Introduction
When discussing revolutions and wars, people most often talk about those who held weapons in their hands and participated in the hostilities themselves, defending their homeland. Undoubtedly, such people deserve admiration and respect, but it is vital not to forget about those who fought for the rights of their fellow citizens by peaceful means. One of these people was Horace Greeley, who used his newspaper to support Americans and influence public opinion. The purpose of this paper is to describe the biography of Horace Greeley from birth to death and analyze his influence and significance to the U.S. Civil War era.
Horace Greeley’s Biography
Horace Greeley was a brilliant politician, reformer, and newspaper editor. He was born in 1811 in a farmer’s family in Amherst, New Hampshire (“Horace Greeley’s Biography”). All Greeley’s ancestors were peasants, New England natives, and descendants of the first settlers, and he knew from his childhood what poverty was (“Horace Greeley”). Many times, his family had to change their place of residence. In search of a better and wealthier life, like thousands of other farmers, the Greeley family moved to the West (Snay). From the age of seven, Horace used to help with the housework, only occasionally attending school (“Horace Greeley”). The lack of systematic education, however, did not stop him from wishing to become a journalist.
Greely was a rather talented and determined young man ready for facing difficulties. At the age of fifteen, he started attending the printing house of the weekly newspaper Northern Spectator in East Poultney, Vermont, where he gained the necessary experience and knowledge (“Horace Greeley’s Biography”). After five years of study, in 1831, Horace left the village and moved to New York, where, in 1834, he finally became a founding editor of The New-Yorker (“Horace Greeley”). Probably, this very event may be considered the beginning of his brilliant career and dedicated service to his country.
The new newspaper was a literary and political publication that attracted the attention of its readers. According to some sources, its circulation was nine thousand copies (“Horace Greeley”). As Greeley supported and defended the principles of the Whig party, Thurlow Weed, the Republican and Whig politician and the New York newspaper publisher, offered him financial support in exchange for co-operation in the upcoming state governor election (Graber 200).
Horace agreed and, in 1838, began publishing another Jeffersonian newspaper, which earned him the support of the Whig leaders, but his financial state was far from brilliant (“Horace Greeley”). In 1837-1838, because of the economic crisis, Greeley had to combine publishing in New York with the work in Albany as a speechwriter for the governor, William Seward (“Horace Greeley”). This decision had a great impact on his future political and publishing career.
Later, Greeley started realizing he needed to start something new. At the end of 1839, he began publishing a new political newspaper, Log Cabin, for the Whig presidential candidate William Harrison (“Horace Greeley”). The newspaper had significant success, its circulation reached eighty thousand copies, and Greeley’s name became widely known to the readers (Graber 150). This success inspired him, and he decided to start publishing the cheap daily New York Tribune, which later became one of the most vital and influential voices of the Republicans and one of the leading newspapers of America (Lundberg 50). He already had the necessary journalistic experience, the support of friends in the party, a small capital of two thousand dollars, and popularity among readers (Snay). Greeley considered the publication of this particular newspaper the main purpose and business of his life.
There were several strong ideas that Greeley supported for the rest of his life. Probably because of his father’s drinking, Greeley supported temperance, the special movement for abolishing the use of alcohol (“Horace Greeley”). What is more, Greeley was a great supporter of the land reform movement that aimed at “increasing opportunities for individual proprietorships” (Snay). Though he did not join the Liberty Party, Greeley was a strong opponent of the slavery expansion and supported an antislavery position. In 1872, he ran for president on the Liberal Republican ticket, though unsuccessfully (“Horace Greeley”).
His wife’s death a week before the election, the sense of personal humiliation, and the strain and nervousness of that process unbalanced Greeley’s mind and, on November 29, 1872, he died in a private mental hospital (“Horace Greeley’s Biography”). Probably, if he lived longer, he would further contribute to the prosperity of his country.
Horace Greely’s Significance to the Civil War Era
Horace Greely is considered to be one of the most important public figures of the Civil War era, and his influence and significance cannot be overrated. It is fair to suggest that it all started in 1856 when Greely became one of the Republican party’s founders and was not afraid of speaking out clearly against the increase in slavery (Fahrney 130). At first, Greeley called for an immediate and quick defeat of the South and then started appealing to the president, asking for making peace with the rebels (“Horace Greeley”). Thus, during the Civil War, his position was notable for its instability and inconsistency.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Greeley believed that the main goal of the northerners was not the destruction of slavery but the salvation of the Union. He even made the preservation of slavery dependent on the behavior of the southerners: only if they returned to the Union, they could count on the preservation of a special institution (“Horace Greeley”). However, by the end of the summer of 1862, Greeley was increasingly convinced that without the destruction of slavery, the victory of the Union was impossible (Lundberg 65). The merit of Greeley and the New York Tribune during this period was the constant demand for the abolition of slavery.
Greeley tried his best to influence the president to fight slavery. Throughout the spring and summer of 1862, Greeley’s newspaper pressured the Lincoln administration and tried to encourage them to take a more decisive stance on the slave owners (“Horace Greeley”). On August 20, 1862, an open letter from Greeley to Lincoln was published in the New York Tribune under the eloquent title “The Prayer of Twenty Millions” (Fahrney 110).
On behalf of millions of fellow citizens, Greeley asked the president to declare the freedom of all slaves in Union-held territory (“Horace Greeley”). This letter’s significance was that it became the symbol of the Northern determination to make the sacrifices of the war meaningful by destroying slavery. With President Abraham Lincoln’s agreement, in 1864, Greeley tried to find peace possibilities in a meeting with Confederate agents (“Horace Greeley”). Although his efforts did not end up successfully, they helped to understand that Southern plans did not include the Union’s preservation.
Moreover, Greeley was rather significant to the Civil War era because of his never-ending peace efforts. Thereby, he became one of the leading participants of the Niagara Peace Conference that was held in 1864 (Lundberg 138). Upon learning that confederate diplomats were ready to discuss peace are in Canada, Greeley passed this issue to Lincoln, and the president then sent him to Niagara Falls to meet with these confederates on the terms of restoring the Union and abolishing slavery (Horne 56). Unfortunately, these negotiations were unsuccessful, although Greeley continued to show interest in the negotiation world until the end of the war.
Conclusion
Thereby, it is possible to suggest that Horace Greeley’s presence and actions were vital for the American Civil War as he changed the American journalism’s direction and played a significant role in the political and social movements of that period. He was a brave, intelligent, bright, and talented editor who was not afraid of having and expressing his own opinion even if it was opposite to the government’s one. Greeley cared about his own country and its citizens; he achieved huge success with his newspapers and decided to use them to help those people who needed aid and support. One of the greatest Greeley’s ideas was defeating slavery and setting thousands of people free. Even when this movement was not popular, he supported that and tried to do his best to achieve this purpose.
His ideas, beliefs, and suggestions made quite a difference and were of great importance for the country and the Americans. Greeley inspired people, showed that life could be better, and proved that one should not be afraid of speaking out loud. Using his newspaper, he used to spread his beliefs, publicly urging the president and the Americans themselves to make the right decisions and fight for the freedom of others. Hence, Greeley was one of those people who are true patriots and are talented enough to see opportunities for their country to become better.
Works Cited
Fahrney, Ralph Ray. Horace Greeley and the Tribune in the Civil War. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2018.
Graber, Samuel. Twice-Divided Nation: National Memory, Transatlantic News, and American Literature in the Civil War Era. University of Virginia Press, 2019.
“Horace Greeley.” The World Encyclopedia. 2018. Web.
“Horace Greeley’s Biography.” Ehistory. Web.
Horne, Charles, editor. Horace Greeley. Prabhat Prakashan, 2018.
Lundberg, James. Horace Greeley: Print, Politics, and the Failure of American Nationhood. JHU Press, 2019.
Snay, Mitchell. “Horace Greeley.” The Essential Civil War Curriculum. Web.