Newspaper editor Horace Greeley, who had increasingly lost control of the Tribune’s operations after 1860 and has written fewer editorials since, now expresses defeatism regarding Lincoln’s chances of reelection in 1864, an attitude that is echoed across the country when his editorials are reprinted.

Oddly, he had also pursued a peace policy in 1863–64 that had involved discussions with Copperheads and had opened the possibility of a compromise with the Confederacy.

Lincoln had been aghast, but had outsmarted Greeley by appointing him to a peace commission he knew the Confederates would repudiate.