Storey made the Chicago Times into Lincoln's most vituperative enemy. A typical editor was Edward G. Roddy, owner of the Uniontown, Pennsylvania Genius of Liberty. He was an intensely partisan Democrat who saw African Americans as an inferior race and Lincoln as a despot and dunce. Although he supported the war effort in , he blamed abolitionists for prolonging the war and denounced the government as increasingly despotic.
By , he was calling for peace at any price. Reflecting Irish American opinion, it supported the war until before becoming a Copperhead organ. In the spring and summer of , the paper urged its Irish working-class readers to pursue armed resistance to the draft passed by Congress earlier in the year. When the draft began in the city, working class European Americans , largely Irish, responded with violent riots from July 13 to 16, lynching, beating and hacking to death more than black New Yorkers and burning down black-owned businesses and institutions, including an orphanage for black children.
On August 19, , John Mullaly was arrested for inciting resistance to the draft. Even in an era of extremely partisan journalism, Copperhead newspapers were remarkable for their angry rhetoric. Wisconsin newspaper editor Marcus M. Pomeroy of the La Crosse Democrat referred to Lincoln as "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 Copperheads sometimes talked of violent resistance and in some cases started to organize. However, they never actually made an organized attack.
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As war opponents, Copperheads were suspected of disloyalty and their leaders were sometimes arrested and held for months in military prisons without trial. One famous example was General Ambrose Burnside 's General Order Number 38 , issued in Ohio, which made it an offence to be tried in military court to criticize the war in any way. Vallandigham when he criticized the order itself. Probably the largest Copperhead group was the Knights of the Golden Circle. Formed in Ohio in the s, it became politicized in It reorganized as the Order of American Knights in and again in early as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with Vallandigham as its commander.
One leader, Harrison H. Dodd , advocated violent overthrow of the governments of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri in 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 Indiana Republicans then used the sensational revelation of an antiwar Copperhead conspiracy by elements of the Sons of Liberty to discredit Democrats in the 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, , former Congressman Vallandigham declared 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 by the Army and sentenced to imprisonment, but Lincoln commuted the sentence to banishment behind Confederate lines.
He campaigned from Canada, but lost after an intense battle. He operated behind the scenes at the Democratic convention in Chicago. This convention adopted a largely Copperhead platform and selected Ohio Representative George Pendleton a known Peace Democrat as the vice presidential candidate. However, it chose a pro-war presidential candidate, General George B.
The contradiction severely weakened the party's chances to defeat Lincoln.
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The values of the Copperheads reflected the Jacksonian democracy of an earlier agrarian society. The Copperhead movement attracted Southerners who had settled north of the Ohio River , the poor and merchants who had lost profitable Southern trade. The movement had scattered bases of support outside the lower Midwest. There was a Copperhead element in Connecticut that dominated the Democratic Party there. They were also numerous in German Catholic areas of the Midwest , especially Wisconsin [18].
There was an earthy quality in Voorhees, "the tall sycamore of the Wabash.
Copperhead (politics) - Wikipedia
His bitter cries against protective tariffs and national banks , his intense race prejudice , his suspicion of the eastern Yankee , his devotion to personal liberty , his defense of the Constitution and State's rights faithfully reflected the views of his constituents. Like other Jacksonian agrarians , he resented the political and economic revolution then in progress. Voorhees idealized a way of life which he thought was being destroyed by the current rulers of his country.
His bold protests against these dangerous trends made him the idol of the Democracy of the Wabash Valley. Two central questions have run through the historiography of the Copperheads, i. The first book-length scholarly treatment of the Copperheads appeared in He argued they deliberately served the Confederacy's war aims.
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Also in , George Fort Milton published Abraham Lincoln and the Fifth Column , which likewise condemned the traitorous Copperheads and praised Lincoln as a model defender of democracy. Tredway , a professor of history, in his study Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana found most Indiana Democrats were loyal to the Union and desired national reunification. He documented Democratic counties in Indiana having outperformed Republican counties in the recruitment of soldiers. Tredway found that Copperhead sentiment was uncommon among the rank-and-file Democrats in Indiana.
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The chief historians who favored the Copperheads are Richard O. Curry and Frank L. Klement devoted most of his career to debunking the idea that the Copperheads represented a danger to the Union. Klement and Curry have downplayed the treasonable activities of the Copperheads, arguing the Copperheads were traditionalists who fiercely resisted modernization and wanted to return to the old ways. Klement argued in the s that the Copperheads' activities, especially their supposed participation in treasonous anti-Union secret societies, were mostly false inventions by Republican propaganda machines designed to discredit the Democrats at election time.
Curry sees Copperheads as poor traditionalists battling against the railroads, banks and modernization. McPherson asserted Klement had taken "revision a bit too far. He retired after many years of public service. He donates time for the fire service. He has been involved with the production of historical documentary videos in a variety of capacities and he also writes custom computer programs.
Well , its finally happened my book is published and I am awaiting the first shipment from the publishers and to say that I nervously await the postal service delivery is an understatement. The Lincoln Administration prepares to issue the.
Speeches of Carl Schurz/11 Treason of Slavery
Many Factions oppose Lincoln's plan to free the slaves. Lincoln's own telegrams and letters help tell this unique story. Available from Infinity Press. Click The Buy now button to securely order your Copy. My Blog December 11, Well , its finally happened my book is published and I am awaiting the first shipment from the publishers and to say that I nervously await the postal service delivery is an understatement.