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 CHAPTER IV

REPORTING THE DEBATES

MR. HORACE WHITE

Mr. White, the official reporter of the Debates for the Chicago Press and Tribune, was born in New Hampshire in 1834. When three years of age, he was taken with the family to Wisconsin Territory, where the city of Beloit now stands. In 1849, Horace entered Beloit College, was graduated in 1853, and became a reporter on the Chicago Evening Journal. In 1857 he spent a short time in Kansas, returning to Chicago to become an editorial writer on the Chicago Press and Tribune. While holding this position, he was designated as chief correspondent to accompany Abraham Lincoln in 1858 on his campaign against Stephen A. Douglas for the United States senatorship.

The notable features of this campaign were given to the public chiefly through Mr. White's letters to the Chicago Tribune, and were subsequently condensed by him at the instance of William H. Herndon and published in the latter's Life of Lincoln (2d ed., D. Appleton & Co., New York). In 1861 Mr. White was sent to Washington as correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, and while there he filled successfully the places of clerk of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and clerk in the War Department. In the latter capacity he was assigned to the special service of P. H. Watson, assistant secretary of war, and later of Edwin M. Stanton, secretary. In 1865 he became part owner and chief editor of the Chicago Tribune, which place he filled until September, 1874, 75