Year: 1872

horace Greeley,


A great light Of American journalism. and
perhaps the most remarkable American of his
period, hns breathed his last 1t has never
been our lot To record q death whose snrrnund-
lngs and artecedenis impressed us with such
4 sense oi mournful and even tragic putbos.
That Of President Lincoln had indeed more OF


ne horror OF certain kind of stage effect
III u Tell short Uf this in the affecting appeal
1t makes to HE deepest sympalhies of our com.
mon human nature and its power "a touch
those deep well-sprlngs of feeling which are
the fountain of unaffected tears We write
these sad lines with tide of emotion pouring
Into our swimming eyes; and although IL
hardly becomes man. much less a journalist
ID the discharge Of his public functions. to let
his le lings get control ri him, we cannot dis
scmble the grief which takes possession of us
at This affective termination of a great career


Poor Mr. Greeley is gOnc and no coveted
appreciation can any longer soothe nor any
crnsure wound him Perhaps no kindly hui
man heart ever 50 yearned for sympathy or so
eagerly coveted Or was 50 deeply grateful for
just appreciation. No man who was q great
power III the politics of his time was ever so
tar removed from the character Of n stole,
Any friend who was free from all suspicion of
interested motives could easily find the way
into the inner citadel of his gentle heart
ThouEh an unsparing cOBtrov r5ialist he bore
no malice even In the beat of political con
responded
warmly to ~" personal esteem of party an
acolss. Esen with Stephen A. Donglas his
lHtlons aud intercourse rested on footing of
the irankcst, hcarticst good will and there
nave been recent instances in which he gave
his confidence to political opponents with
more trusting uireservaif it were permitted
Is to mention them. But IN all such personal
cDnii,tences he was p most uncompromsing
tss 'rer Of his opinions, and his friends out
side Of his own party could never for n mo-
ment doubt That il was their persons not their
politics, which he tolerated. 1t was like the
interchange of courtesles between the officers
of hostile armies, wherein the tokens of per
sDnal esteem leave no sort of doubt that each
will do its utmost in the next days battle
Such natural rrcOgnitiOns of military ability
and personal worth imply no sort of infidelity
to the cause for which each party ghs. Men
Of honor and stable convictions are under no
obligation TO deny the virtues or the abilities
of their adversares the writer was never 50
deeply touched and moved AS when, amid the
stray leaves falling from the trees of Green.
wood, while Mrs Greeey's coffin, with lis Gov
ering OF black cloth, TIVE remember that IN
our boyhoOd in Mr.. Grerey's native State,
we never saw n coffin which was not black ,
was borne from the hcarse to the opening of
the family vault, through lines of revereni,
uncovered hcads-we say we can never forget
the heart breaking impression made upon US
by Mr.. Grccleys fixed and most wistful look
directe'! upon us ON that mournful occasion,
as if craving the deep sympathy TO which our.
| long intimate relations entitled him. and
which be could not doubt that, above all the
| other pallbCar-rs. we were ready TO give to
| the bereayed husband, the halforphaned
stricken daughters, the pet lambs of his fond,
yearning, paternal hear. 1t was the last time
that his eyes and ours ever met in a recog-
nizing look; and we deplOre our neglect to
seek him out and pour our free sympathy into
his craving, responsive breast, alter that sad
/ scene was over. The earnest, wistful looks
| he then fixed upon us, will never be Cffaced
/ till our dying day. We beg that readers will
pardon us for this unsecmly mastery which
our emo 10 rs have got oyer an habitually
cold pen. Something must be pardoned To
the .ntrmity of our poor human nature.


We have really no heart for the duty which
| is laid npon us on this occasion. II our feel
| ings would permit US 10 take the position of
mere outside spectators the fit thing for us to
| do would be 10 make a just, uncolored esti-
mate OF Mr.. Greeley's character and career.
! But the circumstances of his death strike US
as so indescribably tragic and affecting that
we have no command of our critical faculties.
il is difficult to think of anything beyond the
| gricfinspiring spectacle of such a DEATH fol-
lowing so swiftly upon the great eclipse and
extinguishment of the hopes which Mr. Gree
LEY had good reasons for entertaining during
some stages OF the recent crushing canvass.
"The stars in their courses" seemed TO fight
against him. He returned from that fatiguing
tour in the West, in which his faculties shonc
out in a surprising blaze of eliminating
splendOr, to find his poor wife in the last
stages OF her long decline and with a devo-
ton like that which he felt in the days of
their early, youthful love, before time and


disease had impaired her beauty, or domestic


trials had effaced the bloom of their early af-


fection he was constantly at her bedside,
with the fidelity of nIinistering angel, pass


ing anxious days and sleepless nights which,
under less eXigrnt circumstances, would have
been due To rrpOse after his recent exhaustess
labors. The strain upon bis physical endur-


ance and the more tremendous strain upon


his quick emotional susceptibities was too


much tor him The bow was not merely


bcnt but broken. The strength of a cOnsttu-


ton, never weakened by any other excesses


than overwork, gave way; the chances of


life which belonged to him by hereditary lon


gevity, (bnth his father and grandfather lived


TO be upwards of eighty) were squandered I;


and the vessel so rudely tossed in these recent


tempests was thrown upon the beach an utter


wreck 1t is the saddcst ending OF a vigOr-


ously useful life that we have ever known.