WPCNR CINEMASCOOP: Harry Avery’s Oscar Picks

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. CINEMASCOOP by Film Buff Harry Avery. February 16, 2003: WPCNR’s film critic, Harry Avery has been digesting the films of the 02-03 season and weighs in with his picks for Oscar winners. May we have the envelope, please?
Performance by an actor in a leading role

Daniel Day-Lewis in “Gangs of New York” (Miramax)
–Having been coaxed out of being a cobbler in Italy specially for this role, Day-Lewis did a brilliant job and deserves the Oscar-not that it’s hard to outshine the accents of DiCaprio and Diaz.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

John C. Reilly in “Chicago” (Miramax)
–This was the Year of John C. Reilly, giving him four movies, three with noticeable roles (Chicago, Gangs, and The Hours). He deserves this for a lifetime of unrecognition.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Kathy Bates in “About Schmidt” (New Line)
–Outshining the great Jack Nicholson is no easy task, but Bates pulls it off in her own classic style.

Best animated feature film of the year

“Lilo & Stitch” (Buena Vista)
–Despite the big names in “Ice Age” and Matt Damon in “Spirit”, this movie was both heartwarming and entertaining–something the whole family could enjoy together.

Best documentary feature

“Bowling for Columbine” (United Artists and Alliance Atlantis) Michael Moore and Michael Donovan
–In his long-awaited Oscar nomination, Michael Moore shines in this brilliant, hard-hitting, and occasionally tear-jerking look and gun control and teen violence.

Achievement in film editing

“Chicago” (Miramax) Martin Walsh
–It’s not easy to convert an audience-pandering musical into a fantasy-inpiring movie, but Walsh pulls this off brilliantly.

Achievement in makeup

“Frida” (Miramax) John Jackson and Beatrice De Alba
–If just for making one of the most beautiful actresses of our time into the unibrow-ed Frida Kahlo.

Achievement in music in connection with motion pictures (Original score)

“Catch Me If You Can” (DreamWorks) John Williams
–The man is a god amongst men in composing.

Achievement in music in connection with motion pictures (Original song)

“Lose Yourself” from “8 Mile” (Universal) Music by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto Lyric by Eminem
–An unlikely winner, but one has to imagine that the oft-violent Eminem would not be invited to such a red carpet event unless he had a purpose.

Best motion picture of the year

“Chicago” (Miramax) A Producer Circle Co., Zadan/Meron Production
Martin Richards, Producer

–How the Two Towers got in here, I’ll never know, but this movie is possibly one of the greatest stage adaptations of our time. Far outshining “Moulin Rouge” this movie has it all.

Achievement in sound/Achievement in sound editing

“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, (New Line) Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek; Ethan Van der Ryn and Michael Hopkins (New Line)
–Two Towers, though not one of the best films of the year, absolutely deserves technical awards galore.

Achievement in visual effects

“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook (New Line) and Alex Funke

–This widescreen extravaganza was just as gripping and visually enticing, if not more so, as its predecessor.

Screenplay based on material previously produced or published

“Adaptation” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman

–Goes without saying that this brilliant and original adaptation (an oxymoron not heard often) should win. The only question is if an honorary award will be given in memory of Charlie Kaufman’s fictional brother, Donald.

Screenplay written directly for the screen

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (IFC/Gold Circle Films) Written by Nia Vardalos
–Comedies are infrequently at best nominated in this category, or indeed in most categories, but aren’t the Oscars about making dreams come true?

–Harry Avery

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Weather Scoop: Blizzard ’03 Continues to Early Evening. 10 Inches So Far

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WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. From the National Weather Service. February 17, 2003 UPDATED 12:15 PM:A furious snowstorm with winds gusting to 20 miles per hour and up paralyzed White Plains this morning, with 10 inches of snow, drifts up to 2 feet already fallen by 12 noon. Side roads and arteries disappeared from view, obscured by snow at daybreak.

White Plains “Mosquito Plows” were clearing side streets in the neighborhoods by midmorning. The snow is expected to continue until early evening. Snow was falling at the rate of an inch an hour by 12 noon, winds had wound down considerably, not as gusty. Clearing Tuesday with highs near 40. The complete Weather Forecast as of Noon follows:



ROADS UNRECOGNIZABLE AT 7 AM: The view from the WPCNR News Center indicates the extent of snowfall at daybreak Monday morning.
Photo by WPCNR WeatherWatch


URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY
1123 AM EST MON FEB 17 2003
…MAJOR WINTER STORM AFFECTING THE TRI-STATE REGION…

A NOR’EASTER WILL CONTINUE TO TRACK NORTHEASTWARD PASSING SOUTHEAST OF THE TRI-STATE REGION. SNOW WHICH BEGAN SUNDAY EVENING IN OUR REGION WILL CONTINUE TO BE HEAVY AT TIMES TODAY INTO THIS AFTERNOON BEFORE STARTING TO TAPER OFF TOWARD EVENING.

OCCASIONAL BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO ACCOMPANY THIS STORM AS WINDS SHOULD GUST BETWEEN 35 AND 45 MPH AT TIMES.

HEAVY SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO FALL THROUGHOUT MUCH OF THE DAY. THIS SNOW MAY MIX WITH SLEET ALONG THE COAST AT TIMES…BEFORE TAPERING OFF TOWARD EVENING. OCCASIONAL BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED AS WINDS WILL GUST BETWEEN 35 AND 45 MPH AT TIMES. THIS WILL PRODUCE
WHITEOUT CONDITIONS WHICH WILL MAKE DRIVING EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS BY THE TIME THIS STORM HEADS OUT TO SEA TONIGHT SHOULD RANGE FOR THE MOST PART BETWEEN 1 1/2 AND 2 FEET.

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Charge for Sectionals Hockey Game a Little Rich.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. February 15, 2003:At Ebersole Rink Monday afternoon, White Plains High School will play Ossining in the opener of the Section I Hockey Sectionals. The sign on the rink, says admission charge is $6 per person. Think about that for a moment. Six dollars a person? Does that mean that a person has to pay also $6 for each child they bring? Are there skyboxes? Admission charges for high school events are all over the lot. Some schools charge admission, some do not. And where does the money go?
I am taking the liberty of not conducting an investigation of this $6 charge. Ebersole Rink managers told WPCNR the $6 goes directly to the school and they had nothing to do with it. I will check into this, but right now I am invoking the Official News Columnist’s Right to Give My Opinion Without Checking the Facts License. So forewarned, here is my take on admission charges:

Before I get going I want to say the White Plains Hockey team has had a great season, and this is not directed at them or the high school in anyway, it is directed at the very clandestine, secretive management of high school athletics in the county:

Let’s adapt a consistent admissions policy. Let’s say where the money goes up front. Let’s report gate receipts and what they are used for, and who gets to decide what to do with the money. And let’s adapt the same admission policy for every sectional and non-sectional event. You go up to Gorton in the fall and you pay a $3 admisson to a football game. You go to WPHS at Parker Stadium, there is no admission charge. Can the high schools agree on some consistency?
Can there by a code of conduct, some auditing? Theorectically some enterprising students could set up a table and charge admission and no one would be the wiser.

But, I think charging anything over $2 for a high school event is pushing it, especially when you are not guaranteed a good or actual seat. Besides that the quality of athletic event is poor. Sectional playoffs in all high school sports contain a vast number of humiliating blowouts because of the seeding, create ill-will between communities, occasionally cause near riots, are hideously officiated (homering is popular) and do not really prove anything. You are not in a hockey game for example, even guaranteed a seat especially at Ebersole Rink, which I dearly love by the way, but the seating is very poor.

You have to be kidding me with a $6 admission. Whoever set that has to have their head examined. Hopefully, sectional officials will get back to me with a noble defense of their admission charges.

Six dollars. You have to be nuts!

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Teen Umpire Training and Paid Umpiring Positions Available with WPLL

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. Special to WPCNR. February 15, 2003: The White Plains Little League is looking for a few tough young men and women to officiate minors softball games (9 & 10 years) of age. Teens must have poise, be in control of their emotions and able to concentrate and project an air of authority, expertise, and be able to summon courage in a “rhubard,” with the dignity to stand by their call in the face of pressure. Here are the details:
LEARN TO UMPIRE GIRLS FAST PITCH SOFTBALL.

THE WHITE PLAINS LITTLE LEAGUE has started an umpire training program for girls fast pitch softball. Training will be provided so that you can learn to officiate games in our Minors (9-10 year old) Division. These are paid positions. Trainees will be paid $15.00 per game, when working with an experienced umpire. After training and experience, candidates will be certified to officiate games by themselves for $20.00-25.00 per game.

GIRLS & BOYS AGES 13 AND OLDER interested in participating in this program or for more information contact Mr. L. Petralia, AT 914-949-5797 OR 428-8587. No experience necessary, but familiarity with the game and positive attitude helpful.

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Snow Blow to Greenburgh Budget

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WPCNR GREENBURGH GAZETTE. From Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. February 14, 2003: This week’s dispatch from Greenburgh by Town Supervisor Paul Feiner details the budget damage done by the snowy 2003 winter. Here is the Supervisor’s Report:

Greenburgh Snow removal labor costs have consumed approximately 40% of the overtime budget of $ll0,000 in the highway Department as of February 5th payroll. The cost of purchasing sand and salt has consumed approximately 50% of the $225,000 budget for this purpose. Snow removal costs in 2002 were minimal until the Christmas Day snowstorm. Crews earn triple time during holidays, double time on Sundays, time and a half overtime during weekdays after work and on Saturdays.
Greenburgh Snow removal labor costs have consumed approximately 40% of the overtime budget of $ll0,000 in the highway Department as of February 5th payroll. The cost of purchasing sand and salt has consumed approximately 50% of the $225,000 budget for this purpose. Snow removal costs in 2002 were minimal until the Christmas Day snowstorm. Crews earn triple time during holidays, double time on Sundays, time and a half overtime during weekdays after work and on Saturdays.

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The Quo Warranto Intermezzo: Attorney General’s Action Adjourned Again

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. Special to The CitizeNetReporter. February 14, 2003. UPDATED, February 15, 2003: The usual suspects appeared before Judge Francis Nicolai in Supreme Court in White Plains Friday morning. The judge asked if attorneys for Mr. Delgado and Mr. Hockley had filed all the papers they wished to on Mr. Hockley’s motion for recusal of Judge Nicolai. When the attorneys said they had, the Judge adjourned the proceeding with no further action taken. This information comes to us directly from the Court Reporter who transcibed the action. The court reporter said the actual time in session was 4 minutes.

Jeffery Binder, attorney for Larry Delgado, confirmed Saturday that Judge Nicolai has assigned another law clerk to work with him on this case, replacing Diane Lundin, the woman who is applying for a city judgeship. Ms Lundin was named in Mr. Hockley’s motion for recusal because her application for a judgeship presented a conflict of interest for both the judge and Mr. Hockley.

Binder said Judge Nicolai lead him to believe that the Judge would have a decision on whether or not to recuse himself by February 20, next Thursday.

Binder noted that if Nicolai took himself off the case, that the next judge assigned might rule on the Hockley motion to dismiss the case for failure to be filed in a timely manner (four months after the election).

The Hockley-Delgado fracas has now gone on one year and one day from the actual day when the Delgado-Hockley matter was argued before the Court of Appeals in Albany. The Court of Appeals then took one month to uphold Hockley’s appeal, thus launching the quo warranto proceeding now in process

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Cappelli & Bland Showcase Hotel Designs and Health Club Topping New Garage

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WPCNR THE CAPPELLI NEWS. By John F. Bailey. February 13, 2003: Louis Cappelli took the wraps off detailed first rushes of his plans for a hotel and office complex on Main Street between Church and Court Streets Thursday evening and received enthusiastic response from the Common Council. The “Super Developer” brought back the design impresario for his City Center, Fred Bland, of Beyer, Blinder Belle of New York to present the designs for the 35 story hotel and 30 story office building in the distinct and eloquent Bland style.



ANOTHER BLOCKBUSTER FROM BLAND: The Fred Bland design for the 35-story Starwood Westin Hotel and Condominium complex presented to the Common Council Thursday night. Louis Cappelli plans a block long restaurant on the Main Street streetscape, 6 stories(192 rooms) of hotel above, and 29 stories of luxury condominiums bigger and more luxurious than rentals being built at his City Center.The building behind the hotel-condoplex is an office building Cappelli said would not be built on speculation. He is hoping for a single tenant corporate tenant to lease it before he starts the office portion of project.
Photo by WPCNR News



THE VIEW LOOKING SOUTH FROM CHATTERON HILL ACROSS HAMILTON AVENUE: In the foreground is the office building, that will be highlighted by a glass atrium entrance and foyer allowing clear views through the lobby towards the hotel fronting Main Street. Four floors of parking garage for 900 cars will be built below street level and four above. Parking will be for 1,430 cars and serve both the hotel and office tenant.
Photo by WPCNR News


HOTEL-CONDOPLEX IN THE CENTER OF THE CITY: A three dimensional model shows how the new “Cappelli Bland Hotel” will fit into the city scape. You are looking from the Southwest to the Northeast. Diagonally across from the two miniature white models of the hotel/condoplex is the City Center. The two City Center residential towers are at the right of your picture.
Photo by WPCNR News


THE NEW CITY SKYLINE, LOOKING WEST DOWN MAIN STREET: The two City Center residential towers are shown to the left on this miniature model of White Plains. The “Cappelli Bland Hotel” and Office Plex are the white models to the right fronting Main Street.
Photo by WPCNR News


HEY, WHAT IF WE ADD A HEALTH CLUB TO THE TOP OF THE GARAGE? That’s what Louis Cappelli asked the Council Thursday evening, and the council was enthusiastic. The health club or recreation related facility, perhaps even a bowling alley, as suggested by one member of the Council. only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the top of the garage would be used for the health facility, which would rise 20 more feet above the top level of the garage Cappelli said. The view is looking across at the garage from the Conroy Place entrance to the City Center.
Photo by WPCNR News


Mr. Cappelli prefaced the main event with a new idea for topping off the City Center garage, building a health facility on the top floor of the garage, using his partial air rights he has purchased from the city. He reported the City Center is chugging along with a target date to open October 15, with the City Center Garage targeted for mid-August. He noted that three major retailers were considering his vacant second floor of retail at the City Center.



THE VIEW OF CONROY PLACE FROM THE STEPS OF CITY HALL, showing the new health facility of the City Center Garage at center of the picture. The tall structure slightly to the right of center is the South Cappelli Tower on Matine Avenue. To the right in the foreground is the North Cappelli residential tower, to the left is the rendering for the envisioned Corner Nook/Deli/Main Street Bookstore property.
Photo by WPCNR News

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Slice! District drops Spending to $136.3 Million. 7 Merit Finalists Announced

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. February 13, 2003: The City School District advised the Annual Budget Committee last night that it had trimmed the 2003-04 projected school budget by $2,138,691. The abandoning of several new programs, including establishment of four in-house Special Education classes, a new Technology Specialist position and 5 new Security Personnel for after hours in the elementary schools, lowered the projected year to year increase in the new budget 7.3%.

The new budget calls for the district to spend $136,248,383 next year and was greeted with enthusiasm by the Budget Committee. The $136.2MM figure maintains existing programs, and reflects the string of retirements by veteran teachers announced last week, as well as adjustments to aid estimates.

All Pre-Kindergarten programs (Universal and Experimental) will be preserved and paid for by the district in the new budget, with the district spending $292,894 (instead of $350,000). Michelle Schoenfeld, Clerk to the Board told WPCNR that the Budget Committee was “very supportive” of that decision.

A School Board member told WPCNR that more cuts to the budget were possible.

Tax Increase cut to 9.59% if Assessments Flat.

The immediate effect of the lowered budget from a 9.4% increase to a 7.3% increase, lowered the expected School Tax increase for residents of White Plains to 9.59%, providing assessments remain at present levels.

What this means is that if your home has an $18,500 assessed value, (about the median priced home in White Plains, you would pay a school tax of $6,040 this year, and that figure would go up 9.59% or $579 to $6,619. If you are eligible for a STAR exemption, which Governor Pataki plans to eliminate in the New York State Budget, your assessed value would lower to $13,500. You would pay $429 more, or a total tax of $4,910, instead of $6,619.

7 Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists Make to “the Finals.”

It was announced at the regular School Board meeting held prior to the Budget Committee Meeting last night that seven White Plains High School Seniors had made the cut and are in the running to be named Merit Scholarship winners.

The “Magnificent Seven” are Peter Aronin, Marta Gorczyca, Adam Kaplan, Gleen Moody, Goutami Sanyal, Brandon Sherr, and Andrew Silverman.

The young men and women are among 15,000 from coast to coast who have made it to the final round for the prestigious Scholarships which can amount to thousands of dollars.

Two White Plains Schools Make Most Improved Schools List

It was also announced by Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors that Post Road School and George Washington School have been named by the New York State Department of Education as “Most Improved Schools.”

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Democrats Dine Together March 20: Honor Hevesi, Spitzer.

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WWPCNR Westchester County Clarion-Ledger. From The Democratic Party Media Relations. February 12, 2003:Westchester County Democrats will gather to honor five prominent Democrats – including former State Comptroller and 2002 Gubernatorial nominee H. Carl McCall – at their annual dinner to be held on Thursday, March 20th at the V.I.P. club on Davenport Avenue in New Rochelle. Guest speakers for the event will be newly elected State Comptroller Alan Hevesi and recently re-elected State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Westchester County Democratic Chairman George Latimer reports that McCall will be present to receive the party’s Distinguished Service Award. Also recognized at the event will be two Democratic State Senators, Suzi Oppenheimer of Mamaroneck and Ruth Hassell-Thompson of Mt. Vernon, joint recipients of the party’s Leadership Award; Dennis McSpedon of I.B.E.W. Local 3, receiving the party’s Labor Award; and a special recognition award for years of service to David Alpert of Mt. Vernon, the party’s Immediate Past Chairman.

Prominent elected officials will be present including Congresswoman Nita Lowey and Congressman Eliot Engel; County Executive Andrew Spano; Democratic members of the State Assembly delegation; Board of Legislators Chair Lois Bronz and Democratic members of the County Board of Legislators; and numerous city, town and village elected officials and party activists.

“2002 was a successful year for Westchester Democrats”, noted Latimer. Despite the national results, “Westchester was carried by Alan Hevesi, Eliot Spitzer, Judge Sam Walker, Judge Joan Cooney, two incumbent Congress members, two State Senators, our Assembly Democrats, and by a majority of our candidates for the State Supreme Court. We have a base of success to build on in the years to come”, Latimer noted.

Ticket reservation and ad journal information may be obtained by contacting Ms. R. Richard, Executive Director at Democratic HQ at 946-8300.

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Abraham Lincoln: How a Leader Responds Under Pressure

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WPCNR CITY HALL HERALD STATESMAN. By John F. Bailey. February 12, 2003: February 12 marks the birthdate of President Abraham Lincoln. As part of a long-standing agreement between the city and its workers, City Hall is closed today in observance of the man who saved the Union.

In the days of Lincoln, media coverage was simply print media, however, the amount of reporting on the burning issues of the day was far more detailed than today with dozens of newspapers presenting the chronicles of the burning issues. For Lincoln’s presidency was the presidency of the nation’s greatest crisis in its eighty-five year history: The Civil War. It is interesting to note how President Lincoln conducted himself in dealing with America’s interests, its factions, pulling him to free the slaves.

When Lincoln was running for the Presidency in 1860 at the Republican Convention in riproaring Chicago, he was up against James Seward, a powerful New York politician. However, the western states at the time were highly distrustful of the New York political machine. Lincoln won over support by taking a position of what was good for the nation as a whole.

Taking a Position and Working To it

Lincoln first gave notice of his potential for the Presidency when he impressed Horace Greeley, influential editor of the New York Tribune with a fiery speech at the Cooper Union in February, 1860, delivering a sharp criticism of the South, hard on the heels of South Carolina’s secession from the Union. The speech included these words,

You say you will not abide the election of a Republican President. In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! (The northern states) That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

Greeley printed the speech in his Tribune the next day, scooping the other New York papers, by simply asking Lincoln for a copy of the speech. The subsequent printing in the popular Trib, sent Mr. Lincoln on his way. As William Harlan Hale’s biography of Mr. Greeley (Horace Greeley: Voice of the People)describes the scene at “The original Trib’s” offices, as remembered by Amos Cummings, a young proofreader:

Amos Cummings, then a young proofreader, remembered the lanky westerner appearing over his shoulder amid the noise of the pressroom late at midnight, drawing up a chair, adjusting his spectacles, and in the glare of the gaslight reading each galley (of the Cooper Union speech) with scrupulous care and then rechecking his corrections, oblivious to his surroundings.

A Comeback President

Lincoln had been a highly successful politician from Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. He was three times elected to the state legislature, and The Kunhardts’ The American Presidency reports he was “a recognized expert at forming collations…he learned how to keep secrets, how to trade favors, how to use the press to his advantage. And he cultivated his relationship with the party hierarchy.”

Graff’s book writes that Lincoln was described as “ruthless,” that he “handled men remotely like pieces on a chessboard.” Humor and frankness were character traits.

Lincoln was elected a congressman, only to serve just one term.

Lincoln had been practicing corporate law privately and had lost interest in politics by 1854, until the repeal of The Missouri Compromise, which had restricted slavery to the southern states. Lincoln felt stirred to come back. He spoke out against the spread of slavery, running for the senate in 1858 against William Douglas, unsuccessfully.

Saving the Union His Mantra

As the furor over slavery and the South’s threats to secede grew, a crisis of spirit and purpose in this nation which makes today’s concerns about terrorism as a threat to America, pale in comparison, Lincoln realized that the Union was the larger issue.
He expressed this in response to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, an influential figure at the Republican (Whig) Convention in Chicago in 1860. Greeley was the kingmaker at the 1860 Chicago convention who eventually swung the western states for Lincoln, giving the man from Illinois the nomination on the third ballot over William Seward, the candidate of the Thurlow Weed “New York Machine.”

Greeley then tried to influence the President-Elect to free the slaves. (Lincoln was being lobbied by the still-powerful Weed-Seward faction to compromise with the southern states on the issue of slavery).

Standing Tall Against Pressure.

Lincoln refused to free the slaves as one of the first acts of his presidency, standing firm to hold the union together, when he announced his attention not to do so, on his way to Washington after being elected. His words in this time of international tension, are worth remembering as America considers starting a war for the first time. Lincoln said:

I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy (the Union, he means), so long together. It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the single people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.

Seeing the Big Picture.

After Fort Sumter was fired upon, Lincoln was pressured harder to free the slaves. Still, Lincoln held firm. Mr. Greeley published a blistering open letter to the President, he called “The Letter of Twenty Millions,” meaning his readers (slightly exaggerated)in The New York Tribune. Greeley’s letter took the President to task for not freeing the slaves now that the Civil War was on, writing, “all attempts to put down the rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile.”

President Lincoln responded with an open letter which Greeley published in The Tribune. President Lincoln’s letter is instructive as to how a President moves in crisis, when a nation is ripped apart to calm and state his position. He begins with a conciliatory tone, calming Greeley’s bombast:

…If there be perceptible in it (Greeley’s letter) an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing,” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution.

The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the Union will be – the Union as it was.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.

If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it – if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it – and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free, Yours

A. Lincoln

Wearied by War

Horace Greeley described the toll the Civil War had taken on Mr. Lincoln, seeing him in person shortly beforeGeneral Lee surrendered. Greeley wrote:

Lincoln’s face had nothing in it of the sunny, gladsome countenance he first brought from Illinois. It is now a face haggard with care and seamed with thought and trouble…tempest-tossed and weatherbeaten, as if he were some tough old mariner who had for years been beating up against the wind and tide, unable to make his port or find safe anchorage…The sunset of life was plainly looking out of his kindly eyes.”

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