CHAPTER XII.

ERA OF THE MEXICAN WAR-GEN. TAYLOR, PRESIDENT.

The Tribune from 1844 to 1848-Its Era of Irrepressible Conflicts - Rapid Review of its Battles - Moves on to Anti-Slavery - Its Hostility to the War with Mexico-Enthusiastic Sympathy with Popular Movements in Europe-"Slieve-gammon "-Tribune Office Burned - Mr. Gree ley Visits the West-The Presidential Campaign of 1848- Mr. Greeley Dissatisfied with the Nomination of General Taylor-Declines to Support the Ticket-Speech at Vauxhall Garden-Nominated for Congress-Taylor and Clay.

THE defeat of Henry Clay for the Presidency in 1844, aroused Mr. Greeley to a more profound consideration of the question of slavery than, as an editor, he had yet given it. The common people have an adage, that if our fore-sights were as good as our hind-sights, we should oftener hit the mark. We are apt to do injustice to men who were unable to foresee events of which we have full knowledge. Thus, in the case of Horace Greeley, it is easily to be seen, in 1873, that the Liberal party of 1844 more truly represented his views than the Whig party. But it would be most unjust to conclude that, therefore, he made a mistake in 1844. He was abreast with the times; and cannot be justly censured for not being ahead of them. After the election of Mr. Polk, The Tribune became an anti-slavery paper. Before that event, Mr. Greeley had believed in the wrongfulness of slavery, but his journal had rather deprecated the agitation of the subject as tending to be of injury rather than benefit to the slaves. Heretofore Horace Greeley, the politician, had in this matter, mastered Horace Greeley, the reformer. But in 1845, he said: "When we find the Union on the brink of a most unjust and rapacious war, instigated wholly (as is officially proclaimed) by a determination to uphold and fortify slavery, then we do not see how it can longer be rationally disputed that the North has much, very much, to do with

slavery. If we may be drawn in to fight for it, it would be hard indeed that we should not be allowed to talk of it." Henceforth Mr. Greeley and The Tribune did "talk of it," uttering no uncertain sound.

But before The Tribune came to be called an "abolition" journal, it had an era of disputes with its cotemporary journals of the city of a remarkable nature. The three or four years following the defeat of Henry Clay may be well styled the era of The Tribune's irrepressible conflicts. We have already related the account of Mr. Greeley's famous dispute with Mr. Raymond upon the subject of Socialism. And as herein The Tribune was supposed to purpose unrelenting war against society, order, property, it was but natural that it should call up against it an army of foes. The Democratic press naturally assailed its most vigorous opponent; but the Whig journals of the city and many of the country were scarcely less hostile than those of the party opposed. Two classes of people inevitably have many to kick at them: the highly successful, and those who have the misfortune to fail. Mr. Greeley was highly successful. In a few years, he had moved on from the position of an awkward, ill dressed countryman, to a position of vast influence. His name was upon every tongue; his journal had become almost a necessity to hundreds of thousands of persons. There were those, there always are, who were envious of this success. They determined to put down the successful man. And as he did have many opinions which were then decidedly unpopular, there seemed to be reasons for assailing him.

The liberal views of Mr. Greeley upon the subject of religion were made to figure as a charge of "infidelity." To an assault of this kind by the Express, Mr. Greeley replied:

"The editor of The Tribune has never been anything else than a believer in the Christian Religion, and has for many years been a member of a Christian Church. He never wrote or uttered a syllable in favour of Infidelity. But truth is lost on The Express, which can never forgive us the 'Infidelity' of circulating a good many more copies, Daily and Weekly, than are taken of that paper."

The coarse nature of the assaults made upon Mr. Greeley during these years may be judged from the following, taken from The Courier and Enquirer, of which James Watson Webb was editor. Coloned Webb had been sentenced to two years' confinement in the penitentiary for the crime of duelling, but Governor Seward had pardoned him after a few hours' incarceration. Colonel Webb said:

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"The editor of The Tribune is an Abolitionist; we precisely the reverse. He is a philosopher; we are a Christian. He is a pupil of Graham, and would have all the world live upon bran-bread and sawdust; we are in favour of living as our fathers did, and of enjoying in moderation the good things which Providence has bestowed upon us. He is the advocate of the Fourierism, Socialism, and all the tomfooleries which have given birth to the debasing and disgusting spectacles of vice and immorality which Fanny Wright, Collins, and others exhibit. ** He seeks for notoriety by pretending to great eccentricity of character and habits, and by the strangeness of his theories and practices; we, on the contrary, are content with following in the beaten path, and accomplishing the good we can, in the old-fashioned way. He lays claim to greatness by wandering through the streets with a hat double the size of his head, a coat after the fashion of Jacob's of old, with one leg of his pantaloons inside and the other outside of his boot, and with boots all bespattered with mud, or, possibly, a shoe on one foot and a boot on the other, and glorying in an unwashed and unshaven person. We, on the contrary, eschew all such affectation as weak and silly; we think there is a difference between notoriety and distinction; we recognize the social obligation to act and dress according to our station in life; and we look upon cleanliness of person as inseparable from purity of thought and benevolence of heart. In short, there is not the slightest resemblance between the editor of The Tribune and ourself, politically, morally, or socially; and it is only when his affectation and impudence are unbearable, that we condescend to notice him or his press."

Mr. Greeley replied:

"It is true that the Editor of The Tribune chooses mainly (not entirely) vegetable food; but he never troubles his readers on the subject; it does not wrong them; why should it concern the Colonel? It is hard for philosophy that so humble a man shall be made to stand as its exemplar; while Christianity is personified by the hero of the Sunday duel with Hon. Tom. Marshall; but such luck will happen.

"As to our personal appearance, it does seem time that we should say something, to stay the flood of nonsense with which the town must by this time be nauseated. Some donkey a while ago, apparently anxious to assail or annoy the editor of this paper, and not well knowing with what,