Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1889 — LETTERS OF GREELEY. [ARTICLE]

LETTERS OF GREELEY.

Basing is always contemptible, but not always as dsngerous aiin the recent case at the Polytechnic, at Troy, ST. Y., when a young man had green paint hang over his clothes and person. The min of his clothes Was the object of the haring party, but the result was a serious case of poisoning. All light green paints contain arsenic and can be used only with great care. Many painters can not mix them or nse them without arsenical poisoning. Such factsare not likely to be known by the fools who engage in the abase of their mates, bat so ranch the more reason why hazing should be severely dealt with. We have had several murders and qnite a number of poisoning cases on onr college calendars ' from this disgraceful amusement. Queen Victoria, who was seventy years old on Friday, is doing well forwards keeping up the record of the Honse of Hanover for longevity. No Epglieh monarch net a member oi that House has lived more years than she, or, with the single exception of Henry 111., who succeeded when he was nine years old,reigned as long. Elizabeth, who was the oldest of English rulers up to the reign of George 11., died at Victoria’s present age. The Queen’s uncle, William IV., died at seventy-two. His father George 111., died at eighty-two, and the lattei’s father, George 11, at seventy-seven years of age. The longest reign in English history is that of the Queen’s grandfather,George 111., which was fifty nine years, and there is a' fine prospect that Victoria will break the record. She has reinged years. The morphine habit, which is causing such an amount of talk in France, is receiving attention from the English reviewers and medical men. It would appear, according to some of the commentators on the vices of dissipated folk, that all sorts of ghastly dissipations have been adopted by women who have nerves and other Idiosyncrasies on “this side of the water. Tea cigarettes have been superseded by cigarettes filled with various herbs, including opium, which are smoked by the women of London who run to that sort of thing. While the number of ingenious drugs which have been introduced among the women of Paris is too long to be enumerated, there is little serious doubt about the extent to which this particular form of dissipation has taken in Paris. But most of the talk in London emanates from professional alarmists, who are forever writing to the editor of a daily newspaper. , . I The newspapers of New York State are excitedly crying for a repeal of the clause that forbids them to publish the details of executions of murderers by electricity, a 3 provided for by the law changing the method of execution, inhere is not one nameabie reason why the public should be served with these minute and detestable details; except that the papers make money out of it by catering to the morbid taste for vulgar excitement. The profit is a temporary gain, for in so far as the public is educated and encouraged to revel in reading of this sort, it is unprepared for taking interest in matters of more importance. The law was based da public need, that of checking the tendency of the press to make capital out of coarse and brutal spectacles. Some of the papers crying for a repeal have recently issued Sheets that if exhibited 100 years hence will he considered by a decenter age typical barbarism. The true newspaper does not stand in need of the horrible and depraving to furnish it with the means of existence. Household Hints. Damp salt will remove the discoloration of cups and saucers caused by tea and careless washing. Mildew can be removed by Boaking in buttermilk, or putting lemon juice and salt upon it, and exposing it to the hot sun. Remove ink stains from Bilver-plated ware by rubbing on a paste of choloride of lime and water, then wash and -wipe dry. An Eugiish firm has just brought out a new sensitive-flame burner, which can be extinguished entirely by a loud noise. To clear a stove of clinkera, put a handful of salt into it daring a hot fire. When cold remove the clinkers with a cold chisel. A robber atomizer, which costs about two dollars, is an excellent article for spraying house plants or greenhouse plapts *ffectei bv plant lice. To purify the air in a newly painted loom, put several tabs of water in it* and the water will absorb a great deal of the smell. Milk will absorb more than water. Te clean braes, nse fine rotten stone and sweet oil. When the spots have been removed, rub off all the oil with a clean piece of flannel, and the dry rotten stone. Polish with chamois skin. “ Keep the flour barrel raised a few inches from the floor, so that the air my circulate underneath and prevent dampness. Keep the parrel covered. If barrels are not need, get a nioe clean box with a cover, and empty Hie flour from the sack as soon aa opened. Fleur absorbs as quickly ss milk and batter. ilmßi 1 " ~ ....

WRITTE N TOC H AS. A. DANA PR E VIOUS TO THE GREAT CONFLICT. The Remarkable Personal CharnoterUt tee of the Great. Editor Clearly Defined—--The Kewtpaper Art Kxpounded—light Shed OB .the. Polities of the *rime- : .-yy|t aßti num o r AbduH din g'Krerywhere. We begin herewith the publication of of a number of letters written by Horace Greeley to Ohas. A. Dana in 1855-56. These letters will be found remarkable in other respects than in showing the strong personal characteristics of the great editor. It will require four or five weeks to complete their publication in these columns. The comments we desire to make are expressed in the editorial of the New York Sun, from the columns of which paper tnese letters are taken. Horace greeley’s lettbrs. ChxsrAv Dana in N. YrSun;*AfariS, IHStI. We have had from various quarters of late the recollections of conspicuous persons respecting the events which preceded the civil war; and there are books that attempt to record the history of those agitated and tumultuous times: but none of these carefully prepared chronicles can compete in vividness or in interest with the series of personal, professional, off hand letters by the late Horace Greeley, which we publish this morning. chiefly to the protracted struggle over the election of a Speaker in the Thirty-fourth Congress, thirty-three years ago. Incidentally they discuss a great many other topics, and wit, the humor, and the originality of every line will be sure to engage the attention of the reader, yet we suppose their most valuable quality is tbe light they cast upon the history of that period. Mr. Greeley was in Washington .as the correspondent of the Tribune, and tbese letters contain the current narrative of his personal observations, impressions, ideas and emotions. Men of great eminence appear in them, with many besides whose names hardly any one now remembers, important as they have been in their day. Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, Col. Benton, Mr. Clayton, Mr. Banks, arestul famous; but most of the others have sunk into obscurity. Oa the other hand, we have in this correspondence scarcely — a premonition of statesmen who were destined so soon to become highly celebrated. Of Mr. Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Mr. Cameron, Mr. John ShermaD, Mr. Stanton, Mr. Fessenden, Governor Andrew, and their compeers, or of General Grant, General McClellan, and the throng of military characters who within a few years were to play such parts upon the stage, there is here hardly so muph os a snggesst ion. History moved with such a rush during the ten years that followed. We give these letters exactly as they were written, ana our only’regret is that out of the long continued correspondence of years, but these have been preserved. In two cases we have striken out the names of persons concerning whom Mr. Greeley expressed himself with some approbation. All the others are dead, most of them manv years ago, and praise or blame can no longer effect them or disturb the feelings of their friends. Their names are retained accordingly, and the context with them, A frequent subjectof comment in these letters is the management of a newspaper, and it is not as a generality, but always with reference to some special point in the affairs of the Tribune. Yet oqy brethren of the profession will find in Mr. Greeley’s pregnant strictures ample material for instruction; and they are frequently founded upon some broad and permanent principle, that is peculiarly important to the student or practitioner es the newspaper art. Mr. Greeley’s first thought was--Jor tbe Tribune, and this was the- case with him to the end of his career. i. WashingtoN'D, C.. Dac.1.1855. Friend Dana: I think worth $ 150 per month. He has facilities at the west end which I have not and never can have, and living here is horribly dear for those who have to see people. By and by he may perfect his opportunities with Marcy & Co., and then you can stop him. For the present better pay S2OO a month than lose him. I see him and confer with him seyeral times a day; but it is best that the business should all go through one channel. So I wish you would write him accepting his terms. If you can easily repeat the hint I have given him, that we value facts more than opinions, it will be well. Everybody we employ to gather information seems to think he has the paper to edit, and I expect soon to have a notice from Dennis that, if we don’t change our course on some public question bawill be obliged to relieve himself of all responsibility in the premises by, dissolving his connection with The Tribune. I thank vou for your reply to Dr. Biiley. He is eaten up with the idea of making Chase President. I am doiDg what I can for Banks; but he won’t be Bpeaker. His support of the Republicans against the K. N. ticket this fall renders it impossible. If we elect anybody ic will be Pennington or Fuller. I fear the latter. Pennington is pretty fair, Considering. He will try to twist himself into the proper shape, but I would greatly prefer one who had the natural crook. , Phelps to-night announced in Democratic caucus that two of the Missouri Whigs weuld vote their side. Glad of it. The news from Kansas is helping us. You ought to see the loving glances I get from Whitfield. We know each other first rate, hut are not introduced. I think the Honse will organize on Monday; if not, TueMfcy will fetch it. 1 hate this hole, hut am glad I have come. It does me good to Bee now those who hate The Tribune much, fear it yet more. There are a dozen here who will do better for my eve being on them Schouler is particularly cordial. As to old Mcßea, I think we may as well let him have his $lO ft week for a few weeke yet, though I can’t use him I wouldn t mind his being a genius, if he was not a fool. He has no idea of keeping his month shat, but tells .everybody he jus connected with The | Tnbane, bat doesn’t go its isms, Ac. He

annoys me to the amount of $lO per week at least; bat let fcink wait a little. Yours, H. G. O. A. Dana, Esq. • •„ * 7 ’ Tv ’ • V 7 7-.~ 11. Washington, Jan. 7,1856. Friend Dana: What would it cost to born the Opera Honse? If the price iB reasonable, have it done and send me I think this last is the most unlucky week The Tribune ever saw- beaten in the documents and beaten every way beside. It is unaccountable to me that Hildreth did not review the Pro-Slavery part of the message in three or four crisp editorials of a column each. It belonged to The Tribune to do that, and the whole country expected it of ue. It was a great mistake to neglect our proper work and undertake instead the unpopular and unplausible defence of the British side of the Nicaragua question. We have lost ground terribly by this, and must try to regain it somehow. All Congress is disappointed and grieved at not seeing Pierce and Cushing demolished in The Tribune. 'I wrote my two letters under the presumption (there being no paper on Wednesday) that the solid work of exposing their perversions of history had, of course, been done by Hildreth. I should have deal); with it even more gravely but for' that. And now I see (the Saturday’s paper only got through last night) that you have crowded out what little I did send to make room for Fry’s eleven columns oi arguments as to the feasibility of sustaining the opera in N. Y., if they would only play his compositions. I don’t believe three hundred people who take The Tribune care OBe chew of tobacco for the matter. lam very sorry that we can’t discuss such a message Bomefaovr in the week of its issue. Now as to documents, Harvey went to the Department on Thursday for the Treasury report, as he had been advised beforehand that'it would then be ready for him, and was now told by Peter Washington that he had let some copies go off by that morning’s mail. Of course, being told that he was anticipated, he did not suppose that sending the great budget now was of any consequence. Was not this a reasonable conclusion? I admit that he should have got two copies and sent one on to you; but he only got one, and left that at my room, and I only found it when I came down from the House, too late to send by that evening’s mail; so I did all I could do—extracted some of the most pregnant passages and sent them to you in a letter discussing them. Wince you did not find room even sos these, IThief that more could hardly have fared better.

I began this letter to apologize for taking up three or four columns with a controversy with Dick Thompson, which 1 shall send you to-day probably by Adam’s Express. Considering:, however, those XIX. columns of Coroner Fry’s inquest on the putrefying opera, I won’t apologize. This controversy concerns not Dick Thompson only, but the whole breed of Whig Doughfaces, and the room is well spent. You must give it soon —on the outside, of course. Yours, soreheadedly, Horace Gheely. C. A. Dana, Esq., New York. 11l Washington, Jan. 8, 1856. Friend Dana: We calculate to elect Banks in the course of to-morrow night. No postponement on account of the weather. I want you to caution your folks not to “hit out” at everything and everybody here, but consider our position. We must have friends, not only in one party buo in all parties, or we can learn nothing. My first despatch to you last night about the Democratic caucus was all wrong, because I based it on what Phelps of Missouri told others in my presence, and he did not try to tell the truth. Afterward Barclay of Pennsylvania told me what I telegraphed last, and that is quite a different story —1 presume the true one. Now, don’t you see that I can’t get into Democratic caucuses? I must learn what they do from somebody, and if we pick a quarrel with all opponents personally, what chance have we for news? You rememK “r the Grand Vizier who knocked in the head the Sultan’s proposal to exterminate the Ipfidel dogs, With this sensible demur. “If we kill all the Rajahs what shall we do for the capitation tax?” Well, now, I object to Hildreth’s personal and savage abuse of old Clayton about his vote on Nebraska in discussing the Clay ton-Bulwer treaty. Ido not particularly want to use Clayton, but Harvey does, and he is about the best man to pump in the Senate. Seward will rarely tell anything; and, besides, he lives -Wso miles from anywhere. Abusing Clayton so savagely is shying a stone at our own crockery. * I would do it if it were provoked; but this was unprovoked. It is a train that don’t atop in trout of The Tribune office,- according to Mac’s sensible suggestion. One more: As we don’t want war with England, I would not say that the South won’t let Pierce go to a'ar with her—can’t be kicked into a war, &c. It will be used by Toombs and other mischief breeders to push the country as near to war as possible, and they may drive us nearer than they really mean to, and so find themselves unable to back out. Please thins of these things, and don’t let vo.ur people in New York attack persons with whom we are in daily intercourse here, unless there shall seem to be an imperative necessity for it. Yours. C. A. D. H. G. P. B.—Tribune of Monday (just in) says bank suspension took place in ’36. It was 37 (May 10). Please correct in Weekly. I think it wrong to say Catholics, like slave holders, are opposed to reading the Bible when editions are published bv them and urgently recommended by their bishops. I dread all meddling Mifith theology. H. G. IV. Washington, D. C., Jan. 10, ’56. j'ktSNp Dana: Wp have to day our first mail from New York for some days. By it I have your’s of Monday and Tuesday. Of course, I know how such things occur as did last Saturday, and I didn’t blame you, bet I do think Frv is, on the whole, a detriment. He is always doing things too late, and has to be hurried and prompted more than we can afford. And then the annoying folly of ailinir op the inside of the paper after* mid-

night with Hie opera rubbish crowding he Won’t do. I have labored many years to give The Tiibnne. a reputation for candor and generosity toward unpopular creeds and races; and Stewart will nse this up it you will let him. It isn’t one article on the Jews; he is always slurring them, and this iB not like The Tribune. I consider even Stewart’s anti-Irish articles, though partly true, impelled by a bad spirit, and calculated to make us needless enemies. Let us try to cultivate a generous spirit in all things. Hildreth is a good writer, but t he is essentials a Timothy Pickering Federalist of fifty or sixty years ago, and is always fighting the battles of that class of well-meaning but shockingly maladroit politicians. He hates slavery, mainly because the South turned cut old John Adams. Yon must gradually teach him tolet the dead buiy, Ac. We’li elect Banks yet, now yon see if we don’t. W T e made a good push toward it last night. Youis, H. G. Let me thank you for your handling of Valk. The man is an ass, but a very malignant one. I trust thiarletter is genuine. ,

v. . . •• Washington, Jan. 17, ’56, Friend Dana: I have yours of yesterday. I shall see these treacherons scoundrels through the Speakership, if I am allowed to live long enough, at all eventsr Our plans are defeated andour hopes frustrated from day to day by perpetual treacheries on our side. Bat for these we should have been successful weeks ago. I don’t know when we shall come to a result; but there are Hopes eves for to-day, and better for to-morrow, if no new mine is sprung under our feet, like that exploded by Thoripgtoa However, that is likely to result through the caucus, in unintended good. Since my letters get in somehow. I am less’uneasy here, but every traitor and self-seeker hates me with a demoniac hatred which is perpetually bursting out. Lastly your friend Judge Sbankland, General of the Kansas Volunteers, has notified me that he shall cowhide me (for rudeness in refusing to be further bored by him) the first time he catches me in public: Now, I am a hater of novelty, and never had any taste for being cowhided, cowhid or cowhidden, or whatever the past participle of the active verb used by Gen. Shankland rhay be, but he is shoit of funds, and I could not think of putting him to the trouble of chasing me all over the_country, bo I shall stay here for the present. I trust the man of whom he buys the cowhide will know him well enough not to sell it on tick. I prefer to be the only sufferer by the application. Yours, C. A. Dana, Esq. Horace Greeley. vi. Washington, Jan. 21, ’56. Dear Dana: I send you by this mail a letter from Dubuque which I asked the banker Jesupto write, and which Beems to me of gicater public interest than most of these local letters are apt to command. As I solicited it, and have kept it several days watting for time to correct it, I hope you will piint it soon. I send also a letter by Ewbank on Dr. Hare’s revelations, which seems to me good enough to print. I did not solicit this, and am under no obligation to print it. But it seems to me good* though I don’t judge between it and the other side. You could easily make it a communication, if you do not want it the other way. And I mean also to send you by this mail Schuyler Colfax’s speech of Saturday, showing up the Democratic argument for a Plurality ruie in 1849. This is one of the great hits of.the session, and I want you to print it at once. It ought to go in the weekly, for it j ÜBtifies ns clear through. I will try not to bore you with such a load very soon again, N. B. —“Gen.” Shankland’s cowhiding not yet come to hand —or back. Yours, H. G. C. A. Dana.

VII. ! Washington, Friday Night, Jan. 25. Dana: i shall have to quit here or die, unless you stop attacking people here without consulting me. You have a paragraph (utterly untrue) from "a Boston paper stating that Pennington was in Boston closeted with Gov. Gardner, which was interpreted here as an attack on P. Then comes one from an Ohio paper, classing Bell with Moore and Scott Harrison as opposing Banks long after Ball had come back to Banks. And now comes an awful attack on old Brenton, who has been voting steadily for Banks and the Plurality rules for at least two weeks past—certainly since 4he second nominating caucus. This article will be handed around and read by every shaky man on our side before to-morrow noon, as an evidence of my malignity against every one who ever opposed Banks, and an earnest of what they will all get at soon as Banks is elected. It will hurt us all dreadfully. Do send some one here and kill me if you can not stop this, to r I can bear it no longer. Mviife is a torture to me. H. G. VIII. Washington, Monday morning, \ January, 28,1856. / Dana: If you were to live 6fty years and do nothing bat good all the time yon could hardly atone for the miach ief you have done by that article on Brenton. The stupid-old dance had, killed himself, and I had decently buried him. After doing all the harm he could, he had come back to ns and was voting steadily though sulkily. His power lor mischief was at an end, and he could never again have been in a condition to do any. Your savage, blundering attack upon his putrifying carcass has raised it out of the grave and reanimated it with power for mischief. A great testimonial of sympathy and confidence is being got up, and good men are signing it. He is to shine forth a glorified saint, tried in the purifying fires of The Tribune’s malice and falsehood—nay of mine. I have the whole right aide of the Honse upon me—one down, another come on-and I have hadtoex-a-the matter separately to each. I to eo to the old animal himself apologize humbly, and tell him I had telegraphed a* contradiction, which would be in Saturday’s paper. But Saturday’s paper cams and no contra diction. I nave it in yeaterday’s Third 1 Edition, bat there is probably not an- ' other oapy of that in Washington,

and I have to stand before the House for another day as a liar as well as a libeller. This will go all over the epuntry as an evidence of my bullying, falsehood and malignity against any one who ever dared to think of another candidate than Banks, It will injure The Tribune horribly, and enable 'the old mule to throw away his district in the fall. Now I write oncemoreto entreatrthat I may be allowed to conduct The Tribune with reference to the mile wide that stretches either way from Pennsylvania avenue. It is but a small space, and yoii have all the world beside. I can not stay here nnless this request is complied with. I would rather cease to live at all. If you are not willing to leave me entire control with reference to this citv. both of men and measures, I ask you to call the Proprietors together and have me discharged. I have to go to this and that false creature and coax him to behave as little like the devil as possible (Lew Campbell, for instance), yet in constant terror of seeing him guillotined in the next Tribune that arrives—and I can’t make him believe that I did not dictate it. So with everything here. If yon want to throw stones at anybody’s crockery, aim at my head first, and in mercy be sure to aim well. We had no m»il lrom New York this morning. Who takes the responsibility of omitting my dispatches when you are away? We hope to elect B inks to-day. Yours,

HORACE GREELEY.

C. A. Dana, E3q.