John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[99] Sumner, Foote, Seward, and Mangum were lesser lights; but each was striving in his own way to compose the differences between the sections by compromises and arrangements, which it was hoped would not only save the Union, but would also save slavery where it legally existed, and put an end forever to the discussion of the slavery question. Each did his part according to his lights, but still the agitation went on with ever-increasing intensity, because the more it was discussed, the more evident it became that the disease was incurable by peaceful methods, and that the divergent views held in regard to it were irreconcilable.

General Taylor, the Whig candidate, had been elected president, but this was also a compromise measure that was destined to end in disappointment. The Tribune took part in every discussion, and worked as though the solution of every question depended upon the arguments put forth in its columns. While it was Whig in its politics, it was pre-eminently “independent in all things-neutral in none.” There were many other great journals in both the North and the South, but there was only one Tribune in the entire country. During this period it reached its greatest circulation. It was published both as a daily and as a weekly, and went into almost every parsonage, college, and farmer's home in the Northern States. Under Mr. Greeley, who was chief editor, assisted by Dana, who was executive officer, and for several years had charge of its make-up, it became the great antislavery journal of the day, and it has been well said that during the entire ante-war period it was “the spokesman of the most numerous, most independent, and most determined body of men ever associated for political purposes in the United States.” ¹

Greeley was undoubtedly one of the greatest political