Boyd Murphree, Ph.D., is a political papers archivist for the University of Florida.
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The Ritchie Affair
In the 1847 Ritchie Affair, the U.S. Senate revoked floor privileges its official printer Thomas Ritchie who also was editor of a partisan newspaper after he published an article suggesting a senator was on the side of Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Although the Ritchie affair was short-lived, it raised significant issues about freedom of the press, including free speech during wartime and congressional pressure on political reporting.