In the Midwest, still “a stronghold of white supremacy,” political leaders immediately saw the potential for black recruits to fill up their state’s quota and thus spare whites from a draft, or fighting at all for that matter. Iowa Senator James Grimes was quite open about it, telling the Dubuque Times he “would see a negro shot down in battle rather than the son of a Dubuquer.” The sentiment shows how openly one could favor emancipation while remaining just as ardently racist, and the problem would survive well beyond the War.2
