Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/238

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GREELEY of resentment on the part of Greeley, which is explained by the following extracts from a letter dated Nov. 11, 1854, which he addressed pri- vately to Mr. Seward, but demanded for pub- lication when it was referred to by the latter's friends during the canvass of 1860 : " The elec- tion is over, and its results sufficiently ascer- tained. It seems to me a fitting time to an- nounce to you the dissolution of the political lirm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley, by the withdrawal of the junior partner, said with- drawal to take effect on the morning after the first Tuesday in February next. . . . I was a poor young printer and editor of a literary journal a very active and bitter whig in a small way, but not seeking to be known out of my own ward committee when, after the jjreat political revulsion of 1837, I was one day called to the City hotel, where two stran- gers introduced themselves as Thurlow Weed and Lewis Benedict of Albany. They told me that a cheap campaign paper of a peculiar stamp at Albany had been resolved on, and that I had been selected- to edit it. ... I did the work required, to the best of my ability. It was work that made no figure, and created no sensation ; but I loved it, and I did it well. When it was done, you were governor, dispen- sing offices worth $3,000 to $20,000 per year to your friends and compatriots, and I returned to my garret and my crust, and my desperate battle with pecuniary obligations heaped upon me by bad partners in business and the disas- trous events of 1837. I believe it did not then occur to me that some one of these abundant places might have been offered to me without injustice ; I now think it should have occurred to you. ... In the Harrison campaign of 1840 I was again designated to edit a campaign paper. I published it as well, and ought to have made something by it, in spite of its extremely low price ; my extreme poverty was the main rea- son why I did not. . . . Now came the great scramble of the swell mob of coon minstrels and cider-suckers at Washington, I not being counted in. ... I asked nothing, expected nothing; but you, Governor Seward, ought to have asked that I be postmaster of New York." In the beginning of the civil war Gree- ley declared himself in favor of allowing the southern states to secede from the Union, pro- vided a majority of their citizens voted in favor of that course. When hostilities were actually commenced, he demanded their vig- orous prosecution, and was popularly held responsible for the "On to Richmond" cry first uttered in the " Tribune," which preceded the defeat of Bull Run. In 1864, with the un- official sanction of President Lincoln, he went to Clifton, Canada, to confer with George N. Sanders, Jacob Thompson, and Beverly Tucker, on the subject of peace. In that year also he was a presidential elector, and a delegate to the Philadelphia convention. At the close of the war he advocated a policy of universal amnesty with universal suffrage. In May, 1867, he signed the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, thereby incurring so much popular censure at the north that the sale of his " History of the American Conflict," which had been very large on the publication of the first volume, suddenly stopped almost entirely on the second, then just issued. In 1869 he was the republican candidate for comptroller of the state of New York, but was defeated, though he received a larger vote than any other candidate on the ticket except Gen. Sigel. In 1870 he was a candidate for congress in the 6th New York dis- trict, and ran 300 votes ahead of the state ticket, but was defeated by the democratic candidate, S. S. Cox. Early in 1872 he made a journey to Texas, nominally for the purpose of delivering an address at the state agricultural fair and observing the industrial and commercial con- dition and prospects of the states he traversed; but probably the visit had also its political bearings, and he stopped at numerous places to make speeches and hold conferences with prominent citizens. On May 1 of that year a convention of so-called liberal republicans, who were dissatisfied with the administration, met at Cincinnati, and on the sixth ballot Mr. Greeley was nominated for president, B. Gratz Brown of Missouri being subsequently nomi- nated for vice president. The democratic con- vention, which met at Baltimore in July, adopt- ed these candidates and their platform. Mr. Greeley accepted the nomination, retired from the editorship of the " Tribune," and entered the canvass personally, travelling and speaking almost constantly till within a short time of the election. He received in the election 2,834,- 079 votes, against 3,597,070 for Grant, and carried the states of Georgia, Kentucky, Ma- ryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. His powers of endurance had been strained to the utmost in the canvass, which was unusually exciting, and in which his foibles, his personal habits, and his anomalous political position were unsparingly caricatured and ridiculed. During the last month of it he was watching by the bedside of his wife, who died a few days before the election. Shortly after, he was prostrated by a disorder of the brain and sank rapidly. His funeral, though simple, was per- haps the most impressive ever witnessed in New York. The body lay in state in the city hall, through which an unbroken stream of visitors passed for an entire day; and the funeral services were attended by the presi- dent and vice president of the United States, the vice president elect, the chief justice, and many other eminent citizens from distant places. He died with a full belief in the doctrines of Universalism, which he had held for many years. About the year 1852 Mr. Greeley purchased a farm of 50 acres, after- ward enlarged to 75, on the Harlem railroad. in the township of New Castle, Westchester co., 35 m. N. of New York. The railroad station there was known as Chappaqua, from the Indian name of a mill stream which ran