Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/324

 e "Copperhead

press." They were so influential that they greatly hindered the War Department in its activities and were a source of much encouragement to the South, but they possibly did the greatest amount of harm in continually opposing the issue of Treasury notes.

EDITORIAL ATTACKS OF STOREY

Especially savage in attacks upon the paper currency of the United States Government was The Chicago Times, one of the foremost leaders of the Copperhead press: it repeatedly spoke of such currency as the paper having the largest circulation of any in the country, and every decrease in the value was hailed as a fulfillment of its prophecy. Its editor was Wilbur D. Storey, who adopted an editorial policy that was always opposed to the Union Government and later became so seditious that General Burn- side suppressed the paper for two days. When President Lincoln, always slow to wrath and tender in mercy, learned what Burn- side had done, he revoked the order, enforced at the point of the bayonet, and allowed The Times to continue publication. The suppression, instead of acting as a restraint upon Storey, seemed to incense him all the more. His editorial comments, more seditious than ever, caused his paper to be known as "Old Storey's Copperhead Times" and brought frequent threats of destruction to the building and personal violence to the editor. His editorial rooms, now always prepared for a siege, were equipped with loaded muskets and hand-grenades, and had a hose so attached that the floor might instantly be flooded with the scalding steam and boiling water from the boilers of the plant. So bitter were some of Storey's editorial comments that when reports of them reached various regiments in service in Union lines, soldiers time and time again sent word that upon their return from the war they were going to destroy The Cop- perhead Times threats, however, which were never carried out.

"TRIBUNE" DRAFT RIOTS

The plant of The New York Tribune also narrowly escaped de- struction but for quite a different reason. For som