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Lincoln and the Copperheads
NY Times Disunion ^ | January 28, 2013 | JENNIFER L. WEBER

Posted on 02/02/2013 5:07:52 AM PST by iowamark

In January 1863, Abraham Lincoln made a remarkable confession. He was, he told a senator, more worried about “the fire in the rear” than he was about the Confederates to his front...

Disgusted Republicans termed them “Copperheads,” after the poisonous snake...

By January 1863, their assaults on Lincoln, combined with the poor performance of the armies, were taking a toll on civilian morale. Midwesterners spoke openly about seceding and establishing another new country or aligning with the Confederate States of America.

Lincoln’s critics were harsh, uncompromising and relentless. They said Lincoln was a tyrant, bent on amassing power and ruining democracy. They demanded an immediate end to hostilities, believing contrary to all available evidence that the Southern states would return to the Union if only Lincoln would stop the shooting. They wanted to keep slavery...

As Lincoln worried about the state of the home front, an important shift was taking place among soldiers. They were distressed about the 1862 elections, where Peace Democrats had performed quite well, gaining seats in the House, several state legislatures and the governorships of New York and New Jersey. The men thought Copperheads did not believe in their cause, honor their suffering or respect the sacrifice of their fallen friends.

As a result, soldiers, even many Democrats, were increasingly aligning themselves with Lincoln. Along the way they became more open to emancipation, and by April 1863 most embraced Lincoln’s proclamation. The Copperheads, with their mystical thinking, never realized this, and they and the Democrats generally would pay a heavy political price for their misreading of the political landscape.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: civilwar; copperheads; despot; dishonestabe; godsgravesglyphs; greatestpresident; history; lincoln; partyoftreason; tyrant; warcriminal
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Anti-Lincoln cartoon, showing the President under attack by copperhead snakes.
1 posted on 02/02/2013 5:07:59 AM PST by iowamark
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To: iowamark

Oh, I get it.

The NY Times is saying Obama’s critics are just like Lincoln’s, racist (”sympathetic to slavery”) and unpatriotic. With the 150th of the Emancipation Proclamation this year, get ready for more of this Chicago-style race-baiting crap, another naked attempt to smear anyone who isn’t a leftist.

HOWEVER, the comparison isn’t a good one, because Lincoln did not try to deliberately menace the US economy, especially the energy sector, like Obama has. Lincoln didn’t try to kill coal-mining, or stall oil distribution (Keystone), or attack anyone successful as being suspect, just because they were successful.

Obama HAS done all of that, and more.

Obama is no Lincoln. Remember that this year, amid all the leftist adulation.


2 posted on 02/02/2013 5:26:26 AM PST by canuck_conservative
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To: canuck_conservative

Hooray for the Copperheads.


3 posted on 02/02/2013 5:30:52 AM PST by Venturer
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To: iowamark

Not so subtle suggestion comparing modern-day Conservatives to Copperhead DEMOCRATS during the Civil War. So I guess that Mark Levin is now Clement Vallandigham?


4 posted on 02/02/2013 5:33:08 AM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: iowamark

Yeah.
And NOW—the Secretary of State is not only a Copperhead; he’s an ACTUAL TRAITOR—having given assistance and support to our country’s enemies in time of ACTUAL WAR.
Anybody else see a problem, here?

May we all live in “interesting times”.


5 posted on 02/02/2013 5:35:12 AM PST by Flintlock (TRUTH--It's the new hate speach.)
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To: iowamark

The Copperheads were Democrats. Democrats acted just like Copperheads with regard to the War on Terror.


6 posted on 02/02/2013 5:41:54 AM PST by popdonnelly (The right to self-defense is older than the Constitution.)
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To: iowamark

The article is generally true. But I would hope that she would also write another one giving the credit that is due the Radical Repulicans - the true abolitionists that pushed Lincoln to making the war about emancipation sooner than he would have on his own.


7 posted on 02/02/2013 5:44:24 AM PST by omni-scientist
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To: iowamark
So now they are rewriting history where Lincoln was really a progressive democrat and the conservative republicans were really his racist enemies.

This is also the story of the civil rights where the so called southern democrats were really republican racists.

I just have to wonder if in the twisted mind of this writer she realizes that it would make more sense to switch her allegiance to the side which she celebrates rather than try to rewrite history.

8 posted on 02/02/2013 6:12:17 AM PST by oldbrowser (They are marxists, don't call them democrats)
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To: canuck_conservative

Lincoln praised the Declaration of Independence in almost every speech he made. Obama disdains that document.


9 posted on 02/02/2013 6:15:17 AM PST by ALPAPilot
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To: ALPAPilot

Lincoln praised the DOI the same way that Obama praises the Bill of Rights...with rhetoric, not actions.


10 posted on 02/02/2013 6:22:30 AM PST by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: iowamark

“They said Lincoln was a tyrant, (check) bent on amassing power (check)and ruining democracy (check).”

Those copperheads were pretty smart. No way they could see Obama in our future, but it was Lincoln, who determined once and for all that the federal government reined supreme, that eventually allowed a dictator be elected.

“They demanded an immediate end to hostilities, believing contrary to all available evidence that the Southern states would return to the Union if only Lincoln would stop the shooting.”

True. Had Lincoln stopped hostilities early on there was a good chance that Southern states would have come back to the union. By 1863...not so much.


11 posted on 02/02/2013 6:27:27 AM PST by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: Lee'sGhost
Lincoln praised the DOI the same way that Obama praises the Bill of Rights...with rhetoric, not actions.

I was talking about the DOI that John Hancock signed. Not the pro-slavery assault on unalienable rights that South Carolina passed in Dec, 1860.

12 posted on 02/02/2013 7:31:43 AM PST by ALPAPilot
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To: Venturer

“Hooray for the Copperheads.”

They were Democrats.

The governments of the seceding states were filled with Democrats.

Looks to me like the Democrats have been trying to destroy this country for a long time.

Some of us don’t stand with them.


13 posted on 02/02/2013 8:04:31 AM PST by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of their ignorance. Cursed be those who don't.)
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To: Lee'sGhost

Rhetoric aside, follow the money. It’s nearly always about power and money——“Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right, a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world”.
Abraham Lincoln – U.S. Congress, 1847

A little over 10 years later after the South attempted precisely that, Lincoln, when asked, “Why not let the South go in peace”? replied; “I can’t let them go. Who would pay for the government”? “And, what then will become of my tariff”?
Abraham Lincoln to Virginia Compromise Delegation March 1861


14 posted on 02/02/2013 8:28:53 AM PST by yadent
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To: KrisKrinkle

The Central idea of the story was to compare the Copperheads of that century to Freepers and others of this century who oppose Obama.

Certainly I am not standing with Democrats when I oppose Obama.

When I say Hooray for Copperheads I say it to commend them for standing against Lincoln, not to praise Democrats of today.


15 posted on 02/02/2013 8:33:22 AM PST by Venturer
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 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks iowamark. RINOs and CINOs reject Lincoln.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


16 posted on 02/02/2013 9:23:51 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: canuck_conservative
Oh, I get it.

The NY Times is saying Obama’s critics are just like Lincoln’s, racist (”sympathetic to slavery”) and unpatriotic. With the 150th of the Emancipation Proclamation this year, get ready for more of this Chicago-style race-baiting crap, another naked attempt to smear anyone who isn’t a leftist.

This is from their online Civil War Sesquicentennial blog, not from the newspaper.

Not everything is about Obama.

17 posted on 02/02/2013 10:54:06 AM PST by x
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To: x
Not everything is about Obama.

When it comes to Big Leftist Media, YES IT IS.


18 posted on 02/02/2013 11:01:44 AM PST by canuck_conservative
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To: yadent
Lincoln, when asked, “Why not let the South go in peace”? replied; “I can’t let them go. Who would pay for the government”? “And, what then will become of my tariff”? Abraham Lincoln to Virginia Compromise Delegation March 1861

That is one of those questionable Lincoln quotations.

If the slave states didn't want high tariffs, they could have stayed in Congress and defeated or moderated them.

Maybe it is all about money as you say, but in those days, slaves and slavery were a pretty big investment in some states -- big enough to secede to protect and big enough to fight for.

19 posted on 02/02/2013 11:32:26 AM PST by x
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To: canuck_conservative
That blog has an article a day by different writers and historians.

Feel free to scan them all for coded messages about Obama -- the post about the cavalry, or the ironclads, or the Irish brigage, or the canals.

But that sort of thing can make somebody go batty.

20 posted on 02/02/2013 11:39:05 AM PST by x
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