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:
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“Places where he might live and die and never hear of the United States, which make such a noise in the world,—never hear of America, so called from the name of a European gentleman.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“You went to meet the shell’s embrace of fire
On Vimy Ridge; and when you fell that day
The war seemed over more for you than me,
But now for me than you the other way.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)