Abraham Lincoln Shut Down Newspapers Bigly

[jgoodguy]

Clip Lincoln press
Abraham Lincoln and the Freedom of the Press

(in 1864)a brutal and divisive campaign followed. But during all of it, Lincoln did absolutely nothing to suppress anti-republican per democratic journalism. EVEN When it called for recognition of the Confederacy, denounce the emancipation proclamation because then it was back to politics and press coverage as usual with no holds barred, no libel too extreme, no restrictions at all by the government. With Some justification, at least in the minds of many of his contemporaries. It Was unprecedented. Even As the American people partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves, he argued that if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. The Election went on. Lincoln had no second thoughts, even when the new york world issued daily editorial attacks or published horrifically racist cartoons designed to convince voters that if Lincoln were re-elected African-Americans would rule the nation with whites sub in the servant class, designed to frighten white supremacists to the polls, and it did, it worked. LINCOLN Barely won new york state in 1864, did worse than he had done in 1860, but never interfered with the world's right to remain anti-republican and white supremacist in 1864. Political wars might be ugly and divisive, but lincoln believed only civil war justified curtailment of press freedom. abraham Lincoln did not seek absolute sovereignty, merely the restoration of the press status quo antebellum. And his union armies took increased control of southern territory, press censorship did not increase, it actually decreased. So i think the absence of interference in 1864 serves to vindicate or at least leaven.​

 

[jgoodguy]

Lost Cause said:
The following link shows extensive and well resourced research covering violence against democratic newspapers in Indiana. The photograph is a copy of a table of incidents listed from page 142.

link

https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/5425/Works of Indiscretion0001.pdf?sequence=1

Converted to text.

Indianapolis DaiState Sentinel, April 15, 1861, threatened for per-
ceived disloyal editorial.
Goshen Democrat, April 18, 1861, threatened by the Goshen Elkhart
County Times.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, April 1861, threatened.
Plymouth WeeklyDemocrat, April 1861, received anonymous threat-
ening letters.
Brookville Franklin Democrat, May 3, 1861, received anonymous
threats.
RochesterSentinel, May 1861, received threats from Winamac men.
Anderson Standard, June 1861, threatened by a Union rally crowd.
Lebanon Boone County Pioneer, July 1861, tar and feathers smeared
on a door; threatened.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, July 1861, editor burned in ef-
figy.
Martinsville Morgan County Clarion, Aug. 10, 1861, office sacked
during the night.
Weekly Vincennes Western Sun, Aug.17, 1861, editor menaced by
soldiers at the camp of the 24th Indiana.
Delphi Weekly Times, Aug. 28, 1861. The Delphi Journal suggested
it should be sacked.
Covington People’s Friend, Aug. 30,1861, sacked by a Union crowd.
Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel, Aug. 31, 1861. A Union crowd
forced the editor to take an oath.
Columbia City News, August 1861, threatened by a crowd.
Connersville Telegraph, August 1861, suspended publication due to
threats made by Unionists.
Hartford City Blackford Democrat, August 1861, threatened.
Evansville Daily Journal, August 1861, former editor threatened by
a German crowd.
Lafayette Argus, Sept. 2, 1861, editor assaulted by a recruiting of-
ficer.
Huntington Democrat, September 1861, editor assaulted by troops
of the 47th Indiana.
Terre Haute Daily Journal, Oct. 21, 1861, office sacked by troops of
the 43rd Indiana.
Sullivan Democrat, Oct. 21, 1861, office threatened by troops of the
43rd Indiana.
Logansport Democratic Pharos, January 1862, threatened.
Huntington Democrat, April 7, 1862, editor assaulted.
Bluffton Banner, June 1862, editor assaulted.
Rushville Jacksonian, July’1862, former editor forced to take an
oath of allegiance.
Hartford City BlackfordDemocrat, Aug. 15, 1862. A Republican news-
paper urged that it should be suppressed.
Hartford City Blackford Democrat, October 1862, threatened by
troops.
Rockport Democrat, Jan. 28, 1863, sacked by troops of the 5th Indi—
ana Cavalry.
Mount Vernon Democrat, February 1863, sacked by troops of the
5th Indiana Cavalry.
Weekly Vincennes Western Sun, Feb. 15, 1863, editor verbally abused
by troops of the 65th Indiana.
Richmond Jeffersonian, March 15, 1863, sacked by soldiers at the
instigation of local citizens.
Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel, March 15, 1863, threatened by sol<
diers who sacked the Richmond Jeffersonian.
Columbia City News, March 1863, threatened by troops.
Plymouth Weekly Democrat, May 5, 1863, editor arrested by mili-
tary authority and the paper suppressed.
Huntington Democrat, May 15, 1863. A Democratic crowd prevented
the military arrest of an editor.

Columbia City News, May 19, 1863, suppressed by military.
Rushville Jacksonian, May 20, 1863, editor threatened with arrest
after making a speech at the Indianapolis Democratic rally.
Bluffton Banner, May 1863, threatened with arrest and suppression
by military authority.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, May 1863, threatened and pos-
sibly suppressed by military authority.
Hartford City Blackford Democrat, May 1863, threatened and possi-
bly suppressed by military authority.
Knox Starke County Press, May 1863, threatened by military.
South BendForum, May 1863, threatened by military authority; sus-
pended publication.
Warsaw Union, May 1863, threatened by military authority.
Winamac Pulaski Democrat, May 1863, threatened and suppressed
by military authority.
Warsaw Union, May 1863, publisher assaulted by county provost
marshal.
Rochester Sentinel, June 20, 1863, civilians attempted to incite the
7lst Indiana to sack it.
Richmond Jejfersonian, June 27, 1863, editor assaulted by civilian.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, June 1863, sacked by the 7lst
Indiana.
Winamac Pulaski Democrat, Dec. 25, 1863, editor assaulted by a re-
cruiting officer of the 128th Indiana.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, Jan. 21, 1864, office burned
(sacked?).
Petersburg Reporter, January 1864, newspaper burned after the
editor’s duel and flight.
Logansport Democratic Pharos, January 1864, civilians tried to in-
cite soldiers to sack it.
LaPorte Democrat, Feb. 15, 1864, sacked by soldiers of the 29th
Indilndianapolis Daily State Sentinel, Feb. 24, 1864, attacked by soldiers.
Warsaw Union, February 1864, threatened by soldiers.
Weekly Vincennes Western Sun, March 1, 1864, sacked by soldiers of
the 24th Indiana.
Princeton Union Democrat, March 1, 1864, threatened by soldiers of
the 24th Indiana.
Evansville Times, March 1, 1864, attacked by soldiers of the 24th
Indiana.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, March 26, 1864, sacked by sol-
diers ofthe 29th Pennsylvania.
Sullivan Democrat, March 1864, civilians tried to incite soldiers to
sack it.
Brookville Franklin Democrat, April 16, 1864, attacked by soldiers.
Delphi Weekly Times, May, 1864, editor assaulted by soldiers from
the 60th Indiana.
Warsaw Union, July 4, 1864, editor hung in effigy.
Chicago Times (reporter was the ex-editor ofthe Starke County Press),
July 21, 1864, deliberately burned.
Franklin Weekly Democratic Herald, July 1864, sacked by civilians.
Decatur Eagle, August 1864. The Indianapolis Gazette suggested it
should be suppressed.
Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel, Oct. 5, 1864, editor arrested by the
military for complicity in conspiracy.
Lawrenceburg Register, Oct. 11, 1864, editor assaulted by soldiers on
election day.
Lafayette Democrat, October 1864, editor arrested for draft evasion.
Decatur Eagle, Dec. 19, 1864, editor arrested by military authority
for draft evasion.
Hartford City BlackfordDemocrat, January 1865, ex-editor arrested
for draft evasion.
Bluffton Banner, April 1865, sacked by soldiers.

 

[jgoodguy]

Let's see if we can make a broad historical analysis.
Lincoln was a new president in an existential national crisis.
Lincoln took actions that he saw in the national interest.
Lincoln did not take/ took few actions for pure political advantage.
Many cases could be categorized as riots.
Lincoln was directly involved in 2 takedowns of newspapers.
Lincoln ordered the restoration of newspapers.
Newspaper publishing was in a category the Census labeled as political publications.
There is very little litigation about 1st Amendment protection for Newspapers from 1791 TO 1917.
The courts agreed with Lincoln when there was litigation.
There was popular support for complete censorship.
There was an election in 1864 and no nation in history held an election in a civil war with little political censorship.
There are 200 incidents reported over 4 years
There were 2574 newspapers in the Union, about 50%(1287) opposition newspapers.

 

[jgoodguy]

Andersonh1 said:
More from The Real Lincoln, From the Testimony of his Contemporaries, by Charles Minor

Not the war only upon the South, but its being forced on the people of the North and West met heavy censure from England. Rhodes says (History of the United States, Vol. III., p. 514) of the London Times and the Saturday Review, Their "criticisms of the arbitrary measures of our Government. .... were galling," and quotes from the Saturday Review of the 19th of October, 1861, "The arrest of the newly-elected members of the legislative assembly of Maryland before they had had any time to meet, without any form of law or prospect of trial, merely because President Lincoln conceived that they​

Looks like a bunch of rhetoric without any supporting evidence. Remember only 200 of 1287 hostile newspapers were affected in any way, with only 2 by Lincoln directly.

From your source P106

If England was divided in opinion, so was the North itself. There was all the time in the North a strong Democratic party opposed to the war. The autumn elections of 1862 went greatly against the Government. It was in expectation of calling forth Northern support that Lee invaded Pennsylvania, and had he conquered at Gettysburg, his expectation would probably have been fulfilled.

Looks like opposition press freedom was rampant in the North little affected by Lincoln.

 

[jgoodguy]

Andersonh1 said:
Plenty of supporting evidence in this thread already.

From your source P106

If England was divided in opinion, so was the North itself. There was all the time in the North a strong Democratic party opposed to the war. The autumn elections of 1862 went greatly against the Government. It was in expectation of calling forth Northern support that Lee invaded Pennsylvania, and had he conquered at Gettysburg, his expectation would probably have been fulfilled.​

Looks like opposition press freedom was rampant in the North little affected by Lincoln.

 

[jgoodguy]

Lost Cause said:
In a letter written by Lincoln June, 1862:

“that the American people will, by means of military arrests during the rebellion, lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trail by jury, and Habeas Corpus, throughout the indefinite peaceful future ... any more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics during temporary illness, as to persist in feeding upon them through the remainder of his healthful life.”

So what does this mean?

 

[jgoodguy]

Rebforever said:
The man at the top is resposible for his people. Here is a refresher.

"As most students of the Lincoln administration's racial policies agree, a historian must pay careful attention not only to what Lincoln said but also to what he actually did. The administration's statistical record on arbitrary arrests is persuasive testimony that Lincoln was not particularly embarrassed by the policy. No careful work on the numbers of civilians arrested by military authorities or for reasons of state has ever been done by a historian, and those historians who have attempted an estimate previously have been writing with the goal of defending Lincoln in mind. Even so, the lowest estimate is 13,535 arrests from February 15, 1862, to the end of the war. At least 866 others occurred from the beginning of the war until February 15, 1862. Therefore, at least 14,401 civilians were arrested by the Lincoln administration. If one takes the population of the North during the Civil War as 22.5 million (using the 1860 census and counting West Virginia but not Nevada), then one person out of every 1,563 in the North was arrested during the Civil War.

I bet more than 1 in 1563 were arrested for public drunkenness during the Civil War. Let's stick to newspapers, please.

 

[Andersonh1]

Drew said:
It turns out our hero was not shy about closing newspapers, with formal authority (violence) when He did not agree with what they had to say. There were apparently some 300 papers shut down by the Lincoln Administration.

http://wiki.lincolntelegrams.com/index.php?title=Lincoln_and_Press_Supression

Wow, how long were they shut down for?

Does that matter? Should any of us be comfortable with the US government shutting down a newspaper because it had a problem with the content?

 

[Jim Klag]

Drew said:
It turns out our hero was not shy about closing newspapers, with formal authority (violence) when He did not agree with what they had to say. There were apparently some 300 papers shut down by the Lincoln Administration.

http://wiki.lincolntelegrams.com/index.php?title=Lincoln_and_Press_Supression

Wow, how long were they shut down for?

Does that matter? Should any of us be comfortable with the US government shutting down a newspaper because it had a problem with the content?

I am quite comfortable with it in wartime. In WWII the Chicago Tribune printed on page one that US code breakers had had prior warning of a Japanese attack and that was a large part of how we won the battle of Midway. Had the Japanese been paying attention, a rabidly anti-Roosevelt newspaper published state secrets on its front page and the Japanese would certainly have changed their codes. Think the Tribune should have been punished with a little shutdown action? The government chose not to punish them because that might publicize the leak and heighten the chances that the Japanese would wise up.

 

[Andersonh1]

Drew said:
It turns out our hero was not shy about closing newspapers, with formal authority (violence) when He did not agree with what they had to say. There were apparently some 300 papers shut down by the Lincoln Administration.

http://wiki.lincolntelegrams.com/index.php?title=Lincoln_and_Press_Supression

Wow, how long were they shut down for?

Does that matter? Should any of us be comfortable with the US government shutting down a newspaper because it had a problem with the content?

I am quite comfortable with it in wartime. In WWII the Chicago Tribune printed on page one that US code breakers had had prior warning of a Japanese attack and that was a large part of how we won the battle of Midway. Had the Japanese been paying attention, a rabidly anti-Roosevelt newspaper published state secrets on its front page and the Japanese would certainly have changed their codes. Think the Tribune should have been punished with a little shutdown action? The government chose not to punish them because that might publicize the leak and heighten the chances that the Japanese would wise up.

Sensitive information is one thing, political disagreement is another. I remember Geraldo Rivera drawing maps in the sand during the Iraq War and the military kicked him out of the war zone, denying him access. No more coverage for him. That type of action is entirely appropriate under such circumstances. But I'm not sure that sort of incident is what caused Lincoln to shut down newspapers during the war. A case by case study would prove interesting.

 

[jgoodguy]

A case by case study would prove interesting

I think we have a list to start with this post http://www.jggscivilwartalk.com/showthread.php?tid=148&pid=1005#pid1005

 

[5fish]

No, he did more for he created the first surveillance state... I prove at this link... just do not speak about slavery when you go there...

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/lincoln-creates-the-first-surveillance-state.159648/

Honest Abe Lincoln was the first to create, the surveillance state. He authorized Sec. of war, Edwin Stanton with sweeping powers...

Snippet...

In 1862, after President Abraham Lincoln appointed him secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton penned a letter to the president requesting sweeping powers, which would include total control of the telegraph lines. By rerouting those lines through his office, Stanton would keep tabs on vast amounts of communication, journalistic, governmental and personal. On the back of Stanton’s letter Lincoln scribbled his approval: “The Secretary of War has my authority to exercise his discretion in the matter within mentioned.”

Snippet...

I came across this letter in the 1990s in the Library of Congress while researching Stanton’s wartime efforts to control the press, which included censorship, intimidation and extrajudicial arrests of reporters. On the same day he received control of the telegraphs, Stanton put an assistant secretary in charge of two areas: press relations and the newly formed secret police.Stanton ultimately had dozens of newspapermen arrested on questionable charges. Within Stanton’s first month in office, a reporter for The New York Herald, who had insisted that he be given news ahead of other reporters, was arrested as a spy.

Snippet...

Having the telegraph lines running through Stanton’s office made his department the nexus of war information; Lincoln visited regularly to get the latest on the war. Stanton collected news from generals, telegraph operators and reporters. He had a journalist’s love of breaking the story and an autocrat’s obsession with information control. He used his power over the telegraphs to influence what journalists did or didn’t publish. In 1862, the House Judiciary Committee took up the question of “telegraphic censorship” and called for restraint on the part of the administration’s censors.

Snippet... Does war justify the creation of the surveillance state?

When I first read Stanton’s requests to Lincoln asking for broad powers, I accepted his information control as a necessary evil. Lincoln was fighting for a cause of the utmost importance in the face of enormous challenges. The benefits of information monitoring, censorship and extrajudicial tactics, though disturbing, were arguably worth their price.

Here is the link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/opinion/lincolns-surveillance-state.ht

Here is another look, start on page 10 and read the evils of Lincoln on liberty...

Link: https://books.google.com/books?id=X1m-FL7nyo8C&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Edwin+Stanton+surveillance+network&source=bl&ots=x8-5abeCi2&sig=ACfU3U2KiCjH2CdCwj7IkbmpQSdxPB4IZg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT0Yqq4Z7jAhXXX80KHd5uAEk4ChDoATABegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=Edwin Stanton surveillance network&f=false

 

[5fish]

Lincoln control the informational world... of the 1860's...

I found this book about how Lincoln used the telegraph to win the war with T-mails... I doubt there is anything about surveillance and wiretaps...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MAH786/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

Summary:

The Civil War was the first "modern war." Because of the rapid changes in American society, Abraham Lincoln became president of a divided United States during a period of technological and social revolution. Among the many modern marvels that gave the North an advantage was the telegraph, which Lincoln used to stay connected to the forces in the field in almost real time.

No leader in history had ever possessed such a powerful tool to gain control over a fractious situation. An eager student of technology, Lincoln (the only president to hold a patent) had to learn to use the power of electronic messages. Without precedent to guide him, Lincoln began by reading the telegraph traffic among his generals. Then he used the telegraph to supplement his preferred form of communication—meetings and letters. He did not replace those face-to-face interactions. Through this experience, Lincoln crafted the best way to guide, reprimand, praise, reward, and encourage his commanders in the field.

Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails tells a big story within a small compass. By paying close attention to Lincoln's "lightning messages," we see a great leader adapt to a new medium. No reader of this work of history will be able to miss the contemporary parallels. Watching Lincoln carefully word his messages—and follow up on those words with the right actions—offers a striking example for those who spend their days tapping out notes on computers and BlackBerrys.

An elegant work of history, Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails is an instructive example of timeless leadership lessons

 

[jgoodguy]

No, he did more for he created the first surveillance state... I prove at this link... just do not speak about slavery when you go there...

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/lincoln-creates-the-first-surveillance-state.159648/

Honest Abe Lincoln was the first to create, the surveillance state. He authorized Sec. of war, Edwin Stanton with sweeping powers...

Snippet...

In 1862, after President Abraham Lincoln appointed him secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton penned a letter to the president requesting sweeping powers, which would include total control of the telegraph lines. By rerouting those lines through his office, Stanton would keep tabs on vast amounts of communication, journalistic, governmental and personal. On the back of Stanton’s letter Lincoln scribbled his approval: “The Secretary of War has my authority to exercise his discretion in the matter within mentioned.”

Snippet...

I came across this letter in the 1990s in the Library of Congress while researching Stanton’s wartime efforts to control the press, which included censorship, intimidation and extrajudicial arrests of reporters. On the same day he received control of the telegraphs, Stanton put an assistant secretary in charge of two areas: press relations and the newly formed secret police.Stanton ultimately had dozens of newspapermen arrested on questionable charges. Within Stanton’s first month in office, a reporter for The New York Herald, who had insisted that he be given news ahead of other reporters, was arrested as a spy.

Snippet...

Having the telegraph lines running through Stanton’s office made his department the nexus of war information; Lincoln visited regularly to get the latest on the war. Stanton collected news from generals, telegraph operators and reporters. He had a journalist’s love of breaking the story and an autocrat’s obsession with information control. He used his power over the telegraphs to influence what journalists did or didn’t publish. In 1862, the House Judiciary Committee took up the question of “telegraphic censorship” and called for restraint on the part of the administration’s censors.

Snippet... Does war justify the creation of the surveillance state?

When I first read Stanton’s requests to Lincoln asking for broad powers, I accepted his information control as a necessary evil. Lincoln was fighting for a cause of the utmost importance in the face of enormous challenges. The benefits of information monitoring, censorship and extrajudicial tactics, though disturbing, were arguably worth their price.

Here is the link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/opinion/lincolns-surveillance-state.ht

Here is another look, start on page 10 and read the evils of Lincoln on liberty...

Link: https://books.google.com/books?id=X1m-FL7nyo8C&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Edwin+Stanton+surveillance+network&source=bl&ots=x8-5abeCi2&sig=ACfU3U2KiCjH2CdCwj7IkbmpQSdxPB4IZg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT0Yqq4Z7jAhXXX80KHd5uAEk4ChDoATABegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=Edwin Stanton surveillance network&f=false

A civil war seems to do that.
Since it worked, it was the right thing to do.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

I would like to see a similar/comparative accounting for the Virginia born president--Woodrow Wilson-- and his administration's far more extensive shut-down and persecution of the press and dissenters during WWI. I believe it would be quite revealing, and make Lincoln's "so-called oppression" look like child's play.

(snip)

Woodrow Wilson is perhaps best known for helming the U.S. through the Great War and being an integral part of the peace process, earning him a Nobel Prize for his efforts. What may be less known is that during the U.S.’s involvement in World War I, Wilson curtailed freedom of the press. He did this through a dual strategy of censorship and propaganda.

Wilson wanted “authority to exercise censorship over the Press to the extent that that censorship…is absolutely necessary to the public safety.” However, the Senate and House of Representatives didn’t share that opinion. Thanks to the efforts of three Republican senators, the censorship provisions Wilson wanted were never enacted.

After Congress had declared war in 1917, Wilson quickly issued an executive order creating the Committee on Public Information. The agency would create propaganda for newspapers and newsreels that was aimed at draftees and the public, and intended to explain the country’s involvement in the war and sway neutrality advocates. The agency later established its own pro-war newspaper. One of the most iconic images the CPI created was that of Uncle Sam.​

https://www.history.com/news/presidents-relationship-with-press

 

[5fish]

Lincoln's "so-called oppression" look like child's play.

Linclon was an oppressors, while Wilson was a patriot... it's all in the I of the beholder...

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Linclon was an oppressors, while Wilson was a patriot... it's all in the I of the beholder...

Indeed.

But, don't get me into the oppression of ethnic Germans, Irish and the re-branding of sauerkraut as "Liberty cabbage". Wilson and his Attorney general--Palmer-- were ruthless and no where close to the scale of Lincoln or Stanton. Look it up.

It is another hidden and ugly part of our history.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Are You an “American” or a “Hun”?: Anti-German Hysteria during World War I

(snip)

During World War I, anti-German feeling and activity spread throughout the United States, in large part as a way to show support for the American war effort. Germans were the largest non-English-speaking minority group at the time of the 1910 census—in Ohio, the German-American immigrant population was over 200,000 by 1900, with even more Ohioans claiming German ancestry. This made Ohio particularly vulnerable to anti-German sentiment, and the impact on German-Americans in the state was long-term.


Public policy shaped many of Ohio’s anti-German activities. During the war, the Ohio State Council of Defense established an Americanization Committee led by Western Reserve University Professor Raymond Moley. The group’s official charge was to assist immigrants in learning English and American values so that they could become U.S. citizens, but it went beyond this work and censored what it considered “pro-German” reading material. Many schools limited or stopped teaching German language and literature as well, and teachers had to take loyalty oaths. In 1919, the Ake Law (later declared unconstitutional) made it illegal to teach German in any school below eighth grade.

Hamburgers were temporarily referred to as “liberty sandwiches” and sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage.” Towns and streets with German names were renamed—New Berlin became North Canton, and in Cincinnati, German and Berlin Streets became English and Woodward Streets. Even dogs were not immune to harassment: dachshunds, or “liberty pups,” the Kaiser’s favorite dog breed, were “virtually driven off the streets of Cincinnati.” Some German-Americans Americanized their names (Schmidt to Smith, Mueller to Miller, etc.), reduced the amount of German they spoke in public, and made their cultural and religious activities increasingly private affairs. Ultimately, this hysteria led to the further assimilation of German-Americans into American life.

Learn more about anti-German sentiment in the World War I in Ohio Digital Collection and in Ohio’s digital newspaper collections on Chronicling America and Ohio Memory, and check out our German-American Experience During World War I lesson plan.


https://ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org/archives/3673​

 

[O' Be Joyful]

and in Cincinnati, German and Berlin Streets became English and Woodward Streets.

These street names remain, to this day. A testament to the prejudice that remained. It also led to the ill-conceived 19th Amendment, IMHO, as most brewers of beer were of German descent.



This story is part of a three-part series on the rise and fall of Cincinnati's prominent beer-driven economy. The series is part of WCPO's beer month celebrating the Queen City's beer heritage and bright future as a booming brewery town.

CINCINNATI -- Back in 1902, when Carrie Nation was busting up saloons with the swings of her ax during the temperance crusade, she arrived in Cincinnati determined to leave her mark in splintered bar tops and broken windows.

But Carrie glanced up and down Vine Street, started counting the 136 saloons on that one street alone, and fled in retreat without taking one swing. She later confessed that she “would have dropped from exhaustion” in the first block.

This story is part of a three-part series on the rise and fall of Cincinnati's prominent beer-driven economy. The series is part of WCPO's beer month celebrating the Queen City's beer heritage and bright future as a booming brewery town.

CINCINNATI -- Back in 1902, when Carrie Nation was busting up saloons with the swings of her ax during the temperance crusade, she arrived in Cincinnati determined to leave her mark in splintered bar tops and broken windows.

But Carrie glanced up and down Vine Street, started counting the 136 saloons on that one street alone, and fled in retreat without taking one swing. She later confessed that she “would have dropped from exhaustion” in the first block.

That was the golden era of beer and breweries in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. For decades before and after the turn of the 20th century, Cincinnati was one of the beer-drinkingest, beer-brewingest cities in America.

In 1893, the average beer consumption here was 40 gallons for every man, woman and child – 2 1/2 times the national average. And Cincinnati drank mostly what Cincinnati brewed.

In the 19th century, a large immigration of German brewers and beer drinkers created a new industry, a new social culture centered in hundreds of saloons and a thriving new community in Over-the-Rhine.

As the beer boom marked a new era of growth for the Queen City, it gave rise to giants of industry, huge and statuesque breweries that became city landmarks and popular brands like Christian Moerlein, John Hauck, Lion and Hudepohl in Cincinnati, Wiedemann in Newport and Bavarian in Covington.

How It All Began

While Cincinnati had established itself as Porkopolis and the gateway of commerce to the West in the early 1800s, the whiskey trade became popular and more profitable by 1881. Ten years later, the export value of whiskey and beer together topped $39 million – almost twice as much as livestock.

Historians say that Davis Embree, an Englishman, opened Cincinnati’s first brewery near the riverfront in 1812 – more than 200 years ago – and that another 250 breweries opened and closed since.

According to local historian Robert J. Wimberg, the first German brewery in Cincinnati opened in 1829 at roughly the corner of McMicken Avenue and Elm Street. The site eventually became home to the Jackson Brewery in the 1850s and operated nearly 70 years until Prohibition.

The wave of immigration from Germany started in the 1830s when persecution ramped up in Deutschland and civil liberties were under attack.

Spurred by Germans who brought their love of beer and brewing know-how, about three dozen breweries were operating in the area as early as 1856.

With the introduction of better-tasting lager beer in the 1850s, beer drinkers increased their demand. Lager became the beer of choice and the brewery industry grew three fold in a decade.


The Christian Moerlein Elm Street Brewery grew from a side business at his blacksmith shop to the largest brewery in Ohio and the fifth largest in the country.
Moerlein’s was a rags-to-riches brewery story. A native of Bavaria, he walked 300 miles to board a ship to America. He arrived nearly penniless and had a limited understanding of English. His first job was digging ditches.

Besides making a better beer, Moerlein was one of the first local brewers to take advantage of pasteurization and ship his beers to other markets. To keep his beer as fresh as possible, he shipped it in barrels and had the beer bottled where it was to be sold. He shipped to such faraway cities as Boston, New Orleans, Pensacola and Omaha, and even to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Philippines.

In 1875, Moerlein bought the first ice machine in Cincinnati, cutting ice and labor costs and allowing faster fermentation. By 1888, every brewery in the city had followed suit.

Moerlein’s production more than doubled in a decade from 100,000 barrels in 1880 to 225,000 in 1890.

By 1890, Christian Moerlein and Windisch-Muhlhauser had become industry giants, and some 20 local breweries were producing 1.1 million barrels - or nearly 36 million gallons.


Incredibly, Cincinnatians drank most of that. To German immigrants and their descendants, beer was part of their diet, and beer was safer than the local water in those days.

Saloons became the centers of business, politics and community – for men only, that is. In 1889, the area was home to 1,841 saloons. In those days, most beer was packaged in barrels and kegs and consumed in public places – not in homes. Four hilltop resorts opened in Mount Auburn, Clifton Heights, Mount Adams and Price Hill, and those resorts and outdoor beer gardens catered to families.

The brewing industry, with all of its associations (hops dealers, malt houses, barrel makers - known as coopers, grain dealers, saloons), employed between 30,000 and 40,000 workers in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky at the turn of the century.

According to historian Sarah Stephens, breweries paid workers $1.50 per day for 14-16 hours’ work - plus all the free beer they could drink. In 1879, a New York Times article said workers at one local brewery averaged an astonishing 35 glasses a day.

That may or may not have included the women and children who worked in non-technical areas like the bottling facility - and for less pay than men.

Over the Rhine: Over The Rainbow

Beer brewing gave rise to a thriving Over-the-Rhine, totally unlike the neighborhood of poverty and crime it became in the 20th century.

Early German immigrants had settled near the river like everyone else, but by the 1840s, new arrivals were gravitating to open land north of the Miami-Erie Canal (where Central Parkway is now).

Most of the breweries were built near the canal, which provided water access south to the Ohio River and north to the Great Lakes. Beer barons with farms in Butler County could easily ship grain to their breweries.

As German-Americans filled in the area, the canal became nicknamed the Rhine. Going over the canal into the German section was “going over the Rhine.”

OTR provided a land of opportunity for German immigrants. They could find work and housing from German-speaking employers (who had been immigrants themselves), as well as schools with German-speaking teachers, German-language newspapers and German societies that encouraged them to retain their customs and traditions while becoming American citizens.

Those traditions included Gemutlichkeit, roughly translated as “festive hospitality.” The Germans were fun-loving people – and beer was the lifeblood of the party.

Gemutlichkeit soon spread to other parts of the city – and the middle-class stigma against drinking disappeared. Beer consumption rose; whiskey consumption dropped; and a political, moral and nationalistic divide started to set in here.

Trouble In Breweryland: ‘Real Americans’ Vs. Germans

The anti-German hysteria that swept the country leading up to World War I got a head start in Cincinnati as early as the 1850s.

As recounted by OTR historian Michael Morgan, it started with vitriol and violence in the 1855 Election Riots and exploded again in the 1884 Courthouse Riots.

By 1855, OTR was a distinctly German society and German-Americans had become a political force, voting Democratic in bloc and controlling two wards. A group called the Know-Nothings (they had been a secret organization; when asked about it, members would say they knew nothing) were out to steal the election for mayor and other city leaders. The Know Nothings were openly anti-immigrant, anti-alcohol and anti-Catholic.

To Know-Nothings, Germans were not “real Americans.” The Know-Nothings called the area below the canal “America.”

Because German-Americans ran the breweries, owned the saloons and drank there, the implication was obvious.
https://www.wcpo.com/entertainment/...rom-porkopolis-to-beeropolis-how-it-all-began

 

[5fish]

It seems German's in PA. just did a little rebranding...

Lancaster County, people spoke only German. As ill-feelings towards Germany arose in the U.S. during the World War 1 era, these Germans, or Deutsch, rebranded themselves as "Pennsylvania Dutch."

In 1839, Pennsylvania and Ohio, because of their large German-American populations, sanctioned German as an official alternative language of instruction in schools. This lasted until the outbreak of World War I when it was dropped due to anti-German sentiment.

Here is a story about Gettysburg during WW1 and how they showed over zealot patriotism during the because everyone had German last names… The caretakers of the most sacred of grounds in America were Germans... take that Wilson!

Link: https://johnsa07.wordpress.com/2014...-anti-german-sentiment-in-gettysburg-part-ii/

My German side of the family were in PA. back in that day...