Dictionary.net

An American author; born in Hingham, Mass., May 22, 1814; died in New Brighton, N. Y., June 25, 1888. He left Harvard before graduation on account of ill-health; and studied law, but abandoned it because he could not conscientiously take the required oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. He became a "Garrisonian abolitionist", and in 1844 was editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard. In 1858 he became editorially connected with the New York Tribune, of which he was managing editor 1862-66. He wrote a "History of the United States" (4 vols., 1876-81), of which W. C. Bryant wrote the preface; a "Life of James Madison" (1884), in the "American Statesmen" series; etc.