Lincoln and the Power of the Press Quotes

“It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell. Wilbur Storey”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Samuel FB Morse's SECOND question over the telegraph was, "Have you any news?”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“No greater mistake can be made than to assume that newspapers are correct indices of public opinion.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Any journalist who holds the office writes in a straitjacket.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“The letter is too belligerent. If I were you, I would state the facts as they were, without the pepper and salt. Abraham Lincoln”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Only a writer "with Bennett's craft and brass could manage to praise and insult his readers at the same time.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Newspaper accounts must not only be studied, but, occasionally refuted.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“One paper boasted that its subscription and advertising numbers proved that America did not need the social change it rival paper advocated.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Fighting newspaper editors for the last word was a losing proposition.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“New York Times founder Henry Raymond started his newspaper, "with the goal of reforming government, not belittling it.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Superficial and emotional subject might sway undecided voters.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“One writer may speak of something more lasting than Horace Greeley when he writes of that editor that his secular philanthropy drifted into autocratic ambition.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“The infant New York Times boasted that no newspaper printing what was really worth reading ever perished for lack of readers.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“One of Lincoln's intimates as a presidential candidate urged him to make no promises and not to part with those kind words which could be interpreted as promises.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Horace Greeley's conversation inevitably becomes a speech.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“One of the cost of holding a Federal office was geographic isolation in the nation's capital.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“At times, said the founder of the Chicago Tribune, Lincoln seemed to reach into the clouds and take out the thunderbolts.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Horace Greeley pursues temperance to extravagance." Lord Acton”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Lincoln jibed that a general INVADED Canada without resistance and out-vaded it without pursuit.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Feeling its power, one Civil War paper trumpeted that Milton and Homer were for another age but for this one was the New York Herald.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“A writer at the time said, "Lincoln means to sink the man in the public officer.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“President-elect Lincoln to his confidants: "The people of the South do not know us. They are not allowed to receive Republican papers down there.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“John Hay calls the telegraph reporter, "the natural enemy of the scribe.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“I'm the only English thing they can vent their anger on.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Lincoln on a desire to hear Horace Greeley speak: "In print, every one of his words seems to weigh about a ton.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“One editor during the Civil War got a grievous message to meet his brothers corpse, only to find out that the telegraph operator had garbled the message to meet his living brother's CORPS.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Lincoln gives a lesson in adaptive leadership even to those of us who will never advocate for compensated emancipation. Facing an uproar over the cost of the government paying slaveholders for their slaves, Lincoln showed the COST OF THE STATUS QUO, which is generally overlooked by those who oppose change.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Lincoln had an almost childlike habit of regaling visitors with any sharp saying he'd uttered during the day, taking simple-hearted pleasure in some of his best hits.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. Abraham Lincoln”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“The author describes Lincoln's attitude in making a deal with a newspaper publisher as, "almost defiant transparency.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion