If you like freedom, the south would not have been that great. It was a military dictatorship during the war - no freedom of the press or speech. The north on the other hand, had a vigorous press throughout the war. Current disdain for the federal government aside, we are lucky the north won.
THe south if they had gained there freedom would have resemble the US under the AoC. They were fighting against centralized govt. YOu cannot judge the North or the South by what happened during wartime.
No, it did not.
Executive Order - Arrest and Imprisonment of Irresponsible Newspaper Reporters and Editors
May 18, 1864
Major-General John A. Dix,
Commanding at New York:
Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and published this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of Commerce, newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a false and spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the President and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States and to the rebels now at war against the Government and their aiders and abettors, you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison in any fort or military prison in your command the editors, proprietors, and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all such persons as, after public notice has been given of the falsehood of said publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in close custody until they can be brought to trial before a military commission for their offense. You will also take possession by military force of the printing establishments of the New York World and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same until further orders, and prohibit any further publication therefrom.
A. LINCOLN.
I assume you were being sarcastic. Here are some online references for you:
You will notice in the first link, all Democrat newspapers being excluded from a state by a Union commander. How many papers might that have been? And before Lincoln's 1864 election too.
The best review of Northern treatment of the press during the war is "Lincoln and the Press" by Robert S. Harper, copyright 1951. Some say 300 Northern papers were suppressed or destroyed during the war. I've found documentation for over 100 myself. At that point I stopped counting. Some references such as Richard Franklin Bensel's book, "Yankee Leviation" correctly note that the Union used suspension of the writ and marshal law to "close down dissident newspapers or influence their editorial policy."
In contrast, Bensel notes only two papers suppressed or destroyed in the South. I've seen reference to maybe two or three additional Southern newspapers in the old wartime newspapers (my hobby), nowhere near what happened in the North.
“The north on the other hand, had a vigorous press throughout the war.”
True, if you don’t include the papers shut down by lincoln.
That’s why Lincoln shut down hundreds of newspapers and journals that disagreed with him, right? ;-)
“The north on the other hand, had a vigorous press throughout the war”
Evidently you mean other than the newspapers that Lincoln closed and the editors that he had jailed.
I would normally ask if you were retreaded, but in this case its not necessary.