The Fire in the Rear

The roots of the sectional crisis that led to war lay deep in the origins and evolution of the nation's social, economic, and racial order, but the proximate cause was the refusal of large numbers of citizens to accept the victory of a particular political party at a peaceful and fair election. Launching his work in the 1950s, when many Americans recoiled at the political smear tactics of Joseph McCarthy and other communist baiters, Klement argued that the Copperheads' activities, especially their alleged participation in treasonous anti-Union secret societies, were largely a figment of the Republicans' imagination, devised to discredit the Democrats in the eyes of Northern voters.