Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/325

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before the battle of Bull Run, Horace Greeley kept the following paragraph standing on the editorial page of his Tribune:

The Nation's War Cry. Forward to Richmond! Forward to Rich- mond! The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet there on the twentieth of July! By that date the place must be held by the National Army!

This call on the part of Greeley for an immediate advance on Richmond undoubtedly had something to do with the defeat at Bull Run. At the outbreak of the war The Herald, seeming a little too lukewarm in its allegiance to the cause of the North, had been most bitterly and incessantly criticized by The Tribune. After the defeat at Bull Run The Herald promptly denounced The Tribune and its editor as being one of the immediate causes of the disaster, and indicated that the time would come when the people would find it expedient to hang Greeley upon a lamp- post, because he poisoned and killed the Republic with aboli- tion sentiment. Undoubtedly the attack of The Herald had something to do with the assault upon the building of The Trib- une during the draft riots, when on Monday, July 13, 1863, a mob advanced against The Tribune with the cry: "Down with The Tribune! Down with the old white coat what thinks a nayger as good as an Irishman." In its attacks on The Tribune the mob succeeded in destroying the furniture on the first floor where all gas-burners were twisted off; it battered down the doors and windows after it had started a fire in the center in the hope of destroying the plant. The building, however, was saved by the arrival of one hundred policemen with orders to "Hit their temples, strike hard, take no prisoners." The instructions were followed: twenty-two were killed; scores taken away se- verely wounded. A heavy downpour of rain suddenly broke over the mob and scattered it even faster than the charge of the bluecoats. By the next day The Tribune building had been transformed into an arsenal; guns protruded from the second- story windows, a hose had been connected with the steam boiler in the basement, and arrangements had been made to drop shells on any attacking party. These preparations undoubtedly prevented a second attack, for on Wednesday morning The