John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[150] rush, as it does in the Bay of Fundy. ... The Democrats are terrified and demoralized. . . . My impression now is that every free state will vote for Fremont. ... Pike, First Blows of the Civil War.

And yet, with all this confidence and enthusiasm, Dana was mistaken. He had worked as he had never worked before, but in vain. He had planted seed plentifully, but the season was too short to mature the crop. Fremont was badly beaten, and as it turned out this was perhaps the best thing that could have happened. He had served well enough as a standard-bearer to uphold the flag while the army was forming, but, fortunately for the Union and the cause of freedom, a great captain as yet entirely unknown was destined to come forth from the body of the people, and lead them through four years of a bloody conflict to a victory greater than any that the most ardent Free-soiler had ever yet dared to hope for.

Meanwhile, Dana and his friends of the Tribune were not cast down. They accepted defeat with a fair degree of resignation, and turned their attention again to the advocacy of a railroad to the Pacific, a bounty to the New England cod-fishermen, and fair treatment to the nonunion locomotive drivers. A timely word was said in favor of finding a competent man to carry on the work of making the Central Park. A sound and scientific currency was advocated as against the Democratic outcry for “hard money” ; the Dred Scott decision was denounced as the severest blow ever inflicted upon the free States; the people of St. Louis were praised for electing an antislavery municipal ticket, and when the panic of October, 1857, which it had foreseen, broke upon the country and carried down eighteen New York banks, the Tribune did all in its power to allay the excitement and foster a feeling of