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 |
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 |
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.
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
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, |
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
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
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
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. |
NOTES
93
49. The new party did not officially
call itself Republican until 1855. Until then
it was called the Anti-Nebraska or
People's party.
50. Smith, The Liberty and Free Soil
Parties, 285-290; Roseboom, The Civil War
Era, 280-312.
CRAWFORD COUNTY
"EZ TROOLY DIMECRATIC": A STUDY OF
MIDWESTERN
COPPERHEADISM
1. Frank L. Klement, The Copperheads
in the Middle West (Chicago, 1960), 1-39;
see also, for a discussion of Copperhead
counties in Ohio, John L. Stipp, "Economic
and Political Aspects of Western
Copperheadism" (unpublished doctoral dissertation,
The Ohio State University, 1944). For an
updated survey of the reasons for Copper-
headism, see Richard O. Curry, "The
Union As It Was: A Critique of Recent Inter-
pretations of the Copperheads," Civil
War History, XIII (March 1967), 25-39.
2. Population of the United States in
1860: Compiled from the Original Returns
of the Eighth Census (Washington,
1864), 378.
3. John E. Hopley, History of
CRAWFORD County (Chicago, 1912), 541. See also
Wilbur Henry Siebert, Mysteries of
Ohio's Underground Railroads (Columbus, Ohio,
1951), 186-187.
4. CRAWFORD County Forum (Bucyrus),
March 15, 1861. Hereafter cited as Forum.
5. Forum, April 27, September 21,
October 26, November 30, 1860; February 15,
March 15, 1861.
6. The counties compared were Ashtabula,
Champaign, Delaware, Erie, Greene,
Huron, Warren, and Morgan. See Annual
Report of the Commissioners of Statistics,
Ohio, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865. See
also Wood Gray, The Hidden
Civil War (New York, 1942), 16.
7. Bucyrus Weekly Journal, May
10, 1861. Hereafter cited as Journal.
8. Report of the Secretary of State, Annual
Reports, 1858-1865.
9. Eugene H. Roseboom, "Southern
Ohio and the Union in 1863," The Mississippi
Valley Historical Review, XXXIX (June, 1952), 29-44; Joseph Schafer, "Who
Elected
Lincoln?" American Historical
Review, XLVII (October 1941), 51-64.
10. Hopley, CRAWFORD County, 132-133.
11. Forum, July 13, 1860.
12. Hopley, CRAWFORD County, 132.
13. See James C. Austin, Petroleum V.
Nasby (New York, 1965), 29-33. See also
David D. Anderson, "The Odyssey of
Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby," Ohio History,
LXXIV (1965), 232-246.
14. Forum, May 25, 1860; January
11, 1861.
15. Ibid., November 16, 1860.
16. Ibid., December 28, 1860.
17. Journal, April 19, August 30,
1861.
18. Forum, April 19, 1861. The Forum
quoted Orr as saying from the floor of the
House that "The Republican Party,
so called, is responsible for it [the war] before
God, and the civilized world....I vote
for this bill because...I have taken an oath
to support the Constitution of the
United States."
19. Journal, April 26, 1861.
20. Ibid., April 12, 1861.
21. Forum, April 19,1861.
22. Ibid., May 17, 1861.
23. Ibid., May 10, 17, 1861.
24. Ibid., August 16, 1861.
25. Ibid., June 21, 1861.
26. Journal, July 5, 1861.
27. Ibid., August 2, 1861.
28. Forum, August 16, 1861. Also
see ibid., August 2, 1861.
29. Journal, December 13, 1860;
David Ross Locke, The Nasby Papers (Toledo,
Ohio, 1893), 4; Austin, Petroleum V. Nasby, 73.
30. Forum, August 16, 1861.
31. Ibid., August 23, 1861.
32. Journal, August 23, 1861.
33. Ibid.
34. Forum, September 13, 1861.
35. Journal, August 9, 1861.
36. Ibid., August 30, 1861.
37. Ibid., September 6, 1861.
38. Ibid., October 4, 1861.
39. Ibid., September 12, 1861.
94 OHIO
HISTORY
40. Ibid., August 16, 1861.
41. Ibid., September 27, October
4, 1861.
42. Ibid., October 11, 1861. Forum,
October 18, 1861. Klement, Copperheads, 138-139.
43. Forum, October 25, 1861.
44. Ibid., December 13, 1861.
45. Klement, Copperheads, 139.
For testimony given at the hearing see Cleveland
Plain Dealer, October 16, 17, 18, 1861.
46. Forum, December 13, 1861.
47. See Klement, Copperheads, 140.
Few references were made to the KGC in
Crawford County after the grand jury's
investigation. Klement stated that "Lincoln's
political supporters in Ohio were caught
promoting humbug and playing 'a very silly
game.' Apparently a lesson was learned,
for in later years Ohio was remarkably
free from KGC exposes and stories of
subversive secret societies." See also Forum,
December 13, 1861.
48. Ohio Statesman, December 22,
1861.
49. Journal, December 27, 1861.
50. Ibid., December 21, 1861.
51. Forum, December 20, 1861.
52. Ibid., October 11, 18, 1861. Journal,
November 1, 1861.
53. John Sherman, Recollections of
Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet,
Vol. I (Chicago, 1895), 262-263.
54. Journal, November 1, 1861.
55. Forum, December 13, 1861.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid., March 14, 1862. Also see ibid., February 28,
March 7, 1861.
58. Ibid., April 25, 1862.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid., June 27, 1862.
61. Ibid., October 3, 1862.
62. Journal, October 3, 1862.
63. Judge Lawrence W. Hall was a
delegate, along with Jackson, to the Charleston
Democratic convention in 1861. There he
opposed Douglas' nomination and withdrew
from the floor of the convention along
with the bolting Southern wing of the party.
In Ohio he was one of several Buchanan
Democrats who called for a convention to
support Breckinridge and he actively
campaigned for the Southern candidate. Pro-
fessor Roseboom has pointed out that
these Democrats were not proslavery but anti-
Douglas men who did not want to see the
Illinois Senator president. As already
seen, Breckinridge received only 117
votes in Crawford County but Hall became an
outspoken critic of the administration
throughout the war. See Eugene H. Roseboom,
The Civil War Era, 1850-1873 (Columbus, 1941), IV, 366-367.
64. Journal, October 10, 1862.
65. Ibid.; see also Ohio, Journal
of the House of Representatives of the State of
Ohio, 55th General Assembly, LIX, 1863, Appendix., 23-25,
91-100.
66. Journal, August 29, 1862.
67. Ibid., October 10, 1862.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid., October 17, 1862.
70. Ibid.
71. Forum, November 14, 1862.
72. Ibid., October 31, 1862.
73. Ibid., September 19, 1862.
The Crawford Democrats proclaimed that Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation was "an
unwarranted usurpation [which was] . . . in
conflict with the fundamental law of the
land [and] . . . a firebrand that will drive
thousands of Union men in the Border
States from their support of the Government,"
ibid.
74. Ibid., January 25, 1861.
75. Ibid., April 19, 1861.
76. Ibid., December 19, 1862.
77. The Crisis, December 17,
1862.
78. Forum, November 21, 1862.
79. Ibid., January 23, March 6,
1863. See also ibid., January 30, March 20, 1863.
80. Ibid., February 27, 1863. See
also ibid., December 19, 26, 1862; January 2, 23,
February 6, 27, March 6, 13, April 3, 1863. Journal,
December 12, 1862; February 27,
March 6, 1863.
81. Ibid., February 20, 1863. See
also ibid., February 6, 13, 20, 27, March 6, 13,
20, 1863.
82. Ibid., March 6, 1863.
83. Ibid., March 20, 1863.
84. Ibid., April 10, 1863.
85. Forum, May 8, 1863.
NOTES
95
86. Ibid., May 15, 1863.
87. Journal, May 1, 1863.
88. Ibid., June 19, 26, 1863.
89. Ibid., June 19, 1863.
90. Ibid., October 2, 1863.
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid., June 12, 1863.
93. Ibid., September 11, 1863.
See also ibid., June 5, July 10, 24, August 7, 14, 28,
September 4, 25, October 16, 1863.
94. Forum, July 31, August 14,
September 4, 1863.
95. Record of City Ordinances,
Bucyrus, Ohio, Vol. I., 1863, Mayor's Office, Bucyrus,
Ohio.
96. Journal, July 10, 1863.
97. Ibid., May 8, 1863.
98. Forum, July 17, 1863.
99. Ibid., June 5, 1863.
100. Hopley, Crawford County, 122.
101. Forum, July 17, August 7,
1863. Thomas E. Powell, The Democratic Party
in Ohio (Ohio Publishing Company, 1913), Vol. I, 148.
102. The Crisis, September 23,
1863.
103. Forum, August 21, 1863.
104. Ibid., September 11, 1863.
105. Journal, September 11, 1863.
106. Forum, October 9, 1863.
107. Jacob Scroggs to John Hopley,
October 8, 1863. John Hopley Papers, The
Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio.
108. Journal, April 1, 8, 15,
July 23, 1864.
109. Ibid., May 6, 1864.
110. Ibid., March 18, 1864.
111. Forum, March 18, 1864.
112. Ibid., December 4, 1863.
113. Ibid., March 4, July 22,
1864. Journal, August 6, 1864.
114. Forum, January 13, February
19, March 4, April 29, May 6, 1864; Journal,
January 29, 1864.
115. Ibid., June 10, 1864.
116. Forum, August 12, 1864.
117. Ibid., March 25, 1864; Journal,
August 6, 1864.
118. Forum, March 25, June 24,
August 12, October 7, 1864.
119. Ibid., August 12, 1864.
120 Journal, September 24, 1864.
121. Ibid., September 3, 1864.
122. Ibid., September 17, 1864.
123. Forum, November 18, 1864.
124. Ibid., November 11, 1864.
125. Ibid., November 18, 1864.
126. Journal, April 8, 1865.
127. Forum, November 11, 1864.
128. Ibid., January 20, 1865.
129. Ibid., April 14, 1865.
130. Journal, April 1, 1865.
131. Forum, June 9, 1865.
132. Journal, April 15, 1865.
ORSON BRAINARD: A
SOLDIER IN THE RANKS
1. Prior to reenlistment the Fifty-First
Regiment had seen action at Dobson's
Ferry, Tenn. (December 9, 1862); Stone's
River or Murfreesboro, Tenn. (December
31, 1862 to January 2, 1863); Rosecrans'
Tullahoma, Tenn. Campaign (June 23-30,
1863); Ringgold, Ga. (September 11,
1863); Chickamauga, Ga. (September 19-20, 1863);
Lookout Mountain, Tenn. (November 24,
1863); and Missionary Ridge, Tenn. (Novem-
ber 25, 1863).
See Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of
the War of the Rebellion (New York,
1959), III, 1520-21; J. B. Mansfield,
comp., The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio
(Chicago, 1884), 424-435; Official
Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the
War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866 (Akron, 1887), IV, 585 (hereafter cited as Ohio
Roster); Sergeant Samuel Welch of Company E, "A Sketch of
the Movements of the
Fifty-First Ohio Volunteer
Infantry," The First Centennial History and Atlas of