Abraham Lincoln by Byers, 1858

Abraham Lincoln’s political gifts have been well documented, but perhaps his most overlooked and underappreciated skill was his mastery of the media. Lincoln’s political rise coincided with the increased circulation and influence of newspapers. During his presidency, newspapermen vacillated between loyal confidants and bitter nemeses. In Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion, preeminent Lincoln historian Harold Holzer demonstrates how the 16th president's suspiciously close relationship with the media enabled him to silence opponents and amplify his side of the Civil War narrative. Below are five little-known facts about Lincoln and the media, demonstrating how "Honest Abe" ruled the reporting world.

Objectivity was obsolete: In Lincoln's day newspapers didn't bother disguising their political loyalties. In fact, most of them were openly supportive of their chosen party. For example, New York Times was blatantly Republican all the way.

Conflicts of interest were rampant: Editors and publishers kept their day jobs while serving or campaigning as politicians. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, also served as a congressman (with young Lincoln) in the late 1840s and then unsuccessfully ran for Senate after Lincoln's election as president. Henry Raymond of the New York Times beat them all. In 1864, the year Lincoln ran for reelection, Raymond not only editorialized unceasingly for Lincoln, he served as Republican National Chairman, ran for Congress in Manhattan, and, in his "spare time," wrote a 600-page Lincoln biography.

Political loyalty program: Lincoln kept supportive newspapers in line by giving editors cushy federal jobs. He made his most reliable Chicago Tribune editor city postmaster. Lincoln’s most friendly D.C. booster became Secretary of the U.S. Senate. In fact, a running joke was that he gave diplomatic posts to so many New York Tribune writers that there was no one left to run the newsroom.

Savvy from the start: Lincoln played the newspaper and politics game brilliantly from the beginning. As a young politician he wrote anonymous editorials. He aligned himself with papers in Springfield and Chicago, making them his special "organs" to tout his views and achievements throughput the years. He used raw power and money to keep the press in line. Once, when the immigration issue became too thorny on the eve of the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln stayed away from a local rally protesting crackdowns on immigrant voting rights as to not offend anti-immigration voters. But a few weeks later he bought a struggling German-language newspaper, despite being unable to read the language, so it could continue publishing “Lincoln for President” editorials aimed at German- born voters. Lincoln owned the paper secretly for a year and later made the editor American consul to Vienna as a reward.

Forget “Freedom of the Press”: As president, Lincoln presided over a massive crackdown against Democratic papers that he felt crossed the line by supporting secession or discouraged enlistment. In all, he closed down about 200 papers, allowing the arrest and imprisonment of editors without subpoenas. It was the biggest infringement of freedom of the press in American history -- but all done in the name of preserving America itself, so he claimed.

Watch Harold Holzer below discuss five stories about Abraham Lincoln and his complicated connection with the press.