Anne,

Horace Greeley sounds like a pretty interesting fellow.  Born on the on the
afore mentioned New Hampshire farm in 1811, he apprenticed at 15 to a Vermont
printer, going on to found the New York Tribune as editor and prolific writer.
He was apparently regarded as something of an eccentric, but was influential as
an advocate of social reform and was much influenced by the French socialist
Charles Fourier.  He even employed Karl Marx as a European correspondent for the
Tribune.  He advocated a range of causes including guaranteed employment,
agricultural collectives, organized western expansion, and temperance.  He was
particularly known for his anti-slavery position.  The only time Greeley served
in the government was for 90 days in 1848, as a replacement for an indicted U.S.
congressman from New York City. He quickly lost favor with his colleagues for
publicizing day-to-day Capitol dirt and printing exposes of legislative fraud
and corruption. Covering Congress in 1855 as a reporter, he suffered a
concussion from a caning by Speaker Albert Rust in reprisal for his criticism of
Rust's pro-slavery maneuvering.  Ironically, after the Civil War, he was much
reviled for contributing to the fund to bail Jefferson Davis out of jail.
Greeley was nominated as the 1872 Democratic candidate for President. He lost by
a landslide to the incumbent Ulysses S. Grant, and died one month later in a
sanitarium.  He was a committed Unitarian/Univeralist, and would no doubt be
pleased that the present inhabitants of his birthplace are active in the
Unitarian church.
A few choice quotations:
Morality and religion are but words to those who crouch behind barrels in the
street to cut the icy blasts, or fish in the gutters for the means to sustain
life.
Where Labor stands idle . . . there is a demonstrated deficiency, not of
Capital, but of brains.
This Daniel Boone business is about played out.
The best women I know do not wish to vote. . . .but when a sincere Republican is
asked in sober earnest why we deny women suffrage, he must answer "for no
reason." It must be acceded for it is the assertion of a natural right
Sign anything, ratify anything, pay anything . . . There never was a good war or
a bad peace.
Our country right or wrong is an evil motto--what if your country be in the
wrong? It will only compound her injury.
There's more on HG at an excellent web site
http://www.honors.unr.edu/~fenimore/greeley.html from which I borrowed
liberally.
Lisa