The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1911-02-07
HORACE GREELEY.

virtues, which have been the bulwarl
aud strength OF the republic through
stress and storm from its foundation
to the prcsent day, the. name 0
Horace Greeley, editor, publicist AM
candidate for president against Grant
the centenary of whose birth was cele
/ brated last Friday, recalls the memoir,
OF one OF the strongest and most pie
ituresque characters in American his
tory. In fancy one can still picture
the tall. rawboned, ungainly-lookins
New England boy. with his stick ant
a bundle OF old clothes over his
shoulder, making his way to New
York in search of broader field fol
his latent talents than was afforded
by the narrow environment of mis-
fathers New Hampshire farm.
/ II was long and thorny ROAD
strewn with few flowers, from print
ers' devil to the potential influence
he exeried in after life as the editor
of the New York Tribune. A firm be-
lever in the abolition of slavery,
paradoxical as II may seem. he upheld
the right of the south 10 secede from
the Union as within the exercise Of
its constitutional prerogative. until
Sumter was fired upon. Stirred by
this act of belligerancy he became the
most feryent supporter OF Lincoln in
prosecuting the war. Moved by his
masterful anti-slayery appeal, THE
Payer OF Twenty Millions" Lincoln.
whose nomination to the presidency
he forced in 1860. issued his famous
emancipation proclamation. freeing
the black man from bondage With
the defeat of Lee at Appomattox,
every trace OF raneor disappeared,
and Drawing the hostility of an in
famed nation. bent upon ayenging its
losses upon an impoverished. heart
broken, dismembered, beaten but still
heroic fee, he FASTENED to Richmond
and signed the bail bond OF jefferson
Davis, the helpless president of the
confederacy, for whose hood the VIC
tors thirsted like ravenous dog for
its bone or Shylock for his pound
OF flesh.
Endowed with large sympathies, a
generous nature. an lnordinate love
for his fellow-men and supreme con-
fidence in the wisdom OF a policy OF
Cancellation that would permit the
wounds inflicted BY The war 10 heal
without smarting. he forsaw the rear
ing upon the smouldering embers of
3 rife of great and mighty empire,
to which a grateful ?osterity might
point as evidence that the fathers
had not builded the republic III vain.
How feeling time has affirmed his
judgment First In his pro-
iession to use the telegraph for the
Of news. what a strange
place the modern big city newspaper
would seem TO him today with lis
iypeseiting machines, its big electrl-
ally propelled printing presses. It's
ong distance telephone and 1000 |
words minute telepost. automatic |
telegraph service that annihilate time
md distance. rs wonderful illnstra-
ions. It's comic supplement. the world. |
vide scope Of its information. its
nuliifarious departments and the |
'rodigious size Of It's daily product. |
Since bis trenchant pen wrote that
low immortal injunction to the rising |
Go west young man" the
ca wilderness beyond the Ohio river
las been pierced and become the
ibode 81 millions Of his countrymen.
Who. acting On his advice. have made
he prairie blossom With grain and
he valley and mountain fruitful Be.
Iond his most extravagant dream. On
his anniversary the west. which owes
Q much q the abiding faith 81
ireeley II lis future. can not help but
eel conscious Of rs great obligation
o this sislwart American whom
Whittier so sptly described as our
q er Franklin"