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CHAPTER XVI

CIVIL WAR PERIOD

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THE nomination of Abraham Lincoln, due in part to the activi- ties of Horace Greeley, of The New York Tribune, was a great surprise to the Democratic journals of the North. Amazed at the defeat of Seward, who was the logical candidate, they did all they could to belittle the ability of Lincoln, whom they repeat- edly referred to in their campaign attacks as "Old Uncle Abe." The Republican papers, on the other hand, promptly came to Lincoln's support and spoke of him as "a man of the people" and gave him the name of "Honest Abe."

After the election of Lincoln, the conservative papers, regard- less of then- political affiliations, rallied to his support. Both The St. Louis Democrat and The Missouri Republican asked that he be given a square deal, and The Washington Star asserted that he had been constitutionally elected and that his elevation to office could no longer be resisted save by naked and palpable revolution.

THE COPPERHEAD PRESS

Yet in the North there were newspapers which were in favor of acceding to the demands of the South. Even The New York Tribune advocated letting "the erring sisters depart in peace," and another New York newspaper, during the first year that Lincoln was President, compiled a list of newspapers in the free States which were opposed to what is called the "Present Un- holy War." The New York World went so far as to say that Lin- coln's election meant that the Union neither would be restored nor would slavery be abolished. Other papers encouraged the South to persevere and condemned the North for using arms to force States to remain in the Union. Northern papers opposed to the "Unholy War" came to be known as th