they might be led into disagreeing with Lincoln, would be utterly unable to associate with the "copperheadism" of Seymour.
On May 18, 1864, the World and the Journal of Commerce printed the bogus proclamation of Joseph Howard, Jr. Both papers were immediately suspended, and not allowed to resume until Monday, May 23rd, when Manton Marble, the editor of the World, in a three-column editorial, upbraided the President. Howard had been city editor of the Times, and, when arrested, was at his desk as city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. Seymour at once endeavored to make political capital out of the suspension of the two papers, by ordering the District Attorney to arrest all those who had entered the offices of either paper.
McClellan was nominated, and Bennett was inclined to support him. Lincoln wrote privately to Bennett and asked him to accept the mission to France. The editor declined the offer, but his vanity was tickled; the Herald slowly veered about and, before the campaign was over, was advocating Lincoln's election.[1] It was at this time that Greeley made his Quixotic trip to Niagara Falls, to negotiate with the ambassadors of Jefferson Davis. Although the futility of this was evident,—to no one so much as to Lincoln—the trip was good for Greeley, as the offer of the mission to France was good for Bennett.
A month before the election, Greeley and Weed were of the opinion that Lincoln could not avoid defeat, and Raymond wrote to the President that his stand on the slavery question was affecting his chances of success.[2] The importance of this statement,—the crime of it, from a political point of view—is that it was made by the Chairman of the Republican National Executive Committee.
