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Copperhead (politics)

(Redirected fromPeace Democrat)
"Peace Democrats" redirects here. For the South Korean political party, seePeace Democratic Party.

In the 1860s, theCopperheads,also known asPeace Democrats,[1]were a faction of theDemocratic Partyin theUnionwhoopposedtheAmerican Civil Warand wanted an immediate peace settlement with theConfederates.

Copperhead Democrats
Historical leadersClement Vallandigham
Alexander Long
Founded1860(1860)
Dissolved1868(1868)
IdeologyAnti-abolitionism
Anti-Civil War
Jacksonianism
National affiliationDemocratic Party

Republicansstarted labeling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads" after theeastern copperhead(Agkistrodon contortrix), a species of venomous snake. Those Democrats embraced the moniker, reinterpreting the copper "head" as the likeness of Liberty, which they cut fromLiberty Head large centcoins and proudly wore as badges.[2]By contrast, Democratic supporters of the war were calledWar Democrats.Notable Copperheads included two Democratic Congressmen from Ohio: Reps.Clement L. VallandighamandAlexander Long.Republican prosecutors accused some prominent Copperheads of treason in a series of trials in 1864.[3]

Copperheadism was a highly contentiousgrassrootsmovement. It had its strongest base just north of theOhio Riverand in some urban ethnic wards. In the State of Ohio, perhaps in contrast with Indiana and Illinois, the counties that had Peace Democrat majorities tended not to be along the Ohio River, but more in the central and northwestern portions of the state.[4]Historians such asWood Gray,Jennifer Weber andKenneth M. Stampp[citation needed]have argued that it represented a traditionalistic element alarmed at the rapid modernization of society sponsored by the Republican Party and that it looked back toJacksonian democracyfor inspiration. Weber argues that the Copperheads damaged the Union war effort by opposingconscription,encouragingdesertion,and forming conspiracies. Still, other historians say that the draft was already in disrepute and that the Republicans greatly exaggerated the conspiracies for partisan reasons.[5][6][page needed]

Historians such as Gray and Weber argue that the Copperheads were inflexibly rooted in the past and were naive about the refusal of the Confederates to return to the Union. Convinced that the Republicans were ruining the traditional world they loved, they were obstructionist partisans.[7]In turn, the Copperheads became a significant target of theNational Union Partyin the1864 presidential election,when they were used to discredit the leading Democratic candidates.

Copperhead support increased when Union armies did poorly and decreased when they won great victories. After thefall of Atlantain September 1864, Union military success seemed assured, and Copperheadism collapsed.

Name

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TheEastern copperhead snakeis venomous and has coloration well-adapted for camouflage

A possible origin of the name came from aNew York Timesnewspaper account in April 1861 that stated that when postal officers in Washington, D.C., opened a mail bag from a state now in the Confederacy:

A day or two since, when one of the mail-bags coming from the South by way of Alexandria, was emptied in the court-yard of the Post-office, a box fell out and was broken open, – from which two copperheads, one four and a half and the other three feet long, crawled out. The larger one was benumbed and easily killed; the other was very lively and venomous and was dispatched with some difficulty and danger. What are we to think of a people who resort to such weapons of warfare.[8][9]

Agenda

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Copperhead pamphlet from 1864 byCharles Chauncey Burr,a magazine editor from New York City[10]

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Copperheads nominally favored the Union and strongly opposed the war, about which they faultedabolitionists.They demanded immediate peace and resisteddraft laws.They wanted PresidentAbraham Lincolnand the Republicans ousted from power, seeing the President as a tyrant destroying Americanrepublicanvalues with despotic and arbitrary actions.[11]

Some Copperheads tried to persuadeUnion soldiersto desert. They talked of helping Confederateprisoners of warseize their camps and escape. They sometimes met with Confederate agents and took money. The Confederacy encouraged their activities whenever possible.[12]

Newspapers

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The Copperheads had numerous important newspapers, but the editors never allied. In Chicago,Wilbur F. Storeymade theChicago Timesinto Lincoln's most vituperative enemy.[13]The New YorkJournal of Commerce,originally abolitionist, was sold to owners who became Copperheads, giving them an important voice in the largest city. A typical editor wasEdward G. Roddy,owner of theUniontown, PennsylvaniaGenius of Liberty.He was an intensely partisan Democrat who sawAfrican Americansas an inferior race and Lincoln as a despot and dunce. Although he supported the war effort in 1861, he blamed abolitionists for prolonging the war and denounced the government as increasingly despotic. By 1864, he was calling for peace at any price.[citation needed]

John Mullaly'sMetropolitan Recordwas the officialCatholicnewspaper in New York City. ReflectingIrish Americanopinion, it supported the war until 1863 before becoming a Copperhead organ. In the spring and summer of 1863, the paper urged its Irish working-class readers to pursue armed resistance to the draft passed by Congress earlier in the year. When the draft began in the city, working-classEuropean Americans,largely Irish, responded withviolent riotsfrom July 13 to 16, lynching, beating and hacking to death more than 100 black New Yorkers and burning down black-owned businesses and institutions, including theColored Orphan Asylum,an orphanage for 233 black children. On August 19, 1864, John Mullaly was arrested for inciting resistance to the draft.

Even in an era of extremely partisan journalism, Copperhead newspapers were remarkable for their angry rhetoric. Wisconsin newspaper editorMarcus M. Pomeroyof theLa Crosse Democratreferred to Lincoln as "Fungus from the corrupt womb of bigotry and fanaticism" and a "worse tyrant and more inhuman butcher than has existed since the days ofNero... The man who votes for Lincoln now is a traitor and murderer... And if he is elected to misgovern for another four years, we trust some bold hand will pierce his heart with dagger point for the public good ".[14]

Copperhead resistance

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Clement Vallandigham,leader of the Copperheads, coined the slogan: "To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was."

The Copperheads sometimes talked of violent resistance and, in some cases, started to organize. However, they never actually made an organized attack. As war opponents, Copperheads were suspected of disloyalty, and their leaders were sometimes arrested and held for months in military prisons without trial. One famous example was GeneralAmbrose Burnside's 1863General Order Number 38,issued in Ohio, which made it an offense (to be tried in military court) to criticize the war in any way.[15]The order was used to arrest Ohio congressmanClement L. Vallandighamwhen he criticized the order itself.[16]However, Lincoln commuted his sentence but exiled him to the Confederacy.

Probably the largest Copperhead group was theKnights of the Golden Circle.Formed in Ohio in the 1850s, it became politicized in 1861. It reorganized as the Order of American Knights in 1863 and again in early 1864 as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with Vallandigham as its commander. One leader,Harrison H. Dodd,advocated the violent overthrow of the governments of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri in 1864. Democratic Party leaders and a Federal investigation thwarted his "Northwest Conspiracy".Despite this Copperhead setback, tensions remained high. TheCharleston Riottook place in Illinois in March 1864. Indiana Republicans then used the sensational revelation of an antiwar Copperhead conspiracy by elements of the Sons of Liberty to discredit Democrats in the1864 House elections.The military trial ofLambdin P. Milliganand other Sons of Liberty revealed plans to set free the Confederate prisoners held in the state. The culprits were sentenced to hang, but theSupreme Courtintervened inEx parte Milligan,saying they should have received civilian trials.[17]

Most Copperheads actively participated in politics. On May 1, 1863, former Congressman Vallandigham declared that the war was being fought not to save the Union but to free the blacks and enslave Southern whites. The U.S. Army then arrested him for declaring sympathy for the enemy. He was court-martialed by the Army and sentenced to imprisonment, but Lincolncommuted the sentenceto banishment behind Confederate lines.[18]The Democrats nevertheless nominated him for governor of Ohio in 1863. He left the Confederacy and went to Canada, where he campaigned for governor but lost after an intense battle. He operated behind the scenes at the1864 Democratic conventionin Chicago. This convention adopted a largely Copperhead platform and selected Ohio RepresentativeGeorge Pendleton,a Peace Democrat, as the vice-presidential candidate. However, it chose a pro-war presidential candidate, GeneralGeorge B. McClellan.The contradiction severely weakened the party's chances to defeat Lincoln.[citation needed]

Characteristics

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The values of the Copperheads reflected theJacksonian democracyof an earlier agrarian society. The Copperhead movement attracted Southerners who had settled north of theOhio River,and the poor and merchants who had lost profitable Southern trade.[19][20]They were most numerous in border areas, including southern parts of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana (in Missouri, comparable groups were avowed Confederates).[21]

The movement had scattered bases of support outside the lower Midwest. A Copperhead element in Connecticut dominated the Democratic Party there.[22]The Copperhead coalition included manyIrish AmericanCatholics in eastern cities, mill towns and mining camps (especially in the Pennsylvania coal fields). They were also numerous inGermanCatholic areas of theMidwest,especially Wisconsin.[23]

HistorianKenneth Stampphas captured the Copperhead spirit in his depiction of CongressmanDaniel W. Voorheesof Indiana:

There was an earthy quality in Voorhees, "the tall sycamore of the Wabash." On the stump his hot temper, passionate partisanship, and stirring eloquence made an irresistible appeal to the western Democracy [i.e. the Democratic Party]. His bitter cries againstprotective tariffsandnational banks,his intenserace prejudice,his suspicion of the easternYankee,his devotion to personalliberty,his defense of theConstitutionandState's rightsfaithfully reflected the views of his constituents. Like otherJacksonianagrarians,he resented the political and economic revolution then in progress. Voorhees idealized a way of life that he thought was being destroyed by the current rulers of his country. His bold protests against these dangerous trends made him the idol of theDemocracyof theWabash Valley.[24]

Historiography

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"THE COPPERHEAD PARTY—IN FAVOR OFA VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF PEACE!"(Thomas Nast,Harper's Weekly,February 28, 1863)

Two central questions have run through the historiography of the Copperheads: "How serious a threat did they pose to the Union war effort and hence to the nation's survival?" and "To what extent and with what justification did the Lincoln administration and other Republican officials violate civil liberties to contain the perceived menace?"[25]

The first book-length scholarly treatment of the Copperheads wasThe Hidden Civil War: The Story of the Copperheads(1942) byWood Gray.In it, Gray decried the "defeatism" of the Copperheads and argued that they deliberately served the Confederacy's war aims.[26]Also in 1942, George Fort Milton publishedAbraham Lincoln and the Fifth Column,which likewise condemned the traitorous Copperheads and praised Lincoln as a model defender of democracy.[27][25]

Gilbert R. Tredway,a professor of history, in his 1973 studyDemocratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indianafound most Indiana Democrats were loyal to the Union and desired national reunification. He documented Democratic counties in Indiana having outperformed Republican counties in recruiting soldiers. Tredway found that Copperhead sentiment was uncommon among the rank-and-file Democrats in Indiana.[28]

The chief historians who look more favorably on the Copperheads areRichard O. CurryandFrank L. Klement.Klement devoted most of his career to debunking the idea that the Copperheads represented a danger to the Union. Klement and Curry have downplayed the treasonable activities of the Copperheads, arguing the Copperheads were traditionalists who fiercely resisted modernization and wanted to return to the old ways. Klement argued in the 1950s that the Copperheads' activities, especially their supposed participation in treasonous anti-Union secret societies, were mostly false inventions by Republican propaganda machines designed to discredit the Democrats at election time.[25]Curry sees Copperheads as poor traditionalists battling against the railroads, banks, and modernization.[29]In his standard historyBattle Cry of Freedom(1988),James M. McPhersonasserted Klement had taken "revision a bit too far. There was some real fire under that smokescreen of Republican propaganda".[25][30][page needed]

Jennifer Weber'sCopperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North(2006) agrees more with Gray and Milton than with Klement. She argues that first, Northern antiwar sentiment was strong, so strong that Peace Democrats came close to seizing control of their party in mid-1864. Second, she shows the peace sentiment led to deep divisions and occasional violence across the North. Third, Weber concluded that the peace movement deliberately weakened the Union military effort by undermining both enlistment and the operation of the draft. Indeed, Lincoln had to divert combat troops to retake control of New York City from theanti-draft riotersin 1863. Fourth, Weber shows how the attitudes of Union soldiers affected partisan battles back home. The soldiers' rejection of Copperheadism and overwhelming support for Lincoln's reelection in 1864 was decisive in securing the Northern victory and the preservation of the Union. The Copperheads' appeal, she argues, waxed and waned with Union failures and successes in the field.[6][page needed]

Flags

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There was no official flag for Copperheads they differed from area to area. Most accounts from that time indicate some flags had a white field white with the inscription "peace" and "nation."[31]Other were American with 13 to 22 stars and 11-7 stripes these were known as "exclusionary flags". They mostly cut out the stars of rebel states or Union states. The flags were also popular with the opposition[32]Some keep their 34 stars while many put political slogans in their stripes. Most of these peace flags were torn down and ripped up by local Unionist.[31]The Battle of Charcoal RuninNew Fairfield, Connecticutwas a brawl between famers and Soldiers over Peace flag, during the fighting some of the farmer's houses were torched.[33]

  • Digital reconstruction of a 22 star "exclusionary" American flag raised by Peace Democrats inSan Francisco,Californiain 1864[34]
  • Digital remake of flag flown inBrookfield, Connecticutby local copperheads[35]
  • Digital remake of a flag flown by a Copperhead. The 11 stripes for the 9 states + 2 border states that were loyal to the Confederacy. The 19 stars forIndianawhere it was made[36]

Notable Copperhead Democrats

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Weber, Jennifer L. (2006).Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North.Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.1.ISBN1429420448.OCLC76960635.
  2. ^Benjamin P. Thomas,Abraham Lincoln: A Biography(1952) p. 377.
  3. ^Wertheim, (1989).
  4. ^Carl, Denbow (4 July 2013)."1863 Gubernatorial Election".The Glorious 78th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.Retrieved30 Apr2023.
  5. ^Gray, Wood (1942).The Hidden Civil War.Penguin Books.
  6. ^abWeber, Jennifer L. (2008).Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-534124-9.
  7. ^Andrew L. Slap; Michael Thomas Smith, eds. (2013).This Distracted and Anarchical People: New Answers for Old Questions about the Civil War-Era North.Fordham University Press. p. 47.ISBN9780823245680.
  8. ^THE IMPENDING WAR.; EXCITEMENT AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL Anticipated Raid of the Secessionists. THE DISTRICT MILITIA ORDERED OUT. Intentions of the Administration Regarding Fort Sumpter. Object and Result of Lieutenant Talbot's Mission. What is Thought of the Refusal to Allow him to Return to the Fort. SOUTH CAROLINA TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE.,New York Times,11 April 1861, p. 1
  9. ^Strausbaugh, John,City of Sedition: The History of New York City during the Civil WarHachette UK, 2 August 2016
  10. ^Joseph George Jr., "'Abraham Africanus I': President Lincoln Through the Eyes of a Copperhead Editor,"Civil War History(1968) 14#3 pp. 226–239.
  11. ^Charles W. Calhoun, "The Fire in the Rear,"Reviews in American History35.4 (2007), pp- 530–537onlineatProject MUSE.
  12. ^William A. Tidwell,April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War.Kent State University Press. 1995. pp. 155–20.
  13. ^Walsh (1963).
  14. ^Mark Wahlgren Summers,A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, And the Making of Reconstruction(2009) p. 38
  15. ^George Henry Porter (1911).Ohio Politics During the Civil War Period.Columbia UP. p.159.
  16. ^Michael Kent Curtis, "Lincoln, Vallandigham, and Anti-War Speech in the Civil War",William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal7 (1998) pp. 105-191.
  17. ^Frank L. Klement,The Copperheads in the Middle West.
  18. ^Frank L. Klement, "Clement L. Vallandigham's Exile in the Confederacy, May 25 – June 17, 1863",Journal of Southern History(1965): 149–163.in JSTOR.
  19. ^Mary Beth Norton, et al.A People and a Nation: A History of the United States,Vol. I (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001), pp. 393–395.
  20. ^Eugene H. Roseboom, "Southern Ohio and the Union in 1863."Mississippi Valley Historical Review(1952): 29–44.in JSTOR.
  21. ^Robert H. Abzug, "The Copperheads: Historical Approaches to Civil War Dissent in the Midwest."Indiana Magazine of History(1970): 40–55.online.
  22. ^Joanna D. Cowden, "The Politics of Dissent: Civil War Democrats in Connecticut."New England Quarterly(1983): 538–554.in JSTOR.
  23. ^Weber,Copperheads(2006).
  24. ^Stampp (1949), p. 211.
  25. ^abcdCalhoun, Charles W. (2007). Weber, Jennifer L. (ed.)."The Fire in the Rear".Reviews in American History.35(4): 530–537.doi:10.1353/rah.2007.0078.ISSN0048-7511.JSTOR30031593.S2CID144322336.
  26. ^Gray, Wood (1942).The Hidden Civil War: The Story of the Copperheads.Viking Press.
  27. ^Fort Milton, George (1942).Abraham Lincoln and the Fifth Column.Vanguard Press.
  28. ^Tredway, G. R. (1975).Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana.Indiana Historical Bureau.ISBN978-1-885323-25-5.
  29. ^Curry, Richard O. (1967)."The Union As It Was: A Critique of Recent Interpretations of the" Copperheads "".Civil War History.13(1): 25–39.doi:10.1353/cwh.1967.0067.ISSN1533-6271.S2CID143592749.
  30. ^McPherson, James M.(1988).Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-974390-2.
  31. ^abVinti Singh, Historic Brookfield flag symbolizes intricacies of Civil War political divide,newstimesApril 9, 2010
  32. ^"Rare Flags - Antique American Flags, Historic American Flags".rareflags.Retrieved2024-11-27.
  33. ^"Battle of Charcoal Run, New Fairfield, CT".archives.library.wcsu.edu.1861-08-24.Retrieved2024-11-27.
  34. ^Daily Alta California,22 October 1864
  35. ^Vinti Singh, Historic Brookfield flag symbolizes intricacies of Civil War political divide,newstimesApril 9, 2010
  36. ^AMERICAN FLAGS DESIGNS FOR A YOUNG NATION, by Nancy Druckman, page 45

Further reading

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  • Calhoun, Charles W."The Fire in the Rear",Reviews in American History(2007) 35#4 pp. 530–537 10.1353/rah.2007.0078online;review of Weber, Jennifer L.Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North.
  • Cowden, Joanna D. "The Politics of Dissent: Civil War Democrats in Connecticut",The New England Quarterly,56#4 (December 1983), pp. 538–554in JSTOR.
  • Cowden, Joanna D.,"Heaven Will Frown on Such a Cause as This": Six Democrats Who Opposed Lincoln's War.(UP of America, 2001). xviii, 259pp.
  • Curry, Richard O. "Copperheadism and Continuity: the Anatomy of a Stereotype",Journal of Negro History(1972) 57(1): 29–36.in JSTOR.
  • Curry, Richard O. "The Union as it Was: a Critique of Recent Interpretations of the 'Copperheads'".Civil War History1967 13(1): 25–39.
  • George, Joseph Jr. "'Abraham Africanus I': President Lincoln Through the Eyes of a Copperhead Editor".Civil War History1968 14(3): 226–239.
  • George, Joseph Jr. "'A Catholic Family Newspaper' Views the Lincoln Administration: John Mullaly's Copperhead Weekly".Civil War History1978 24(2): 112–132.
  • Gray, Wood.The Hidden Civil War: The Story of the Copperheads(1942), emphasizes treasonous activity.
  • Hershock, Martin J. "Copperheads and Radicals: Michigan Partisan Politics during the Civil War Era, 1860–1865",Michigan Historical Review(1992) 18#1 pp. 28–69.
  • Kleen, Michael, "The Copperhead Threat in Illinois: Peace Democrats, Loyalty Leagues, and the Charleston Riot of 1864",Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society(2012), 105#1 pp. 69–92.
  • Klement, Frank L.The Copperheads in the Middle West(1960).
  • Klement, Frank L.The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War(1998).
  • Klement, Frank L.Lincoln's Critics: The Copperheads of the North(1999).
  • Klement, Frank L.Dark Lanterns: Secret Political Societies, Conspiracies, and Treason Trials in the Civil War(1984).
  • Landis, Michael Todd.Northern Men with Southern Loyalties: The Democratic Party and the Sectional Crisis.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.
  • Lendt, David L.Demise of the Democracy: The Copperhead Press in Iowa.(1973).
  • Lendt, David L. "Iowa and the Copperhead Movement".Annals of Iowa1970 40(6): 412–426.
  • Mackey, Thomas C.Opposing Lincoln: Clement L. Vallandigham, Presidential Power, and the Legal Battle Over Dissent in Wartime.Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2020.
  • Manber, Jeffrey, Dahlstrom, Neil.Lincoln's Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a President's Mission to Destroy the Press(2005).
  • Milton, George F.Abraham Lincoln and the Fifth Column(1942).
  • Nevins, Allan.The War for the Union(4 vols. 1959–1971), the standard scholarly history of wartime politics and society.
  • Rodgers, Thomas E. "Copperheads or a Respectable Minority: Current Approaches to the Study of Civil War-Era Democrats".Indiana Magazine of History109#2 (2013): 114–146.in JSTOR;historiography focused on Klement, Weber and Silbey.
  • Silbey, Joel H.A Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era, 1860–1868(1977)online editionArchived2012-05-25 at theWayback Machine.
  • Stampp, Kenneth M.Indiana Politics during the Civil War(1949)online editionArchived2012-05-25 at theWayback Machine.
  • Smith, Adam.No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War North(2006),excerpt and text search.
  • Tidwell, William A.April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War.(1995).
  • Walsh, Justin E. "To Print the News and Raise Hell: Wilbur F. Storey's ChicagoTimes".Journalism Quarterly(1963) 40#4 pp. 497–510. doi: 10.1177/107769906304000402.
  • Weber, Jennifer L.Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North(2006).
  • Wertheim, Lewis J. "The Indianapolis Treason Trials, the Elections of 1864 and the Power of the Partisan Press".Indiana Magazine of History,1989, 85(3): 236–250.
  • Winger, Stewart L., and White, Jonathan W., eds. Ex Parte MilliganReconsidered: Race and Civil Liberties From the Lincoln Administration to the War on Terror.Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2020.
  • Wubben, Hubert H.Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement.Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1980.
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