Civil War

Civil War and The Press

Lincoln is known as one of the greatest U.S Presidents (Williams, 2004) but there is one thing that can make many people question that statement. 

Throughout the Civil War, there was controversy on what the press was able to write about, they were limited. There was a period where parts of the constitution were restricted, this included freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

"abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."(First Amendment)

Lincoln's reasoning for limiting what journalists wrote about was in a sense a great thing because it freed slaves and he was able to carry out his agenda. On the other hand, this was indeed very unconstitutional because he limited the first amendment for his own advantage. He stood up to anyone that had a different view from what his personal agenda was.

Union generals were told to prevent any battle plans ending up in the newspapers and to keep Confederate sympathizers from discouraging enlistments or releasing military information (The First Amendment Encyclopedia). In return many people tried to rise up against Lincoln, and news reporters were arrested because of opposing believes or discouraging men from enlisting.

In the end Lincoln did free slaves like he said he would but started a trend of not letting The Press write what they believe or what is happening in the country.

The North and South had different views on the war so the newspapers for each side were different. Both were very passionate on those views but there were still people on both sides that were pro-war and some anti-war (McCurry)

The North was more modernized because they used illustrations and better technology. They were majority, antiwar and were against slavery and were in favor of the democratic party.

The South was the opposite, they were prowar and wanted to keep slavery.

This was what made the newspapers different because they were on opposite ends when it came to views, what they did have in common were the issues with Lincoln’s administration. Since Lincoln had restricted the first amendment, they had to be careful with what was being written or they could have been prosecuted, which many of them were.

The Civil War was a good and bad time for journalism. It was good because there was more media coverage and new technology coming into the picture. The bad was more of who much they could write and tip-toeing around the government.