ABSTRACT
The Civil War and its aftermath, with the expansion of federal power that resulted, would change the American republic and the American press system by turning both toward an embrace of centralization as savior and a belief that means are less important than ends. The most fascinating New York newspaper in the months directly preceding the civil war was probably the New York World, a daily newspaper begun in 1860 in an attempt to revive Christian journalism. This chapter examines the four alternative ways of fighting slavery that existed at one time, and then see which one was seized on by some leading journalists, that press role does loom large. The first step was to do away with the defeated opposition leaders, journalists who already had waded in blood reported that all the interests of humanity demand that shall be tried, found guilty, and hanged by the neck until they are dead.
