Who Am I? (Number 13)

     I was born in Vestal, New York in 1833. My family moved to Virgil, New York, where my father was appointed postmaster. When I was twelve years old I became a printer's apprentice at the Democrat in Cortland, New York. I learned the trade of printing newspapers and became a journeyman. After seven years on the job, I left and traveled about a few years until I settled down in Ohio.
     About 1855, I and others established a newspaper called The Herald in Plymouth, Ohio. A year later I became editor of the Bucyrus Journal. During the Civil War, I edited and wrote for the Toledo Blade, which I purchased in 1867. While I was editor of the Toledo Blade, I wrote a series of letters under a pseudonym. President Lincoln read these letters to his Cabinet and to senators. In these letters, I claimed I was a resident of Kentucky, a preacher, a Southern sympathizer, a Democrat and a Copperhead. I used a semi-literate form of spelling to distinguish my alter-ego.
     Here is a sample:

                              Church of St.____, Nov. 1, '63.
    
     I felt it my dooty to visit Washington. The misarable condishon the Dimocrisy find themselvs into sinse the elecshen, makes it nessary that suthin be did, and I determined to see wat cood be effectid by a persnel intervew with the Presdent.
     Interdoosin myself, I opened upon him delikitly, thus:
     "Linkin," sez I, "ez a Dimocrat, a free-born Dimocrat, who is prepard to die with neetness and dispatch, and on short notis, fer the inalienable rite uv free speech--knoin also that you er a goriller, a feendish ape, a therster after blud, I speak."
    
     I first met Abraham Lincoln in Quincy, Illinois. He was debating with Senator Stephen L. Douglas. I covered the event as a journalist. I and others called the debate "the long and the short of it." When I talked with Mr. Lincoln, he recalled a general who had recently died. We both knew him. The general had an ego that matched his great reputation. Mr. Lincoln said: " If the general had known how big a funeral he was going to have, he would have died years ago."
     I had a personal problem with the management of money--that which belonged to me, and that which belonged to others. I had to uproot and travel often to avoid debt collectors and former friends.
     I continued to write and comment on contemporary issues, such as Reconstruction, until the day of my death in 1888.
     Who am I?
     (Answer will be posted in 36 hours.)
     I am David Ross Locke. My alias is Petroleum V. Nasby.

References:
1) Wikipedia--David Ross Locke
2) The Humorous Mr. Lincoln by Keith W. Jennison, Bonanza Books, 1965.
3) The Nasby Papers