The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 340
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
growing communities, and not half so much in each other's ways
as they fancy." He sensed that Galveston was
a little nervous lest the railroads now in progress should draw
off her trade and leave her hard aground; which does not seem to
be probable. Her relative importance may be reduced by them, but
I judge that her actual trade will be increased. She has the best
harbor in the State. ...
As Greeley pictured Houston it was
... now intent on so deepening and straightening her Bayou that
any vessel that can pass the bar at Galveston may discharge at her
wharves, 50 miles inland, and so much further on the way to a
large majority of Texas consumers. It is a spirited enterprise, in good
hands, well backed, and its early success fully assured. It will in-
crease the trade of Houston, but will not aggrandize her at Gal-
veston's expense to any such extent as is expected.
What changes would he make in the two communities? Greeley
answered:
If Galveston stood twenty feet higher above the surface of the
Gulf, Houston rejoiced in a few hills and ledges, and each of them
blessed with water to drink other than as it falls from heaven, I
should like them even better than I do. As she is, Houston is one
of the loveliest cities that ever rose from a level plain, and stands
so high above the Bayou that she may cleanse and keep sweet if
she will.8'1
For a man who had gone to Texas reluctantly, Horace Greeley
took an objective viewpoint when he wrote special dispatches for
publication in the New York Tribune. What effect these articles
about Texas had on readers of the Tribune cannot be known, but
Greeley's appearance in the Lone Star State did influence in many
ways the people who heard and saw him. Returning to New
York, Greeley was greeted by a group of Republicans, who con-
gratulated him on his safe return from the Southwest. The editor
spoke:
I hear it suggested that I went to Texas with too much parade
and circumstance and that I was too often found making speeches
from the platform of cars and from the balconies of hotels. Though
all I did say was said in the hope of promoting a clearer and better
understanding. ...
8Greeley, Letters, 35.340
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/375/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.