President Lincoln's Spot Resolutions

Abraham Lincoln as a congressman and Lincoln as a President had vastly different views on free speech in wartime both of which were important to American History. However, President Lincoln’s views on free speech in wartime set a precedent of censorship that could be seen in later presidencies and their views on speech during wartime. Therefore, while both aspects of Lincoln were important to American History, President’s Lincolns views were vastly more important and had a greater impact.
Lincoln was a congressman during the Mexican-American war, and viscously lashed out against the war criticizing the president and the government. He doubted that President Polk was right when he said that American blood was spilt in the U.S and not Mexico. He delivered a famous speech called the “Spot Resolutions” where he openly criticized the government specifically President Polk. The “Spot Resolutions” called for Polk to tell the specific spot that American blood was spilt as this was the reason Polk declared war; he said that American blood was spilt on American soil. (“Lincoln’s Spot Resolutions”). As you can see Lincoln used his full rights in order to not only criticize the government but also criticize the President. However, Lincoln will actively censor free speech and change his views on free speech in wartime …show more content…
(history.com) This affected socialists, pacifists and the anti-war crowd namely. As you can this can be seen as being influenced by Lincoln who in the Civil suppressed a newspaper spreading anti-war messages. Another example is the court case “Schenck vs. the United States”. The Court said that words can sometimes “clear and present danger” and free speech can be limited during wartime.(pbs.org) The case since then has been overturned however it was very prominent during World War