Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1872-09-18
Closing Remarks of Gen.
Ward In a Speech at Leb-
anon, August 18th. n
HORACE eREELEY.

people, and the architect Of his
own fortune. Inall his life not
one-tenth Of one pei cent. of his
receipts came from the public
Golfers. Born on the rugged
rocks ,ofNew Hainpshire, to no
estate but honest ancestry and
penury, his own toll not only
Supplied his own frugal wants,
but aided to drive poverty from
the door of his @niiIy. The
common school 2as lis only
academy arsdatha ss1lIhg Office
his only college. Penniless and
friendless he entered the great
metropolis, and by industry and
thrift amassed q fortune. His
hand was ever open to help the
struggling around him, and his
heart ever opened to the cry Of
the distressed. Honest, industri-
Gus and temperate himself, he
ever pitied and sought to reform
those who were not. Like most
Americans, he had a strong pas
sion for politics, and early in
life the integrity of his character,
the breadth of his knowledge,
and the enthusiasm Of his nature
made him a power in the land.
His political ideas were adverse
to mine, but neither I, nor any
one, ever doubted his intellectu-
al power and his moral upright
ness.
Horace Greeley has, for thirty
years, had a National reputation.
he has borne an active part in
all the great struggles of his age,
Tie is eminently a man of ideas,
a thinker, a leader of the people.
There is no subject ofpublic in
terest on which he has not spo-
ken with ffrankness and yiger,H=
he has been the peculiar disci-
pies of nobody. Bold and orig
inal, he leads, and asks others to
follow, bat nerer faitcrs whether
they follow or not. Such a man
being a public journalist, speak
ing every day, and discussing
every passing event. must nec-
essafily say in generation
much that is ill-considered and
crude. However sagacious and
clear-sighted he may be, he must
magnify out Of their real proper.
tions ideas of policies which seem
for the moment to promise con-
trolling influence over the future,
and the emily wender is how In a
long life of journalism a mind SO
active and enthusiastic should
have blundered so rarely. He
has, in the main, kept up, too,
with the spirit of the age, No
antiquated dogma except protec-
ton has found favor In his eyes,
and out of that has sprung most
of the errors, as | regard them,
of his political policy.
But in this he does not stand
alone. 1t is an idea which, in
its various ramifcations, has
filled the minds of many thinkers
and statesmen. Many who have
thrown it off as TO tariff retain
it as to other concerns, and seem
unwilling to admit that the peo-
pie can manage their simplest
concerns without the aid Of the
Government. 1t must be admit
ted that Greeley belongs to this
school of thinkers. Enthusiast
ically devoted to popular rights,
he treats the people as under the
perpetual guardianship of the
Government He spbordinates
the creator to the creature, His
policy sends the supervising
hand Of the Government into all |
the concerns, and seeks to shape
by political action even the hab-
its and ideas of the people,
This whole theory Of the ilnc-
tiops of government Is anti Dem
ocratic, and contradicts our the
ory that "that Government is
best which governs least" But
all these abstract notions are
outside the issues Of the day
They are speculative rather than
practical. Greeley RENTS to
Congress the tariff question, and
that is the only branch of the
protective idea that can have
any political force in the FEEDER
al Government, when the sec