Results tagged “Copperheads” from York Town Square

The York Gazette used heavy score lines to observe the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This solemn and respectful treatment of Lincoln upon death contrasted with the newspapers unabating, often caustic criticism of his admininstration's policies during the Civil War. A few days later, his funeral train stopped in York. Background posts: York's Jeremiah Black, former U.S. attorney general, among Democrats resorting to racism, York County's own Civil War and Civil war prompted strife in churches, too.

Think current presidential campaign rhetoric is vitriolic?

Nineteenth-century newspapers were filled with bitter and caustic speech.

The York Gazette, a Copperhead (anti-Abraham Lincoln) weekly newspaper, gives just one potent example in the Civil War era... .

G.A. Mellander and Carl E. Hatch provided this compilation showing Lincoln's loss in York County 1864 presidential voting.


Jeremiah S. Black, former U.S. attorney general and secretary of state, stood before members of the Keystone Club in Philadelphia in 1864.

The respected York resident was on the Democratic stump in the heated election of 1864. Their candidate, George McClellan, was flailing in his bid against Abraham Lincoln's reelection. Much was at stake; indeed, the outcome of the Civil War. According to Jennifer L. Weber's enlightening new book, "Copperheads," the Dems were generally calling for the country to be reunited.

A Lincoln victory would keep the country prosecuting the war.

"As political pamphlets flooded the North, those from the Democrats resorted again to virulently racist argument," Weber wrote.

That was Black's tact in Philadelphia:...