United States Civil War
Dean carried his Methodist values into the period leading up to the Civil War. He opposed the extension of slavery. He opposed the Lecompton Constitution written by proslavery Kansans and supported the popular sovereignty view of Stephen Douglas. He did not support the continuation of slavery in the nation, but he believed that slaves should be freed through government purchase over time.
When the Civil War began, Dean opposed secession but also voiced opposition to the war. In turn, he became known as one of the Democratic Party's outspoken Copperheads and he made speeches denouncing the war and the actions of President Lincoln. His views made him many enemies who viewed him as a traitor; a mob in Keokuk even threatened to hang him.
In his article "The Bloodmarket of the Rich", Dean argued the entire war was conceived by an international conspiracy of bankers and "stock-gamblers".
Dean was arrested for disloyal utterances and confined in prison for two weeks by order of Government officials. Upon his release he wrote and published a book with the title, ‘Crimes of the Civil War.' It was a bitter rebuttal against President Lincoln and the administration in the work of subduing the Rebellion.
Read more about this topic: Henry Clay Dean
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, united states, united, states, civil and/or war:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States
His laughter tinkled among the teacups.
I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees,
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
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—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
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—Norbert Wiener (1894–1964)