James Parton, The life of Horace Greeley

[321] navy—went dead against the divorce theories of Henry James and others—and did whatsoever else seemed good in its own eyes. Among other things, it did this: Horace Greeley being accused by the Evening Post of a corrupt compliancy with the slave interest, the Tribune began its reply with these words:

‘You lie, villain wilfully, wickedly, basely lie!’

This observation called forth much remark at the time.

Thrice the editor of the Tribune visited the Great West this year, and he received many private assurances, though, I believe, no public ones, that his course in Congress was approved by the Great West. In Cincinnati he received marked attention, which he gracefully acknowledged in a letter, published May 21st, 1849:— ‘I can hardly close this letter without acknowledging the many acts of personal generosity, the uniform and positive kindness, with which I was treated by the citizens of the stately Queen of the West. I would not so far misconstrue and outrage these hospitalities as to drag the names of those who tendered them before the public gaze; but I may express in these general terms my regret that time was not afforded me to testify more expressly my appreciation of regards which could not fail to gratify, even while they embarrassed one so unfitted for and unambitious of personal attentions. In these, the disappointment caused by the failure of our expected National Temperance Jubilee was quickly forgotten, and only the stern demands of an exacting vocation impelled me to leave so soon a city at once so munificent and so interesting, the majestic outpost of Free Labor and Free Institutions, in whose every street the sound of the builder's hammer and trowel speaks so audibly of a growth and greatness hardly yet begun. Kind friends of Cincinnati and of Southern Ohio! I wave you a grateful farewell!’

In December appeared the first account of the ‘Rochester Knockings’ in the Tribune, in the form of a letter from that most practical of cities. The letter was received and published quite in the ordinary course of business, and without the slightest suspicion on the part of the editors, that they were doing an act of historical importance. On the contrary, they were disposed to laugh at the mysterious narrative; and, a few days after its publication, in reply to an anxious correspondent, the paper held the following language:— ‘For ourselves, we really cannot see that these singular revelations ’