"Lincoln's Surveillance State" Op-Ed NYTimes July 6, 2013

[David Lockmiller]

The following is the email that I sent to the Executive Editor of the NY Times on Sunday, July 7, 2013. I did not receive either an acknowledgement by her of the receipt of my email or a response.

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I do not believe that such a “President Lincoln approved” letter as described in the Op-Ed piece actually exists in the papers of the Library of Congress. I have already sent a “question” request to the librarian at the Library of Congress, since I could not find the item in an online search (I’m a novice).

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Lincoln's Surveillance State
By DAVID T. Z. MINDICH
The N.S.A.'s data-mining has a historical precedent in the federal government's monitoring of the telegraphs in 1862.

The highlights of the Op-Ed piece are as follows:

“Many commentators have deemed the government’s activities alarming and unprecedented. The N.S.A.’s program is indeed alarming – but not, from a historical perspective, unprecedented.”

"In 1862, after President Abraham Lincoln appointed him secretary of war, Edwin 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.'"

Professor Mindich added: "I came across this letter in the 1990's in the Library of Congress while researching Stanton's wartime efforts to control the press . . . ."

I did some of my own research to find a reference to such a letter and came up blank.

1. "Abraham Lincoln: A Life" Vol II, by Professor Michael Burlingame, The John Hopkins University Press, 2008

2. "Mr. Lincoln's White House" at http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org (telegraph)

3. Smithsonian Civil War Studies: Article - "In the Original Situation Room - Abraham Lincoln and the Telegraph" The Smithsonian Associates Civil War E-Mail Newsletter, Volume 8, Number 8. (2006)

I think that this is some sort of bizarre hoax. In the first place, to think that it was technologically possible to “reroute” at that time all the telegraph lines in the United States through to the office of Secretary of War Stanton is an absolute ABSURDITY.

In fact, according to the referenced article immediately above - "In the Original Situation Room - Abraham Lincoln and the Telegraph" -

“When Lincoln arrived for his inauguration in 1861 there was not even a telegraph line to the War Department, much less the White House. Storm clouds were brewing, but when the US Army wanted to send a telegram they did like everyone else: sending a clerk with a hand written message to stand in line at Washington’s central telegraph office.”

In the reference above labeled “2” ( "Mr. Lincoln's White House"), the subsequent centralization of telegraphic communication for the war at Stanton’s office and Mr. Lincoln’s routine for checking telegraphs are laid out. There is no mention in this article of any journalistic or any other non-governmental communications being “monitored” in the telegraph office.

“In March 1862 Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton insisted in centralizing all telegraph communication for the war at the War Department's old library next to his office. The President therefore had to go to the telegraph office there to read war dispatches and send his own. (The telegraph office had previously been located in two other locations in the same building, but General George McClellan had his own telegraph service at his headquarters in 1861-1862.)

“The office gave Mr. Lincoln an opportunity to write and think in peace as he waited for telegrams to arrive and be deciphered - as well to socialize in a way that was impossible elsewhere in Washington. Telegraph operator Albert B. Chandler reported the President said: ‘I come here to escape my persecutors. Hundreds of people come in and say they want to see me for only a minute. That means if I can hear their story and grant their request in a minute, it will be enough.’

“One telegraph operator, Homer Bates, later recorded Mr. Lincoln's routine:

“When in the telegraph office, Lincoln was most easy of access. He often talked with the cipher-operators, asking questions regarding the dispatches which we were translating from or into cipher, or which were filed in the order of receipt in the little drawer in our cipher-desk.
Lincoln's habit was to go immediately to the drawer each time he came into our room, and read over the telegrams, beginning at the top, until he came to the one he had seen at his last previous visit.”

In fact, according to this article, President Lincoln used the peace and quiet of his time at the telegraph office to write the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in the summer of 1862. Major Thomas Eckert, head of the telegraph office, reported:

“I became much interested in the matter and was impressed with the idea that he was engaged upon something of great importance, but did not know what it was until he had finished the document and then for the first time he told me that he had been writing an order giving freedom to the slaves in the South, for the purpose of hastening the end of the war. He said he had been able to work at my desk more quietly and command his thoughts better than at the White House, where he was frequently interrupted. I still have in my possession the ink-stand which he used at that time and which, as you know, stood on my desk until after Lee's surrender. The pen he used was a small barrel-pen by Gillott - such as were supplied to the cipher-operators."

To the editors of the New York Times: I respectfully request that you check thoroughly as to whether a hoax has been perpetrated upon the NY Times in this manner. If so, the NY Times should retract this Op-Ed on page one of the NY Times as soon as possible with a complete explanation as to how the NY Times was so easily bamboozled into providing to its millions of dedicated and trusting readers a false representation of “Lincoln” history as a “precedent” to justify the National Security Agency’s data-mining programs in the United States and the rest of the world. Having the governmental “means” to an “end” does not, in and of itself, justify the governmental “end.” Lincoln’s alleged authorization of governmental intrusion into the affairs of ordinary citizens and journalists in time of war by “wire-tapping” all telegrams every day within the United States is a hoax (i.e., a mischievous trick by means of a made-up story) and it should be clearly recognized in the NY Times as such in a page one story.

Yours truly,
David Lockmiller

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The following is the email that I sent to the Executive Editor of the NY Times on Monday, July 8, 2013. I did not receive either an acknowledgement by her of the receipt of my email or a response.
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To whom it may concern:

Yesterday, I sent an email on the same subject matter. With the assistance of a Lincoln scholar friend of mine, I now have the original letter words from Stanton as published in the “Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,” Volume 5:

To Edwin M. Stanton [1]
[January 24, 1862]
The Secretary of War has my authority to exercise his discretion in the matter within mentioned. A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] NH, VII, 88-89. Lincoln's endorsement is on a letter from Stanton, January 24, 1862, reading as follows: ``In my opinion the success of military operations and the safety of the country require some changes to be made in the Bureau of Ordnance, and perhaps some others, in order to secure more vigor and activity; and I desire to have your sanction for making them.''

It’s time to get busy, Horns! Please keep me posted as to what actions you are taking in this matter.

Yours truly,
David Lockmiller

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The following is the email that I sent to the Public Editor of the NY Times on Thursday, July 11, 2013. I did receive an automatic acknowledgement of the receipt of my email.

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Dear Margaret Sullivan,

It is my understanding:

“The public editor’s office also handles questions and comments from readers and investigates matters of journalistic integrity. The public editor works independently, outside of the reporting and editing structure of the newspaper; her opinions are her own.”

The following is a quote from the NY Times David Shipley’s “Op-Ed” submission article to the NY Times, published on February 1, 2004, which may be accessed today from the NY Times Op-Ed submission instructions page:

“Before something appears in our pages, you can bet that questions have been asked, arguments have been clarified, cuts have been suggested - as have additions - and factual, typographical and grammatical errors have been caught. (We hope.)”

I have sent the following two emails to the Executive Editor of the NY Times (executive-editor@nytimes.com) regarding the Op-Ed submission appearing in the July 6, 2013 electronic edition of the New York Times titled “Lincoln’s Surveillance State“ and written by Professor David Mindich of Saint Michael’s College. I have not received any response to either email.

[I then copied and pasted to the two letters that I sent to Executive Editor of the NY Times on Sunday July 7 and Monday July 8.]

[I then added these words to this email to the Public Editor of the NY Times.]

Here’s a “bottom line question” for anyone interested in finding out the truth about Professor Mindich’s motives in writing the Op-Ed piece for the NY Times: How is that Professor Mindich was able to quote all of the exact words used by President Lincoln to grant his authorization of actions to be taken by the Secretary of War, but was unable to quote any of the words used by the Secretary of War describing the actions which the Secretary intended to take? Lincoln’s authorization was written by Lincoln on the back of Stanton’s letter.

As it turns out the immediate problem being addressed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was with the Bureau of Ordnance, and was not the control of any telegraph lines, but rather mortars that were supposed to have been delivered to General Grant in support of his military movement up the Tennessee River.

In the form of secondary proof, later, that same day (January 24, 1862), President Lincoln wrote the following letter to Secretary Stanton:

“My dear Sir: On reflection, I think you better make a peremptory order on the ordnance officer at Pittsburg to ship the ten mortars and two beds to Cairo instantly, and all others as fast as finished, till ordered to stop, reporting each shipment to the department here. Yours truly, A. Lincoln.”

On the previous day (January 23, 1862), President Lincoln had written the following telegraph message to Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote which was sent by Henry A. Wise of the Navy Bureau of Ordnance:

“The President wishes the rafts with their 13 inch mortars and all appointments to be ready for use at the earliest possible moment. What can we do here to advance this? What is lacking? What is being done, so far as you know? Telegraph us every day, showing the progress, or lack of progress in this matter.” [Source: “Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, editor, Rutgers University Press, 1953, Volume 5, page 108.]

Professor Michael Burlingame wrote of this military campaign by Grant in his work “Abraham Lincoln: A Life,” Volume II, pages 291-92:

“On February 6, U. S. Grant, with the help of gunboats under the command of Navy Captain Andrew Hull Foote, took Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, a victory that Lincoln considered extremely important. And, on February 16, [ ] Grant captured a Rebel army at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland . . . . This successful joint operation represented the first major Northern victory in the war; it not only opened the South to invasion along two rivers but also forced the rebels to forsake their positions in Kentucky and much of Tennessee. . . . Despite his [Lincoln’s] best endeavors, however, the mortar flotilla was not ready in time for Foote and Grant’s campaign.”

Conclusion: I consider myself to be a defender of the reputation of Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln once counseled a general by quoting these words of the poet Alexander Pope: “Act well your part, there all the honor lies.” This email is my attempt to “act well my part.” Anyone genuinely interested in maintaining the integrity of the reputation of Abraham Lincoln should be outraged by the Op-Ed piece written by Professor Mindich, “Lincoln's Surveillance State,” and published by the NY Times on Saturday, July 6, 2013.