POL19. Sarony, NYC. General John Adams Dix (July 24, 1798-April 21, 1879). American Statesman and general. US Senator from NY 1845-49; Secretary of the Treasury 1861; General 1861-65; Governor of NY 1873-75. Cabinet Card. E. $75
POL169. Sarony, NY. Edwin Denison Morgan (1811-1883), Governor of NY (1859-1862); US Senator (1863-1869). He was the first and longest serving chairman of the Republican National Committee. Cabinet Card. VG. $75
POL175. J. Gurney & Son, NY. Nathaniel Pitcher Tallmadge (1795-1864). Senator from NY, 1833-’44; Tyler appointed him Governor of Wisconsin Territory in 1844 so he resigned from the Senate. Served only until 1845 when he was removed as Governor. CDV trimmed at bottom. VG. $50
POL192. J. Gurney & Son, NY. Simeon Draper (1804-1866). Whig NY politician. CDV. VG. $50
POL194. Photographic negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony, NY. Isaac Toucey (1792-1869). Governor of Connecticut ’46-’47; US Attorney General ’48-’49; Senator CT ’52-’57; Secretary of the Navy ’57-’61 under Buchanan. CDV. VG. $50
POL246. Brady’s National Portrait Gallery. Published by E&HT Anthony. Henry Wilson (1812-1875). Senator from Massachusetts and 18th Vice President of the US under Grant 1873-’75. CDV. VG. $125
POL254. Charles D. Fredricks & Co., NY. Henry Clay. CDV. G. $175
POL256. Negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony, NY. Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808 – May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States from 1864 to 1873. During his career, Chase was the 23rd Governor of Ohio and U.S. Senator from Ohio prior to service under Abraham Lincoln as the 25th Secretary of the Treasury. As Treasury Secretary, Chase strengthened the federal government, introducing its first paper currency as well as a national bank, both during wartime. Chase articulated the “slave power conspiracy” thesis, devoting his energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power—the conspiracy of Southern slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty. He coined the slogan of the Free Soil Party, “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”. Chief Justice Chase presided over the Senate trial of Andrew Johnson during the President’s impeachment proceedings in 1868. CDV. G. $125
POL260. Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808 – May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States from 1864 to 1873. During his career, Chase was the 23rd Governor of Ohio and U.S. Senator from Ohio prior to service under Abraham Lincoln as the 25th Secretary of the Treasury. As Treasury Secretary, Chase strengthened the federal government, introducing its first paper currency as well as a national bank, both during wartime. Chase articulated the “slave power conspiracy” thesis, devoting his energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power—the conspiracy of Southern slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty. He coined the slogan of the Free Soil Party, “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”. Chief Justice Chase presided over the Senate trial of Andrew Johnson during the President’s impeachment proceedings in 1868. CDV. VG. $150
POL276. C.M. Bell, Washington, DC. Cabinet Card of William Eaton Chandler (December 28, 1835 – November 30, 1917), a lawyer who served as United States Secretary of the Navy (1882-1885) and as a Republican U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. VG. $45
POL277. Cabinet Card by C.M. Bell, Washington, DC of Walter Quintin Gresham (March 17, 1832 – May 28, 1895), an American statesman and jurist. He served as a federal judge and in the Cabinet of two presidential administrations. He affiliated with the Republican Party for most of his career but joined the Democratic Party late in life. Gresham began a legal career in Corydon, Indiana after attending the Indiana University Bloomington. He campaigned for the Republican Party in the 1856 elections and won election to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1860. He served as a Union general during the American Civil War, taking part in the Siege of Vicksburg and other major battles. After the war, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Gresham to a position on the United States District Court for the District of Indiana. Gresham remained on that court until 1883, when he resigned his position to become Postmaster General under President Chester A. Arthur. After briefly serving as Arthur’s Secretary of the Treasury, Gresham accepted appointment to the United States circuit court for the Seventh Circuit. Gresham was a candidate for the presidential nomination at the 1884 Republican National Convention and the 1888 Republican National Convention. Much of his support for those nominations came from agrarian unions like the Farmers’ Alliance. In the 1892 presidential election, Gresham broke with the Republican Party and advocated the election of Democrat Grover Cleveland. After Cleveland won the election, Gresham resigned from the federal bench to serve as Cleveland’s Secretary of State. Gresham held that position until his death in 1895. G. $50
POL289. Silsbee, Case & Co., Boston. Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward. VG. $125
POL290. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E&HT Anthony. Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. VG. $150
POL291. D. Appleton & Co., NY. Lincoln’s Attorney General Edward Bates. VG. $100
POL299. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. Albert Gallatin Brown (May 31, 1813 – June 12, 1880) was Governor of Mississippi from 1844 to 1848 and a Democrat United States Senator from Mississippi from 1854 to 1861, when he withdrew during secession. VG. $100
POL300. J. Gurney & Son, NY. Charles James Faulkner (July 6, 1806 – November 1, 1884) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from Virginia and West Virginia. Faulkner was born in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia). Faulkner graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1822, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1829. As an adult, Faulkner practiced law in Berkeley County. He was elected a member of the Virginia House of Delegates 1832-33. Soon after Faulkner was appointed a commissioner to report on the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. Later in his career, Faulkner was elected to the Virginia State Senate in 1841, and again to the General Assembly in 1848. In 1848 he introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates a law after which the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was modeled. In 1850, Faulkner was elected to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. Faulkner was a U.S. Representative from 1851 to 1858. Entering Congress as a Whig, during the next Congress Faulkner was elected as a Democrat, which he remained for the rest of his Congressional career. In Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs from 1857 to 1859. He was appointed by President James Buchanan Minister to France in 1860, serving until he was arrested in August 1861 on charges of negotiating sales of arms for the Confederacy while in Paris, France. He was imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston. Faulkner was released in December after negotiating his own exchange for Alfred Ely, a New York congressman who was captured at the First Battle of Bull Run. During the Civil War, Faulkner enlisted in the Confederate Army and was a lieutenant colonel and assistant adjutant general on the staff of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Faulkner engaged in railroad enterprises after the war and was a member of the West Virginia Constitutional Convention again in 1872. He was elected back to the House of Representatives as a Democrat from West Virginia in 1874, serving again from 1875 to 1877. Afterward, he resumed practicing law until his death. G. $100
POL301. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. James Lawrence Orr (5/12/22-5/5/73) was a US Congressman, Civil War CSA Congressman, 41st South Carolina Governor, US Diplomat. A lawyer and newspaperman, he was elected as a Democrat to represent South Carolina’s 2nd, then 6th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1849 to 1859. From 1857 to 1859 he served as Speaker of the House. In December 1860 he was a delegate to the South Carolina Secession Convention, and signed the state’s Ordnance of Secession. When the Civil War started, he helped raise a regiment of South Carolina infantry that became known as Orr’s Rifles. He was elected Colonel of the unit, and commanded it until his resignation in 1862. He then served briefly as a South Carolina delegate to the Confederate House of Representatives before being elected to the Confederate States Senate in 1862. He served in that seat through the end of the war and the defeat of the Confederacy. In 1865 he was elected as provisional Governor of South Carolina, serving until 1868. During his tenure the state was under Union military rule, and much of the administration of the state came under the auspices of the military commander, Major General Edward R.S. Canby. After his gubernatorial term ended, he was elected by the state legislature as a district judge. In 1872 he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as United States Minister to the Empire of Russia, serving until he died in office in 1873. VG. $125
POL302. E&HT Anthony. Pierre Soulé (August 31, 1801 – March 26, 1870) was a Franco-American attorney, politician, and diplomat during the mid-19th century. Serving as a United States Senator from Louisiana from 1849 to 1853, he resigned to accept appointment as U.S. Minister to Spain, a post he held until 1855. He is likely best known for his role in writing the 1854 Ostend Manifesto, part of an attempt by Southern slaveholders to gain support for the US to annex Cuba to the United States. Some Southern planters wanted to expand their territory to the Caribbean and into Central America. The Manifesto was roundly denounced, especially by anti-slavery elements, and Soulé was personally criticized. Born and raised in France, Soulé was exiled for revolutionary activities. He moved to Great Britain and then the United States, where he settled in New Orleans and became an attorney, later entering politics. VG. $100
POL303. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E&HT Anthony. William Campbell Preston (December 27, 1794 – May 22, 1860) was a senator from South Carolina (1833-1842) and a member of the Nullifier party, and later Whig Parties. VG. $75
POL306. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. William Lowndes Yancey (August 10, 1814 – July 27, 1863) was a journalist, politician, orator, diplomat and an leader of the Southern secession movement. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the most-effective agitators for secession and rhetorical defenders of slavery. An early critic of John C. Calhoun and nullification, by the late 1830s Yancey began to identify with Calhoun and the struggle against the forces of the anti-slavery movement. In 1849, Yancey was a firm supporter of Calhoun’s “Southern Address” and an adamant opponent of the Compromise of 1850. Throughout the 1850s, Yancey, sometimes referred to as the “Orator of Secession”, demonstrated the ability to hold large audiences under his spell for hours at a time. At the 1860 Democratic National Convention, Yancey, a leading opponent of Stephen A. Douglas and the concept of popular sovereignty, was instrumental in splitting the party into Northern and Southern factions. At the 1860 convention, he used the phrase “squatter sovereignty” in a speech he gave to describe popular sovereignty. During the Civil War, Yancey was appointed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to head a diplomatic delegation to Europe in the attempt to secure formal recognition of Southern independence. In these efforts, Yancey was unsuccessful and frustrated. Upon his return to America in 1862, Yancey was elected to the Confederate States Senate, where he was a frequent critic of the Davis Administration. Suffering from ill health for much of his life, Yancey died during the Civil War, in July 1863 at the age of 48. VG. $125
POL311. E&HT Anthony. Roger Atkinson Pryor (July 19, 1828 – March 14, 1919) was a Virginian newspaper editor and politician who became known for his fiery oratory in favor of secession; he was elected both to national and Confederate office, and served as a general for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. In 1865 he moved to New York City to remake his life, and in 1868 brought up his family. He was among a number of influential southerners in the North who became known as “Confederate carpetbaggers.” He became a law partner with Benjamin F. Butler (based in Boston), noted in the South as a hated Union general during the war. Their partnership was financially successful, and Pryor became active in the Democratic Party in the North. In 1877 he was chosen to give a Decoration Day address, in which, according to one interpretation, he vilified Reconstruction and promoted the Lost Cause, while reconciling the noble soldiers as victims of politicians. In 1890 he joined the Sons of the American Revolution, one of the new heritage societies that was created following celebration of the United States Centennial. He was appointed as judge of the New York Court of Common Pleas from 1890 to 1894, and justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1894 to his retirement in 1899. On April 10, 1912, he was appointed official referee by the appellate division of the state Supreme Court, where he served until his death. He and his wife Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, also a Virginian, had seven children together, the last born in 1868. Active in founding several heritage societies, she organized fundraising for historic preservation. She was a writer and had several works: histories, memoirs, and novels, published by the Macmillan Company in the first decade of the twentieth century. Her memoirs have been important sources for historians doing research on southern society during and after the Civil War. G. $100.
POL312. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. Daniel Stevens Dickinson (September 11, 1800 – April 12, 1866) was a New York politician, most notable as a United States Senator from 1844 to 1851. VG. $100
POL316. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. Alexander Hamilton Stephens (February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the 50th Governor of Georgia from 1882 until his death in 1883. He also served as the only Vice President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. A member of the Democratic Party, Stephens represented the state of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives prior to becoming governor. Stephens attended Franklin College and established a legal practice in his home town of Crawfordville, Georgia. After serving in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly, he won election to Congress, taking his seat in 1843. He became a leading Southern Whig and strongly opposed the Mexican–American War. After the war, Stephens was a prominent supporter of the Compromise of 1850 and helped draft the Georgia Platform, which opposed secession. A proponent of the expansion of slavery into the territories, Stephens also helped pass the Kansas–Nebraska Act. As the Whig Party collapsed in the 1850s, Stephens eventually joined the Democratic Party and worked with President James Buchanan to admit Kansas as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. Stephens declined to seek re-election in 1858, but continued to publicly advocate against secession. After Georgia and other Southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, Stephens was elected as the Confederate Vice President. Stephens’s Cornerstone Speech of March 1861 defended slavery in the most uncompromising terms, though after the war he tried to distance himself from his earlier sentiments. In the course of the war, he became increasingly critical of President Jefferson Davis’s policies, especially conscription and the suspension of habeas corpus. In February 1865, he was one of the commissioners who met with Abraham Lincoln at the abortive Hampton Roads Conference to discuss peace terms. After the war, Stephens was imprisoned until October 1865. The following year, the Georgia legislature elected Stephens to the United States Senate, but the Senate declined to seat him due to his role in the Civil War. He won election to the House of Representatives in 1873 and held that office until 1882, when he resigned from Congress to become Governor of Georgia. Stephens served as governor until his death in March 1883. VG. $200
POL317. Photographic negative by Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. Robert Augustus Toombs (July 2, 1810 – December 15, 1885) was a lawyer, slaveholder and politician who became one of the organizers of the Confederacy and its first Secretary of State. He served in Jefferson Davis’ cabinet as well as in the Confederate States Army, but later became one of Davis’ critics, and only reluctantly returned to the United States after the Confederate defeat and regained political power as Congressional Reconstruction ended. A lawyer by training, Toombs gained renown as speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives, and later in the U.S. Senate. A slaveholder, he found common ground with fellow-Georgian Alexander H. Stephens and advocated states’ rights and extending slavery. Toombs supported the Compromise of 1850, but later advocated secession. Toombs had always made a powerful impression on the public with his emotive oratory, backed by a strong physical presence, but his intemperate habits and volatile personality limited his career potential. In the newly formed Confederate Government, Toombs was appointed Secretary of State, but criticized the attack on Fort Sumter, which put him at odds with President Jefferson Davis (whose position he had coveted), and he quit to join the Confederate States Army. He became a Brigadier-General, and was wounded at the Battle of Antietam. In 1863, Toombs resigned his commission in the Confederate Army to join the Georgia militia. He was subsequently denied higher promotion and resigned, continuing to feud with Davis to the last. When the war ended, he fled to Cuba, later returning to Georgia. VG. $125
POL324. Brady’s National Photographic Portrait Galleries, NY and Washington, DC. Peter Barr Sweeny (October 9, 1825 – August 30, 1911) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was the son of James Sweeny, who kept a hotel in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Mary (Barr) Sweeny. He attended Columbia College, then studied law, was admitted to the bar and practiced law with James T. Brady in New York City. In 1852, he was appointed Public Administrator. He was New York County District Attorney in 1858, elected on the Democratic ticket in November 1857, but resigned due to ill health. Sweeny was City Chamberlain and Park Commissioner under Mayor A. Oakey Hall. He became notorious as a central figure in the ring that controlled Tammany Hall, and was depicted prominently in Thomas Nast’s cartoons alongside Boss Tweed, Richard B. Connolly and A. Oakey Hall. With Tweed, he was a director of the Erie Railroad, which became “a gigantic highway of robbery and disgrace”. Sweeny was also Director of the Tenth National Bank, in which city funds were deposited. In Nast’s cartoons, Tweed and Sweeny were often identified as “Tweeny and Sweed”; in others, Sweeny was identified as “Peter ‘Brains’ Sweeny”. Public indignation over the theft of millions of dollars by the Tweed ring led to the downfall of the Ring in the municipal election of November 7, 1871. Sweeny resigned from public life the following day. In February 1872, Sweeny was indicted but the D.A.’s office decided for nolle prosequi, and Sweeny went to Canada. In 1877, Sweeny paid $400,000 to New York City in exchange for forgiveness. The fact that the sum was paid in the name of his recently deceased brother, James M. Sweeney, who had been a minor player in the financial operations of the Ring, was widely condemned in the press. On June 7, 1877, the Evening Post wrote, “Of course, nobody will be deceived by this disgraceful and offensive sham. The suit of the people was not against James M. Sweeny … It is known that he lived by the breath of his brother, that he was but a mere miserable tool.” Sweeny died at the home of his son Arthur Sweeny, Assistant Corporation Counsel of New York City. CDV. G. $75
POL325. Sarony & Co., NY. John Thompson Hoffman (January 10, 1828 – March 24, 1888) was the 23rd Governor of New York (1869–72). He was also Recorder of New York City (1861–65) and the 78th Mayor of New York City (1866–68). Connections to the Tweed Ring ruined his political career, in spite of the absence of evidence to show personal involvement in corrupt activities. He is to date the last New York City mayor elected Governor of New York. CDV. G. $100
POL326. W. Walker & Sons, London. William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served for twelve years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times. CDV. VG. $95
POL335. Photographic negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. Miss Harriet Lane. Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (5/9/30-7/3/03), niece of James Buchanan who was his White House hostess and performed all the duties of a First Lady. CDV. VG. $125
POL337. E&HT Anthony. Rose Adele Cutts (12/27/35-1/26/99) wife of Senator Stephen Douglas. G. $50
POL345. Photographic negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E&HT Anthony. Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878), nicknamed “Father Neptune”, was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Although opposed to the Union blockade of Southern ports, he duly carried out his part of the Anaconda Plan, largely sealing off the Confederate coastline and preventing the exchange of cotton for war supplies. This is viewed as a major cause of Union victory in the Civil War, and his achievement in expanding the Navy almost tenfold was widely praised. Welles was also instrumental in the Navy’s creation of the Medal of Honor. VG. $150
POL346. Photographic negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E&HT Anthony. William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War, he was a prominent figure in the Republican Party in its formative years, and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. Seward was born in 1801 in the village of Florida, in Orange County, New York, where his father was a farmer and owned slaves. He was educated as a lawyer and moved to the Central New York town of Auburn. Seward was elected to the New York State Senate in 1830 as an Anti-Mason. Four years later, he became the gubernatorial nominee of the Whig Party. Though he was not successful in that race, Seward was elected governor in 1838 and won a second two-year term in 1840. During this period, he signed several laws that advanced the rights of and opportunities for black residents, as well as guaranteeing fugitive slaves jury trials in the state. The legislation protected abolitionists, and he used his position to intervene in cases of freed black people who were enslaved in the South. After many years of practicing law in Auburn, he was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1849. Seward’s strong stances and provocative words against slavery brought him hatred in the South. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855, and soon joined the nascent Republican Party, becoming one of its leading figures. As the 1860 presidential election approached, he was regarded as the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. Several factors, including attitudes to his vocal opposition to slavery, his support for immigrants and Catholics, and his association with editor and political boss Thurlow Weed, worked against him, and Abraham Lincoln secured the presidential nomination. Although devastated by his loss, he campaigned for Lincoln, who appointed him Secretary of State after winning the election. Seward did his best to stop the southern states from seceding; once that failed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Union cause. His firm stance against foreign intervention in the Civil War helped deter the United Kingdom and France from recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. He was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward remained in his post through the presidency of Andrew Johnson, during which he negotiated the Alaska Purchase in 1867 and supported Johnson during his impeachment. His contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as “one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints.” VG. $150
POL347. Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War, he was a prominent figure in the Republican Party in its formative years, and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. Seward was born in 1801 in the village of Florida, in Orange County, New York, where his father was a farmer and owned slaves. He was educated as a lawyer and moved to the Central New York town of Auburn. Seward was elected to the New York State Senate in 1830 as an Anti-Mason. Four years later, he became the gubernatorial nominee of the Whig Party. Though he was not successful in that race, Seward was elected governor in 1838 and won a second two-year term in 1840. During this period, he signed several laws that advanced the rights of and opportunities for black residents, as well as guaranteeing fugitive slaves jury trials in the state. The legislation protected abolitionists, and he used his position to intervene in cases of freed black people who were enslaved in the South. After many years of practicing law in Auburn, he was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1849. Seward’s strong stances and provocative words against slavery brought him hatred in the South. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855, and soon joined the nascent Republican Party, becoming one of its leading figures. As the 1860 presidential election approached, he was regarded as the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. Several factors, including attitudes to his vocal opposition to slavery, his support for immigrants and Catholics, and his association with editor and political boss Thurlow Weed, worked against him, and Abraham Lincoln secured the presidential nomination. Although devastated by his loss, he campaigned for Lincoln, who appointed him Secretary of State after winning the election. Seward did his best to stop the southern states from seceding; once that failed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Union cause. His firm stance against foreign intervention in the Civil War helped deter the United Kingdom and France from recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. He was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward remained in his post through the presidency of Andrew Johnson, during which he negotiated the Alaska Purchase in 1867 and supported Johnson during his impeachment. His contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as “one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints.” VG. $150
PPCDV171. Photographic Negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery, published by E. Anthony. Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York, and was the unsuccessful candidate of the new Liberal Republican Party in the 1872 presidential election against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant, who won by a landslide. Greeley was born to a poor family in Amherst, New Hampshire. He was apprenticed to a printer in Vermont and went to New York City in 1831 to seek his fortune. He wrote for or edited several publications and involved himself in Whig Party politics, taking a significant part in William Henry Harrison’s successful 1840 presidential campaign. The following year, he founded the Tribune, which became the highest-circulating newspaper in the country through weekly editions sent by mail. Among many other issues, he urged the settlement of the American Old West, which he saw as a land of opportunity for the young and the unemployed. He popularized the slogan “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” He endlessly promoted utopian reforms such as socialism, vegetarianism, agrarianism, feminism, and temperance while hiring the best talent he could find. Greeley’s alliance with William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed led to him serving three months in the House of Representatives, where he angered many by investigating Congress in his newspaper. In 1854, he helped found and may have named the Republican Party. Republican newspapers across the nation regularly reprinted his editorials. During the Civil War, he mostly supported Abraham Lincoln, though he urged the president to commit to the end of slavery before Lincoln was willing to do so. After Lincoln’s assassination, he supported the Radical Republicans in opposition to President Andrew Johnson. He broke with the Radicals and with Republican President Ulysses Grant because of corruption, and Greeley’s view that Reconstruction era policies were no longer needed. Greeley was the new Liberal Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 1872. He lost in a landslide despite having the additional support of the Democratic Party. He was devastated by the death of his wife five days before the election and died one month later, before the Electoral College met. VG. $150
POL348. Black & Case, Boston. Edward Everett (4/11/1794-1/15/65). 2-cent cancelled tax stamp dated Jan. 18, 1865, three days after his death. VG. $75