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Preface
Horace Greeley is remembered by the men of his own day as a great editor and a somewhat eccentric genius.
While we like to hear about a man's personal characteristics, in studying his biography the lessons of a life like
Greeley's are to be found in his works.
When a “gawky” country lad, with a limited education and a slight acquaintance with the printer's trade, comes to the principal city of the land with a few dollars in his pocket and a single suit of clothes, and fights a fight the result of which is the founding of the most influential newspaper of his day, and the acquirement of a reputation as its editor which secures for him a nomination for the presidency of the
United States-in such a man's career there must be material for useful study.
And the place to study
Horace Greeley is in his newspapers.
He made these newspapers; he gave them their character; and, in doing so, he left on them his mental photograph.
