Some Questions About Copperheadism
A portrait of Harris long after the war
As often as they could, soldiers read newspapers in order to get caught up on current events, get information about battles going on in other parts of the country, and for entertainment purposes to make their time in the army more bearable. Joseph Harris, a Union soldier, passed his time reading one of many Copperhead newspapers published throughout the North. Below, Harris writes to his friend Cornelius Pervin, who is a Copperhead. Harris' questions to his friend not only highlight his uncertainties about the newspapers, but also about the Copperhead movement as a whole. Here are some excerpts from Harris' letter:
"The question is why do the Copperheads […] publish with so made explanation, all the details of a defeat to the Union arms, while they give but a passing notice without a word of rejoicing when success crowns the efforts of our army?...[The Copperheads] do it from one of the basest motives that ever cased mortal man to sin and that is to present the darkest picture possible of the war to the people at home."
Harris pointed out the bias that was evident in many Copperhead newspapers. He claimed that the Copperheads only printed stories about the Union losing, and never about their victories. This was to "present the the darkest picture possible of the war" to the public sphere--to get them discouraged about the Union, and onto the side of the Copperheads.
"[The newspapers are] telling the people the infamous lie that the war has merged into a 'N***er war'...prejudicing the minds of the people.”'
Harris refuted the idea that the Civil War was about the slaves. He was fighting for his country, to bring the Union back together--not to abolish slavery. Meanwhile, the newspapers were "prejudicing the mind of the people" in targeting African-Americans as the enemies of the war effort. Harris and his fellow soldiers were fighting Confederates on the battlefield--not slaves--so they were the true enemy.
"It is this 'we are for the Union,' but when a State sees fit to secede by armed force let it be either right or wrong it cannot be brought back by force, but only by giving up to them the principle they contend for?...Must we stoop to them for the cowardly purpose of 'avoiding war'?"
Although the Copperheads' #1 goal was peace, Harris questioned the means they would have gone to for an end to the Civil War. Secession was wrong, and Harris accused the Copperheads of being "cowards" to not take a stand against it, and instead promote it to achieve "peace." In doing so, Harris showed his friend that secession was the cause of the Civil War, and that it was not the "n***er war" the Copperheads were making it out to be.
"You seem yourself to think that the institution of slavery is sacred—more sacred than life to those of your Southern brethren who are engaged in the infamous purpose of destroying our government."
In seceding from the Union, the Confederacy declared war on the United States government. It's impossible to deny that part of their reason to break away from the Union was to keep slavery. So, Harris accused the Copperheads of being just like their "Southern brethren," and that they valued slavery over the government of the United States.
"I think to say the least of it it is very shameful, not to say infamously disgraceful, for a party at the North, a party which has given up under the influence of free institutions, to be giving their strength on the side of rebels in defense of slavery which...will […] always been a curse to our nation."
Harris distinguished himself as a proponent of abolition. He viewed slavery as a "curse" to the United States, and thought that it was "disgraceful" that the Copperheads--people from the North who were still members of a government founded on freedom--were in support of it.
"According to Copperheads' sentiment, a man who defends the Old Stars and Stripes sings the Star Spangled Banner or Hail Columbia is called an Abolitionist...if all this constitutes an Abolitionist then I am one and so is the army and a great body of the American People."
According to Harris, the Copperheads called the Republicans "Abolitionists" as an insult. Harris, however, turned that insult around on the Copperheads and identified all of the North and those loyal to the United States with abolition, freedom, and "the Old Stars and Stripes."
Find out more about Joseph Harris!
To read Harris' entire letter:
http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=view_letter&Letter=1429
http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=view_letter&Letter=1429