Although there had been many attempts at compromise prior to the outbreak of war, there were those who felt it could still be ended peacefully or did not believe it should have occurred in the first place.
For 30 years after the war the Democrats carried the burden of having opposed the martyred Lincoln, the salvation of the Union and the destruction of slavery.
[1] However, Clement Vallandigham, Samuel S. Cox, Carpenter, and Fowler's grounds for opposing the war were contrary to Lincoln's desire to abolish slavery.
They also criticized the Emancipation Proclamation, saying that it unconstitutionally changed the purpose of the war from preservation of the Union to abolition of slavery.
In a last resort, Vallandigham proposed that the war stop by simply having both the Union and Confederacy withdraw their troops, engage in peace talks, and restore social and economic order.
He attempted to work with Confederate agents in Canada to start a revolution in the northwestern states, which would establish a Confederacy and ally with the South to crush the Union and end the war.
Farrar and Foote shared Vallandigham's views on the cause of the war, basing it on the actions of radicals in the north and south.
Farrar, Foote, Fowler, Cox, Carpenter, and Vallandigham concluded that the Union could have been preserved and the war ended if extremists in the north and south had not spurred a controversy.
General McClellan felt that the emancipation would rapidly "disintegrate" the Union Army, since the goal of what the soldiers strived for and even died for would drastically change.
This caused some troops to blame slaves for the existence of the war, and resent the idea of rewarding the culprits with emancipation.
These candidates dealt with a mighty blow to the peace movement because the attack on Fort Sumter required men at arms and money to aid the Union.
Seymour and other peace Democrats could show their opposition to the war by merely being silent while other legislators openly conveyed their loyalty to the Union.
Other opposition began to arise in various towns such as Ridgefield, Windsor, West Hartford, Goshen, and Avon, where peace flags were being flown.
On July 24, thirty Danbury women marched with peace banners to a brass band that played "The Hickory Tree."
In addition, the Republican party strived to counter Seymour by further calling him a Copperhead, a Southern sympathizer, and a traitor to the Union.
A Republican newspaper reported that Seymour, if elected governor, would use the Connecticut militia to repel recruiting officers.
In New York, jobs such as long-shoremen, hod-carriers, brickmakers, whitewashers, coachmen, stablemen, porters, bootblacks, barbers, and waiters were mainly occupied by African Americans.
However, the large emigration of Irish and German people to America caused a clash between these immigrants and African Americans.
Politicians argued that if Lincoln was elected president and the Union won the war, a large exodus of African Americans would come to the North and would create a very difficult economic situation for the Irish and German immigrants.
Several riots broke out before the draft was brought to New York City and created tension amongst African Americans, the police, and the resistance mobs.
On the way, the crowd cut down telegraph poles, uprooted railroad tracks, and looted stores for weapons.
The first reason is that labor competition would be increased if the war was won, since the belief that African Americans would emigrate to the North and steal jobs from white men.
The second reason is that the draft would ensure the loss of jobs for white men and force anti-war oriented people to fight in the very war they opposed.
The Confederate States of America issued its first draft that called upon all able-bodied white males aged from eighteen to thirty-five to fight.
A particular reason men avoided the draft was due to the Confederate Army's increase in strength brought on by the emancipation proclamation.
It "steeled resolve in the Confederate Army by providing soldiers like James E. Harrison with fresh reminders of precisely why they must keep up the fight."
The war meant fewer jobs for white men in places such as New York City due to an influx of freed slaves, if the Union won.
Throughout this region, loyalists, secessionists, deserters, and men with little loyalty to either side formed organized bands, fought each other as well as occupying troops, terrorized the population, and spread fear, chaos, and destruction.
Military forces stationed in the Appalachian regions, whether regular troops or home guards, frequently resorted to extreme methods, including executing partisans summarily, destroying the homes of suspected bushwhackers, and torturing families to gain information.
This epidemic of violence created a widespread sense of insecurity, forced hundreds of residents to flee, and contributed to the region's economic distress, demoralization, and division.