Do we live in unprecedented times? A Look Back at Abraham Lincoln’s Relationship with the Press

by Randall J. Cloud

While it is tempting to believe the hostility existing between the Democrats and Republicans and the media and the President is something new or at an all-time high, it is not.

In 1838, James Silk Buckingham who was an English writer visiting the United States was struck by the bipartisanship of the newspapers in Springfield, Illinois.  He stated in his book America, Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive in 1841:

“Everything is distorted to serve party views.  If the largest meeting is got up on one side, the opposite party declares it to be a mere handful in numbers.  If the parties are ever so wealthy and respectable, they are pronounced to be a set of needy vagabonds.  If the talent of the speeches should be of the highest kind, they would call them mere driveling; and if the order was disturbed for a single moment, they would describe it as a beer garden…When a writer of the Whig Party has to describe a meeting of their own side, however, he can find no terms sufficiently selling and lofty in which to express himself….Their “thunder” is not like any other thunder that was ever heard before, and the very globe seems to be shaken to its center by their gigantic powers.”

He later commented that the press in the U.S.A. had learned these behaviors from the British highlighting that the press has been used for political purposes long before today.

In his book, Harold Holzer a historian tells a story that dispels the idea that the world we live in today is different from times past.  He makes five points in his book about Lincoln.

1. Politicians and the press were cogs in the same machine.
   1. Newspapers and Editors were either republican or democrat and openly campaigned for their party.  Politicians were newspapermen and newspapermen were politicians.
   2. They openly campaigned through their newspaper not only in the editorial columns but in the news stories.
   3. If the newspaper’s candidate was successful, then monetary and government positions were expected and handed out to newspaper’s editor and staff.
2. Lincoln once owned a Newspaper and Publisher that he used for his political campaign.
   1. Lincoln purchased failing German paper on the term that he could shut down the paper if the paper ever published an article against Lincoln or his party.
   2. His effort to capture the German vote.
3. The “free press’ wasn’t actually free at all.
   1. Some historians believe civil liberties were broken during the civil war by Lincoln.
   2. Hundreds of newspapers were shut down, threatened, burned down by entities supporting and acting in Lincoln’s name.  The Constitution does allow for suspension of Habeas Corpus rights during times of rebellion.
4. Lincoln used the press to speak directly to the people.
5. Sent his complete speeches to be printed in their entirety in newspapers. He forced newspapers to print his speeches as he did not have press conferences.

5. Three New Yorkers dominated the Press.
   1. James Gordon Bennett who was called a racist founded the New York Herald in 1835.  Bennet attacked political candidates in its papers while telling his viewers he founded the paper to be independent of politics.  
   2. Horace Greely owned the New York Tribune and professed to be against slavery and sought political reward for his efforts.  He was an early supporter of Abraham Lincoln and used his paper to communicate political points to his readers.
   3. Henry Jarvis Raymond owned the New York Times and was a member of the newly formed Republican Political Party.