It was somewhat droll that in the last speech of the series he was confronted by a speaker on the Grant side at Easton, Pennsylvania, September 28, who predicted that if Greeley were elected all the furnace fires in the Lehigh Valley would be put out and their working-people thrown upon the almshouses. This to the stoutest champion of the protective tariff then living! He was not, however, struck dumb by the prospect of the early impoverishment of the iron workers. He said:
A recent speaker of the opposition has asserted that if I were made President all the furnace fires in the Lehigh Valley would presently be put out. This seems incredible. All men know I am a protectionist; but that I would not veto any bill fairly passed by the Congress of the United States modifying or changing the tariff is certainly true. I do not believe in government by selfish rings, but I believe just as little in government by the one-man power. I don't believe in government by vetoes. The veto power of the President is not given him to enable him to reject every bill for which he would have refused to vote if a member of Congress, but only to be employed in certain great emergencies where corruption or recklessness has passed a measure through Congress which would not stand the test of inquiry. I tell you, friends, I believe in legislation by Congress, not by Presidents, and I should myself approve and sign a bill which had a fair majority in Congress, although in my judgment it was not accordant with public policy—with the wisest policy.
Although Greeley's stumping tour raised him in the public estimation, it is doubtful if it gained him any votes. It was now too late. People's minds were made up and nothing could change them, not even the Crédit-Mobilier scandal. General Grant was not concerned in this scandal, but a number of his most distinguished supporters, the very pillars of the Republican party, beginning with Vice-President Colfax, were named as guilty of taking bribes to influence their votes in Congress for the Union Pacific Railroad. This accusation was not made public until September, and then by accident. Most of the persons accused made denial, and since no investigation could be had until the next session of Congress (a month later than the election), nobody was bound to give credence to an unproved charge. The general answer of the supporters of Grant was that they would not withhold their votes from him even if the charge were true. Nor could they be blamed for so saying. If the persons accused were really guilty, they would be punished in due time, or at all events exposed, and exposure would itself be punishment. It is needless to go into the details of the Crédit-Mobilier scandal here. It was investigated by an able and impartial committee of the House, and all the guilty ones were visited with such punishment as Congress could legally inflict.
Of the three October states, Pennsylvania and Ohio gave large Republican majorities and Indiana a small majority for Hendricks (Democrat) for governor. This was decisive of the general result in November. Greeley and Brown were overwhelmingly defeated. The only states that gave them majorities were Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas, having altogether 66 electoral votes. The others gave Grant and Wilson a total of 272 electoral votes. The state of New York, which Greeley, in his letter to Schurz, had claimed by 50,000, gave 53,000 majority against him.
I have always held the opinion that either Adams or Trumbull could have been elected if nominated at Cincinnati. I think also that Adams was the stronger of the two, because he had incurred no personal ill-will during the twelve years of war and Reconstruction and because the minds of the Democratic leaders who had encouraged the Liberal movement were eagerly expecting him. There would have been no bolting movement in that quarter. The Germans also were enthusiastic for Adams, and although they would have supported Trumbull willingly, there would have been perhaps a trifle less of cordiality for him. Neither of the two was gifted with personal "magnetism," but either of them had as much of that quality as Grant had, or as the public then desired. The voters were not then in search of the sympathetic virtues. There was a yearning for some cold-blooded, masterful man to go through the temple of freedom with a scourge of small cords driving out the grafters and money-changers. Adams was qualified for this rôle. He was also the man of whom the Republican leaders had the gravest fears as an opposing candidate.
The campaign and its result killed poor Greeley. The election took place on the 5th of November. On the 10th he wrote a letter of two lines marked "private forever" to Carl Schurz, saying:
I wish I could say with what an agony of emotion I subscribe myself, gratefully yours, Horace Greeley.
He then took to his bed and his friends became alarmed. Frequent bulletins were published in the Tribune showing that he was a victim of insomnia, from which, the paper said, he had been a sufferer, more or less, at former periods of his life. He died on the 29th. His wife had died one month earlier, October 30. History says that he died of a broken heart.[129]
That Greeley had been eager for public office from an early period was shown by his famous letter withdrawing himself as junior partner from the firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley. When the Cincinnati nomination came to him his fondest dreams seemed to be on the eve of fulfillment. Now all such dreams had vanished, a political party of noble aspirations had foundered on him as the hidden rock, his self-esteem had received an annihilating blow, and his beloved Tribune, the labor of his lifetime, was supposed to be ruined pecuniarily. Whatever his faults may have been, he received his punishment for them in this world. He was only sixty-two years of age, of sound constitution and good habits, and had never used liquor or tobacco. He ought to, and probably would, have lived twenty years longer if he had put away ambition and contented himself with the repute and influence he had fairly earned. He was the most influential editor of his time and country, but as a political writer E. L. Godkin was his superior, and in fact Godkin, in the columns of the Nation, contributed more than any other writer, perhaps more than any other person, to his overthrow.