The November 16, 1864 issue of the New-York Tribune |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Founded | 1841 |
| Ceased publication | 1966 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, U.S. |
The New-York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States. In 1924 it was merged with the New York Herald to form the New York Herald Tribune, which ceased publication in 1966.
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Greeley had previously established a weekly newspaper, The New Yorker (unrelated to the modern magazine), in 1833, and was also publisher of the Whig Party's political organ, Log Cabin. In 1841, he merged operations of the two into a new newspaper, the New-York Tribune.
The Tribune was created by Greeley with the hopes of providing a straightforward, trustworthy media source in an era when newspapers such as the New York Sun and New York Herald thrived on sensationalism. Although considered the least partisan of the leading newspapers, the Tribune did reflect some of Horace Greeley's idealist views. His journal retained Karl Marx as European correspondent in 1852; although Marx viewed the Tribune as a 'filthy rag',[1] the arrangement, whereby his collaborator Engels also submitted articles under the by-line, lasted ten years, the final Marx column being published in February 1861.
During Greeley's editorship, the paper was aided by able writers including Charles Anderson Dana, George William Curtis, William Henry Fry, Bayard Taylor, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, Julius Chambers and Henry Jarvis Raymond.[2]
Before the American Civil War the Tribune was an important abolitionist newspaper due to its firm stance against slavery and having the largest circulation of any abolitionist newspaper. During the American Civil War (1861–1865) the Tribune was a radical Republican newspaper, which supported abolition and the defeat of the Confederacy instead of negotiated peace.
During the first few months of the war, the paper's "on to Richmond" slogan pressured Union general Irvin McDowell into advancing on Richmond before his army was ready, resulting in the disaster of the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. After the failure of the Peninsular Campaign in the spring of 1862, the Tribune pressured President Abraham Lincoln into installing John Pope as commander of the Army of Virginia. During the 1863 Draft Riots a mob tried to burn down the Tribune building but was repulsed by staff manning two Gatling guns.
Following Greeley's defeat by Ulysses S. Grant for the presidency of the United States in 1872, Whitelaw Reid, owner of the New York Herald, assumed control of the Tribune. Greeley checked into Dr. Choate's Sanitarium where he died a few weeks later. Under Reid's son, Ogden Mills Reid, the paper acquired the New York Herald to form the New York Herald Tribune, which continued to be run by Ogden M. Reid until his death in 1947. Copies of the New-York Tribune are available on microfilm at many large libraries and online at the Library of Congress.[3] Also, indices from selected years in the late nineteenth century are available on the Library of Congress' website. The original paper articles from the newspaper's morgue are kept at The Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
A "new" New York Tribune debuted in 1976 in New York City. The paper, which later changed its name to The New York City Tribune, was published by News World Communications, Inc., owned by the Unification Church. It was published out of the former Tiffany building at 401 Fifth Avenue until it printed its last edition on January 3, 1991.[4] Its sister paper, The Washington Times, is circulated primarily in the nation's capital. The Tribune carried an expansive "Commentary" section of opinions and editorials. Among those who wrote a column was former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.