In 1872 Horace Greeley was nominated by the Democratic party for the presidency, to oppose General Grant's second term, and wrote to my husband:—

"Dear General Pryor:—

"I want you to help me in this canvass. I want you to go to Virginia and do some work for me there and at the South.

"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 351and 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 352of 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. 353Young 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.

"For myself, I feel that I am having opportunities and neglecting them. However, I have always my work, have grappled with French, done something in Spanish, and have designs on the German language. But as you can only eat your artichoke a leaf at a time, French is my main occupation outside my business. I don't have time to play chess—and I presume Miss Gordon will give me a knight when we play next. You mustn't think me utterly good-for-naught. I have finished Carlyle's 'Frederick' in thirteen volumes—think of that! In the summer I dissipated in novels,—'Don Quixote,' 'Tom Jones,' 'Roderick Random,'—and now I am about to begin 'Romola,' which Bayard Taylor said yesterday was the best historical novel in our language. Remember me most kindly to all at home, and believe me to be, dear Pryor,

"Your friend sincerely,
"John Russell Young.

We had first known John Russell Young as a boy sent by Colonel Forney to report a speech of my husband's in Congress, now on the staff of the New York Herald. During a temporary residence in London he began a series of charming letters to my daughter—lasting until the end of his life. From London he wrote:—

"My dear Miss Gordon:—

"I send you two autographs—one is from Dinah Mulock Craik (who wrote 'John Halifax,' you know), the other from Mr. Gladstone, the former Premier. 354 "I shall try to obtain an autograph of Carlyle, and his photograph, for your library. The old man is very hard to reach—he is very old. I have not seen George Eliot yet, but will. I dined with William Black last evening.

"I have had a good time in London. I never had so much attention in my life—I don't know how it happened, but so it fell. My Macmillan article opened the door, however, of every newspaper and magazine to me—and the door is of no use, except to look inside! But fancy the people I have met!—not, as I said, Carlyle or George Eliot (but she is possible when she comes home), but I think I have dined with nearly everybody else. Green—the short history man—and I have become good friends. I told him how much you liked his book, and he blushed like a June rose. I have dined with Huxley, Tyndall, Froude, Browning, Herbert Spencer, Kingsley, Bryce, Green, Norman Lockyer, William Black, Motley, and I don't know how many others,—so you see, as far as coming abroad has an............