"From Johnstown, the fugitive slaves moved northeasterly through the heavily wooded valleys and gullies of the Appalachian Mountains. The more well known of the two routes … proceeds from Johnstown all the way to Ebensburg, following the trace that eventually became I-219."
-Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, William J. Switala.
In the 1860 presidential election Cambria County voted for Lincoln and Union. After the election Lincoln instituted the draft. Cambria County just said no to the draft. Lincoln turned the war into a referendum on Emancipation. The better angels who ran the modest Underground Railroad in Cambria County were overwhelmed by the opposite sentiment, Copperheadism. For Union, yes, they would fight. To free the slaves, they felt strongly emancipation was not a worthy objective. They made their revised sentiments clear when a draft guy came to Cambria County to enforce conscription and was told his life expectancy was foreshortened the longer he stayed. He got out and reinforcements came in and quelled the Copperheadism. They didn't quell the free and secret ballot. In 1864 Cambria County voted for the peace Democrat, George B. McClellan, for disunion, or Union with slavery and voted against Abraham Lincoln's reelection. Pennsylvania voted to reelect.
