Mayor Fernando Wood won reelection to a second term, serving from 1860 to 1862. He was one of many New York Democrats who were sympathetic to the Confederacy and called “Copperheads” by staunch Unionists. In January 1861, Wood suggested to the City Council for New York City to secede as the “Free City of Tri-Insula” to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. Wood’s Democratic machine was concerned to maintain the revenues and jobs in the city (which depended on Southern cotton), which also supported the patronage system.