In a speech by Ex-Governor John P. St. John, of Kansas, in Ottawa, Ill., to which I listened on the afternoon of June 29, 1891, he made the following statement:— GSAM 342.1
“I was never so disappointed as I was when the [Confederates] whipped us at Bull Run. But it was all a part of God’s plan. Had we whipped the [Confederates], the politicians would have hatched up a peace, and the Union would have been continued with slavery, and we would have had it to-day. For two years the [Confederates] had the advantage; but after Lincoln issued the famous emancipation proclamation we had swung round to God’s side, and could not lose.” GSAM 342.2