coadjutors spoke to the people of New York and of the West,
where New England ideas predominated, with a power never before or since
known in this country. When Motley was studying the old letters and
documents of the sixteenth century in the archives of Brussels, he
wrote: "It is something to read the real _bona fide_ signs manual of
such fellows as William of Orange, Count Egmont, Alexander Farnese,
Philip the Second, Cardinal Granville and the rest of them. It gives a
'realizing sense,' as the Americans have it." I had somewhat of the same
feeling as I turned over the pages of the bound volumes of the _Weekly
Tribune_, reading the editorials and letters of Greeley, the articles of
Dana and Hildreth. I could recall enough of the time to feel the
influence of this political bible, as it was termed, and I can
emphatically say that if you want to penetrate into the thoughts,
feelings, and ground of decision of the 1,866,000 men who voted for
Lincoln in 1860, you should study with care the _New York Weekly
Tribune_.

One reason why the press was a better representative of opinion during
the years from 1854 to 1860 than now is that there were few, if any,
independent journals. The party man read his own newspaper and no other;
in that, he found an expression of his own views. And the party
newspaper in the main printed only the speeches and arguments of its own
side. Greeley on one occasion was asked by John Russell Young, an
associate, for permission to reprint a speech of Horatio Seymour in full
as a matter of news. "Yes," Greeley said, "I will print Seymour's speech
when the _World_ will print those of our side."

Before the war, Charleston was one of the most interesting cities of the
country. It was a small aristocratic community, with an air of
refinement and distinction. The story of Athens proclaims that a large
population is not necessary to exercise a powerful influence on the
world; and, after the election of Lincoln in 1860, the 40,000 people of
Charleston, or rather the few patricians who controlled its fate and
that of South Carolina, attracted the attention of the whole country.
The story of the secession movement of November and December, 1860,
cannot be told with correctness and life without frequent references to
the _Charleston Mercury_ and the _Charleston Courier_. The _Mercury_
especially was an index of opinion, and so vivid is its daily chronicle
of events that the historian is able to put himself i