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las. His personal magnetism was unequalled. Judge Douglas was short in stature, though most compactly built; so that he was as strong physically as he was powerful in debate. Hence his sobriquet of "The Little Giant" was unusually appropriate. He seemed to stand so firmly on his feet that it would be impossible to uptrip him. Mr. Breckinridge was a gentleman of brilliant parts, and one of the most pleasing of public speakers. Genial, warm-hearted, he too had vast numbers of devoted adherents in the South, and was correctly esteemed in the country generally as among the most creditable representatives of those who were said to form "the Southern chivalry." Mr. Bell was a statesman of many years' experience in public life, was justly entitled to the general respect, but in this campaign occupied a negative, unaggressive position. He afterwards quailed before the threatening attitude of the South against the Union, and, in Horace Greeley's opinion, became entitled to severer condemnation than Jefferson Davis himself. In this opinion history will probably concur, relating with indignant sadness the melancholy end of a life which, but for its late mistakes, might have been placed among those by which the republic had been blessed and saved.

Of the candidates for Vice-President, Mr. Everett was the only one of illustrious name. A statesman of the old school, he had dropped behind his age, but not without having added renown to his country's statesmanship and diplomacy, and greatly extended the influence and good report of American literature. Mr. Hamlin, the candidate of the Republicans, had not been greatly distinguished, but at the time of his nomination was a respected member of the Senate. He had left the Democratic party in 1856, in a speech in the Senate of remarkable power and eloquence, which received all the more praise. from the public because it was the first and last great speech in that chamber by him. He came near being called "Single Speech Hamlin," in imitation of a similar thing in the history of an English politician. Mr. Johnson, associated on the ticket with Mr. Douglas, was a man of respectable talents and excellent character; a little too eruptive, per

THE ELECTION OF 1860.

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haps, of "Southern fire," but without much unfortunate record. Mr. Lane was an "intense pro-slavery Democrat;" a man who had had greatness thrust upon him; was wonderfully ignorant; and was even charged with writing the name of Deity with a little g. Such dead-wood frequently drifts into the stream of politics; and whence it cometh or whither it goeth no man can tell.

The campaign was exceedingly animated, on the part of the Republicans, from the moment. of Mr. Lincoln's nomination. As with General Harrison, there appeared to be something in his homely life and character to bring out the affections and enthusiasm of the people. The nominations at Baltimore but increased the excitement. Senator Douglas soon in person went upon the hustings, and, addressing vast concourses of people, aroused the enthusiasm of his friends to the highest pitch. It was certainly the liveliest presidential campaign in the history of our country, excepting only that of 1840. Companies of "Wide-Awakes" were formed by Republicans in every neighbourhood, followed by "Hickory-shirt Boys" on the part of the Douglasites in many portions of the North. It was astonishing, too, how much noise the "Bell-Everettites" made even in communities where they were outvoted ten, twenty, fifty, or even a hundred to one.

All the orators and all the journals of each party undoubtedly did their best. Speak as they might, write as men might on other topics, the issue of the campaign was the question of Human Slavery. It was a dread issue, in which might be involved appalling results, but it was ably, conscientiously, and bravely met. This year The New-York Tribune fairly surpassed itself. Mr. Greeley had been assailed, as we have seen, by men in high standing in his own party at the very inception of the campaign. This appears to have aroused his ambition and energies to their best endeavour; and it is certain that The Tribune in all its editions was one of the most potential means in bringing about the result.

In the election Mr. Lincoln carried every free State except New Jersey, and even a portion of the electoral vote of that State. Next in popular strength was Mr. Douglas, then Mr.

Breckinridge, and lowest of all Mr. Bell. But in electoral votes Mr. Douglas had only 12, Mr. Bell receiving 39, Mr. Breckinridge 72, and Mr. Lincoln 180.

The great success of the candidates and principles which Horace Greeley had been so largely instrumental in placing before the people, was forthwith tortured into the inauguration of opposition to the Union, resulting in that terrible civil war of which he became the most impartial historian who has yet narrated its momentous events.

CHAPTER XX.

HOME LIFE.

Horace Greeley at Home-An Unpretending Household - Margaret Fuller's Description of Mr. Greeley's Home-His Personal Habits - Toilet -Food-His Hospitality-Tenderness for His Children - The Death of "Pickie "His Taste as to Home Adornments - Buys a Farm.

ONE of the apparently necessary results of journalism is that it leaves little time to the editor for social or home enjoyments. This is especially the case where the journal is a daily paper. For, no matter what happens, the paper must come out. It can stop neither on account of joy, or misery, or sickness, or death, or private or public calamity. Clouds may obscure the sun, but storms must not repress the daily journal. It is our intellectual daylight, and cannot be shut out from the world. Life justly became "a demnition grind" to the accomplished Mr. Mantilini (a highly accomplished fraud, that is), of Dickens's greatest story. The life of a daily journalist is an eternal grind. The demands upon his labour and study are ceaseless. The time may come, perhaps, when more leisure shall be allowed the journalist. In that event, journalism will be the means of even greater good than it now is.

Mr. Greeley, as we have seen, had been some years married before he became the founder of The New-York Tribune. But he had commenced his unusually busy life some years before his marriage. Circumstances, already referred to, occurred soon after that event, which prevented him from securing many hours of leisure, even had he been so inclined. The latter years of The New-Yorker, it will be recollected, were years of embarrassment and the pressing weight of debt. To keep himself afloat at all almost constant toil was necessary. When Mr. Weed, in the interview which resulted in Mr. Greeley's engagement as editor of The Jeffersonian at Albany

enquired if he had a family, Mr. Greeley replied, "I have a wife, but she keeps school, and is no hindrance to the enterprise." Both master and mistress of the family, it will be seen, were hard workers. The wife was devoted to teaching and to the acquisition of knowledge. Such a woman is often described as having "a mind of her own," the fact intended to be made known by this description being that she has opinions and ideas besides those which gurgle along in the old-time channels; channels which would be astonished out of all propriety at a storm or a freshet.

It may well be supposed, therefore, that Mr. Greeley's household, in the earlier years of life in his own home, was sufficiently unpretending. Himself ever a man of the people, he never acquired luxurious tastes. He delighted, as he says himself, in bare walls and rugged fare. And the taste of Mrs. Greeley, at least for many years, was even more severe than his own, particularly as regards the matter of rugged fare. Her rigid conscientiousness upon the subject of food prevented any lavish hospitality. From the time Mr. Greeley went to New-York until after the presidential campaign of 1844, he had always lived, much of the time boarded,within half a mile of the City Hall. There was not in the whole metropolis, perhaps, a more unpretending home than that of Horace Greeley at a time when he was working harder and doing more for the Whig party than any one of his cotemporaries.

When the great struggle of the canvass just mentioned was over, says Mr. Greeley, "and I the worst beaten man on the continent,-worn out by incessant anxiety and effort, covered with boils, and thoroughly used up,-I took a long stride landward, removing to a spacious old wooden house, built as a country or summer residence by Isaac Lawrence, formerly President of the United States Branch Bank, but which, since his death, had been neglected, and suffered to decay. It was located on eight acres of ground, including a wooded ravine, or dell, on the East River, at Turtle Bay, nearly opposite the southernmost point of Blackwell's Island, amid shade and fruit trees, abundant shrubbery, ample garden, etc.; and,

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