Lecture by Harold Holzer, Old Abe and the Old Philospher: The Long, Unhappy Alliance Between Horace Greeley and Abraham Lincoln

On Sunday, September 25th, please join us at the Chappaqua Library for a special lecture, “Old Abe and the Old Philosopher: The Long, Unhappy Alliance Between Horace Greeley and Abraham Lincoln,” presented by distinguished scholar Harold Holzer. 

From the time they first met—and failed to click—at a big 1848 River & Harbor Convention in Chicago, and as fellow Whig Congressman in Washington shortly thereafter, rising editor Horace Greeley and rising politician Abraham Lincoln “enjoyed” a rocky professional relationship that failed repeatedly to unite them as true friends but in time succeeded in changing the course of American history.  Their shared story included charges of fraud, a battle over Lincoln’s 1858 challenge to Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas (and their famous debates), the fight for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, the Union response to Southern secession, the call for military aggressiveness, the fight for wartime press freedoms, the complex struggle to balance the goals of reunion and emancipation, and the ugliest of all their fights: the campaign for president in 1864.  In time, what should have been the closest of alliances ended in tatters.  But by the time Lincoln died, the Union had been preserved and slavery killed.  And each man could claim a share of credit.

As the author, co-author, or editor of more than 50 books, Harold Holzer is one of the country’s leading experts on Lincoln and the Civil War era. His most recent book, Lincoln and the Power of the Press, has received several awards, including the Lincoln Prize and the Mark Lynton History Prize of the Columbia School of Journalism. He was honored with the National Humanities Medal in 2008. He is an informative and entertaining speaker, who lectures widely and appears frequently on television. He served as a history consultant for Stephen Spielberg’s hit movie, Lincoln.

Mr. Holzer recently retired as Senior Vice President for Public Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is now director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.

On the weekend of the talk, the New Castle Historical Society will open its closely related exhibition, Lincoln and Greeley: Uncertain Allies. Illustrated with contemporary prints, photographs, and newspaper excerpts, the exhibition traces the relationship between these two men, whose aims and ideals were similar, but whose contrasting temperaments and points of view often placed them at odds. Exhibit Opening: September 23rd, 6 pm – 9 pm.