association. By means of this organization the Confederacy was better able to control what appeared in the newspapers than was the Government at Washington, in spite of its censor- ship.
During the early part of the war, Washington officials made several blunders in adopting too stringent measures to prevent the publishing of news which might help the army of the South. The papers in the larger cities were repeatedly informed by tele- graph that nothing whatever in regard to military movements would be allowed to come over the wires. This threat was never fully carried out, but a censor was put in the telegraph office at Washington whose duty it was to inspect all news dispatches and to suppress any communication which he deemed inexpedient to publish. To deceive the generals of the Confederacy false reports must have been circulated: Henry J. Raymond, of The New York Times, complained bitterly in an editorial in his paper that when on the night of the battle of Bull Run he had placed in the telegraph office a "perfectly accurate statement of the result," derived from personal observation, the Govern- ment Agent refused to allow the account to be sent to The Times, and instead reported that the Union army had achieved a vic- tory. So much dissatisfaction resulted, on account of the cen- sorship, that a change was made, with a result that greater freedom for the expression of truth was given to the dispatches and additional facilities were provided by the War Department for the gathering of news by correspondents in the Union army.
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON
The assertion was frequently made that The Tribune, because of the part it had played in nominating Lincoln, was granted special privileges in the matter of publication of items, issued by various departments at Washington. The truth of this charge was never proved, except that correspondents for that paper were possibly more energetic in calling on the various members of the War Cabinet. The policy of giving items to the newspaper cor- respondent who had called first created so much disturbance and ill-feeling that arrangements were made whereby the news from all departments was turned over to a special newspaper
