ns of this kind were not likely
to be exposed to charges of disloyal conduct if they were actively loyal.
Obscure and ignorant men are much more likely to have become the innocent
victims of spiteful accusers or vile agents of police. Doubtless this
might happen; but that does not of itself condemn Lincoln for having
maintained an extreme form of martial law. The particular kind of
oppression that is likely to have occurred is one against which the
normal procedure of justice and police in America is said to-day to
provide no sufficient safeguard. It is almost certain that the regular
course of law would have exposed the public weal to formidable dangers;
but it by no means follows that it would have saved individuals from
wrong. The risk that many individuals would be grievously wronged was at
least not very great. The Government was not pursuing men for erroneous
opinions, but for certain very definite kinds of action dangerous to the
State. These were indeed kinds of action with which Lincoln thought
ordinary Courts of justice "utterly incompetent" to deal, and he avowed
that he aimed rather at preventing intended actions than at punishing
them when done. To some minds this will seem to be an attitude dangerous
to liberty, but he was surely justified when he said, "In such cases the
purposes of men are much more easily understood than in cases of ordinary
crime. The man who stands by and says nothing when the peril of his
Government is discussed cannot be misunderstood. If not hindered, he is
sure to help the enemy, much more if he talks ambiguously--talks for his
country with 'buts' and 'ifs' and 'ands.'" In any case, Lincoln stood
clearly and boldly for repressing speech or act, that could help the
enemy, with extreme vigour and total disregard for the legalities of
peace time. A little later on we shall see fully whether this imported
on his part any touch whatever of the ferocity which it may seem to
suggest.

The Democratic opposition which made some headway in the first half of
1863 comprised a more extreme opposition prevailing in the West and led
by Clement Vallandigham, a Congressman from Ohio, and a milder opposition
led by Horatio Seymour, who from the end of 1862 to the end of 1864, when
he failed of re-election, was Governor of New York State. The extreme
section were often called "Copperheads," after a venomous snake of that
name. Strictly, perhaps, this political term should be limited to t