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Show - Old Masters Horace Greeley " ' ' ' '-BpC.C.G. HORACE GREELEY left a confused vision In the memories of men. They do not know - how to rate or estimate him. All admit his mas- terful abilities, his high motives, the solid Integrity Integ-rity that guided him and his all-embracing patriotism. patri-otism. When all these are named the answer Is "yes but" which reveals the doubt which men feel of just where to place him. He was born in New Hampshire in 1811, hence just reached manhood when the clashings between be-tween the North and the South began. It was over the tariff at first. Cotton had become king and with it two thoughts took form in the south, the one, that when the cotton planter sold his cotton, he had the absolute right to purchase with the money whatever he pleased a and in the cheapest market, which in the abstract is an unanswerable truth from an , individual standpoint, but which Is open to debate when the welfare of a nation, Including the cotton planter, is concerned. And the champions who carried on that de-I de-I bate were giants. All that has since been ad vanced on the tariff question was first said by them. The receptive soul of Horace Greeley took in the whole question and the flies of the old New York Tribune bear silent testimony to the I tremendous power of his pen. The other thought 'which gradually grew upon the dominant souls of the south, If fully expressed would have been a secret contempt for the men who were carrying on the great works in the north, for they, by example and training, had grown up and been provided for by unpaid labor. This culminated in a real belief on their part thatthe business of the white man was to make and" maintain the laws, All the learned professions pro-fessions and the offices; own the broad acres and direct their cultivation, fight the country's battles and leave servile work to be performed by a servile class. To Greeley who bad been born poor and who trusted alone to the work of his hands and brain for what of wealth or reputation he was to achieve, that was most-repugnant, and the anathemas an-athemas he hurled at those who discounted honest hon-est toil were thunderbolts. In the same way he saw the evils of strong drink and his advocacy of temperance was an appeal for a clean life which rang out through his newspaper as might a sermon set to the music of some great anthem. When the question of slavery became acute the drumbeat of his journal was the most potent , , influence in the north. Not an impassioned pe riodical outburst like the speeches of Wendall Phillips, but steady blows of argument day after ' 4 day, with the clear ring such as comes back from j' - the anvil when the smith is welding a massive " tiro. In the same way he fought the evils and the corrupt politics of the great city around him. During the twenty years through which he controlled the Tribune and was its light and life, the work ho performed was most superb. It was a daily call to men to be themselves and to do their best. He was not nearly so finished a writer as were several other editors of his day, such as Bryant of the PoBt, Dana of the Sun, and Ray-1, Ray-1, I mond of the Times, but ho got much nearer to v ' , the people. It was the fashion out on the farms to refer to the Tribune as "our other bible." It was Greeley's influence that nominated Lincoln for president, and through the campaign that followed his journal was a daily trumpet call. That was his last great work, When the storm of the great war burst upon the land It was too furious for him to ride. At first he was hysterical and said ""let the erring brothers go in peace," then, when Sumter was fired upon, he wanted swift work; when the half-fledged army was getting ready for what culminated at Bull Run, he In his journal kept the watchword of "on to Richmond" flying at his journal's mast head; when the war dragged on ho joined with Sumner and Schurts and the other impractlcables and added vastly to the sorrows and perplexities of those who controlled and led the armies In the superhuman work of conquering a peace. (But he was great enough to bow his head In reverence when he read the ibrief speech that Mr. Lincoln made on the field of Gettysburg. Wjhen the war was over the Innate goodness of the man came out: he wanted bygones to bo bygones and offered to go upon Jefferson Davis' bonds to release him from imprisonment. He was weak enough to accept a Democratic nomination for the presidency. He of all men. Any school boy could have told him in advance what the result would be a halting, cold acquiescence acqui-escence in the south, a mighty repudiation in the north. He died twenty days after the result re-sult was known and the historians tell us he died of a broken heart because of his defeat, coupled with the death of his wife who was all in all to him. Our belief is that he died because his work was finished. Indeed it was practically finished when Mr. Lincoln was elected president. The country had reached a stage when stronger men than ho were necessary to steady the ship of state through such a storm as no other ship ever outrode. When we trace his life through we discover on overy page of it that great as his abilities were, as varied as were his accomplishments, ho from the very first lacked foresight. He could shrewdly judge the right and wrong of a thing, but it was but for the day. What the effect a certain course would result in, he never could see. Hence when the question came of the life or death of the nation he began to wabble and his equilibrium was never thereafter restored. re-stored. Then our belief is that down deep he possessed unconsciously an inordinate vanity van-ity and a towering egotism; that these traits were what caused him to accept the nomination for the presidency; that when ho failed of election, elec-tion, the thought which overwhelmed him was that he never again could recover his old prestige and power. iStill he was wonderfully gifted in many ways. As an editorial writer he had in his prime no peer; when ho crossed the country by stage in 1858 men in miners' garb would nome to the stage when it stopped at stations and say: "How do you do, Mr. Greeley?" and he with one sharp look would extend his hand, and reply: "Why Mr. Rogers, I am gald to see you, I remember very well that I met you that night in 1847 when I lectured in your town in Vermont." We suspect when his work was finished and he passed on, that he met a thousand ghosts on the other side and called them all by name. |