John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[100] and controversial writers this country ever produced, and it is but simple justice to say that his heart was overflowing with sympathy for the slaves and with hatred for slavery. He threw his whole soul into the controversies going on about him, but no one can read the files of the Tribune, or the political writings and books of the day, without discovering that Dana was in many respects a stronger and more aggressive character than his chief. While Greeley was far from being a moral coward, it is not to be disguised that he showed at times, when the fight was heaviest, a lack of nerve if not of courage.

On the other hand, Dana: was never known to weaken in a fight, nor to abandon one till it was ended. He was as tireless as a gladiator, and as unrelenting in his purposes. Withal, he was a much better educated man than Greeley, and while he may not have been so pleasing a writer, he was a master of polemical discussion and invective. It was Dana who first learned the value of reiteration, and first practised it in the columns of a newspaper as the best means of driving home his points and fastening them in the public mind. It is commonly believed by those who knew these men at the time that to Dana much more than to Greeley was due the tremendous fight which the Tribune made for bleeding Kansas, and for the signal victory which it won in saving that State from the curse of slavery.

While it is inconsistent with the purposes and limits of this memoir to give a complete history of this important period, or even an exhaustive resume of Dana's contributions, I shall endeavor to set forth his views and arguments, as found in the columns of the Tribune, with sufficient fulness to show the important part he played and the great influence he exerted in the final settlement of the momentous questions of this decade.

In March, 1850, one of the first strikes of the New York