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Show EPIGRAM IS NOT GREELEY'S Great Editor Long Wrongly Credited With Advice, "Go West, Young Man, Go West." The famous epigram "Go West,, young man, go West," so commonly-attributed commonly-attributed to the pen of Horace Greeley, Gree-ley, was not written first by that venerable ven-erable editor of the New York Tribune, Tri-bune, but by John L. B. Soule, editor of the Terre Haute Express. In 1851 Richard Thompson, afterward secretary secre-tary of the navy, urged Soule to go west and grow up with the country, and praised the editor's talents as a writer. He wagered a barrel of flour that Soule could write an article that would be attributed to Horace Greeley. Gree-ley. The result of the suggestion was-a was-a column editorial about the West's opportunities for young men. It declared de-clared that Horace Greeley could never nev-er have given a young man better advice ad-vice than contained in the words, "Qo-West, "Qo-West, young man." Although stated merely as Soule thought Greeley might have put It, newspapers all over the country began to credit Greeley Gree-ley with the epigram. So widespread did the quotation become that Greeley's Gree-ley's paper reprinted the eSltoriat from the Express, with the following" footnote : "The expression of this sentiment has been attributed to the editor of the Tribune erroneously. But so fully does he concur in the advice It gives that he Indorses most heartily the epigrammatic advice of the Terre-Haute Terre-Haute Express, and joins In saying, Go West, young man. go West.1 " |