Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-05

WHO ARE TEE "COPPHEHEADsT.
In the inception of the war, and at every
stage Of its progress, there was a respectable
minority Of the people Of the North who
opposed the policy of the administration at
Washington, ard who sought for an adjust
ment of our national differences by more pa
cifc measures; honestly believing that
government of force could never be gov
eminent of the people, in the sense in which
it was intended by our early fathers. Many
Of them had the holiness to declare, that the
war was impellcd by a sectional hate and
sectional wrongs growing out Of the fanati-
cism of the Abolition party, long foreseen
and predicted by the wisest and best men
who, in the purer days of the republic, had
enjoyed the confidence and received the
highest honors Of the country. This class
Of individuals were properly represented by
such men as Ex-President PIERCE and Ex-
Governor SEYMOUR, in New England, Ex-
President BUCHANAN and Senator BIGLER,
in Pennsylvania, and by VALLASDISeHAM,
LoS0 and VOORHEES,, in the Northwest.
Again there were those who, admitting
the justice Of the war and favoring
its prosecution, opposed what they be-
ieved to be wanton and dangerous
disregard Of the plainest provisions of the
constitution; and who insisted that it should
be prosecuted for the simple purpose OF
restoring the Union, and not with any ute
r:or design Of the destruction Of slavery and
the overthrow of the guaranteed rights of the
States. These men believed, further, that a
more pacific policy in the conduct of the war
on the part of the government would lessen
the resistance on the part of the South, and
at the end of hostilities leave fewer obstacles
in the way to a complete and harmonious
restoration of entity and good feeling between
a people destined to be the citizens of a COM
mon country. This latter class Of persons
were properly represented by Ex-PREsIDENT
FILLMORE, GEN. MCCLELLAN, GES. BUELL.,
and GEN. GEO. w. MORGAN.
To these two classes Of individuals in the
Northern States, and all others who co-ope-
rated with them, tie Black Republicans, in
their madness, applied the opprobious cpl
tibet of Copperhead," as indicative of their
hostility to the war-policy Of the government.
The epithet became common, and, in
view of the circumstances under which
it originated, became respectable. We
believed at the time, as did the
great mass Of the Southern people
and especially those least inimical
to a restoration of the old goyernment--that
what little conservatism and patriotism was
left in the North was to be found, mainly,
among those thus styled: I" the Copperhead
party" Our opinion has not materially
changed. The feeling of the people of the
South has not changed Whatever opin-
ions our former enemies may have Of us,
they may rest assured that the people of the
South have not forgotten, and are not indif
ferent to the spirit of fairness, magnanimity
and Cancellation, manifested from time to
time by this little Spartan band of conserva-
tive men; who, rather than play false to the
dictates of sound judgment and good con-
science, made willing sacrifice of personal
advancement and incurred all the bitterness
and misrepresentation that might have been
expected at the hands of an infuri ated and
unfair party in power.
There may have been those connected
with this so-called "Copperhead f" party
who acted from motives less liberal or less
patriotic than they protested. There
may have been others who exhibit
ted more zeal than wisdom in the
advocacy of what they believed to be the
true policy of the Government. These ex-
ceptions do not warrant the unfairness
and bitterness with which they have been
assailed by the Radical press of the North,
much less will it warrant 4 similar course on
the part of Conservative journals at the
South.
These remarks have been suggested by
what we regard as the illiberal structures of
our, usually amiable neighbor of the Ban
ner who INDUCES in such expressions as ::
"the black-hearted iifamy of the Copper
heads" whose want of principle" "was
only exceeded by the corruption of the Rad
icals," and "who went against the war, not
because they were in favor of the South, but
because they knew that the defeat of the
government would place them in power"
Without stopping to question the facts upon
which our neighborbases his unqualified and
sweeping denunciations, it is sufficient to say
that il is seldom considered liberal, much
less in good taste, to call in question motives
so long as the acts that spring from them
are in harmony with our sense of justice and
right We would suggest furthermore to
our neighbor that, in view Of the decided
minority in which our "so-called" North
ern sympathisers now stand, he might have
spared himself such unnecessary labor as
impugning their integrity and honor, when
there are so many OF the Northern radical
press who, from longer practice, are
more expert in this particular line of de-
traction.