Ohio History Journal

CRAWFORD COUNTY     A Study of Midwestern Copperheadism     by THOMAS H. SMITH       The Copperhead movement in the Middle West during the Civil War was not the simple case of pro-Southern sympathy and treason that the Repub- lican propagandist charged; but rather it was a complex of social, economic, and political antagonism to the Lincoln administration. As diverse as its motives was the geographic heterogeneity of the movement; no one specific locality or region held its nucleus. Its strongest support, however, was to be found in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Ohio became best known for its Copper- headism through the activities of Clement L. Vallandigham, Samuel Medary, George H. Pugh, and Archibald McGregor, and support for the movement was scattered throughout the state. One of its prominent pockets in Ohio     NOTES ARE ON PAGES 93-95

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34                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

was Crawford County, located in the north central part of the state. This

county cast a majority of its votes for national, state and county Democratic

candidates in every election held during the war and contributed its share

of leaders to the movement as well as to the draft riots and the protest

violence.

Although Professor Frank Klement suggests that a complete study of the

Copperhead movement "defies a definitive analysis," recent investigations,

including his own, have shown that opposition to the Republican administra-

tion generally came from groups in the Midwest who feared Negro compe-

tition for employment in northern industrial areas and for free western land,

economic depression induced by the loss of southern markets, the destruction

of fundamental civil rights, the end of the republican experiment of govern-

ment, and the development of a monolithic union of business and govern-

ment. Further, it has been claimed that Copperhead counties, within Ohio

at least, were economically poorer than those that supported the Lincoln

administration and that they were inhabited mainly by "ex-Southerners

or immigrants from Germany and Ireland."¹ An examination of the causes

for Crawford County's defection from support of the war, therefore, is

part of the necessary study of dissent politics during the war period at the

grass-roots level and will provide evidence for a broader historical analysis

of the Copperhead movement in general. Incidentally, the study further

reminds us that active dissent during wartime as well as peacetime is part

of the American political tradition.

Contrary to the general picture, race and economics were minor factors

in Crawford County's Copperheadism. The workingmen there could hardly

have feared the freedmen. In 1860 the county was still basically agrarian

and reported only forty Negro residents.² Moreover, its people apparently

sympathized with the slaves escaping to freedom. John E. Hopley, author

of History of Crawford County (1912), estimated that between 1830 and

1860 approximately 500 Negroes crossed the county on their trek north with

the assistance of the local underground railroad,³ and as late as March 1861

the local inhabitants were still "doing quite a flourishing underground rail-

road business."⁴ Any Democratic anti-Negro sentiment which might have

developed within the county during the war was no doubt largely politically

motivated, rather than racially inspired, because the Crawford Democracy

considered the freedmen to be potential voters and "most reliable Repub-

lican" ones at that.⁵ Also, Crawford County, though not wealthy, when

compared with Republican counties of similar population, certainly cannot

be considered poor.⁶ Even as the economic recession of 1861-62 swept

across the North, it did not "appear to affect matters and things in Bucyrus

much," reported the Bucyrus Weekly Journal. "Building and improvements

are going on as usual."7

In connection with immigrant groups as such, they seem to have exercised

little influence in Crawford Copperheadism, despite their alleged importance

elsewhere. In 1860 few Irish lived in the county, but it indeed had its share

of the German foreign element. The census in 1850 revealed that there were

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CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                 35

 

1,937 German-born inhabitants living in Crawford, and during the next

decade their numbers increased to 2,921 in a total population of 23,841.

Between 1858 and 1865 approximately 560 of these people received their

citizenship through the county's courts.⁸ Although the German population

did not exceed twelve percent of the total, it was large enough to support a

newspaper, the Crawford County Demokrat, which was published by

Bernardt Roth between 1855 and 1863. Both political parties deemed it

necessary to send German orators to address the residents in their native

tongue during the 1860 presidential election. Obviously, the immigrants

were not all of voting age, and an examination of the Eighth Census showed

that large families among them were not uncommon. While an importance

has been placed upon German support of Copperheadism,⁹ the fact is that

in Crawford County, at least, the voting-age group of this stock constituted

a small minority within the Democratic party, if indeed they all voted that

ticket. It appears, in general, that the Germans were inclined to follow the

traditional leadership of the local party in the area in which they lived, and

although Hopley maintained that the county had had a "strong German

population and nine-tenths of them belong to the democratic party,"¹⁰ it

should be emphasized that a significant majority of the county's total

electorate also voted Democratic.

The Democratic party in Crawford County by 1910 had cast the majority

of the votes in every national election since the presidential election of 1832,

and since 1856 only one Republican had held public office in the county. In

the presidential, congressional and gubernatorial elections between 1860 and

1865 the Democracy consistently carried the county by a five to three

majority over the Republican or Union Party. Stephen A. Douglas received

a 1,000-vote majority over Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential

election while the candidate for the Southern wing of the Democratic Party,

John C. Breckinridge, polled only 117 votes. Contrary to Hopley's judgment

that these 117 Breckinridge Democrats constituted the county's radicalism,

the vast majority of the party followed Douglas, and it was this faction that

held the reins of power in the county throughout the war and pledged

itself to ensure that "Little Crawford will do her part towards redeeming

Ohio from the unholy hands of Black Republicanism."11  Therefore, while

the Crawford Democrats were motivated neither racially nor economically

and the Germans had little effect on the party's position, the antiwar mem-

bers of the party actually were hard-shelled Democrats who were afraid

of the creation of a large federal government in the hands of the Republican

party which could lay siege to the republican form of government and

destroy those personal and state rights which they thought were inherent

in the American constitutional system.

The Democratic viewpoint was enthusiastically presented by the Bucyrus

Crawford County Forum, founded in 1859 by Archibald McGregor, who

later became editor of the Stark County Democrat and the subject of a

famous arbitrary war-time arrest case in 1862. Thomas Beer, who bought

the Forum from McGregor in April 1860, continued its Democratic heritage

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36                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

and was himself elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1863 and

1865. During the war when the news of a Southern victory reached Bucyrus,

a United States flag would appear above the newspaper's office. When word

was received of a Union victory, however, the Stars and Stripes were replaced

with a dove holding an olive branch in its beak, sewn upon a field of white.¹²

The county's Republicans, though in a minority, were not mute. David

Ross Locke, soon to become nationally famous for the satirical letters of

Petroleum V. Nasby, purchased the Bucyrus Weekly Journal in March 1856,

and with the help of James G. Robinson, a friend who had been with Locke

as co-founder of the Plymouth (Ohio) Advertiser, made the newspaper into

the voice of the Republicans.13 Both the Forum and the Journal had very

capable owner-editors but neither seemed deterred by the facts when

recording their political convictions.

By the close of the Republican national convention in 1860 the Crawford

Democrats were labeling the newly formed party, along with its platform

and candidates, an abolitionist party and warning that its philosophy was

"a fanaticism that, like a fever, must run its course and . . . will either kill

the country or cure it of negrophobia."¹⁴ This statement is not a reflection

of an anti-Negro position, but is rather an expression of the antagonism of

the Crawford County Democracy to those forces that it feared could disrupt

the Union and all that it stood for. The Democratic Forum kept up a con-

stant partisan barrage against the Republicans between the November

election and the outbreak of hostilities in April 1861 and predicted after

Lincoln's victory that since the Republicans had successfully forced their

abolitionism upon the American people, "a civil war seems inevitable."15

When, on December 20, South Carolina seceded from the Union, the highly

partisan Forum hastily concluded that "Black Republicanism had accom-

plished its devilish purpose," and being unable to control the Southern

states, it had sought, "by every possible means to drive them out of the

Union. . . .  Either the Union or the Republican party," the paper concluded,

"must be dissolved."16

As the news of the fall of Fort Sumter reached the North, a spirit of

patriotism spread across the country and partisanship almost disappeared

during the first few days of the war. Carried along with this tide of emotion-

alism were most of the citizens of Crawford County. The Democrats, although

critical of the move towards war, did not try to outshout the martial

music and the patriotic call to arms. The news of the declaration of war on

April 12 brought business to a halt in Bucyrus, and for six days rumors ran

fast and excitement high. Little partisanship was displayed at a Union rally

held on April 16 in Bucyrus where Conrad W. Butterfield, a local lawyer,

and J. R. Swigart addressed the audience and "breathed a spirit of exalted

patriotism" into those gathered. When Josiah S. Plants, a former shoemaker

and school teacher and currently judge of the common pleas court in 1861,

advocated conciliation and compromise, he found little enthusiasm for his

cause. The meeting adopted a resolution presented by John Hopley, a lawyer

and during the war a clerk in the United States Treasury in Washington.

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CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                 37

 

This resolution castigated the South for causing the war and made a pledge

to wage no aggressive or devastating war but to support "the property of

private, peaceful citizens in any part of the Union."17 Three cheers were

also given for Thomas Orr, the district's 1859 choice to the Ohio Assembly,

who supported the state's war appropriation bill.18 Similar meetings were

held throughout the county, and in Crestline a Union meeting resolved

"that our country's foes are ours [and] . . . in so deciding against brethren,

it is not because we love the South less, but our country more."19

On the day hostilities began, however, the Republican Journal pointed

a partisan finger at the Democratic Buchanan administration and, blaming

it for the conflict, asked the local Democratic party,

Now which are the friends of the Union? Lincoln and the Republican

party, or Jeff Davis and the Democracy? Northern men must decide to

which of these forces they will ally themselves. There is but one Union

Party -- the Republican, there is but one hope for the North . . . Union

or Disunion! Lincoln or Jeff Davis? which will you support!20

This unconciliatory attitude of the Republicans provided little room for

the staunch Democrats of Crawford in any coalition party. For the county's

leadership there was no question which party they would support. It was

necessary to prepare for war, the Forum answered,

Not for coercing the South but for . . . the defence [sic] of our

homes and our fireplaces. In this fearful crisis we are asked what the

Democrats of the North intend to do. . . . We have conversed with

many of the leading Democrats in this neighborhood and we find them

united. They stand just where they have stood ever since the election

of Lincoln brought about our national troubles. They are for the Consti-

tution, the Union, the legal execution of the laws. . . . If it is to be a

civil war for the purpose of giving freedom to the slaves, for depriving

the people of the south of their constitutional rights, for destroying the

right of self government in the Territories, or for carrying out the anti-

Democratic provisions of the Chicago Platform, then they will not

respond to the call. . . .21

The Democrats gave no credence to the Republican plea for a Union

party because they believed that "When the Republicans advise 'no party'

now, they mean no party but the Republican party."22 The county's

Democracy was immediately critical of mobilization efforts of both the

state and national administrations. During the first confusing months of

the preparation of Ohio for war, Governor William Dennison was accused

of showing favoritism in letting military contracts and of purchasing poor

quality military equipment.²³ In August Lincoln was charged with turning

peace into war, "order into confusion, plenty and prosperity into universal

bankruptcy, republicanism into despotism, freedom into slavery [and] good

order and fraternal feeling into fraud."24 The Forum also warned the

Republicans that the Democrats could not be cajoled into a war against

slavery.²⁵ On July 4 the Journal assured the Democrats that "the question

of slavery has nothing to do with the war,"26 but one month later it

admitted that the conflict "will dethrone slavery, and show the worshippers

of the beast that instead of controlling and ruling in the Government, it

exists only upon sufferance."27

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38                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

Apparently Democratic opposition to the war at first was limited to

words only. Both the Forum and leaders of the county's Democrats en-

couraged enlistments and the paper suggested that the army offered the

"best way of making a living in these hard times that we know of."28 It is

perhaps indicative of the temper of the county, however, that the first of

Locke's satirical letters appeared at this time. The Journal's editor on

December 13, 1860, datelined his first letter "Wingert's Corners," which he

later called Confederate X (cross) Roads and is now Brokensword, located

seven miles northwest of Bucyrus. This letter, although not a Nasby letter,

was later rewritten as such sometime in 1865 and back-dated to March 21,

1861. It commented that,

South Carliny and sevral other uv the trooly Dimecratic States have

secesht -- gone orf. . . . Wingert's Corners, ez trooly Dimecratic ez

any uv em, hez follered soot . . . . We declare ourselves Free and Inde-

pendent uv the State, and will maintain our position with arms, if

need be.²⁹

At the county level the postmasterships in 1861 were important political

plums that the local leaders with the approval of the Lincoln administration

had to distribute to the party faithful. As the war began and the Republicans

pleaded for a coalition party, the administration, at the same time, replaced

Democratic postmasters throughout the county with their own party mem-

bers. At Tiro, D. C. Morrow, the Democratic postmaster for twenty-five

years, was replaced by a "hungry Republican 'no Party' man."30 Dr. Pitzel,

"a freedom shrieking Republican," took the postmastership from F. Hipp

at Chatfield; while Mr. Neuman, a Democrat who supported the Lincoln

administration, was appointed in North Robinson. Throughout August,

other Republican appointments were made and the Forum claimed that

there were Republican postmasters in every post office in the county except

at Liberty Corners, where "Thanking the Lord, there is no Republican to

take the office -- nor is there one within half a mile of the place."31 The

Journal tried to explain away these partisan appointments but admitted

that Mr. Morrow at Tiro had been removed because he expressed himself

"in regards to our difficulties with the South -- a little 'secesh' (a very com-

mon way of talking now days with many democrats)."32 Perhaps, if the

administration, while immediately faced with the problems of civil war

and the prospects of a disunited North, had not been so anxious to engage

in spoils politics but had been more sympathetic with local situations, the

administration's appeal for a Union party would have had more significance

for the Democrats. Instead, the opposition party members saw examples in

their own vicinities of Republican control and opposed "union" because they

feared coalition would only strengthen that control.

Ohio's first gubernatorial contest during the war further demonstrated

that the Crawford Democrats would not give up their identity. The county's

Republicans, anxious to advertise bipartisan support, selected four Demo-

crats as part of their Union party delegation to the state convention in

Columbus on September 5.33 However, much to their embarrassment, the

Democrats refused to attend. Samuel Myers, one of those selected, claimed

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CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                    39

 

the Republican move was "for the purpose of deceiving some of my demo-

cratic friends," and Cyrus Fralick, another Democrat who declined the

honor, exclaimed, "This 'no party' -- know nothing -- 'Republican' --

'Union' humbug now straggling through the country under the weight of

the Chicago Platform and vainly trying to steal the support of the Democracy

receives no support from the Democrats of this section."34

As the elections of 1862 neared, the Republicans, spurned in their back-

handed attempt to capture Democratic support, began to paint their political

opponents with the stamp of treason. The Democrats, meeting in Bucyrus on

August 7 to select delegates to attend their state convention in Columbus,

charged the Lincoln administration with destroying the Constitution, state's

rights and freedom of speech and press. The Republican Journal suggested

that the Democratic charges were either "a huge pill of treason thinly

sugar-coated with patriotism, or a very small lump of patriotism smothered

in the foulest kind of treason."35 When the Democrats selected Bavarian-

born William J. Lang as the state senator over incumbent Thomas Orr, who

had voted for the state's war appropriations bill, the Republican paper

reasoned that Orr was chastised for his preparedness vote and that Lang's

nomination was "the first real, open blow against the Government, in this

vicinity."36

It was perfectly clear to the Crawford Democracy that the county's Re-

publicans accepted the cliche, "Those who are not for us, are against us."

After endorsing the Union party's gubernatorial nominee, David Tod, the

Journal declared "that the field is open to no neutrals."37

During the 1862 campaign the Crawford Republicans reduced all the

issues to their simplest form and explained that "our Democratic opponents

. . . have announced to the world their sympathy with the rebellion of the

South and their hostility to the Government."38 The Republicans, who

claimed for themselves a monopoly on patriotism, warned, "We must cease

discussing party issues . . . . Let him be marked as no patriot who will not

abandon all such issues in times like this."39 Since the Crawford Democracy

had dominated county politics for over thirty years, however, it was no

small wonder that its followers believed their criticisms of the state and

national administrations were well within the reference of traditional political

America. Therefore, as the Democratic party assumed the role of the loyal

opposition and guardian of the two-party system, it played into the hands

of the Republican propagandists who handily used the terms "Democratic

Party" and "Southern rebels" interchangeably. "When you see a man

always . . . finding fault with the . . . Government," the Journal warned,

"set him down as a traitor at heart. -- We have many such in Crawford

County."40

To lend authenticity to their smears of treason and to sow the seeds

of confusion and doubt during the campaign, the Crawford Republicans

claimed that the nomination of Lang appeared to have been the work of a

"secret organization" and charged that "at least three Lodges of the Knights

of the Golden Circle are flourishing in this county."41 Shortly following

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40                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

these charges came the arrest of Thors H. Hodder, editor of the Marion

Democratic Mirror and Doctor J. M. Christian, leader of the Marion County

Democrats. The arrests were the result of a long-standing personal and news-

paper feud between Hodder and several of his political rivals. Because of its

proximity and implication of certain citizens of the county, the case was

followed with interest in Crawford County.42

Both Hodder and Christian had been charged with treasonous activity

and taken to Cleveland for a federal grand jury hearing to be held after the

election. Many papers, documents and letters were turned over to the federal

authorities to be used in the hearings, one of which mentioned several leaders

of the Crawford Democracy. The letter was allegedly written by a rather

amateur secret KGC agent, code-named D.K.2.B.9., and mentioned names,

places and a variety of details which only the very gullible could appreciate.

At Bucyrus I found things much better for us than I expected. The

proprietor of the Western House is for us, and he gave me much useful

information. I got the names of many who are against this damned

abolition war, and here I found Judge Hall, who was once a Congress-

man is true as steel. I will give you the names of the most prominent

men, who can be relied upon to carry out the plan of the Confederacy,

who live at Bucyrus, or in the neighborhood: Dr. C. Fulton, James

Clements, John Kaler, Mr. Clymer, and Judge Saners. I have named

many names on my list, but these that I have named are influential

men, and they will help us carry out the plan. You had better not

approach Judge Plants or Jackson -- they are not so reliable. They

perhaps will go with us if our plan succeeds, as I feel it would if every

county in the State was as good for the South as Crawford. . . . We will

meet some time soon, say either at Crestline or Bucyrus.

Yours D.K.2.B.9.

W. T. Withers

I must give you a little hint. If I cannot get the names of men when I

go to a place, I ask who the leading men in the Democratic party are,

and then I find them, and then talk as our instructions direct, and I

find out in that way if I dare trust to tell my objects. I tell them my

object is to keep the Democratic party up.⁴³

The case was finally dismissed by the federal grand jury for lack of

evidence,⁴⁴ and the letter from agent D.K.2.B.9. was proven spurious.⁴5 The

Forum reported that, of the prosecution's leading witnesses, one dropped

dead from "fear and remorse" for having perjured himself, another left the

country to escape perjury charges, and a third was shot as a deserter from

the Union army in Kentucky. The KGC, the paper concluded, "existed

only in the shattered brains of the Republicans."46

In the meantime, however, the Democrats turned the rumors of a Crawford

KGC to their advantage and after the election initiated their own grand

jury investigation into the Republican charges. Twenty witnesses were

subpoenaed before the county's grand jury, but no evidence was presented

to substantiate any KGC activity. Even David Locke, when called to the

stand, was unable to prove his editorial accusations, and sheepishly ex-

plained that when he made such irresponsible charges as editor of the

newspaper, he was not under oath. "We are forced to the conclusion," the

grand jury reported, "that the Knights of the Golden Circle exist in this

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CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                   41

 

county in imagination alone."47 The news of the county's investigation was

carried in Democratic papers throughout the state, and the Ohio Statesman

said, "Men who knew all about it [KGC] before the election never heard

of such a thing when they were sworn before the Grand Jury."⁴⁸ The

Journal argued that the county's investigation was "solely for political effect,

and the parties engaged in it were either ignoramusses or base political

partisans"49 and denied that Locke had ever made such a statement before

the Grand Jury.50 The Democratic Forum, however, concluded that "it now

appears that they [Republicans] lied about their neighbors for political

purposes."51

During 1861 there is evidence to show that the Crawford Democrats did

try to support the war effort.⁵² In October and November 1861 when United

States Senator John Sherman of Mansfield, who believed that the current

method of enlistment was much too slow, decided to raise two volunteer

regiments of infantry, one artillery battery and a squadron of cavalry, both

Democrats Thomas Beer and Abner M. Jackson, Crawford's prosecuting

attorney in 1860 and a member of the Ohio delegation to both the Charleston

and Baltimore Democratic conventions, helped. In fact, Jackson had tried

earlier to raise a regiment of infantry from Crawford, Seneca, and Wyandot

counties but had been turned down by Ohio's adjutant general. Sherman's

units were to be raised by men with local influence whose ranks would be

dependent upon the number of men they were able to enlist.⁵³ When the

Senator was in Bucyrus on October 30,54 he and Jackson agreed that the

latter would receive a major's commission if he could raise two infantry

companies within fifteen days. Jackson and Beer both toured Crawford and

the surrounding counties recruiting men. Several days before the agreed

date and with the quotas nearly filled, it was reported that Jackson had

received word from Sherman that there was no room in his regiments for

either Jackson or his men.⁵⁵ Jackson and Beer were no doubt taken back

by this news for there were no instructions for the men already recruited

and, furthermore, no compensation for their own expenses, which were

estimated at about three to four hundred dollars.⁵⁶

Hence by the end of the first nine months of war, the Crawford Democrats

could see that Republicans had replaced Democrats in local postmasterships,

created the KGC bogey for partisan purposes and excluded them, either

by design or chance, from any military leadership. Therefore, they quickly

surmised that the Republicans' plea for a Union party was simply a ruse

in order for them to assume complete political and military control of the

North.

Democratic criticism of the Lincoln administration increased during 1862.

In March the Forum charged that the administration had:

Prostituted the pulpit, desecrated the house of God, . . . trampled the

Constitution under foot . . . put arms into the hands of outlaws, thieves,

murderers, and traitors, such as John Brown, Jim Lane and Montgomery,

and sent them into Kansas and Virginia to rob, murder and stir up

insurrections. It has enfranchised negroes and mulattoes . . . brought

about civil war . . . made widows and orphans . . . prostrated business

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42                                                     OHIO HISTORY

 

. . . plundered the people, cheated the soldiers . . . muzzled the press,

denied the right of free speech . . . suspended the privilege of the writ

of habeus [sic] corpus [and] closed the mails against Democratic

papers. . . . We believe the time is not far distant when an insulted,

robbed, outraged and ruined people will put down their oppressors at

the ballot box.⁵⁷

In April Beer resigned as editor of the Forum and in his final editorial told

his readers that he prayed to God that "The country shall be purged of

fanaticism and corruption, . . . and [that] the time once more come when it

shall not be held to be treason to stand up for the Constitution."⁵⁸ "We

are in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war," the new Democratic

editors Henry Barnes and Thomas Coughlin added, "[for] the eradication of

the Abolition and the Secession factions [so] . . . the Union and the

Constitution may be preserved in their pristine vigor and beauty."⁵⁹ At

the county's nominating convention to select delegates to the state con-

vention, Jackson, amid "deafening cheers and loud huzzas," urged that it

was the duty of all Democrats, regardless of the slurs of "traitor" and

"rebel" hurled at them by the Republicans, to remain united and defend

the Constitution.⁶⁰

By the end of the summer, Democratic criticism of the administration

became more than a verbal campaign. In July Ohio's beleaguered governor,

David Tod, issued a call for 74,000 volunteers to fill the state's quota of

the national call for 600,000 troops. On July 17 Congress had passed the

Militia Act which meant that if the quotas were not filled, all men between

the ages of eighteen to forty-five could be drafted for a nine-month period.

Therefore, the attention of the Crawford Democracy was directed not only

at the fall elections but, more importantly, at the threat of a draft.

Between September 26 and October 11, 1862, twenty-five anti-draft meet-

ings were held in Crawford to "rebuke the tyranny, usurpation, profligacy

and foul corruption of the Abolition-Republican party."⁶¹ On September 30

Warren P. Noble, the Ninth Congressional District's Democratic nominee

from Seneca County, added to the already excited political atmosphere.

For two hours he denounced the war and the Lincoln administration at a

rally in Bucyrus.⁶² Four days later in Oceola, just west of Bucyrus, Lawrence

W. Hall,⁶³ a member of the national House of Representatives in 1856,

Daniel Tuttle, the Justice of the Peace of Texas township and a local leader

in the Democratic party, and Jackson spoke to an enthusiastic Democratic

gathering. Hall criticized the draft, placed the blame for the war with the

Eastern abolitionists and warned "if Ohio would suffer herself to follow

the New England States, to be taxed and kept under the tyranny of those

States, and did not secede from them, he [Hall] would secede from Ohio,

and dig up the bones of his mother and carry them across the Ohio river, and

shake the dust from his feet, and think of Ohio no more." Tuttle told his

listeners that:

I for one am willing to go to the ballot box and deposit my vote, and

I am willing to shoulder the cartridge box and gun, and I believe, if you

are freemen, you should defend yourselves with the sword against the

damnable administration, and rescue yourselves and neighbors from

being dragged away from your helpless families by these usurpers.64

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CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                     43

 

Jackson explained, "I know that I am using language, which, if true, . . .

would subject me to prison," referring to the July order of Secretary of State

William H. Seward which made it an offense to interfere with the draft,

"but I am willing to go there if need be, and rather than submit to these

present usurpers -- my life is but a bubble, my life is but a span -- rather

than live like a serf I'll die like a man." The meeting adjourned with nine

hearty cheers for a rope to hang Lincoln. Later, six miles to the north of

Oceola, in Benton, Tuttle posted handbills which read:

Resistance to Tyrants is Patriotism. The Minions of Lincoln and

Tod have invaded our soil, to drag from their homes 600 freemen of

Crawford county. To arms, ye men of Crawford, and have a bullet

ready for the dastard who orders one drafted man to leave his home and

county against his will. The Constitution as it is, but death to Tyrants.65

The Crawford Democracy believed that the federally imposed draft system

was a violation of state and individual rights. Their propaganda efforts

against this legislation obviously made an impression upon the county's

citizens for, when the draft went into effect in Ohio, Crawford's quota of

642 was 577 from being filled.

In anticipation of this compulsory legislation, the authorities had estab-

lished a draft committee headed by Edmund R. Kearsley with Dr. F. Meyer

as its surgeon. Exemption applications soon flooded Kearsley's committee,

and the Republican Journal taunted that "there are many who have no

possible disease, unless cowardice and want of patriotism can be so termed."66

On October 6, two days after the large anti-draft meeting at Oceola, the

men inducted were to report to Meyer for their physicals. From early dawn

draftees started entering Bucyrus from all over the county. However, those

drafted men, mostly from Holmes and Chatfield townships, marched with

loaded rifles to the outskirts of the county seat, drew up in skirmish lines

and refused to enter the town. After being assured that there was no danger,

the men stacked their arms and entered the town, many carrying corn cutters

for protection. Reaching the public square, they gave three cheers for "the

Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was" and "we won't fight to free

the nigger." Those cheers touched off a rather severe riot in Bucyrus and

many Republican-owned shops had their store windows and fronts smashed.

Provost Marshal Willis Merriman hastily closed all the saloons to prevent

the rioters from being falsely encouraged by the use of alcohol. Impromptu

speeches, delivered by amateur orators, urged resistance to the draft, and

there were frequent cheers for Jefferson Davis and cries of "I am a Democrat"

and "A rope to hang every Abolishiner [sic] and Black Republican."67

The Republican Journal readily charged that "The Democratic leaders

of Bucyrus are to blame for this [riot]. . . . They . . . encouraged the

people to resist what they called the tyranny of the Government."⁶⁸ In

compliance with Seward's July order against interference with the draft,

Charles T. Sherman, Provost Marshal of the Second Military District of

Ohio, arrested Hall on October 13, and incarcerated him in Camp Mansfield,

a camp of rendezvous for volunteers and drafted men.⁶⁹ Two days later

Tuttle was taken into custody and both were charged with using treasonable

• 11
 

44                                                    OHIO HISTORY

 

language and inciting resistance to the draft in Crawford County. Federal

marshals in Gallon attempted to arrest Jackson on October 12, but he drew

a revolver, threatened to shoot anyone who tried to stop him, and escaped.

He was, however, later arrested on November 29 and also taken to Camp

Mansfield. Troops from the camp arrived in Bucyrus on October 16, pre-

sumedly to make further arrests but no more were made.70 The Crawford

trio were released after swearing allegiance to the Constitution.

The arrests of these Crawford Democrats, of course, were not the only

ones in Ohio. Across the state some of the Lincoln administration's most

outspoken critics, including Dr. Edson B. Olds of Lancaster and the former

Bucyrian Archibald McGregor who was editor of the Stark County

Democrat, were also taken into federal custody. The Forum complained

that the arrests were politically motivated and were made because of the

"false affidavits and stealthy, cowardly misrepresentation of radical Abolition

partisans residing in the different localities."⁷¹ The rank and file of the

Crawford Democracy could easily believe that these arrests at the hands

of an ever more powerful federal government made them Christian martyrs

caught in a Republican lion den. "Stand firm," pleaded the Democratic paper

to its readers, "there are cowards enough in the world without your swelling

the number. If you have a principle it is worth more to you in time of war

than in time of peace. It is worth standing by, whatever the result. . . .

Courage is safer than timidity, for the man who falters is overwhelmed."72

Hence, by refusing to surrender their political identity and by keeping up

a constant flow of criticism against the Lincoln administration, the Demo-

crats were encouraged in their effort by the results of the fall election in

1862. Scant military victories, the unpopularity of the draft, the arbitrary

arrests and Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation all contributed

to the Democratic successes.⁷³ Across Ohio the party won not only important

state offices but carried fourteen of the nineteen congressional districts. The

Ohio Democracy looked upon these election successes as a mandate for

further opposition to the war, and in Crawford County, as elsewhere in

the state, the Democrats renewed their agitation for some peaceful solution

to the conflict. Before hostilities had begun, the Crawford Democracy in

January 1861 called for concession and conciliation and resolved that "We

are willing to accept the proposition of settlement offered by Crittenden,

Douglas, 'The Border States Committee,' or any other just and honorable

plan. . . ."⁷⁴ During the first week of the war the Forum explained that the

Democrats should "Try to bring about an honorable compromise and a

peaceable termination of all difficulties. . . ."⁷⁵ Now, apparently as their

opposition to the Lincoln administration began to bear fruit, the Forum

again called for an end to the war and bitterly exclaimed:

The waters of the Rappanhannock are crimsoned with the blood of

thousands of brave men, and still the work of carnage must go on.

More lives must be sacrificed, more victims must be had for the

Juggernaut of war. The widow's wail, and the orphan's cry has not yet

reached the callous hearts of the men who brought this terrible state

of things upon us. How long, oh! How long!76

• 12
 

CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                45

 

With renewed emphasis upon the peace movement the Crawford Democ-

racy, flush with success, anxiously prepared to consolidate its gains. Jack-

son, encouraged by the Democratic achievements within the state, became

a more vigorous critic of the Lincoln administration and soon appeared as

one of the minor lights in the Midwestern peace movement. In Bluffton,

Indiana, for example, he delivered such a scathing speech against the reign

of terror inaugurated in the North by the Republicans that the "Abolition-

ists present writhe[d] in their seats."⁷⁷ The Forum in November announced

that the "fearless Democrat and patriot, Clement L. Vallandigham [is] . . .

the unanimous choice of the Democracy of Crawford County" for governor78

and, without hesitation, endorsed Vallandigham's speech in Congress on

January 14, 1863, in which he called for a cessation of the war and for

immediate negotiations. "This is the plan," the Forum declared, "and it

is one to which we must come."79 Coincident with the increased agitation

for peace, the county's leading Democrats organized the party into town-

ship clubs. These clubs soon became efficient and outspoken organs of the

county's Democratic party and, no doubt, feeling anxious about the en-

croachments on individual and state rights by the federal government, were

not too timid to resort to violence in order to emphasize their opposition to

the national administration.80

The Republicans in the county, on the other hand, were not idle and

moved to accept the Democratic challenge. On February 6 five men met in

Fireman's Hall in Bucyrus and formed the Bucyrus Union Club. The newly

organized club urged that similar organizations should be created throughout

the county in order to "counteract and destroy the mischievous influences

of the enemies of our Government."⁸¹ The Democrats immediately charged

that the Republicans had fostered a "fearless and damning plot" by forming

secret organizations and were either subjugating or exterminating the

Democratic party; and John R. Clymer, Democratic Clerk of Court, warned

that "the day that sees one drop of Democratic blood shdd [sic] or Demo-

cratic property destroyed, that day will see your town [Bucyrus] in ashes

and your streets running with blood." 82

A violent incident occurred just before the county's April election. Two

Democrats became involved in a brawl with one Republican in Major

Shaw's saloon in Bucyrus, one of the many such establishments in the

county seat. The fight resulted in one of the Democrats being wounded

slightly by a pistol shot. The Journal taunted that "Democratic blood has

been shed, yet our town has not been laid in ashes, nor blood don't flow down

its gutters."83 It was a worried Republican paper, however, which soon

reported that E. P. Kellogg, a Democrat of Oceola, had recently purchased

two kegs of powder and thirty pounds of lead for the alleged purpose of

shooting wild pigeons. Immediately following the elections, shots were fired

into the general store of Meyers and Bowers, both Republicans in Bucyrus,

by a mob of joyous Democrats who were celebrating the Democratic victory.

This action led the Journal to ask "how it came that fire-arms were in the

hands of so many butternuts [Copperheads]?"84

• 13
 

As the political atmosphere in the county grew heavier, the news of the arrest of Vallandigham on May 5, 1863, came as a bombshell. The local Democrats interpreted his apprehension as a Republican move to "entirely overthrow our system of Government, and to establish a monarchy on its ruin."85 That eminent Democrat was to have addressed a Democratic rally in Crestline on May 7. Determined to hold the rally as scheduled but denied all available space in the village by the Republicans, who had conveniently rented the halls, the Democrats met in a large stable on the edge of Crest- line. A. J. Douglas, the editor of the Columbus City, Indiana, News, who replaced Vallandigham as principal speaker, eulogized the incarcerated Democratic martyr and encouraged the citizens of Crawford to arm in order to resist similar military arrests. The meeting resolved that it was "not from choice, but from necessity, constrained to oppose and denounce the Admin- istration for its many offenses and shortcomings against the sacred cause that has been entrusted to it."86 As a result of his speech, Douglas was arrested on violation of General Order No. 38 on the evening of May 8. The Crestline Democrats protested and threatened to burn down the village, and peace and order were not restored until federal troops arrived on the scene. Acts of intimidation became frequent throughout the county during the summer of 1863. In April Rhinehart's church, one mile east of Wingert's

• 14
 

CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                  47

 

Corners, was mobbed by Democrats and the pastor egged for "letting fall

some Union sentiment,"87 and in May, for similar reasons, the United

Brethren Church, west of the famous Corners, was completely destroyed by

armed men. John I. Metcalf, the county's draft officer, was attacked on June

7 and ordered out of the county by a group of Democrats in New Washing-

ton. Federal troops were ordered into the county for the third time to find

the parties responsible but no arrests were made.⁸⁸ The home of Daniel

Hillard, "an unconditional Union man," was fired into on June 15 and two

days later his barn was burned down.⁸⁹ Union meetings were disrupted by

Democrats,⁹⁰ and on September 26, as the local militia mustered in the

Bucyrus square, a group of twenty to thirty [Democrats] caused such a

disturbance that only the pleas of Jackson could stop the fighting.⁹1 Army

deserters were harbored in the county,⁹² and in the fall P. 0. Blystone of

Galion mustered a small force to resist a squad of Union soldiers that were

sent into the county to arrest suspected deserters. The Blystone volunteers,

however, were routed by a group of grazing cows, who were mistaken by the

impromptu skirmishers for the soldiers.⁹³ By no means were aggressive acts

committed only by the Democrats, but it did appear that the Republicans

suffered greater injury than they inflicted.⁹⁴

As a result of the disorder, the Republicans repeatedly asked that martial

law be declared in the county. In response, on June 6, the Democrats, who

controlled the city government in Bucyrus, created a special police force.95

The ordinance gave the mayor the power to fine anyone for rowdyism and

to enforce an eleven o'clock curfew. Most important, however, the mayor

was empowered to appoint "any number of assistant Marshals he may deem

necessary . . . to aid in enforcing this ordinance." In short order Democratic

mayor E. B. Finley appointed thirteen men to the Bucyrus police force

who were described by the Journal as being the "worst men in our com-

munity, without property or responsibility of any kind." The Democrats,

this paper then charged, were using strong-arm tactics to impose their

political will.⁹⁶ The special police force had been allegedly in the pay of

Jackson. O. W. Treman, constable of Bucyrus township and a member of

the special force, expressing the political sentiment of the police, was quoted

as saying, "I hope to God the armies under Hooker and Rosecrans will both

be taken prisoners, and kept in close confinement -- that would end the

war."⁹⁷ The Forum admitted that the special force did combat the "insolent

course of the Union Leaguers toward Democrats [and that] . . . the police

[did] put a stop to these things."⁹⁸ It is apparent that the Democratic

party within the county, while complaining of the heavy-handed methods

employed by the federal government, were not reluctant themselves to use

suppressive tactics against their Republican neighbors. On the other hand,

however, the Democrats had witnessed the methods used by the administra-

tion to silence political dissent and no doubt they believed that their meas-

ures were a necessary part of their struggle to protect those individual

liberties guaranteed to them by the Constitution which were being brushed

aside by the Lincoln administration during this period of national crisis.

• 15
 

48                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Since 1863 was a gubernatorial election year, the Crawford Democrats

met on May 30 in Bucyrus, endorsed Vallandigham for governor, their own

Jackson for lieutenant governor, and authorized the "Democracy of Craw-

ford County en masse . . . to act as Delegates to the State Convention."99

Two hundred Crawford Democrats responded and attended the Democratic

state convention in Columbus in June. After the convention selected

Vallandigham for governor and George E. Pugh for lieutenant governor,

Jackson was called to the rostrum to address the gathering. He condemned

the war and the Lincoln administration and his speech was so well received

that, as Hopley judged, had he delivered his remarks the day before, per-

haps he might have been the convention's choice for the state's second office

instead of Pugh.100 Jackson, in fact, became a minor figure in Ohio's peace

movement during the 1863 campaign and toured the state in behalf of

Vallandigham's candidacy.101

In the county the campaign created considerable excitement. Between

August 1 and October 12 forty-three Democratic rallies were held to en-

courage support for Vallandigham, who conducted his campaign from exile

in Canada. One of the largest Democratic rallies in northern Ohio was held

on September 15 when forty-five thousand people from Seneca, Marion,

Richland, and Wyandot counties crowded into Bucyrus. The gathering

witnessed a parade of over two thousand wagons and heard leading Peace

Democrats such as Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana and Samuel Medary,

editor of Copperhead newspaper The Crisis, charge the national administra-

tion with murder and give praise to those women who mourned for their

fallen men. The meeting was impressive both in size and in the number

of illustrious notables, which included many leading Northern Democrats.

No doubt the Democrats considered the meeting a success, for The Crisis

commented that it was "an ovation to free principles long to be remem-

bered."102

In the meantime, the Forum increased its propaganda campaign against

the war and the national administration. "We must have a Democratic

victory," the Democratic paper warned, "or be prepared for 'Grinding Taxa-

tion -- Despotism -- Death.' This is true as God lives. We must destroy

Black Republicanism or it will destroy us."103 In September the paper said

that Crawford County had already contributed $2,292,777.57 to "King

Abraham's war" and concluded:

Thousands and hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens -- the

youth, the bright promising youth of the nation who were duped,

deceived, lied, dragged into the service are now lieing [sic] low in the

trenches, or rotting upon the surface . . . on the battlefields of the

South. . . . the cries of millions of widows and orphans, scattered

everywhere, in every city, town, village, hamlet and neighborhood

throughout the country, fills the land with mourning.104

As the campaign hurried toward its conclusion and the Democrats in-

creased their attacks against the war, a prophetic incident occurred which

some Republicans no doubt hoped to be a sign from heaven. In front of

Kyle's Saloon in Bucyrus a traditional hickory campaign pole had been

• 16
 

raised from which flew a banner bearing the names of Vallandigham and Pugh. On September 5, one month before the election, the pole was felled by a single flash of lightning, and the Republican Journal reported that the incident occurred when "there was not much indication of a storm" and that there had been no other lightning flash "for a half hour before or after this one."105 Undeterred by this incident, the Democratic township organiza- tions got out the vote,106 even to the extent of transporting alleged wife-slayer James Leonard from the county jail in Bucyrus to his voting district in Crestline in order to cast a vote for Vallandigham; this was done at the public's expense. Crawford contributed 2,294 votes to Vallandigham's 187,492 total. The banished Democratic martyr, however, was snowed under by the Unionist candidate John Brough by a 100,882 majority. Perhaps the Republican sentiment in the county was best expressed by Jacob Scroggs, a local Republican, who said, "I think the Lord is on our side."107 Vallandigham's defeat was a bitter pill for the Crawford Democrats to swallow and it added to other party losses suffered during 1863. On January 18, Hall, soon after his release from Camp Mansfield, died at the age of forty-six. His death was followed shortly by that of Bernardt Roth,

• 17
 

50                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

the editor of the German Crawford County Demokrat, who was killed in a rail-

road accident in Dayton on April 10 and by that of Josiah S. Plants, Common

Pleas Judge and leader in the local Democratic party, who was accidentally

shot while on a hunting trip in Indiana on August 24. The county's Dem-

ocratic party, therefore, came under the complete control of Jackson, and

there is no doubt that it missed the able leadership of Hall, Roth and Plants.

Despite these setbacks, the Crawford Democracy remained unmoved

in its opposition to the war, although it is apparent that by the end of 1863

the flood of Democratic partisanship had reached its crest. Individual acts

of violence continued throughout 1864.108 The worst of these occurred on

March 11 when Adam High, a clerk in Fulton's drug store, which was lo-

cated on the north side of the Bucyrus public square and reputed to be a

Copperhead arsenal, became embroiled in an argument over politics and

the war with James Rader, a soldier home on leave from Company C, Forty-

Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. During their argument, High called Rader

"a d-d s-n of a b-h".109 Rader made no direct reply but promised the

clerk that he would return later to finish their discussion. The next day

while High and five of his companions waited inside the drug store, Rader

made his way across the square to the store accompanied by nine other

soldiers. As the uniformed group made their way into the store, shots rang

out and the first three soldiers who passed through the door were wounded,

Rader the most seriously. A mob gathered in the square and Union soldiers

who happened to be on the streets at the time were seized upon and beaten.¹¹⁰

For the fourth time since the war began, soldiers were dispatched to Craw-

ford County to restore law and order.111

The military draft continued to be a popular target for Democratic

denunciation. To meet the increased demands for new manpower for the

military made necessary by the numerous setbacks during 1862 and 1863,

Ohio in 1864 was asked to furnish 148,879 men. The Forum warned that

the men of Crawford would not "Rally round the Flag," and during the

summer the county raised money to buy substitutes to fill its quota.¹¹²

"When the highwayman demands of us, 'Your money or your life,'" the

Democratic paper explained, "we do not long hesitate."¹¹³

On the other hand, the Democrats did rally to the support of their

party, and on Christmas Day 1863 the Democratic paper announced that

it would be the collection agency for the Vallandigham fund which had been

created by Samuel Medary to provide an income for the party's exiled

leader. The Democratic women of the county formed a Ladies' Democratic

Association on February 19, 1864, and by mid-April had collected $5,046

for Vallandigham "during his unjust and tyrannical exile from this land."114

As 1864 was a presidential election year, the Democrats of the Ninth

Congressional District assembled at Tiffin the second week in June and

selected Charles Powers of Sandusky County and Crawford's Jackson

as their delegates to the national convention in Chicago.115 Jackson, a

known peace man, to no one's surprise supported Ohio Congressman

George H. Pendleton for president and not General George B. McClellan,

the apparent party favorite. The Forum also supported the peace candidacy

• 18
 

CRAWFORD COUNTY                                                  51

 

of Pendleton and explained that because he had stood fast against the

tyranny of the Lincoln administration it would be "in him [Pendleton]

we would have a leader whom all would delight to honor, and we would

go into the canvass with a sure prestige of victory." The paper, how-

ever, clearly added that the Democrats of Crawford would work for

the nominee of the Chicago convention "whoever may be selected."116

Because of the activities of the Crawford Democrats during the last

three years of war in behalf of the peace movement, it would not be un-

reasonable for them to desire a peace candidate for the Democratic nomina-

tion. Throughout 1864 the Forum and the party leaders called for peace117

and consistently accused the administration of interfering with slavery,

denying constitutional liberties to citizens, effecting a military despotism,

plundering the public treasury, and kidnapping citizens through the draft.

The paper demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities "in order

that a settlement may be negotiated between the two sections alike,

just and honorable to both."¹¹⁸ It also warned that the forthcoming presi-

dential election was going to be a "battle between Centralized Power and

Individual Liberty--Democracy and Despotism, . . .."¹¹⁹ On the basis

of the above, the Forum appeared to believe that the 1864 election was

the country's last chance to save the republican form of government as

it was outlined in the Constitution.

The Democratic convention, however, nominated McClellan; and when

the news reached Bucyrus, the Forum accepted the party's decision but,

nevertheless, flew a white flag of surrender from its office. A short time

later a crowd gathered outside Fulton's drug store and at first cheered

for Pendleton but soon was exclaiming for McClellan. Disappointed over

the failure to nominate a peace candidate but elated over the peace plat-

form adopted by the convention, the Crawford Democracy on September

18 held a rally to endorse the Chicago decision. Jackson, obviously dis-

appointed with McClellan's nomination, but a good party man, stated

that although he had opposed the General in Chicago, he would now

support the national ticket.¹²⁰ "Seriously," the Journal remarked, "the nom-

ination [of McClellan] came like a cold shower bath on the Peace party

of our county."¹²1

In the meantime, the Crawford Democrats faced another and more

serious defeat. Jackson led the Crawford delegation to the congressional

district's convention at Monroeville on September 9. Since the county

had supplied the bulk of the district's Democratic majority, he expected

to oust incumbent Democratic Congressman Warren P. Noble. The con-

vention, however, retained Noble, who was also a peace-at-any-price Demo-

crat. Jackson again swallowed his pride and supported his party's choice,

but the Republican Journal accurately summed up the situation by de-

claring that "there is no dodging the fact that the 'Democracy' of Crawford

were snubbed, and badly snubbed."122

Crawford County was one of the eight counties in Ohio to cast a majority

vote for the Democratic ticket in 1864. In fact, the county gave McClellan

a greater majority than it had given Douglas in 1860; and as the Forum

• 19
 

52                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

explained, "the Democracy fought a good fight, but could not triumph

over the mighty patronage and influence brought to bear against them."¹²³

The Union military victories in the field after June 1863, Vallandigham's

defeat in the same year, Pendleton's rejection at Chicago, McClellan's

defeat in November, the deaths of local leaders, the apparent halt to

Jackson's political career at Monroeville by Noble all added to the under-

mining of the Peace Democrats in Crawford. Hence, by the end of 1864,

the peace movement in the county had lost its force. Even in the midst of its

overwhelming defeat, however, the Crawford Democracy refused to be

subdued by a national government in the hands of the opposite party which,

it believed sought to alter the republican form of government. The Forum

proudly proclaimed, "Crawford ever has been, and will continue true, to the

glorious principles of Democracy."¹²⁴ "We have not lost faith in the people.

They cannot, will not long submit to a despotism-they will yet return

to the faith of their fathers-they will win back their liberties, peaceably,

if they can, but they will have them."125

The Republicans never understood the principles of the Crawford De-

mocracy, and the Journal predicted that "when the history of their [Demo-

crats'] doings and of the times are written and recounted-'It will be more

tolerable for Arnold than for them.'"126 Treason, however, was not the

Democrats' aim nor was a lack of patriotism their ill. As part of the national

minority party, they sincerely believed that their opposition to the ad-

ministration in wartime as well as peacetime was their right and duty.

As the Democrats themselves explained shortly after Lincoln's second

electoral victory:

[The Democrats] have energetically thrown themselves into the

breach to save this last fabric of Republican liberty from being en-

tirely overthrown. . . . They have resisted the tide of fanaticism, and

amid obloquy, denunciation and reproach that future generations will

be hardly able to appreciate.

This morning, the 9th of November, marks the beginning of a new

era....There have been great days in our history, but they all fade

into insignificance compared to this eventful morning, which brings

with it events not only affecting the lives and fortunes of us all, but

will reach far in to the future of our descendants. --The word has

been spoken--the eternal die has been cast for ages to come.¹²⁷

Had the Democrats been the sinister party of treason as portrayed by the

Republicans, their alleged clandestine activities would have increased as

their political successes decreased. This should have been true after Val-

landigham's defeat in 1863 and certainly following the presidential election

in 1864 because the Forum had warned that Lincoln, who was "the absolute

chief over 800,000 armed men and 1,000,000 of office holders, may well

aspire to the Presidency for life.^"128

However, at the close of hostilities and with the probable removal of

those points of agitation which had caused Democratic criticism throughout

the war, the Crawford Democracy searched for an accord with the county's

Republican party. Both parties rejoiced at the war's end, but the Forum

• 20
 

reminded its readers that the war could have been ended long before had it not been "nourished and kept up by designing men, for the wealth and political power they acquired by it. Here, in Bucyrus," the paper continued, "all are sincere in their thanks at the prospect of a speedy peace, save a few government officials, who are up to their elbows in the Government treasury."129 The Republicans, haunted by four years of Democratic op- position, called for "instant, summary and ample reprisals upon the per- sons and property of the men at home,"130 who had criticized the govern- ment. On the other hand, the Democrats asked that both parties "lay aside their politics, their prejudices, their animosities" in order to celebrate In- dependence Day, 1865, and to "come together as MEN, as patriots, . . . and unite, as a band of brothers, . . . ."131 It appeared that the Crawford De- mocracy had not fallen victims of their own propaganda but rather accepted the decision of the ballot box and preferred to remain the loyal opposition and thereby, at least in their own minds, achieve political martyrdom. The news of Lee's surrender in April 1865 was received in the county with rejoicing. In Bucyrus, business came to a halt and the people crowded into the streets. There were parades, speeches, pealing of bells, church services and celebrations which lasted into the night. Similar demonstrations were held in Galion and other parts of the county. For the first time since the war began, except in June 1864 when Vallandigham returned to Ohio, an American flag was flown from the county courthouse On Saturday, April 10, in token of Lee's capitulation, a white flag was hung from the office window of the Forum. By Monday an American flag had replaced the white flag. On seeing the Stars and Stripes, an elderly hard-shelled Democrat triumphantly remarked, "Well, we didn't surrender until Lee did."132   THE AUTHOR: Thomas H. Smith is Assistant Professor in the History De- partment at Ohio University.

• 21