The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1911-02-09
Horace Greeley.

horace Greeley.
Wherever men esteem those
homely virtues. which have been
the bas~asik; and strength Of. the re.
public through stress and storm
from its foundation to the present
day, the name of Horace Greeley,
editor, publisher and candidate for
President against Grant, the CEN
tenary OF whose birth is celebrated
this week, recalls the memory of
one Of the strongest and most pic
turesque characters in American his
tory. In fancy one can still pic
ture the tall, rawLboned, ungainly
looking New England hoy, with his
stick and bundle of old clothes
over his shoulder making his way
to New York in search OF broader
field for his latent talents than was
afforded by the narrow environ
ment OF his fathers New Hampshire
farm.
Ut was long and thorny road
strewn with few flowers, from
printers devil to the potential in
fiuence he exerted in after life as ed
itor OF the New York Tribune. A
firm believer in the abolition of
slavery, paradoxlcal as it may seem,
he upheld the right or the South to
secede from the union as within the
exercise Of It's constitutional pre-
rogative. until Sumpter was fred
upon. Stirred by this act of belly
erancy he became the most fervent
supporter of Lincoln in prosecuting
the war. Moved by his masterful
sntl-slayery appeal, THE Prayer OF
Twenty Millions" Lincoln. whose
Nomination to the Presidency he
forced in 1860, issued his famous
emancipation proclamation, freeing
the nlackman from bondage. With
the defeat of Lee at Appommatox,
every trace OF rancor disappeared
and Drawing the hostility of an in
famed nation, bent upon avengiug
its losses upon an impoverished.
heartDrokea, dismembered, beaten
but still heroic foe. he fastened to
Richmond and signed the bail bond
of Jefferson Davis.
Endowed wiki large sympathies, a
generous nature. an lnordinate
love for his fellow men and supreme
confidence in the wisdom of a policy
Of Cancellation that would permit the
wounds inflicted by the war to heal
without smarting. he forsaw the
rearing upon the smouldering en-
.loers, of strife great and mighty
empire, to which a grateful posterity
might point as evidence that the
fathers had not buided the republic
in vain. HIS country, still fedg-
ling in the congress OF nations had
already shown its capacity for hn-
man advancement by its contribu-
zion to civilization OF Elias Howe's
sewing machine, Eli Wh.tney's cot
ton gin and Professor Morse's mag
netic telegraph, which he was one OF
the first TO use for transmitting
news dispatches. Had he reached
the ripe old age TO which his rug
ged health and seemingly mex
hustible vitality once gave promise
he would have witnessed the advent
Of those greater wonders OF Edl-
son'ssincandescent electric light and
phonograph, the high power cylin-
der press, the typesetting machine
Alexander Graham Bells telepho le
Delany's 1000 words a minute tel
epost automatic telegraph, Hollands
submarine, the flying machine. the
automobile, the electric train and
the hundred and one other inyen-
lions with which his countrvmen
have enriched and startled tho
world. Since his trenGhant pen
wrote that now immortal injunction
to the rising generation: Go west
young man." the great wilderness
theyond the Ohio river has been
pierced and become the abode Of
millions OF his countrymen. who
acting on his advice have made the
prairie blossom with grain and the
valley and mountain fruitful beyond
his most extravagant dream. on
this anniversary, the West, which
owes so much to the abiding faith
OF Greeley in Its future. cannot help
but feel conscious of It's great obli-
cation to this stalwart American
whom Whittier so aptly described
as our later Franklin"
Scott and Watson.