- Joined
- Aug 16, 2015
Let's begin by getting the terminology right. The ACW-era telegraph was an electrical apparatus, not an electronic apparatus!There is none because Congress seemed to ignore the concept of electornic surveillance. The concept of electornic spying would have been knew to the people of 1860's... It is why Lincoln and Stanton got away their invasion of the electornic media...
Congress ignored nothing: there was no problem to be 'fixed'. This whole argument is based on a wartime initiative to monitor telegraphic communication that was not then illegal! It is presentism run amok: a simple case of projecting present-day opinions on something that occurred over 150 years ago.