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War Democrat
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War Democrat

American political faction
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Article History

War Democrat, in the history of the United States, any of the Northern Democrats who supported the continued prosecution of the American Civil War.

The great majority of Northern Democrats stayed loyal to the Union after the South seceded. So-called Peace Democrats (or “Copperheads” in pejorative Unionist terminology) opposed the war and advocated a negotiated peace with concessions to the South so that it would rejoin the Union.

War Democrats, while supporting the war, objected to Republican economic policies and to President Abraham Lincoln’s abrogation of civil rights. During the 1864 presidential election, they joined with Republicans in forming the Union Party, which renominated Lincoln for president and selected War Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee as Lincoln’s running mate.

Peace Democrats formulated a platform calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities, a position that the party’s presidential nominee, General George B. McClellan, repudiated.