How Old Was The Copperheads Before The Civil War

The Copperheads of Illinois were a group of democrats who were anti-Lincoln during the civil war. They were not Pro-South, but they were very critical of Lincoln. Through many attempts, they took a stand for what they thought was right, from trying to pass their own constitution to starting violence, they failed to gain enough power to make a large impact. I picked this subject because it seemed like a little known topic and I enjoy politics.

On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began and it ended on May 9, 1865. The Union states were California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, Oregon, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Kansas, and Kentucky. The CSA (Confederate States of America) were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The Confederacy seceded from the Union due to grievances such as states rights and slavery. The Union wanted the Confederacy to stay in union.
They claimed that the Confederacy had the right to secede from the Union, and that Lincoln should have considered the constitution when he went to war. Illinois was a democratic state until the 1850s when the nation was beginning to divide. They elected a republican governor, Richard Yates, in 1856. Most democrats conformed to a republican viewpoint, but the ones that didn’t disagreed with Lincoln, and became the Copperheads. They were against the Emancipation Proclaimation, because they thought that it would be harmful for the nation's unity and that it was