New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-30
HORACE GREELEY.


though for few days his family and in
innate friends have admitted to themselves
its possibility, falls upon us all with
the shock of sudden calamity. He had
reached indeed ripe old age, but time
had not laid its whitening touch upon
him; his splendid constitution easily bore the
strain of enormous labor; his mind was as
fresh, and strong, and suggestive as i'll the
prime of life; his generous impulses were I'M
chilled by dshcartening experience. Through
the trying campaign which has just closed, bis
physical vigOr, his tact, his intellectual ac-
tivity, surprised even those who knew him
best, and seemed to promise many years of
usefulness. Looking at what he might yet
have accomplished, we wonder at the mys-
FERROUS dispensation Of Providence, that takes
him away while his faculties are still I'M
| wearied. Remembering what he has already
4 done, we stand with bowed heads beside the
q open grave, and thank the Good Master who
+ has permitted his servant to complete so much
of his great labor and to reap 80 many of its
4 fruits.
For, after all, though detractiOn and disap-
pointment and domestic sorrow may have
clOuded his last days, this was the happy end
i ing of noble career. "My life" said he some
years ago, "has been busy and anxious, but
"nOt joyless. Whether it shall be prolonged
! few or more years, / am grateful that it has
endured so long, and that it has abounded
Gin opportunities for good not wholly unim-
"proved, and in experiences of the nObler as
"well as the baser impulses of human nature"
The record of what he has done for the in
dustry, the education, the general culture, and
the social improvement Of his country, as well
as the story of what he has accomplished in
suIdlus ITO pU1IJIUtI uUotiliiOo, may IOa'v
to an impartial posterity. 1t is too soon
perhaps to judge correctly how great has been
his share in molding the public sentiment
which dictates laws, chooses Presidents,
creates armies, and controls public events
but it is certain that no history Of the most
critical period in our national life can ever be
written in which Horace Greeley shall not be
a conspicuous figure. Enormous as his personal
influence was in politics for the better part Of
a generation, it was not upon this that in his
latter years no looked back with the greatest
satisfaction. That he had shaped The course
OF administrations, directed the purposes Of
parties, created a great organ of opinion,
taught statesmen to sit at his feet and Sen
ates to listen for his apprOval-these were not
the tests by which he would have measured his
Success. The vanity of wealth. the unreality
of power, the worthlessness Of popular renown,
no estimated them all at their true value.
The nOblest career, ia his eyes, was that which
is given up to others wants. The successful
life was that which is worn out In conflict
with wrong and woe. The only ambition
worth following was the ambition to alleviate
human misery, and leave the world little
better than he found it. That he had done this,
was the consolation which frightened his last
DAYS, and assured him he had not lived in vain.
He was a young man when he took his
stand by the suffering and oppressed. lie was
old when he saw the downfall Of the barbarism
against which he had blttled for a quarter of
a century. Honors and abuse, prosperity and
reverses, were his by turn in this long con-
test, but his sturdy arm never faltered and
his heart never failed. He took patiently the
buffetngs of adverse fortune, and rose with
sublime courage above disaster; for there was
no selfish impulse in his labor, and he knew
that though he spent himself the work must
60 on to its final triumph. When the victory
came, he might have held mp his hands and
cried out with Simeon. "Lord, now lettest
:" thou thy servant depart in peace" But it
was granted him to sec even more than the
destruction Of Slavery. lie was to impress
upon the policy of the renewed and purified
Union something Of his own generous and
elevated character to give an impetus to prin-
cples destined " work grand reforms at no
distant time, to preach the political gospel of
brotherhood and good will, and to win before
he left this world the esteem of thousands
who had been his bitterest enemies. With no
vain estimate of his personal share in the
progress Of the past thirty years, he
realized how much had been accom-
plished by the warfare in which he
had taken 30 great part he trusted that the
agencies which no had founded would per-
petuate his influence after no had passed away.
Conscious as in his secret heart>he must have