When famed newspaper editor and founder of the Republican Party, Horace Greeley, remarked in 1860 “I never said all Democrats were saloonkeepers; what I said was all saloonkeepers are Democrats", he had probably never visited Hillsborough. But he made a stop here twelve years later during his ill-fated presidential campaign against Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. Ill-fated not only because he lost, but because he apparently went insane after his defeat, dying just three weeks later.
I'm not enough of an historian to know what was included in his stump speech that day at Woods' Tavern, or if he took questions, but he has left us with a number of memorable quotations. If Horace Greeley gave a press conference in Hillsborough today, I wonder what he might say.....
Mr. Greeley, the people are complaining about rising property taxes, do you have any advice?
"Go west young man"
What are your thoughts on the low voter turnout for the local elections?
"Apathy is a sort of living oblivion"
What do you think of Hillsborough being ranked 23rd in Money Magazine's list of best small towns to live?
'The illusion that times that were are better than times that are has probably pervaded all ages"
Do you think we need a full-time mayor in Hillsborough?
"The darkest hour in any man's life is when he sits down to plan how to get money without earning it"
As a founder of the Republican Party, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, and a presidential candidate yourself, do you have any words of wisdom for the local politicos?
"Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures, and that is character"
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