Autograph Letter Signed To Marvin Henry Bovee, Eagle, Wisconsin.

Autographed letter, 1 pp. folded half sheet (4x6), about a dozen lines of text, signed. Folds, some normal aging; otherwise very good plus.The text of the letter is as follows: "I am very sick and wretched - have slept very little for many nights. But God will save this Republic in spite of its many sins. We are to be tried as by fire, but the pure gold will stand the test in faith and hope, yet in deep humiliation."Horace Greeley (1811-1872) was a newspaper editor and publisher and served as a Congressman from New York. Greeley was an adamant abolistionist, but believed America had a geat future, and supported homestead efforts to promote expansion. After all, he did coin the expression "go west young man" to support the notion of American expansion. This letter appears to have been written in a moment of despair by the most influential northern newspaper publisher of the Civil War after the defeat of the Union Army at Bull Run, the first major battle of the Civil War. His friend Bovee was the leading American advocate of abolishing the death penalty, whose other admirers included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, abolitionist Gerrit Smith and feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.