Copperhead

Copperhead, during the American Civil War, pejoratively, any citizen in the North who opposed the war policy and advocated restoration of the Union through a negotiated settlement with the South. The word Copperhead was first so used by the New York Tribune on July 20, 1861, in reference to the snake that sneaks and strikes without warning.

Nearly all Copperheads were Democrats, but most Northern Democrats were not Copperheads. Copperhead strength was mainly in the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois), where many families had Southern roots and where agrarian interests fostered resentment of the growing dominance of industrialists in the Republican Party and federal government.

In addition, groups opposed to conscription and emancipation—e.g., the Irish population in New York City, who feared that freed Southern blacks would come north and take jobs away—backed such Peace Democrat leaders as Horatio Seymour, Fernando Wood, and Clement L. Vallandigham. Copperheads also drew strength from the ranks of those who objected to Lincoln’s abrogation of civil liberties and those who simply wanted an end to the massive bloodshed.

In 1862 the Copperheads organized the Knights of the Golden Circle, which successively became the Order of American Knights and the Sons of Liberty. Although Republicans accused these groups of treasonable activities, there is little evidence to support the accusation. Most Copperheads were more interested in maintaining the existence of the Democratic Party and defeating Republican opponents for public office than they were in participating in any disloyal activities.

On the other hand, Copperheads were able to block important war legislation in the Indiana state government, and they controlled the lower house in Illinois for a time. Seymour was elected governor of New York in 1862, and Vallandigham ran (unsuccessfully) for governor of Ohio in 1863. At the 1864 Democratic national convention, Copperheads gained control of the party platform and inserted a plank calling the war a failure and advocating immediate peace negotiations. Party presidential candidate George McClellan repudiated the Copperhead peace plank, however. By the end of the war, the terms Democrat and Copperhead had become virtually synonymous throughout much of the North. As a result, even though the Copperheads failed to exercise any significant influence on the conduct or outcome of the war and even though most Northern Democrats supported Lincoln and the war effort, the Democratic Party carried the stigma of disloyalty for decades after Appomattox.