In the 1860s, the Copperheads, also known as Peace Democrats, were a faction of the Democratic Party in the Union who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates.
The Eastern copperhead snake is venomous and has coloration well-adapted for camouflage
Copperhead pamphlet from 1864 by Charles Chauncey Burr, a magazine editor from New York City
Clement Vallandigham, leader of the Copperheads, coined the slogan: "To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was."
History of the Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties of the United States political system and the oldest active political party in the country as well as in the world. The Democratic party was founded in 1828. It is also the oldest active voter-based political party in the world. The party has changed significantly during its nearly two centuries of existence. Once known as the party of the "common man," the early Democratic Party stood for individual rights and state sovereignty, and opposed banks and high tariffs. In the first decades of its existence, from 1832 to the mid-1850s, under Presidents Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and James K. Polk, the Democrats usually bested the opposition Whig Party by narrow margins.
Andrew Jackson, founder of the Democratic Party and the first president it elected.
An 1837 cartoon depicted Jackson leading a donkey which refused to follow, portraying that Democrats would not be led by the previous president
Martin Van Buren
August Belmont: DNC Chair for 12 years during and after the Civil war