hitelaw Reid was the longtime editor of the New York Tribune, a
diplomat, and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1892. He was born on
October 27, 1837, near Xenia, Ohio, to devout Presbyterian parents, Marion
Whitelaw Ronalds Reid and Robert Charlton Reid, a farmer. Young Reid attended
his uncle’s academy in Xenia before entering Miami University of Ohio as a
sophomore at the age of 15. A superior student, he graduated with scientific
honors in 1856, at the age of 18. During his college years, he began writing for
local newspapers, and then in 1857 joined the staff of his brother’s Xenia
News, which he edited for two years.
A fervent Republican, Reid backed Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860.
The next year, he began covering the state legislature for the Cincinnati
Times, contributed articles to the Cleveland Herald, and then became
the Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, writing for the
latter under the pseudonym “Agate.” When the Civil War began, he joined the
troops under Union General William Rosecrans as a war correspondent. Reid gained
fame for his coverage of the campaigns of Rosecrans and General George
McClellan, and was particularly praised for his accurate and compelling reports
of the battles of Shiloh and Gettysburg. Reid was given the rank of captain, and
the title of aide-de-camp.
With the Republicans in control of Congress, Reid was named librarian of the
House of Representatives (1863-1866), and also served as clerk to the House
Military Affairs Committee for one session. Viewing Lincoln as too cautious,
Reid supported Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase of Ohio for the Republican
presidential nomination in 1864. Even after Lincoln was renominated, Reid joined
other Radicals in urging the president to withdraw from the race. Union military
victories, especially the fall of Atlanta to General William Tecumseh Sherman,
quieted the anti-Lincoln chorus and helped ensure the president’s electoral
victory.
After the Civil War, Reid joined Chase (then Chief Justice) on an inspection
tour of the postwar South. The journalist published his reports in a book,
After the War (1866). He argued that the views of most white Southerners had
not been changed by the war, thus making it nearly impossible for the Republican
Party to gain a foothold in the region. He briefly tried his hand at running a
Louisiana plantation, but soon gave up in despair. In 1868, he published a
well-respected, two-volume history of the war’s impact on his home state,
Ohio and the War.
In 1868, Horace Greeley employed Reid as an assistant editor for the New
York Tribune. Reid hired John Hay, and printed pieces by authors such as
Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain. Increasingly dismayed with the
policies and corruption of the administration of Republican President Ulysses S.
Grant, Greeley and Reid joined the Liberal Republican movement in the early
1870s. At the Liberal Republican Convention in May 1872, Reid orchestrated
Greeley’s nomination for president, and then became his campaign manager, as
well as acting editor of the Tribune.
After Greeley’s electoral defeat in November, Reid borrowed money from Jay
Gould to buy controlling shares in the newspaper, and took the reins as
editor-in-chief (Greeley died a few weeks later). Reid quickly adopted new
printing technologies, hired more reporters, improved the paper’s coverage of
foreign affairs, and extensively reported major scandals involving both
political parties without degenerating into sensationalism. Consequently, under
his leadership, the New York Tribune’s circulation rose to 60,000
by 1876, and became a major influence in national politics.
Following the 1872 election, Reid returned to the Republican fold, and was
particularly close to President James Garfield, who hailed from his home state
of Ohio. Reid married Elizabeth Mills in 1881; they had two children. In 1884,
the Tribune editor was one of most vocal supporters of Republican presidential
nominee James G. Blaine, and a member of the candidate’s inner circle of
advisors.
Reid had rejected offers from President Garfield to become U.S. minister to
Germany, but in 1889 accepted the ministership to France from President Benjamin
Harrison. As minister to France, he worked to open French markets to American
products, and reached a reciprocal trade agreement to that end. In 1892,
Republicans selected him as Harrison’s vice-presidential running mate. Reid
campaigned enthusiastically, but the Republican ticket went down to defeat.
After the election, Reid retired from active politics and the daily
editorship of the Tribune. In early 1897, Senator Thomas Platt of New
York torpedoed the plan of Republican president-elect William McKinley (another
Ohioan) to name Reid as secretary of state. Following the Spanish-American War
in 1898, President McKinley appointed Reid to the American delegation for the
peace negotiations with Spain, during which he advocated the retention of the
Philippines under American control. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt named
Reid as the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. He died in London on December 15,
1912.