that it is not safe to establish a colony unless the land is
bought the first thing. When a location shall be decided upon,
funds should be on hand to enter the land in a solid block. None
of us would be willing to leave the comforts of home and remove
to the Far West, to be hampered by land monopolists. Land can
be bought with agricultural and other scrip, so that it will cost not
much more than go cents an acre. It would seem from the great
number of applications, that several colonies can be formed, but let
us have one first.

A greater difficulty than all others lies in the fact that generally
crops can not be grown in Colorado without irrigation. A stream
runs through the locality to which I have made reference, but prob-
ably there is not water enough for more than 50 farms, some of
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL £ 63

which must be small. Still it is claimed that there are limited dis-
tricts where there is a sufficient fall of rain, and this is said to be one.
Whether this is true, is to be determined by a committee. There
are places where water is abundant, where the soil is rich, where a
part of the land belongs to Government and a part to a railroad, but
neither timber, stone, nor coal are near. There are other places
beside, and I have written to leading men in the territory to have
an investigation made.

It is needed now that a committee be appointed to go on and
search for a location that will be suited to the greatest variety of
pursuits. The plan is certainly an experiment, and for a first
colony more natural advantages will be required than for other
colonies having for a guide the experience of the pioneer colony.
I would name in the order of their importance that which should be
sought: first, healthfulness; second, a varied and rich soil natural
for grass; third, timber and coal, or both; fourth, iron ore; fifth,
adaptation to fruit; sixth, water power; seventh, beauty of scenery.
The interests of so many families with the earnings of their lives
and the comforts of home, the interests of so many industrious,
skilful, intelligent, and well-to-do people must not be put in jeopardy
for want of thorough investigation.

Mr Greeley said that he was the descendant of ancestors who
were the founders of one of the most noted colonies in the country
—the Londonderry colony in New Hampshire— and today some
of them own the land on which they live. Each man had a few
rods on the road, running back a mile, making 160 acres. The
Salt Lake plan is good. The Mormons are a clever people. Their
plan is to put eight settlers on Io acres, allowing each man 1% acres.
He agreed with the remarks made by Mr Meeker, and he believed
in irrigation. A very little water goes a great deal further than peo-
ple generally suppose. In California they use much more than is
necessary. In regard to emigrating, he said that many persons
would find that, when they came to sell their places, their funds
would be smaller than they anticipated. There are numbers of
young men who have little money, but they are just as good as those
who have more. He would get a deed of the land on which the
colonists propose to settle before the village was staked out. All
of the settlers will not have the same plans. Some will have chil-
dren to educate, and they will want to live near the schools. Others
who desire to raise stock had just as soon live two or three miles
out of town. It is impossible to make rules for all. The small
tract system will not succeed in a new country,-for when people
get out on the prairies a feeling of expansion takes hold of them.
He would not have less than 160 acres were he going to emigrate,
even if he did not want to use it for several years. A working sec-
164 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

retary should be appointed to answer letters, &c. The man who
wants information ought to be willing to pay for it. A printed cir-
cular would answer nine-tenths of the correspondents. An execu-
tive committee and a committee on location should be appointed.

Mr Arthur Murphy of Brooklyn — This is a serious business. It
is the beginning of not only one, but of twenty colonies. The first
must not be a failure for the success of all the others depends upon
the success of the first. Each member must be satisfied, and it is
necessary that we get acquainted with one another and then organ-
ize. There must be harmony.

Gen. Cameron of Elmira, N. Y.— What we need is an organiza-
tion and money. I went to Indiana when it was a wilderness, and
to Chicago when it was a mudhole, and now I want to go to Colo-
rado. I will give $5 to begin with. Our proposed location should
not be known even to the members of the colony. Nowhere in the
globe is there another such a country as at the West. The great
mining region is to be developed and to do this will create a market
that can not be overstocked. We don’t want New York for a mar-
ket, we will have the continent to supply. (Applause.)

Mr E. D. Carpenter of Putnam, Conn., said that he was greatly
interested in what had been said. He was in favor of giving $5 to
become a member. The 1000 letters received by Mr Meeker signify
nothing. I did not write to him, yet I want to go, and I know many
more of the same mind.

Mr Gregory of New York City— The best colony I ever saw
was the New-Braunfels, Texas; also, the one at Castorville. They
have not only a good colony, but a city. There are schools, churches,
manufactories and in fact, everything that tends to civilize and refine
the world. They commenced with Io acres outside of the town, and
with half an acre for the dwelling.

Mr Greeley asked if the railroad companies would make a reduc-
tion when there were 200 or 300 families going?

N. C. Meeker — As to passengers, the fare from here to Sheridan
is too high. I have no doubt but that half-fare tickets can be ob-
tained. Some of the western roads have already promised this much,
and I presume the others will also.

A provisional committee was then appointed to nominate officers
The meeting was then adjourned until 3 o’clock, when resolutions
were adopted in substance as follows:

That the colony be calied the “Union colony,” the officers of
which were then elected, namely:
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 165

N. C. Meeker, president; Gen. [Robert A.] Cameron, vice presi-
dent; Horace Greeley, treasurer; Executive committee: Richmond
Fiske, Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer county, N. Y.; Arthur Murphy,
No. 157 Adams St., Brooklyn; Nathanial Paul, Wakefield, N. H.;
C. O. Poole, No. 125 East 17th St., N. Y.; G. C. Shelton, Seymour,
Conn.

That each member pay $5 for current expenses, and also hold
subject to the call of the treasurer $150 for a purchase fund for the
land to be bought, and that no member can buy more than 160
acres, and that said money shall be refunded if the land is not set-
tled within a reasonable period, to be prescribed by the executive
committee.

The number of persons who paid their initiation fee ($5) was
59. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed, and all agreed that they
had never attended a more harmonious meeting. Many came with-
out money, but they promised to send it by mail on their return
home. Those willing to subscribe to the general plan of the colony
as has been stated, and to contribute to the locating committee fund,
may do so by forwarding their address and $5 to the treasurer,
Horace Greeley, at the Tribune office. This amount from each
niember is necessary to enable the committee to go West and select
the desired location. Further notice of future movements will be
given through the columns of the Tribune— New York Tribune,
December 24, 1869.

Horace Greeley’s Letter on Greeley, Colorado

Greeley, Colorado, Oct. 13, 1870.
My FRrienp:

Let me give you some idea of this place and people.

Between the main branches which form the river Platte, several
smaller rivers or large creeks issue from the eastern base of the
Rocky Mountains, and, after a short cruise over the Plains, fall into
the North or the South Platte. The largest of these is the Laramie;
next comes the Cache a Poudre, which rises in the snowy range near
Long’s Peak and runs nearly due east into the South Platte, about
half-way of its course over the Plains. The new Denver Pacific
Road connecting the Kansas Pacific at Denver with the Union
Pacific at Cheyenne crosses the Cache 4 Poudre five miles above its
junction with the South Platte, and here is located around the rail-
road station, which has as yet no dépot, the new village of Greeley,
youngest cousin of Jonah’s gourd.
166 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Greeley, Colorado

The location was pitched upon by the locating committee of our
Union Colony about the 1st of March last, the land secured soon
afterward, and the settlers began to arrive on the bare, bleak
prairie early in May. There were no buildings, and nothing whereof
to erect them, and the soil could not be cultivated to any purpose
without irrigation; yet here we have already some seven hundred
families, three hundred houses built or nearly finished in the vil-
lage, one hundred more scattered on the prairie around, and prob-
ably two thousand persons in all, with more daily arriving. We
have an irrigating canal which takes water from the Cache six miles
above and distributes it over one thousand acres, as it will do over
several thousands more; and we are making another in the north side
of the Cache very much longer, which is to irrigate at least twenty
thousand acres. We are soon to have a newspaper (we have al-
ready a bank), and we calculate that our colony will give at least five
hundred majority for a Republican President in 1872, after harvest-
ing that year a wheat crop of not less than fifty thousand bushels,
with other crops to match. And we hope to incite the foundation
of many such colonies on every side of us.

But enough of this. I spoke to the colonists in the open air
yesterday, traversed the settlement and examined its canal, to the
head, and leave this morning on the train for home, where I hope to
be, thankful for a safe and rapid journey, on Monday evening next.
This letter would reach you sooner if I carried it, but I wish it to
bear the proper post-mark, and to show you that I write at sunrise,
looking off upon the Rocky Mountains, which present a bold and
even front some twenty-five miles westward, with Long’s Peak
about sixty miles off as the crow flies, and many others covered with
eternal snow glistening behind and around it. Excuse great haste,
for I have much to do before leaving at 9.45, and believe me ever

Yours
Horace GREELEY

— Some Familiar Letters by Horace Greeley,
Lippincott’s, March 1891, p. 348.
HORACE GREELEY, POLITICAL
AND SOCIAL LEADER
HORACE GREELEY, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL
LEADER

BY RICHARD E, DAY

Horace Greeley was born February 3, 1811, in a rural New
Hampshire town. He was one of seven children, and his oppor-
tunities for attendance at school were limited. But we learn from
Mrs Clendenin’s sketch of her father, contributed to the “ Genealogy
of the Greely-Greeley Family,” that the * mother kept her boy close
beside her as she spun, and told him beautiful stories and bits of
history and fairy lore, and sang sweet Scottish ballads till his mind
was kindled and he longed to read himself”; and that the compan-
ionship of books was his early good fortune.

It will not be said that the little lad on the small New England
farm lacked means of education, since he had a mother who knew
how to touch the finer chords of childish sensibility, and his mind
was in contact with books. Systematic training was to come in the
school of affairs; moral discipline he knew from the first ; and genius
must generally be accounted happy when the earliest influences to
which it is subject reach it in unmethodical fashion.

When Horace was ten years old, the family removed to West
Haven, Vt. He had already revealed an inclination toward the
pursuit in which his achievements were to be brilliant and endur-
ing. His first application, at the age of eleven, for an opportunity
to learn the printer’s art, was rejected, but three years later he was
admitted to an apprenticeship in the office of the Northern Specta-
tor, at East Poultney, where his mental growth was rapid, and his
absorption and command of general information won the admiration
of his elders.

In 1830 the newspaper was suspended; so the boy of nineteen set
forth as a journeyman printer, with a future to work out, unaided.
He went to Pennsylvania, to which the Greeley household had re-
moved; and found brief employment in different places. Business
misfortunes had gathered around his father; and it is a shining
feature of this chapter of Greeley’s youth that he contributed some-
thing from his meager earnings to the maintenance of the home,
while his own progress was beset with rugged difficulties. But the
city summoned him to its theater of struggle. Of struggle he al-
ready knew much; but he was to match his strength with that of
greater gladiators than he had met, and come into the full stream
of ideas characteristic of his time. To New York City he journeyed,

169
170 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

in 1831, a part of the way on foot, arriving there with little money
and with no earthly reliance save willing hands, iron purpose aud
the undeveloped power of whose eager stirring he was conscious.

The period of the young stranger’s arrival and early labors in
New York was important in the history of human rights. In Eng-
land, it was the period of Catholic emancipation and the reform bill,
by which representation in Parliament was adjusted to population.
It saw the abolishment of slavery in the British colonies and the
passage of a factory act, limiting the labor of children. In France
the rule of reaction and absolutism had been broken by revolution,
and agitation for political and mental freedom was under way. In
America William Lloyd Garrison had launched his assault against
human bondage, announcing that he would not “ think, or speak,
or write with moderation.” It was an era of transition in politics.
Nullification, antimasonry and national republicanism disputed with
the Jackson democracy the possession of public confidence. The
year 1834 found Greeley issuing and editing the New Yorker, a
literary and political paper; and that year was distinguished by the
rise of the Whig party, itself a medium of transition to the conflict
which was soon to divide the American people. In 1838, at the in-
vitation of Thurlow Weed, the young editor took charge of a cam-
paign sheet put forth in Albany, the design of which was to further
the election of William H. Seward as Governor of New York and
promote the progress of Whig principles. Both objects received
a vigorous impulse from this new personal force in American poli-
tics. Two years afterward his Log Cabin was a strong agency im
winning votes for William Henry Harrison, Whig candidate for
President ; and nothing could have been more refreshing to a reflec-
tive citizen in that exuberant canvass than the union of thought
with enthusiasm which its columns exhibited. It is of much signifi-
cance that the formative stage of Horace Greeley’s opinions was
attained at a period when parties were in a fluid condition, and issues
were changing; since opportunity was given for the growth of his
convictions free from the pressure of one dominating idea. The
cause of African emancipation could not have failed to impress his
conscience; but he did not conceive that that cause would be best
served by separating it from other questions with which it was
complicated; and he had little difficulty in determining that the im-
mediate duty of the enemies of slavery was to oppose its extension
and check the arrogance of the slave-holding interest.

The breadth of Greeley’s sympathies enabled him to enter into
other causes than that of the negro; and during that larger political
 

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Clendenin collection

THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE NEW-YORKER
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 171

life which opened before him with the establishment of the Tribune,
in the spring of 1841, he was the friend of all that were oppressed,
the foe of all oppressors. Living a personal life in a wider measure
than most journalists, his interests overflowed the intensely individ-
ual newspaper which he conducted. His sympathy with the liberal
movement in Ireland and the uprisings on the continent of Europe
in 1848 and subsequentiy was strongly manifested. In the lecture
platform he found a place for the dissemination of ideas in behalf
of the cause of labor, ideas on social and educational themes — ideas
that were more stimulating to the minds of his hearers than Alatier-
ing to their prejudices.

Notable always was Greeley’s interest in undertakings and expe-
riments which offered to advance the welfare of farmers or work-
ingmen ; in a particular manner he expressed his regard for printers
and newspaper workers. At one period he advocated economic
features of the socialistic scheme known as Fourierism. The prin-
ciple of profit-sharing was introduced into the organization of the
Tribune; and his name is cherished in New York Typographical
Union No. 6 as that of its first president, elected January 19, 1850.
More than any other American of equal eminence in his time he
divined the depth and reach of the !abor movement. He viewed
the rights of the laborer not merely as affected by slavery or by day
wages, but in a more vital relation — as connected with social oppor-
tunity. Borne onward by his tremendous idealism, he thought of
labor as the coming heir to all the good things accumulated for the
spirit of man by the ages. The substance of his best counsel to labor
was this: Make yourself ready for that day.

The Whig party, toward the close of its stormy existence, saw
leadership lodged more and more surely with men competent to
interpret the new spirit of the North. Of these Horace Greeley
was probably chief; and, when the party which had boasted a Web-
ster and a Clay gave place to one called to a task which Whiggism
was incompetent to perform, and all other interests yielded to the
question whether the slave power should be determinedly resisted,
the Tribune became an oracle of might, not as imposing opinions on
unwilling minds, but as giving back to the conscience of the free
states its own deepest utterances, made nobly articulate.

It is often asserted, in considering the influence enjoyed by jour-
nalists of the Greeley type, that the superior independence of the
present generation of newspaper readers prevents the reappearance
of such an influence. Improbable as it is that the personal sway
which the founder of the Tribune exerted will be attained again by
172 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

a newspaper editor, there is a different explanation. The men to
whom the Tribune appealed in the fifties have not been surpassed
ia intelligence and earnestness by any generation of Americans. If
they trusted Horace Greeley, it was because they had become well
satisfied of his honesty and clearness of vision. They believed in
him, as they came to believe in Abraham Lincoln; and it is yet to be
proved, though constantly assumed, that disbelief is a more intel-
lectual quality than belief. The social organization is now so com-
plex and the interests which compel the citizen’s attention so numer-
ous as to forbid the renewal of that type of heroic leadership which
prevailed when one great issue absorbed the nation’s life.

It was the hope of the Republican leaders to stay the encroach-:
ments of slavery and yet prevent a disruption of the nation. There
were men in the field who were dedicated solely to the destruction
of slavery. They were less troubled over the possible results to our
Federal Union of their agitation and the flaming protests in the
South which their activity provoked. Their task was simple, seer-
like, splendid. But, when the clash of two incompatible civilizations
occurred at Charleston, April 12, 1861, the work of the mere agitator
was done. He could lift his voice for the Union; but he did this sub-
ject to the embarrassments of one who had denounced the venerated
instrument by which the Union was held together as “an agree-
nient with hell.” The President who was gathering to his side the
whole available strength of the North could not seek his counselors
among those whom many held responsible in a measure for the
war. Massachusetts yielded the first place to New York, with her
immense resources of men and money and her conceded conser-
vatism, as South Carolina in the South surrendered the first place
to the more powerful and more moderate Virginia. At this junc-
ture the great editor, with the remarkable organ of opinion which
he was twenty years building, became a far more potent figure
than Garrison, the fiery evangel of abolitionism, or that still more
gifted prophet, Wendell Phillips. Horace Greeley too had been
a voice in the wilderness. But his whole soul shrunk from the
fearful consequences involved in the logic of the antislavery move-
ment. He even argued, when armed issue was about to be joined,
that the decision of upholding our federal system might safely be
left to the uncoerced suffrages of the southern people, thus declar-
ing in effect that he would subordinate the cause of emancipation to
the preservation of nationality. And his record in relation to this
proposal gave added weight to his later pleadings for the liberation
of the slaves.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 173

Abraham Lincoln longed for the hour when he might give effect
to the prayer of slavery-hating men, but he knew better than any
other when the hour had come. The ability to wait is not the
greatest quality of a statesman, but it is not the least. Like other
human qualities which have their roots in common sense, rather
than in high imagination, it is often underrated. Lincoln possessed
it eminently. When he discerned the political conditions under
which the Proclamation of Emancipation would be most effective,
he found a massive sentiment at his command which Greeley more
than anyone else had summoned.

In Lincoln the statesman prevailed over the lawyer, when he
refused to answer the theoretical question whether the states in
rebellion had put themselves outside the Union; but he undertook
to treat them as if their national existence was never extinguished,
but its functions were simply suspended. Removal of the ligature
attached by the act of secession would allow the national life to
circulate once more through the paralvzed members. He had shown
a disposition to recognize the desires of people in the conquered
states to reestablish their relations with the federal government;
but what was more impressive, and counted for more a few years
after his death, was the spirit of brotherhood which kindled all his
declarations touching the South.

Andrew Johnson was not ordained to the office of pacificator.
The elements of his own character forbade him the part. With a
tactlessness on which his opponents could safely count, and a love
of combat for the pure joy of fighting, he must have quarreled with
a congress led by men such as Wade and Stevens, had their policy
toward the southern states been less punitive, and the South taken an
attitude less challenging to the champions of the freedmen. Nearly
two years after Johnson’s succession to the presidency, Congress
divided the territory of the Confederacy into districts, over which
it set military commanders, clothed with powers of government and
reconstruction; and under their direction the carpet-bag establish-
ments started on their course. But a truer successor to Lincoln had
arisen, not in a place of executive authority, but in the lists of public
discussion. On the second morning after the surrender at Appomat-
tox, Horace Greeley said in the Tribune: ‘“ We plead against pas-
sions certain to be at this moment fierce and intolerant; but on our
side are the ages and the voice of history.” Two days later he
reasoned: “ Davis did not devise nor instigate the rebellion; on the
contrary, he was one of the latest and most reluctant of the notables
of the Cotton States to renounce definitively the Union. His prom-
174 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

inence is purely official and representative; the only reason for
hanging him is that you therein condemn and stigmatize more per-
sons than in hanging anyone else.” When, ten weeks after the
passage of Thaddeus Stevens’s military reconstruction law, Greeley
attached his name to Davis’s bail bond, his act was a more emphatic
declaration than he could otherwise have penned of his belief that
the time for the reconciliation of states had come. This self-sacrific-
ing deed placed him at the head of the workers for peace between
brethren long divided. From this position, with all the obloquy,
all the antagonism, which it attracted, he was not to be dislodged.
Erratic, disloyal even, he seemed to many who were incapable of
judging him. Let us be sure that the vilification which then assailed
the old abolitionist, and grew to greater volume in the closing months
of his life, was harder to bear than any which he had endured as
the advocate of the bondman, because it proceeded from men who
once followed his counsel. But, when a man has allied himself
with an inspiring cause, and has appealed to “ the ages and the voice
of history,” he is armed against calumny, can look with pity on mis-
understanding, and will account his suffering but a slight contri-
bution to the good of man.

It should not be difficult now to discuss with candor the Liberal
Republican movement, of which Greeley became the head, by his
nomination for President. Newspapers which opposed the move-
ment were satisfied to describe the Cincinnati convention, by which
his name was offered to the voters, as a gathering of disappointed
place-hunters, Adullamites with a miscellaneous collection of griev-
ances. But the truth has passed into history that the defects of
President Grant’s administration had repelled from his support
some of the ablest and purest men in the Republican party. Heated
partisans could believe, perhaps, that Greeley’s political behavior
for the preceding five years had taken its character from disappoint-
ments and ambition. But, when the nomination found him, it sought
the man who most embodied the conviction which made the Liberal
Republican revolt permanently significant. If the movement had
been chiefly a demand for improvement in the civil service, a choice
might have been made that would have presented the claims of that
reform more sharply. Had the free traders dictated the utterances
of the convention on the tariff, Greeley could not have been its can-
didate. A different selection would have given fitter expression to
the criticism aimed at President Grant, on account of the character
of his appointments. But no other citizen, north or south, could
say with the same forcefulness as Greeley said, in his tour through
 

 

fhe right af ths Recorder te est 5
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Clendenin collection

THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE TRIBUNE
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 175

the country, “‘ Let hatred and bitterness, let contention and jealousy
perish forever. Let us forget that we have fought. Let us remem-
ber only that we have made peace.” The adoption of that sentiment
was the feature which gives the Liberal Republican convention of
1872 a place among great national conventions.

The issue forced upon the country when the chief apostle of recon-
ciliation was made a presidential nominee, encountered the usual
fate of such premature undertakings. But the sentiment in favor
of the restoration of the southern people to their full status in the
civil framework of the country expressed itself with vehemence
four years later in the candidacy of Samuel J. Tilden; and, when it
seemed to have suffered defeat through the award made by the
Electoral Commission, Rutherford B. Hayes gave it vital operation
by promptly withdrawing United States troops from the statehouses
of South Carolina and Louisiana. A “ patriotic attachment to the
Union,” the language of President Hayes in his message of Decem-
ber 1877, quickly replaced in southern minds the sullen resentments
which less enlightened policies had sown. The spirit of good will,
thus sent forth on its mission, bound up the wounds of the war, and
gradually gave to our country the national unity which in the first
century of its independence all the forces of political and military
genius had failed to bestow.

A WONDERFUL DECADE

HORACE GREELEY — ORATOR, EDITOR, NATIONAL
BENEFACTOR

In October 1856, the presidential campaign was growing warm;
“ Buchanan or Frémont” was the question. Tidings came to Fort
Edward that Horace Greeley of the Tribune was to pass through
the village and.could tarry for an hour, giving an address if desired.
The young men sprang to the front; the only public hall was secured
and all people within a radius of two miles were informed by
house-to-house canvass, “ every member,” of the opportunity of a
lifetime to hear the great champion of free soil and free men.

At four o’clock the hall was thronged to its capacity, so that on
the arrival of the speaker it was with difficulty he could be pushed
and pulled to the platform. Stumbling awkwardly to a seat, there
was something grotesque in his aspect for a moment, and a bevy of
Democratic young ladies giggled quite audibly, to the indignation
of a giant constable, the only policeman in town, who loudly rebuked
them and proposed that they be removed. But the chivalrous Gree-
ley said, “ No, I want them all to hear me.”
176 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

The appearance of Mr Greeley was unique: his broad shoulders
clad in a coat too large for him ; a limp, unlaundered turnover collar;
heavy spectacles on nose, with a head of a giant, bald at the dome,
and abundant uncombed locks on either side, a clean-shaven face,
luxuriant whiskers beneath his chin and cheeks, a smile on his beam-
ing features, childlike and bland. A more open countenance one
never saw, a countenance on which candor and sincerity were most
legibly stamped. On looking at him you thought of a full, round
harvest moon,

If on mounting his Pegasus we smiled at his awkwardness, when
he was in saddle we at once sat up and took notice, and as he rode
on with a pace more and more vigorous, finally using whip and spur
and making a terrific cavalry charge, we looked, listened, and won-
dered, our only fear that he would make an end. He began with
slowly spoken sentences, in a somewhat drawling manner, and not
without nasal twang, suggestive of the traditional Yankee backwoods
orator (known so well to literature, but rarely seen in real life).
Very shortly, however, he quickened his rate of utterance and put
a heavier weight on his emphasis. Presently we gasped at a glancing
epigram in which was lodged a catapult of truth.

We were now made aware that it was a mighty man we were
hearing. The platform which he commended was “ progressive ”
but “sane.” “No more slave states,” but the compromises of a
Constitution must be respected. The Union must be preserved.
For the hot-headed political abolitionists, Garrison and Phillips, he
had only tingling sarcasms. They were pestilential disturbers. The
American people were patriotic enough and wise enough to meet
new problems as they should arise, and in God’s own good time,
emancipation could come in a legal, orderly, and constitutional man-
ner. We had all been involved in the introduction of slavery into
the nation, and we should be willing to bear our part in devising and
carrying out a constitutional policy for its elimination. Meanwhile
let all good men stand together.

Mr Greeley’s appeal to young men to cast their first vote for free
soil and free men was luminous, forcible, eloquent and irresistible.
So thought the writer, who, though a hereditary and zealous Demo-
crat, then and there decided to cast his vote for Frémont and Day-
ton.—“A Reminiscent Book,’ by Joseph E,. King D. D., pages

65-67.
NEWSPAPER COMMENT
NEWSPAPER COMMENT

Horace Greeley

It is the fashion of a certain school of writers to sneer at Horace
Greeley as one of the diminishing figures of American history. His
weaknesses and his eccentricities lend themselves readily to ridicule.
His inconsistencies were glaring and his yearning for office was
pitiful. Yet a noble mind is not to be measured by its infirmities.

Tomorrow is the one hundredth anniversary of Greeley’s birth,
and no tribute that will be paid to his memory is likely to over-
estimate either his influence in one of the two critical periods of
the Republic or his disinterested service to human freedom. For
thirty-five years Horace Greeley was perhaps the greatest political
force that this country ever knew except Thomas Jefferson.

They call Clay the father of the protective system, but the real
father was Greeley, who, through the columns of the New York
Tribune, converted the farmers to the doctrine and has kept them
in line ever since. The present protective policy of the Republican
party is still sustained at the polls by the arguments that Horace
Greeley hammered into the minds of the agricultural population
more than sixty years ago.

Lincoln won immortality as the emancipator of the slave, but it
was Greeley who nominated Lincoln for President, and Greeley’s
long fight against the slave power was the most important element
in Lincoln’s election. The New England abolitionists were a small
factor in that contest compared with the editor of the Tribune.

It is true that when the irrepressible conflict began, Greeley was
opposed to coercing the seceding states; but this does not prove
that Greeley was wholly wrong. So impartial an historian as James
Bryce has expressed the opinion that a higher statesmanship might
have averted the Civil War, and it was not to Greeley’s discredit
that he had no desire to see the Nation carelessly plunged into the
most terrible conflict of modern history.

Much has been made of Greeley’s controversy with Lincoln, in
which Greeley was unquestionably in the wrong; but it was an
honest difference of opinion on both sides. Greeley was tempera-
mentally incapable of agreeing with anybody for long, and Lincoln
was the last man in the world to claim for himself the gift of
infallibility. The fact is worth recording in this connection that
perhaps the fairest, ablest and most just estimate of Abraham
Lincoln that has ever been written came from the pen of Horace
Greeley.

179
180 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Greeley’s reputation would rest on a higher plane if he had never
accepted the Democratic nomination for President in 1872. He
was a greater man as an editor than as a presidential candidate.
Both he and the Democratic party were right on the reconstruction
question, but they were right at the wrong time, and Greeley was
decidedly not the man to lead the campaign against Grant’s admin-
istration. His nomination weakened his influence. He had to
turn his back on all his economic principles, on his own record, on
his former political associates, and he was disastrously beaten,
although he polled 100,000 more votes than Seymour received in
-1868. As Blaine once said, Greeley more than any other man of
his day had the quality of being able to call out the full strength
of the opposition.

Greeley’s real fame must rest in the files of the New York
Tribune. Few Americans have reared loftier monuments to their
own genius and power than did this schoolmaster of republican
institutions, or monuments upon which can be found fewer stains.—
The New York World, February 2, tort.

Horace Greeley

Americanism intense, inclusive, even exuberant, was expressed
in Mr Greeley’s career from beginning to end; and yet, it would
not be altogether just to omit heredity, environment and other
influences from those which shaped the life and made the man.
To hold him up complete as an example to youth would be both
idle and unwise. Yet there was in his life so much that was sound,
pure and wholesome, a sincerity and a genuineness, that its study
may well be commended as not only one of the most interesting,
but one of the most instructive and stimulating. Based upon the
substantial principles of self-respect and self-support, of. industry,
economy, integrity, Mr Greeley is and always will be a living
example for every aspiring and earnest young American, while his
outbursts in politics, his excursions in sociology and theology, were
but the genuine expressions of an honest and sympathetic nature,
intensely devoted to the principles of human liberty and equality
as he understood them and desirous to aid by all his power in their
universal acceptance and establishment.

Possibly the three “ slogans,” as we would call them today, by
which-Mr Greeley’s fame and influence were most widely extended,
would give a better idea of the character and mentality of the man
than any critical or profound analysis. “Go West, young man,”
 

SENATOR GEORGE A. SLATER

Who as Assemblyman of the 4th assembly district
of Westchester county, introduced bill provid-
ing for appropriation for Greeley monument at
Chappaqua

Note: Governor John A. Dix failed to sign the bill, so mon-

ument was erected by private subscription
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL I8I

condensed years of hard labor, of the strictest economy, almost
penury, on New Hampshire rocks and in Vermont clearings and
printing offices, and was infused with wisdom from the travels and
larger views of adult years, when life had expanded and absorbed
the meaning of the great area from which the young New Englander.
had been excluded. “ On to Richmond ”’ was the irrepressible out-
burst of indignant patriotism and loyalty, which would not be
smothered by political complications, impatient of personal am-
bition and jealousies in the field, and looking only for the immediate
results, the end of the war and the vindication of the Union in
the shortest possible time. ‘“‘ The way to resume is to resume,”
simply expressed in a sentence like impatience of devious and
temporizing: politicians in the name of statesmanship; that sturdy
and earnest personal integrity, which paid every bill, no matter at
what sacrifice; and that inflexible determination to be honest with
all men, and that simple-mindedness which made good the spirit as
well as the letter of every promise.

To speak of Mr Greeley as a journalist, in terms of the present,
would be difficult. Times have changed and we are changed with
them; and, the journalism of today, whatever its merits or demerits,
has small place, if any, for men of the Horace Greeley type and
methods. No more honorable chapters in American journalism
exist than those of the Tribune in its early palmy days under Mr
Greeley and his associates, Raymond, Ripley, Dana, Margaret
Fuller, Curtis and the others, whose names have become classic;
nor in its later renaissance, under the present Ambassador to Great
Britain, whose staff, with Hay, Bromley, Congdon, Brooks, Winter
and those with them, was the envy and the despair of all rivals.
But those days and men are gone, and we are facing new conditions
and new demands. That Mr Greeley was able to lay deep and
permanent the intellectual and political foundations of the great
institution over whose corner stone he sits in bronze, is the achieve-
ment which will perpetuate his memory and long vitalize it in the
hearts and the honor of his countrymen.— The Brooklyn Standard
Union, January 20, IOIT.

He of the prophets

Born among the lowly, reared with adversity dogging his youth-
ful steps, growing into the zenith of his power through his mighty
battle for justice, right and truth, and then to die when he had
thought to spend. his declining years among those he had inspired
182 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

to build their homes here, Horace Greeley’s centenary comes to the
people of Weld county pregnant with meaning.

When the groan and shock of war had brought liberation of the
slaves, probably the dearest wish of Greeley, his prophetic eye saw
the expansion and development that must follow the lean years
when brother fought brother. He had met the West and loved it.
He saw the glowing future possible for the wide ranges that lay
waiting. He sounded the clarion call for those who dared to brave
the untried.

No dominion of sect or creed confined his efforts. His was the
zeal for the greater things than the exposition of his individual
ideas. He pointed the way for all humanity to the new land where
he foresaw a victory for the arts of peace.

And now, we of a fair city in the midst of the fertile plains,
may well do him honor and hail him as the blessed prophet of the
West.— The Greeley Daily Tribune, February 2, rort.

Other judgments

The few famous journalists are not much more than a name, the
“dream of a shadow.” Even the actor leaves, perhaps, a more
tangible inheritance. Besides, a “great journalist’s” reputation is
more or less pilfered from obscurer or totally obscure men who
cooperated in his work, a work essentially collective and impersonal,
save in the apprehension of the dear public that dearly loves a
“hero” and worships a cockade. If the old white hat and white
coat of Horace Greeley are still visible, if he survives in some sense
while a more accomplished journalist such as Henry J. Raymond
is hardly a name, this posthumous good fortune is due to Mr
Greeley’s personal incursions into politics, to his part in the anti-
slavery legend, to the hold that he long had upon the farmers and
the school teachers, not least perhaps to the homeliness, the vigor,
the salient peculiarities of the man. Gone are the amenities of
Fatanswill, the old fierceness of newspaper epithet and controversy,
that ancient fashion of journalism which was illustrated by the
author of “ Thanatopsis”” and editor of the Evening Post when he
beat a brother editor with a cowskin in front of Philip Hone’s house
at Park place and Broadway, or by James. Watson Webb’s en-
-counters with the elder Bennett and with Duff Green. The “little
villain ” and “ you lie, you villain, you lie” style of journalism is now
practised only by an illustrious amateur
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 183

Mr Greeley called about him many men of various distinction,
but his own chief and singular distinction must remain unknown
to the moderns or be taken on trust. He had a way of writing of
his own —clear, straightforward, largely Saxon, lit up sometimes
by passion, sometimes by humor, recalling, if anybody, Franklin
and Cobbett. If not a great journalist, he was a great editorial
writer. The young gentlemen from whom of all horned cattle he
most prayed to be delivered can find few better models of style—
New York Sun, February 3, 1911.

Horace Greeley, the centenary of whose birth occurs today, was
a giant in American journalism, and his type is practically as extinct
as that of the dinosaurus whose fossil skeleton was dug out the
other day from the Palisades. His was, above all else, political
journalism. . . . He was deeply and sincerely concerned for the
advancement of the mass of the people, and especially the great
class, born to privation, toil and difficulty, from which he sprang.
He had boundless hope for their betterment, and if he sometimes
embraced too promptly and warmly schemes that promised its
attainment, his sympathies never cooled or his energies tired in
their behalf. He was aggressive and enjoyed conflict. His capacity
for work had no limit, or his love for it.

Mr Greeley’s influence upon the life of his country in the three
decades following the founding of the Tribune was very great, and
on the whole it was beneficent. In matters of public policy he aided
as much as any other one man in rallying the forces of public
opinion. Of course the greatest of these was slavery, and as to
that his service was unquestionably more effective than that of any
other journalist. Curiously enough, his surviving reputation with
regard to slavery is that of a radical and an extremist. In reality,
he was in the main a sagacious, temperate, long-headed, and patriotic
opponent of the extension of slavery. He was not an abolitionist
until the slave power drew the sword against the Union. He
ardently defended freedom of speech for the abolitionists, as for
all others. . . . After the war he labored with all his might for
amnesty and impartial suffrage—a dream undoubtedly, but the
beautiful dream of a generous soul. When he signed the bail bond
of Jefferson Davis, he did a noble act which cost him dear, as he knew
it would. Save that of Lincoln, no name should stand higher on
the roll of the true friends of the South living in the North in those
troubled times.— New York Times, February 3, Iort.
184 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

There is one community that is celebrating with more than per-
functory enthusiasm today the Horace Greeley centenary, and that
is the northern Colorado city which bears his name and in which
he felt a deep interest during the latter years of his life. The
“Greeley colony” was mainly composed of New England people
and was the first irrigated territory in the state. Its settlers were
imbued with idealistic principles. Their plan of progress was to
some extent cooperative. It was to encourage churches and schools
and get along without saloons and it has lived up to its prospectus
better than most new. settlements. Mr Greeley visited the town in
1870 and in a speech to the people in front of the Greeley Tribune
expressed some disappointment that the place had not grown faster.
But, says a correspondent of the Springfield Republican, if he could
look upon the colony after forty-one vears, “he would see a broad
territory dotted with elegant and happy homes, and irrigated lands
sending out tens of thousands of carloads of potatoes, flour, wheat,
alfalfa, sugar, canned goods and live stock, and a city of homes
numbering ten thousand prosperous people.” Six days before his
death Mr Greeley wrote to the founder of the colony: “I presume
you have already drawn upon me for the thousand dollars to buy
land. If you have not, please do so at once. I have not much
money and probably never shall have, but I believe in this colony
and consider it a good investment for my children.’’— Boston Even-
ing Transcript, February 3, Tort.

The function of Greeley in this great development of history
was not to stamp his impress upon policies, or to build up a clearly
marked following on definite lines, but to awaken in the minds and
hearts of millions of his countrymen the sentiment of abhorrence
for slavery and the determination some way or other to bring it to
an end. In the spread of this gospel through the agency of every-
day journalism he was beyond all comparison the greatest force.
Nor should it be imagined that, in saying this, one is paying tribute
merely to the constancy of his advocacy. To hammer away at one
subject year in and year out, in season and out of season, is a task
of no special difficulty; it requires neither peculiar ability nor
unusual courage. What Greeley did was to make his Tribune
editorials on slavery fresh and interesting and live, to say the same
thing a thousand times without fatiguing his readers. That he was
able to do this was due partly to his vigorous nature and his extraor-
dinary command of racy and energetic English; but it must also
 

 

 

 

SENATOR JAMES D. MCCLELLAND

Of the thirteenth Senate district 1911-14, who
introduced bill providing for this report —in
Senate 1913
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 185

in great measure be ascribed to the very fact that his interest in a
great range of other subjects was almost as keen as in the dominant
political issue that he represented— New York Evening Post,
February 3, Iori.

The fame of Horace Greeley rests enduringly on the great work
he did as editor of the New York Tribune; in calling the Republican
party into being and endowing it with issues of vital power and
popular appeal; in giving the antislavery cause practical direction,
arguments and moral and physical momentum. He was a “ pro-
gressive” in that his mind was open to the impress of new ideas.
With all his weaknesses he was an elemental force. In the progress
of the American people he bore a high, compelling part— New
York Evening Mail, February 3, rort.

He was not'a copy or a representative of a group. He was an
original, and the definiteness of his peculiarities was a never failing
source of gossip and discussion. . . He was a unique character
who strayed into the newspaper-making business, and he had the
courage to be himself. If a man should appear with a like com-
bination of gifts, he would in all likelihood create as great a stir
and exercise as large an influence— Neu! York Globe, February 3,
Iori.
CHARACTERISTIC UTTERANCES
BY HORACE GREELEY
CHARACTERISTIC UTTERANCES BY HORACE
GREELEY

LETTERS, EDITORIALS, ESSAYS AND SPEECHES

AN OPEN LETTER TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN
(Concluding portion)

The Prayer of Twenty Millions

On the face of this wide earth, Mr President, there is not one
disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause
who does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and
at the same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and
futile — that the rebellion, if crushed out tomorrow, would be re-
newed within a year if slavery were left in full vigor — that army
officers who remain to this day devoted to slavery can at best be
but half-way loyal to the Union — and that every hour of deference
to slavery is an hour of added and deepened peril to the Union. I
appeal to the testimony of your embassadors in Europe. It is
freely at your service, not at mine. Ask them to tell you candidly
whether the seeming subserviency of your policy to the slave-
holding, slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the despair
of statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general
answer!

I close as I began with the statement that what an immense
majority of the loyal millions of your countrymen require of you
is a frank, declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the laws
of the land, more especially of the confiscation act. That act gives
freedom to the slaves of rebels coming within our lines, or whom
those lines may at any time inclose — we ask you to render it due
obedience by publicly requiring all your subordinates to recognize
and obey it. The rebels are everywhere using the late antinegro
riots in the North, as they have long used your officers’ treatment of
negroes in the South, to convince the slaves that they have nothing
to hope from a Union success —that we mean in that case to sell
them into a bitterer bondage to defray the cost of the war. Let them
impress this as a truth on the great mass of their ignorant and
credulous bondmen, and the Union will never be restored — never.
We can not conquer ten millions of people united in solid phalanx
against us, powerfully aided by northern sympathizers and European
allies. We must have scouts, guides, spies, cooks, teamsters, diggers
and choppers from the blacks of the South, whether we allow them

189
190 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

tu fight for us or not, or we shall be baffled and repelled. As one
of the millions who would gladly have avoided this struggle at any
sacrifice but that of principle and honor, but who now feel that the
triumph of the Union is indispensable not only to the existence ot
our country but to the well-being of mankind, 1 entreat you to
render a hearty and unequivocal obedience to the law of the land.
‘Yours
Horace GREELEY
New York, August 19, 1862
— The New York Tribune, August 20, 1862.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S ANSWER
Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862
Hon. Horace Greeley:

Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to
myself through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any state-
ments or assumptions of fact which IT may know to be erroneous,
I do not now and here:controvert them. If there be in it any
inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now
and here argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an
impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old
friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I “ seem to be pursuing,” as you say, I have not
meant to leave any one in doubt.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under
the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored,
the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be
those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same
time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who
would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy
slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this
struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy
slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I
would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would
do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone,
I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored
race I do because I believe it helps to save this Union; and what I
forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save
the Union. I shall do Jess whenever I shall believe what I am doing
hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing
more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown
Oxecutive Mansion,
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THE LINCOLN PEACE LETTER
1864
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL IgI

to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall
appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according
to my view of official duty, and I intend no modifications of my
oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free.
Yours
A. LincoLn

LETTER TO THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB
By these presents, Greeting!

To Messrs. Geo. W. Blunt, John A. Kennedy, John O. Stone,
Stephen Hyatt, and 30 others, members of the Union League
Club,

GENTLEMEN: I was favored, on the 16th inst., by an official
note from our evercourteous president, John Jay, notifying me that
a requisition had been presented to him for “a special meeting of
the club, at an early day, for the purpose of taking into consideration
the conduct of Horace Greeley, a member of the club, who has
become a bondsman for Jefferson Davis, late chief officer of the
rebel government.” Mr Jay continues:

“As I have reason to believe that the signers, or some of them,
disapprove of the conduct which they propose the club shall con-
sider, it is clearly due, both to the club and to yourself, that you
should have the opportunity of being heard on the subject; I beg,
therefore, to ask on what evening it wil! be convenient for you that
I call the meeting,” &c., &c.

Gentlemen, I shall not attend your meeting this evening. I have
an engagement out of town and shall keep it. I do not recognize
you as capable of judging, or even fully apprehending me. You
evidently regard me as a weak sentimentalist, misled by a maudlin
philosophy. I arraign you as narrow-minded blockheads, who
would like to be useful to a great and good cause, but don’t know
how. Your attempt to base a great, enduring party on the hate
and wrath necessarily engendered by a bloody Civil War, is as
though you should plant a colony on an iceberg which had somehow
drifted into a tropical ocean. I tell you here that, out of a life
earnestly devoted to the good of human kind, your children will
select my going to Richmond and signing that bail bond as the
wisest act, and will feel that it did more for freedom and humanity
than all of you were competent to do, though you had lived to the
age of Methuselah.

I ask nothing of you, then, but that you proceed to your end
Ig2 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

by a direct, frank, manly way. Don’t sidle off into a mild resolution
of censure, but move the expulsion which you purposed, and which
I deserve if I deserve any reproach whatever. All I care for is,
that you make this a square, stand-up fight, and record your judg-
ment by yeas and nays. I care not how few vote with me, nor how
many vote against me; for I know that the latter will repent it in
dust and ashes before three years have passed. Understand, once
for all, that I dare you and defy you, and that I propose to fight it
out on the line that I have held from the day of Lee’s surrender.
So long as any man was seeking to overthrow our Government, he
was my enemy; from the hour in which he laid down his arms, he
was my formerly erring countryman. So long as any is at heart
opposed to the national unity, the Federal authority, or to that
assertion of the equal rights of all men which has become prac-
tically identified with loyalty and nationality, I shall do my best
to deprive him of power; but, whenever he ceases to be thus, I
demand his restoration to all the privileges of American citizenship.
I give you fair notice that I shall urge the reenfranchisement of
those now proscribed for rebellion so soon as I shall feel confident
that this course is consistent with the freedom of the blacks and
the unity of the Republic, and that I shall demand a recall of all
now in exile only for participating in the rebellion, whenever the
country shall have been so thoroughly pacified that its safety will
not thereby be endangered. And so, gentlemen, hoping that you
will henceforth comprehend me somewhat better than you have
done, I remain
‘Yours

Horace GREELEY?
New York, May 23, 1867

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

To the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana:

Dear Sir: In my former letter, I asserted, and I think proved,
that

t The established, express, unequivocal dictionary meaning of
marriage is union for life. \Whether any other sort of union of
man and woman be or be not more rational, more beneficent, more

1¥For this out-from-the-shoulder blow the members of the Union League
Club had no competent defense. The meeting took place. but amounted to
nothing, and Greeley heard no more from the club about his attitude as a
southern sympathizer. [J. A. H.] ‘
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 193

moral, more Christian, than this, it is certain that this is marriage,
and that that other is something else.

2 That this is what we who are legally married — at all events,
if married by the ministers of any Christian denomination — uni-
formly covenant to do. I distinctly remember that my marriage
covenant was “for better, for worse,” and “ until death do part.”
I presume yours was the same.

3 That Jesus of Nazareth, in opposition to the ideas and usages
current in his time, alike among Jews and Gentiles, expressly
declared adultery to be the only valid reason for dissolving a
marriage.

4 That the nature and inherent reason of marriage inexorably
demands that it be indissoluble except for that one crime which
destroys its essential condition. In other words, no marriage can
be innocently dissolved; but the husband or wife may be released
from the engagement upon proof of the utter and flagrant violation
of its essential condition by the other party.

And now, allow me to say that I do not see that your second
letter successfully assails any of these positions. You do not, and
can not, deny that our standard dictionaries define marriage as I
do, and deny the name to any temporary arrangement; you do not
deny that I have truly stated Christ’s doctrine on the subject
(whereof the Christian ceremonial of marriage, whether in the
Catholic or Protestant churches, is a standing evidence) ; and I am
willing to let your criticism on Christ’s statement pass without com-
ment. So with regard to Moses: I am content to leave Moses’s
law of divorce to the brief but pungent commentary of Jesus, and
his unquestionably correct averment that “ from the beginning, it
was not so.”

But you say that, if my position is sound, I make “a sweeping
assertion ” against the validity of the marriages now existing in
Indiana and other divorcing states. O no, sir! Nine-tenths of the
people in those states—TI trust, ninety-nine hundredths — were
married by Christian ministers, under the law of Christ. They
solemnly covenanted to remain faithful until death, and they are ful-
filling that promise. Your easy-divorce laws are nothing to them;
their conscience and their lives have no part in those laws. Your
state might decree that any couple may divorce themselves at
pleasure, and still those who regard Jesus as their Divine Master
and Teacher, would hold fast to his Word, and live according to a
“higher law” than that revised and relaxed by you.

I dissent entirely from your dictum that the words of Jesus
194 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

relative to marriage and divorce may have been intended to have
a local and temporary application. On the contrary, I believe he,
unlike Moses, promulgated the eternal and universal law, founded,
uot in accommodation to special circumstances, but in the essential
nature of God and man. I admit that he may sometimes have with-
held the truth that he deemed his auditors unable to comprehend
and accept, but I insist that what he did set forth was the absolute,
unchanging fact. But I did not cite him to overbear reason by
authority, but because you referred first to Christianity and the
will of God, and because I believe what he said respecting marriage
to be the very truth. Can you seriously imagine that your personal
exegesis on his words should outweigh the uniform tradition and
practice of all Christendom?

You understand, I presume, that I hold to separations “‘ from bed
and board’ —as the laws of this state allow them — only in cases
where the party thus separated is in danger of bodily harm from
the ferocity of an insane, intemperate, or otherwise brutalized, in-
furiated husband or wife. I do not admit that even such peril can
release one from the vow of continence, which is the vital condition
of marriage. It may possibly be that there is “‘ temptation” in-
volved in the position of one thus legally separated; but I judge
this evil far less than that which must result from the easy dissolu-
tion of marriage. i

For here is the vital truth that your theory overlooks: The
Divine end of marriage is parentage, or the perpetuation and in-
crease of the human race. To this end, it is indispensable — at
least, eminently desirable — that each child should enjoy protection,
nurture, sustenance, at the hands of a mother not only, but of a
father also. In other words, the parents should be so attached, so
devoted to each other, that they shall be practically separable but
by death. Creatures of appetite, fools of temptation, lovers of
change, as men are, there is but one talisman potent to distinguish
between genuine affection and its meretricious counterfeit; and that
is the solemn, searching question, “Do you know this woman so
thoroughly, and love her so profoundly, that you can assuredly
promise that you will forsake all others and cleave to her only
until death?” If you can, your union is one that God has hallowed,
and man may honor and approve; but, if not, wait till you can thus
pledge yourself to some one irrevocably, invoking heaven and earth
to witness your truth. If you rush into a union with one whom
you do not thus know and love, and who does not thus know and
love you, yours is the crime, the shame; yours be the life-long
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 195

penalty. I do not think, as men and women actually are, this law
can be improved; when we reach the spirit-world, I presume we
shall find a Divine law adapted to its requirements, and to our
moral condition. Here, I am satisfied with that set forth by Jesus
Christ. And, while I admit that individual cases of hardship arise
under this law, I hold that there is seldom an unhappy marriage
that was not originally an unworthy one — hasty and heedless, if
not positively vicious. And, if people will transgress, God can
scarcely save them from consequent suffering; and I do not think
you or I can.
Yours
New York, March 11, 1860 Horace GREELEY

— The New York Tribune, March 17, 1860.

CORRESPONDENCE ON PROTECTION
Editor Press:

In reading an account of the exports for the year 1865, I find
that we exported boots and shoes to the value of $2,083,210, printed
calico 1,080,426 yards. Now I am at a loss to know how we can
compete with foreign nations in foreign markets and claim a pro-
tective tariff to compete with them at home?

Why do we export wool to the amount of 466,182 Ibs. and im-
port shoddy to the amount of 8,133,391 lbs.2 Will you or some of
your correspondents enlighten us on this subject as it seems to be
a mystery.

Yours H.

Answer We export boots and shoes, as well as leather, because
tanning material (bark) is more abundant and cheap here than in
Europe. We have also surpassed all other nations in the invention
and application of labor-saving machinery in the manufacture of
boots and shoes.

Printed calicoes is another of our old and well-established manu-
factures in which costly machinery plays a very important part, so
that we make them (though with much dearer labor) nearly as
cheap as any other people. The French prints (calicoes) sell
higher than ours, being esteemed more original and tasteful in
design and fashion. The British have this advantage of us: their
trade reaches all the ports of Africa, Asia and South America which
ours does not. Can’t you see why Chicago can sell more reapers
(for instance) than Quebec or Rio Janeiro, though we sell them
no cheaper?
196 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

2 We import very much wool, and export a very little — mostly
very coarse from California and Texas. Wool is dearer with us
in the average than elsewhere. Shoddy is old woolen rags broken
and ground over into a flimsy material for filling new fabrics. It
is largely produced in Great Britain and imported here. The tariff
bill before our last Congress imposed on it a prohibitory duty; but
that was defeated by the Free Traders; so we must continue to
wear shoddy in America as well as foreign fabrics.

H. G.
From manuscript in New York State Library

THE DEATH OF HIS LITTLE BOY

My Frienp: The loss of my boy makes a great change in my
feelings, plans and prospects. The joy of my life was compre-
hended in his, and I do not now feel that any personal object can
strongly move me henceforth. I had thought of buying a country
place, but it was for him. I had begun to love flowers and beautiful
objects, because he liked them. Now, all that deeply concerns me
is the evidence that we shall live hereafter, and especially that we
shall live with and know those we loved here. I mean to act my
part while life is spared me, but I no longer covet the length of
days. If I felt sure on the point of identifying and being with our
loved ones in the world to come, I would prefer not to live long.
As it is, I am resigned to whatever may be divinely ordered. We
had but a few hours to prepare for our loss. He went to bed as
hearty and happy as ever. At 5 a. m. he died. His mother had
bought him a fiddle the day before, which delighted him beyond
measure; and he was only induced to lay it up at night by his
delight at the idea of coming up in the morning and surprising me
by playing on it before I got up. In the morning at daylight I was
called to his bedside. The next day, I followed him to his grave!
You can .not guess how lovely his long hair (never cut) looked in
the coffin. Pickie was 5 years old last March. So much grace and
wit and poetry were rarely or never blended in so young a child,
and to us his form and features were the perfection of beauty.
We can never have another child, and life can not be long enough
to efface, though it will temper, this sorrow. It differs in kind as
well as degree from what we have hitherto experienced.

Horace GreELEy?

 

1The preceding letter was furnished to the New York Evening Sun by
Thomas D. McElheim, in whose desk it had lain twenty years or longer.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 197

GREELEY JUDGES HIS OWN VERSE
New York, Feb. 10, 1859

Mr Bonner: I perceive by your Ledger that you purpose to
publish a volume (or perhaps several volumes) made up of poems
not contained in Mr Dana’s “ Household Book of Poetry,” and I
heartily wish success to your enterprise. There are genuine poems
of moderate length which can not be found in that collection, ex-
cellent as it palpably is, and superior in value, as I deem it, to any
predecessor or yet extant rival. There are, moreover, some genuine
poets whose names do not figure in Mr Dana’s double index, and
{ thank you for undertaking to render them justice; only take care
not to neutralize or nullify your chivalrous championship by bury-
ing them under a cartload of rhymed rubbish, such as my great
namesake plausibly averred that neither gods nor men can abide,
and you will have rendered literature a service and done justice to
slighted merit.

But, Mr Bonner, be good enough -—— you must—to exclude me
from your new poetic Pantheon. I have no business therein — no
right and no desire to be installed there. I am no poet, never was
(in expression), and never shall be. True, I wrote some verses in
my callow days, as I presume most persons who can make in-
telligible pen marks have done; but I was never a poet even in the
mists of deluding fancy. All my verses, I trust, would not fill one
of your pages; they were mainly written under the spur of some
local or personal incitement, which long ago passed away. Though
in structure metrical, they were in essence prosaic — they were read
by few, and those few have kindly forgotten them. Within the
last ten years I have been accused of all possible and some impossible
offenses against good taste, good morals and the common weal -—
I have been branded aristocrat, communist, infidel, hypocrite,
demagogue, disunionist, traitor, corruptionist, etc., etc. — but I can
not remember that anyone has flung in my face my youthful trans-
gressions in the way of rhyme. Do not, then, accord to the malice
of my many enemies this forgotten means of annoyance. Let the
dead rest! and let me enjoy the reputation which I court and
deserve, of knowing poetry from prose, which the ruthless resurrec-
tion of my verses would subvert, since the undiscerning majority
would blindly infer that 7 considered them poetry. Let me up!
Thine,

HoRACE GREELEY
198 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

AN OFFER TO LEND MONEY TO A FRIEND
New York, Nov. 29, 1851

Won't you have some money? I earn a good deal and two-
thirds of it goes every way to all manner of loafers — why not you?
I would rather send you $50 than not if you will let me — say so
and I will do it. I long ago quit wanting to be rich —I never did
want to live extravagantly. I own a house; some mining stocks
which mean to be good some time; and a quarter of the Tribune
which pays, not to speak of any number of I. O. U.’s that don’t
pay and won’t —they’d see me in heaven first. Let me send you
$50, to be paid when perfectly convenient.

JOHN BROWN DEAD
There are eras in which death is not merely heroic but beneficent
and fruitful. Who shall say that this was not John Brown’s fit
time to die? . . . It will be easier to die in a good cause, even
on the gallows, since John Brown has hallowed that mode of exit
from the troubles and temptations of this mortal existence. Then
as to the “irrepressible conflict”: Who does not see that this
sacrifice must inevitably intensify its progress and hasten its end?
So let us be reverently grateful for the privilege of living
in a world rendered noble by the daring of heroes, the suffering of
martyrs — among whom let none doubt that history will accord an
honored niche to Old John Brown.— The New York Tribune.
December 3, 1850

MAGNANIMITY IN TRIUMPH

We had hoped to print herewith the President’s proclamation of
amnesty and oblivion to the partisans of the baffled rebellion, and
we do not yet despair of receiving it before we go to press, though
no portion of it has yet been received. We are apprised, however,
by telegraph from Washington, that its tenor was publicly debated
in that city yesterday, while our State Senate was agitated by a
kindred discussion. We can not shut our eyes to the fact that
strenuous efforts are being made to swerve the President from the
course to which his judgment and his feelings alike incline him by
stigmatizing it as involving infidelity to principle or to party.
Others will be heard on this point, though we were to keep silence:
we claim, therefore, our equal right to set forth our views, that
they be accorded such weight as they shall be deemed to deserve.

We hear men say, “ Yes, forgive the great mass of those who
have been misled into rebellion, but punish the leaders as they
 

Original in Americana collection, i. 2
State Historian James A. Holden

oD URIS

This_very scarce and unusual photograph secured by Austin W. Holden, Capt. Co. F,
22d Reg’t, N. Y. V., at Harper's Ferry, Va., 1861
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 199

deserve.” But who can accurately draw the line between leaders
and followers in the premises? By what test shall they be dis-
criminated? Some of the arch-plotters of disunion have never
taken up arms in its support, nor have they held any important post
in its civil service. Where is your touchstone of leadership? We
know none.

Nor can we agree with those who would punish the original
plotters of secession, yet spare their ultimate and scarcely willing
converts. On the contrary, while we would revive or inflame resent-
ment against none of them, we feel far less antipathy to the original
upholders of “ the resolutions of ’98”’ — to the disciples of Calhoun
and McDuffie—to the nullifiers of 1832 and the “state rights ”
men of 1850—than to the John Bells, Humphrey Marshalls and
Alex. H. H. Stuarts, who were schooled in the national faith, and
who, in becoming disunionists and rebels, trampled on the pro-
fessions of a lifetime and spurned the logic wherewith they had so
often unanswerably demonstrated that secession was treason.
Whether they weakly yielded to the madness of the hour, hoping
that so they might ultimately “ride the whirlwind and direct the
storm” to some ill-defined but beneficent purpose, or surrendered
their judgment and their loyalty to that imposture of “ state
sovereignty ” which they had always held in just contempt, or were
driven by sheer cowardice and fear of bodily violence into a course
condemned by all their better impulses, we protest against any
discrimination whereby this class shall be screened or favored. We
consider Jefferson Davis this day a less culpable traitor than John
Bell.

But we can not believe it wise or well to take the life of any
man who shall -have submitted to the national authority. The
execution of even one such would be felt as a personal stigma by
every one who had ever aided the rebel cause. Each would say
to himself, “I am as culpable as he; we differ only in that I am
deemed of comparatively little consequence.” A single Confederate
led out to execution would be evermore enshrined in a million hearts
as a conspicuous hero and martyr. We can not realize that it would
be wholesome or safe — we are sure it would not be magnanimous
—to give the overpowered disloyalty of the South such a shrine.
Would the throne of the House of Hanover stand more firmly had
Charles Edward been caught and executed after Culloden? Is
Austrian domination in Hungary the more stable today for the
hanging of Nagy Sandor and his twelve compatriot generals after
the surrender of Vilagos?
200 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

We plead against passions certain at this moment to be fierce
and intolerant; but on our side are the Ages and the voice of
History. We plead for a restoration of the Union, against a policy
which would afford a momentary gratification at the cost of years
of perilous hate and bitterness.

We have borne for a quarter of a century the unjust imputation
of hating the South, when we hated and sought to subvert only
slavery, the scourge alike of South and North, and the sole cause
of discord between them. We have done what we could—of
course, not always wisely —- to baffle, to circumscribe, and ultimately
to overthrow, the slave power. At length, through a succession of
events which no human being could have devised or foreseen, the
end which we sincerely hoped but hardly expected to see, is plainly
before us. American slavery is visibly in the agonies of dissolu-
tion; if we live a year longer, we shall almost certainly see it laid
in the grave; and, whenever abolished here, its expulsion from the
last rood of Christendom that it now curses can not be postponed
five years. Let us take care that no vindictive impulse shall be
suffered to imperil this glorious consummation.

Unquestionably, there are men in the South who have richly
deserved condign punishment. Whoever is responsible for the
butchery of our black soldiers vanquished in fight, or the still more
atrocious murder of captives by wanton exposure and privation in
prison camps, stands in this category. But the immediate issue
concerns not the dispensation of justice to individuals but the
pacification of a vast republic. He who fancies that all the exhibi-
tions of cruelty or perfidy have been the work of rebels has but a
superficial knowledge of our current history.

Those who invoke military execution for the vanquished, or
even for their leaders, we suspect, will not generally be found
among a few who have long been exposed to unjust odium as haters
of the South, because they abhorred slavery. And, as to the long
oppressed and degraded blacks, so lately the slaves, destined still
to be the neighbors, and we trust at no distant day the fellow
citizens of the southern whites, we are sttre their voice, could it be
authentically uttered, would ring out decidedly, sonorously, on the
side of clemency — of humanity— The New York Tribune, April
Ir, 1865

“RECONSTRUCTION ”

One of the most doleful prognostics to which our great struggle
has tempted the enemies of the Republic affirmed the impossibility
of reconciling the southern.people to the Union they had renounced,
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 201

defied, and would fain have subverted. ‘“ What will you do with
your: Poland after you shall have conquered it?” triumphantly
asked a Briton of a Unionist, not anticipating the obvious answer —
“We will liberate the Poles.” Nothing but universal freedom was
needed to render the South preponderantly loyal when secession
held her dumb and rigid in its embrace; nothing more was needed
to render even South Carolina a decidedly Union state. To make
any state disloyal, you had to count its aristocracy everything, its
working classes nothing; and, though this was the political status
actually existing at the outbreak of the rebellion, it was an artificial
status, which yielded readily to the rude shock of war. From the
hour wherein the President issued his first proclamation of freedom,
a preponderance of the numbers, the sinews, and the prayers of
the South, ardently adhered to the side of the Union, and only
liberty of speech and act were required to render that preponderance
effective. To recognize the humanity and vindicate the personal
rights of all the southern people was to overthrow the rebellion and
restore the Union. And this is the essence of “ reconstruction.”
Hence, we deprecated the adoption by Congress of any elaborate
or even definite project of state restoration; hence we confidently
look for a speedy and thorough reestablishment of peace and return
to the ways of industry and thrift under the aegis of the Union.
The threat of protracting the war by guerrilla bands hiding in
swamps and mountain fastnesses is idle. It might be possible for
the Government to impel a frenzied handful to this resort by whole-
sale confiscation and cruel rigor; but no such madness is possible.
We have had a great civil war, wherein blood has flowed like water
and property been destroyed as though it were dross; we have
fought it out like men, and now we will all set to work to repair
its ravages as rapidly and thoroughly as we can. All being now
free, and most of us poor, we shall all set to work to rebuild our
burned houses, replant and till our wasted fields, and repair our
dismantled canals, railroads &c., at the earliest possible day, thus
securing work to the idle, bread to the hungry, and opening vistas
to comfort and independence for all. Our lamented dead can not
be restored; but the wounded will be nursed, the crippled cared for,
with grateful tenderness, while we multiply the inventions and
labor-saving machinery whereby the ravages and losses of war
shall be speedily effaced or counterbalanced. We have a great
public debt; but a moderate tax on the pernicious luxuries con-
sumed among us will pay its interest and soon begin the reduction
of its amount; while bounteous crops of grain, meat, cotton, &c.,
202 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

with large and steadily increasing drafts upon our mountains and
glens of precious ore, will combine to pay off our foreign creditors
and secure a balance of trade in our favor. UNrion-PeaAcE-LIBERTY
— with these inscribed in light on our banner, we shall move firmly,
proudly on to the fulfilment of our country’s magnificent destiny.
May she be henceforth without. exception a terror to oppressors
and evil-doers and a beacon of hope and cheer to the enslaved and
downtrodden throughout the habitable globe! — The New York

Tribune, April 11, 1865

COUNSEL TO YOUNG MEN
Extract

Believe firmly in God. Not asa speculation, nor as a probability,
but as vitally necessary to any rational explanation of the phenomena
presented all around and within us, be profoundly and actively con-
scious that God lives and reigns, and that all we see and are, exist
in conformity to His will. ‘‘ God said, ‘ Let light be!’ and light
was,” is the most lucid and forcible, as well as the briefest exposi-
tion of the nature and process of creation which our limited faculties
can comprehend. It is true that we can not answer a thousand
questions like these — ‘‘ Was there ever a time when the material
universe had not yet been spoken into being? If there was, what did
exist? If God only, where did He exist? And in what manner was
His existence evidenced or manifested? If He is infinite and eternal,
while the universe is finite and of yesterday, is it not likely to vanish
in obedience to His fiat, and be known no more?” A simpleton may
thus ask questions which the wisest man may not be able to answer,
even to his own satisfaction. God’s existence, freely admitted, by no
means clears up the mysteries whereby we are pressed upon from
every side; but it indicates the quarter whence the solution is surely
to be vouchsafed us in His good time. Feel that God is, and rules,
and judges, and the dark problems that environ may no longer
perplex and distress us; the little we see and know becomes an incon-
siderable part of a stupendous whole, which we need to see in its
entirety before we can safely or wisely criticise it. What we depre-
cate and lament as evil is illumined and transfigured; we know that
it is enveloped and controlled by universal beneficence — that it is
reined and mastered by Him who has said to the ocean — “ Hitherto
shalt thou come, and no further; here shall thy proud waves be
stayed.” Since we know that God is, we are no longer orphans in
His creation; the stars in their courses may awe, but can no longer
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 203

terrify or appall us, and all that was bleak and forbidden is irradiated
and warmed by the sunshine of our Father’s love. Whatever may
perplex, or harass, or afflict him, let no young man permit anything
to cloud or shake his steadfast trust in God.

Take care of your health. Sinners as we all are, I doubt that we
violate God’s moral, half so often as his physical laws, unless one.
counts the latter violations as part of the former. Before we are
old enough to know better, we eat and drink more than would be
good for us were it ever so wholesome, with much that would be
hurtful if the quantity imbibed were ever so moderate. Two-thirds
of the pains and aches of childhood are the immediate effects of
excessive or improper eating or drinking —of these and nothing
else. But for these calamitous inflictions, most of us would have
destroyed our digestive economy while yet in our teens. As it is,
our teeth generally evince unmistakable symptoms of decay before
we have severally attained the age of twenty-one. Dyspepsia soon
adds its horrors in the case of multitudes; and at thirty a formidable
minority, if not a majority, are in the downhill of life, victims of
their own ignorance and excesses. Bad cookery (generally excessive
in the case of meats) ; food swamped and stewed in grease, meats,
vegetables and beverages swallowed when too hot (it were better
that we took nothing when more than blood-warm) ; a jumble of
acids and sweets, pickles and honey — these corrode our teeth, taint
our breath, honeycomb our bones and deprave all the muscles and
cartilages whereof our bodies are composed. Of our countrymen
and women above forty years old, a majority are invalids or daily
sufferers because of their earlier violations of the laws of life — not
to mention the larger number whom these violations have already
consigned to untimely graves. \We eat too much; we eat too fast;
we eat at irregular intervals; we eat many things essentially and
inevitably hurtful; we eat as though the stomach were an iron mill,
bound to grind out whatever grists may be poured into the hopper.
We pay for months of thoughtless indulgence and ignorant trans-
gression, by years of inefficiency and suffering. Those who will
inquire, and read, and consider, need not thus destroy themselves.
We are victims of our own thoughtless sensuality, but not there-
fore innocent victims. It is our simple duty to take good care of the
lives and faculties which have been entrusted to our stewardship ;
and any infidelity to this high trust is sin. If cleanliness be akin
to godliness, a due regard for health may be justly accounted a moral
duty. Let each seek out the right and pursue it, as well with regard
to himself as to his neighbors.
204. THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Be a good citizen. There are some whoseem to fancy it saintly,
or aristocratic, or something other than unpatriotic and paltry, to
leave public affairs unheeded to go as they may, but he can not be a
thoroughly good man who ignores or habitually neglects those public
responsibilities which flow directly from citizenship in a free state
or country. In every such country there will be some who seek
personal aggrandizement through the control of political machinery ;
and every citizen who neglects his public duties, renders himself the
accomplice of these self-seekers. If no one attended a primary
meeting, or voted at an election, but those who sought to subserve
private and selfish ends thereby, a republic must soon become the
most corrupt and oppressive of despotisms. However good or bad
in their practical influences our institutions may be, they must surely
be made worse by each habitual abstention from the performance ot
political duties. He who sells his vote to the highest bidder is just
twice as bad as his neighbor who does not vote at all. I question
the fidelity to his trust of the man who feels at liberty to disregard
his obligation to do whatever he honestly may, toward placing polit-
ical power in capable and worthy hands. And the pretense that this
involves a heavy sacrifice of time and means is utterly futile. I
assert that an average of one day per annum will fully suffice for
the just and faithful performance of any private citizen’s public or
political duties.

As to office, I hold that the good citizen will never solicit it at
any man’s hands, nor will he decline it when its duties are within
his capacity and do not involve a sacrifice greater than he can hon-
estly make. If to accept must cause his children to go hungry, or
his debts to go unpaid, then it can rarely be his duty to impose such
privations on others. But if he can do what is required of him
and yet fulfil all his obligations to his family or his creditors, then
it is his duty to accept, and set an example of conscientious and
circumspect performance of duties which others may contemplate
with profit. If he waits to be solicited, such responsibilities are not
likely to be laid upon him very frequently.

Never be ashamed of frugality. Ostentation is a prevalent Amer-
ican folly. Most of us would fain be thought richer than we are.
Thousands incur expenses that they are scarcely able to meet through
fear of being thought stingy or penniless, when they might better
confess their poverty and save their money. “TI can not afford it,”
a British duke will sometimes say, when asked why he does not
incur this or that outlay: meaning, not that he has not sufficient
money, but that he has devoted his income to other uses. The vul-
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 205

garity which makes a boast of poverty is scarcely more reprehensible
than that which fools away money in order to seem indifferent to,
or reckless of, expense. Fear to be mean if you will, but never to
seem so if your circumstances or your duty counsels frugality.

Owe no man anything but good will. I do not insist that a debt
should, under no circumstances, be incurred. I do maintain that
the contingency is rare indeed in which a wise and true man will
considerably involve himself in the meshes of debt. Yet how’
readily, how recklessly, most of our young men incur debt! To
“get into business ” — which generally means to get a living other-
wise than by downright work — almost any poor youth will rush
heels over head into debt, fancying that he can easily pay, by and by,
a sum which exceeds his entire fortune; whereas, a majority will
never be free again while they live. Young men! go to work, earn
and save, and never owe more dollars than you shall have previously
earned and saved. I can’t help hoping for the day when those who
lend without exacting security will be told to collect their own debts,
if they can, and not ask the state to do it for them.

Never degrade labor. Men do this every day, by asking for em-
ployment as they would ask for alms. If you have no respect for
yourself, you have no moral right thus to debase others. Faithful
work for fair wages is a simple exchange, whereby each party is
benefited, and neither is laid under special obligation. A true man
will sweep streets or dig ditches on this footing rather than secure
easier and better paid employment by cringing and whining for
something to do. It is this general aspiration to win easy places
and obtain excessive wages that puts labor under the heel of capital.
Let every one readily accept and cheerfully do the most satisfactory
work that any one really wants him to do, and labor will be placed
on its feet again— Wood’s Household Magazine.

THE FARMER’S CALLING

If any one fancies that he ever heard me flattering farmers as a
class, or saying anything which implied that they were more virtuous,
upright, unselfish, or deserving, than other people, I am sure he
must have misunderstood or that he now misrecollects me. I do
not even join in the cant; which speaks of farmers as supporting
everybody else—of farming as the only indispensable vocation.
You may say if you will that mankind could not subsist if there
were no tillers of the soil; but the same is true of house-builders,
and of some other classes. A thoroughly good farmer is a useful.
valuable citizen: so is a good merchant, doctor, or lawyer. It is not
206 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

essential to the true nobility and genuine worth of the farmer’s call-
ing that any other should be assailed or disparaged.

Still, if one of my three sons had been spared to attain manhood,
I should have advised him to try to make himself a good farmer ;
and this without any romantic or poetic notions of agriculture as a
pursuit. I know well, from personal though youthful experience,
that the farmer’s life is one of labor, anxiety, and care; that hail,
and flood, and hurricane, and untimely frosts, over which he can
exert no control, will often destroy in an hour the net results of
months of his persistent, well-directed toil; that disease will some-
times sweep away his animals, in spite of the most judicious treat-
ment, the most thoughtful providence, on his part; and that insects,
blight, and rust, will often blast his well-grounded hopes of a gen-
erous harvest, when they seem on the very point of realization. I
know that he is necessarily exposed, more than most other men, to
the caprices and inclemencies of weather and climate; and that, if he
begins responsible life without other means than those he finds in
his own clear head and strong arms, with those of his helpmeet, he
must expect to struggle through years of poverty, frugality, and
resolute, persistent, industry, before he can reasonably hope to attain
a position of independence, comfort and comparative leisure. I
know that much of his work is rugged, and some of it absolutely
repulsive; I know that he will seem, even with unbroken good for-
tune, to be making money much more slowly than his neighbor, the
merchant, the broker, or eloquent lawyer, who fills the general eve
while he prospers, and, when he fails, sinks out of sight and is soon
forgotten; and yet, I should have advised my sons to choose farming
as their vocation, for these among other reasons:

There is no other business in which success is so nearly certain
as in this. Of one hundred men who embark in trade, a careful
observer reports that ninety-five fail; and, while I think this pro-
portion too large, I am sure that a large majority do, and must fail,
because competition is so eager and traffic so. enormously overdone.
If ten men endeavor to support their families by merchandise in a
township which affords adequate business for but three, it is certain
that a majority must fail, no matter how judicious their management
or how frugal their living. But you may double the number of
farmers in any agricultural county I ever traversed, without neces-
sarily dooming one to failure, or even abridging his gains. If half
the traders and professional men in this country were to betake
themselves to farming tomorrow, they would not render that pursuit
one whit less profitable, while they would largely increase the com-
 

Tribune collection

AT CHAPPAQUA

“I am a poor chopper; yet the axe is my doctor and
delight.” Busy Life, p. 303 :
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 207

fort and wealth of the entire community: and, while a good mer-
chant, lawyer, or doctor, may be starved out of any township, simply
because the work he could do well is already confided to others, I
never yet heard of a temperate, industrious, intelligent, frugal, and
energetic farmer who failed to make a living, or who, unless pros-
trated by disease or disabled by casualty, was precluded from
securing a modest independence before age and decrepitude divested
him of the ability to labor— What I Know of Farming, p. 2-43.

SECESSION

There are probably those who believe that the South, fairly can-
vassed, and relieved from the irritating threat of northern coercion,
would have voted to dissolve the Union: I do not. I firmly believe
that, if the North had been great enough, wise enough, to say to the
South, just after Mr Lincoln’s election: ‘“ You must decide this
question for yourselves. We will not buy you, nor bribe you, nor
hire you, whether with money or with servility, to stay with us; we
deny the pretended constitutional, legal right of secession; but we
affirm the right of revolution — the right of each people to be gov-
erned as they see fit. Choose, then, once and forever, whether to
remain with us or leave us, and as you choose it shall be” — we
should have ensured the defeat and downfall of the conspirators
for disunion. . Had we promptly and frankly quieted these
[those opposed to northern coercion], by offering to leave the whole
matter of disunion to a fair, unconstrained, popular vote of the
Southern States, after mutual explanations and ample discussion,
I think we should have saved the Union without bloodshed, and
demolished the vocation of those who were incessantly and insult-
ingly threatening that, if the North did this or didn’t do that, the
South would punish her by dissolving the Union and leave her to her
natural insignificance.

Doubtless, wiser men than I saw all this in quite another light;
1 am here to listen and learn; but I must look through my own eyes;
and, after much consideration, I am yet firm in the faith that the
course I advised was the true one.

TO THE MEN OF KANSAS
Men of Kansas! It would ill become me, on this spot crimsoned
by the life-blood and hallowed by the ashes of the latest martyrs
to the cause of human liberty, who were at the same time among

1In the New York Tribune, August-23, 1865, under the caption, “ All about
the War.”
208 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

the bravest and noblest, to doubt your fidelity to the cause with whose
struggles and trials the name of your embryo state is forever honor-
ably blended. I will not distrust your integrity nor your constancy ;
but I will venture to say, guard against dissensions; guard against:
the corruption by Federal patronage or the promise of it of some of
those you have been accustomed to confide in; guard against apathy ;
guard against unchastened ambition; guard above all against new
frauds on your ballot-boxes!

Yet, when I think of the steady diffusion of intelligence — the
manifest antagonism between the efforts of the slavery extensionists
and the interests of free labor — when I consider how vital and
imminent is the necessity for the passage of the free land bill — when
I feel how the very air of the nineteenth century vibrates to the
pulsations of the great heart of humanity, beating higher and higher
with aspirations for universal freedom, until even barbarous Russia
is intent on striking off the shackles of her fettered millions —I can
not repress the hope that we are on the eve of a grand, beneficent
victory. But, whether destined to be waved in triumph over our next
great battlefield, or trodden into its mire through our defeat, I
entreat you to keep the Republican flag flying in Kansas, so long as
one man can anywhere be rallied to defend it. Defile not the glorious
dust of the martyred dead whose freshly grassed graves lie thick
around us, whose imploring spirits hover over us, by trailing that
flag in dishonor or folding it in coward despair on this soil so lately
reddened by their patriot blood. If it be destined, in the mysterious
Providence of God, to go down, let the sunlight which falls lovingly
upon their graves catch the last defiant wave of its folds in the free
breeze which sweeps over these prairies; let it be burned, not sur-
rendered, when no one remains to uphold it; and let its ashes rest
forever with theirs by the banks of the Marais des Cygnes! — From
speech at a meeting of citizens attending the Republican convention
at Osawatamie, Kan., May 18, 1859 (New York Tribune, May 31,

1859).
CAMPAIGN ADDRESSES OF 1872
CAMPAIGN ADDRESSES OF 1872

APPEALS IN BEHALF OF RECONCILIATION

EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES DELIVERED IN THE CANVASS OF 1872

At Covington, Ky.

Mr Mayor and Gentlemen: It is simply impossible for me, speak-
ing from this elevation, to be heard by any considerable portion of
this vast assemblage. I will therefore say but a few words, and let
my life and actions speak for me the rest that I would gladly say.
[Cheers] I am glad to stand before you on the soil of Kentucky,
and to believe that I have your sympathy and cooperation in the
efforts I have long made toward bringing the American people, the
whole American people, into more hearty and cordial recognition
of the truth that they are and must ever remain fellow countrymen.
[Cheers] I have labored in behalf of that truth in the face of
obloquy, of misrepresentation, of prejudice, and of the natural
passion born of a bloody civil war. I believe that the hour of the
triumph of that sentiment is now approaching. I believe that the
day is at hand when we shall very generally realize that henceforth
it becomes us to banish all bitterness and hatred, and forget our past
conflicts and struggles against each other, and to remember only the
blessed legacy of liberty and independence bequeathed to us by an
illustrious ancestry. [Cheers] In behalf of these truths I have
dared to alienate friends whom I loved, and who loved me. I have
ventured to make myself called a turncoat, a renegade, by men who
will yet comprehend me better, and regret that they so misappre-
hended me. [Cheers] No fear of present injury, of present evil
speaking, of present reproach, has at any time deterred me from
doing that which seemed my duty to my country.

When I first, at the close of our great war, declared that our coun-
try must be rebuilt on the foundations of universal amnesty and
impartial suffrage, I knew that platform was not acceptable at the
North nor at the South. There were those who believed in and
comprehended the blessings of universal amnesty, and yet rejected
and spurned impartial suffrage; and there were those who eagerly
clutched at impartial suffrage and rejected and condemned uni-
versal amnesty; and there were a great many who were alike hostile
to both. If the question had been put to a vote of the people of the
country, not one-fifth of them would have sustained my program.
Very well, said I, I can wait; and I have.

211
212 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

At Dayton, O.

We are one people, and shall evermore remain one people. Shall
we be a harmonious people? Shall ours be a Union cemented only
by bayonets, or shall it be a Union of hearts and hopes and hands?
I am for the latter union. [Applause] I am here not to exult
over the victories won in the late war. I am here not to make one
particle of prejudice or triumph. I do not propose to do anything
which shall make the southern people feel bitterly that the union
between us is one of exultation on our part and humiliation on theirs.
] think he is not a patriot who would try to intensify the bitterness
and soreness that those who fought against us must feel in view of
their great defeat. Theirs is a lost cause but they are not a lost
people, for they belong to us. They are our brethren, they have
come back to us under compulsion, if you say so; but I wish to
change that compulsion into affection, for that is statesmanship.
That work I am seeking, as far as I can, to do.

Fellow citizens of Ohio: Since the day I left home I have made
a great many speeches like this, but no man has heard from me one
word implying disrespect or disparagement for that eminent citizen
and public servant, the President of the United States. No word
from me has thrown disparagement on his public services or dis-
honor on his high office. I am among you, a citizen, speaking to
citizens of the United States on things that concern your well-being
and mine, because they concern the welfare and greatness of our
common country. I beseech you so to act in the struggle now upon
us, so to vote, that your acts and your votes will tend to bind up the
wounds of our country. I beseech you so to act and speak and
live, that your victory shall be a tearless victory; that no one shall
feel humbled because of your triumph; that no man shall be trampled
under your “on-rushing feet.” So friends, in the hope and trust
that Ohio, like Indiana and Pennsylvania, will pronounce, on the
8th of October, for a genuine peace, J bid you farewell.

At Jeffersonville, Ind.

Mr Mayor and Citizens of Jeffersonville: I should be very incon-
sistent and ungrateful if my life had not been devoted, according
to my best understanding, to the interest and welfare of the great
laboring class, from which I sprang, and with which I have always
been connected. Beginning life as a laborer on a farm, going thence
into a mechanic’s shop, and learning my trade as a printer, I have
devoted the rest of my life first to my employment as printer and
editor, and afterward to some extent to the calling of a moderate
 

Fi eo
Clendenin collection

THE FAVORITE PORTRAIT

Taken early in 1872. Mrs Clendenin's choice of her father’s many
photographs
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 213

farmer. I feel that my sympathies could not have been otherwise
than with the immense majority of mankind, who in all ages are
required to subsist by their own manual industry. I have meant to
be, in my politics as in my business, the friend of labor. I may have
made mistakes (who has not?) in the policy which I thought best
adapted to promote the interest of the workingman. I may just as
well have been mistaken as equally honest, equally earnest men who
have advocated a different policy; but I know what my purpose
was.

I was in the days of slavery, an enemy of slavery, because I
thought slavery inconsistent with the rights, dignity, and highest
well-being of free labor. That might have been a mistake, but it
was at any rate an earnest conviction. So when our great trouble
came on, I was anxious first of all for labor —that the laboring
class should be everywhere free men. I was anxious next that our
country’s unity might be preserved, without bloodshed if that were
possible — by means of bloodshed, if that dire alternative should be
fastened on us. For, friends and neighbors, bloodshed is always
a sad necessity — always a woeful necessity — and he who loves
his fellowman must desire to make it as short as possible, and, so
soon as peace can be restored, to efface as speedily as may be every
trace not merely of blood on the earth, but of vengeful feelings
from the hearts of his fellows. Such has been the impulse of the
course I have pursued throughout the last few eventful years.

My life has been an open book; all could read it. My thoughts
have been given to the public warm and fresh, sometimes before an
opportunity had been afforded for due consideration and correc-
tion — very often mingled with thoughts of others which were not
my own, but which it was very easy to attribute to me. So I have
come on to this time. No one who heard my utterances or listened
to them in any way directly after the close of the war, when I
pleaded for magnanimity, for forbearance, for the speediest possible
effacement of all sores and sorrows from the public mind — no one
who heeded me then can doubt where I must stand now — no one!

Hamilton, O.

So the South will say. The time shall be when the states south
of the Ohio shall rejoice as heartily as you can rejoice, that slavery
has passed away forever. They will feel that a great. chain was
lifted from their necks; that the shackles were broken which bound
their limbs when four millions of our American people were lib-
erated and made citizens of this country where they had formerly
214 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

been slaves. They will yet realize that Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia shall be richer and nobler, freer and purer than they would
have been so long as part of their people were held in bondage. They
will realize that what was their weakness has through emancipation
become their strength; will rejoice that nothing now remains to mar
the unity or cloud the destiny of our country. Now we say, and they
say, let hatred and bitterness, let contention and jealousy perish for-
ever. Let us forget that we have fought. Let us remember only
that we have made peace. Let us say there shall be no degradation,
no people over whom we triumph. Our triumph is their triumph.
Our triumph is the uplifting of every one to the common platform
of American liberty and American nationality. Our,triumph is not
the triumph of a section; it is not the triumph of a race; it is not a
triumph of a class. It is the triumph of the American people, mak-
ing us all in life, in heart and purpose the people, the one people
of the great American Republic.
EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES
EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES

CONFORMITY

1 would have no man do this or refrain from that in contradiction
from the world, any more than in consistency with it. Nay more:
I admit and counsel acquiescence with the ordinary, the prescribed.
the established, in all matters essentially indifferent or trifling. J
loathe perverseness — it is at war with harmony and the supreme
good. Convince me that the Quaker remains stubbornly covered in
the presence of his equals, his seniors, from mere mulishness or
whim, and I abandon him to your rebukes. I will second them with
my own. But let me realize that that rude noncompliance stands to
him for a vital fact — that it symbolizes to him a great principle, to
wit, the stern uprising of a true manhood against servility and fawn-
ing adulation, and I will defend him to the last gasp — I will do him
such reverence as befits a manly self-respect, for his stout fidelity +
2 conviction.

But in truth the vice of our time, and I apprehend of all times,
with rare exceptions, is of opposite tendency, and it is to oppose this
that our shields should be locked and our spears pointed. There
is a simpering and dapper conformity, a blind deferring to other
men’s estimates, habits, tastes, which robs life of its freshness, its
originality, its masculine strength. Where all are content to dres:.
to dine, to walk, and most to think, to feel, to act, as some dozen or
score shall see fit to dictate, what wonder that invention is checked,
that genius is caged, that existence becomes tame and vacant, or,
if not torpid, still unmeaning as an idiot’s tale? The waters of this
dead sea of complaisance and barren formality need to be visited
now and then by the rough gales of Heaven. even though they be
shocked, and agitated, and driven helter-skelter thereby; better this
than that they should become stagnant and putrid. Do not mistakenly
imagine that you must go out of yourself — that you must become
eccentric and extravagant to produce this effect. In the midst of
tniversal ducking, and sidling, and compromise, you will seem
sufficiently rigid and angular if you walk simply and naturally on.

The danger of this dead complaisance — of living not your own
genuine thought but other men’s opinions. which even if true fcr
them are not wholly so for you — is one of the mst subtle and per-
vading of the many which track the ingenuous and timid through life.
It is an evil which magnifies as our social relations become more arti-

237
218 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE. OF NEW YORK

ficial, and complex, and penetrating. It assails us even on the side
of our virtues. Each of us is attached to some party in politics,
some sect in religion, some coterie in morals, philanthropy or cul-
ture; and this is well, so long as that party, that coterie, shall repre-
sent to us the highest attainable good in that particular province
which it contemplates. But the impulse which says, “ Do not pro-
claim that certain truth which you have discerned, because other
men have not discovered it, and your bold advocacy will be wielded
to the prejudice of your sect or party,” deserves only to be scouted
and trampled under foot. What right has sect or party to inter-
meddle with your free thought, save to accept or reject it? What
right to subject the line of your truth to the orbit of its policy -—
perchance its narrow policy and low though correct aims? O fear
not to be wholly true and manful, and the devotees of policy and
craft shall be driven into conformity with your lofty and earnest
endeavor! — From lecture, the “ Formation of Character.”

EDUCATION

We seek and meditate a perfect combination of study with labor.
Of course, this is an enterprise of great difficulty, destined to en-
counter the most formidable obstacles from false pride, natural indo-
lence, fashion, tradition, and exposure to ridicule. It is deplorably
true that a large portion, if not even a majority of our youth seeking
a liberal education, addict themselves to study in order that they may
escape a life of manual labor, and would prefer not to study, if they
knew how else to make a living without downright muscular exertion,
but they do not; so they submit to be ground through academy and
college, not that they love study or its intellectual fruits, but that
they may obtain a livelihood with the least possible sweat and toil.
Of course, these will not be attracted by our program, and it is prob-
ably well for us that they are not. But I think there is a class —
small, perhaps, but increasing — who would fain study, not in order
to escape their share of manual labor, but to qualify them to perform
their part in it more efficiently and usefully — not in order to shun
work, but to qualify them to work to better purpose. They have no
mind to be drudges, but they have faith in the ultimate elevation of
mankind above the necessity of lifelong uninterrupted drudgery,
and they aspire to do something toward securing or hastening that
consummation. They know that manual labor can only be dignified
or elevated by rendering it more intelligent and efficient, and that
this can not be so long as the educated and the intellectual shun
such labor as fit only for boors.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 219

Our idea regards physical exertion as essential to human develop-
ment, and productive industry as the natural, proper, God-given
sphere of such exertion. Exercise, recreation, play are well enough
in their time and place; but work is the Divine provision for develop-
ing and strengthening the physical frame. Dyspepsia, debility, and
a hundred forms of wasting disease, are the results of ignorance or
defiance of this truth. The stagnant marsh, and the free, pure-
running stream, aptly exemplify the disparity in health and vigor
between the worker and the idler. Intellectual labor, rightly directed,
is noble—far be it from me to disparage it— but it does not
renovate and keep healthful the physical man. To this end, we
insist, persistent muscular exertion is necessary, and, as it is always
well that exercise should have a purpose other than exercise, every
human being not paralytic or bedridden should bear a part in manual
labor, and the young and immature most of all. The brain-sweat of
the student — the tax levied by study on the circulation and the
vision — are best counteracted by a daily devotion of a few hours
to manual labor— From address at the laying of the cornerstone
of the People’s College, Havana, N. Y., September 2, 1858.

The great struggle for human progress and elevation proceeds
noiselessly, often unnoted, often checked and apparently baffled,
amid the clamorous and debasing strifes impelled by greedy selfish-
ness and low ambition. In that struggle, maintained by the wise and
good of all parties, all creeds, all climes, I caJl you to bear the part
of men. Heed the lofty summons, not the frail messenger, and, with
souls serene and constant, prepare to tread boldly in the path of
highest duty. So shall life be to you truly exalted and heroic; so
shall death be a transition neither sought nor dreaded; so shall your
memory, though cherished at first but by a few humble, loving hearts,
linger long and gratefully in human remembrance, a watchword to
the truthful and an incitement to generous endeavor, freshened by
the proud tears of admiring affection, and fragrant with the odors
of Heaven! — Peroration of address before the literary societies of
Hamilton College, July 23, 1844.

THE NEW ERA

So, then, friends, I summon you all, Republicans and Democrats,
to prepare for the new issues and new struggles that visibly open
before us. In the times not far distant, I trust we shall consider
questions mainly of industrial policy — questions of national ad-
220 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

vancement — questions concerning the best means whereby our dif-
ferent parties may, through cooperation, or through rivalry, strive to
promote the prosperity, the happiness, and the true glory of the
American people. To that contest I invite you. For that contest
I would prepare you. And so, trusting that the bloodshed in the
past will be sufficient atonement for the sins of the past, and that we
are entering upon a grand New Departure, not for one party only,
but for the whole country —a departure from strife to harmony,
from devastation to construction, from famine and desolation to
peace and plenty —I bid you, friends and fellow citizens, an affec-
tionate good night.— At reception of Mr Grecley at the Lincoln Club
rooms, New York, June 12, 1871.

So the work of the lonely pioneer, buried deep in the primitive
forest, wherein his rude log cabin has just been thrown up, around
which he is slowly beating back the empire of shade and savagism by
dint of axe and fire, seems petty and casual when regarded by
itself ; but could we, from some commanding height, some ship of
the air, look down at once upon the whole body of pioneers at their
daily labor, we should recognize in their desultory array the skirmish
line of advancing civilization, the harbinger of intelligence, comfort,
thrift, humanity, religion. The wolf, the bear, the serpent, perishing
or vanishing as the pioneer host slowly, irregularly, vet inexorably,
moves on, are now seen to be types of a moral order, which civilized
society is destined to supplant and replace— At Cincinnati, O.,
September 20, 1872, address before the Exposition.

THE PRESS

I think we may fairly claim for the press this, that, with all its
imperfections, and sharing, as it doubtless does, the passions of its
patrons, it has done more, on the whole, to moderate than to stim-
ulate those rapacious instincts and those ambitious passions of man-
kind, which have been the great obstacles to human progress, es-
pecially in the spheres of art and industry, and more than all of
intelligence. We have heard tonight very much said of the advan-
tages and the blessings of material commerce; and all of it, I doubt
not, truly. I think, however, that nations have profited more decid-
edly, more consistently, or rather permanently, by the commerce of
ideas, than by the commerce in material objects. And now, if China
and this country are to come, as I trust they may, into more harmon-
ious and intimate relations than they have hitherto held, I hope that
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 221

she will gain more of us by borrowing our arts and our ideas, and
that we shall gain more of her, as I doubt not we can gain more, by
so borrowing of her those which are the less material trophies of her
progress and her thought than by the simple interchange of commod-
ities — Speech at the banquet to Anson Burlingame and his asso-
ciates of the Chinese Embassy, June 23, 1868, responding to the
toast, ““ The Press.’

LINCOLN

The Republic needed to be passed through chastening, purifying
fires of adversity and suffering: so these came and did their work,
and the verdure of a new national life springs greenly, luxuriantly,
from their ashes. Although men were helpful to the great renova-
tion, and nobly did their part in it, yet, looking back through the
lifting mists of seven eventful, tragic, trying, glorious years, I clearly
discern that the one providential leader, the indispensable hero of
the great drama — faithfully reflecting even in his hesitations and
seeming vacillation the sentiment of the masses — fitted by his very
defects and shortcomings for the burden laid upon him, the good to
be wrought out through him, was Abraham Lincoln— From “ An
Estimate of Abraham Lincoln,’ in “Greeley on Lincoln,” ed. Joel
Benton, p. 78-79.
SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF
HORACE GREELEY
SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF HORACE
GREELEY

From an interview of the State Historian with Chester S. Lord,
Regent of The University of the State of New York and
managing editor of the New York Sun for
thirty-two years

You have asked me to say something concerning my recollections
of Horace Greeley. You have asked also concerning his relations
with Charles A. Dana. Mr Dana went to the Tribune soon after
the failure of the Brook Farm colony, and his relations with Mr
Greeley were cordial and pleasant enough up to the time of the
Civil War. Then they became somewhat strained owing to Mr
Greeley’s somewhat unnational attitude, while Mr Dana was in favor
of a more strenuous campaign for the preservation of the Union.
Some of the most vigorous editorial articles of that period, which
appeared in the Tribune, advocating stronger federal action, were
inspired or written by Mr Dana. After the latter quit the Tribune,
and had served as Assistant Secretary of War, he bought the Sun,
and made it the great paper that it afterward became. I think that
he and Mr Greeley did not to any great degree revive the old
friendship, although for many years Mr Greeley’s picture orna-
mented Mr Dana’s desk. At the time of the nomination of Greeley
for the presidency, I had but recently arrived in New York City
and become a member of the Sun staff. I can remember very clearly
going as a cub reporter with Amos Cummings to visit Mr Greeley
on the day of his nomination to the presidency, and listening to what
he had to say. The editorial room was on the second floor of the old
Tribune building, a four-story structure where the present Tribune
edifice stands. Mr Greeley’s desk was close to the window; and
from the street the great editor was to be seen always while at
work. Either his desk was very high or his chair was very low
for while he wrote his desk was nearly on a level with his chin. He
was nearsighted. Had he lived until nowadays, he must certainly
have been pointed out by the conductors of the “ rubber-neck
wagons,” for he was one of the sights of the town. Mr Cummings
wrote a fine description of Mr Greeley’s surroundings and of the
reception given to the scores of well-known persons who crowded
in to congratulate him. Mr Greeley was writing an editorial article
when the news of his nomination came. The room contained three
chairs, two desks and a high stool. Two of the chairs were cane-

225
226 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

bottomed and one of them had a broken arm. A high desk fronting
the west window was used by Mr Greeley’s secretary. There was
an old sofa in the room. An immense map of the world covered the
back of the room, and another side of the apartment was adorned
with maps of New Jersey and New York. The space between the
two windows was occupied by a steel plate engraving of “ The Land-
ing of the Pilgrim Fathers” and a framed copy of President Lin-
coln’s ‘‘ Emancipation Proclamation.” An open bookcase filled with
books of reference was in a corner. The great editor’s desk was
littered with newspaper clippings and manuscripts, and Mr Cum-
mings remarked that some of them looked as though they had slept
on the desk since the time when Henry Clay ran for President. Two
brass-bound volumes of the Tribune Almanac from the date of its
publication were chained to the desk. A rickety pair of scissors also
swung from achain. Mr Greeley’s hat lay on the desk. The small
drawers of the desk were drawn half out. Postage stamps, envel-
opes, letter paper and old pamphlets seemed ready to fall out of the
drawers. A box of common red wafers was half upset on the left,
while an old-fashioned sand box, used for blotting, was standing
guard over the accident. The top of the desk was covered with
bright-colored volumes in orderly rows. Among them were Lan-
man’s Dictionary of Congress, the Congressional Directory, the Blue
Book, State Manual and similar works. The editorial chair was a
high cane-backed affair rigged on a swivel. It squeaked when it was
turned.

Mr Greeley was dressed in a black suit throughout. He wore a
steel-pen coat. His pantaloons were drawn over his bootlegs. The
legend that he habitually went around with one trouser leg tucked in
his boot is a fable. His cravat was not out of place. He wore no
jewelry. Plain china shirt buttons glistened on his bosom and a black
silk watch ribbon ran about his neck. He greeted his visitors with
unusual urbanity.

Mr Cummings’s interview as reported in the Sun of the following
day is as follows:

Reporter — Did you expect the nomination, Mr Greeley?

Dr Greeley —I thought Senator Trumbull would get it. He
would have made an excellent candidate. I can not say that I ex-
pected the nomination. ‘

Reporter — Have you read the platform?

Dr Greeley —I have read what has been telegraphed.

Reporter — I have not seen the despatches. Have they run a tariff
plank into the platform?
 

Tribune collection

AT HIS DESK
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 227

Dr Greeley (with an honest smile) — They have done just what
I thought they should have done, and just what I advised — referred
the whole tariff business to the people, to be settled in the congres-
sional districts.

Reporter — If the people elect a majority of Congressmen in favor
of a repeal of the tariff bill, and the Congress repeals that bill, what
would be the duty of the next President of the United States?

Dr Greeley (promptly) —It would be his duty to sign the bill
passed by Congress.

Reporter —If you are elected President will you sign such a bill
if Congress passes it?

Dr Greeley —I certainly will. I shall endeavor to carry out the
expressed wishes of the people, despite my own impressions or con-
victions.

Reporter — If the convention had adopted a free trade plank
would you have accepted the nomination?

Dr Greeley —I would not. I telegraphed that if the free traders
got control of the convention I would not accept the nomination. I
could not have accepted the nomination on a high tariff platform, for
I believed that the whole subject should be referred to the people
themselves. It was a matter that concerned the people more than
the convention. The convention did right in referring it to the Con-
gress districts. Our friends went into the convention with their
colors flying and came out of it with flying colors. The people are
to decide the question of the tariff, and the people are the proper
parties to decide it.

Reporter —I see you were nominated on the sixth ballot, Mr
Greeley.

Dr Greeley — Yes. I think it more creditable to be nominated on
the sixth than on the first ballot. It is an evidence that our friends
had bottom, and that their bottom didn’t fall out.

Here the roar of cannon from the City Hall park shook the win-
dows. Dr Greeley approached the closed window with a pleasant
remark, and looked at the dissolving smoke. It was the first gun
that had ever been fired in his honor. After the third discharge the
Champion of Peace resumed his old position.

Reporter — You will probably carry the South and West, Mr
Greeley, and Massachusetts

Dr Greeley (quickly) —No. Massachusetts will go for Grant.
I feel quite sure of it.

Reporter — Grant might decline the Philadelphia nomination.

 
228 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Dr Greeley (smiling) — It is too late. He ought to have done it
six weeks ago. Now it is too late.

Reporter — If Grant declines, the Philadelphia men might nomi-
nate, say Colfax for President and Wilson for Vice President.

Dr Greeley (again smiling) —In that case the campaign might
be a very interesting campaign. But the time has passed for such a
ticket. It’s too late.

Here the Rev. Mr Ray, a colored clergyman, shook the Honest
Champion of the People by the hand, saying, “ We will put you in
the White House, Mr Greeley. We surely will.”

Dr Greeley — The colored folks know me pretty well by this time,
I think. My record has never been hidden. When they vote they
can’t claim to be blind. They vote with their eyes wide open.

At this point Major D. P. Conyngham, editor of the Irish Demo-
crat, approached Dr Greeley and pledged him his support.

Dr Greeley — Well, I don’t think my Irish friends will find my
nomination a hard pill to swallow.

Major Conyngham — No, indeed, Mr Greeley. You will find
them solid for Horace Greeley. Betwixt you and Grant, you will
get a hundred to one of their votes. I shall work and vote for you.

Reporter (wickedly) —- Mr Greeley, Major Conyngham is an old
Tammany Democrat. He may eat his words before election.

Dr Greeley (earnestly) — You have no-right to assume this. My
experience has been different. I have never: found it so. This
matter, however, is not a question of nationality, but of the people.

Reporter — The people against a corrupt administration.

Dr Greeley — The administration has made many mistakes. Its
persecutions have been fatal to itself. The removal of Sumner from
the committee on foreign affairs, the base attacks upon Schurz,
Trumbull, and Tipton, and, above all, the wholesale butchery. of Fen-
ton’s friends here in this city, were terrible political blunders, but the
corruption that taints it is much more damaging.

Just at the time of his nomination for the presidency Mr Greeley
was at the high tide of his popularity as a temperance lecturer and
he did not permit his candidacy to cancel any of his engagements.
Mr Dana thought it a mirthful situation for a Democratic candidate
to be delivering assaults on the liquor habit, and he had Mr Greeley’s
temperance speeches lavishly reported. I wrote several of the re-
ports, and was impressed by the speaker’s very great earnestness.
He was far from possessing a spark of oratory but he pleaded with
his hearers to quit drink as a father might plead with a wayward son
to cease disgracing himself. His talk was conversational, but as he
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 229

became interested his words came faster and became a shrill falsetto,
almost a squeak, and he was not so clearly understood. He gestured
little, and, when he did extend his arms, he spread his fingers like a
fan. He hada way of throwing his head and shoulders forward and
backward by way of emphasis. Then, as though it had come to him
suddenly that he was getting excited, he relapsed into rigidity of body
and tranquillity of speech, only to do it all over again. I recall his
saying that, when the ancient Greeks saw one of their number reeling
through the street, they pointed toward him and cried “ toxicon ”—
poison, he is poisoned, poison! poison!! for the Greeks of old gave to
drunkenness their name for poison;— and Doctor Greeley kept
shouting the word “ poison” until it became a shrill note of admoni-
tion that could not but be effective in the ears of his listeners. He
told them that he had taken the temperance pledge in 1824; also how
in his boyhood days the good clergymen of New Hampshire used to
make twenty calls of an afternoon and take a drink at each stopping
place; how the whole community got drunk when one pastor was
installed, and how everybody chided a poverty-stricken fellow who
did not furnish drinks at his child’s funeral. At this his hearers
laughed, and Doctor Greeley told them it was no laughing matter.

And it was my lot, in the sad closing days of his career, to be the
reporter who first wrote that his end was near. Mr Dana had heard
of Doctor Greeley’s fatal illness and he sent me to a downtown mer-
chant, who detailed to me that the editor was close to death in a
Westchester county sanitarium. On Thanksgiving day morning,
1872, the Sun, under the heading, “ Horace Greeley Dying,” told of
his semiconsciousness, his insanity and his approaching death, which,
indeed, was only a few hours away.
NOTES FOR A LECTURE ON TEMPERANCE

As stated by Regent Lord, Horace Greeley was in great demand
as a lecturer on temperance. His attitude was well understood by his
contemporaries, and his lectures, for that day and generation, were
of considerable value. As in many other things, Horace Greeley was
in advance of the men of his time, and he became a pioneer in many
movements for social uplift, which today are just beginning to be
deemed of importance by the country at large. Ata recent sale of
rare autographed letters and documents by one of the prominent
sales companies of the country, there was included an item of notes
for a temperance lecture written entirely in Greeley’s own hand. This
was acquired by the State Library, and we present herewith copies
of the notes from which he elaborated his lecture. These are written
on slips of paper 24 by 4 inches in size, and, while of course they do
not constitute a full lecture, they are so epigrammatic and direct,
that any one possessed of a knowledge of the subject, can construct
a temperance lecture from these notes almost as easily as if the whole
address were given. The notes constitute the meat of the address;
and from a knowledge of the man, we can well prepare for ourselves
the piquant and snappy sauce which he served with it.

TEMPERANCE
MANUSCRIPT NOTES OF A LECTURE,

I
Intemperance has no advocates.
Yet many abettors.
Fair women proffer the sparkling glass.

2

Every drunkard was once a temperate drinker.
Many believe themselves still such.

The Queens county case.

“ Our interest’s on the dangerous edge of things.”
We love to evince contempt of danger.
Every family has suffered by strong drink.

4
Yet the drunkard’s son does not take warning.

The drunkard dies and is forgotten.
Our lying tombstones.
231
232 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

5
Mistaken temperance admonitions.
“Tf you drink you may become a drunkard.”
But then you may not.

6
Many have died of drinking who were never drunk.
Weare all hurrying to the grave.
Excess of all kinds.
The evils of drinking moderately.

7
What is temperance? What is intemperance?
The moderate use of things essentially hurtful is intemperate.
Opium. Chloroform. Arsenic.

Alcohol a poison.
The Westminster Review.
How it affects a child. The word intoxicate.
_It may yet be a useful medicine.
But doctors who never drink seldom prescribe liquor.
Dr Woodward.
9
How liquor affects the human constitution.
Incipient inflammation of the stomach.
Dr Sewell’s plates.

10

Liquor stimulates because it poisons.

“ Liquor don’t affect me.”

I feel that drunkards bear an undue reproach.

In what respect is he who drinks 6 glasses and is sober better than he
who drinks 4 and is made drunk?

11
Liquor hurts most those whom it least affects.
Drunkenness is not a penalty. It is a merciful interposition to shield.

12
Old men who drink.
I once heard of one who died 108 years old.
The adulteration of liquors. All but universal.
Pure wines.
The manufacture in New York.
 

 

 

 

GREELEY THE LECTURER

As he appeared on the platform for lecture bureaus in the
early ‘‘seventies ”

 
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 233°

13
The manufacture of Burgundy.
My experience of champagne.
More champagne drunk in New York city than is made from grapes
in the world.

14
Strychnine whiskey.
An Ohio distiller.
“ Seven other devils worse than the first.”
American wine as an antidote to intemperance.

15
Intemperance in wine-drinking countries.
The Bible testimony.
Noah. “ Redness of eyes,” &c. ‘“ Look not on the wine,” &c. ‘“O
thou invisible spirit of wine.”

16
The truth that in temperate climates men are less addicted to this
special vice.
But they use opium, hasheesh &c.

17
Men love to be happy this instant at whatever ultimate cost.
“ Life let us cherish.” ‘“ Whoever saw tomorrow?”

18

Temperance and law.

I condemn special legislation.

If alcohol is a poison, which nevertheless has medical uses, let it be
governed by the general law regulating the dispensation of
poison.

19

Let us have it kept and dispensed only by men who can be trusted to
do it conscientiously.

The law of 1816 regulating intercourse with Indians.

21 :
Intemperance and crime.
Gambling and every form of vice float on liquor. You can not main-
tain them without.
The blackleg may not drink, but he treats his customers.
234 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

22
The cost of crime.
Pauperism a frightful and growing evil.
Rum the main cause.
“T have been young and now I am old,” &c.

23
All Christendom appalled at this growing cancer.
The right of the temperate to protection from wanton pauperism.
The drunkard does not go to the rumseller for pity.

24
His wife and children appeal to us.
We must help them by removing the cause of their suffering.
“You don’t reach the seat of my disorder.”

25
We shall never diminish pauperism till we throttle intemperance.
Boasting of poverty. Men should not remain poor.
Gerrit Smith at Richmond.
HORACE GREELEY’S LIFE
STORY
HORACE GREELEY’S LIFE STORY

Horace Greeley was born February 3, 1811, in Amherst, N. H., and
was the son of Zaccheus and Mary (Woodburn) Greeley. His
father was a farmer. The boy was early inured to labor, and the or-
dinary means of education were ill supplied. But his mother, a
woman of remarkable qualities, knew how to foster sentiments of
beauty and justice; while his mind, singularly active from the first,
absorbed the contents of every book within his reach. It is related
that at the age of four he could read “‘ any book whatever.” When
he was ten years old, the family home was removed to West Haven,
Vt. A year later Horace sought employment without success at the
office of a newspaper, and in 1826 was apprenticed to the proprietor
of the Northern Spectator, printed at East Poultney, Vt. His talent
quickly attracted attention, some of the most responsible work of the
paper passing into his hands. The newspaper suspended publication
in 1830. Young Greeley journeyed to Pennsylvania, where his
father had found a new home, labored on the farm, set type in differ-
ent offices, and, in 1831, traveled to New York City, arriving
August 19th.

The young stranger tramped from one printing office to another,
before gaining permission to show what he could do. He was
successively employed at the printing shop of John T. West, 85
Chatham street, and the offices of the Evening Post, the Commercial
Advertiser, and the Spirit of the Times. Early in 1833 he began, in
partnership with Francis V. Story, the printing of a penny paper, and
at the end of its brief life took up other enterprises, at the same time
by contributions to newspapers attaining mastery of clear, original
expression. In 1834 he started, with Jonas Winchester, the publi-
cation of the New Yorker, which appeared on March 22d, and was
continued for seven years. At the end of its third year it had a
circulation of 9500 copies. In 1838 he edited the Jeffersonian, a
campaign paper issued at Albany. In 1840 he brought out, in aid of
the presidential candidacy of William Henry Harrison, the Log
Cabin, which gained a weekly circulation of more than 80,000. These
enterprises led the way to the establishment of the New York Tribune,
the first issue of which took place April 10, 1841. The first page
of the initial number is occupied by the opinion of Attorney General
Willis Hall “on the legality of the conduct of Robert H. Morris,
recorder of the city of New York” ; and the second page presents
some energetic editorial comment. One article was devoted to
proofs that John Tyler was “a thorough Whig,” another to “ the un-

237
238 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

paralleled extravagance, fraud and corruption of the present Loco-
foco common council,” another to a Whig victory in Connecticut,
while another is an argument intended to show the need in New
York city of ‘a cheap daily, devoted to literature, intelligence, and
the open and fearless advocacy of Whig principles and measures.”
News, advertisements and matter related to the death of President
Harrison complete the four pages. The first assistant editor of the
Tribune was Henry J. Raymond, later the founder of the New York
Times. September 20, 1841 the New Yorker and the Log Cabin
were merged in the New York Weekly Tribune.

In 1848 Greeley was elected a representative in Congress to fill out
an unexpired term. His service in that body was distinguished by a
bill to encourage settlement of public lands, championship of manu-
factures and an effort to strike at the slave trade in the District of
Columbia. But what marked it most and made it a fight from be-
ginning to end was a scathing exposure of legislative abuses.

In the year 1853 a farm of 75 acres at Chappaqua, N. Y., was
bought. A suggestion of what was accomplished in a short time in
transforming this land is afforded by the extract here given from
James Parton’s “ Life of Horace Greeley,” published in 1855:

It consisted, three years ago, of grove, bog, and exhausted upland,
in nearly equal proportions. In the grove, which is a fine growth of
hickory, hemlock, ironwood and oak, a small white cottage is con-
cealed, built by Mr Greeley, at a cost of a few hundred dollars. The
farm buildings, far more costly and expensive, are at the foot of the
hill on which the house stands, and around them are the gardens.
The marshy land, which was formerly very wet, very boggy, and
quite useless, has been drained by a system of ditches and tiles; the
bogs have been pared off and burnt, the land plowed and planted,
and made exceedingly productive. The upland has been prepared
for irrigation, the water being supplied by a brook, which tumbled
down the hill through a deep glen. Its course was arrested by a
dam, and from the reservoir thus formed, pipes are laid to the
different fields, which can be inundated or drained by the turning
of a cock. In the list of prizes awarded at our last Agricultural
State Fair, held in New York, October 1854, we read, under the head
of “vegetables,” these two items: “ Turnips, H. Greeley, Chap-
paqua, Westchester co., Two Dollars” (the second prize) ; “ Twelve
second-best ears of white seed corn, H. Greeley, Two Dollars.”
Looking down over the reclaimed swamp, all bright now with waving
flax, he said one day, “ All else that I have done may be of no avail;
but what I have done here is done; it will last.”

In 1851 Greeley visited Europe, and served as one of the jurors at
the great exhibition in London. Four years later he attended the
French exhibition. In 1859 he made the journey across the plains
Nunddoom AUVW aqjorqeyy ep]

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HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 239

to California, and public receptions were accorded him in a number
of towns. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention
of 1860, where his influence was the chief factor in the nomination
of Abraham Lincoln: He was a candidate for a seat in the federal
Senate in 1861; was a member in 1867 of the convention to revise
the State constitution ; ran for the office of Comptroller in 1869; was
defeated in 1870 in a congressional election. In the spring of 1867
he signed the bail bond of Jefferson Davis at Richmond, Va. In
1872 Greeley was made the candidate of the Liberal Republican party
for President, on a platform which demanded reform of the public
service, one term of the presidency and resumption of specie pay-
ments, though the cardinal issue was a new policy in relation to the
states lately in arms against the government. His nomination by the
Democratic party followed. His canvass was distinguished by a
series of speeches which he delivered in a tour of the East and the
Middle West, speeches not more characterized by versatility and
richness of information than by the patriotic spirit which lifted the
speaker above the low ground of calumny and caricature.

The November election saw Horace Greeley borne down by a pop-
ular plurality of more than three-fourths of a million votes. But
household affliction, the burden of the canvass and the sorrow due
to the fiery attacks of many old friends had wrought such a work on
brain and heart that political defeat came as a minor calamity. Some
weeks before that event the illness of his wife had called him to his
home, long and close watching at her bedside reduced his depleted
strength, and her death left him almost prostrate. He never rallied
from the accumulation of ills, and on the 29th of November passed
out of life.

Greeley’s achievements did not exclude productions in authorship.
He found time to write “ Hints Toward Reforms ” (1850), “ Glances
at Europe” (1851), “ History of the Struggie for Slavery Exten-
sion” (1856), “ Overland Journey to San Francisco” (1860), “ The
American Conflict” (1864-66), “‘ Recollections of a Busy Life”
(1868, new ed. 1873), “ Essays on Political Economy ” (1870), and
“What I Know of Farming” (1871).

Mr Greeley was married July 5, 1836 to Mary Y. Cheney. Seven
children were born to them, of whom two survived him, Ida Lillian
and Gabrielle Rosamond.
240 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

CHRONOLOGY, 1811-1872

1811 Feb. 3. Born at Amherst, N. H.

1821 Jan. 1. His family removed to Westhaven, Vt.

1822 Sought employment in a newspaper office at Whitehall, N.Y.

1824 Jan. 1. Adopted total abstinence.

1826 Apr. 18. Apprenticed to a printer at East Poultney, Vt.

1830 June. Departed for Erie county, Pa.

1831 Feb. Employed by the Erie Gazette.

1831 tAug. 19. Arrived in New York City.

1831 Nov. Employed by the Evening Post.

1832 Jan. 1. (about) Employed by the Spirit of the Times.

1833 Jan. 1 Engaged with Francis V. Story in printing the
Morning Post.

1834 Mar. 22 Started the New Yorker.

1835 Aug. 12. His office burned.

1836 July 5. Married Mary Y. Cheney.

1838 Feb. 17. The Jeffersonian appeared, under his editorship.

1839 Feb. 9. The last number of the Jeffersonian appeared.

1840 May 2. Started the Log Cabin.

1841 Apr. 10. Started the New York Tribune.

1841 July 31. Announced his partnership with Thomas Mc-
Elrath.

1841 Sept. 20. The New Yorker and the Log Cabin merged in
the Weekly Tribune.

1842 Mar. 1. . Published first article of a series on Fourierism.

1842 Dec. 9. Defended a suit for libel brought by James Feni-
more Cooper.

1843 Sept. 1. Started the Evening Tribune.

1845 Feb. 5. The Tribune building burned. y'

1845 May 17. The Semi-Weekly Tribune issued.

1846 Nov. 20 to May 20, 1847. His controversy on Fourierism
with Henry J. Raymond.

1847 Journeyed to Lake Superior.

1847 July 4. Attended a river and harbor convention at Chicago.

1848 Nov. 7. Elected to Congress for one session.

1848 Dec. 13. Introduced a homestead act.?

1849 July 12. His son, Arthur, died.

1850 ee 1: First president of New York Typographical Union

o. 6.
1851 Apr. 11. Sailed for Europe.

1 Several biographies contain the statement that Greeley arrived in New
York City on August 18th. In “Recollections of a Busy Life” he indicates
the date in these words: “It was, if I recollect aright, the 17th of August
1831”; and on the next page he states: “My first day in New York wag 4
Friday.” His account of the first three days’ residence is so complete as to
leave no doubt that his arrival was on Friday; and Friday of the week in
which it is agreed that he first saw that city was the roth.

2In the main features this bill corresponds closely with the provisions of
the homestead act of 1862. '
 

 

Specially photographed for this work

IN MEMORY OF THE CHAPPAQUA FARMER
1851
1853
1854
1854

1855
1855

1855
1856

1859
1859

1859

1859
1860

1860
1860

1861
1862

1863
1864

1864
1865
1866

1867
1867

1867
1869
1870
1872
1872
1872

1872,

HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 241

Aug. 6. Sailed for New York.

Bought a farm at Chappaqua, N. Y.

Aug. 16. Attended the Anti-Nebraska state convention.

Nov. 11. Dissolved his political relations with Seward and
Weed.

May and June. In Europe.

June 2-4. Imprisoned in Paris on a complaint connected
with his service as a director of the New York Exposition
of 1852-53.

Sept. 26. Attended the Republican convention at Syracuse.

i 24. Assaulted in Washington by Congressman Albert

ust.

May 9. Began an overland journey to the Far West.

Aug. 17. Addressed a Grand Pacific Railroad mass meeting
in San Francisco.

Sept. 5. Sailed from San Francisco.

Sept. 28. Returned to New York.

May 16. Delegate to the national Republican convention at
Chicago.

Nov. 9. Opposed coercion of the cotton states.

Dec. 19, 22. Opposed the Weed and the Crittenden com-
promise.

Feb. 4. Lost: the nomination for United States senator.

Aug. 19. Addressed Lincoln in the “Prayer of Twenty
Millions.”

July 13. The Tribune building attacked by rioters.

July 17-21. At Niagara Falls in communication with
southern commissioners.

Nov. 8. Presidential elector-at-large.

Apr. 11. Advocated universal amnesty.

Sept. 3. Delegate to the Loyalists’ convention at Phila-
delphia.

May 13. Signed the bail bond of Jefferson Davis.

June 4 to Feb. 28, 1868. Delegate-at-large to the constitu-
tional convention.

Dec. 4. Declined the mission to Austria.

Nov. 2. Defeated as candidate for comptroller.
Nov. 8. Defeated in a congressional election.

May 3. Nominated for the presidency at Cincinnati.
Nov. 5. Defeated in presidential contest.

Nov. 6. Resumed the editorship of the Tribune.

Nov. 29. Died near Pleasantville, Westchester Co., N. Y.
 

VICTOR GUINZBURG
Vice president, Chappaqua Historical Society
APPENDIX
APPENDIX

TOWNS BEARING GREELEY’S NAME
The Postal Guide for 1914 shows that there are places in Alabama,
Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Pennsylvania bear-
ing the name Greeley.

NAMING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ;

We learn from “ The Republican Party,” by Francis Curtis, vol-
ume I, page 203, that the new party received its name in this manner:
A. N. Cole, who believed himself to be the “ Father of the Republican
party,” called a meeting for May 16, 1854. About a month previously
he had written to his friend Greeley, and told him of his forthcoming
convention, asking Greeley in his letter, ‘“‘ What name shall we give
the new party?” To this question Mr Greeley replied, “Call it
Republican, no prefix, no suffix, but plain Republican.”

INTEREST IN SPANISH LIBERTY

When Isabella II of Spain was deposed by the revolution which
broke out in the autumn of 1868, Greeley joined with other Ameri-
cans in an address of congratulation to the Spanish government and
people on the overthrow of “a tyrannical and corrupt government ”
at Madrid and the institution of a government founded on liberal
principles. The date of the paper was November 3, 1868; and among
the names attached to it were the signatures of E. D. Morgan, Péter
Cooper, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charles A. Dana.

PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE

Illustration: Horace Gréeley, President, 1866-1870.

“Mr Greeley, whose portrait adorns this report, was much inter-
ested and active in the affairs of the Institute, and acted as President
tor five consecutive years. In one of its quiet rooms [at the Cooper
Institute Building] he wrote those powerful editorials which stirred
the hearts of a great nation. The Institute possesses the desk Mr
Greeley used at that period.”— Eightieth Annual Report of the
American Institute for the year ending January 20, 1900, page 7.

A NEWSPAPER MEMORIAL
The New York Tribune, on December 20, 1872, stated that Cornell
University had compiled a memorial to Greeley from about two thou-
sand newspaper articles on his death, representing all parts of the
country.
245
.

246 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

SERVICE RENDERED TO GREELEY MEMORIALS

The successful inauguration and carrying out of the various
centenary observances, together with the work of selecting the site
and placing the statue and preparing the program of exercises attend-
ing its unveiling and dedication,.involved an immense amount of
labor on the part of many persons. Of those who gave of their time
and effort in this cause, and who bore the brunt of the labor, the
expense and the responsibility in achieving this success, it is entirely
fitting that special mention be made.

It will not, however, be feasible to give credit or mention in this
report except to a very few who were conspicuous in dedicating
themselves — body and soul—to this undertaking. The chief of
these are undoubtedly Messrs John I. D. Bristol and Jacob Erlich,
respectively the president and treasurer of the Chappaqua Historical
Society. Others who should be mentioned are Edwin Bedell, secre-
tary, and Victor Guinzburg, vice president. In this connection also,
the artist, William Ordway Partridge, who went to work without
delay, with vim and energy, to create the statue, deserves con-
spicuous notice. Much credit is due to this sculptor not only be-
cause of his beautiful, artistic representation of the master-journalist.
but also because of the easy and convenient financial terms by which
he made it possible to carry out this permanent memorialization,
amounting in effect to a very handsome donation toward this work.

Dr James H. Hyslop, secretary of the American Society of
Psychical Research, was kind enough to come to Chappaqua on the
evening of October 19, 1911, to deliver a lecture at an entertainment
for the benefit of the Greeley statue fund. The lecture was on the
subject of a scientific demonstration of the immortality of the soul.
Other features of the program were vocal selections by Mrs Viola
Waterhouse, Mrs J. K. Adams, accompanist, and a recitation of
“ Thanatopsis ” by Mr John I. D. Bristol.

Each of the other members of the Greeley memorial committee
took an active interest in the progress of the enterprise, and, together
with those already mentioned, made substantial money contributions
which were required to carry on and accomplish the admirable de-
signs so well and so ambitiously outlined by the committee. The
names of these members who have shown such devoted interest in
fixing in durable form the memory of Horace Greeley are: Morgan
Cowperthwaite, George Hunt, Wilbur Hyatt, George D. Mackay,
John McKesson, jr, Hiram E. Manville, A. H. Smith, L. O.
Thompson, Albert Turner.
 

 

 

 

 

Tribune collection

GREELEY MONUMENT
In Greenwood cemetery Brooklyn
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 247

Acknowledgments for photographs and cuts are due to the art
department of the New York Tribune, Rev. Dr Frank M. Clendenin.
Mr Frederick H. Meserve, Mr Ralph Meeker, Mr William Ordway
Partridge, Mr John I. D. Bristol, Mrs Stewart L. Woodford, and
Mrs Etta Kleinert Guinzburg, who made the Greeley placque; and
also to the library and the librarian of the Museum of the Type
Foundry at Jersey City and to the American Institute Library.
Thanks are due for printed material to Doctor Clendenin, Mr

Meeker, Mr Jacob Erlich, Mr Albert E. Pillsbury, and Mayor
George M. Houston.

The editor is especially grateful to Mr Albert E. Henschel, of
New York, whose vast collection of Greeleyana and whose inde-
fatigable labor in gathering much of the material printed in this
tribute have been of inestimable value in the production of this
memorial.
 

Tribune collection

GREELEY STATUE IN FRONT OF TRIBUNE BUILDING
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL ON HORACE
GREELEY

_Part 1 of this material is an abridgment, made for this report, of a com-
pilation prepared by the late Nathan Greeley, editor of the New Orleans
Delta; this very valuable manuscript book is now in the possession of the
Rev. Dr Clendenin, It is supplemented by material, gathered for this Division,
much of which is of later date than Nathan Greeley’s compilation.

Part I consists of books and pamphlets written by Horace Greeley, con-
tributions to magazines and annual publications, articles for a work of refer-
ence, introductions to books, miscellaneous articles and speeches.

Part 2 consists of lists of biographies, biographical dictionaries, and works
containing productions of his pen.

Part 1

POOKS AND PAMPHLETS BY HORACE GREELEY

Address before the Literary Societies of Hamilton College, July 23,
1844. New York. William H. Graham 1844. Pamphlet, 4o p.

Address on Success in Business, Delivered before the Students of
Packard’s Bryant and Stratton New York Business College,
New York. Packard 1867

An Overland Journey, from New York to San Francisco in the
Summer of 1859. New York, C. M. Saxton 1860

A Political Textbook for 1860: Comprising a Brief View of Presi-
dential Nominations and Elections: Including all the National
Platforms ever yet Adopted: Also a History of the Struggle
Respecting Slavery in the Territories, and of the Action of
Congress as to the Public Lands. Compiled by Horace Greeley
and John T. Cleveland. New York. Tribune Association 1860

Art and Industry as Represented at the Exhibition at the Crystal
Palace, New York, 1853-54: Showing the Progress and State
of the Various Useful and Esthetic Pursuits, Revised and
Edited by Horace Greeley. New York. J. S. Redfield 1853

Association Discussed; or the Socialism of the Tribune Examined,
by H. J. Raymond and Horace Greeley. New York. Harper
184

Ce between New York Tribune and Gerrit Smith. New
York. John A. Gray 1855. Pamphlet, 32 p.

Divorce: Being a Correspondence Between Horace Greeley and
Robert Dale Owen. New York. Robert M. DeWitt 1860
Essays Designed to Elucidate the Science of Political Economy,
While Serving to Explain and Defend the Policy of Protection
to Home Industry, as a System of National Cooperation for the

Elevation of Labor. Boston. Fields 1870

Dedicated to “The Memory of Henry Clay, the genial, gallant, high-
souled patriot, orator and statesman.”

249
250 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Formation of Character; a Lecture. New York. William H.
Graham 1844. Pamphlet, 24 Pp.

Glances at Europe: in a Series of Letters from Great Britain,
France, Italy, Switzerland etc., During the Summer of 1851.
Including Notices of the Great Exhibition or World’s Fair.
New York. Dewitt and Davenport 1851

Hints Toward Reforms. New York. Harper 1850. Second ed.
enlarged with the Crystal Palace and Its Lessons. New York.
Fowler and Wells 1854

History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension or Restriction in the
United States, from the Declaration of Independence to the
Present Day. Mainly compiled and condensed from the
journals of Congress and other official records. New York.
Dix and Edwards 1856

This history was issued without any announcement and had no preface
or introduction. It was intended to do effective work in the Frémont cam-

paign of 1856.

Letter to a Politician, Oct. 20, 1869. Brooklyn 1877. Pamphlet,
privately printed, 12 p.

Addressed to Samuel J. Tilden.

Letter of Horace Greeley to Messrs Geo. W. Blunt, John A. Ken-
nedy, John O. Stone, Stephen Hyatt and 30 others, members of

the Union League Club. New York 1867. Privately printed,

16 p

Life id Public Services of Henry Clay, down to 1848, by Epes
Sargent. Edited and completed at Mr Clay’s death by Horace
Greeley. New York. Greeley and McElrath 1852

Mr Greeley’s Letters from Texas and the Lower Mississippi; to
Which Are Added his Address to the Farmers of Texas and
his Speech on his Return to New York, June 12, 1871. Tribune
Office 1871. Pamphlet, 56 p.

Protection and Free Trade—an Elementary Exposition of the
Tariff Question. Greeley and McElrath 1844. Pamphlet, 16 p.

Recollections of a Busy Life: Including Reminiscences of Ameri-
can Politics and Politicians, from the Opening of the Missouri
Contest to the Downfall of Slavery: to Which Are Added
Miscellanies. . . . Also a Discussion with Robert Dale Owen
of the Law of Divorce. New York. Ford 1868. Second ed.
Tribune Association 1873

The American Conflict: a History of the Great Rebellion in the
United States of America, 1860-65: Its Causes, Incidents and
Restilts : Intended to Exhibit Especially Its Moral and Political
Phases, with the Drift and Progress of American Opinion Re-
specting Human Slavery from 1776 to the Close of the War
for the Union. Hartford. O. D. Case 1864, 2 v.

Volume 1 dedicated to “John Bright, British Commoner and Christian

Statesman”; volume 2 to the “ Union Volunteers of 1861-4.”

The Tariff as It Is. Greeley and McElrath 1844. Pamphlet, 16 p.

The Tariff Question; or Protection and Free Trade Considered.
New York. Greeley and McElrath 1852. Pamphlet, 24 p.
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 251

The True Issues of the Presidential Campaign; Speeches of
Horace Greeley During his Western Trip and at’ Portland,
Maine. Tribune Association 1872. Pamphlet, 32 p.

What I Know of Farming: a Series of Brief and Plain Expositions
of Practical Agriculture as an Art Based upon Science.
Tribune Association 1871

Dedicated to “the man of our age who shall make the first plow propelled
by steam, or other mechanical power, whereby not less than ten acres per

day shall be thoroughly pulverized to a depth of two feet, at a cost of not
more than two dollars per acre.”

What the Sister Arts Teach as to Farming; an Address before the
Indiana State Agricultural Society, at Its Annual Fair, Oc-

tober 13, 1853. New York. Fowler and Wells 1853. Pam-
phlet, 16 p.

Why I Am a Whig — a Letter to an Inquiring Friend. New York.
Greeley and McElrath 1852. Pamphlet, 16 p.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO MAGAZINES AND - ANNUALS,
INTRODUCTIONS ETC.

The Knickerbocker Magazine
A Sabbath with the Shakers, June 1838

Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine

Commerce and Protection, July and November 1839

Remarks on Free Trade, May 1841

Protection vs. Free Trade, August 1841

The Grounds of Protection; Speech, March 1843

Process of Working a Lake Superior Copper Mine, November 1848

The Lady’s Book
Adolph Bruner, December 1839

The Southern Literary Messenger
The Faded Stars; Poem, February 1840

Graham’s Magazine

Niagara Falls, August 1842
My Fishing Days, November 1845

The Northern Light
Protection the Cause of Enlightened Philanthropy, December 1842

The American Review
The Twenty-eighth Congress, March 1845
The Tariff Question, August 1845
Pandora; Review of the President’s Message and Treasurer’s Re-
port, January 1846
Mr Walker’s Report and Bill, April 1846

Universalist Quarterly and General Review
The Idea of a Social Reform, April 1845
252 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

The Young American’s Magazine

How to Make a Man, March 1847

The Divorce of Learning and Labor, May 1847
Romance of the Nineteenth Century, July 1847
The Hope of Human Progress, October 1847
Obstacles to Universal Elevation, December 1847

De Bow’s Commercial Review

River and Harbor Improvements; the Chicago Convention, Novem-
ber 1847
The Nineteenth Century

Land Reform, January 1848

The Emancipation of Labor, April 1848

Life — the Ideal and the Actual, July 1848

Means and Chances of Success in Life, October 1848

Holden’s Dollar Magazine
Tendencies of Modern Civilization, January 1849

The Edinburgh Review
Review of a Reviewer, January 1852

Putnam’s Magazine
Modern Spiritualism, January 1853

The Continental Monthly

Across the Continent, January 1862

On the Plains, February 1862

Southern Hate of the North, October 1862
The Obstacles to Peace, December 1862

The New York Ledger
Edward Everett, April 26, 1862
A series of articles under the title, “ Recollections of a Busy Life,” was
contributed to that paper during a period extending from August 17, 1867,
to September 19, 1868.
The Little Corporal

A series of articles contributed under the general title, “Counsel to

Boys.”
Self Trust, April 1867
Religion, May 1867
Education, June 1867
Choosing a Vocation, August 1867

The Independent
The New Hope of Labor, July 1867
The Farmer’s Festival, October 1867
The Galaxy

The Fruits of the War, July 1867
The One Term Principle, October 1871
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 253

Harper’s Magazine
The Plains, as I Crossed Them Ten Years Ago, May 1869

Journal of Social Science
A Method of Diffusing Useful Knowledge, June 1869

The Golden Age
The Woman Question, 1871

Wood’s Household Magazine
Counsel to Young Men, January 1871
True and False Marriage, September 1871
Farming and Manhood, October 1871
Capital and Labor, November 1871
The Conclusion of the Matter, December 1871
Planning a Career, January 1872
Manhood and Citizenship, March 1872
A Plea for Frugality, April 1872
Migration — Colonization — Homes, May 1872
Our Westward Progress, June 1872
New England, Past and Present, July 1872
The South, September 1872

Our Mutual Friend
Commerce as a Pursuit; Reasons for Avoiding It, August 1871

The City

The Centenary of American Independence, illustrated, January 1872

American Journal of Education
Currency and Finance, 1 :632

People’s Journal, London
Cooperative Life in America, 4:167 ~
The Inland Monthly

Great Men: a Posthumous Lecture, October 1874

LITERARY EFFORTS

Mr Greeley contributed from 1840 to 1857 essays and poems to
many annuals, souvenirs and “ parlor table” books.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE ADDRESSES

He was also liberally represented in the published transactions of
the American Institute, of which he was elected president.
A list of addresses follows: :
Address on Forest Trees, Trans. for 1864 and 1865
Opening Address at the 37th Annual Exhibition, Trans. for
1867 and 1868
Paper on Deep Plowing, Trans. for 1869 and 1870
Address at the Celebration of the goth Anniversary of the
Origin of the Institute
Address at the Opening of the 39th Annual Exhibition,
Trans. for 1870 and 1871
Address at the Closing of the 39th Annual Exhibition
254 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

The Tribune Almanac

The Whig Almanac and Politician’s Register for 1838: con-
taining Full Tables of the Vote for President in the Several States
by Counties, Compared with the Votes Cast in the same States and
Counties during the Last Year. . . . New York. Published by
H. Greeley, and for sale at the New York Office, 127 Nassau street,
1838. ;

The first numbers of the Almanac were of a strong partisan bias, contain-
ing articles from the Whig standpoint on the great issues of the day. It
gradually dropped these articles and after 1855 contained besides the election
tables the summary of events at home and abroad, and the principal acts of
Congress.

The Protection of Industry: Its Necessity and Effects, 1843

The Grounds of Difference between the contending Parties, 1843

Henry Clay; on His Retiring from the United States Senate; Poem,
1843

The Past and the Future, 1845

The Tariff Question, 1846

The Necessity for Protection, 1846

Political History for 1846, 1847

Origin of the Mexican War; Facts to be Considered, 1848

The Mileage of Congress, 1850

Postal Reform, 1850

The Public Lands, 1850

Congress in 1850, 1851

Why I Am a Whig; Reply to an Inquiring Friend, 1852

The Know-Nothings, 1855

In 1868 the almanacs for 1858 to 1868 were reprinted in two volumes.

Johnson’s Cyclopedia

Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopedia. New York. A. J. Johnson
1877. 4Vv.

Dedication

To the memory of the late Horace Greeley, the great philanthro-
pist and public educator — whom only to know was to love — this
Universal Cyclopedia, which he planned and assisted in editing in
part, is reverently dedicated by his devoted friend and household
companion, the publisher. =

The publisher’s announcement said that “ the original suggestion
of this work is due to the late Hon. Horace Greeley LL. D.”

Mr Greeley’s Contributions
Abolition of Slavery, 1:12
Abstinence, Total, 1:15
Agriculture, 1:62
Anti-Masonry, 1:175 ;
Anti-Slavery Society, American, 1:179
Clay, Henry, 1:971
Confederate States, or Southern Confederacy, 1 :1095
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 255

Introductions and contributions

Principles of Political Economy, by William Atkinson. With an
introduction by Horace Greeley. Greeley and McElrath 1843

The Writings of Cassius Marcellus Clay. Edited, with a preface
and memoir by Horace Greeley. Harper 1848

Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1849. With
an introduction by Horace Greeley. New York. J. S. Red-
field 1850

Literature and Art, by S. Margaret Fuller. With an introduction
by Horace Greeley. New York. Fowler and Wells 1852

Woman in the Nineteenth Century, by Margaret Fuller. With an
introduction by Horace Greeley. Boston. John P. Jewett 1855

The Life and Campaigns of General U. S. Grant, by Rev. P. C.
Headley. With an introduction by Horace Greeley. New
York. Derby and Miller 1868

Tribune Essays: Leading Articles by Charles T. Congdon. With
an introduction by Horace Greeley. New York. J. S. Red-
field 1869

Voices from the Press: a Collection of Sketches, Essays and Poems,
by Practical Printers. New York. Charles B. Norton 1850

Contains a sonnet, Portrait of a Lady, the Pilgrimage to Manhood, and
The Ideal of a True Life, by Horace Greeley.

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Boston. Phillips and Samp-
son 1852
Contains Margaret Fuller in New York, by Horace Greeley.
Autographs for Freedom. Edited by Julia Griffiths. Boston. John
P. Jewett 1853
Contains Work and Wait, by Horace Greeley.
Autographs for Freedom. Edited by Julia Griffiths. Auburn.
Alden and Beardsley 1855
Contains The Dishonor of Labor, by Horace Greeley.
Homes of American Statesmen. New York. Putnam 1854
Contains Henry Clay, by Horace Greeley.
Proceedings of the Tribune Club. New York. Cleveland and Mc-
Elrath 1855

Contains speech of Horace Greeley in response to the toast: “The New
York Tribune.”

The United States Illustrated. Edited by Charles A. Dana. New
York. Hermann J. Meyer, no date

Contains The Capitol at Washington, Mount Vernon, and Representatives
Hall, at Washington, by Horace Greeley.

The Religious Aspects of the Age: Addresses Delivered at the
Anniversary of the Young Men’s Christian Union of New
York, May 13 and 14, 1858. New York. Thatcher and
Hutchinson 1858

Contains The Christian Spirit of Reform by Horace Greeley.
256 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Speeches Delivered at the Republican Union Festival in Commemo-
ration of the Birth of Washington; Held at Irving Hall, Feb-
ruary 22, 1862. New York. Putnam 1862

poo a speech by Horace Greeley in response to the toast, “ The

ress.

Banquet to Anson Burlingame and His Associates of the Chinese
Embassy, by Citizens of New York, on Tuesday, June 23, 1868.
New York. Sun Book and Job Printing House 1868

aoe a speech of Horace Greeley in response to the toast, “ The

ress.

A History of the Celebration of Robert, Burns’s 110th Natal Day,
at the Metropolitan Hotel, New York. Jersey City. John
H. Lyon 1869

‘ Contains a speech by Horace Greeley in response to the toast, “Auld Lang

yne.”’

The Unity of Italy: the American Celebration of the Unity of
Italy, at the Academy of Music, New York, January 12, 1871.
Putnam 1871

Contains a speech by Horace Greeley.

The Great Industries of the United States. Hartford. J. B. Burr

and Hyde 1872
Contains The Tariff, a Protection to Manufacturers, by Horace Greeley.

American Politics, by Thomas V. Cooper and H. J. Fenton.

Chicago. Charles R. Brodix 1882
Contains The Grounds of Protection, a speech by Horace Greeley at the

Tabernacle, New York, February 10, 1843.

The Poets of New Hampshire. Compiled by Bela Chapin. Clare-
mont, N. H. Charles H. Adams 1883

Contains The Faded Stars, Darkness over Earth Was Sleeping, and On
the Death of William Wirt, by Horace Greeley.

The Library of Choice Literature. Spofford and Gibbon. Phila-
delphia. Gebbie 1883

Contains My Farming, and Three Great Senators, by Horace Greeley.

Part 2

BIOGRAPHIES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF HORACE
GREELEY

Brockett, L. P. Men of Our Day. 1868

Buel, Clarence Clough. Biographical and Critical Sketch of
Horace Greeley, in Warner’s Library of the World’s Best
Literature. V. 12, p. 6653-56

Cornell Memorial of Horace Greeley. A collection of about 2000
newspaper articles on the death of Greeley, at Cornell Uni-
versity

Erlich, Jacob. Centenary of Horace Greeley. Chappaqua His-
torical Society 1911
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 257

Ingersoll, Lewis J. The Journalist, Reformer and Philanthropist ;
ae Life of Horace Greeley. Philadelphia. John E. Potter
1074

Life of Horace Greeley, written in nine and one-half minutes by

_ the great trance medium. Baltimore 1872
Linn, William A. Horace Greeley. New York. Appleton 1903
Parton, James. Life of Horace Greeley. New York. Mason
; Bros. 1855. New edition, Boston, Houghton and Mifflin 1897

Pike, James S. Horace Greeley in 1872. Republished from the
New York Tribune

oo Adolph. Das Leben Horace Greeley’s. Boston. Osgood
1872

Reavis, L. U. A representative Life of Horace Greeley. New
York. Carlton 1872

Sotheran, Charles. Horace Greeley and Other Pioneers of
American Socialism. Humboldt Publishing Co. 1892

Wild Oats. Comic Life of Horace Greeley. New York 1872

Zabriskie, Francis Nicoll. Horace Greeley, the Editor. New

York. Funk & Wagnalls 1890

~CYCLOPEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES OF BIOGRAPHY

Articles on Horace Greeley have appeared in the following bio-

graphical works of reference:

Aiton’s Encyclopedia. Minneapolis 1910

American Annual Cyclopedia. New York. Appleton 1872

American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking. New York.
Howard & Lockwood 1894

Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography

Biographical Dictionary of America. Boston. American Bio-
graphical Society 1906

Biographical Sketches of Preeminent Americans. Boston. E. W.
Walker 1893

Cyclopedia of American Government. New York. Appleton 1914

Cyclopedia of Political Science. John J. Lalor, ed. Chicago
1881-84

Cyclopedia of Temperance and Prohibition. New York. Funk &
Wagnalls 1891

Dictionary of American Biography. Boston. Houghton & Osgood
18

Dieters of Political Economy. London. Macmillan 1gt0

Dictionary of United States History. Puritan Publishing Co.
Boston 1894

Encyclopedia Britannica. Edinburgh. Black 1879 ;

Encyclopedic Dictionary of American History, in Library of Ameri-
can History. Washington. American Historical Society 1900

Harper’s Encyclopedia of United States History. New York 1902

History for Ready Reference. Springfield. C. A. Nichols Co.
1895-1910. _V. 5, P. 3573 ; ;

History of the State of New York, also an Encyclopedia of Biog-
raphy. New York. Comley Bros. 1877
258 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Lamb’s Biographical Dictionary of United States. Boston. James
R. Lamb Co. 1900
National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York. White

1893

New Encyclopedia of Social Reform. New York. Funk & Wag-
nalls 1910

Popular Cyclopedia of United States History. New York. Harper
1893

Universal Dictionary of Biography. Philadelphia. Lippincott 1901

PUBLICATIONS WHICH CONTAIN WRITINGS OF HORACE
GREELEY

Amendment to the Constitution, Tribune Tract No. 3, 1866.
- Contains letters of Greeley and Henry Ward Beecher.
Carpenter, S. D. Logic of History. Madison, Wis. 1864
Contains extracts from the New York Tribune.

Eminent Women of the Age. Hartford. Betts 1868
Contains an essay on Alice and Phoebe Cary.

— Forum. November 1897, 24:270 and December 1897, 24:404, 412

Contains letters to Justin S. Morrill.

Freedley, Edwin Troxell. How to Make Money. Routledge 1853.
Contains Principles and Prospects of Trade.

House Report No. 48, 30th Congress, 2d session, vol. 1
Contains report on Lake Superior Mineral Lands.

Independent. October 19, 1905, p. 912-15
Contains unpublished letters furnished by Frederick E. Snow.

Johnson, C. W. Republican Party: National Conventions, Pro-
ceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions
of 1856, 1860 and 1864, Including Proceedings of the Ante-
cedent National Convention Held at Pittsburgh in February
1856, as Reported by Horace Greeley. Minneapolis 1893

Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati, May 1-3, 1872, Pro-
ceedings

Contains the letter of acceptance.

Love, Marriage and Divorce, and the Sovereignty of the Individual.
A discussion between Henry James, Horace Greeley and
Stephen P. Andrews .. . anda subsequent discussion ;
20 years later between Mr James and Mr Andrews. Boston.
B. R. Tucker 1889

New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867, Proceedings.

Contains speeches.
New York Sun, May 6, 1872
Contains a letter to boy editors.
New York Times, June 15, 1860
Contains the letter of 1854 on policial appointments.
North American Review, April 1867
Contains a letter in relation to a critical notice of “The American
Conflict.”
HORACE GREELEY MEMORIAL 259

Our Day: A Gift for the Times. Edited by J. G. Adams. B. B.
Mussey 1848
Contains Fourier and his Social System.
Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1901
Contains a letter.

Spencer, J. A. [Jesse Anies]. Historia de los Estados-Unidos
desde su primer periodo hasta la administracion de Jacobo
Buchanan, continuada hasta nuestros dias por Horacio Greeley ;
traduccion . . . por E. L. Verneuill. Buenos Aires.
Piqueras, Cuspinera y Cia. 1870, 3v.

Warner, Charles Dudley, ed. Library of the World’s Best Liter-
ature, v.12, p. 6653-56.

Contains extracts from “ The American Conflict.”
 

THE GUINZBURG PLAQUE

Presented by Mrs Victor Guinzburg to the Chappaqua
Historical Society
INDEX

Addresses, extracts from, 217+21

Alden, H. M., letter from, 120-21

American institute, Mr Greeley
President of, 245

American Institute Library, acknowl-
edgments to, 247

Amherst, N. H., exercises at, 63-77

Assembly, remarks of Alfred E.
Smith, 22

Barnes, Rev. Otis Tiffany, remarks,

125

Bedell, Edith Dorothea, Horace
Greeley and woman suffrage, 134-
35

Bedell, Edwin, acknowledgments to,
246

Beecher, Henry Ward, extract from
letter, 52

Beveridge, Albert J., Horace Greeley
and the cause of labor, 104-9

Bristol, John I. D., interest in memo-
rial to Horace Greeley, 17; ad-
dresses, 36-38, 128-34; acknowledg-
ments to, 246, 247

Brown, John, death, 198

Campaign addresses of 1872, 211-14

Chappaqua, statue at, inaugurated,
29-31; dedication of monument at,
125-46

Chappaqua Historical Society, or-
ganization, 18; extract from by-
laws, 20; address of president,
128-34

Church, Colonel William Conant,
letter from, 19

Chronology, 1811-1872, 240-41

Clendenin, Rev. Dr F. M., address,
126-28; acknowledgments to, 247

Clendenin, Mrs Gabrielle Greeley, A
personal impression of Horace
Greeley, 33-35

Conformity, address on, 217

Cornell University, newspaper memo-
rial, 245

 

Counsel to young men, 202-5
Cowperthwaite, Morgan, acknowl-
edgments to, 246

Day, Richard E., Horace Greeley,
the journalist, 140-42; Horace
Greeley, political and social leader,
160-75

Deacy, William Henry, architect of
the pedestal, 23

Dedication of monument, 125-46

Dix, Governor John A., proclamation
by, 21

Education, addresses on, 218

Erlich, Jacob, interest in memorial to
Horace Greeley, 17; addresses, 31-
32, 136-37; acknowledgments to,
246, 247

Farmer’s calling, 205-7
Formation of character, extract from
lecture on, 218

Greeley, Horace, nomination for
President, 11, 52, 73, 226; accept-
ance of nomination, 12; defeat, 13;
death, 14; sketch of life, 46-53,
64-77, 92-95; connection with New
York Tribune, 47, 67, 86, I12, 141,
225; Horace Greeley and the cause
of labor, 104-9; Horace Greeley as
a journalist, 109-19, 140-42; Horace
Greeley and woman suffrage, 134-
35; Horace Greeley and _ the
printcrs, 143-45; original manu-
scripts, 149-52; letters, 149-52; as
a colonist, 155-65; letter on
Greeley, Colorado, 165-66; political
and social leader, 169-75; orator,

editor and national benefactor,
175-76; newspaper comment on,
179-85; characteristic utterances,

187-208; campaign addresses, 211-
14; addresses, 217-21; life story,
237-39; chronology, 240-41; bio-
graphical material, 249-59

261
262

Greeley, Colorado, proclamation of
Mayor, 22; Horace’ Greeley
honored in, 81-97; founding of, by
Ralph Meeker, 85-89; Horace
Greeley as a colonist, 155-65;
Horace Greeley’s letter on, 165-66

Guinzburg, Mrs Etta Kleinert,
acknowledgments to, 247

Guinzburg, Victor, acknowledgments
to, 246

Hays, Daniel P., address, 35

Henschel, Albert E., discovery of
“Oration at grave of Horace
Greeley,” 17; addresses, 44-45,
137-40; acknowledgments to, 247

Holden, James Austin, Why the
centenary was held, 17-25

Houston, George M., address, 81-85;
acknowledgments to, 247

Howard, Oliver, address, 89-96

Howells, W. D., letter from, 120

Hunt, George, acknowledgments to,
246

Hyatt Wilbur, acknowledgments to,
246

Hyslop, James H., acknowledgments
to, 246

Kansas, to men of, 207-8
Kendrick, John R., letter from, 19
King, Horatio C., address, 46-53
King, Joseph E., quoted, 175-76

Legislature of 1913, bill relating to
unveiling of monument, 24

Letters, 119-21, 149

Lincoln, Abraham, letter to, 180;
answer, 190; extract from address
on, 221

Lord, Chester S., Some recollections
of Horace Greeley, 225-29

McAdoo, William G., address, 54-55
McCorkle, Walter L., letter from, 38
McElroy, William H., Horace
Greeley as a journalist, 109-19
Mackay, George D., acknowledg-
ments to, 246
McKesson, John, jr,
ments to, 246

acknowledg-

 

INDEX

McNaught, John, address, 59-60
Magnanimity in triumph, 198

Manuscripts, original, of Horace
Greeley, 149-52
Manville, Hiram E., acknowledg-

ments to, 246

Marriage and divorce, letters on,
192-95

Meeker, Ralph, The founding, of
Greeley, Colorado, 85-89, 155-65;
acknowledgments to, 247 7

Meserve, Fre lerick H., acknowledg-
ments to, 247

Monument, dedication, 125-45

New era, address on, 219

New York City, board of aldermen,
resolution adopted by, 22

New York City hall, memorial meet-
ing, 43-6o

New York Tribune, Greeley’s con-
nection with, 32, 47, 67, 86, 112,
14i, 225; acknowledgments to, 247

New York World, editorial on
Horace Greeley, 20

_ Newspaper comment, 177-85

Newspaper memorial compiled by
‘Cornell University, 245

Partridge, William Ordway, sculptor,
23; acknowledgments to, 246, 247

. Pillsbury, Albert E., address, 64-77;

acknowledgments to, 247

' Fress, address on, 220

Protection, correspondence on, 195

Reconstruction, 200
Republican party, naming, 745

Scott, Marsden G., Horace Greeley
and the printers, 143-45

Secession, 207

Senate, resolution by, 21

Sickles, Maj. Gen. Daniel E., address,
53-54

Smith, A. H., acknowledgments to,
246

Spanish liberty, interest in, 245

Statue at Chappaqua inaugurated,
29-31; dedicated, 125-46

Studies and reminiscences, 155-66
INDEX

Temperance, notes for a lecture on,
231-34

Thompson, L. O., acknowledgments
to, 246

Tole, James, address, 101-3

Towns bearing Greeley’s name, 245

Turner, Albert, acknowledgments to,
246 ;

Turner, Perry Brevoort, acknowledg-
ment on behalf of the school
children of Chappaqua, 135

Type Foundry of Jersey City,
acknowledgments to library and
librarian of museum, 247

 

263

Typographical union no. 6, commem-
orative exercises by, IOI-2t

Union League Club, letter to, 191
Vogt, Charles, letter from, 119

White, Charles A., address, 96
Williams, Rev. Dr Leighton, address,

55-59 ,
Woodford, Gen. Stewart L., address,
32
Woodford, Mrs Stewart L553

acknowledgments to, 247
          

               

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