Daily Quiz for November 30, 2008

Horace Greeley. Horace Greeley ran against Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. Involved in newspapers and the printing trade since age 14, Greeley went on to issue political campaign weeklies during the elections of 1838 and 1840. Becoming more ambitious, he founded the New York Tribune in 1841, which he edited until his death. The daily paper reflected much of the morality of his New England upbringing and he partnered a high standard of news gathering with printed arguments and urges against drinking, gambling, capital punishment and–increasingly in the 1850s–slavery. The slavery issue and his lifelong desire for high political office led him away from his political party, the Whigs, and to the newly emerging Republican Party. He usually sided with the radical wing of the Republicans, advocating early emancipation of slaves. Still unsuccessful in state and national bids, he eventually joined a group of Republican dissenters who formed the Liberal Republican Party to oppose Grant in 1872. While he received almost 44% of the popular vote, he received only 18% of the electoral vote, which were cast for other candidates due to Greeley dying on November 29th, 1872.