James Parton, The life of Horace Greeley

[412] man is frequently printed in newspapers, the name of a common man never or seldom. If the remark is correct, then Horace Greeley is by far the most distinguished person, out of office, in the United States. The click of the types that set up his name is seldom hushed. Probably, more than half of our three thousand newspapers published this week, contain something about him or by him, something at least which but for him they would not contain. And who has seen, for the last few years, a political caricature in which the man with the white coat, and long locks, and hat on the back of his head, does not figure conspicuously? In England, it is a maxim, that the politician who is not caricatured is a failure. What an immense success, then, would the English accord to Horace Greeley!

It is rare indeed for a man to attain precisely that position in life, which, in his youthful days, he coveted and aimed at. This happiness, this success, our hero enjoys. He tells us, that in his boyhood, he had “no other ambition than that of attaining usefulness and position as an editor, and to this end all the studies and efforts of his life have tended.” As editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley, at this moment, stands at the head of the editorial profession in this country. The Tribune, with all its faults and deficiencies, is incomparably the ablest paper that we have yet realized. He who denies this convicts himself, not of error, but of ignorance or defective understanding. Yet many will deny it; but few who are at all acquainted with the country, will dispute the following assertion:

During the last ten years or more, Horace Greeley has influenced a greater amount of thought and a greater number of characters, than any other individual who has lived in this land.

At a rough calculation, he has written and published, during his editorial career, matter enough to fill one hundred and fifty volumes like this; and his writings, whatever other merit they possess or lack, have the peculiarity of being readable, and they are read. He has, moreover, addressed a larger number of persons than any other editor or man; and the majority of his readers live in these northern States, where the Intelligence, the Virtue, and (therefore) the Wealth, of this confederacy chiefly reside. He edits a paper to which many able men contribute, who write under the unavoidable