American Digest has a nice educational post about Victor Davis Hanson's use of the term "copperheads" in his rousing article in the National Review Online: The Event of the Age. An excerpt from American Digest:
In 1861, Republicans started calling antiwar Democrats "copperheads", likening them to the poisonous snake. By 1863, the Peace Democrats had accepted the label, but for them the copper "head" was the likeness of Liberty on the copper penny, and they proudly wore pennies as badges.The Copperheads mounted a forceful and sustained protest against the Lincoln administration's policies and conduct. The most popular of the Copperheads was Democratic Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham, who in 1862 introduced a bill in Congress to imprison the President. Instead, Vallandigham and a host of other Democrats, including judges, newspaper editors, politicians, and antiwar activists, were arrested and imprisoned without trial on the orders of Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton, who had decided to take off their gloves in dealing with persons "guilty of any disloyal practice".
Fascinating Fact: At the 1864 Democratic convention, Vallandigham persuaded the party to adopt a platform that declared the war a failure and called for negotiations with the Confederacy. (Copperheads)
Of course, the person the Peace Democrats nominated to run against Lincoln was an anti-war general whose main contribution had been as a glorified drill instructor who advocated a fairly decent saddle that still bears his name: the McClellan. With the nomination of Clark the parallels would be complete, except that Wes is advocating an updated steed and saddle.
Posted by Demosophist at October 26, 2003 03:42 PM | TrackBackMcClellan was a very interesting historical figure. One must wonder what caused him to decide to run against Lincoln as the "Anti-War general". He was certainly the most inept of generals; One could argue that he was singlehandedly responsible for the prolonging of the Civil War and thus responsible for hundreds of thousands of lives lost in its battles.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that is exactly what McClellan wanted. He blamed his failures on Lincoln, as the President wouldn't send him more men when he already outnumbered the enemy; At it's leanest, McClellan's army outnumbered the Confederates 2 to 1. He couldn't realize, or at least wasn't willing to admit that his failure was due to a flawed paradigm of his own design. Funny, it seems that today's Democrats suffer the same malady. Go figure.
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