John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

Rain-mud most profound, flooded rivers and streams-glorious soil-worthless politicians and lazy people-such is Kansas in a nutshell.

According to his itinerary, Greeley could not have got back to New York till late in July or early in August, therefore it is entirely certain that Dana had principal charge of the Tribune from early in 1855 till late in 1856, and it is fair to conclude that he practically controlled its opinions, utterances, and policy. The campaign it was conducting for free Kansas was mainly his, and this fact also entitles him to the principal share of the praise, as well as to nearly all the blame that was visited upon the paper. The letters from which I have quoted throw a flood of light upon the character of Horace Greeley, and to the critical reader foreshadow the melancholy end which finally overtook him.

The fight against slavery continued throughout the year. The friends of freedom, under the advice of the Tribune, were now sending Sharp's rifles, as well as men to use them, into Kansas. The assault on Senator Sumner at his seat in the Senate by Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina, was denounced as the culmination of Southern intolerance, and an outrage upon free speech and free thought. Sumner was far from being a popular man, but this act seemed to fill the entire North with a sense of danger that it had not hitherto felt. Its immediate effect was to intensify as well as to diversify the struggle. Fremont, The Pathfinder, an amiable but weak man without political experience, was nominated by the Republicans in opposition to Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, for the presidency. Greeley, Dana, and a host of clever writers now threw themselves into the campaign with greater determination than ever. The weekly Tribune had reached