Illinois State Register. 'Copperheadism' in the 'Illinois State Register, 19 October 1864' . Springfield, IL: Illinois State Register, 1864. [format: newspaper], [genre: article]. Permission: Northern Illinois University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=isreg10191864a.html

When you oppose to the old toryism of the black republican party, the great fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence, you get as a response, "Oh, that is copperheadism!"

When you point out to these people the limitations placed by the constitution upon the exercise of power by the president, they hiss at you, "you are a copperhead!"

When you present the dark array of damning proofs which show that the true meaning and real intention of the black republicans in all they say and do is to overthrow the very foundations upon which the Union was built by the wise men and patriots of '76 — the freedom and independence of the states, and the liberty of the people, you are answered by the shriek of "copperhead!"

"Copperheadism," there, according to the black lights of this old royalist-tory-blue-light federalist-republican party, consists in believing that the signers of the Declaration of Independence told the truth and not a lie, when they said that "these are of right and ought to be free and independent states."

And by the same sign "loyalty" consists, as it did among the old tories of the revolution, in denying the sovereignty of "these states," and claiming, that in time of war, the "government" has "the right to do as it d—n pleases."

Now, will any democrat allow himself to be driven, by such a weapon as this, out of the ranks of the party whose first members became that noble army of martyrs, who gave their lives and their blood to the holy cause of freedom, in the dark and fearful struggle of our first national fight against the tyranny and usurpation of "the government?" We cannot believe it. And yet our enemies seem to rely more than anything else upon this insane cry — this bedlamite shout of "copperhead," in their attempts to break our lines and throw the democratic party into confusion and ultimate rout. If this struggle we are making to prevent "the government" of Old Abe the First, from riveting upon our necks, and the necks of our children, the yoke and the chains of tyranny and slavery that "the government" of George the Third tried in vain to place upon the necks and limbs of our revolutionary fathers; if the struggle must turn upon slang phrases and ugly names, then is it in our power to beat our opponents with their own weapons. Let them call us "copperheads" — for they are the tories of '76 — the "Blue Light Federalists" of 1812-14 — the incendiary "abolitionists" of 1832 — and the "miscegenationists" of 1864.