Posted on 02/03/2006 3:38:06 PM PST by churchillbuff
In the opening months of the Civil War, a pro-Southern newspaper editor in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester was forced to cease publication when an angry mob destroyed his equipment and federal marshals later ordered him to shut down.
Did President Abraham Lincoln ultimately issue the directive to stop the newspaper from operating?
Neil Dahlstrom, an East Moline native, and Jeffrey Manber examine the question in their new book, “Lincoln’s Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a President’s Mission to Destroy the Press” (Sourcebooks Inc., 356 pages).
The book focuses on a little-known figure of the Civil War, John Hodgson, who was the editor of the Jeffersonian in West Chester, Pa. Like some other editors of Northern newspapers, he believed that the South had every right to secede from the Union. He ultimately took the government to court in his fight to express his views that states’ rights were paramount to national government.
The attack on Hodgson’s newspaper came during a wave of violence that took place in the summer of 1861 when a number of Northern newspapers sympathetic to the Southern cause were attacked and vandalized by pro-Union thugs.
The book is Dahlstrom’s second historical non-fiction work published in less than a year. He and his brother, Jeremy Dahlstrom, are the authors of “The John Deere Story: A Biography of Plowmakers John and Charles Deere,” which was released last April by Northern Illinois University Press.
Like “The John Deere Story,” his latest book is the result of extensive research. He and Manber combed archives and libraries in the United States and England in recounting the events surrounding the “Summer of Rage” in 1861 when the Republicans around Lincoln systematically went after editors and writers of antiwar newspapers.
Some were tarred and feathered, they write, while some were thrown into federal prisons and held without trial for months at a time. Others were forced to change their opinions and take pro-Union stands.
Dahlstrom, 29, graduated from United Township High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Monmouth College and a master’s degree in historical administration from Eastern Illinois University. A resident of Moline, he is the reference archivist for Deere & Co.
Manber has written extensively on America’ s role in shaping technology and our relationships with Russia. He was Dahlstrom’s boss when they worked at the Space Business Archives, Alexandria, Va.
Manber became interested in Lincoln’s relationship with the press after listening to a radio report on the subject, his co-author said. After coming across an article on Hodgson written in the 1960s, he began researching Hodgson’s life, eventually inviting Dahlstrom to join him on a book project.
They write that Lincoln was the nation’s first “media politician.”
“Lincoln was a man who understood the press and continually manipulated its chief editors to support his policies. He was the politician who helped create the modern American journalist, which continues to hold incredible influence over public opinion,” they write.
In an interview, Dahlstrom said he gained much respect for Lincoln during the course of his research. The disintegration of the Union was uncharted territory for an American president, he said, and, while Lincoln had advisors, the ultimate decisions rested on his shoulders alone.
“What impressed me most about Lincoln as president was that he really represented the people. He always did what was for the best of the people, who were near and dear to him,” he said.
How's that kool-aid?
Nice, insightful comment.
Just one of those threads. I just take quiet satisfaction, that it all turned out to my satisfaction. :)
I would, since he broke the law he swore to uphold, then changed our form of government by his actions.
The poster's comments that Lincoln was a tyrant who was some how responsible for the rise of communism and facism is so irrational and idiotic that it does not warrant the effort to say anything nice or insightful.
DixiePing
Regards,
~dt~
Saw this book the other day in the store. If that's one of the authors' opinion, I'm glad I didn't. Revisionists have given up trying to explain away his war crimes and have instead presented an idea that even though he did these things, he was a good man.
It certainly skips around Lincoln's unconstitution actions prior to and during the war.
Related article from GOPCap: Lincoln's Unconstitutional Suspension of Habeas Corpus - an analysis of an impeachable offense (Bonus entertainment value: Wlat has some old posts on this one)
Point? Idiots pick the greatest presidents for the rest of the sheep. Lincolonel has been tagged with that moniker because of his Emancipation Proclimation, and we all know what a joke that was. It didn't even have its desired effect.
Oh, he did have some pithy, witty sayings.
You are SO right! :)
Greetings from Montgomery County!
Sheesh. He also had authority to order the CSA back into the Union, yuh think?
Here we go again. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times:
North 1
South 0
Halftime
No problem. I understand one questioning Lincoln's policies, but felt the poster was being ridiculous.
Moron.
Read some of the article. It is interesting and kind of funny in a way. Third/Second World dictatorship's always amuse me when they start discussing American historical figures and/or celebraties. I would personally label that as Chinese propaganda. Other nations play those games whenever we criticize another country for invading a nation in a territorial dispute. They will bring up Indians, Mexico, the Civil War, and any other event in American history that they feel undermines the legitimacy of our argument.
Lincoln was arguably the greatest president in American history.
"Here we go again. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times:
North 1
South 0
Halftime"
And the country been paying the price ever since. Thanks to the Yankee victory the Constitution has become more and more meaningless.
If you consider he was destroying the Constitution a great political move, then yes he was a great president. I do not agree.
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