HORACE GREELEY - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 10/11/1864 - HFSID 100417

1872: HORACE GREELEY (Lost to Grant)
He is running as a Lincoln presidential elector and is too absorbed in the election to "think of little elsee".
ALS: "Horace Greeley", 1p, 5x8. Office of The Tribune, New York, 1864 October 11. To Mrs. Laura Bowe. In full: "I would like to see you and to speak in Hudson but I am on our State Electoral ticket and am therefore at the bidding of our State Committee, which sends me away all over the State whenever it judges that it is I can be spared from here. I am so absorbed in the presidential contest that I can think of little else, but I am Yours truly." Lincoln won New York and Greeley cast his presidential electoral vote for Lincoln, the only time he was an elector. Greeley founded the New York "Tribune" in 1841 and served as its editor until his death. On May 1, 1872, Greeley was nominated for President at the Liberal Republican Convention held in Cincinnati. These were Republicans against President Grant. They recognized the equality of all men and demanded amnesty for former Confederates. The Democrats also nominated Greeley. Greeley wrote this letter as an eventual winning candidate for presidential elector. If he was "so absorbed" in a presidential election in which he was running as an elector, one can imagine how he campaigned when he was the presidential candidate eight years later. In the November 5, 1872 election, President Grant defeated Greeley by 3.6 million to 2.8 million popular votes. On November 29, 1872, before the Electoral College met, Horace Greeley, exhausted from the campaign, died at the age of 61. President Grant won 286 electoral votes and 29 states. The 66 electoral votes of the six states Greeley carried were split among four men. Three Georgians still cast their votes for Greeley. A House resolution discounted those votes. Lightly creased. Fine condition.