Harold Holzer, an acclaimed Civil War expert, received the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Photo courtesy of Harold Holzer.
Harold Holzer, an expert on the political culture during the civil war, lectured on Abraham Lincoln’s controversial relationship with the press as part of the Myles Martel Lecture Series on Wednesday, October 6. Holzer revealed Lincoln’s tactics for maintaining positive press in a time where his decisions were viewed as radical and opposing enough to split the country in two.
Holzer warned the audience, “I’m a Lincoln man and its been hard for me to tell this story,” but he asked that they take a leap of historical imagination, back where there only one or two daily newspapers and where newspaper were affiliated with political parties.
Despite his positive feelings on the man and the leader, Holzer recounted how Lincoln stifled the press for his own political agenda. “Lincoln loved the press, if they were republicans,” he said.
Throughout the talk, Holzer revealed a rarely discussed side of Lincoln. He said Lincoln censored liberal media outlets by either shutting down, tolerating the shutting down or invading more then 200 liberal newspapers in the United States. He said Lincoln’s actions are akin to President Obama shutting down Fox News, an action that most people would consider unacceptable.
Holzer recounted how federal troops invaded the office of The Christian Observer, because Lincoln disagreed with their racist agenda. The federal troops seized the printing press and arrested the editor, even after The Observer’s editor wrote a letter to ask Lincoln’s help. “Lincoln let this happen,” Holzer said.
Such blatant act of disregard to the freedom of the press, Holzer said, would never fly today. Holzer questioned why pro-Lincoln press members didn’t intervene on behalf of The Observer and other media outlets, but he offered hope that today’s media environment is robust enough to prevent such occurrence. He said today’s media is more engaged in the day-to-day happenings in the field. When Donald Trump criticized Fox News correspondent Megyn Kelly, members of the press, regardless of political affiliation, flagged the comment as inappropriate.
Holzer believes Lincoln escaped most criticism because he was treading water in uncharted territory during a tumultuous period in the country’s history. It is a particularly apt lesson that every generation must learn about freedom of the press in times of war.
But even Lincoln, Holzer said, had his limits. The infringements on the press stopped whenever during elections. “The electoral system was sacred to him,” he said.
“Lincoln did not lack common sense, nor did he lack reason,” Holzer said. He said what Lincoln lacked was a media advisor.
Students who attended the lecture found it enlightening and surprising. “I would have never guessed Lincoln would be such a press tyrant,” said Terra Kliwinski, an SMC sophomore who attended the lecture. “I found this lecture surprising because in present day, these press storming[s] would have been on the news as a major headline, but I guess back then, this was how they controlled the news.”