Horace Greeley

As editor of the influential New York Tribune, Horace Greeley did not so much seek to report on the Civil War as he sought to shape its course. When, in the spring of 1861, Lincoln's administration seemed reluctant to use force in subduing southern secession, Greeley's Tribune carried such bellicose headlines as "No Concessions to Traitors!" Shortly thereafter, when Lincoln held back from declaring an end to slavery, Greeley argued that the freedom of blacks must be made one of the Civil War's primary imperatives. It is difficult to say just how much Greeley's editorial declarations affected official Union policies. Still, there is no doubt that his condemnation of the South and his calls for slavery's immediate abolition strongly influenced many northerners.