ly defended the rights of labor; he had waged
unsparing war on the evils of intemperance; he had made himself an
oracle with the American farmers; and his influence was even more
potent in the remote prairie homes than within the shadow of
Printing-House Square. With his dogmatic earnestness, his extraordinary
mental qualities, his moral power, and his quick sympathy with the
instincts and impulses of the masses, he was in a peculiar sense the
Tribune of the people. In any reckoning of the personal forces of the
century, Horace Greeley must be counted among the foremost--intellectually
and morally.

When he left the fields of labor in which he had become illustrious,
to pass the ordeal of a Presidential candidate, the opposite and weaker
sides of his character and career were brought into view. He was
headstrong, impulsive, and opinionated. If he had the strength of a
giant in battle, he lacked the wisdom of the sage in council. If he
was irresistible in his own appropriate sphere of moral and economic
discussion, he was uncertain and unstable when he ventured beyond its
limits. He was a powerful agitator and a matchless leader of debate,
rather than a master of government. Those who most admired his
honesty, courage, and power in the realm of his true greatness, most
distrusted his fitness to hold the reins of administration. He had in
critical periods evinced a want both of firmness and of sagacity. When
the Southern States were on the eve of secession and the temper of the
country was on trial, he had, though with honest intentions, shown
signs of irresolution and vacillation. When he was betrayed into the
ill-advised and abortive peace negotiations with Southern commissioners
at Niagara, he had displayed the lack of tact and penetration which
made the people doubt the solidity and coolness of his judgment. His
methods of dealing with the most intricate problems of finance seemed
experimental and rash. The sensitive interests of business shrank from
his visionary theories and his dangerous empiricism. His earlier
affiliation with novel and doubtful social schemes had laid him open
to the reproach of being called a man of _isms_.

Mr. Greeley had moreover weakened himself by showing a singular thirst
for public office. It is strange that one who held a commanding
station, and who wielded an unequaled influence, should have been
ambitious for the smaller honors of public life. But Mr. Greeley had
crave