ABOUT THE BOOK

If Civil War battlefields saw vast carnage, the Northern home-front was itself far from tranquil. Fierce political debates set communities on edge, spurred secret plots against the Union, and triggered widespread violence, such as the New York City draft riots. And at the heart of all this turmoil stood Northern anti-war Democrats, nicknamed "Copperheads." Now, Jennifer L. Weber offers the first full-length portrait of this powerful faction to appear in almost half a century. Weber reveals how the Copperheads came perilously close to defeating Lincoln and ending the war in the South's favor. Indeed, by the summer of 1864, they had grown so strong that Lincoln himself thought his defeat was "exceedingly likely." Passionate defenders of civil liberties and states' rights--and often virulent racists--the Copperheads deplored Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, his liberal interpretation of the Constitution, and, most vehemently, his moves toward emancipation.

Dr. Weber reveals how the battle over these issues grew so heated, particularly in the Midwest, that Northerners feared their neighbors would destroy their livestock, burn their homes, even kill them. Indeed, some Copperheads went so far as to conspire with Confederate forces and plan armed insurrections, including an attempt to launch an uprising during the Democratic convention in Chicago. Finally, Weber illuminates the role of Union soldiers, who, furious at Copperhead attacks on the war effort, moved firmly behind Lincoln. The soldiers' support for the embattled president kept him alive politically in his darkest times, and their victories on the battlefield secured his re-election. Disgraced after the war, the Copperheads melted into the shadows of history. Here, Jennifer L. Weber illuminates their dramatic story. Packed with sharp observation and fresh interpretations, Copperheads is a gripping account of the fierce dissent that Lincoln called "the fire in the rear."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jennifer L. Weber, Assistant Professor of History, Kansas State University in Lawrence, Kansas. Dr. Weber started her professional life as a journalist and later worked as a political aide in the California State Legislature. A lifelong interest in the Civil War eventually spurred her to pursue academics as a career. She left the Golden State for Princeton, where she studied under James M. McPherson. Her dissertation, "The Divided State of America: Dissent in the Civil War North," won the 2005 Hay-Nicolay Prize for the best graduate work related to Abraham Lincoln. Her book, Copperheads, will be published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. Dr. Weber continues to specialize in Civil War studies at the University of Kansas.

REVIEW (Ethan S. Rafuse)

There are few challenges more daunting for a political party than that of fulfilling its duty to provide principled opposition to the government in wartime without doing so in a way that jeopardizes national security. At no time was this challenge greater than it was for Northern Democrats during the Civil War, in large part due to the death of Stephen Douglas in June 1861.

Without Douglas to provide the sort of leadership, direction and impeccable Unionist credentials that could have made it a truly effective and responsible opposition party, the Democratic Party floundered for three years and went down to a landslide defeat in 1864.

Here Jennifer L. Weber offers the first study in a generation of the most notorious segment of the wartime Democratic party, the “Copperheads.” The vast majority of these Peace Democrats were not, Weber notes, traitors, but people who doubted that war was the proper means for restoring the Union. Their opposition to the war was grounded in part in an honest concern for civil liberties that was rooted in a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. Further fueled by intense hatred of African Americans, Weber portrays the Copperheads as riding Northern frustration with the war to a level where they became a serious threat to the Union.

Weber backs her arguments with copious quotations from letters and other primary sources and effectively places what she identifies as a three-stage development of the Copperhead faction in the context of larger events. Her criticisms of the Peace Democrats’ failure to produce “a realistic or concrete program to achieve” peace and their underestimation of Southern will, as well as her evidence of how the soldiers responded to the machinations of the Copperheads, are persuasive and effectively presented.

At times, though, Weber devotes considerable space to accounts of military operations that might have been used better. For example, Senator Douglas’s death was an event of such import that any study of Civil War politics must address it and its consequences; Weber completely ignores it.

Also, while Weber disagrees with Frank Klement regarding whether Copperhead organizations were merely a nuisance or a real danger to the government, her argument would have been stronger if she provided evidence of more than wild schemes that rarely translated into effective action. Indeed if, as Weber argues, a characteristic of these secret societies was “their lack of secrecy . . . and government agents easily penetrated the most suspicious cells,” one is tempted to wonder how much of a threat they really were.

Moreover, “Lincoln’s Opponents in the North” also included War Democrats and former Constitutional Unionists, and the absence of significant discussion of these folks denies readers a full understanding of the range of opposition to the Republicans.

Also curious is the absence of any account of the experiences of opposition parties in other American wars. After all, it was the rare participant in Civil War politics who was unaware of the fact that opposition parties in the War of 1812 and Mexican War were tarred with disloyalty and subsequently disappeared.

In sum, Weber has written a compelling, well-researched, and persuasive account of what the Copperheads believed, their emergence as a significant force during the war, and the role military events played in their history. Although not the last word on its subject, this is an essential work for anyone seeking to better understand the politics of the Civil War.

Ethan S. Rafuse is associate professor of military history at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College.