years as Horace Greeley should have both reflected and talked a good deal on "the Missouri Question." He became an ardent anti-slavery boy at this time; and, it need hardly be added, the ardour grew with years and failed not to be clearly manifested until the final triumph of Emancipation. The storm which grew out of this question of the admission of Missouri was reduced to temporary calm by the famous "Compromise," whereby, though Missouri was admitted as a slave State, slavery in the public domain lying north of the latitude of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, the parallel of the southern boundary of the State, was forever prohibited. We shall hereafter see that those who in 1819-20 denounced the Compromise as a delusion, and as a mere makeshift measure of postponement, were in the right. Among these was the lad, Horace Greeley. The administration of president Monroe has been often styled an "era of good feeling." He had been elected to the second term without opposition. The questions which had, in the early history of the nation, divided the people into parties of opposing policies and dogmas, had been settled in favour of the party which had taken the name of Republican; and it was not long after the close of our last war with Great Britain that the political organization which had opposed it passed out of existence; as was clearly manifested by the last election of Monroe. Then followed for a brief period after the recognized era of good feeling what may be described as the "Era of Personal-Preference Parties." In the first Presidential contest of this era, that of 1824, young Greeley, now a lad of some thirteen summers, but already beginning to be considered a sort of living cyclopedia of politics and walking embodiment of statistical tables, manifested an intelligent interest, which, had political knowledge and judgment been the test of franchise, would have given him better title to vote than a great majority of voters. During this campaign there were five candidates for the Presidency, namely, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson. Of these, the first was Secretary of State in President Monroe's cabinet; the second, Secretary of the Treasury; the third, Secretary of War;

the fourth, Speaker of the House of Representatives; the fifth, the "hero of New Orleans." Mr. Calhoun withdrew as a presidential candidate, before election. To show how entirely obliterated were party lines, so far as concerned distinct measures of national polity, it is only necessary to state that each of the candidates cordially sustained the general measures of the administration. Our living cyclopedia of politics sympathized with New England, and preferred Mr. Adams. It is well known that the States failed to elect through the electoral college, and that the House of Representatives, voting by States, chose Mr. Adams President.

In the next Presidential campaign, young Greeley, at this time an apprentice in the office of a journal which espoused the Adams cause, took a still greater interest. There had been as yet no national convention--an invention not made until some years afterwards-publishing proclamation of platform. Citizens still divided themselves into "Adams men" on the one side and "Jackson men" on the other; an exceedingly convenient nomenclature, since it allowed the adherents of either candidate to advocate such veiws as might be popular in their respective localities. And by this time those questions of domestic policy, which afterwards formed the issues,— though not always honestly and distinctly drawn,—between the parties which adopted the names of Democratic and Whig had begun to be discussed by the people.

This was also the period of a singular episode in American politics. One Morgan, a printer and publisher, had published a book professing to expose the secrets of the order of Free Masons. Curiosity caused a large demand for the book, and Morgan concluded to put money in his purse by publishing another, which, it was announced, would reveal a terrible state of things, showing that Free Masonry was a great enormity. But before this book appeared, Mr. Morgan disappeared. Whereupon it was alleged that he had been secretly made way with by the Free Masons! It is difficult to imagine the excitement which grew out of this affair all over the North and West. "Anti-Masonry" became much of a social frenzy and was especially strong in the State of Vermont. It is not won

derful, therefore, that young Greeley became an ardent "antiMason." So strongly, indeed, were his feelings wrought up by the contagious frenzy, that he remained an opponent of secret societies during his lifetime. It may not be out of place to say here that in 1831, an "anti-Mason" national convention was held, at Baltimore, which upon this issue nominated the distinguished William Wirt for the Presidency. In the election of the following year he carried only the State of Vermont, casting seven electoral votes.

This singular political issue, as it came to be in 1832, had much influence, doubtless, in the campaign of 1828, when parties as yet had no general name, but, as we have seen, the supporters of the two Presidential candidates passed by the name of "Adams men" and "Jackson men" respectively. General Jackson was successful, by a large majority of both popular and electoral votes, to the great regret of our apprentice at Poultney.

During the period in which Horace Greeley had now taken an intelligent interest in politics, Henry Clay had made a number of his most brilliant speeches, had been Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams, and had become the most distinguished advocate, perhaps, of a system of internal improvements by appropriations from the federal treasury; of a National Bank; of the protection of American manufactures by means of high customs duties upon imported merchandise. He was also believed to be hostile to slavery, and was quite generally regarded throughout the North as an earnest enemy of its extension. The anti-Jackson men, now called "National Republicans," as their opponents began to be called "Democrats," usually with a "Jackson" prefix,nominated Mr. Clay for the Presidency. Horace Greeley's "anti-Masonry" was not so strong as his National Republicanism, and he laboured and voted for "Harry of the West" with the greatest zeal. The political opinions and the personal admiration manifested by his first vote were a part of himself, -and, many will think, not the most admirable part,-till the day of his death. His intense admiration of a statesman so superficial as Henry Clay cannot but be regarded by many as

ADMIRATION OF HENRY CLAY.

75

one of his most amiable and unphilosophical characteristics. He was deeply chagrinned at the success of General Jackson, whose sterling qualities he never learned fully to appreciate; but by the beginning of the following year was able to undertake to carry on a printing office on his own account, with cheerfulness and confidence.

CHAPTER V.

BUSINESS VENTURES IN NEW-YORK.

Partnership with Francis V. Story-A Bank Note Reporter and The Morning Post-Failure of the Penny Daily - Dr. Shepard — Mr. Schols - Weathering the Storm-Partner Drowned in East River — Mr. Jonas Winchester, next Partner-The New-Yorker - The City Political Contest of 1834 - Prints and Partially Edits a Campaign Paper - A "Grahamite" Boarding-House-Marriage - Clay, Calhoun, Crittenden Severe Struggle with the Hard Times of 1837The New-Yorker Continued, though Burdened by Debt-Finally It Goes Up in Flame and Smoke.

THE stress of circumstances had driven Ilorace Greeley to New-York a year or two sooner than he would have made the venture had he been in a more independent situation. He tells us that he was in like manner impelled to undertake the responsibilities of business sooner than he otherwise would. have done. For, when he went into business, he was not yet twenty-two years of age, and the amount of his savings was very small, notwithstanding his economical habits; all the smaller, because he had constantly remitted generous proportions to his father to aid him in his struggles with the stubborn wilderness. Though Mr. Greeley had improved upon his original rustic ways and "outlandish get-up," he was still an awkward, bashful young man, and as odd a looking specimen for business in the great city, as, perhaps, the metropolis ever saw withal.

But he had great affection for and confidence in his friend and fellow-workman, Mr. Francis V. Story, who, though little older than himself, had also been accustomed to struggling with difficulties, was well acquainted with city ways, was of a hopeful, bouoyent nature, and enterprising spirit. He appears to have happily appreciated Greeley from the beginning of their acquaintance. He had for some time purposed to start