by another hand, in which the editor of the Herald was commended as a proper person to represent the United States at the court of France. I have no more doubt that Mr. Greeley's motives in countenancing this bargain were patriotic than I have that the act was wrong. It was not only wrong, but impolitic, since the city of New York, where the Herald chiefly circulates, and where alone it can be said to have any influence over votes, gave to the candidate for the Presidency opposed to Mr. Lincoln the great majority of thirty-seven thousand. We must remember, however, that when this compact was made the prospects of the United States were gloomy in the extreme; and to many men the clamorous support of the Herald was supposed to be desirable, even though purchased by the sacrifice of honor.

During the year 1863, when the immense expenses in which the war involved the Tribune consumed the profits of the establishment, Mr. Greeley accepted a very liberal offer from Messrs. Case & Co. of Hartford, to write a history of the war, and, during the next two or three years, he performed two days' work in one. At nine in the morning he shut himself up in his room in the "Bible House" with an amanuensis, and worked upon his history until four in the afternoon; after which he went down town, dined, and labored upon the newspaper until eleven at night. And, as if this were not enough, he frequently snatched an hour or two during the evening to address a political meeting. The history was finished in 1865, and has had a sale of a hundred and fifty thousand copies, and is still in active demand. No one knows better than Mr. Greeley that the complete and final history of the war has not yet become possible, and will not for some years to come. Nevertheless, it may be said of Mr. Greeley's work, that it is the most valuable contribution to the means of understanding the war, both in its causes and in its results, that has yet been made by an individual. The spirit of it is high, humane, and every way admirable, and it contains an astonishing mass of instructive details. Mr. Greeley says in his Preface, and truly says: "I shall labor constantly to guard against the error of supposing that all the heroism, devotedness, humanity, chivalry, evinced in the contest were displayed on one side; all the cowardice, ferocity, cruelty, rapacity, and general depravity, on the other. I believe it to be the truth, and as such I shall endeavor to show that, while this war has been signalized

by some deeds disgraceful to human nature, the general behavior of the combatants on either side has been calculated to do honor even to the men who, though fearfully misguided, are still our countrymen, and to exalt the prestige of the American name." The dedication of the work was as follows:

то

JOHN BRIGHT,

BRITISH COMMONER AND CHRISTIAN STATESMAN:

THE FRIEND OF MY COUNTRY, BECAUSE THE FRIEND OF MANKIND:

THIS RECORD OF A NATION'S STRUGGLE

UP

FROM DARKNESS AND BONDAGE TO LIGHT AND LIBERTY,

IS REGARDFULLY, GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED

BY THE AUTHOR.

In 1864, when the subscriptions to the forthcoming history promised to put a little money in Mr. Greeley's pocket, he concluded to spend a few hundred dollars of it in the manner indicated in the following article:

"IMPROVED VARIETIES OF FRUIT.

"So much has been well done within the last few years in American fruit-growing, that it seems feasible to do still more, or at least to realize more extensively and rapidly the benefit of past improvements.

"I. Perhaps the most signal advance has been made in the production of GRAPES. There are probably twenty-fold more grapes grown for sale in this country to-day than there were thirty years ago, while the improvement in current varieties, in culture and in quality, has been equally decided. Still, we are growing far too many inferior grapes, while our established favorites are too generally deficient in one or more respects; they require too long a season, or they have some notable defect as a table-fruit. So much labor has been wasted on varieties of foreign origin, that it is not deemed advisable to incite to further effort in that direction. There is not to-day in the United States a good table-grape of foreign origin that can safely be grown in open air, north of the Potomac

and the Ohio. But it is plausibly claimed that several substantially new or little known varieties of domestic origin are of high quality, fulfilling all the requisites of choice table-fruit. It is time that these claims were tested and passed upon by disinterested and capable judges. As a humble contribution toward this end, I hereby offer a premium of $100 for the best plate of native grapes, weighing not less than six pounds, of any variety known to the growers or propagators of this country. I require that the grapes competing for this premium shall ripen earlier than the Isabella, Catawba, or Diana, none of which is considered well adapted to a season no longer and no hotter and drier than ours. The berries must be of at least good medium size, and not liable to fall from the stem when ripe. The flesh must be melting and tender quite to the centre. The flavor must be pure, rich, vinous, and exhilarating. The vine must be healthy, productive, of good habit of growth for training in yards and gardens as well as in vineyards, with leaves at least as hardy and well adapted to our climate as those of the Delaware. In short, what is sought is a vine which embodies the best qualities of the most approved American and foreign varieties, so far as possible.

"I propose to pay this premium on the award of the fruit department of the American Institute, and invite competition for it at the annual fair of that Institute soon to open; but, if a thoroughly satisfactory grape should not now be presented, the Institute will of course postpone the award till the proper claimant shall have appeared.

"II. I offer a further premium of $100 for the best bushel of APPLES, of a variety which combines general excellence with the quality of keeping in good condition at least to the 1st of February, and is adapted to the climate and soil of the Northern and Middle States.

"It is not required that the apple submitted for competition shall be new; but it is hoped that one may be found which combines the better characteristics of such popular favorites as the Northern Spy, Baldwin, Greening, and Newton Pippin, or a majority of them. Let us see if there be not a better apple than the established favorites; if not, let us acknowledge and act upon the truth.

"III. I further offer a premium of $100 for the best bushel of PEARS of a specific variety, — size, flavor, season, &c., being all considered. It must be a pear adapted to general cultivation. It need

-

not be a new sort, provided it be unquestionably superior; but one object of the premium is to develop unacknowledged excellence if such shall be found to exist.

"One object of these offers is to afford a landmark for fruitgrowers in gardens and on small farms, who are now bewildered by the multiplicity of sorts challenging their attention, each setting up claims to unapproachable excellence. I leave the determination of all questions which may arise as to the propriety of making a prompt award, or awaiting further developments, entirely to the appropriate department of the Institute. "HORACE GREELEY.

"NEW YORK, September 22, 1864."

CHAPTER XXXII.

RECONSTRUCTION.

Horace Greeley's plan-His mediation between President Johnson and Congress-He joins in bailing Jefferson Davis-His speech at Richmond.

No reader of this work need be informed how Horace Greeley felt toward the people of the Southern States when the war ended. Unless his nature had suddenly changed, he could have had no other than a friendly feeling toward them, and an intense desire for the restoration of good feeling between the two sections of the Union. His policy of reconstruction is summed up in four words, a thousand times repeated in the Tribune: "UNIVERSAL AMNESTY, -IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE."

To this simple but all-including plan he has constantly adhered, until at the present moment there is a prospect of its speedy and complete adoption.

In a speech delivered in March, 1866, he expressed his views with clearness and force.

"What has the war decided? First, all men agree that our war's close has settled this point: that we - all the States composing this Federal Union- —are not a mere confederacy; we are not a league; we are not an alliance: we are a nation. This country of ours, this American people, compose a nation; and your allegiance and my allegiance is due, primarily, to the country, to the United States, and not to New York, nor New Jersey, nor Pennsylvania, nor Virginia, wherever we may happen to live, not to our State, but to our country. There were differences of opinion about this before the war, but I believe that all men now agree that the point has been settled; and, whatever may have been heretofore believed or taught with regard to State rights or the right of secession, it is generally conceded now that that issue has been settled, and that, first and above all things, we are a nation.

"Now, then, this conclusion carries very much more with it; for, if the government of the United States is entitled to your allegiance and my allegiance, primarily, then we are entitled to its