Greeley, Horace (1811-1872), a prominent American newspaper publisher, founded and edited the New York Tribune. He was a leader in the antislavery movement, and his editorials played an important part in molding public opinion, especially during the 20 years before the American Civil War (1861-1865). Greeley’s editorials against the spread of slavery into new territory increased the antislavery sentiment of the North. He also fought vigorously in his columns for the protective tariff and for antiliquor legislation.
His publications.
In 1834, Greeley founded The New-Yorker, a weekly literary paper. In 1840, he began publication of The Log Cabin, a weekly campaign paper supporting William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate for president. The next year he founded the New York Tribune, a penny daily, and combined The Log Cabin and The New-Yorker into the New York Weekly Tribune. The weekly edition had more readers than any other American publication of the period.
Greeley’s writings and remarks were widely quoted. The phrase “Go West, young man” became a byword after he popularized it. It was first used by an Indiana newspaperman, John Soule, in 1851. Soon afterward, Greeley published the phrase in the New York Tribune as advice to the unemployed of New York City.
His Civil War role.
Greeley was one of the first editors to join the Republican Party. He was a delegate to its second national convention, and helped Abraham Lincoln obtain the nomination for president. Although he supported Lincoln throughout the Civil War, he urged settling the conflict by compromise. In 1864, he met with several agents of the Confederacy in Canada to discuss peace terms, but the conference failed. In addition, Greeley also urged giving pardons to all members of the Confederacy after the war. Greeley endured criticism for his views and continued to use the New York Tribune to promote stimulating ideas. He rejected the sensational journalistic style then gaining popularity.
His political role.
Greeley supported the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant for two years, but then began to disagree with Grant’s policies and to oppose him openly. The Liberal Republicans and the Democrats nominated Greeley to run for president against Grant, but Grant won decisively in the 1872 election. Greeley died on Nov. 29, 1872, less than a month later. See Grant, Ulysses S. (Election of 1872).
Greeley was born on Feb. 3, 1811, in Amherst, New Hampshire. He was an apprentice in a Vermont newspaper office when he was 15. He later moved to New York City, where, in 1833, he helped found the Morning Post, the first two-cent daily paper. It ran for only three weeks. In 1870, he founded a cooperative community, Union Colony, in Colorado, later called Greeley, Colorado. He wrote several books, including Glances at Europe (1851), An Overland Journey to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859 (1860), The American Conflict (1866), Recollections of a Busy Life (1868), and What I Know of Farming (1871).
