The Copperheads

Written By SM

I’ve always been fond of the saying, “Yankee is a state of mind.” Although the cultural differences between North and South became more of a great divide during and following the War Between The States, there remained a sizable remnant of our Northern brethren who honored the vision that the founders had originally laid out, these strict constitutionalists were and are known as the “Copperheads.” There were, and still are many Northerners who did not, and still do not follow after or approve of the wretched political traditions of the “Yankee” power structure that has dominated American politics since the 1860s. These men came from all different backgrounds and beliefs, some like Harrison H. Dodd were radical in their own right, wanting to stage a violent coup of Northern state governments for their part in the destruction of the Union as it was originally created.[1] Some, like Ohio Congressman Alexander Long were simply Peace Democrats, who wanted the sovereignty of states’ rights to be upheld and the spilling of American blood to cease.[2] Others like Kentucky Senator Lazarus Powell strongly opposed the tyrannical power grabs the Radical Republican administration was making. One of the most egregious being the suspension of the Writ Of Habeas by the Lincoln administration that directly resulted in the arrest of Ohio Congressman Clement L. Vallandingham, the most prominent Copperhead politician, as well as many other political dissenters for simply using their first amendment right.[3][4][5]

With their objection to the despotic regime in Washington D.C. being known by the cruel name eventually turned badge of honor that was given to them by the Radical Republicans, that would be the title of “Copperhead”. This moniker was originally a slight in the form of comparing the Peace Democrats, Confederate sympathizers, and other political dissidents to the venomous Copperhead snake found in eastern North America, the Unionist sentiments toward them laid bare in the pamphlet “Ye Book Of Copperheads” that circulated in 1863.[6] The Copperhead is known for being well camouflaged on the forest floor, hiding in plain sight and waiting for a moment to strike, likewise the Lincoln regime saw those who wanted to stop the bloodshed and return to a more traditional interpretation of the union as such. While it is unknown how the name “Copperhead” was chosen for enemies of the regime in the North, one possible origin of the name comes from the New York Times April 10, 1861 edition:

“A day or two since, when one of the mail-bags coming from the South by way of Alexandria, was emptied in the court-yard of the Post-office, a box fell out and was broken open, – from which two copperheads, one four and a half and the other three feet long, crawled out. The larger one was benumbed and easily killed; the other was very lively and venomous, and was dispatched with some difficulty and danger. What are we to think of a people who resort to such weapons of warfare.” [7]

To me this story seems a bit far-fetched, evoking a similar air of sensationalism as other “Yellow Journalism” from the same period, as well as clearly being aimed at a pro-Union audience. However, the truth tends to have little bearing on angry sentiments, convinced minds, and roused emotions. Whether true or not, this designation was eventually accepted through an inversion of the meaning of their nickname, the “Copperheads” would adopt the Liberty Head Large Cent as the symbol of their movement.  The Liberty Head Large Cent was an American Penny with the “American goddess” Liberty upon the face of the coin, wearing a headband with her name thereupon. It was from these pennies that “Liberty” would be cut from the cent and made into a pin.[8][9][10]

An 1851 Liberty Head Large Cent.

It should also be noted that some Copperhead pins were constructed from whole cents, others wore the butternut pin, or possibly a version of the original pin constructed from an Indian Head penny.[9][11]

With this new symbolism behind their title, the “Copper-heads” continued to go forward in their mission of preserving the Union as it was made by the founders. Many of these men would go on to frustrate the regime in and out of the political arena. Official actions in the forms of open letters in the newspapers, pamphlets, speeches, direct political action, and public calls to stop conscription.[12] In addition to these “public works” came a great deal of covert subterfuge in aid of the Confederacy, such as, persuading Union soldiers to desert the army, creating conspiracies (such as the KGC, the Order Of American Knights, and the Sons Of Liberty) to disrupt Union aims, and even making plans to create a Confederacy of Northwestern Territories/States.[8][13]

Why would Northerners go to such great lengths to aid the South in its battle for independence? Wouldn’t helping Confederate aims make them traitors to the United States? The answer is simple, these brave men believed that the constitution as it was understood by the founders, and the Union that came out of that very same document should be preserved as the founders made it and animated by the very same spirit it possessed at the time of the nation's conception. In other words, if a sovereign state decided to enter the Union of its own accord without coercion, a sovereign state should be allowed to leave the Union of its own accord without coercion. A strong belief in the founding principles of the nation was and is one of the great drivers of the Copperhead movement. They were not committing treason as they viewed the Radical Republican regime as an illegitimate despotism attempting to usurp the legacy of the United States and prop up a bastardized government on the corpse of a once great nation. This conviction is proudly displayed on one of the Copperhead flags from the era. This flag is believed to have belonged to Congressman Clement L. Vallandingham himself. As you can see, the flag has the sentence “The Union As Our Fathers Made It” sewn into the fabric of the banner.[14] These men didn’t view their actions as treason, they saw their actions as necessary to preserve the Union of the founding.

A Copperhead/Peace Democrat Flag, Possibly belonging to C.L. Vallindingham.

My reason for this short introduction to the Copperheads was thus; I wish to make it clear that there are many friends of the Confederacy outside of the South if one would only look for them. Many Northern Copperheads have had the “Yankee” reputation foisted upon them by us Southerners, even when they didn’t deserve it. This also leaves us with the question; “What is to be done with Northerners who have made a home in the South in the years since the War Between The States?” While I don’t have a good answer for this conundrum, I myself am not a proponent of large hordes of Northern migrants coming into the South, even if they are Confederophilic. However, that being said, if we are to outright reject all of our Northern brothers who have ended up in the South throughout the past 160 years over the question of geography or ancestry, we would lose at the absolute least some of our own cherished Southern tradition. Few remember the contributions of men like Hudson Strode, the professor of creative writing at the University Of Alabama from 1916-1963. Who himself was born in Cairo, Illinois and brought to Alabama as a child where he grew up to appreciate the culture and cause of the South, ultimately leading to his authoring of the most definitive three-volume biography of Jefferson Davis written to date.[15]

This leads me to another question to consider, “What do we do with the Southern ‘Scalawags’ of today who have betrayed their home and people?” Shall we continue to assume that they are one of us just because we share ancestry and geography? What would you prefer, a neighbor whose parents came South thirty years ago that has the same reverence for the Confederacy as you do, and who has immersed and adopted the culture of the South much like a Hudson Strode, or would you prefer a neighbor who while having family in the South back to 1607 has totally thrown in their lot with the likes of BLM, cultural Marxist, and the modern American empire, men who are openly hostile, not only to Confederate history but also Southern culture and the people from whom that culture emanates? I realize these questions are general and idealized, however, I believe that it is instructive to at least attempt to tackle these issues conceptually.

While I firmly believe that we can not take a group of transplanted Northerners and turn them into good ole’ Southern boys. I know the future of the “New True South” lies in looking back to the legacy of the “Old South”, I also know that the future will have to look different from the past, for no other reason than today is not then. I realize that I am putting myself out there for some form of retaliation from more traditional Southerners in writing this, but I feel that this should be said. Unlike the 1860s we live in an era where the cultural divides in America are not geographical, the “war” ahead of us isn’t for the Shenandoah Valley or the farmland surrounding Gettysburg, it is for the culture and preservation of our history and unique cultural identity. There is so much more to be said about this, but I digress.

All of those who put their hands to the work of a truly free nation should not be derided for the things outside of their control. I believe it is high time that the Copperheads of yesterday and today are acknowledged for their contributions to the great project of the Confederate States Of America. If it weren't for their actions, who knows what kind of hell the South would have had to face. Even as I write these words I know that there are still Copperheads out there willing to do what must be done, linking arm in arm with today's Confederates as we march toward the future of the True South, otherwise known as the last best hope for the American experiment as it was envisioned by the founders. This “war” isn’t over, and any man willing to aid our cause is a brother to me. Deo Vindice. - SM

References

1. Klement, Frank L., The Copperheads in the Middle West.

2. Long, Alexander, (1864) The present condition and future prospects of the country: speech of Hon. Alexander Long, of Ohio, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 8, 1864

3. Congressional Globe, Thirty-Seventh Congress, Third Session (1862–63), pp. 1435–1438, 1459–1477.

4. Vallandigham, Clement Laird (1863a). The Trial Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham, by a Military Commission: and the Proceedings Under His Application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. Cincinnati: Rickey and Carroll.

5. Asp, David, Free Speech Center, “Civil War, U.S. - the Free Speech Center,” The Free Speech Center, February 19, 2024, https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/civil-war-u-s/.

6. Leypoldt, Fredrick, Freidel, Frank, “Pamphlet 38. Charles Godfrey Leland and Henry P. Leland, Ye Book of Copperheads. Philadelphia, 1863,” in Harvard University Press eBooks, 2014, https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674337244.c16.

7. THE IMPENDING WAR.; The Steamship Baltic Sent to Provision Fort Sumpter. The Authorities at Charleston Notified. Extenisve Preparations for Resistance. Eighteen Thousand Additional Volunteers Called for by Jeff. Davis.INTENDED OPERATIONS AGAINST THE NORTH.Further Explanation of Government Movements. FORT SUMPTER TO BE SUPPLIED. PROGRAMME OF NAVAL OPERATIONS. AN UNMANLY WARFARE. THE CALIFORNIA APPOINTMENTS. OTHER APPOINTMENTS. DISPATCH TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. New York Times, 10 April 1861, pg. 1

8. Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography (1952) p. 377.

9. Dayton Daily Empire. (Dayton [Ohio]), 23 April 1863 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85026002/1863-04-23/ed-1/seq-2/

10. Hosmer, James Kendall, Outcome of the Civil War, 1863-1865, Volume 21, pg. 4

11. Unknown Author, Old Copperheads And New, Wisconsin Historical Magazine, 1917, pg. 203

12. Weber, Jennifer L. (2008). Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534124-9.

13. William A. Tidwell, April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War. Kent State University Press. 1995. pp. 155–20.

14. https://civilwarantique.com/13-09/

15. https://apps.lib.ua.edu/blogs/this-goodly-land/author/?AuthorID=126#:~:text=Biographical%20Information,family%20moved%20to%20Demopolis%2C%20Ala.