how it was used. Weed was critical of Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, regarding it as too radical and controversial and unsuccessfully arguing for a system of gradual emancipation. In early 1863, he retired as editor of the Evening Journal because he disagreed with the Radical Republican view on prosecuting the war and post-war Reconstruction, but as a loyal Republican did not want to make this disagreement public. Weed publicly announced his retirement from the printing and publishing business on January 27, 1863. In the ensuing days his "valedictory address" was printed in full in several newspapers. Federal patronage in New York caused Lincoln difficulty as Weed and his opponents vied for control of government appointments. In 1864, Lincoln appeased Weed by blocking Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase's choice for a new assistant secretary in charge of the New York sub-treasury, which led to Chase's resignation. Lincoln then ensured he would have Weed's support in the 1864 election by dismissing Hiram Barney, a Radical Republican, as Collector of the Port of New York, and replacing him with Simeon Draper, a Weed ally. After Lincoln's death and the end of the war, Weed and Seward allied with President Andrew Johnson against the Radical Republicans. Both endorsed Johnson's more conservative approach to Reconstruction and Seward continued as Secretary of State under Johnson. Retirement In 1867 Weed retired from public life and moved from Albany to New York City. He briefly owned and edited a newspaper, the Commercial Advertiser, and remained peripherally engaged in politics, but did not exert the same level of influence that he had had in the past. Weed offered public support to the presidential administration of Ulysses S. Grant. He also engaged in a public feud with Mary Todd Lincoln, who criticized him for opposing efforts to provide her federal financial aid after Lincoln's assassination. During his later years, Weed wrote frequent letters to authors who sought information on New York's history, especially details on the growth of towns where Weed had lived as a young man. He also resumed work on an autobiography which he had begun in the 1840s, and which was published by his daughter Harriet in 1883. Weed's grandson Thurlow Weed Barnes also published a biography, 1884's Life of Thurlow Weed. Death and burial Weed became ill in his final months and suffered from blindness and vertigo. He died in New