He had a great capacity for literary work, and when absent for travel or business was a copious contributor to his paper. To his rather delicate physical habit was perhaps due his dis taste for all stimulants, alcoholic or otherwise, and his adherence through life to the vegetarian doctrines of Dr. Graham; another follower of the latter being his wife, Mary Young Cheney, also a writer, whom he married in 1836. His moderate advocacy of temperance in food and drink, coupled with his then unorthodox denial of eternal punishment, helped to identify him in the public minds with most of the "isms" of the time, including Fourierism and spiritualism; when in fact his mind and his paper were merely open to free inquiry, and were active in exposing vagaries of opinion wherever mani fested. Protection to American industry, and abolitionism, were the only varieties which he accepted without qualification; and while the pro-slavery party detested him as a danger ous agitator, it is possible at this day even from their point of view to admire the moderation, the candor and the gentle humanity of his treatment of the slavery question. In all issues concerning the affairs of life, like marriage and divorce, he was guided by rare common-sense, and usually his arguments were scholarly and moderate; but in matters of per sonal controversy he was distinctly human, uniting with a taste for the intellectual fray a command of facts, and a force and pungency of presentation, which never stem admirable in an opponent.
He was in great demand as a lecturer and as a speaker at agricultural fairs, his addresses al ways being distinguished by a desire to be help ful to working humanity and by elevated motives. Though not a jester, genial humor and intellectual exchange were characteristic of his social intercourse. His books, with one or two exceptions, were collections of his addresses and newspaper articles. His first book, 'Hints Toward Reforms,' appeared in 1850, and was followed by at Europe' (1851) ; History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension or Restriction' (1856) ; Overland Journey to California' (1859) ; 'An Address on Success in Business' (1867) ; 'Recollections of a Busy Life,' formed on a series of articles in the New York Ledger (1869); 'Essays Designed to Elucidate the Science of Political Economy) (1870) ; 'Letters from Texas and the Lower Mississippi, and an Address to the Farmers of Texas' (1871) • 'What I Know of Farming' (1871); and (The American Conflict,' written as a book, the first volume appearing in 1854 and the second in 1867. This work on the Civil War is remarkable, when considered in the light of his purpose to show "the inevitable se quence whereby ideas proved the germ of events)); but it was hastily prepared, and while strikingly accurate in a large sense, will not bear scrutiny in some of the minor details of war history.
Neither his political friends, nor his party, nor the causes he espoused, could hold him to a course of partisan loyalty contrary to his own convictions of right and duty. As a member of the Seward-Weed-Greeley "triumvirate,* he was often a thorn in the flesh of the senior members; his letter of 11 Nov. 1854, dissolving "the political being one of the frankest documents in the history of American politics. During the Civil War he occasionally embar rassed Mr. Lincoln's administration by what seemed then to be untimely cries of "On to Richmond!" immediate emancipation, and peace. On the whole, his influence for the Union cause was powerful; but when, the war being over, he advocated general amnesty, and finally as an object lesson went on the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, he lost the support of a large body of his most ardent anti-slavery admirers. The clamor against him called forth a characteristic de 'fiance in his letter to members of the Union League Club, who were seeking to discipline him. Having further alienated the Republican party by his general attitude in ((reconstruc tion) matters, he became the logical candidate for the Presidency, in 1872, of the Democrats at Baltimore and the Liberal Republicans at Cincinnati, in opposition to a second term for General Grant. Though personally he made a brilliant canvass, the influences at work in his favor were inharmonious and disintegrating, and the result was a most humiliating defeat. This he appeared to bear with mental buoyancy, despite the affliction of his wife's death, which occurred a week before the election, he having left the stump in September to watch unremit tingly at her bedside. On 6 November, the day after his defeat, he resumed the editorship of the Tribune, which six months before be had relinquished to Whitelaw Reid. Thereafter he contributed to only four issues of the paPer, for the strain of his domestic and political mis fortunes had aggravated his tendency to in somnia; on the 12th he fell seriously ill, and on the 29th he succumbed to inflanunation of the brain. The last few months of his eventful career supplied most of the elements essential to a Greek tragedy. On 23 December, the Tribune having been reorganized, with Mr. Reid in permanent control, there first appeared at the head of the editorial page the line (Founded by Horace Greeley,° as a memorial to the great journalis' and reformer. A bronze statute was erected in the portal of the new Tribune office, and another statue in the angle made by Broadway and Sixth Avenue, appro priately named (Greeley Square," after the man who was second to no other citizen in establish ing the intellectual ascendancy of the metropolis.