“See to it that there's no storm so perfect that you can't ride it out.” - Arnold Kunst

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

July 8

The Emancipation Proclamation was, domestically at any rate, a disaster. In early 1863, right after it took effect, fraternizing with the enemy among troops of the 109th Illinois regiment began to look so much like a mutiny that the entire regiment was arrested. They were disgusted with Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation: now they were fighting this war not just to preserve the Union but to free the – and then they used a two-syllable word that begins with an N and has a hard G sound in the middle. In short, you could cut racism, North as well as South, with a knife.

In addition Indiana Governor Morton telegraphed the following astonishing message to Washington: “I am advised that it is contemplated when the legislature meets in this state to pass a joint resolution acknowledging the Southern Confederacy, and urging the states of the Northwest to dissolve all constitutional relations with the New England states.” Of course after the fact we all know the North won the Civil War; but winning it was anything but a sure thing.