True, but a Democrat back then wasn't what we would today call a "leftist."
True, but a Democrat back then wasn't what we would today call a "leftist."
You should become familiar with "Copperheads". Read up on them and then tell me if they were not like today's leftists.
I'll get you started:
"Remember, this is the party that didn’t want Lincoln to go to war, and were ready to cede the South from the Union (and therefore to slavery), being that most southerners were Democrats anyway. The term for the anti-war Democrats, especially in the North, was Copperheads, and I think we aught to resurrect that term today. These “Peace Democrats” were opposed to the war and were intent on accepting a negotiated peace with the South resulting in an independent Confederate States of America. Of course, they would have also been accepting the Confederate’s Constitutionality of slavery without putting up a fight, but when has the humanity of any other human on Earth ever been the actual concern of a Democrat?