James Parton, The life of Horace Greeley

[148] newspapers clamored for their suppression by law. The lottery dealers were alarmed. In the midst of this excitement, Horace Greeley, while standing at the case, composed an article on the subject, the purport of which is said to have been, that the argument for and against lotteries was not affected by the suicide of that young man; but it simply proved, that he, the suicide, was a person of weak character, and had nothing to do with the question whether the State ought, or ought not, to license lotteries. This article was inserted in one of the lottery papers, attracted considerable attention, and made Mr. Gregory aware that his printer was not an ordinary man. Soon after, Mr. Greeley changed his opinion on the subject of lotteries, and advocated their suppression by law.

Greeley and Story were now prosperous printers. Their business steadily increased, and they began to accumulate capital. The term of their co-partnership, however, was short. The great dissolver of partnerships, King Death himself, dissolved theirs in the seventh month of its existence. On the 9th of July, Francis Story went down the bay on an excursion, and never returned alive. He was drowned by the upsetting of a boat, and his body was brought back to the city the same evening. There had existed between these young partners a warm friendship. Mr. Story's admiration of the character and talents of our hero amounted to enthusiasm; and lie, on his part, could not but love the man who so loved him. When lie went up to the coffin to look for the last time on the marble features that had never turned to his with an unkind expression, he said, ‘Poor Story! shall I ever meet with any one who will bear with me as he did?’ To the bereaved family Horace Greeley behaved with the most scrupulous justice, sending Mr. Story's mother half of all the little outstanding accounts as soon as they were paid, and receiving into the vacant place a brother-in-law of his deceased partner, Mr. Jonas Winchester, a gentleman now well known to the press and the people of this country.

A short time before, he had witnessed the marriage of Mr. Winchester by the Episcopal form. He was deeply impressed with the ceremony, listening to it in an attitude expressive of the profoundest interest; and when it was over, he exclaimed aloud, ‘That's the ’