nd the broad sympathies and clear discernments
that characterised his writings. He had his own ideas about the
necessity for reforms, and he seems easily to have fallen a victim to
countless delusions and illusions which young visionaries and
gray-headed theorists brought to him; but, in spite of remonstrances
and crushing opposition, he stood resolutely for whatever awoke the
strongest emotions of his nature.

Thurlow Weed had been a constant reader of the _New Yorker_. He did
not know the name of its editor and had never taken the trouble to
inquire, but when a cheap weekly Whig newspaper was needed for a
vigorous campaign in 1838, the editor of the _New Yorker_, whoever he
might be, seemed the proper man to edit and manage it. Going to New
York, he called at the Ann Street office and found himself in the
presence of a young man, slender, light-haired, slightly stooping, and
very near-sighted, who introduced himself as Horace Greeley. At the
moment, he was standing at the case, with coat off and sleeves rolled
up, setting type with the ease and rapidity of an expert. "When I
informed him of the object of my visit," says Weed, "he was, of
course, surprised, but evidently gratified. Nor was his surprise and
gratification diminished to learn that I was drawn to him without any
other reason or information but such as I had derived from the columns
of the _New Yorker_. He suggested the _Jeffersonian_ as the name for
the new paper, and the first number appeared in February, 1838."[298]

[Footnote 298: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 466.]

It is one of the privileges of genius to discern the genius of others;
but even Thurlow Weed could not have dreamed that he was giving
opportunity to a man whose name was to rank higher than his own in
history. There was a certain affinity between the intellectual nature
of the two men, and they had now a common object. Both were
journalists of tremendous energy, indomitable industry, and marvellous
gifts; but Weed was a politician, Greeley a political preacher. Weed's
influence lay in his remarkable judgment, his genius for diplomacy,
and his rare gift of controlling individuals by personal appeal and by
the overpowering mastery of his intellect; Greeley's supremacy grew
out of his broad sympathies with the human race and his matchless
ability to write. Weed's field of operations was confined largely to
the State of New York and to delegates and men of influence who
assemble at na