Defender of lost causes took on Abraham Lincoln. The editors of Leben recall 'man without a country,' Clement Vallandigham

Via Billy

Copperhead: A Democratic Critic Of Lincoln Administration

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What is it about “lost causes” that they attract such blind and earnest sons? Surely, no figure of the American Civil War is as tragic as Clement Laird Vallandigham. He was, at once, pro-Union and anti-war, a friend of the Confederacy and an opponent of slavery. He intensely opposed religious leaders meddling in matters of public policy (e.g. slavery), presaging a debate that, though the issues differ, remains in principle the same.

Copperhead snakes are found throughout the southern and eastern United States. Their heads are distinctively penny-colored, and black swathes of scales down a copperhead’s back camouflage the snake handily in its favorite habitat, dark underbrush. This member of the pit viper family can grow up to three feet long and has a bite roughly one-half the potency of a rattlesnake. Typically, copperheads keep to themselves. Unlike other snakes, which may flee when threatened, a copperheads will hold its ground if it perceives itself to be in danger. And just when a passerby least expects it, the copperhead delivers a poisonous bite.

“Copperhead” was also the derogatory nickname given to Northern Democrats who opposed Abraham Lincoln and his policies during the Civil War. Though the exact origin of this moniker is unknown, some suspect that Republicans thought their Northern colleagues were just like these snakes – sneaky, treasonous creatures lurking in the shadows, waiting for their chance to strike out at the Union. One such famous Copperhead was Clement Laird Vallandigham, an outspoken critic of Lincoln and the war.

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