The New York Tribune and the 1844 Election: Horace Greeley, Gangs and the Wise Men of Gotham

Summary

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This article analyzes the New York Tribune's coverage of the 1844 elections, interpreting James K. Polk's narrow victory over Whig candidate Henry Clay from the perspective of the firm of William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, and Horace Greeley, an influential press and political organization. It examines newspaper content that reflected voter response to salient issues, profiling particularly the role of Greeley, editor of the Tribune, who failed to anticipate the effect of certain variables-including gang activities, a third-party movement, and press leaks-on the election results. The study revisits events in Manhattan's infamous Five Points area to suggest that cultural issues beyond the scope of both editors and politicians contributed to the outcome of the elections and to subsequent debates over westward expansion and the role of slavery in newly acquired territories.

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Extract

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The New York Tribune and the 1844 Election: Horace Greeley, Gangs and the Wise Men of Gotham

Few elections in American history influenced both the press and politics more than the 1844 presidential race. Although Henry clay, a respected statesman running for office a third and final time, had a sophisticated network of media support in New York City, which was a strategically important Whig base (which led many editors to predict a Whig landslide), the press failed to anticipate the effects of a decisive third-party movement, unruly voter behavior, and gang violence on election results. Democrat James K. Folk's narrow margin of victory ended the Whig campaign of "delirious hope," an observer wrote, with "deep despair,"'marking the first time that the issue of slavery played a substantial role in the decisions of voters and provoking intense debate over the role of the "peculiar institution" in newly acquired lands.

This article analyzes the Democratic victory-and the Whig defeat-from the perspective of the media-based firm of William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, and Horace Greeley, providing a case study of a newspaper as a medium that reflected voter response to salient issues and illustrating how the electorate responded to news in ways unexpected by editors and politicians. It profiles Greeley's New York Tribune as an important source of partisanship during the campaign and revisits events in New York's Sixth Ward, the site of the infamous Five Points, to provide an account of an election in which a candidate with considerable popular support was no match for groups interested in expanding the nation's territorial reach.

Scholars of journalism, mass communications, and politics have delved deeply into the role of the press and partisanship during the antebellum era, defining each differently, but Elizabeth Varon, in an astute analysis of Whig campaign tactics, observed that the function of newspapers was to make partisanship "seem essential to men's identities."2 Historians generally have portrayed the Jacksonian era as a heyday for political organization with parties assuming their classic form and flourishing after the Mis...

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