Born in Amherst New Hampshire in 1811, Horace Greeley was the most influential journalist of his time. He established both the New York Tribune and the magazine the New Yorker, both of which have been prominent publications throughout United States History. Greeley also became prominent in politics during the 1860s. He was an influential abolitionist, believer in manifest destiny, and a leader of the Liberal Republican party during his career.
In 1834, Greeley founded the New Yorker, a magazine devoted to sciences, literature, and art. The magazine was extremely unprofitable, and Greeley left seven years later. (Now, however, the New Yorker rocks and is very expensive so it must make money).
Greeley was born to a poor farming family, and was only able to attend school during winter. His formal schooling ended when Greeley was fourteen, and he went to work for a journal in Vermont. The newspaper eventually failed, but Greeley had learned much about the trade. Soon after, he began to work towards starting his own paper.
Greeley began the New York Tribune in 1841 after working several years for newspapers devoted to the Whig political party. Greeley's paper was extremely large scale, as it was one of few that were devoted to politics, current events, and social reform. His editorship lasted for over thirty years.
Because Greeley's Tribune was one of the only newspapers to service the rural northwest, Greeley held much sway over the population's opinions. Greeley wrote many editorials on westward expansion, encouraging people to move west, and he was known for popularizing the phrase, "go west, young man." During the civil war, Greeley published articles on the evils of slavery, influencing many rural citizens.
Greeley was also famous for his editorial, "the prayer of the twenty million", which proved to be highly influential, if not a bit misguided (not the entire north wanted an end to slavery...). Lincoln responded to this editorial with his well-known quote regarding his wishes to keep the union together above all.
When Ulysses S. Grant was elected in 1868, corruption began occurring. Though Greeley initially supported Grant, when things began to go wrong Greeley worked to reveal this corruption, as well as combat it by creating his own political party. Greeley was known across the United States as a very radical politician, and this did not gain him many friends during the time of the Lincoln administration.
During the election of 1872, Greeley was nominated for the Liberal Republican ticket, which later joined with the Democrats. This was an unusual nomination because Greeley was not always well liked among politicians who he had published negative things about previously. Grant's employed dirty campaign tactics to promote himself, at the same time as making a fool of Greeley. Greeley lost the election with a total of 2 million votes but only 3 votes from the Electoral College.
Unfortunately, during this time period Greeley had suffered many problems. Firstly, his influence over his paper had diminished, and he felt it was out of control. This made Greeley sad. Then his wife died several days before the presidential election. Also, Greeley lost the election, which was quite a blow to him. In addition to this embarrassing loss, the majority of the country viewed Greeley as overly eccentric, which he might have been. He suffered a mental breakdown and died in a mental institution soon after the election.
Allan Nevins, "Horace Greeley," DAB, 7: 528-34; Van Deusen, Greeley.
McNamara, Robert. "Horace Greeley, Influential Editor Said Go West Young Man." 19th Century History. About.com. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://history1800s.about.com/od/americanoriginals/p/hgreeleybio.htm>.
"Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York Tribune, Including His Lifelong Ties to the Universalist Church." University of Nevada, Reno - Wolfweb Websites. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://wolfweb.unr.edu/homepage/fenimore/greeley.html>.
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