This Defeated Presidential Candidate, Once the 'Best-Known Man in America,' Died in a Sanatorium Less Than a Month After Losing the Election

The campaign itself had been grueling, in part because of the effort Greeley put into it. In the month of September alone, writes historian Robert C. Williams in Horace Greeley: Champion of American Freedom, he delivered nearly 200 speeches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

At the time, many believed Greeley had died of heartbreak caused by both his humiliating election defeat and his wife Mary's death, after a long series of illnesses, on October 30.

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