THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN -1872 161 



it was the rule nevertheless. This was clearly and indeed 

 comically shown at the reception given him in Union 

 Square on the evening referred to. Mr. Greeley appeared 

 at a front window of a house on the Broadway side and 

 came out upon a temporary platform. His appearance 

 is deeply stamped upon my memory. He was in a rather 

 slouchy evening dress, his white hair thrown back off his 

 splendid forehead, and his broad, smooth, kindly features 

 as serene as the face of a big, well-washed baby. 



There was in his appearance something at the same time 

 naive and impressive, and the simplicity of it was in- 

 creased by a bouquet, huge and gorgeous, which some 

 admirer had attached to his coat, and which forced upon 

 the mind of a reflective observer the idea of a victim 

 adorned for sacrifice. 



He gave scant attention to his audience in the way of 

 ceremonial greeting, and plunged at once into his subject ; 

 beginning in a high, piping, falsetto voice which, for a 

 few moments, was almost painful. But the value of his 

 matter soon overcame the defects of his manner; the 

 speech was in his best vein ; it struck me as the best, on the 

 whole, I had ever heard him make, and that is say- 

 ing much. Holding in his hands a little package of 

 cards on which notes were jotted down, he occasionally 

 cast his eyes upon them, but he evidently trusted to the 

 inspiration of the hour for his phrasing, and his trust was 

 not misplaced. I never heard a more simple, strong, 

 lucid use of the English language than was his on that 

 occasion. The speech was a very noble plea for the resto- 

 ration of good feeling between North and South, with an 

 effort to show that the distrust felt by the South toward 

 the North was natural. In the course of it he said in 

 substance : 



* l Fellow Citizens : The people of the South have much 

 reason to distrust us. We have sent among them during 

 the war and since the war, to govern them, to hold office 

 among them, and to eat out their substance, a number of 

 worthless adventurers whom they call ' ' carpet-baggers. " 



i. 11 



