Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2020

A Violent Peace and America’s Copperhead Legacy

Dominic Manthey

Abstract

This essay analyzes Union peace activism, commonly called the “Copperhead” movement, to illustrate how anti-war rhetoric during the US Civil War participated in debates over the nature of political violence. While the Copperhead push to end the war failed, the movement was an influential cultural and electoral force, pressuring opponents to modify their views while popularizing a version of national identity that did not end with the advent of Reconstruction. Far from petitioning for peace, the Copperheads’ rhetoric reframed the boundaries of justified violence along intersecting lines of gender, race, and memory. Specifically, I consider how the Copperheads appealed to a powerful “generational” memory built on a gendered interpretation of activism itself, offering a narrative of “manly” resolve meant to withstand the withering effects of their effeminate opponents who threatened the bedrock of an American civilization indebted to a white supremacist system.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2020-01-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2019.1686533
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism gender and writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (56) · 7 in this index

  1. 10.1080/00335630.2018.1553306
     ↗
  2. 10.9783/9780812293098
     ↗
  3. Bernstein, Iver.The New York City Draft Riots. Oxford UP, 1990, pp. 120–47.
     ↗
  4. Blight David W. (2001)
    Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
     ↗
  5. Bonilla-Silva Eduardo. (2014)
    Racism without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Inequality in America
Show all 56 →
  1. 10.1086/219188
     ↗
  2. 10.1080/00335630.2015.994908
     ↗
  3. Chávez (2018)
    The Body: An Abstract and Actual Rhetorical Concept
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Churchill Robert H. (2012)
    To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant’s Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins …
  5. 10.1080/15358593.2016.1183886
     ↗
  6. Dew Charles B. (2001)
    Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War
  7. DiAngelo Robin (2011)
    International Journal of Critical Pedagogy
  8. Du Bois W. E. B. (2013)
    Black Reconstruction in America
  9. Dubisar (2015)
    Embodying and Disabling Antiwar Activism: Disrupting YouTube’s “Mother’s Day fo…
    Rhetoric Review
  10. Earle Jonathan (2013)
    Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border
     ↗
  11. 10.1080/00335630.2013.775705
     ↗
  12. 10.1080/15358593.2016.1183871
     ↗
  13. Foote Lorien (2010)
    10.18574/nyu/9780814727904.001.0001
    The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor, and Manhood in the Union Army  ↗
  14. Gilbert (2017)
    The Press of War Imagery
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  15. Glickstein Jonathan A. (2002)
    American Exceptionalism, American Anxiety: Wages, Competition, and Degraded Labor in the …
  16. Greenberg Amy S. (2012)
    A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico
  17. Harcourt Felix. (2017)
    Ku Klux Kulture: America and the Klan in the 1920s
     ↗
  18. Harmon Mark D. (2010)
    10.1080/15551393.2010.515440
    Visual Communication Quarterly  ↗
  19. 10.1080/00335630.2018.1486035
     ↗
  20. 10.1080/17447143.2016.1153644
     ↗
  21. Janney Caroline E. (2013)
    Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation
  22. 10.1080/07491409.2017.1346533
     ↗
  23. 10.1080/14791420.2018.1456669
     ↗
  24. Klement Frank L. (2014)
    The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War
  25. Kurtz (2016)
    War Had Transformed Them All: Coming to Terms with the Civil War
    Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  26. 10.1353/cwe.2018.0071
     ↗
  27. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245412.001.0001
     ↗
  28. 10.1080/00028533.2012.11821777
     ↗
  29. 10.1080/00335639509384117
     ↗
  30. Ohl (2017)
    In Pursuit of Light War in Libya: Kairotic Justifications of War That Just Happened
    Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  31. 10.2307/j.ctvgs08j3
     ↗
  32. (1863)
    Papers from the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge
  33. Pendleton, George H.Life and Speeches of George H. Pendleton, edited by G. M. D. Bloss, Miami Printing, 1868.
  34. 10.1080/07491409.2014.993105
     ↗
  35. Rotundo E. Anthony. (1993)
    American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era
  36. 10.1111/comt.1996.6.issue-1
     ↗
  37. 10.1080/14791420903335135
     ↗
  38. Stahl Roger. (2018)
    Through the Crosshairs: War, Visual Culture & the Weaponized Gaze
     ↗
  39. Steudeman Michael J. (2018)
    Rhetoric Review
  40. Stob (2016)
    Sacred Symbols, Public Memory, and the Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll Remembe…
    Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  41. Vallandigham Clement. (1863)
    The Record of Hon. C. L. Vallandigham on Abolition, the Union, and the Civil War
  42. Vallandigham Clement. (1864)
    Speeches, Arguments, Addresses, and Letters of Clement L. Vallandigham
  43. Vallandigham James (1872)
    A Life of Clement L. Vallandigham
  44. Vitolo-Haddad (2019)
    The Blood of Patriots: Symbolic Violence and “The West”
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  45. Voorhees Daniel W. (1875)
    Speeches of Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana: Embracing His Most Prominent Forensic, Politic…
  46. Weber Jennifer L. (2006)
    Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North
     ↗
  47. 10.1215/9780822376491
     ↗
  48. Wilson Kirt H. (2002)
    The Reconstruction Desegregation Debate: The Policies of Equality and the Rhetoric of Pla…
  49. Young Robert. (1990)
    White Mythologies
  50. 10.1353/rap.0.0107
     ↗
  51. 10.1080/00335639509384101
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Computers and Composition Jun 2026
    Navigating platform algorithms: Global south feminist activists’ rhetorical and composition practices in digital advocacy on social media ↗
    Kalpana Shrestha
    rhetorical criticism social media gender and writing
  2. Rhetoric Review Apr 2026
    Y Que del Espíritu (And What of the Spirit): Nopaliando as Latinx Feminist Ecological Rhetoric ↗
    Carolina Hinojosa; Kenneth Walker
    rhetorical criticism gender and writing
  3. Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Feb 2026
    Voices from Rock Bottom: Queering Addiction Recovery Rhetoric & Community Literacy ↗
    Danielle Bacibianco
    rhetorical criticism archival research multimodality literacy studies gender and writing public rhetoric community literacy
  4. College Composition and Communication Feb 2026
    Crying Censorship Wolf: Prefiguring Contemporary Realities through Disciplinary History ↗
    Holly Hassel; Kate L. Pantelides
    rhetorical criticism literacy studies gender and writing
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2026
    Lessons in Security Logics from Cold-War Guatemala ↗
    Brittany Halley; Elizabeth Velasquez
    rhetorical criticism decolonial rhetorics technical communication gender and writing