The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-12-04
Our New York Letter.

THE GREAT EDITOR, HIS GREATNESS AND
HIS WEAKNESS, "HIs VIRTUES ENsHRIN-
ED ON MARBLE. HIS FAILINGs RECORDED
IN SAND"
New YORK, DEC. 1, 1872.
In the presence of death, all asperities
are softened, all animosities arising out of
differences ofopinion suhdued. 1t is more
pleasant and more opportune to remember
Mr.. Greeley as he was in the earlier than in
the later years of his maturity. He fought
| good fight for justice and humanity when
their cause needed powerful advocates and
seemed to finite wisdom of remote chances of
success. To those who participated in the
great struggle of freedom with slavery, when
| political power and commercial interests
were arrayed on the side of the oppressor, the
| sturdy blows which the Editor of the Tribune
struck at the letters of the slave will be re-
membered with grateful a lmlration. He
tried to save the Wing party from immola-
ting itself in obedience to the demands of
a southern oligarchy, an when it rushed to
destruction BY going backward toward bar
barsm, instead of forward to civilization-by
accepting human bondage as constitutional
fact rather than denouncing it as a national
crime,-Mr. Greeley was among the earliest
and most earnest to enlist under the banners
of the great Republican party, through whose
instrumentality, the Republic has been re-
generated aid made absolutely free.
1t would be the veriest anectation to pass
over in silence the later events in Mr.. Gree
ley's political life. His separation from his
party associates and his utilization with the
adherents of a creed which the country had
repudiated, and the whole world condemned,
was mistake the gravity of which can only
be adequately measured by its tragic conse-
quences. All we can do is to make every
possible allowance for the ''vaulting ambition
which DER leaps ITSELF" and takes such COM
plete possession of mans nature that it
renders him for the time oblivious to every
sentiment of fidelity or consistency.
1t is strange infirmity of human nature
that men who have developed great capaci-
ties in special calling, and achieved great
renown by their success in it, should be seized
with an insane desire to win laurels in pur-
suits for which they have no fitness, and in
which the hazards of failure are enormous.
1t was the weakness of Mr.. Greeley's life to
get Office. For thirty years he was assiduous
in this quest. He rarely succeeded, but in
the two instances where his efforts were re-
wsrded, his il aptitude for affairs was con-
spicuously manifested. He served three
months in the lower house of Congress and
identified himself with some excellent reform
atory measures, such for instance as the
abolition of mileage, but he prosecuted his as
sault on that abuse with so little tact, that
he accomplished nothing. He went into the
Constitutional convention Of this State full
of purposes to simplify and improve the or
| ganic law of our commonwealth, but retired
from it before its labors were completed, with
out leaving any record of craftsmanship.
| He was not born for legislator, or for the
performance of executive powers. He was
much more capable of criticizing the work of
| others than OF doing practical work him
SELF
AS writer Mr.. Greeley's style was ner-
vous, forcible and attractive, and as an editor
a paper which was always model of
| typography and general arrangement. The
Tribune made its way in spite of the hostility
| of the conservative element in which it had
| its growth, because its ideas were always ex-
pressed with pungency and vigor which
compelled attention, and carried with them
conviction of earnestness and sincerity.
1t became great power, and continued to be
SO until political disappointments alienated
its founder from the friends and the teach
ings of a life time and the paper degenerated
into vehicle of personal assault and vindet-
i've misrepresentation.
How grievously the great editor lamented
the crowning episode of his life, we may con-
lecture by the authentic evidence we have of
the anguish with which he exclaimed 81 am
ruined l am ruined!p' From the day whom
all hope of his election to the Presidency was
over, dependency settled upon him to such
an extent as to cause alarm concerning his
sanity. He was threatened with softening of
the brain three months ago and ever since
that time his mental faculties have undergone
such extreme tension that nature could not
bear the pressure.
Mr.. Greeley was never calm or philosoph
ic gentleman. He was intensely passionate
and impetuous, capable of great heights of
feeling, and furious rage, yet in the absence
OF excitement, kindly, gentle and tender.
OF the three co-partners in the once IA
nous firm of "Seward, Weed & Greeley, only
Mr.. Weed survives. Mr.. Seward lost the
Presidency on which he had lot only set his
heart, but which he was perfectly sure of in
1S6O-was nearly murdered by midnight as
sassin-forfeited the support of his party and
was banished to private life for his ill-advised
adherence to the fallen fortunes of Andy
johnson. He slgnalized his enforced retire
ment by a journey round the world and final
ly ended his days peacefully beneath the
shades of his Auburn home, after he had fill
ed out the measure of the seventy years
which the Psalmist accords to man.
Mr.. Weed at the age Y, after passing
through every sort of vcisstude-now the ac-
knowledged leader of his party, and anon
with scarcely follower, famed to-day by the
pleasant breeZessof popular favor and blown
tomorrow by the boisterous winds of public
censure-quietly looks on upon the great dra-
ma of human ENTHUSIASTICALLY appearing in
some minor part, but more frequently re-
naming an interesting spectator and replem-
bering his triumphs or his defeats with en-
tire cOmplacency.
But the junior of this once potent trium-
virate-ten years younger than either of the
others, and with a constitution naturally
good and never enervated by exhausting hab-
its-who eight months ago this very day
looked the picture of health, and seemed ra-
diant with happiness at the prospect of
dazzling elevation-proves the least able of
the three TO bear the modification of bafied
ambition, and sinks rapidly into the grave,
beneath the weight of his crushing disap-
pointment.
1t is matter of temperaments. Seward
was remarkable for his GOODNESS and self-con-
troll Weed had complete mastery of his
passions. But Greeley was always nervous,
excitable, subject to extreme alterations of
elation or depression and therefore the least
able to endure heavy calamity. Yet he has
been called philosopher" The word
when applied to him is strange msnomer.
He was in no sense a philosopher as the
term is popularity understood, and ought new
er to have been politician. His name and
fame will be enduring. His virtues will be
enshrined in marble, his failings recorded in
sand All that he has said and done for lib
erty and human rights will go into history to
inspire future generations, and every utter
ance wrung from him by petulance or spleen
that was unworthy of him will be buried in
forgotten dust The balance of good will be
so largely in his favor that the world will
number him among its benefactors.
YARMOUTH.
A New METHOD OF ROBBERY. - On We'd
nesday last New York gentleman took the
cars for the purpose of visiting some friends in