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Horace Greeley (1811–1872)
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As editor of the influential New York Tribune,
Horace Greeley did not so much seek to report the
Civil War as he sought to shape its course. When,
in the spring of 1861, Lincoln’s administration
seemed reluctant to use force in subduing Southern
secession, Greeley’s Tribune carried
such bellicose headlines as “No Concessions
To Traitors!” Shortly thereafter, when Lincoln
held back from declaring an end to slavery, the
bespectacled Greeley rallied that the freedom of
blacks must be made one of the Civil War’s
primary imperatives. It is difficult to say just
how much Greeley’s editorial declarations affected
official Union policies. Still there is no doubt
that his condemnation of the South and calls for
slavery’s immediate abolition helped form the
consciences of many Northerners. |
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Unidentified artist
Daguerreotype, circa 1850
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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