Articles relating to the Copperheads , a faction of Democrats in the Union who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates . Copperheadism was a highly contentious grassroots movement. It had its strongest base just north of the Ohio River and in some urban ethnic wards. Historians such as Wood Gray , Jennifer Weber and Kenneth M. Stampp have argued that it represented a traditionalistic element alarmed at the rapid modernization of society sponsored by the Republican Party and that it looked back to Jacksonian democracy for inspiration.