Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1861. Call to arms

The Providence Journal was the newspaper of the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860s, and The Journal's editorials offered consistent support for the president and the Union army during the Civil War.

After the Union defeat at the first Battle of Bull Run in 1861, The Journal urged Rhode Island to raise new military regiments to join the fight: "To the brave man defeat is only an argument for new effort.

"What is to be done? Everything. The capital must again be defended. The ground, which has been lost, must be regained. Victory must follow on the heels of defeat. Not an inch more must be yielded."

Throughout the Civil War, The Journal relentlessly pushed for more men to enroll in the army, and supported filling Union ranks with a draft.

After Union victory at Gettysburg in 1863 raised hope for peace talks and the end of the war, the paper grimly concluded that there could never be a negotiated peace:

Journal files / R.I. Historical Society

Under the command of Col (later Gen.) Ambrose E. Burnside, members of the 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Regiment gather in Exchange Place on April 20, 1861, a few days after the beginning of the Civil War.

"The way for the rebels, if they want peace, is plain," The Journal editorialized on July 10, 1863. "It always has been. They have only to return to the allegiance they have renounced . . . We can offer them no other terms. But until they are ready to come back, and signify their readiness to do so, the government has only one duty, and that is to push on the war."