Edited by the gifted journalist, Horace Greeley, the founder of the popular New York Tribune and a keen political observer, the Tribune Almanac and Political Register published important reference information on government and politics.  The New York publication was launched in 1856 and was updated on an annual basis.

With national politics becoming increasingly polarized in the years leading up to the Civil War, Greeley's Tribune Almanac was a handy resource for an inquiring citizenry that sought to understand the players and political dimensions of the sectional crisis.  The periodical listed the principals of the executive, the judiciary, and legislative branches.  One of the publication's most helpful features was its detailed coverage of the changing composition of Congress.  Every member was identified by hometown and party affiliation.  The Tribune Almanac also featured a summary of the major laws that were enacted and a compilation of election returns for state and national offices (subdivided by individual state, congressional district, and county).  Many experts believe that the periodical is the best available resource for examining the results of the 1860 and 1864 presidential elections.  In presidential election years, the periodical published the national platforms for each party.

Beginning in 1860 when South Carolina seceded from the Union, Greeley doubled his efforts to keep his readers apprised of the changing political landscape.  Although a staunch unionist, the editor published South Carolina's ordinance and the Declaration of Independence of South Carolina in the 1861 volume.  The following year Greeley included the principals of Jefferson Davis's administration, the members of the Confederate Senate and the House of Representatives, and the  governors of the Confederate states.  In the 1862 volume the editor featured the first installment of "The Slaveholders' Rebellion," a day-by-day chronology of the Civil War.

The Tribune Almanac provided ample evidence that when Lincoln was elected President and the Southern Democrats left Congress, the Republican Party was able to dominate national policymaking.  The legislative activism of the Republican-controlled 37th Congress was showcased in the 1862 volume with the enactment of the Morrill Tariff Act followed in the next volume by the Pacific Railroad Act, the Homestead Act, and the Land-grant College Act.  The 1864 volume featured Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the admission of West Virginia to the Union.  The repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act and the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau were highlighted in the 1865 volume.  The 1866 volume documented the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

A testament to the popularity of the Tribune Almanac, the periodical continued to be published with only one interruption (in 1887) until 1914.