C H I C A G O
T R I B U T E
Home
List of markers
Location map
Nominations
Contact
Acknowledgments
Joseph Medill 18231899 Journalist and mayor of Chicago
Under Medills direction, the paper took a strong stand against slavery. An ardent abolitionist, he opposed the expansion of slavery into the western United States, which he believed should be open to any citizen willing to settle and farm the land.
Medill was one of the founders of the Republican Party, and he played a central role in Abraham Lincolns nomination for president in 1860, orchestrating demonstrations inside and outside the convention hall in Chicago and garnering support from other powerful Republicans.
Medills most famous editorial, written before the embers had cooled from the Great Fire of 1871, exhorted Chicagoans to Cheer Up!, predicting the city would rise from its ashes. Elected mayor a month later on the Fireproof Party ticket, he presided over the creation of Chicagos Fire limits, a central-city area within which buildings had to be constructed of brick or stone rather than wood.
The Tribunes rise to prominence under Medill mirrored Chicagos growth. He took the Tribune from a small, frontier paper to a major force in American journalism and an editorial champion of Middle America.