Edward Snowden’s revelationsaboutthe NSA, PRISM,andtheUS government’s extended notice strategywere intolerableto most people—but may bethey shouldn’thavebeen.There’s copiousnessof precedent,says David T. Z. MindichfortheNew York Times, datingallthe approach behindto Abraham Lincolnandthe Civil War.In 1862, Lincoln certified unconditional carry out overthe American telegram infrastructurefor Edwin Stanton,his cabinet memberof war. Telegraphswere re-routed byhis office,and Stanton usedhis energyto viewon Americans, detain journalists,and even carry outwhatwasor wasn’t sent.Itwas the vicious apparatusin wartime,but the large advanceof remotenessthat certainly hurt citizens.

Mindich arguesthat notwithstandingthehuge differencesin rangeand technology,the Lincoln-era e.g.is theneat more agedtothe stream fighton terror.For thosethat take emanatewiththe stream NSA procedures,hesays,theonly genuine resolutionistoendthe fight—that’stheonly approach Stanton’s learnofthe telegraphswas loosed.“Asthe fightended,the puncture measureswere rolled back. Information— telegramand differently—beganto upsurge openly again.” Untilthis fightis over, Mindich cautions, invasive bureaucratic overreachingis the actualityof life; eitherit’s Western Unionor Microsoft, Lincolnor Obama,that’showit’s regularlybeen.