Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Censorship
Originally posted on December 5, 2016 as part of our series on Presidents and the Media.
As author Harold Holzer points out in his 2015 book Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion (reviewed here in this community), during the Civil War, the battle for public opinion was almost as important as the battles fought with bullets and bayonets. President Abraham Lincoln was a master tactician when it came to using public opinion as both a political weapon as well as a military aid. He used the press not only to get his message out in an era before electronic mass communication, but also to prevent his opponents from having similar access to the hearts and minds of the people. He did this through the use of military censorship, control of the post office and telegraphs, and through the use of patronage.
At the time, New York City was the media capital of the western world. The big three media moguls in New York City were Horace Greeley of the Tribune, James Gordon Bennett of the Herald, and Henry Raymond of the Times. Each had interesting life stories and personalities. There were also many other influential newspapers in other parts of the country, including in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and in Lincoln's home state of Illinois, where Lincoln purchased a newspaper printed in German to bolster his electoral chances in that state.
Lincoln used censorship of those journalists and newspapers whose views did not accord with the administration or its prosecution of the war, justifying the practice as being one which saved lives by shortening the war (or more accurately, but not enabling Lincoln's enemies to prolong the war by raising the spirits of those who opposed the Union). Many newspapers that were critical of the Union cause were censored of shut down. Their reporters were treated differently depending on how they reported from the battlefield, and some editors were even jailed for their anti-administration views. Often it was members of the public, through mob actions, who took it upon themselves to violently censor the newspapers. Freedom of the press was a casualty of the Civil War, and the real debate is whether or not this was justified under the circumstances of the time.
Lincoln also used the press as a means of getting his message to the people in a era before the ability to speak directly to the masses existed (i.e. at a time before radio and television.) For example, when emancipation became an issue, Lincoln wrote his famous response to Horace Greeley's "Prayer of Twenty Millions" editorial, which accused Lincoln of using his abolitionist leanings as the reason for the death of so many young men in the war. In response, Lincoln famously wrote "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that".
In mid-August 1861, four newspapers in New York City: the New York Daily News, the Journal of Commerce, Day Book, and Freeman’s Journal were all given a presentment by a Grand Jury of the United States Circuit Court for "frequently encouraging the rebels by expressions of sympathy and agreement". A series of federal prosecutions of newspapers throughout the northern United States followed. The target was any newspaper that printed expressions of sympathy for Southern causes or criticisms of the Lincoln Administration. Lists of "peace newspapers" were published in the New York Daily News and many of these met with retributions. For example, the Bangor Democrat, in Maine, was one of these newspapers. A group believed to be part of a covert Federal raid, destroyed the newspaper's printing press and burned down the newspaper facility.
Lincoln sanctioned the censorship of newspapers that were sympathetic to the confederacy by the use of executive orders that he issued. His eighth order issued on August 7, 1861, which made it both illegal and punishable by death to hold "correspondence with" or give "intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly". Many strong union supporters interpreted this as explicit permission for action against these papers, either through lawful means, or through vigilante justice as occurred in Bangor.
Lincoln was able to effect control of press censorship because in those days, stories were filed by telegraph and Lincoln controlled telegraph usage. Censorship of news dispatches filed in Washington began in April in 1861, a time when the government assumed control of the telegraph wires commencing from the city. Control of censorship was first placed under the Treasury Department, then transferred to the War Department, then to the State Department and then back to the War Department, under whose authority it remained from February 25, 1862, on. Journalist Ben Perley Poore wrote in his memoirs:
"The Washington press was despotically governed during the war. The established censorship was under the direction of men wholly unqualified, and on several occasions the printed editions of influential journals, Republican or Democratic were seized by Secretary Stanton for having published intelligence which he thought should have been suppressed. Bulletins were issued by the War Department, but they were often incorrect. It was known that the Washington papers, full of military information, were forwarded through the lines daily, yet the censors would not permit paragraphs clipped from those papers to be telegraphed to Boston or Chicago, where they could not appear sooner than they did in the Richmond papers. The declaration, ‘I am a newspaper correspondent,’ which had in former years carried with it the imposing force of the famous, ‘I am a Roman citizen,’ no longer entitled one to the same proud prerogatives, and journalists were regarded as spies and sneaks."
This type of censorship became necessary because Northern papers quickly found their way into hands of Confederate generals. Lincoln tried to pursue a middle course on censorship. When Missouri Radicals complained about General John M. Schofield "muzzling the press" in September 1863, Lincoln responded: "I think when an office in any department finds that a newspaper is pursuing a course calculated to embarrass his operations and stir up sedition and tumult, he has the right to lay hands upon it and suppress it, but in no other case.
Lincoln gave a number of informal interviews to reporters he trusted, but he did not hold press conferences. When Washington correspondents looked for news, they sought out Congressmen.
Drastic measures were sometimes taken where it was seen necessary for military purposes.There were repeated civil and military actions to shut down newspapers for supposedly seditious behavior. This was more common early in the war in the border states of Maryland and Missouri, but actions were also taken in big northern cities like Chicago and New York. Such actions were sometimes headaches for Lincoln. He acted to reverse such suppression on occasion, such as when the Chicago Times was shut down by General Ambrose Burnside on June 2, 1863. The Times, under editor Roger Storey, had become progressively more anti-war and harshly criticized Burnside’s arrest of former Congressman Clement Vallandigham the previous month. Popular opinion in Chicago was inflamed, both for and against Burnside. Fearing street violence, a group of Chicago civic leaders sent a petition to the White House. Congressman Isaac Arnold asked Lincoln to reverse Burnside’s action, which the President did on June 4. Lincoln telegraphed orders suggesting that the order be lifted, to which Burnside followed with an order to revoke General Order 84 on June 4, 1863.
Lincoln was careful to cultivate northern editors as he approached reelection in 1864. He had appointed many journalists to federal office including John Bigelow of the New York Evening Post, as a diplomat in Paris; Thomas McElrath, New York Tribune, as appraiser at the New York customhouse; D.P. Holloway, Richmond Palladium, as commissioner of patents; John L. Scripps as postmaster in Chicago; James Watson Webb of the New York Courier and Enquirer as minister to Brazil; and John D. Defrees, Indianapolis Atlas, as superintendent of public printing. In the fall of 1864, President Lincoln hinted at the possibility of other appointments before key editors, including the postmaster general for Horace Greeley and Minister to France for James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald.
Lincoln was skillful in his use of the media during the war, even though this did not always endear him to the press. But as one writer on this subject observed, "Most of the leading American newspapers were anti-Lincoln in 1860, and they remained anti-Lincoln till April 15, 1865, when they suddenly discovered that President had been the greatest man in the world."
As author Harold Holzer points out in his 2015 book Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion (reviewed here in this community), during the Civil War, the battle for public opinion was almost as important as the battles fought with bullets and bayonets. President Abraham Lincoln was a master tactician when it came to using public opinion as both a political weapon as well as a military aid. He used the press not only to get his message out in an era before electronic mass communication, but also to prevent his opponents from having similar access to the hearts and minds of the people. He did this through the use of military censorship, control of the post office and telegraphs, and through the use of patronage.
At the time, New York City was the media capital of the western world. The big three media moguls in New York City were Horace Greeley of the Tribune, James Gordon Bennett of the Herald, and Henry Raymond of the Times. Each had interesting life stories and personalities. There were also many other influential newspapers in other parts of the country, including in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and in Lincoln's home state of Illinois, where Lincoln purchased a newspaper printed in German to bolster his electoral chances in that state.
Lincoln used censorship of those journalists and newspapers whose views did not accord with the administration or its prosecution of the war, justifying the practice as being one which saved lives by shortening the war (or more accurately, but not enabling Lincoln's enemies to prolong the war by raising the spirits of those who opposed the Union). Many newspapers that were critical of the Union cause were censored of shut down. Their reporters were treated differently depending on how they reported from the battlefield, and some editors were even jailed for their anti-administration views. Often it was members of the public, through mob actions, who took it upon themselves to violently censor the newspapers. Freedom of the press was a casualty of the Civil War, and the real debate is whether or not this was justified under the circumstances of the time.
Lincoln also used the press as a means of getting his message to the people in a era before the ability to speak directly to the masses existed (i.e. at a time before radio and television.) For example, when emancipation became an issue, Lincoln wrote his famous response to Horace Greeley's "Prayer of Twenty Millions" editorial, which accused Lincoln of using his abolitionist leanings as the reason for the death of so many young men in the war. In response, Lincoln famously wrote "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that".
In mid-August 1861, four newspapers in New York City: the New York Daily News, the Journal of Commerce, Day Book, and Freeman’s Journal were all given a presentment by a Grand Jury of the United States Circuit Court for "frequently encouraging the rebels by expressions of sympathy and agreement". A series of federal prosecutions of newspapers throughout the northern United States followed. The target was any newspaper that printed expressions of sympathy for Southern causes or criticisms of the Lincoln Administration. Lists of "peace newspapers" were published in the New York Daily News and many of these met with retributions. For example, the Bangor Democrat, in Maine, was one of these newspapers. A group believed to be part of a covert Federal raid, destroyed the newspaper's printing press and burned down the newspaper facility.
Lincoln sanctioned the censorship of newspapers that were sympathetic to the confederacy by the use of executive orders that he issued. His eighth order issued on August 7, 1861, which made it both illegal and punishable by death to hold "correspondence with" or give "intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly". Many strong union supporters interpreted this as explicit permission for action against these papers, either through lawful means, or through vigilante justice as occurred in Bangor.
Lincoln was able to effect control of press censorship because in those days, stories were filed by telegraph and Lincoln controlled telegraph usage. Censorship of news dispatches filed in Washington began in April in 1861, a time when the government assumed control of the telegraph wires commencing from the city. Control of censorship was first placed under the Treasury Department, then transferred to the War Department, then to the State Department and then back to the War Department, under whose authority it remained from February 25, 1862, on. Journalist Ben Perley Poore wrote in his memoirs:
"The Washington press was despotically governed during the war. The established censorship was under the direction of men wholly unqualified, and on several occasions the printed editions of influential journals, Republican or Democratic were seized by Secretary Stanton for having published intelligence which he thought should have been suppressed. Bulletins were issued by the War Department, but they were often incorrect. It was known that the Washington papers, full of military information, were forwarded through the lines daily, yet the censors would not permit paragraphs clipped from those papers to be telegraphed to Boston or Chicago, where they could not appear sooner than they did in the Richmond papers. The declaration, ‘I am a newspaper correspondent,’ which had in former years carried with it the imposing force of the famous, ‘I am a Roman citizen,’ no longer entitled one to the same proud prerogatives, and journalists were regarded as spies and sneaks."
This type of censorship became necessary because Northern papers quickly found their way into hands of Confederate generals. Lincoln tried to pursue a middle course on censorship. When Missouri Radicals complained about General John M. Schofield "muzzling the press" in September 1863, Lincoln responded: "I think when an office in any department finds that a newspaper is pursuing a course calculated to embarrass his operations and stir up sedition and tumult, he has the right to lay hands upon it and suppress it, but in no other case.
Lincoln gave a number of informal interviews to reporters he trusted, but he did not hold press conferences. When Washington correspondents looked for news, they sought out Congressmen.
Drastic measures were sometimes taken where it was seen necessary for military purposes.There were repeated civil and military actions to shut down newspapers for supposedly seditious behavior. This was more common early in the war in the border states of Maryland and Missouri, but actions were also taken in big northern cities like Chicago and New York. Such actions were sometimes headaches for Lincoln. He acted to reverse such suppression on occasion, such as when the Chicago Times was shut down by General Ambrose Burnside on June 2, 1863. The Times, under editor Roger Storey, had become progressively more anti-war and harshly criticized Burnside’s arrest of former Congressman Clement Vallandigham the previous month. Popular opinion in Chicago was inflamed, both for and against Burnside. Fearing street violence, a group of Chicago civic leaders sent a petition to the White House. Congressman Isaac Arnold asked Lincoln to reverse Burnside’s action, which the President did on June 4. Lincoln telegraphed orders suggesting that the order be lifted, to which Burnside followed with an order to revoke General Order 84 on June 4, 1863.
Lincoln was careful to cultivate northern editors as he approached reelection in 1864. He had appointed many journalists to federal office including John Bigelow of the New York Evening Post, as a diplomat in Paris; Thomas McElrath, New York Tribune, as appraiser at the New York customhouse; D.P. Holloway, Richmond Palladium, as commissioner of patents; John L. Scripps as postmaster in Chicago; James Watson Webb of the New York Courier and Enquirer as minister to Brazil; and John D. Defrees, Indianapolis Atlas, as superintendent of public printing. In the fall of 1864, President Lincoln hinted at the possibility of other appointments before key editors, including the postmaster general for Horace Greeley and Minister to France for James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald.
Lincoln was skillful in his use of the media during the war, even though this did not always endear him to the press. But as one writer on this subject observed, "Most of the leading American newspapers were anti-Lincoln in 1860, and they remained anti-Lincoln till April 15, 1865, when they suddenly discovered that President had been the greatest man in the world."