The Cecil Whig., 1872-12-07
DEATH OF HORACE GREELEY.

DEATH OF HORACE GREELEY.
On Friday evening, 2eth of November,
Horace Greeley, the great model American
journalist, wearied with incessant brain.
labor of forty years, chilled by the frost OF
disappointment, crushed by the most stun,
ming stroke of domestic sorrow, died! his
large sympathetic heart broke beneath these
thickly descending blows.
His fame was all gathered in the field OF
journalism. He was an original type, a
commanding genius in this great work OF
modern civilization. His greatest weak
ness, which shows all the more conspicuous
ly in contrast with his real greatness as
the philosopher, the statesman, the preach
.er through the press, was the desire to
shine in some official position, which should
be the gift of the popular will. The pub
lie with it's great good sense, its omniscient
Judgment knew the great teacher better
than he knew himself. That public which
freely acknowledged him giant as pre-
ceptor, knew he was the merest pigmy as
an executor, and sternly denied him the
opportunity he so long and constantly crav
ed; position where his acts would newt
ably dim the lustre of his great reputation
as teacher. The great brain and heart
of the journalist teemed with truths to
make the world wiser and better, which
struggled for utterance. For this special
mission Greeley was created. In this de-
partment of labor he stood forth among
the heroes and great men of the world, but
withdrawn from this field of his usefulness,
and transferred to those untried pursuits
he SO ardently coveted to lay his hand to-,
it is evident he would have proved the
smallest of men. A stern fate denied him
and the nation this great calamity; for the
elevation of Horace Greeley to the Presi-
Dental chair surrounded by the men who
sought his election for personal aims, would
have proved the direst calamity that could
have befallen the American people. But
that deprivation served as a final blow to
crush his great sensitive heart and over
worked brain. He was restrained by fate
and the better Judgment of the American
people, from wrecking the great fame earn
ed through busy life, life of unremitting
toll, but toll that inspiration converted
into pleasure. These blemishes of a vain
ambition to act a part Providence had
never designed, are scales which dim the
otherwise resplendent lustre of deathless
fame, but which will drop away as the age
moves on, and history takes up the story
of his life to bear it on through coming
time.
Success in the late Presidential election
would doubtless have stimulated and born
up his life foS few months longer, but
over-work had well nigh worn out the
wonderful machine. After the stimulus Of
a satisfied ambition had subsidized, and the
inevitable vexations and toll inseperable
from the life of an American President
had set in, the result which disapppoint-
ment and domestic sorrow hastened by a few
months at most, must have been inevitable.
1t is scarcely within the bounds of probabil-
ity that Horace Greeley as President could
have survived one year; and the calamity
that might have followed his successful el-
ovation to the Presidency, cannot be con-
templated without sigh of relief amid the
deep sorrow, with which humanity mourns
the death of one of its greatest and most
fearless heroes.
. Great characters who seem raised up by
Providence specially for some important
work, often by their death advance, or es-
tablish the cause to which their lives have
been dedicated, more firmly than if their
lives had been prolongued. Horace Gree
ley dedicated his last years to the re-estab
lishment of a more cordial peace than ever
existed between the North and the South.
What student of our political history, can
doubt that his death,-falling martyr to
the love of his race-will contribute inf
nitely more to the fulfllment of his life's
desire than his successful elevation to the
Presidency?
A world mourns his death, but gener-
GUS Providence called him home when he
had accomplished all of that work it was
possible for him to do.
Horace Greeley was the orig ginator of
style in journalism superior to any that had
been in use prior to his time; and the style
that most nearly approaches his is the one
most popular with newspaper readers of
the present day. In this alone he has be-
quea,hed great legacy to the English
speaking race, and no greater boon could
be conferred by his historian on the gen.
Grafton of journalists who are take up the
pens that will think and speak for the
world the remainder of the nineteenth CEN
tury, than the collection and publication
in volume, the best of his articles on the
leading subjects he discussed through the
Tribune in the last thirty years.