upon its editorial department all the intellectual ability he could command. He had saved as yet but little money, but he had the credit of an honest man, and the repute of a very able one. With these, and a thousand dollars from Mr. Gregory, whom we have before alluded to, he resolved to start anew, and the result was the New York Tribune. He made an arrangement with Mr. McElrath, a lawyer, who was capitally fitted to manage the business department of a news journal. The amount of work which Mr. Greeley accomplished was astonishingly great. His energy was almost superhuman. He applied himself closely every day from fifteen to eighteen hours— and oftener the latter than the former. Under the editorship of such an indefatigable man the Tribune could but thrive. It rose in circulation, and in the estimation of the people rapidly. Men who bitterly opposed its politics conceded its eminent ability. It was the leading journal of the whig party. It also advocated various beneficent reforms. We by no means defend the political course of that journal, while it was a party organ. While the Tribune was a whig journal, it was probably hated more intensely by its enemies than any other American journal. The eminent abilities of Mr. Greeley could not be vigorously used for party purposes, without drawing down upon him the hatred of thousands. Few men have been more abused than he; few more execrated

than he by opposing politicians. It is easy enough to see why. He writes nervously, graphically, intensely. He has no soft words for an enemy, but blurts out what he conceives to be the truth, as an Indian tomahawks a white man. His vast energy, combined with his splendid writing talent, disposes him to annihilate an opposer. He has withal a capability, we think, for unjust prejudices against an enemy. This was the case when he was younger, but of late they seem to have died out of his heart. But, though as a writer Mr. Greeley is always impetuous, he is by nature cautious-almost cunning. Thus some of his political movements seem to his political enemies to have been prompted by cunning. We think, however, notwithstanding all the suspicious political moves which he has made in the past, that few honester men ever sat in the chair-editorial. is one of the most earnest men of the age. There is nothing stagnant in his nature. He is decided, fixed, in his opinions.

He

The opposition which the Tribune received from the New York Sun was bitter and lasting. Every means that could be used, fair or unfair, were tried to prevent the Tribune from supplanting that paper. In it appeared the most scurrilous articles, with the manifest intention of "crushing out" the Tribune; farther even than this, the attempt was made to hinder the sale by direct violence. Fights were prompt

ed between the newsboys, by the emissaries of Beach, and nothing that promised success was too mean for him to attempt. But, as when a strong, well managed ship is sailing against the wind, she moves fastest when it blows hardest, so with the Tribune, the greater the opposition the more rapid its progress. The public became interested in the affair, and justice was awarded to Mr. Greeley in the increasing demand for his paper. For the first number there were six hundred subscribers, and the editor remarks that,"We had some difficulty in giving away the first edition." It steadily gained, however, in friends and patronage, and during the struggle with the Sun subscribers poured in at the rate of three hundred per day. The fourth week showed a circulation of six thousand, the seventh, eleven thousand, while the advertising business increased in proportion, although the price was raised from four to six cents a line. The news department of the Tribune was more accurate and prompt than that of its adversary. In a certain day the Sun informed the public that "it is doubtful whether the land bill can pass the house;" the Tribune of the same day announced the passage of the bill! The assistance of Mr. McElrath in the business department of the paper was invaluable, since it allowed to Mr. Greeley his whole time upon the writing and editorial management. His usual day's work at this period was three columns, equal

to fifteen pages of foolscap, besides the arranging, clipping, &c.

Upon the subject of protection to American industry Mr. Greeley wrote repeatedly, and with great energy. After reading his able articles upon that subject, one can hardly fail to be convinced of the justness of his views. He advocated the subject, not solely because it was a whig measure, but because it seemed to him correct and best for the interests of the country at large. Nevertheless, he was, at this period, a zealous, earnest, almost bigoted supporter of the whig policy and whig administration. He hated and fought the doctrine of repudiation with telling energy. He supported John Tyler till he perceived that Tyler was selling himself and the whig party to locofocoism, and then he opposed him with all his might.

The history of the Tribune hereafter was the history of Mr. Greeley. It began its second year with a circulation of twelve thousand subscribers, and an average daily support of thirteen columns of advertisements. In writing the subsequent history of its editor, we shall most conveniently, almost necessarily, follow the track of the Tribune down to the present time, and, advancing, glance at the doctrines it sustained, and the theories it supported. The first to be noticed is Fourierism. At the time when this subject became a theme of discussion in this country,

Horace Greeley was a young man of twenty-six, who, from poverty, had struggled up to a competence only by the most arduous exertion. He knew by bitter experience what it was to be miserably poor; he had gone through a long course of training in the school of adversity, and was in every way qualified to sympathize with his schoolmates under the iron discipline of that stern tutor. It was not in Greeley to look upon destitution and misery without commiseration, nor was he willing that his sympathy should end until the means of relief were discovered and applied. New York was a vast theater for the display of humanity and kindness, and never more so than during the winter of 1837-8. Food and provisions were high, fuel scarce, the cold weather unusually protracted and severe. Business of all kinds was at a stand-still, laborers were thrown out of employment by thousands, and crowds of hungry men, women, and children went famishing through the streets. The picture was a most melancholy one, well calculated to inspire the energies of a humane disposition. What could be done to relieve the distress of these perishing thousands? There was wealth enough; there was enough in New York, and Greeley knew it; their's was the want, there the supply. Could not some plan be devised by which they could be brought together? In this emergency, Albert Brisbane, a liberally educated young man, the son of wealthy parents, re