Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-10-12
THE %COPPERHEAD RALLY
GIGANTIC
Rich and Racy Scenes!

bull County, for an overwhelming McClel-
an demonstration. For days previous,
great flaming posters, as well as small
bills, were circulated far and near, pro-
claiming the coming of the great day, and
a committeeman was mounted on a swift
steed to fly over the county and exhort
the faithful to come to the rescue. So
desperate were the efforts of the jealous
courier, that he prosecuted his mission
regardless of the value of horse-fesh, and
as a iamentable consequence realized for
his labors a defunct ouadruped.
It was TO have been expected that such
s~tupendous exertions would net handsome
returns; but, alas, for the uncertainty of
copperhead calculations! The labors OF
the mountain brought forth but a puny
mouse. Thursday came, and the morning
ho=rs kept wheeling by, bringing no evil
dence that the sanguine expectations of
a great day, were TO be fulfilled.
About IL o'clock the delegations COM
menced coming in. That from the South
consisted of a Dutchman, his pipe and a
big "yaller" dog. From the West, & two
horse wagon containing one copperhead
and six cabbage heads. From the North,
the delegation was perhaps larger, if not
more respectable, than the others, and
consisted principally of a fellow that wal
mad because he had been drafted, and a
simple chap who thought Mcclellan wa:
to speak" From the East the delegation
was composed mostly of the intelligent
Rowland butternut, who advised a neigh.
Dor not TO go for Lincoln, but vote fol
"that other man."
As the afternoon approached, there
were some additions to the small number
already in, and when the hour for speak
ing had arrived, two or three hundred
McClellanites, including women, gathered
around the stand. The crowd was consi.
derably augmented by Union men, who
constituted fifty per cent, at least, of the
whole.
Mr.. AcKUs EAK BRIEFLY.
The principal speaker of the day, as per
announcement, was Mr.. Backus, of Cleve-
land. Two other speakers had been i'm
ported from Mercer County, Pa, and one
from Mahoning County. Mr.. Backus
commenced his speech at a quarter past
n o'clock P. NJ. Great things had been
promised of him. The copperheads were
on tip-toe to hear him open his batteries
on ''old Abe Lincoln" Had not Mr..
Backus formerly been a Lincoln man, and
had he not left that party in disgust? OF
course lie had, and was just the man to
show up the infamy of this "nigger war;"
and to expose Lincoln's dishonesty and
tyranny! But there's many a slip 'twixi
the cup and the lip" and the poor but.
ternuts who fancied they were to have
their strength refreshed with a palatsble
potation of copperhead elimination, were
most cruelty sold. Mr.. Backus may have
expressed his own sentiments in reference
W INT 41CSAOCnA, int wal, anu the ISDCls,
but it is doubtful if there was another
Mcclellan partizan present who sympa'
thized with him. Had it not been for the
well known political sentiments of those
who occupied the stand with Mr.. Backus,
it might have been supposed that ne was
attempting to make a Union speech
But being surrounded by such great lights
of copperhead Democracy as Matthew
Birchard, JEFF. Palm and Israel Hammel
his political status could not be involved
in doubt. A good Union man would have
suffocated in so vitiated an atmosphere
as. surrounded the speaker. But he struck
out boldly, and commenced at the begin.
ming of the war, asserting that it had
been opened by southern traitors, who
ought to be hanged! That was bomb-shell
number one, and an unwelcome visitor
to the copperhead part of the audience
But hat was not all. Mr.. Backus stated
that he had voted for Lincoln, and wa.
not sorry for it! That Mr.. Lincoln wa;
an honest man; had been legally elected
and that those who rebelled against hi.
administration were traitors; that the wal
was justly waged, and that the rebellion
must be put down. He further asserted
that the first trouble broke out at the De
mocratic National Convention at Charles
ton, in 1860, where the Breckenridge mel
refused to unite with the Douglas Demo
Gratis, which caused a split in the party
and led to subsequent troubles.
At this point in the speech, the copper
heads began to look CHASTITY, and som
had commenced sneaking of, swearing
that ''that fellow can't make a speech
1t was an unenYiable situation for the
party magnates on the stand. The speak.
or kept knocking their anti-war, anti
Lincoln, pr~o-slaVery theories into atoms
They all looked as if they would like to
be neal a small hole, in which to crawl
out of sight. Several of them deserted
the stand. Orchard crossed his legs three
or TOUR times, ana pretended TO be taking
notes, but sat as uneasily as though his
chair was a hot griddle. Poor Palm, who
had been especially selected to give the
signals for cheers-while Orchard was to
start the laugh-looked straight down his
nose, and chewed his tobacco cud with
the utmost bovine nonchalance. Israel,
the standard bearer, was the only one who
seemed 10 be unaffected by the untoward
turn the meeting had taken. He chung
to the flag with desperate tenacity, his
equanimity disturbed by no thought, save
the one that the other fellow, who had
gone to get a drink, was ov~erstaying his
time.
But amid all this torture of feeling the
speaker was perhaps unwittingly causing,