Another side of Horace Greeley that no one considers:
Few serious candidates before Horace Greeley had ever been so thoroughly repudiated at the polls: none before or since has been so totally destroyed by defeat. Crushed by the loss of his beloved wife, he saw himself as "the worst beaten man who ever ran for high office."
But further humiliation came. When Greeley tried to resume control of his beloved Tribune, he was rebuffed by acting editor Whitelaw Reid. Instead of welcoming Greeley back, Reid ran a front-page box mocking the Republican's office seekers who had sought the old editor's help, then refused to print Greeley's response. Greeley's mind snapped and his health broke. He died, insane, in a physician friend's suburban retreat only three weeks after the election.
-The Campaign Trail