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Records of Horace Greeley, 1861-1872
New Castle’s most celebrated resident was Horace Greeley (1811-1872). Greeley was the founder and editor of the New York Tribune, an enormously influential and well-respected newspaper in an era when most papers were either scandal sheets or political pamphlets. He was nicknamed “Old Honesty” both for his scrupulous reporting and for his frankly expressed opinions. Deeply involved in the major issues of the day, he championed women’s rights and labor unions and was a vocal opponent of slavery. He was a founder of the Republican Party and ran for President against Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 when this photograph was taken.
Greeley’s 78-acre farm, depicted in this wood engraving, was a source of great joy to him, although the property he chose was not very promising for farming. It occupied much of what is now downtown Chappaqua. The family home from 1864 to 1873 is now the Horace Greeley House museum.
The letter from Horace Greeley to Army Provost E.O. Moreau, written in the first year of the Civil War, supported the application of an enlisted soldier for a lieutenant’s commission. A letter signed by the editor of the New York Tribune would have carried more weight than most, even if the recipient may have had trouble making it out due to Greeley’s notoriously poor handwriting.
The occasion of Greeley’s toast to the Union, delivered two years after the end of the Civil War, is unknown. However, it succinctly expresses Greeley’s strong belief in reconciliation with the defeated South.