July 08, 2008

A History Lesson

Know anything about Copperheads?

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Copperheads nominally favored the Union and strongly opposed the war, for which they blamed abolitionists, and they demanded immediate peace and resisted draft laws. They wanted Lincoln and the Republicans ousted from power, seeing the president as a tyrant who was destroying American republican values with his despotic and arbitrary actions.

Some Copperheads tried to persuade Union soldiers to desert. They talked of helping Confederate prisoners of war seize their camps and escape. They sometimes met with Confederate agents and took money. The Confederacy encouraged their activities whenever possible.[1] Most Democratic party leaders, however, repelled Confederate advances.

Huh....interesting.

More interesting still is the write up for one Clement Vallandigham:

He denounced "King Lincoln," calling for Abraham Lincoln's removal from the presidency. On May 5 he was arrested as a violator of General Order No. 38.

In February 1864 the Supreme Court decided that it had no power to issue a writ of habeas corpus to a military commission (Ex parte Vallandigham, 1 Wallace, 243). However, President Lincoln, who considered Vallandigham a "wily agitator" and was wary of making him a martyr to the Copperhead cause, ordered him sent through the lines to the Confederacy, and he was taken under guard to Tennessee.

What peaks my interest here is that there were just as many vocal opponents to war 140 some years ago as there are now. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, but President Bush hasn't had anyone, oh, arrested or banished for speaking out, has he?

Or am I not watching enough PMSNBC these days?

Oh, shut up. I'm feeling extra bitchy. Just check out the links and learn something.

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