Born to a poor family in New Hampshire, Greeley was apprenticed to a printer in Vermont, and in 1831 went to New York City to seek his fortune. He wrote for or edited several publications, and involved himself in Whig Party politics, taking a significant part in William Henry Harrison’s successful 1840 presidential campaign. The following year, he founded the Tribune, which through weekly editions sent by mail became the highest-circulating newspaper in the country. Among many other issues, he urged the settlement of the American West, which he saw as a land of opportunity for the young and the unemployed. He popularized the phrase “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country,” although it is uncertain whether it originated with him.