Horace Greeley

Horace Greeley (1811 – 1872), was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune, among the great newspapers of its time. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York City.

He was also the candidate of the new Liberal Republican party in the 1872 presidential election, during which Greeley crusaded against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant and his corrupted administration but lost in a landslide.

Biography

Encounter with Tommy Greyling

During the morning of second day of the New York City draft riots in 1863, Eliza and Varius met Greeley in a cafe where they had breakfast and talked about the events that were transpiring outside of the cafe. The waiter pleaded with Greeley to not go out into the riots and to stay inside, to which Mr. Greeley told the man that if he could not eat breakfast at his favorite restaurant, he did not want to live anymore.

After the riots, Greeley met with Tommy Greyling, a policeman who was recovering in a hospital after helping to save singer Adelina Patti and the children of an orphanage for African-Americans set ablaze during the riots. Impressed by Greyling's actions, the journalist wrote an elogious article about him, which made him a hero. Despite the jealousy of his colleagues caused by Greeley's article, Greyling was forced to resign, and the two men became good friends.

Illness and death

Greeley visited by Greyling

In November 1872, after losing the presidential election and as he felt the end approaching, Greeley sent for Greyling, who was now a Pinkerton agent. To Greyling, the dying man revealed that he had in fact been poisoned by elements in Grant's corrupt administration which he discovered was heavily manipulated by the members of a secret society, the Templar Order.

He also told his friend that Grant was using a mysterious artifact to manipulate the course of the elections, using an object known as Precursor box to decipher the pages of the a document known as the 'Cypher' and master it. One of his supporters in Grant's office stole the box, brought it to Greeley and revealed that there were more of it in London before being murdered.

As Greyling left the room after Greeley suddenly fell asleep, a Templar agent disguised as one of Greeley's nurses tried to finish him by suffocating the sleeping man with a cushion. However, Greyling, sensing that something wasn't right, rushed into the room and prevented the attempt, but failed to stop the woman from escaping with the box.

While he survived the assassination attempt, Greeley eventually succumbed to his illness and died on 29 November, being buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Gallery

• 
  Horace interviewing Tommy during his recuperation

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Locus