During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took extraordinary measures to preserve the Union, including the controversial arrest of journalists and newspaper editors. When the war broke out in 1861, the nation was deeply divided, and the press played a powerful role in shaping public opinion. Some Northern newspapers, especially those sympathetic to the Confederacy—known as “Copperhead” papers—criticized Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, military drafts, and his handling of th

The Lincoln County War: A Larger Context