i
HORACE GREELEY.
, 'om the Northern Jlfnn7,;,, f a .
; lm , Ui" n.uyim,
, uere U a story to the effect that Mr. Seward
e described Horace Greeley as a great man,
full of genius and power that if he had com-,-ou
sense he would be dangerous. The errant
s ndencta of Mr. Greeley's mind have been so
tnarkably illustrated during the past five or
; years, that Mr. Seward's epigram has
i'nt. A great man and a great fool, com
oed in one person, certainly presents an in
Mgruous picture, which has the effect of
mcature; and perhaps it is proper, in de
nting Mr. Greeley, to adopt the mild euphe
ism of "a great child." The coniunction of
AUish. (not child-like) qualities with ereat
ental capacity is the key to his character,
iv is singular that, in the numerous bio
aphles whloh have been published, this
has never been expressed.
Kvery reader of American newspapers Las
n, at intervals, ridiculous caricatures of
. Greeley burlesoues of the kind to which
J- public men are subjected, and which pos-
some degree of humor or appoaiteness.
i caricaturist aims to bring out the leading
'its of the man; in excess, it is true, but the
Vience is not successful unless it is readily
Vi generally recognized as significant. The
Matures of Horace Greeley invariably repre
it him as an overgrown child. His callow
I pncity or look and manner at once strike
- irust as peculiar to himself.
Physically, these characteristics are verv
ilpable. There is the looseness of the bony
mctuse which belongs to immaturity. The
-n is naiiby, like a child's. The features
k the strong outline of manliness. The eye
soft and wavering, and has none of that
andatorr energy which fires the look of ma-
irity. The gait is loose and shambling a
lmg alone, instead of a deliberate progress.
jf suoh a body be typical of the miud which
nuDits it, and its motions correspondent, we
oiy readily understand how easily such a man
i J jpi become tne viotim or his own ponde
ojity, and merely stagger along the road of
bought, according as one faculty or another
mporarily moved him by its activity. In
ut, the human being is far more of a machine
ya most are willing to admit. Nor is it
,'ijugh to say the body affeots the mind. It
i its purpose to represent the indwelling soul.
fn have to learn of each other through the
wdy: they also judge by the body. As Sweden
: org expresses it, there is a "correspondence"
between the two.
: Horace Greeley grew up rapidly to nearly
, ix feet in height, at an early age This hasty
Irowth of the skeleton left the orcanio develop-
fenperainent, and of large brain, his mental
Vsivity served to still further exhaust his
ere of vitality, and thereby retard physical
hiturity. There is some analogy between this
npetuous growth of his body and the opera-
ns or his mind, lie generalizes and theo
aes, freely and largely, but is very slow in
ling out the practical details or a plan. lie
celetonizes, but never completes. Now, the
jrganio development of a man is that which
'ires him both his passive and active powers
5-mdurande as well as strength. Greeley's
betvishness, nervousness, cowardice, are due
h efly to his immaturity. His nerves never
a , proper masculine covering. When a
Y eleven, he was thrown into an acrony
' Vor liv the delusion that he saw a wolfs
1 liming in the dars by the roadside, and
' Wed two crirls to escort him home. He
Jot bear the sight of blood; consequently
liked hunting, and stopped his ears
'khers fired the guns,
inability to control the bodily impulses
fled to its desires as well as its fears, its
ykQ.Tva a well as iia paiiia. xilo iucuiai Alio,
veed, usually absorbed his attention, often
litter foreetfulness of physical wants; but,
a the appetites were given rein, they would
a the bit in their teeth at once, and run
hj with propriety. Both in childhood and
Idult years, Mr. Greeley is described as eat
. with the voracity of a famished man.
.Vhen there is no work pressing him he sleeps
ith equal facillity, and regardless of time or
olace. In fine, the physical lite of Mr. Greeley
's characterized by the twin faults of ohildish
patience of pain and childish eagerness lor
atification. The only reason he is not more
sual is because the body, with him, is a
igt hard naaen, ana rareiy turned oui 10
A. His earlv limner lor omiaisu 100a, ana his
tjir advocacy of it, is consistent with his own
ihtsioal immaturity. Of laU years, and indeed
r)811 HIS lllc, 5Aocyi vvrv vi uueo jvaio opun
i boarding-house kept on the plan of Syl--ster
Graham the apostle of bran bread
-Mr. Greeley has eaten more or less meat.
t'ita mature years he has prouaoiy ieit,
Uneed of it, and learned to like it. But
J858 he wrote that it wa3 "still his
iterate judgment that in the temperate
U torrid zones, where a great abun-
le and variety of vegetable food is easily
Aired, a diet which includes no flesh meat
i jfeferable. If I were to live leisurely, as I
uoild choose, I would say, Give me the best
uctions or grains, or mats, with aoun-
ice of milk, cream, etc., and let me never
see animal flesh presented for human
Not having time nor means to make a
orld for myself, I try to accommodate my
'.-ii.it a ta the world that is. and eat meat.
jhich is often the best food within reaoh."
a that time, Mr. Greeley was forty-seven
'irs of age, and weighed one hundred and
'ty-four pounds. Since then, he has had
I'years of comparatively light work, less
L and good living, and must weigh at least
J. hundred. His personal appearance justi
fi the opinion expressed by him in 1658, that
with light daily tasks, little responsibility,
id an active out-door life, I think I might
.tain the physical proportions and oleaginous
tundity of an alderman."
The mental life of Mr. Greeley is not unlike
physical. There is the same complete
ijtorption in the occupation of the moment,
tbame childish disregard of circumstances,
a RRine intolerance of whatever is unplea-
nt His mind does not work calmly and
mslderately, but very passionately and in
ntlT. IIe fastens on his own view of a
.:.,' nira i blood-sucker. You cannot tear
' d from it till he has sucked all the life oir"' "
6 ina iaup w u "-""-
,Ir that others have thought truly as well a
Uaelf though he had called them "fools,
.rs " and "villains," lor seemng
. 'II.: it r. a n . i . 1 f 1 -i .a n . I
f k;9 views. Jiven nis uenevoienoe par
kes somewhat of the same selfishness. 11
, it is painful to refuse. For
. .i i i
'. . t.i. iioort. i-mi 1,1 not restrain its care-
lifts to whomsoever oame, regardless of
i,-ia f the case. He could not bear
,prup. - - . ffl fravfl f , d .
Bight Of BUnenug. y?
P in m rid of it
,siuerwyi iar f lvinr
. ataucht mm iunu o
Vmultiplied the number of beggars, It was
J w, JphiB almsgiving had been incited
Pencil by considerate kindliness for the
tt 2 by impatience of the feelings
h the sieht of want awakened. In a word,
.m Childish benevolence, which the man
ifoutrew. Ope day (before the war)
THE DAILY EVENING TELEGRAPHPHILADELPHIA. SATURDAY,
and told her tale of distress. lie threw her
five dollars a gift liberal enough, truly, to
rid the room at once of the applicant. But the
npgress was so astounded and so grateful that
she fell upon her knees, and began to call
down blessings innumerable on the giver's
head. This pained Mr. Greeley even more
than Ler story, and he hastily silenced her.
"Now, don't,'f said he, in his whining tone;
"don't do that. Get up, and go 'way !"
In his theology, also, Mr. Greeley illus
trates his illogical way of disregarding un
pleasant facts when they disagree with his
sentimental theories. He denies a hell, on
the ground of God's beneficence. But transi
ent pain is no more reconcilable with that
idea than eternal misery, nor is the misery of
the individual for the sake of the race
logically consistent with it. If Mr. Greeley
is able to argue suffering out of eternity
because it is unpleasant to him, why not
also out of this world, for the same reason ?
It would appear, indeed, that physical,
mental, and moral qualities alike unfit Mr.
Greeley for dealing with practical life. He
wilfully absorbs himself in what pleases him,
and insists upon Bhutting out everything else
from his vision. Especially does he shrink
from the idea of violence, in connection with
any reform in the individual, or in society.
Ardent and persistent as he has been in advo
cating many a good cause, the proposition to
use firce never came from him. He would
never have made the mistake of St. Peter,
and cut off an ear. He has none of that
masculine, mature, and energetic Chris
tianity which the author of "licoe Homo"
describes as "not the emasculate sentimental
thing it is sometimes represented to be."
"War," he adds," for example, and capi
tal punishment, are frequently denounced
as unchristian, because they involve circum
stances of horror; aud when the ardent cham
pions of some great cause have declared that
they would persevere, although it should be
necessary to lay waste a continent, and exter
minate a nation, the resolution is stigmatized
as shocking and unchristian. Shocking it may
be, but not therefore unchristian. The enthu
siasm of humanity does indeed destroy a great
deal of hatred, but it creates as much more.
Selfish hatred is indeed charmed away, but a
not less fiery passion takes its place." And
the writer goes on to say that even the spirit
which inspired the Crusaders and others,
zealous to do violence for what they believed to
be the cause of religion, was not unchristian.
"At any rate, the ostensible object of such
horrors was Christian, and the indignation
which professedly prompts them is alao Chris
tian, and the assumption they involve that
agonies of pain, and blood shed in rivers, are
less evils than the soul spotted and bewildered
with sin, is most Christian."
It is obvious that a character so childish,
and a mind so self-absorbed as Mr. Greeley's,
must have been more or less the sport of cir
cumstances. The superficial observer may
start at this, and ask whether Mr. Greeley is
not, then, an exemplar of what man can do in
spite of unfavorable surroundings f Not re
markably so. Constitutional qualities, good and
bad, havemakehimwhatheis; circumstances,
pretty much alone, have determined what he
was to think, say, and do. He has drifted
quite passively on the current of events.
Born in Amherst, N. H., in 1811, of parents
who were bankrupt before he was ten years
old, Mr. Greeley had, in all, but forty-five
months instruction in a poor district school.
But his large brain and active temperament
attracted him irresistibly to books. Endowed
with a remarkable memory, and a good gfft
of language, he early became a great talker
as well as reader. Wherever he went, for
years, he was the town euoyclopedia of
general, and especially of political informa
tion. But, until he came to New York, in
August, 1831, his range of literature was
necessarily very limited. Then, for years,
he was subjected to the stress of poverty,
and the anxieties of unsuccessful business
enterprises. The New Yorker was started in
March, 1834, and Mr. Wreeley edited that
diligently, in connection with other literary
and political labors, till it was merged with
the Tribune, in 1841. It was during this
active and exciting period of his life that
the transcendental movement arose in New
England. In September, 1836', Messrs. Emer
son, Hedge, Francis, and two others met at
the house of George Ripley, in Boston, and
formed the Transcendental Club, which
afterwards was joined by Brownson, Parker,
Frothingham, Channing, and other young and
ardent thinkers. Such a movement iu thought
as this, aided and inspired by the grim utter
ances of Carlyle in England, and the transla
tions of German philosophy then becoming
current, would easily attract and absorb a
mind like Greeley's. The visionary and ideal
is the land in which all delight to dwell. To a
mind so impatient as Greeley's, this dream
land was a heavenly resort, where a new At
lantis could be built up at leisure; where
man, in imagination at least, could become
perfect, life happy, and everything finally
JJivine. After the Tribune began its career,
Dana, Ripley, Margaret Fuller, and other dis
ciples of the Transcendental School, and
graduates of the Brook Farm, were attracted
to it. Between 18-15 and 1840, all those
named became editorially connected with it;
and, in 1842, Albert Brisbane began his series
of articles in advocacy of Fourierism. That
was a period of great activity and earnestness
of thought among the young men oithia
country. There was a breaking ujrf old
systems, and a seeking after new ones, a
period given up to the spirit of iconoelasm,
a too hasty and wholesale discarding of the
old. It was weloome work for the young,
the sanguine, and the inexperienced. Such
was Mr. Greeley; and into all the new reve
lations of that day, spiritualism included,
he entered with the zeal of a would-be re
former, and the confidence that appertains to
ignorance. He was, in fact, the passive as
well as active instrument, through whom
these new things obtained a hearing. Perhaps
no other man would have had patience with
the towering pretensions of the various isms
which aired themselves in the columns of the
Tribune. Few other men, in control of such a
journal, could bo found so ignorant as to bear
with the effusions of our young and llery
reformers. But these subjects, in those days,
occupied rhoftbjpubUottention .JhijXr.
not offend the Southern people by discassing
slavery. "Are they not better satisfied," he
wrote, "with my letting Abolition alone, than
though I struggled officiously to make myself
known as their defender? Enlighten me." Mr.
Greeley's whole course, indeed, then and
since, indicates that passive yielding, on the
Bide of hia Bentiments and feelings, which may
be expected from a childish character. He does
not illustrate, in any Instance, that intuition
of truth and right which marks the man of
strong conscience, and which is bo esaential in
a leader of publio opinion. Both men and
circumstances have warped his judgment
whenever they have appealed to his feelings.
In 1833, he wrote, in behalf of a friend, an
article in defense of lotteries, which were then
imperilled in his State, by the excitement
upon the suicide of a young man who had
lost his all in them. "This," said Mr. Greeley,
"only proved that the young man was a per
son of weak character, and had nothing to do
with the question whether the State ought to
license lotteries." He seems lately to have
discovered that it is not quite safe to assume,
on this subject, at least, that the mass of men
have strong characters.
Mr. Greeley drifted into political life as pas
sively as into his other occupations. In 1833
a weekly political paper, published at Albany,
needed an editor, and he was selected, on
account of the extensive knowledge of political
statistics which he had exhibited in the New
Yorlir. Ilia course at first was a moderate
one, but his feelings soon made him a zealous
politician and a warm partisan, as was shown
in the "Log Cabin" campaign in 1840-41, and
subsequently in the Tribune. The habitue's of
the Tribune office, on election nights, do not
need to be reminded of the enthusiastio and
peculiar yells with which Greeley was wont
to welcome favorable returns, nor the Tar
tarean imprecations which were showered by
him with equal zest upon news of defeat. Ilia
ardent devotion to Clay is well known; and
bow he Dung himself out of the Philadelphia
Convention in 1848, in unrestrainable rage
when Taylor was nominated, instead of hia
favorite. Ilia homage to "Harry Clay" was
that which a childish and immature nature
pays involuntarily to one which is eminently
masculine, mature, and strong.
It is not needful to review a political career
so well and widely known as that of Mr. Gree
ley. Nor is it necessary to dwell upon the
events of the recent war, which developed his
characteristic weaknesses in so glariug a light.
A few quotations will show how dangerous a
person he would have been for a leader, in
emergencies which called for masculine cou
rage and manly endurance, and how weak a
staff we should have leaned upon had he
been our main reliance. The writer of these
lines remembers, as all other patriots who
then chanced to reside in the South well
remember, the dismay with which we read
such words as these, in the Tribune of Novem
ber 9. 18U0:
"If the cotton States shall become satis
fied that they can do better out of the UnioH
than in it, we insist on letting them go in
peace."
And this of November 26, 1SC0:
f'lf the cotton States unitedly and earnestly
wish to withdraw peacefully from the Union,
we think they should and would be allowed
to do so. Any attempt to compel them by
force to remain would be contrary to the
principles enunciated in the immortal Declara
tion of Independence, contrary to the funda
mental principles on which human liberty is
based."
And this of December 17, I860:
"If it (the Declaration) justified the seces
sion from the British empire of three millions
of colonists in 1776, we do not see why it
should not justify the secession of five mil
lions of Southrons from the Union in 1851."
And this February 23, 18G1:
"Whenever it shall be clear that the great
body of the Southern people have become con
clusively alienated from the. Union, and anxious
to escape from it, we will do our best to for
ward their views."
After the great uprising had demonstrated
how deeply and utterly the common sense and
manhood of the American people repudiated
this cowardly twaddle, Mr. Greeley illustrated
his insincere special pleading, by insisting
than he meant to include the blacks aa well as
the whitea when he referred to the "great
body of the Southern people, ' ' as though he ever
supposed they would or could have have any
voice in determining the question of secession.
This is a characteristic habit of his, to thrust
his head into the sand like the ostrich, blind
to the nakedness which ia palpable to every
body else.
During the war the same timidity displayed
itself. Mr. Greeley had no more confidence in
the courage and persistence of the loyal peo
ple than he had in his own. His nervous un
easiness and dread of failure, and constitu
tional horror at the sight of blood, developed
themselves in such paragraphs as this, of Janu
ary TZ, isoa:
'If three months more of earnest lighting
shall not serve to make a serious impression
on the Rebels, lt us bow to our des
tiny and make the best attainable peace."
And again, June 17, 1803:-
"If the Rebels are indeed our masters, let
them show it, and let us own it."
.ven the victories of Vicksburg and Gettys
burg did not encourage Mr. Greeley. In July,
1804, he informed Mr. Lincoln that "our
bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country
longs lor peace, shudders at the prospect of
fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale de
vastation, of new rivers of human blood;" and
he begged the President to treat with the
Rebels, even at the risk of recognizing them.
These facts, together with recent eccentrici
ties of conduct, show that Mr. Greeley's mind,
even in ita maturity, is too much the play
thing of his feelings, and that those feelings
are very unsafe and unreliable guides.
Perhaps no juster criterion can be found by
which to judge Horace Greeley than the ex
ample of Benjamin Franklin. Their circum
stances and manner of life were remarkably
similar. Both were led providentially to posi
tions of great prominence and influence. It
is the constitutional qualities of the two men
which have given them so different a character
and reputation. With no more advantages
than Greeley, Franklin became easily the
suave habitue" of the royal saloon. He was re
lied upen as the safe counsellor of statesmen.
In the midst of revolution he never lost hia
calmness nor his courage. He was universally
recognized as pre-eminently possessed of com
mon sense. Withal, his mind was capacious
and philosophical. He never lost sight of
facts. His theories were not visionary. His
plans were always praotical. In what respect
does Mr. Greeley furnish a parallel to his ad
mitted wisdom? Rather in what great quality
does he not present a strong contrast? Frank
lin was one of the fathers of the Republic;
Greeley, one of its most timorous children.
Another parallel may be drawn; ior Air.
U.u, as he did to Taylor in 148. Lincoln
wished to conciliate the Rebels, but only on
the basis of liberty and justice for all. Greeley
would conciliate them with $400,000,000, prof
fered with the palsied band of fear. When
the assassin's act had Bent Lincoln to hia im
mortality, all hia eccentricities but served,
upon that sanguine background, to bring out
in stronger light the saintly goodness of the
man.
In the early part of the war, Mr. Greeley de
scribed his own experience as a conciliator as
follows:
"I tried more than twenty-five years ago to
persuade the slaveholders that their Bybtein
was unjust and pernicious, and their reply
was an attempt to persuade me off a dock into
thirty-feet water, which I was barely able
with help to prevent. Long after that I tried
to persuade another slaveholder (son of
a life-long negro-trader, and now him
self a Rebel General) that he had
made an unfair proposition in Congress, and
he replied by attempting to persuade a hole
into the top of my skull, and my brains out
through that hole. That is all my personal
experience on the subject; but I have very
often been assured (no doubt truly) that if I
should ever go South, and attempt there to
persuade people that slavery was wrong, I
should very soon have the breath of life per
suAdedoutof my body."
Now suppose, after all this and still later
experience of the temper and spirit which
slavery and Reliellion have fostered, Mr. Greeley
should also fall by the hand of an assassin,
would his fate arouse the commiseration which
was extended to Booth's illustrious victim,
would he receive the same apotheosis?
Would not the verdict be: He obstinately
shut hia eyes to facts; he tamely substituted
tolerance of crime for Justice. His experience
taught him nothing. He was a burned child
that would still play with the fire. He brought
upon himself merited punishment for his tem
porizing and vacillation.
Mr. Greeley's excellence as an editor ia in
disputable. His ready memory and varied
knowledge fit him admirably for that vonatiou.
In a good cause his logio ia very effective; in a
bad cause his special pleading is ingenious.
Let his antagonist beware how he uses wea
pons that may be turned upon himself.
When James Watson Webb undertook to
ridicule Greeley's shabby attire, he was
silenced by the retort that the dress which he
found so ridiculous was not nearly so
singular as that he would himself have worn
but for the clemency of Governor Seward.
When Mordecai M. Noah depreciated the negro
as belonging to an inferior race, which had no
rights that white men were bound to respect,
Mr. Greeley's stinging and conclusive answer
was, that a man belonging to a nationality
which for centuries had been outlawed in every
Christian nation, should be the last one to ex
cite prejudices on account of race or color.
Nor is it fitting to deny the greatness of
Horace Greeley's heart. There is too much
enthusiasm there for what he believes to be
right, too ready a willingness to battle, against
any odds, for whatever he deems a humani
tarian object, to permit any lover of maukind
to withhold his respect and affection for the
man. Were hia head as cool as hia heart ia
warm, hia judgment aa sound aa hia aims are
noble, he would not have made the mistakes
which prove him to be an unfit leader in the
path of progress he so devotedly loves.
The above exceedingly clever, but some
what prejudiced article, bears Internal evi
dence of being the composition of the Hon.
James W. Wall, of Burlington, N. J., some
time United States Senator from that State.
The following estimate of Mr. Greeley's life
and character, written by the Hon. James M.
Scovel, of Camden, N. J., ia presented to the
public as an offset to the partial strictures of
the ex-Senator. It is written from an entirely
different standpoint, and, we think, with more
justice and a truer appreciation of the great
"philosopher of the Tribune." Ed. Tele
ORAr-H.
HORACE GREELEY:
WHAT IIB IS, AND WHAT THE COUNTRY OWE3 HIM,
The Northern Zlonthhi and N. J. Zlaqazine
devotes nine pages of its August number to an
article (whose author, contrary to the rule
which obtains with, this magazine, writea
under the rose) which, in no kindly spirit,
pictures the peculiarities of the really genial,
gentle, and many-sided philosopher of the
Tribune.
The sting of the sketch, like the poison of
some serpents, ia the tail of it. Thia new
Nominis ktat Umbra says: "Were his head as
cool as hia heart is warm, his judgment aa
sound as his aims are noble, he would not
have made the mistakes which prove him to
be an unfit leader in the path of progress he
so devotedly loves."
Now it is safe to say, and it can be said with
perfect truthfulness, that a critic who begina
his article with an encomium on William U.
Seward, as the writer in the New Jersey Maga
zine does, ia apt to end it with a sneer at the
muscular morality, the veracity and courage
the pluck which have already made Horace
Greeley's name more widely known than that
of any other public man since the death of
Abraham Lincoln.
It is not fashionable now to stone the pro
phets. Young America only snubs them.
With unbecoming audacity the Northern
Monthly critic intimates that because Mr.
Greeley had made mistakes he ia not fit to be
a leader. Now God made Horace Greeley a
leader of the people, and whom God haa
joined together let no man put asunder.
Mr. Greeley ia essentially a man of convic
tions, and ninety-nine times in a hundred his
convictions are right; and woe to the luckless
wight or the much-venturing knight who
takes up a lance to defend meanness, or enters
the lista to uphold injustice 1 He, the con
servative apologist of human selfishness or
rapacity, is apt to go down,
'Rider and horse
In one red burial blent."
Even Wendell rhillips, who cannot be accused
of any present tenderness for Horace Greeley,
never hesitated to say that, during the war,
the Tribune was the white plume of Navarre,
always in the forefront of the fight for the
right.
If the reader of thia can see any sense in
the question of Nominis Stat Umbra "It Gree
ley should also fall by the hand of an assassin,
would his fate arouse the commiseration
which was extended to Booth's illustrious
victim; and would he receive the same apotheo
sis ?" the writer of this cannot. The parallel
ia not a fair one. Abraham Lincoln and no
man will more reverently bow than we do
before hia gentle, noble, and beautiful nature
was a better politician than Horace Greeley;
but Greeley is to-day as true to the great, simple,
and sublime doctrines of republicanism as Abra-,.
of the many sides to his wonderful character.
After the writer of thia was eleoted a delegate
to the Baltimore Convention, he saw Mr. Lin
coln in the White House. He was in one of
hia brightest moods, and in his Inimitable way
(and his most astonishing trait waa his clair
voyant insight, his keen comprehension of the
character of our prominent men) Mr. Liuooln
sketched the position of every prominent
United States Senator on the question of the
reuomination of the President.
And to the no small surprise of the writer;
Mr. Lincoln produced a half sheet of paper,
upon which he had made an exact calculation
that he was then only short of a nomination
AUGUST 10, 18G7.
twenty votes. As the result proved, his cal
culation was accurate, for the Fubsequent elec
tion or delegates only confirmed his statements.
And he did not hesitate to say, ir beaten by
anybody, he thought Grant ought to do it. To
lie beaten bv McClellau he never considered in
the range of possibilities. Our self-sufficient
criuo thinks Horace Greeley, according to
Seward, "a great man, so full of genius aud
power that if he had common sense he would be
dangerous." Well, we had thought when the
Seward-Johnson reactionary convention was
planned, at which one Doolittle was floor
manager, that the philosopher of the .Tribune
was a little dangerous I Still, we may" be mis
taken. But if our recollection ia accurate, the
first man to expose the dangerous character of
that coalition which trifled with, while it pan
dered to the South, only to bind the North to
the chnriot-wheels of a policy which was ani
mated only by selfishness, and had no aim but
power, the first man who really led the people
acainst the imperial power of 1 'residential
patronage was Horace Greeley. And yet and
yet our shadow ol a Shade, whose inspiration
comes not from the friends but from the ene
mies of the country, thinks Horace Greeley, if
lie had common sense, "would be dangerous 1"
Oh, sensible, magnanimous, and self-appreciative
criticism I Oh, "the pity of it, Iago,"
that the world Should grope in darkness so
long, ignorant of thy identity, hiding still
under the shadow of thy own impersonality I
While Lmted Mates senators were busy
with their little feara about collectors and
assessors, Horace Oreeley waa the first and
bravest man to expose the base and wicked
meanness which Eoutht toiud in new, and
stronger, and more lasting bonds, 4,000,000 of
the helpless, and yield them blind, bleeding,
and hopeless, after 200 years of bondajie. to
their masters, whose tenderest mercy breathed
cruelty, oppression, and crime.
"Common sense 1 ' If we are not mistaken
Horace Greeley has that rare common sense
which sees, in the poet's laneuace. that the
"individual withers, but the State ia more and
more;" that any one man's aspirations and
personal aims are nothing less than the dust
in the balance as compared with the cood of
the millions the striving to make them hap
pier for our having lived in the world. There
is wisdom, as well as wit, in Garrlck's pro
logue, which says that serious reflection on
the evils in the world insensibly leads a man
towards religion or politics, else he runs mad!
Mr. Greeley is remarkable for his intel
lectual conscientiousness. Many men are
morallu honest; few men have intellectual in
tegrity. Mr. Seward said New York had no
leader after the Constitutional amendment
became part of the Congressional plan of re
construction. iNew i ork found a leader, and
when, by almost unanimous consent, the Sena
tor ship was accorded to him, with the popular
and tacit understanding that Horace Greeley
would give up hall hia platform, "universal
amnesty," he not only refused the moral j
bribe, but grimly refused even to be silent on
that question. Show me another example I
Be lost the Senatorial purple, but he gained
in the hearts of the people; for if a man
plants himself indomitably on the right, the
great world will sooner or later swing around
to him. Horace Greeley has made Presidents
and unmade them.
His Tribune has made half our public men
"great," but he, unselfifah, never "giving up to
party what was meant for mankind," haa gone
steadily onward, scarcely ever being in office,
if we may except his half a term in Congreas,
and his election as delegate at large to the
Constitutional Convention of New York.
No man has ever said more bitter things, or
true, against Andrew Johnson than the philo
sopher of the 2"n'6un,and yet Andrew Johnson
sends his name to the Senate as Minister to
Austria, knowing well that he cannot swerve
him a hair's breadth from the line of principle.
Mr. Greeley is not without personal vanity,
and not without ambition. Who is ? What
a manly ring has his letter dissolving the old
partnership of Seward, Weed, and Greeley I
Self-respect could no longer permit t9
the servant of suoh a man as Thurlow Weed.
He said so, and it was a noble thing to say
it when he did and as he did. The writer to
whom we have so often referred, not because
f the merit of the article, but because of Mr.
Greeley's unselfish devotion to principle, de
manded that some OBe, of his own free will
and accord, should make some answer, how
ever imperfect and fragmentary, to the animus
of the magazine sketch. The writer thinks
Mr. Greeley "a great man and a great fool, or,
to adopt a mild euphemism, a great child."
(JS'cw Jersey Magazine.)
Napoleon's definition of a great man was
that man who did great things. And the de
feat alone of the Seward-Johnson plan of
restoration, backed, as it was pretended to be,
by the great name of Abraham Lincoln, stamps
Mr. Greeley's name with greatness forever,
and his fame will grow brighter and brighter
as he nears the perfect day. It is the heart
that makes the soldier; and all philosophy
teaches us that the intellect, when true to the
line, acts through the sensibilities.
We can count on the fingers of either hand
the publio men in America whom power never
warped. Horace Greeley, to his eternal honor
be it said, ia one of the five righteous, and,
like Abou Ben Adhem, his "name leads all the
rest." If we made exceptions, they would be
in favor of Stevens and Sumner, Garrisou aud
Phillips.
Horace Greeley never abandons a principle
he never went back on a friend. That he is
not undertood he well knows, and has said so
when addressing his friends aa "narrow
minded blockheads," who meant to serve the
country but did not know how. And the aot
for which he has been most severely censured
was done from the loftiest and purest motives,
and after consultation with the great men in
whom we all trust, but who have not yet been
generous enough to share the blame which the
populace are ready always, upon the slightest
provocation, to shower upon their prophets,
crying one day "IIoBanna t" and the next day
preparing the crucifiion.
Aomtnis Stat Umbra is mistaken when he
fays Horace Greeley's character ia a conjunc
tion of "childish (not childlike) qualities with
great mental capacity." It ia true he has
wonderful simplicity of character.
lie does not like to obey, nor does he desire
lQ cprrni3T!ilwJJUuii himself in being
But simplicity is
jiua
ower which ia not
e timid sentlmen-
;ih. i
1:9 for
Jorld
lis. Right well he
a for ita meanness
Will never a moment stop.
To see whloh don may be in the fault,
i But will shout for the dog on top."
Not so H. G. Ue is as true as steel no
timid foe, no suspicious friend. Ilia sensibili
ties, his sympathies, alive and healthy, keep
him ia accord with the needs of plaintive hu
manity; for he is great in sympathy, "which
is the condition of insight, the root of tolerance,
and the seal of culture." But we must put
a period to this necessarily imperfect tribute
of sincere friendship to a noble nature.
Walter Scott. In dying, said to Lockhart, "Be
good, my dear." Thia was the sum of earthly
wisdom. Horace Greeley ia a good man; a
great man; an honest man.
GROCERIES, ETC.
BUT IF YOU WANT GOOD TFA, GO TO
Wll-nON's old-established Tea Warehouse, No.
1M CH JJ-N UT Htrwt.
w
I liBO N'S
OOt.ONO.
DOLLAR TEA PURB
w
ILSON'S DOLLAR TEA-FINE YOUNG
moN.
WILSON'S DOLLAR TEA-GIVES UNI
verHHl nullRtiiellon.
w
ILSON'S
J A PAN.
DOLLAR TEA-PUKH
ILSON'S DOLLAR TEA-RICH AND FRA
grunt.
w
ILSON'S
I. ken lu
DOLLAR TEA EVERYBOD1
SMOKED AND SPICED SALBlOff,
rlBT Or THE 6KA8ON.
1, K C. ROBERTS,
id Fine Groceries,
Corner EIJlVKTH and VINE Bta,
lUJrp
JAPANESE POWCIIOKG TEA,
.THE y IN EST QUALITY IMPORTED.
Emperor and other One chop OOLONOS,
New crop TUNO HYBON and OUNPOWDEI
and genuine C1ICLAN TEA.
for sale by the package or retail, at
JAM 8 B. WEBBfl,
I Ml Corner WALNUT and EIGHTH Bt.
MILLINERY, TRIMMINGS, ETC.
yjOURNIHJ MILLINERY.
ALWAYS ON HAND A LAAGE ASSORTMENT OJT
MOUIiNING BONNETS,
AT MO. tt04 WALNUT STREET.
8Z7 6m MAD' LIE KEOCH.
WANTS.
JOOK AGENTS IN LUCK AT LAST.
The crisis la panned. The boor ban come to lift the
VPll of Becresy which has hltberioeuveloiled the inner
history of the grent civil war, and tins la doue by otter
lLg lo the public General L. C. Baker'
"HISTORY OF THE SECRET SERVICE."
For thrilling Interest this book transcends all the
romances ol a ihotisandty ears, aud conclusively prevM
that "truth la stranger than llctlon."
Agents are clearing from i0O to 1300 per month,
which we can prove to any doubting applicant. A.
few more can obtain agencies In territory yet unooca
pled. Address
P. OARRETT A CO
NO. 70S CHENNVT STREET,
7 2tf PHILADELPHIA.
HOOP SKIRTS.
aoo HOOP
SKIRTS,
"OWN MAKE."
628
KJJiJ HOPKINS'
I. affords ns much pleasure to announce to one
numerous patrons and the publio, that In conae
quenceifa slight decline In Hoop Skirt material,
together with our Increased facilities for manufaty
luring, and a strict adherence to BUYING and
bKLLING for CABH, we aie enabled to oiler all ouc
JUSTLY CKLFKKATKD HOOP SKIRTS at Rifi
DUCKD PKICKB. And our Skirts will always, a
heretoiore, be found in every respect more destrabUa,
and really cheaper than any single or double spring
Hoop Skirt In the market, while oar assortment li
unequalled.
A Iho, constantly receiving from New Tork and th
Eastern States full line ol low priced Skirts, at very
low prices; among which is a lot of Plain Skirts at
the following rates; 16 springs, 66c.; 20 springs, 65c; M
springs, 76c.; So springs, 85c.; 86 springs, 86c.; and i
springs, im
skirts made to order, altered, and repaired, whole
sale and retail, at the Philadelphia Hoop Skirt Em
porium, No. 61 AUCH. Street, below Seventh.
10 8rnrp WILLIAM T. HOPKINB.
HARDWARE, CUTLERY, ETC.
gTANDBMDGE, BARB. & CO.,
IMPOETEES OF AND DEALERS IH
FOREIGN AND .AMERICAN HARDWARE.
MO. 1891 9f ARfiEf SlBtET,
Offeri or sale a large stock of
Hardware and Cutlery,
TOGETHER WITH ,
lOOO KEGS .NAILS
AT REDUCED PRICES. 17 thjto
PKH'KH H.h.l)lItlM:iil 11
CUTLERY.
A Ann HRnrlmcnr DAPTwm
TAMLK cutlery, razokh.
RAZOR STROPS, LADIES' SCIS-
8HEARS.ETC. ' "
L. V. HKLMOLD'S
Cutlery Store, No. 136 South TENTH Street,
U Three doors above Walnut
SHIPPING
jFJv TI1K STEAMSHIP 'CiTT OF
ijI WASHINGTON." of thelnman I.lno
bil uoiu Pier 4j.Jn.oiiU River, at Moon, on
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST H,
Por Liverpool calling at Qneenstown.
Currency 1BS,"ie 'r8t Caoiu 111'1; Sleerage, $30
JOHN G. DALE, Agent.
B8 6t No 4HIUKBNU1 stieet, Pnlla.
ffft . S1EAM 10 LIVERPOOL-CALL-
,ntk ni. Ing at yueenstown. The Iniuan Line.
buiiiiiK nexMl-weekly.carryiiig the United States Mail.
RETURN TICKETS TO PaIus A N D B ACEU E JLRsi
CLASS, JM GOLD. ' 'ir
CITY OP BALTIMORE ....Saturdav, August 10
CITY OF WASHINGTON ......Wednesday Aufust li
CITY OK LONDON Saturday! Aufust 17
CITY OP PARIS..... . Saturday, August 24
E'l N A -...Wednesday, Aunust !
ANTW URP Saturday, August 81
Aud each succeeding Saturday and Wedneadav m.
noon, from Pier No. 4d North River. ' 1
RATES OK PAHSAUIC
By the mail steamer sailing every Saturday.
Payable In Gold.
First Cabin. ...........l lo
To London nr.
Steerage,.
To London.,
To Pans... , 12.1
Passage by the Wednesday Stoamersr-F&rt'olbitt
llu; steerage. HO. Payable In U. B. Currency.
irTlffTHsJ
i-assengers also rorwarded to Havre, Hamburg. Bra
men. etc., at moderate rates. uql1 olm
Steerage passage from Liverpool or Qneenstown t4h
currency. Tickets can be bought here by persona
Sending for their lrleuds. ' v"ou-
lor further Information apply at the ComDanv
Oflice. JOHNTi. DALE, Agent.
S 7 1 or KO. 411 CHESN UT St.. Philadelphia.
tPfZs THE PIIILAUKLPIIIA AWn
2kA5 SOUTHERN MAIL bTEAMHIP COM
PAN Y 't REGULAR LINE WM-'
'OM SAVANNAH, A.
WYOMING, 8(Xi tons. Captain Jacob Teal
The steamship TONAWANDA will leave for the
'iov( port on Saturday, August 17, at I o'ulouk A. M
from second wharf below Spruce street. '
Through passage tickets .old and freight taken fcw
11 points In connection with the Georgia Central RiISl
road. WILLIAM L JAMES, General AgentT
. ,D v. No. 814 S. Delaware avenue.
AgenU at BavanDah, Hunter A Gammeli. 4
GARDNER & FLEMING,
OOAOII MAKERS,
HO. 814 KOUT1I FIFTH STREET.
New and Second-hand Carriages for sale. Par
tlrularattetiMdo paid to repairing. 6 808m
Q L A T E MANTEL S.
8LATE MANTELS are unsurpassed tor Durability
Beauty, trength, and Cheapness.
slate MANTELB, and Slate Work Qeneraji
made to order, wcuerm
J. B. IIIME8 A CO., . '
I Utm Hoi &12t aud 1128 CHESNUT Sin;
)o wouiau cuiuo