After the initial burst of enthusiasm for the effort to suppress the Southern rebellion faded, bitter divisions re-emerged in the North. Not surprisingly, it was in traditionally Democratic sections of the North, such as Pennsylvania's Columbia County, where unity frayed the quickest because of policies Abraham Lincoln adopted to fight the war. Suspending habeas corpus, making emancipation a war aim and decreeing a draft violated deeply held beliefs among Democrats about government and convinced many that Republicans were using the war to transform the republic. Republicans in turn saw Democratic opposition as, at best, misguided and, at worst, evidence of a treasonous "fifth column" in the North.
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