Editor and Candidate Horace Greeley
Abolitionist newspaper editor Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, on February 3, 1811. Greeley, who began his journalism career at The New Yorker, founded The New York Tribune in 1841 with support from powerful political friends. Under Greeley’s direction, The Tribune took a strong stand against slavery, the South and slave owners in the years leading up to the Civil War. The Tribune and Greeley also crusaded against liquor, gambling, prostitution and capital punishment. One of the founders of the Republican Party, Greeley was also an eccentric who dabbled in many of the fads of his day. In 1872 Horace Greeley’s political aspirations were realized when he was named by the Liberal Republican Party to run for president against U.S. Grant, but he lost the election, even though he polled almost as many popular votes as the hero of Vicksburg.
Image: Library of Congress
