Copperheads

Copperheads

Northern Democratic critics of the Lincoln administration’s policy during the Civil War were known every bit Copperheads together with were repeatedly linked to conspiracies to disrupt northern armed services operations together with to assist found the independence of the Confederate States of America.

Named after the venomous snake, Copperheads were considered traitors to the Union together with were accused past times Republicans of creating a civil state of war inside the Civil War. While many Democrats were critical of Republican policies pursued during the war, the vast bulk of Democrats remained loyal to the Union cause.

Seeking partisan payoff at the polls, many Republican political leaders transformed Democratic criticism of the state of war into disloyalty. Associating the Democrats amongst such hole-and-corner societies every bit the Knights of the Golden Circle, the Order of American Knights, together with the Sons of Liberty, Republicans repeatedly linked the Democratic Party amongst alleged conspiracies to disrupt the state of war elbow grease together with permanently split the nation.


Democratic dissent well-nigh Republican state of war policies was non fictitious. While Democrats had rallied to the flag inward the aftermath of the firing on Fort Sumter, Republican policies on emancipation together with civil liberties rapidly raised doubts well-nigh the outcome the state of war was having on U.S. society.

President Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, issued presently after the battle of Antietam, caused Democratic politicians together with paper editors to vigorously criticize the administration’s state of war policies. Believing inward the “Constitution every bit it is together with the Union every bit it was,” leading Democratic politicians such every bit Ohio’s Clement Vallandigham together with Indiana’s Daniel W. Voorhees charged that the state of war was right away beingness waged for racial equality.

Democratic paper editors, such every bit Charles Lanphier of the Illinois State Register, Samuel Medary of the Columbus, Ohio, Crisis, together with Wilbur Storey of the Chicago Times raised the number of racial amalgamation along amongst the threat of economical displacement for white, especially Irish, workers.

President Lincoln’s recess of the writ of habeas corpus along amongst the arbitrary arrest together with imprisonment of a few prominent Democrats, such every bit Dennis Mahoney, editor of the Dubuque, Iowa, Herald, raised fears that U.S. traditions of private rights were beingness supplanted past times armed services despotism.

Economic depression inward the agricultural lower Midwest also fueled Democratic dissent. With the closing of the Mississippi River, traditional trading routes betwixt the South together with the lower Midwest were disrupted. Farmers right away had to send their production to marketplace via the Great Lakes together with northern railroads.

Rising railroad rates cutting into agricultural profits together with raised complaints that the interests of the farming Midwest were beingness sacrificed to northern capitalists. Combined amongst such measures every bit the Morrill Tariff, at that topographic point emerged a robust western sectionalism, articulated past times Vallandigham, Ohio’s Samuel “Sunset” Cox, Senator William A. Richardson of Illinois, together with Daniel Voorhees, that was highly critical of “Puritan” New England together with northern manufacturing interests.

From practically the war’s beginning, eager Republican paper editors together with politicians attempted to lucre from Democratic state of war criticism past times paradigm the entire political party every bit treasonous. One strategy was to accuse Democrats of membership inward so-called hole-and-corner or black lantern societies. The alleged treasonous societies were the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC), the Order of American Knights (OAK), together with a reconstituted Sons of Liberty (SOL).

The Golden Circle was the conception of George W. L. Blickley, a no-account drifter born inward Virginia who migrated to Cincinnati inward the 1850s. The Order of American Knights was the brainchild of Phineas G. Wright, a New York native who was living inward St. Louis when the Civil War erupted. Harrison Dodd, a respectable Indianapolis Democrat who felt Democrats needed to counteract Republican propaganda, founded the Sons of Liberty.

Republican paper editors, politicians, together with Union armed services officers wildly exaggerated the membership inward all of these organizations. For instance, through the goodness propagandizing of Republican governors Oliver Morton (Indiana) together with Richard Yates (Illinois), the Knights of the Golden Circle was said to receive got thousands of members inward Ohio, Indiana, together with Illinois; yet hardly whatever actual local organizations were known to exist.

Similarly, every bit a outcome of an exposé written past times John Sanderson, an aide to General William S. Rosecrans stationed inward St. Louis, the Order of American Knights was portrayed every bit a volume organisation amongst thousands of dedicated members. In reality, the OAK had a few, isolated cells (temples) located inward the Midwest. Few, if any, prominent Democrats belonged to these shadowy organizations.

Unlike the Knights of the Golden Circle together with the Order of American Knights, the Sons of Liberty had slightly to a greater extent than credible membership. Formed to counteract the Republican Union League, the Sons were modeled after the patriotic organisation of the American Revolution. H5N1 number of prominent Democrats were associated amongst the Sons of Liberty including Clement Vallandigham together with S. Corning Judd, a pop Illinois Democrat.

Concerned that constitutional freedom mightiness live on a casualty of the war, the primary business office of the Sons of Liberty was to protect republicanism from the excesses of civil war. Unfortunately the ill-timed actions of a few foolhardy Democrats along amongst the eager propagandizing of Republican publicists gave credibility to allegations of Democratic treason inward such “plots” every bit the Northwest Confederacy together with the Camp Douglas uprising.

Charges that Democratic conspirators were plotting to separate the Midwestern states from New England together with shape a Northwest Confederacy was a mutual accuse against the Democrats during the war. Since 1864 was an election year, Republicans played upwards alleged plots of Democratic disloyalty for partisan gain. One Republican governor eager to seize chance was Oliver Morton of Indiana.

Using show gathered past times Colonel Henry Carrington, Morton had a prominent grouping of Indiana Democrats—Harrison Dodd together with 7 associates— arrested together with charged amongst treason. Eventually 4 Democrats—Lambdin P. Milligan, William Bowles, Stephen Horsey, together with Andrew Humphrey—were tried before a armed services courtroom (while charged, Dodd escaped together with fled to Canada).

While Felix Stidger, a disreputable informant inward the pay of Carrington, manufactured the bulk of the evidence, the armed services tribunal however convicted the defendants together with sentenced them to death. The Indianapolis treason trials gave Indiana Republicans a decided payoff inward the autumn campaign.

Similarly the so-called Camp Douglas conspiracy relied on manufactured show skillfully elicited past times unsuspecting and, inward about cases, unintelligent Democrats. The brainchild of Chicago Tribune president William Deacon Bross, the “Camp Douglas conspiracy” was the alleged elbow grease of local Democrats, aided together with abetted past times Confederate agents, to costless thousands of Confederate prisoners of state of war held at Camp Douglas inward Chicago.

The conspiracy theory grew together with was nurtured past times I. Winslow Ayers, a sleazy opportunist who hoped to lucre from his untruthful allegations. Eventually over 100 Democrats were arrested inward Chicago inward belatedly 1864. In a highly publicized treason trial conducted inward Cincinnati inward Jan 1865, alone 8 defendants were charged: George St. Leger Grenfell, Benjamin Anderson, Vincent Marmaduke, George Cantrell, Charles T. Daniel, Charles Walsh, Buckner Morris, together with Richard T. Semmes. Tried before a armed services tribunal, alone 5 of the defendants were convicted, together with alone one, St. Leger Grenfell, was sentenced to death.

In fact, no 1 convicted inward whatever of the treason trials was executed. No incertitude realizing the essential sham grapheme of the trial, President Andrew Johnson eventually reduced give-up the ghost sentences to life imprisonment for the defendants of the Indianapolis treason trials—Milligan, Bowles, together with Horseya adjust filed past times Milligan, on 3 April, the Supreme Court handed downwardly ex parte Milligan, which denied the legitimacy of armed services tribunals when civilian courts were functioning.

The iii defendants were later released on 12 Apr 1866. Similarly, the Cincinnati Treason Trials defendants found a mensurate of vindication. Of the 5 convicted defendants, 1 committed suicide (Anderson) together with 1 (Daniels) escaped.

Two defendants were eventually pardoned together with St. Leger Grenfell’s give-up the ghost judgement was changed to life imprisonment. The actions of federal officials after the state of war were a candid acknowledgment of excesses committed inward the scream of patriotism during the war. (Humphrey had been freed earlier). In reply to

For many years after the war, historians largely accepted the Republican verdict that the Democratic Party constituted a disloyal minority. While a few Democrats did belong to hole-and-corner societies together with openly supported the Confederacy, the vast bulk were loyal supporters of the state of war together with patriotic citizens. Opposed to emancipation together with fiercely committed to constitutional liberties, most Copperheads were non conspirators simply a respectable opposition party.