Who is horace greeley

He had married Mary Youngs Cheney in In youth his wife had been talented and enthusiastically reforminded, but she deteriorated into a hypochondriac. Though Greeley's Westchester County farm was known for its modern agricultural techniques, the house itself was randomly administered. The unhappy household was further upset by the fact that of their nine children only two survived to adulthood.

Equally unfortunate was Greeley's political career. He wanted to influence state and national politics and gain power for himself, but he was no match for adroit associates who used the Tribune' s columns. Greeley's ambitions for Henry Clay were frustrated. He had to accept Zachary Taylor's Whig candidacy in , though Taylor was a slave-holder and a hero of the Mexican War, which Greeley did not endorse.

Greeley's own dreams of office brought him no more than a day election to Congress in Nevertheless, Greeley's editorial voice grew with the increasing strength of the Free Soil party and abolitionism. He opposed the Compromise of , with its notorious Fugitive Slave Law provision.

In he became one of the founders of the Republican party and spoke out clearly against the extension of slavery. Greeley's editorial policies during the Civil War swung erratically from appeals for peaceful separation to the all but fatal slogan "On to Richmond! In Greeley, with President Abraham Lincoln's sanction, probed peace possibilities in a meeting with Confederate agents.

His efforts, though futile, helped make clear that Southern plans did not include preservation of the Union. A meeting of disillusioned party members in sought alternatives to the era's corruption and political incompetence. As a result, the Republican Liberal party was formed, and Greeley became its presidential candidate. His qualities of reason and compassion expressed themselves during Greeley's campaign.

But the Radical Republican attack was fierce and effective, and he was overwhelmingly rejected at the polls. The strain of the election and his sense of personal humiliation, together with his wife's death a week before the election, unbalanced Greeley's mind.

Horace Greeley was born in February , in New Hampshire. He loved reading books, and when he was 15 years old, he was apprenticed to a printer in Vermont. In , he founded the New York Tribune and quickly gained a reputation as one of the best journalists in New York City. His paper reached over 1 million readers, giving Greeley the ability to influence public opinion throughout the nation. And he did so, expressing his opposition to slavery, the Wilmot Proviso and the War with Mexico.

He opposed Lincoln for president in and in , but supported him as President while in office, especially the Emancipation Proclamation. He supported and lobbied for the 13th and 14th Amendments and believed Andrew Johnson was not harsh enough on the South after the war. Followed his own advice and went west in to gather information that would interest the readers of the New York Tribune.

He was especially keen on learning more about the Mormons and on July 13, he had the opportunity to interview Brigham Young. Mormons impressed him with their achievements, although not with their theology. Greeley was an early member of the Republican Party and, after initially supporting another candidate, helped to secure the nomination for Abraham Lincoln in He initially argued that the South should be allowed to secede.

Later, however, he became a strong supporter of the war effort, but subjected Lincoln to searing criticism for refusing to free the slaves. After the war, Greeley supported a general amnesty for Confederate officials and angered many Northerners by signing a bail bond for Jefferson Davis ; subscriptions to the Tribune fell by half. In Greeley received the presidential nomination of both the Liberal Republican and Democratic parties, but his candidacy was doomed from the start.

Exhausted by the campaign and distraught with his wife's death, Greeley died a few weeks after the election. Horace Greeley was one of the most interesting and eccentric figures in American history.