Horace Greeley and the Tribune in the Civil War

By Dr. Ralph Ray Fahrney

Horace Greeley (1811-1872) was an American author and statesman who was the founder and editor of the New York Tribune, among the great newspapers of its time. Born to a poor family in Amherst, New Hampshire, he was apprenticed to a printer in Vermont and went to New York City in 1831 to seek his fortune. In 1941 he founded the Tribune, which became the highest-circulating newspaper in the country through weekly editions sent by mail. Among many other issues, he urged the settlement of the American West, which he saw as a land of opportunity for the young and the unemployed, popularizing the slogan "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country." He endlessly promoted utopian reforms such as socialism, vegetarianism, agrarianism, feminism, and temperance, while hiring the best talent he could find.


In Horace Greeley and the Tribune, which was first published in 1936, Dr. Fahrney represents thorough research not only in the field of the New York Tribune, but in a great mass of printed material on the war. Well outlined and well written, it should prove both useful to the historian—offering the best guide through the mazes of the shuttlecock, loop-the-loop policy followed by the emotional editor of the Tribune—as well as to the student of journalism, who will find in it an explanation of how the most influential journal of the land in 1861 became one of the most distrusted four years later.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789123975

Dr. Ralph Ray Fahrney

Dr. Ralph Ray Fahrney (1897-1976) was an Associate Professor and later Emeritus Professor of History at the Iowa State Teachers College. Born on September 24, 1897 at Polo, Illinois, he graduated from high school at Twin Falls, Idaho, and received his B.A. degree in 1919 from Mt. Morris College. He then attended the University of Chicago, where he earned his M.A. degree in 1922 and his Ph.D. degree in 1929, majoring in American history. Dr. Fahrney began his teaching career in 1919 at Mt. Morris College and later served as dean of the college and instructor of social science at Mason City Junior College. He joined the University of Northern Iowa in 1929 as an assistant professor, where he taught until his retirement in 1965. Throughout his teaching career, he actively pursued research and writing, publishing his book Horace Greeley and the Tribune in the Civil War in 1936, and contributed to a number of articles to scholarly journals in history and the social sciences. He was a past president of the Iowa Social Science Teachers and a member of the Iowa History Teachers, American Historical Association, and Mississippi Valley Historical Association. He was married to Leota Pauline Hershberger Fahrney. He passed away on May 4, 1976 and is buried at Cedar Valley Memorial Gardens in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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Text originally published in 1936 under the same title.

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HORACE GREELEY AND THE TRIBUNE IN THE CIVIL WAR

BY

RALPH RAY FAHRNEY, PH. D.

Associate Professor of History,

Iowa State Teachers College

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

DEDICATION 4

FOREWORD 5

INTRODUCTION 6

CHAPTER I—SEWARD, WEED, AND GREELEY 9

CHAPTER II—SECESSION, COMPROMISE, OR WAR 24

CHAPTER III—A TRIAL AT ARMS 41

CHAPTER IV—EMANCIPATION 57

CHAPTER V—FROM FREDERICKSBURG TO PETERSBURG 68

CHAPTER VI—THE NIAGARA PEACE EPISODE 79

CHAPTER VII—THE FINAL STRUGGLE 87

BIBLIOGRAPHY 104

UNPRINTED LETTERS AND MISCELLANEOUS MANUSCRIPTS 104

PRINTED LETTERS, DIARIES, AND OTHER WORKS 104

NEWSPAPERS 105

PAMPHLETS 105

OFFICIAL AND DOCUMENTARY PUBLICATIONS 106

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, MEMOIRS, AND REMINISCENCES 106

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS AND INTERPRETATIONS 107

BIOGRAPHIES 108

MISCELLANEOUS SECONDARY WORKS 109

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 111

DEDICATION

TO

LEOTA

FOREWORD

Professor R. R. Fahrney has contributed useful information bearing on many points of our terrible Civil War which is now about to be understood by large numbers of people North, South and West. His theme is Horace Greeley and the famous New York Tribune, perhaps the most influential newspaper of its time.

It is very important these critical days of American history to have new and unpartisan accounts of the activities of that great and unfortunate struggle for democracy. Few men, after Lincoln himself, were more active or influential than the clever if troubled editor of the Tribune. What he hoped for, fought for and was disappointed in will always interest people who really wish to understand our past. I am, therefore, glad Mr. Fahrney is publishing his careful study and I hope many readers may follow his pages which I have read with great interest.

WILLIAM E. DODD

Chicago, July 20, 1936

INTRODUCTION

In order to appreciate the full significance of any study involving Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune during the Civil War, it is necessary to understand from the outset, the strategic position they occupied in shaping the trend of events during an extremely critical period in the life of the nation.

All contemporaries, friends and foes alike, testify that the Tribune exerted the greatest influence upon public opinion of any journal in the country during the period under discussion. At the outbreak of the war, it boasted nearly three hundred thousand subscribers—a circulation considerably higher than that of any other paper—and it estimated that readers well in excess of a million habitually perused its columns.

Subscription figures only partially indicate the extent of Tribune influence in national affairs. A factor perhaps more important than number of readers concerns their distribution. Strangely enough, the Greeley organ was not primarily a New York paper. There were other dailies, better adapted to the commercial atmosphere of the city, that rivaled and even eclipsed its circulation within the metropolis. But through the Weekly and Semi-Weekly editions—condensed replicas of the Daily—the Tribune spoke to a vast rural aggregation distributed throughout every state in the Union, preaching a doctrine and expounding a philosophy which its readers could readily understand and appreciate. Instead of being limited to preponderant influence within a particular locality, a widely distributed constituency scattered from Maine to California, furnished the basis of a power national in scope, and at times enabled the editor to mold public sentiment more effectively than even the President.

Furthermore, in so far as Tribune adherents were unevenly distributed throughout the north, they were concentrated in those states occupying the most strategic position in national affairs during the Civil War era. With the exception of New York, more people imbibed Greeley doctrine in Pennsylvania than in any other state of the Union, and the Keystone State was generally regarded as pivotal in connection with the more important political contests of the period. Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana ranked next on the Tribune roster, all more or less doubtful participants in the various controversies which arose in connection with the struggle for preservation of the Union.

Any discussion of the famous New York journal would be manifestly incomplete and inadequate without paying considerable attention to the eccentric editor, for in all essential respects, Horace Greeley was the Tribune. To be sure, by 1850 the paper possessed a formidable editorial staff, but the press had not yet passed completely out of that stage in which the policy of a journal was closely identified in the public mind with the outstanding personality guiding its fortunes. Unquestionably, with a few exceptions, Tribune policy was Greeley policy regardless of who wrote the editorials, and for that matter, it would have been difficult to convince the great mass of rural subscribers from western New York to Iowa that the old white-coated philosopher did not pen every line in their political bible.

Herein lies the crux of Tribune power and influence. Horace Greeley was more than the editor of a great newspaper. He had acquired an enviable reputation as an expounder of political views, and had actively sponsored organization of the Republican party on a national scale. His persistent advocacy of free land and free labor identified him with the idealistic phase of the Republican movement, soon to be compromised by practical considerations, but adhered to tenaciously by a considerable element in the great Northwest. In short, the Tribune made Greeley, and Greeley made the Tribune, and the Civil War provided the setting in which they exerted a tremendous influence on the destinies of the nation.

It is the primary purpose of this study to acquire an estimate of Horace Greeley as a political force in the period under discussion, and to determine the effect of Tribune policy in molding public sentiment with regard to the crucial questions of the day. The first chapter traces the rise of the editor to a position of influence during several decades of political and journalistic adventure preceding 1860, relating him to the principal characters and events of that era, and providing a background for a more intensive study of subsequent developments. Tribune policy is then traced through all the major activities and controversies which led to a conflict between sections and, during the war, so disrupted unanimity of purpose at the North as to render the Union perilously near permanent and complete disintegration.

Many have dipped into the Tribune here and there and have been invariably impressed with its vagaries and glaring inconsistencies. No doubt the criticism is partially justified and is not more than one could expect considering the strange quirks and impetuous perturbations of the editor’s mind. And yet, thorough examination of the famous New York journal, carefully avoiding any breaks in various series of editorial pronouncements and relating them to contemporaneous events and influencing factors as well as to the inner workings of Greeley’s mind as revealed by his private correspondence, discloses a fairly consistent policy cleverly bent and altered at intervals to meet unexpected developments and shiftings in public sentiment.

The fact that the Tribune not only assisted in molding public opinion but likewise reacted to that opinion, suggests that this study also serves to reveal successive alterations in northern sentiment during the war epoch. Joseph Chamberlain once asserted that the public press provided the most reliable medium through which to gage the dictates of the popular will. It is a noteworthy fact that newspapers in a large measure print the material that their constituents are most anxious to digest, and people are inclined to read those journals which most nearly conform to the natural pattern of their thinking. While a certain earnestness and fearlessness on the part of Greeley often prevented him from playing the role of a model editor, for the most part he acceded to the outspoken demands of public opinion, and the Tribune to a large extent faithfully mirrors the alternating hope and despair that swept over a North distracted by the perplexities and disappointments of a disheartening struggle.

It has been considered advisable to devote some attention to newspapers other than the Tribune, in order to present a clearer view of various passing phases of public sentiment and properly orient Greeley and his paper among contemporary editors and journals that shared the confidence of the people. For that purpose, only a few of the more outstanding organs have been considered—principally those of New York—which represented different cross sections of public sentiment and were most closely related to the Tribune as friendly or unfriendly rivals in the field of wartime journalism.

CHAPTER I—SEWARD, WEED, AND GREELEY

The rise of a new party upon the shoulders of the slavery issue presented new opportunities in the field of American politics during the tempestuous years following the Kansas episode. It attracted the ambitious with axes to grind and political fortunes to reap, as well as enthusiastic idealists inspired by the visions and hopes of a new day. As convention time approached in 1860, these exponents of a new regime were exuberant. The first encounter with Democracy on a national scale had ended dismally, but now, with the enemy camp divided, prospects were bright for landing the Republican standard-bearer in the White House. Such a situation fostered intense political activity and excitement, culminating in the stirring nominating convention at Chicago.

Among various possibilities for the nomination, the stars seemed to point toward William H. Seward. He enjoyed an unrivaled reputation throughout the country as the exponent of the Republican creed with respect to slavery, and he had the backing of a political machine manned by the most skilful pilot in New York. On the other hand, there were certain factors which jeopardized his selection as first choice of the Republican party, and in this category there stood out one important personality—the honest, impetuous, erratic Horace Greeley. How the eccentric editor of an American newspaper, somewhat deficient in political acumen and unsupported by influential political alliances, unhorsed the skilful Seward and left the cunning Thurlow Weed biting the dust, forms an interesting episode in the history of the political relations of three distinguished characters in national affairs.

By 1834, Horace Greeley had served the usual apprenticeship and was established in the printing business in New York City. Six years previous, Seward and Weed had formed a political alliance, and from then on they had waged an increasingly successful fight against a coterie of (Democratic) Republican politicians entrenched at Albany led by Martin Van Buren and known as the Regency. Even during the years of his apprenticeship, the political inclinations of Greeley had followed closely in the track marked out by the Anti-Regency leaders, and when the opponents of Democracy in New York City marshaled their forces for the local election of April, 1834, adopting the name Whig, the young printer joined them.{1} The Whigs emerged from the campaign with fair success, but in state affairs, where Seward and Weed were the guiding spirits of the new party, they met overwhelming defeat despite the efforts of Greeley and the campaign paper of his printing concern, the Constitution.{2} Discouraged and beaten, the New York Whigs generally, relapsed into a torpor of despair.{3}

As the disastrous results of Jacksonian finance became evident in the fall of 1837, however, rapidly ebbing Whig hopes were revived. Greeley entered actively into the local canvass of that year, but the major portion of his attention was devoted to the responsibilities and embarrassments of a journalistic venture, the New Yorker, dedicated primarily to the promulgation of social and economic reform.{4} When the November campaign disclosed the extent of Whig triumph, the paper threatened to go upon the rocks. With fifty-five hundred subscribers, and eight thousand dollars owing to it, the nerve-wracked editor was ready to transfer the whole concern as a gift to anyone who would discharge debts amounting to four thousand dollars.{5}

At this juncture there walked into the rude editorial attic of Greeley none other than the astute Weed. He introduced himself to the surprised journalist, whom he had known previously only through the columns of the ill-fated New Yorker, and an amiable conversation concerning things political ensued.{6} When Weed returned to Albany the next day, it was understood that during the 1838 contest and for the consideration of one thousand dollars, Greeley would edit a campaign paper at Albany entitled The Jeffersonian, under the auspices of the Whig Central Committee.{7}

The Jeffersonian proved immensely effective, and its articles were extensively copied by Whig journals throughout the state.{8} Seward turned the tables on William L. Marcy, his opponent in 1834, and rode into Albany on a comfortable ten thousand majority. Greeley suddenly emerged as a New York politician of some repute, and Weed, behind the scenes, confidently gathered the reins together in his hands.

While only a temporary enterprise, The Jeffersonian proved to be the medium through which its editor entered as the junior partner into the revamped political firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley. The new accession had justified the expectations of his more experienced colleagues, and, as he contributed now and then an editorial to the Albany Evening Journal—the official journal of the Weed organization—besides conducting the New Yorker and The Jeffersonian in a most commendable fashion, it became increasingly apparent that his editorial ability would prove a valuable adjunct in future contests.{9} The new political combination lasted throughout the entire lifetime of the Whig party, operating efficiently and effectively to the satisfaction of its friends and the despair of its enemies. For, with Greeley shaping public opinion, Seward garnering votes, and Weed faithfully tending the political machinery, gratifying results were inevitable.

Although Henry Clay of Kentucky commanded a plurality of votes when the Whig convention met at Harrisburg to choose a candidate for the campaign of 1840, Seward and Weed questioned his ability to carry the election and they threw their support to General Harrison of Ohio as the most available candidate.{10} Greeley, less concerned with expediency and strongly attached to one whom he not only admired and trusted but profoundly loved,{11} wavered momentarily, but finally he succumbed to the convincing arguments of Weed,{12} combining his efforts with those of the Albany boss to end the long struggle on the floor of the convention in favor of the hero of Tippecanoe.{13}

Again, at the suggestion of Seward, Weed, and other prominent New York Whigs, Greeley edited a campaign paper entitled the Log Cabin, similar in design to The Jeffersonian, but appealing outside the bounds of New York to every part of the country.{14} When the hilarious enthusiasm of an unprecedented campaign subsided in favor of the peaceful demeanor of more tranquil days, General Harrison had been given over to a swarm of hungry office seekers, Seward had ridden back into office on the crest of Whig success, and Horace Greeley found himself for the first time financially solvent and one of the best known editors in the country.{15}

Encouraged by success in the