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and promises of more, which he did not get. Then he printed in the
Log Cabin of April 3, 1841, an announcement that on April 10 he would publish the first number “of a new morning journal of politics, literature, and general intelligence,” adding: “The Tribune, as its name imports, will labor to advance the interests of the people, and to promote their moral, social, and political well-being.
The immoral and degrading police reports, advertisements, and other matter which have been allowed to disgrace the columns of our leading penny papers, will be carefully excluded from this, and no exertion spared to render it worthy of the hearty approval of the virtuous and refined, and a welcome visitant at the family fireside.”
Greeley's hopes for the success of his journal rested largely on expectations of future Whig ascendency, raised by the election of General Harrison to the presidency.
How nearly the death of the President, which occurred on April 4, came to checking the Tribune enterprise Greeley explained in a brief autobiography, dated April 14, 1845, which was published after his death: “In 1841 I issued the first number of the Daily Tribune, which I should not have done had I not issued ”