An overland journey, from New York to San Francisco in the summer of 1859

About this book

"An overland journey, from New York to San Francisco in the summer of 1859" by Horace Greeley is a travel narrative written in the mid-19th century. Drawn from newspaper letters, it traces an overland crossing of the United States, mixing vivid reportage on landscapes, frontier towns, mail and freight routes, mining camps, and the politics of slavery with the author’s practical notes on travel conditions.

The opening of the book follows the author from New York by rail and steamboat to Missouri and across the river into Kansas, amid storms, swollen creeks, and balky “sleeping-cars.” He sketches the hard spring of scarcity in the Midwest, the sparse settlements of northern Missouri, and the dangerous, muddy Missouri River before reaching Atchison, where freighting trains and Pike’s Peak parties crowd the prairie. Heading toward Osawatomie through quaggy trails and wagon corrals, he depicts the Santa Fe and California routes, then pauses to honor Osawatomie’s role in the free-state struggle and John Brown’s defense. Subsequent letters cover a flood-hampered political convention, sharp critiques of demagogues and anti-Black measures, and brisk portraits of Prairie City, the skirmish at Black Jack, Lawrence (with Mount Oread and the Eldridge House), and a rare steamboat ascent of the Kaw. He surveys Leavenworth’s army post and the vast Russell, Majors & Waddell freighting empire, then rides west through the Potawatomi Reserve to Topeka—recalling federal suppression of free-state institutions—on to the Big Blue and Manhattan. The initial “summing up” praises Kansas’s rich soil, limestone, and water, notes lumber scarcity and transport costs, highlights cheap, prolific corn, rebukes shiftless settlers, and ends with practical advice on building a farm quickly.