January 16, 1861, The New York Herald
Since the secession movement has gained head the telegraph has been charged with giving it impetus by the circulation of false and exciting rumors. Those who make such accusations neither take the trouble of weighing the facts nor of contrasting the advantages of the present rapid mode of transmitting intelligence with that of the old mail system. In the first place the telegraph, as an instrument of communication, is no more responsible for the character of the news flashed over its wires than the Post Office is responsible for the contents of the letters forwarded through it. It has not and never can exercise any power of censorship, for the simple reason that it would lose the confidence of the public the moment that it attempted to do so and would forfeit its character as a purely commercial enterprise.
But it remains to be proved that the telegraph is not in every way as reliable in its confidential aspects as it is in point of rapidity. We contend that it is. There are infinitely less inducements to fabricate news by its instrumentality than under the old mail system. because its contradiction by the same means can be so immediately arrived at. No stock exchange operation can be successfully carried out by its aid, because people are always on their guard against a surprise, and lose no time in verifying the information sent.
As regards the unreliability of the political reports and rumors transmitted by telegraph in connection with the South, there is no real ground of complaint. Very little news of this kind has been forwarded or received which had not some foundation in fact. With the public mind in such a state of feverish anxiety, and such a rapid instrument of communication at their command, it is not of course to be expected that newspaper correspondents will always wait for the full developments of events. It generally happens, however, that when the intelligence they send is contradicted by interested parties, it is borne out by later news. The telegraph correspondents employed by newspapers are not infallible; but it is due to them to say that, generally speaking, they are correctly informed.
The way false rumors get circulation is less by their instrumentality than by that of outsiders. Parties in Washington and other centres of intelligence pick up rumors in bar rooms and other public places, which, without troubling themselves to investigate, they telegraph forthwith to their friends in the different cities. These rumors occasionally find their way into the newspapers, though journals having reliable correspondents of their own are rarely taken off their guard by them. Were there no telegraph in existence the parties sending them, having the mail to wait for, would probably have time to verify their accuracy before forwarding them. Having the telegraph at their command, they despatch them in the heat and excitement of the moment, without reflecting on the possibility of their being erroneous. It is in this way that most of the acts of Mr. Buchanan in connection with the revolutionary movements in the South have been misrepresented. If any one has a right to complain of the abuse made of the telegraph it is unquestionably the President.
Against these slight drawbacks, however, we have to weigh the advantages derived from this triumph of modern science. Just imagine the excitement of the public mind at the North if the report that the Star of the West had been sunk by the batteries of Fort Moultrie had remained many hours uncontradicted. And should the present Congress return to its senses and resolve to restore peace to our unhappy country, how important will it be for it to find at its command a means of transmitting this happy intelligence to the remotest points of the Union with the least possible delay, and of thus abridging the anxiety and suspense that weigh upon the public mind. The Post Office could not do this within a month, whilst the telegraph will effect it at this side of the Rocky Mountains within a few hours, and as far as San Francisco within a fortnight. Let the ignorant and unreflecting abuse the telegraph as they will, it is on of the most important contributions that modern science has made to human progress.