The Copperhead movement was made up of Northerners who favored the Southern cause during the American Civil War. THE CRISIS, a weekly journal published and edited by Samuel Medary, was the quasi-official mouthpiece of the movement. The name alluded to newspapers and broadsides of the Revolutionary War era that spoke out against British rule over the colonies. Medary's use of the name for his paper was an attempt to tie the States Rights movement to those who fought for American independence. For Copperheads, Abraham Lincoln was every bit the tyrant that King George III was a century before. During the 1863 Ohio Gubernatorial race, the newspaper endorsed Clement Vallandigham, the exiled leader of the Copperhead movement. While Vallandigham won the Democratic nomination, he lost the race to the War Democrat John Brough. In 1864, charges were brought against Medary on conspiracy against the government. He was released on bond and died before he could be brought to trial. THE CRISIS ceased publication shortly afterwards.

We offer a complete issue of the paper, dating from the war.