York County’s Democratic congressman, Joseph Bailey, voted against recruiting black soldiers. He later supported President Lincoln’s war efforts.
Politics Archives
The leading newspaper in York PA strongly supported the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and chastised the governor for obstructing it after the Christiana Riot.
York newspaperman David Small, an ardent Democrat, questioned why President Lincoln did not send his own son off to war while ordering others to do so.
York’s chief burgess, Democrat David Small, endorsed famed Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin as a possible candidate for PA governor in 1863. It was not to be.
A doctor at York’s army hospital lost his job because of corruption. Also, a pair of civilians were imprisoned for harboring deserters from the hospital.
York County normally voted Democratic in presidential elections throughout the 19th century. 1864 was no exception, when President Abraham Lincoln garnered less than 45% of the vote.
York County, PA, bordering slave state Maryland, had many residents that expressed pro-Southern sentiments during the Civil War, including at the polls. Sometimes, that support was more blatant.
Convalescing soldiers in York’s army hospitals marched through the streets to the train station to martial music carrying an anti-copperhead banner.
David Small, the Democratic chief burgess of York PA, had to call for the local constables to protect him from angry Union soldiers.
Pro-Lincoln newspapers across the North pilloried York’s “copperhead” citizens and their chief burgess, David Small, for surrendering York to the Rebels in 1863. It remains a controversial decision to this day.