"Your friend,
"Horace Greeley."
Mr. Greeley had at first opposed the Civil War. He had suffered great mental distress at its approach. He labored with all his might to prevent a resort to arms—but, when this was inevitable, he followed the advice of Polonius. It was he who raised the cry "On to Richmond," and he was thereafter a powerful supporter of the government. After the surrender, he just as strongly advocated pacific measures, opposed the action of the federal government in holding Mr. Jefferson Davis a prisoner without trial, and, oblivious to all personal and pecuniary consequences, had gone to Richmond and in open court signed the bail-bond of the Confederate President.
It can be easily perceived that the active support of a man like General Pryor—who could remember and use to advantage these facts—might be extremely useful to Mr. Greeley. The temptation appealed, with force, to my husband. Active political life had been his most successful, most agreeable occupation, but he remembered his resolution to work, and work in the study of his profession, and declined Mr. Greeley's invitation.
"You are making a great mistake," said one of his friends, "in your office all day, and at home all night. I should like to know how you expect to get along! You never make a visit—you are never seen at a club or any public gathering."
"Very true," said my husband, "but I am persuaded that my only hope for salvation here is to know something, have something the New York people want. They do want good lawyers, and I must study day and night to make myself one."
His friend, John Russell Young, far away in Europe, heard of Mr. Greeley's campaign. Himself an intense Republican and devoted friend of General Grant, he could not learn with equanimity of any added strength to Mr. Greeley from the support of the South. He wrote from Geneva, September 16, 1872:—
"Dear Pryor:—
"I saw in the New York World that you were to make a speech in favor of Greeley in Virginia, and had my own reflections on the announcement. I should like to exchange observations with Mrs. Pryor on this subject, as she has positive political convictions. But I remember her saying once that darning stockings had a debilitating effect upon literary aspirations—and she made no reservation in favor of politics. At the present moment I should like to enlist her attention and support.
"The idea of R. A. P.—the representative fire-eater, the Robespierre, or Danton, or, if you like it better, the Harry Hotspur of the Southern Revolution,—the one orator who clamored so impatiently for the Shrewsbury clock to strike,—oh, my friend! The spectacle of this leader championing Horace Greeley! Can the irony of events have a deeper illustration? Miserere! How the world is tumbling! What can we expect next? Jefferson Davis and Frederick Douglass running on the presidential ticket, in favor of Chinese suffrage! If you really did make a speech, send it to me. I suppose in your own mind you have made many, for events like these develop thought in the minds of all thinking men. I do not see Greeley's election. I have a letter from him written in July which speaks very cheerfully. But I have a letter from the White House quite as cheerful. I cannot think that Grant will be beaten; and am certain, with all deference to Mrs. Pryor's positive political views, that he should not be. I can understand the passionate desire you and your people have for honest reconstruction. I can see how you might even fall into the arms of Horace Greeley to achieve such a deliverance. But there is no honest reconstruction possible under Mr. Greeley and the men who would accompany him in power. The South has its future in its own hands. If the men who led it as you did had followed your example when the war was over, there would be no trouble. But that required courage—a higher courage than ever rebellion demanded; and if the South has not reasserted itself, it is the fault of the Southern men themselves.
"But I will not preach politics from this distance. If you are not in the campaign, keep out! Run over here with Miss Gordon. How delighted I should be to see you. I am sure mademoiselle would revel in Paris. Mrs. Young would travel with her, too, to Germany, visit all the famous convents and ecclesiastical establishments and, finally, wind up with Paris and an exhausted search through the shops.