EOTO- JOU Heros Reflection

    During our EOTO Journalism Hero presentations, I learned so much but the one journalist who caught my attention the most was Horace Greenley.

Credit Wikipedia

    My peer Jake Matthews taught the class about Horace Greenly and I was blown away by both his involvement in journalism and politics. I was a little embarrassed and shocked that I had never known about him before. Greenly began his career by publishing with The New Yorker as pro Whig party with commentary against slavery. In his position, he worked to influence the American public to vote for the Whig party candidate William Henery Harrison who later became the ninth president of the United States thanks to Greenly. 

    As his prominence grew, Greenly decided to start his own paper, The New York Herald. Through his new paper, he began advocating quite progressive thoughts for the time surrounding anti-slavery and working rights for the lower class. 

    Later in his life, Greenly got involved in the political sphere and in 1848 he even obtained a seat in the House of Representatives replacing someone who was unable to finish their term. In his time as a representative Greenly was admired by Abraham Lincoln who was only a district representative at the time. Greenly even served 5 years in congress until 1854 when he left he continued to be a strong support for the abolition of slavery. 

    Greenly also helped found the Republican part and would go on to help Abraham Lincoln get elected although the two had a falling out after Lincoln was president, Greenly began to speak against and criticize him for not being stronger on the abolition of slavery. It was very interesting for me to learn that Greenly is actually one of the main forces speaking out against slavery in such a big way.