Download Politics in Civil War

The Democrats
Civil War
During the Civil War, Northern Democrats divided into two factions, the War
Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Lincoln, and the
Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. No party politics were allowed in
the Confederacy, whose political leadership, mindful of the welter prevalent in
antebellum American politics and with a pressing need for unity, largely
viewed political parties as inimical to good governance and as being especially
unwise in wartime. Consequently, the Democratic Party halted all operations
during the life of the Confederacy, 1861-65.
Partisanship flourished in the North and strengthened the Lincoln
Administration as Republicans automatically rallied behind it. After the attack
on Ft. Sumter, Douglas rallied northern Democrats behind the Union, but
when Douglas died, the party lacked an outstanding figure in the North, and by 1862 an anti-war peace
element was gaining strength. The most intense anti-war elements were the Copperheads.
The Copperheads were a vocal faction of Democrats located in the Northern United States of the Union who
opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans
started calling antiwar Democrats "Copperheads", likening them to the venomous snake. The Peace
Democrats accepted the label, reinterpreting the copper "head" as the likeness of Liberty, which they cut from
copper pennies and proudly wore as badges. Some historians have argued it represented a traditionalistic
element alarmed at the rapid modernization of society sponsored by
the Republican Party, and looked back to Jacksonian Democracy for
inspiration. Weber (2006) argues that the Copperheads damaged the
Union war effort by fighting the draft, encouraging desertion, and
forming conspiracies, but other historians say the draft was in
disrepute and that the Republicans greatly exaggerated the
conspiracies for partisan reasons. Historians agree that the
Copperheads' goal of restoring the Union with slavery was naive and
impractical, for the Confederates refused to consider giving up their
independence. The Copperheads became a major target of the Union
(Republican) party in the 1864 presidential election. Copperhead
support increased when Union armies were doing poorly, and decreased when they won great victories. After
the fall of Atlanta in September 1864, military success seemed assured, and Copperheadism collapsed.
The Democratic Party did well in the 1862 congressional elections, but in 1864 it nominated General George
McClellan, a War Democrat, on a peace platform, and lost badly because many War Democrats bolted to
National Union candidate Abraham Lincoln. The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican
Party for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election, held during the Civil War. The temporary name
was used to attract War Democrats and Border State Unionists who would not vote for the Republican Party.
Many former Democrats became Republicans, especially soldiers such as generals Ulysses S. Grant and John A.
Logan.
Reconstruction
In the 1866 elections, the Radical Republicans won two-thirds majorities in Congress and took control of
national affairs. The large GOP majorities made Congressional Democrats helpless, though they unanimously
opposed the Radicals' Reconstruction policies. Realizing that the old issues were holding it back, the
Democrats tried a "New Departure." Democrats began asserting that they were just as loyal to the United
States as the Republicans and now supported some civil rights.In the South, Democrats who embraced the
"New Departure" called themselves "Redeemers". Democrats began pushing for economic modernization and
recovery, alleging that the Republican-controlled state governments were inefficient and corrupt. As falling
cotton prices further increased economic depression in the South, Democrats attacked the Republicans as
creating unwelcome tax burdens and being unable to revive the economy Regardless, war hero Ulysses S.
Grant led the Republicans to landslides in 1868 and 1872.
The Democrats lost consecutive presidential elections from 1860 through 1880 (1876 was in dispute) and did
not win the presidency until 1884. The party was weakened by its record of opposition to the war but
nevertheless benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the
Republican Party. The nationwide depression of 1873 allowed the Democrats to retake control of the House in
the 1874 Democratic landslide.
The “Redeemers” gave the Democrats control of every Southern state (by the Compromise of 1877); the
disenfranchisement of blacks took place 1880–1900. From 1880 to 1960 the "Solid South" voted Democratic in
presidential elections (except 1928). After 1900, a victory in a Democratic primary was "tantamount to
election" because the Republican Party was so weak in the South.
Redeemers were a white political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era that
followed the Civil War. Redeemers were the southern wing of the Bourbon Democrats, the conservative, probusiness faction in the Democratic Party, who pursued a policy of Redemption, seeking to oust the Radical
Republican coalition of freedmen, "carpetbaggers", and "scalawags".
They generally were led by the rich landowners, businessmen and
professionals, and dominated Southern politics in most areas from the
1870s to the 1910.
During Reconstruction, the South was under occupation by federal
forces and Southern state governments were dominated by
Republicans. Republicans nationally pressed for the granting of
political rights to the newly freed[slaves as the key to their becoming
full citizens. The Thirteenth Amendment (banning slavery), Fourteenth
Amendment (guaranteeing the civil rights of former slaves and
ensuring equal protection of the laws), and Fifteenth Amendment
(prohibiting the denial of the right to vote on grounds of race, color, or previous condition of servitude)
enshrined such political rights in the Constitution.
The Republicans
The Civil War
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 ended the domination of the fragile
coalition of pro-slavery southern Democrats and conciliatory northern Democrats
which had existed since the days of Andrew Jackson. Instead, a new era of
Republican dominance based in the industrial and agricultural north ensued.
Some Republicans occasionally refer to their party as the "Party of Lincoln" in
honor of the first Republican U.S. president.
Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting the factions of his party to fight for
the Union. However he usually fought the Radical Republicans who demanded
harsher measures. Most Democrats at first were War Democrats, and supportive until the Fall of 1862. When
Lincoln added the abolition of slavery as a war goal, many war Democrats became "peace Democrats".
Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party from about 1854 until
the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves "radicals" and were opposed during the war by
moderates and conservative factions led by Abraham Lincoln and after the war by self-styled "conservatives"
(in the South) and "liberals" (in the North). Radicals strongly opposed slavery during the war and after the war
distrusted ex-Confederates, demanding harsh policies for the former rebels, and emphasizing civil rights and
voting rights for freedmen (recently freed slaves).
Most of the state Republican parties accepted the antislavery goal except Kentucky. In Congress, the party
passed major legislation to promote rapid modernization, including a national banking system, high tariffs, the
first temporary income tax, many excise taxes, paper money issued without backing ("greenbacks"), a huge
national debt, homestead laws, railroads, and aid to education and agriculture.
The Republicans denounced the peace-oriented Democrats as disloyal Copperheads and won enough War
Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862; in 1864, they formed a coalition with many War Democrats as
the National Union Party which reelected Lincoln easily. During the war, upper middle-class men in major
cities formed Union Leagues, to promote and help finance the war effort.
During the war, Radical Republicans often opposed Lincoln in terms of selection of generals (especially his
choice of Democrat George B. McClellan for top command) and his efforts to bring states back into the Union.
The Radicals passed their own reconstruction plan through Congress in 1864, but Lincoln vetoed it and was
putting his own policies in effect when he was assassinated in 1865.[2] Radicals pushed for the
uncompensated abolition of slavery, while Lincoln wanted to pay slave owners who were loyal to the union.
Reconstruction
In Reconstruction, how to deal with the ex-Confederates and the freed slaves, or freedmen, were the major
issues. By 1864, Radical Republicans controlled Congress and demanded more aggressive action against
slavery, and more vengeance toward the Confederates. Lincoln held them off, but just barely. Republicans at
first welcomed President Andrew Johnson; the Radicals thought he was one of them and would take a hard
line in punishing the South. Johnson however broke with them and formed a loose alliance with moderate
Republicans and Democrats.
The Radicals demanded civil rights for freedmen, such as measures ensuring suffrage. They initiated the
Reconstruction Acts, and limited political and voting rights for ex-Confederates. They bitterly fought President
Andrew Johnson; they weakened his powers and attempted to remove him from office through impeachment
(they were one vote short). The Radicals were vigorously opposed by the Democratic Party and often by
moderate and Liberal Republicans as well.
The showdown came in the Congressional elections of 1866,
in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full
control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over the veto.
Johnson was impeached by the House, but acquitted by the
Senate.
With the election of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868, the Radicals had
control of Congress, the party and the Army, and attempted to
build a solid Republican base in the South using the votes of
Freedmen, Scalawags and Carpetbaggers, supported directly
by U.S. Army detachments. Republicans all across the South
formed local clubs called Union Leagues that effectively
mobilized the voters, discussed issues, and when necessary fought off Ku Klux Klan (KKK) attacks. Thousands
died on both sides.
Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in the South, the Fourteenth Amendment, and equal civil
and voting rights for the freedmen. Most of all he was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune.
The party had become so large that factionalism was inevitable; it was hastened by Grant's tolerance of high
levels of corruption typified by the Whiskey Ring.
In terms of racial issues, "White Republicans as well as Democrats solicited black votes but reluctantly
rewarded blacks with nominations for office only when necessary, even then reserving the more choice
positions for whites. The results were predictable: these half-a-loaf gestures satisfied neither black nor white
Republicans. The fatal weakness of the Republican Party in Alabama, as elsewhere in the South, was its
inability to create a biracial political party. And while in power even briefly, they failed to protect their
members from Democratic terror. Alabama Republicans were forever on the defensive, verbally and
physically."
Social pressure eventually forced most Scalawags (southerners who supported the Republicans) to join the
conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and formed the "tan" half of the "Black and
Tan" Republican Party, a minority in every southern state after 1877.
In several southern states, the "Lily Whites", who sought to recruit white Democrats to the Republican Party,
attempted to purge the Black and Tan faction or at least to reduce its influence. Among such "Lily White"
leaders in the early 20th century, Arkansas' Wallace Townsend was the party's gubernatorial nominee in 1916
and 1920, and its veteran national GOP committeeman.