General Discussion

In response to the Chicago Time's fury over the banishment of Vallandigham, Burnside further escalated the situation. On June 1, 1863, he issued General Order No. 84, which aimed to end the newspaper's publication.

On June 3, two infantry companies marched from Chicago's Camp Douglas to seize the Times's office. Many in Chicago, including the Chicago Tribune, praised the move. However, this military action against the freedom of the press caused widespread outrage throughout the city. Prominent Republicans, including Illinois Senator Isaac Arnold and U. S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis, warned Lincoln about the danger of Burnside's proclamation.

Lincoln, assuming messages from prominent Illinois Republicans meant there was little support for suppressing the Times, sent a telegram to Burnside to lift the printing ban. Yet Chicago Republicans criticized Lincoln for the move. Suddenly, Lincoln found himself caught between criticism from anti-war Democrats and Chicago Republicans who had helped him secure their party's presidential nomination. He sided with Republicans and sent Burnside another message telling him to delay the reopening of the Times. The second telegram arrived too late, and Burnside had already lifted the suppression order.

https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/Blog/Posts/90/Illinois-History/2020/12/Suppression-of-the-Chicago-Times/blog-post/

The Chicago Times was owned by Wilbur Storey, who had initially supported the war but then turned against it when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Times regularly featured virulent articles from the Copperhead (i.e., anti-war Democrat) point of view. A Federal officer called the Times “chief among those instigators of insurrection and treason, the foul and damnable reservoir which supplied the lesser sewers with political filth, falsehood and treason.”

Burnside issued a general order: “On account of the repeated expression of disloyal and incendiary sentiments, the publication of the newspaper known as the Chicago Times is hereby suppressed.”

https://civilwarmonths.com/2023/06/03/the-chicago-times-suppression/

As the head of the Union, President Lincoln acted as a lightning rod for political dissidents in the press who wished to attack the leadership of the North. Lincoln “was mercilessly lampooned, viciously libeled, and relentlessly satirized in his own time.” Newspapers throughout the country attacked the president both for political reasons and out of malice. Press criticism rarely intimidated Lincoln during this troubling time. Lincoln took no notice of the personal attacks on his character during his time in office. There were, however, several events and circumstances during the war that did motivate him to lash out against the press.

Due to the nature of the Civil War, enemies of the Union were sprinkled throughout the North. There was no easy way to track down these southern sympathizers and deport them. Thus, sedition was one of President Lincoln’s primary concerns throughout the conflict. “Lincoln had little tolerance for anything that smacked of dissidence.” One common form of sedition during the war was to attempt to persuade soldiers to desert their posts. Desertion was a serious crime during the war that was dealt with quite harshly by the government. Lincoln, therefore, did not hesitate to strike out against individuals who interfered with military discipline; claiming that he found it “incongruous that he ‘must shoot a simpleminded soldier boy, who deserts, while he must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert. I think…to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but…a great mercy.’”

Maintaining the integrity and reliability of the military remained a focus of Lincoln’s policies throughout the war. In contrast to previous conflicts in the history of the United States, in which the government took an active role in suppressing the media, the opposition press was given an enormous amount of latitude during the Civil War. President Lincoln focused his media suppression efforts toward specific publications actively damaging the war effort, rather than against the industry as a whole. Even then, governmental actions were often temporary and rarely heavy-handed.

https://www.eiu.edu/historia/Historia2009Johnson.pdf