So I'm reading a book (Minturn's From New York to Delhi) that came out in 1858, or three years before the American Civil War. In attempting to make a point about the Mutiny in India, he discounts the prophetic opinions of Sir Charles Napier (who saw it coming) by making the following observation:

With regard to Sir Charles, his writings certainly read now very much like prophecies, but when they were written did not derive nearly as much support from facts as do now the disunion threats and prognostications made, not by one man, but by whole States in the southern part of our country; and yet no one here thinks it worth while to prepare for the eventuality of a dissolution of the Union.

There's an argument that backfired.