Horace Greeley is quite the interesting character. Born in 1811, Horace Greeley has always been a man interested in media, publishing, and politics. An apprentice for several newspapers growing up, Greeley got his first publishing gig with The New Yorker in 1834. He spent his early years at The New Yorker publishing pro-Whig and anti-slavery propaganda. A political mind, Greeley actively worked and campaigned for Whig Party presidential candidate William Henry Harrison and used his influence with The New Yorker to sway the American public to elect Harrison the 9th President of the United States.
Following the 1840 presidential election, Greeley saw his influence as unsurpassable and decided to go out on his own and publish his own newspaper: The New York Herald. The New York Herald would make Greeley one of the most influential man in New York and in the United States. Using his new platform, Greeley quickly began advocating for the abolition of slavery, the rights of the working poor, and several other progressive issues facing the country. One of the few issues Greeley was not open to was Women's Suffrage- he would use his platform to discredit the suffrage movement. Greeley even hired European correspondents to report on European politics and wealth disparities worldwide. Those correspondents were communist thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
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| Horace Greeley c. 1840 |
In 1848, Greeley's political influence elevated him to the United States House of Representatives. Though he was replacing an arrested congressman and would only serve until 1849, Greeley used his time in the House of Representatives to advocate for the abolition of slavery and attempt to pass controversial legislation. His legacy would only grow as he would anger politicians in both political parties- Whigs and Democrats at the time- and everyone in Washington collectively hated Greeley. This did not bother Horace. It only emboldened him to fight stronger. One person admired Greeley during his time in congress. That person was Illinois's 6th district representative Abraham Lincoln.
Once his tenure in congress ended, Horace returned to his paper emboldened to further his political agenda and career. For 5 years following his departure, Greeley continued his vocal push for the abolition of slavery; his ideas were even seen as radical. In 1854, Greeley would take a brief break from The New York Tribune to help establish the Republican Party.
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| Horace Greeley's Later Years c. 1860 |
The years of the civil war were crucial, and devastating for Greeley. In the 1860 presidential election, Greeley forcefully advocated for Abraham Lincoln to be the vice presidential nominee. Though they were friends, Greeley knew that Lincoln had a bright political future, but he did not believe that Lincoln was prepared to take over a country on the brink of civil war. Once Lincoln became the nominee, Greeley used his platform to violently advocate for Abraham Lincoln on the premise that he would abolish slavery. Many people blame Greeley's paper and rhetoric for the eventual secession of southern states. Lincoln would go on to win the 1860 presidential election and had one man to thank: Horace Greeley.
Greeley and Lincoln's relationship was not always rosy. Greeley was forceful in his demand for the abolition of slavery. He would weaponize his paper against slavery and even Lincoln, calling him a weak and ineffective leader. Greeley would become so intolerable of Lincoln that he would actively work against Lincoln's reelection efforts, even supporting Democrat candidates. In 1867, 2 years after the civil war and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Greeley would sign the bail bond for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Fed up with the Republican Party's betrayal of him, Greeley would spend the rest of his life to rail against mainstream Republicans.
After the war, Greeley would return to his paper. His life was about to be turned upside down.
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| Political Cartoon of Greeley consolidating support |
In 1872, Horace Greeley would leave his paper for the last time and once again step foot into politics. Fed up with Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, Horace Greeley decided that he is the only man would should be president. With the Democrat Party effectively dead in politics for a while due to reconstruction, Greeley decided to run for president as a member of the Liberal Republican Party. Taking the angry Democrat voters and combining them with angry Republican voters who do not think that Republicans are doing enough, Greeley had a very clear shot at becoming president. Though he was polling at 40% close to Election Day, Greeley would eventually be institutionalized because of the trauma he endured on the campaign trail.
In 1872, Greeley was institutionalized because of the campaign. The slander was so personal and so intense that it drove Greeley insane. He would spend the last few months of his life in the institution. The month of November would prove to be too much for Greeley. In just one month, Greeley had lost his wife to a virus, he had permanently lost his job at his newspaper, and though he died before the results of the election he would lose the election to Grant. At the end of November, grief won its battle and Greeley would die in a mental institution without a wife, without a newspaper, and without knowing if he had won or lost the election.
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| Greeley's legacy including stamps, school, and statues |
The legacy of Horace Greeley is larger than he probably could have imagined. Though The New York Tribune would eventually be bought out by a bigger paper, Greeley would go on to continue making differences beyond the grave. With statues lining New York City to a high school named in his honor, to a commemorative stamp, Horace Greeley's service to his country has not gone unnoticed. Though he never served as president, his life as a journalist served American's more diligently than he probably ever could as her commander in chief.
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