Everything about Copperheads Politics totally explained
The
Copperheads were a vocal group of
Democrats in the
North (see also
Union (American Civil War)) who opposed the
American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the
Confederates. The name
Copperheads was given to them by their opponents, the
Republicans, because the deadly
copperhead snake can strike without warning (unlike a
rattlesnake).
They were also called "Peace Democrats" and "
Butternuts" (for the color of the Confederate uniforms). The most famous Copperhead was Ohio's
Clement L. Vallandigham.
Agenda
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Copperheads nominally favored the Union and strongly opposed the war, for which they blamed
abolitionists, and they demanded immediate peace and resisted
draft laws. They wanted Lincoln and the Republicans ousted from power, seeing the president as a tyrant who was destroying American
republican values with his despotic and arbitrary actions.
Some Copperheads tried to persuade
Union soldiers to desert. They talked of helping Confederate
prisoners of war seize their camps and escape. They sometimes met with Confederate agents and took money. The Confederacy encouraged their activities whenever possible. Most Democratic party leaders, however, repelled Confederate advances.
Newspapers
The Copperheads had numerous important newspapers, but the editors never formed an alliance. In
Chicago, Wilbur F. Storey made the
Chicago Times into Lincoln's most vituperative enemy. The
New York Journal of Commerce, originally abolitionist, was sold to owners who became Copperheads, giving them an important voice in the largest city. A typical editor was Edward G. Roddy, owner of the
Uniontown, Pennsylvania Genius of Liberty. He was an intensely partisan Democrat who saw
black people as an inferior race and Abraham Lincoln as a despot and dunce. Although he supported the war effort in 1861, he blamed abolitionists for prolonging the war and denounced the government as increasingly despotic. By 1864 he was calling for peace at any price.
John Mullaly's
Metropolitan Record was the official
Catholic paper in
New York City. Reflecting
Irish opinion, it supported the war until 1863 before becoming a Copperhead organ; the editor was then arrested for draft resistance. Even in an era of extremely partisan journalism, Copperhead newspapers were remarkable for their angry rhetoric. "A large majority [ofCopperheads]," declared an
Ohio editor, "can see no reason why they should be shot for the benefit of niggers and Abolitionists." If "the despot Lincoln" tried to ram abolition and conscription down the throats of white men, "he would meet with the fate he deserves: hung, shot, or burned."
Through the
1864 election,
Wisconsin newspaper editor Marcus M. Pomeroy called Lincoln "fungus from the corrupt womb of bigotry and fanaticism" and a "worse tyrant and more inhuman butcher than has existed since the days of
Nero... The man who votes for Lincoln now is a traitor and murderer... And if he's elected to misgovern for another four years, we trust some bold hand will pierce his heart with dagger point for the public good."
Copperhead resistance
The Copperheads sometimes talked of violent resistance, and in some cases started to organize. They never actually made an organized attack, though. As war opponents, Copperheads were suspected of disloyalty, and Lincoln often had their leaders arrested and held for months in military prisons without trial. Probably the largest Copperhead group was the
Knights of the Golden Circle; formed in Ohio in the 1850s, it became politicized in 1861. It reorganized as the Order of American Knights in 1863, and again, early in 1864, as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with
Clement L. Vallandigham as its commander. One leader,
Harrison H. Dodd, advocated violent overthrow of the governments of
Indiana,
Illinois,
Kentucky, and
Missouri in 1864. Democratic party leaders, and a Federal investigation, thwarted his conspiracy. In spite of this Copperhead setback, tensions remained high. The
Charleston Riot took place in Illinois in March of 1864. Indiana Republicans then used the sensational revelation of an antiwar Copperhead conspiracy by elements of the Sons of Liberty to discredit Democrats in the
1864 House elections. The military trial of
Lambdin P. Milligan and other Sons of Liberty revealed plans to set free the Confederate prisoners held in the state. The culprits were sentenced to hang but the
Supreme Court intervened in
Ex parte Milligan, saying they should have received civilian trials.
Most Copperheads actively participated in politics. On
May 1,
1863, former Congressman Vallandigham declared that the war was being fought not to save the Union but to free the blacks and enslave Southern whites. The Army then arrested him for declaring sympathy for the enemy. He was
court-martialed and sentenced to imprisonment, but Lincoln
commuted the sentence to banishment behind Confederate lines. The Democrats nevertheless nominated him for
governor of Ohio in 1863; he campaigned from
Canada but was defeated after an intense battle. He operated behind-the-scenes at the
1864 Democratic convention in Chicago; this convention adopted a largely Copperhead platform, but chose a pro-war presidential candidate,
George B. McClellan. The contradiction severely weakened the chances to defeat Lincoln's reelection.
Profile of the average member
The sentiments of Copperheads attracted Southerners who had settled north of the
Ohio River, the poor, and merchants who had lost profitable Southern trade. Copperheads did well in local and state elections in
1862, especially in New York, and won majorities in the legislatures of Illinois and Indiana.
[ Copperheads were most numerous in border areas, including southern parts of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana (in Missouri, comparable groups were avowed Confederates). The Copperhead coalition included many Irish American Catholics in eastern cities, mill towns and mining camps (especially in the Pennsylvania coal fields). They were also numerous in German Catholic areas of the Midwest, especially Wisconsin.]
Historian Kenneth Stampp has captured the Copperhead spirit in his depiction of Congressman Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana:
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