{{Officeholder
|name=Horace Greeley
|image=Horacegreeley.jpg
|party=[[Whig]] (until 1854)
[[Republican]] (1854-1872)
[[Image:HoracegreeleyLiberal Republican]] (1872-death)|spouse=Mary Cheney|religion=[[Universalist]]|offices= {{Officeholder/representative |state= New York |district=6th |terms= December 4, 1848 - March 3, 1849 |preceded=David S.jpgJackson |rightformer=y |thumbsucceeded=James Brooks }}|military=n|allegiance=|rank=|branch=|serviceyears=}}'''Horace Greeley|300px''' (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American publisher and editor who revolutionized the news by creating a national market for his [[New York Tribune]] , a founder of the [[Republican Party]], reformer and presidential candidate. His ''New York Tribune'' was America's most influential newspaper from the 1840s to the 1870s and "established Greeley's reputation as the greatest editor of his day."<ref>Michael Emery and Edwin Emery, ''The Press and America'' (1988) 124-6.</ref> Greeley used it to promote the [[Whig Party]] and after 1854 the new Republican party, as well as antislavery and a host of reforms. Crusading against the corruption of [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s Republican administration, he was the presidential candidate in 1872 of the new [[Liberal Republican Party]]. Despite having the additional support of the [[Democratic Party]] he lost in a landslide. He was a leading advocate of economic modernization and opposition to slavery, and his ''Tribune'' newspaper was the main voice of the [[Whig Party]] and later the [[Republican Party]].
'''Horace Greeley''' (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American publisher and editor who revolutionized the news by creating a national market for his [[New York Tribune]], a founder of the [[U.S. Republican Party, history|Republican party]], reformer and presidential candidate. His ''[[New York Tribune]]'' was America's most influential newspaper from the 1840s to the 1870s and "established Greeley's reputation as the greatest editor of his day."<ref>Michael Emery and Edwin Emery, ''The Press and America'' (1988) 124-6.</ref> Greeley used it to promote the [[Whig Party]] and after 1854 the new Republican party, as well as antislavery and a host of reforms. Crusading against the corruption of [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s Republican administration, he was the presidential candidate in 1872 of the new [[Liberal Republican Party (United States)|Liberal Republican Party]]. Despite having the additional support of the [[U.S Democratic Party, History|Democratic Party]] he lost in a landslide. He was a leading advocate of economic modernization and opposition to slavery, and his ''Tribune'' newspaper was the main voice of the [[Whig Party]] and later the [[Republican party]].
==Early Years==
He was born in [[Amherst, New Hampshire]], the son of poor farmers Zaccheus and Mary Greeley. He declined a scholarship to [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] and left school at age 14; he apprenticed as a printer in Poultney, Vermont at The Northern Star the same paper where George Jones served as an apprentice, moving to New York City in 1831. In 1834 he founded the weekly the ''New Yorker'', which was mostly comprised of clippings from other magazines.
In 1836 Greeley married Mary Cheney Greeley; they spent little time together; Out of their seven children, only two lived.
<blockquote>
''The Tribune set a new standard in American journalism by its combination of energy in news gathering with good taste, high moral standards, and intellectual appeal. Police reports, scandals, dubious medical advertisements, and flippant personalities were barred from its pages; the editorials were vigorous but usually temperate; the political news was the most exact in the city; book reviews and book-extracts were numerous; and as an inveterate lecturer Greeley gave generous space to lectures. The paper appealed to substantial and thoughtful people.'' [<ref>Nevins in ''Dictionary of American Biography'' (1931)]</ref></blockquote>
Greeley prided himself in taking radical positions on all sorts of social issues; few readers followed his suggestions. Utopia fascinated him; influenced by [[Albert Brisbane]] he promoted [[Fourierism]]. His journal had [[Karl Marx]] (and [[Friedrich Engels]] too) as European correspondent in the early 1850s, but they did not send Greeley any radical material.<ref>See [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/newspapers/new-york-tribune.htmsource] </ref> He promoted all sorts of agrarian reforms, including homestead laws.
Greeley supported liberal policies towards settlers; he memorably advised the ambitious to "Go West, young man." A champion of the working man, he attacked monopolies of all sorts and rejected land grants to railroads. Industry would make everyone rich, he insisted, as he promoted high tariffs. He supported vegetarianism, opposed liquor and paid serious attention to any ism anyone proposed. What made the ‘’Tribune’‘ such a success was the extensive news stories, very well written by brilliant reporters, together with feature articles by fine writers. He was an excellent judge of newsworthiness and quality of reporting.
==Republican: New York Tribune==
[[Image:Nytrib1864.jpg|thumb|right|400px|November 16, 1864 issue of the [[New York Tribune]]]]
When the new [[U.S. Republican Party, history|Republican Party]] was founded in 1854, Greeley suggested the name (as an echo of the Jeffersonian Republicans) and made the ''Tribune'' its unofficial national organ. He fought slavery extension and the slave power on every page. On the eve of the Civil War circulation nationwide approached 300,000.
His editorials and news reports explaining the policies and candidates of the Republican Party were reprinted and discussed throughout the country. Many small newspapers relied heavily on the reporting and editorials of the Tribune. He served as Congressman for three months, 1848--1849, but failed in numerous other attempts to win elective office. In 1860 he supported the conservative ex-Whig [[Edward Bates]] of Missouri for president, an action that weakened Greeley's old ally Seward.<ref>Van Dusen 241-44</ref>
As a candidate, Greeley argued that the war was over, the Confederacy was destroyed, and slavery was dead — and that [[Reconstruction]] was a success, so it was time to pull Federal troops out of the South and let the people there run their own affairs. A weak campaigner, he was mercilessly ridiculed by the Republicans as a fool, an extremist, a turncoat, and a crazy man who could not be trusted. The most vicious attacks came in cartoons by [[Thomas Nast]] in [[Harper's Weekly]]. Greeley ultimately ran far behind the Democratic ticket, winning only 43% of the vote.
This crushing defeat was not Greeley's only misfortune in In 1872. Greeley was among several high-profile investors who were defrauded by [[Philip Arnold]] in a notorious diamond and hoax. Meanwhile, as Greeley had been pursuing his political careerpursued the White House, [[Whitelaw Reid]], owner of the ''[[New York Herald]]'', had gained control of the ''Tribune''.
Not long after the election Greeley's wife died. He descended into madness and died before the electoral votes could be cast. Greeley received no electoral votes, with the ones he was to have received being scattered among others. However, three of Georgia's electoral votes were left blank in honor of him. (Other sources have Greeley receiving 3 electoral votes posthumously, with those votes being disallowed by Congress.) == Trivia ==*The Greeley home in [[Chappaqua, New York]] now houses the New Castle Historical Society. [[Horace Greeley High School|The local high school]] is named for him, and the name of one of the school newspapers pays homage to the 19th-century paper owned by Greeley.*Greeley's endorsement of frontier economics was satirized in the environmentalist cartoon series [[Captain Planet]], which featured the antagonist and polluter [[Hoggish Greedly]].*Horace Greeley Square is a small park in the [[Herald Square]] area of Manhattan featuring a statue of Greeley. The park is next to the site of the former ''[[New York Herald]]'' building.*Mount Horace Greeley is one of the highest points in the [[Keweenaw Peninsula]] of [[Michigan]].*Greeley considered the word 'news' a plural word and would always correct his staff when they--in his view--mistakenly said, "Is there any news?" He once cabled a Tribune reporter: “ARE THERE ANY NEWS?” The employee cabled back: "NOT A NEW."*[[Horace Greeley High School]] in [[Westchester, New York]] is named for him.*The city of [[Greeley, Colorado]] is named for him as is Greeley, Texas *Greeley County, Kansas is named for him. (There is a town of Horace there, and the county seat is Tribune.)*Greeley County, Nebraska is named for him. (There is a town of Horace there.)
==Bibliography==
=== Secondary sources===
* Borchard, Gregory A. "From Pink Lemonade to Salt River: Horace Greeley's Utopia and the Death of the Whig Party." ''Journalism History'' 2006 32(1): 22-33. Issn: 0094-7679 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Commons, John R. "Horace Greeley and the Working Class Origins of the Republican Party," ''Political Science Quarterly'' 24 (September 1909)[http: //www.jstor.org/stable/2140888 in JSTOR]
* Cross, Coy F., II. ''Go West Young Man! Horace Greeley's Vision for America.'' (1995). 165 pp. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=1191721 online edition]
* Downey, Matthew T. "Horace Greeley and the Politicians: The Liberal Republican Convention in 1872," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 53, No. 4. (Mar., 1967), pp. 727-750 727–750. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28196703%2953%3A4%3C727%3AHGATPT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B in JSTOR]
* Isley, Jeter Allen. ''Horace Greeley and the Republican Party'' (1947)
* Lunde, Erik S. ''Horace Greeley'' (Twayne's United States Authors Series, no. 413.) (1981). 138 pp.
* Lunde, Erik S. "The Ambiguity of the National Idea: the Presidential Campaign of 1872" ''Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism'' 1978 5(1): 1-23. ISSN 0317-7904
*Nevins, Allan. "Horace Greeley" in ''Dictionary of American Biography'' (1931).
* [[Vernon Louis Parrington|Parrington, Vernon L.]] ''Main Currents in American Thought'' (1927), II, pp. 247-57 247–57. [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Parrington/vol2/bk02_01_ch05.html online edition]* Parton, James. '' The Life of Horace Greeley: Editor of "The New-York Tribune"'' (1st ed. 1855, 2nd ed. 1889) 557 pages [https://books.google.com/books?id=cDgOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:new+intitle:york+intitle:tribune&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES full text online] * Potter, David. "Horace Greeley and Peaceable Secession," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 7, No. 2 (May, 1941), pp. 145–159 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2191468 in JSTOR]* Robbins, Roy M., "Horace Greeley: Land Reform and Unemployment, 1837-1862," ''Agricultural History'', VII, 18 (January, 1933). [http://www.ditext.com/robbins/robbins.html online edition]* Rourke, Constance Mayfield ; . ''Trumpets of Jubilee: Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lyman Beecher, Horace Greeley, P.T. Barnum'' (1927). [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=30485375 online edition]
* Schulze, Suzanne. ''Horace Greeley: A Bio-Bibliography.'' Greenwood, 1992. 240 pp.
* Seitz, Don C. ''Horace Greeley: Founder of the New York Tribune'' (1926) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95028604 online edition]
===Primary sources===
* Greeley, Horace. ''[httphttps://books.google.com/books?vid=LCCN17013775&id=n8nklHXxD2cC&printsec=toc Recollections of a Busy Life]'' (1868)
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/1/ ''An Address on Success in Business'' (1867)]
* [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96702872 ''The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-64'' (1866)]
====notes====
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Greeley, Horace}}[[categoryCategory:United States History]][[categoryCategory:Journalists]][[Category:Failed Presidential Candidates]][[Category:RINOs]][[Category:Former United States Representatives]][[Category:Liberal Republicans]][[Category:Whig Party]][[Category:Socialists]]