Poultney, Vermont
Once the Civil War was over, Greeley urged reconciliation between the North and the South. He wrote that the two sides should “clasp hands across the bloody chasm.” At the same time, he favored granting the right to vote to freed slaves.
While some Northerners were calling for the trial and execution of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, Greeley was one of the signers of his bond, releasing him from prison in Richmond.
In 1872, Greeley ran for President as a Liberal Republican who favored civil service reform and an end to corruption. He was also nominated by the Democratic Party, which predominated in the South. War hero and incumbent president Ulysses S. Grant was the candidate of the established Republican Party.
It was one of the most vicious campaigns in U.S. history. Greeley was to wonder if he was running for president or the penitentiary.
Greeley’s support for reconciliation was seen by some as a betrayal of the Northern cause and the rights of African-Americans. A letter to the editor in the Poultney Bulletin expressed this view: “He sides with the South in allowing the Ku-Klux Democracy to murder and harass negroes.”
Greeley captured only six states and 43.8 percent of the vote. He felt as if he was “the worst beaten man who ever ran for high office.”
His wife died a few days before the election. Within weeks, Greeley died as well, his mind and body broken by the strain of the election.
Copyright 2013 The Horace Greeley Foundation. All rights reserved.