A group of Northern Democrats began to speak out against the war. Led by Representative Clement L. Vallandigham from Ohio, they called themselves Peace Democrats. Their enemies called them Copperheads, comparing them to a poisonous snake and the name stuck. A lot of the copperheads were from the Midwest and sympathized with the south, opposing abolition
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Copperheads wanted the war to end. Valandigham asked what the war gained, he responded ''Let the dead at Fredericksburg and Vicksburg answer.'' Lincoln saw the Copperheads as a threat. To take them out, Lincoln suspended the right of the Habeas corpus. The Habeas corpus is a constitutional protection against unlawful imprisonment. So, Union officials jailed all their enemies, including some copperheads, without evidence or trial. This act angered many people of both parties.