"Go West, young man!"—An Elusive Slogan

Thomas Fuller

It was the motto of nineteenth-century America, the watchword of Manifest Destiny: "Go West, young man!" Although it is commonly attributed to New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley, works of reference give the exhortation confusing and contradictory origins.1 One of our most familiar historical slogans surely deserves more careful documentation than it has yet received. To that end, I have thoroughly investigated the history of the phrase. This article briefly describes one aspect of my research that may interest Indiana historians: the truth behind a widely held belief that the phrase was originally written by John Babson Lane Soule (1815–1891), an Indiana newspaper editor, in an editorial in the Terre Haute Daily Express in 1851.2 I have examined this assertion with some care and have concluded that it is a fiction dating in print to no earlier than 1890. Before that date, the primary-source historical record contains not a shred of evidence that Soule had anything to do with the phrase.	1
Horace Greeley Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, is widely credited with coining the phrase, "Go West, young man!" in an 1865 editorial. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
John Babson Lane Soule Some claimed that Soule, rather than Greeley, first uttered "Go West, young man!" while serving as editor of the Terre Haute Daily Express. Soule later became a professor of ancient languages at Blackburn University (now Blackburn College) in Carlinville, Illinois, where he was also a Presbyterian minister. Courtesy Blackburn College Archives   . . . There are about 2919 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.