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External Threats and Consequences: John Bull Rhetoric in Northern Political Culture during the United States Civil War

Abstract Throughout the Civil War, editor-politicians fashioned Britain as a threat to the Union via the use of “John Bull rhetoric.” As purveyors of partisan expression, leading editors exploited precedents, historic memories and popular symbols, contemporary relations, and conspiracy theories related to Britain and its governing classes as a condensation symbol in the rhetoric of intra/inter-party politics. The direct effect on voters is impossible to quantify, but the editors' persistent and deliberative use of John Bull rhetoric to create a dangerous, external consequence to opponents' positions reveals that it was important in the wartime power struggle to control the country's ideological destiny.