n's Cabinet. That is
utterly, absolutely false, the President himself being my witness. I
might call many others, but one such is sufficient."--New York
_Tribune_, signed editorial, July 25, 1861.]

It is doubtful if Lincoln and Greeley, under any circumstances, could
have had close personal relations. Lack of sympathy because they did
not see things alike must have kept them apart; but Seward's presence
in the Cabinet undoubtedly limited Greeley's intercourse with the
President at a time when frequent conferences might have avoided grave
embarrassments. His virile and brilliant talents, which turned him
into an independent and acute thinker on a wide range of subjects,
always interested his readers, giving expression to the thoughts of
many earnest men who aided in forming public opinion in their
neighbourhoods, so that it may be said with truth, that, in 1860 and
1861, everything he wrote was eagerly read and discussed in the North.
"Notwithstanding the loyal support given Lincoln throughout the
country," says McClure, "Greeley was in closer touch with the active,
loyal sentiment of the people than even the President himself."[760]
His art of saying things on paper seemed to thrill people as much as
the nervous, spirited rhetoric of an intense talker. With the air of
lofty detachment from sordid interests, his sentences, clear and
rapid, read like the clarion notes of a peroration, and impressed his
great audiences with an earnestness that often carried conviction even
to unwilling listeners.

[Footnote 760: Alex. K. McClure, _Lincoln and Men of War Times_, p.
295.]

Nevertheless, the _Tribune's_ columns did not manifest toward the
Administration a fine exhibition of the love of fair play. In the
hottest moment of excitement growing out of hostilities, it
patriotically supported the most vigorous prosecution of the war, and
mercilessly criticised its opponents; but Greeley would neither
conform to nor silently endure Lincoln's judgment, and, as every step
in the war created new issues, his constant criticism, made through
the columns of a great newspaper, kept the party more or less
seriously divided, until, by untimely forcing emancipation, he
inspired, despite the patient and conciliatory methods of Lincoln, a
factious hostility to the President which embarrassed his efforts to
marshal a solid North in support of his war policy. Greeley was a man
of clean hands and pure heart, and, at the outset, it is probable