Horace Greeley

Horace Greeley founded the influential New York Tribune in 1841 and edited it for more than thirty years. Through his newspaper Greeley became an influential voice in national politics. He supported the antislavery cause and was an early member of the Republican Party. In 1872 he unsuccessfully ran for president.

The following viewpoint is taken from an open letter from Greeley to President Abraham Lincoln published in the August 19, 1862, edition of the Tribune. Lincoln had resisted abolitionists’ calls for emancipation, believing it would hurt the Union cause by alienating slaveholding individuals and states that supported the Union. Greeley argues that the president should place a higher priority on freeing the slaves, and accuses Lincoln of being timid in dealing with the issue. He urges Lincoln to actively enforce the Confiscation Act, an 1862 law passed by...