In "The
Chronicles of America".
There was a faction in the Union Party which we may justly name
the Vindictives. The "Manifesto" gave them a rallying cry. At a
conference in New York they decided to compel the retirement of
Lincoln and the nomination of some other candidate. For this
purpose a new convention was to be called at Cincinnati in
September. In the ranks of the Vindictives at this time was the
impetuous editor of the "New York Tribune", Horace Greeley. His
presence there calls for some explanation. Perhaps the most
singular figure of the time, he was one of the most irresponsible
and yet, through his paper, one of the most influential. He had
a trick of phrase which, somehow, made him appear oracular to the
plain people, especially in the rural districts--the very people
on whom Lincoln relied for a large part of his support. Greeley
knew his power, and his mind was not large enough to carry the
knowledge well. Furthermore, his was the sort of nature that
relates itself to life above all through the sensibilities.
Kipling speaks scornfully of people who if their "own front door
is shut will swear the world is warm." They are relations in the
full blood of Horace Greeley.
In July, when the breach between the President and the
Vindictives was just beginning to be evident, Greeley was
pursuing an adventure of his own.
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