The Return Of The Copperheads

The passage of a bill in the House of Representatives establishing a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by April 1, 2008 is foolhardy and irresponsible, but the effort to sabotage a noble conflict is not without precedent in American History.

Students of the U.S. Civil War may already be familiar with the "Peace Democrats," otherwise known as the Copperheads.  While reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's excellent tome on the Lincoln Administration entitled "Team of Rivals," I stumbled upon some passages that sounded eerily familiar in both sentiment and language.  I'll excerpt a few while inserting some substitute nouns and phrases when necessary:

"... the tenuous coalition of Democrats and Republicans that had supported the war showed signs of disintegration."

"Every Democratic paper in Indiana (the nation) is teeming with abuse of New England (the Bush Administration)," Indiana Governor Oliver Morton warned Stanton.  "They allege that New England (the neo-cons) has brought upon us the War by a fanatical crusade against slavery (terrorism)." 

In the Congress, the Peace Democrats, popularly known as Copperheads, thought war measures had strayed too far from simply repressing the rebellion (defeating al-Qaeda) and restoring the Union (protecting the homeland) as it had been, and thus vigorously opposed legislation to reform the banking system (intelligence gathering system), emancipate the slaves, and curtail civil liberties (extend the Patriot Act).

In the House Copperhead Clement Vallandigham (insert your favorite democratic leader), a lame duck congressman from Ohio, took the lead.  He delivered a series of violent anti-war speeches that attracted national attention.  As he warmed to his theme, Noah Brooks observed, his face "fearfully changed," his agreeable smile gave way to "a vindictive, ghastly grin," is smooth voice rose "higher and higher" until it reached a piercing shriek that echoed through the chamber (followed by a scream that signified his frustration at having lost the Iowa Caucus after once having been atop the polls).

"Ought this war to continue?" Vallandigham (Teddy Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, et al) thundered, depicting a war purportedly waged to defend the Union (defeat a dangerous tyrant), now become a war for the negro (oil)."  He answered, "no -- not a day, not an hour."

He (Senator Willard Saulsbury then but the progressive left in the blogosphere now)...inveighed against the president "in language fit only for a drunken fishwife," calling him "an imbecile" and claiming that he was "the weakest man ever placed in high office." 

While his anxious friends observed only the rancor on Capitol Hill, Lincoln noted that before Congress adjourned on March 4, the people's representatives had passed every single one of the administration's war-related bills. 

It's a good thing the Copperheads didn't carry the day.  The Union would have either been permanently split or worse, united under some kind of amoral Washington compromise that may very well have permitted slavery to continue with certain limitations but would surely have kept the "dignity and grandeur" of the United States Senate intact.  From now on I may just refer to the Democrats as the Copperheads, or "Vallandigham" Democrats.