Autograph letter signed, Horace Greeley ("H. Greeley") to Obidiah A. Bowe ("Oiah").
Albany: April 15, 1839.
Price: $600.00
About the item
2pp bifolium, pen and ink on paper. 4to. Old folds, small tear, else very good.
Item #314854
A friendly letter to fellow newspaperman and lifelong friend and correspondent, Obidiah A. Bowe. Written shortly after Greeley's tenure as the editor of the New York state Whig newspaper, the Jeffersonian, and two years before Greeley founded the New York Tribune. The letter may be a reference to the 1839 congressional race and the “Coopers” is likely a reference to famed New York Democratic supporter, and American author, James Fenimore Cooper, who from 1839-1845 was embroiled in a series of bizarre libel cases against some of the country’s most prominent newspaper editors, including Greeley.
Reading in part: “Ain’t we Yankees a used-up people? Faith, ‘the Coopers came down like a wolf on the fold’ and the way they put it to us was not slow I charge ye. They outlied, outbragged, outbullied, outcheated, and outvoted us; and if they had wanted twice as many I guess they would have stuck ‘em in. They would only just have had to vote twice as many times as they did, and they could have done that easy. They wouldn’t have had to vote but three times apiece on average. Though some must have voted ten or fifteen. Well, they’ve licked us out anyhow; and the worst of it is I fancy that by the use of the same means they can do it again. Enough said.”.
