Volume II Part 31 (2/2)
[Footnote 755: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
273.]
[Footnote 756: New York _Tribune_, March 29, 1861.]
[Footnote 757: ”Hornby, April 3, 1861. Dear Seward: I shall have to take a Gentleman with me that can speak the Spanish language and correct bad English. That being well done I can take care of the ballance [Transcriber's Note: so in original] Greeley to the contrary notwithstanding.... You have much at stake in my appointment as it is charged (and I know how justly) to your account.”--Unpublished letter in files of State Department.]
James S. Pike's selection for minister resident to The Hague seemed to contradict Greeley's declaration that he neither asked nor desired the appointment of any one. For years Pike, ”a skilful maligner of Mr.
Seward,”[758] had been the Was.h.i.+ngton representative of the _Tribune_, and the belief generally obtained that, although Pike belonged to Maine and was supported by its delegation in Congress, the real power behind the throne lived in New York. Nevertheless, the _Tribune's_ editor, drifting in thought and speech in the inevitable direction of his genius, soon indicated that he had had no personal favours to ask.
[Footnote 758: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
326.]
Seward's appointment as secretary of state chilled Greeley's love for the new Administration.[759] The _Tribune's_ editor seems never to have shown an exalted appreciation of Abraham Lincoln. Although they served together in Congress, and, for twenty years, had held to the same political faith, Greeley, apparently indifferent to his colleague's success, advocated, in 1858, the return of Stephen A.
Douglas to the United States Senate, because of his hostility to the Lecompton policy of the Buchanan administration, and it was intimated that this support, backed by his powerful journal, may have resulted in Douglas' carrying the Legislature against Lincoln. In 1860, Greeley favoured Bates for President. He was not displeased to have Lincoln nominated, but his battle had been to defeat Seward, and when Lincoln turned to Seward for secretary of state, which meant, as Greeley believed, the domination of the Weed machine to punish his revolt against Seward, Greeley became irretrievably embittered against the President.
[Footnote 759: ”I am charged with having opposed the selection of Governor Seward for a place in President Lincoln's Cabinet. That is utterly, absolutely false, the President himself being my witness. I might call many others, but one such is sufficient.”--New York _Tribune_, signed editorial, July 25, 1861.]
It is doubtful if Lincoln and Greeley, under any circ.u.mstances, could have had close personal relations. Lack of sympathy because they did not see things alike must have kept them apart; but Seward's presence in the Cabinet undoubtedly limited Greeley's intercourse with the President at a time when frequent conferences might have avoided grave embarra.s.sments. His virile and brilliant talents, which turned him into an independent and acute thinker on a wide range of subjects, always interested his readers, giving expression to the thoughts of many earnest men who aided in forming public opinion in their neighbourhoods, so that it may be said with truth, that, in 1860 and 1861, everything he wrote was eagerly read and discussed in the North.
”Notwithstanding the loyal support given Lincoln throughout the country,” says McClure, ”Greeley was in closer touch with the active, loyal sentiment of the people than even the President himself.”[760]
His art of saying things on paper seemed to thrill people as much as the nervous, spirited rhetoric of an intense talker. With the air of lofty detachment from sordid interests, his sentences, clear and rapid, read like the clarion notes of a peroration, and impressed his great audiences with an earnestness that often carried conviction even to unwilling listeners.
[Footnote 760: Alex. K. McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War Times_, p.
295.]
Nevertheless, the _Tribune's_ columns did not manifest toward the Administration a fine exhibition of the love of fair play. In the hottest moment of excitement growing out of hostilities, it patriotically supported the most vigorous prosecution of the war, and mercilessly criticised its opponents; but Greeley would neither conform to nor silently endure Lincoln's judgment, and, as every step in the war created new issues, his constant criticism, made through the columns of a great newspaper, kept the party more or less seriously divided, until, by untimely forcing emanc.i.p.ation, he inspired, despite the patient and conciliatory methods of Lincoln, a factious hostility to the President which embarra.s.sed his efforts to marshal a solid North in support of his war policy. Greeley was a man of clean hands and pure heart, and, at the outset, it is probable that his attempted direction of Lincoln's policy existed without ill-feeling; yet he was a good hater, and, as the contest went on, he drifted into an opposition which gradually increased in bitterness, and, finally, led to a temporary and foolish rebellion against the President's renomination. Meantime, the great-hearted Lincoln, conning the lesson taught by the voice of history, continued to practise the precept,
”Saying, What is excellent, As G.o.d lives, is permanent.”
<script>