Copperheads
The Copperheads (dt. Copper heads , after the North American copper head snake ) often also Peace Democrats ( peace democrats ) were a group within the Democratic Party in the northern states during the Civil War .
Concept and history
The Copperheads were opposed to the war and the accompanying measures of the Republican Abraham Lincoln such as the repeal of the habeas corpus , the increase in power of the central government, conscription and press censorship .
They often organized themselves in secret societies outside the Democratic Party, for example the Order of American Knights . They were strongest in the rural states of Indiana , Illinois, and Ohio . Northern detectives infiltrated the movement and arrested its leaders. In Indiana in particular, this led to mass litigation that led to the landmark decision in the Ex parte Milligan case .
Attempts by the southern states to use the war opponents for their own ends failed.
The name Copperhead , probably as an allusion to one of the most dangerous snakes in North America, was given to the war opponents by their political adversaries to portray them as poisonous snakes against the interests of the North. But there are other declarations of origin.
Doughface
A similar term from the 19th century was doughface. This term originally stood for "dough face". In Webster's Dictionary (1847) it says: " doughfacism was defined as 'the willingness to be led about by one of stronger mind and will'." (the willingness to follow a stronger will and spirit). In the years leading up to the American Civil War, “doughface” was a term used to describe Northerners who represented Southerners' political positions.
Well-known representatives
- Jesse D. Bright , Indiana
- Alexander Long , Ohio
- Edson B. Olds , Ohio
- George Pendleton , Ohio
- Horatio Seymour , New York
- Fernando Wood , New York
- Clement Vallandigham , Ohio
- Daniel W. Voorhees , Indiana
- Lambdin P. Milligan
additional
- Copperheads is the title of a 2013 feature film about the American Civil War.
literature
- Richter, William L .: Historical dictionary of the Civil War and Reconstruction . Scarecrow Press 2012. ISBN 978-0-8108-7817-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vintage Vocabulary, accessed on April 22, 2007 on archive link ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Richards, Leonard L. The Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination 1780-1860. (2000) ISBN 0-8071-2537-7 p. 86
- ^ Richards pp. 85-86
