MORE ARSON IN NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.

505

one of the noblest charities of the tents and then fired; the firemen city. It had a spacious and elegant here, as at the Orphan Asylum and edifice, worth, with its furniture, elsewhere, being forbidden to play some $200,000, at the corner of Fifth on the obnoxious building an order Avenue and 46th-street, not far from which the mass of them seemed the enrolling office, where the riots quite too willing to obey. In twenty began. It was a school as well as an | minutes after the matches were igniasylum, affording shelter, sustenance, ted, the walls fell with a loud crash. and Christian nurture, to some 200 The firemen were allowed to play colored orphans, under the patronage upon and save, so far as they might, and management of a society of phi- all structures not obnoxious to the lanthropic ladies. At 5 P. M., a vast rioters. mob surrounded it, disabled or drove off the few policemen who attempted to bar an entrance, and, having afforded time for the hasty exit of the inmates, fired and destroyed the edifice and all its remaining contents; having meantime stolen a liberal share of the carpets, iron bedsteads, and other portable furniture, which women stood ready, at a little distance, to carry off, so soon as they were handed to them by their husbands or sons. Some of the garments, which the fleeing inmates had left behind in their haste, were thus appropriated. The cool, businesslike manner wherein this wholesale robbery and arson were perpetrated astonished even the most callous reporters. A liberal but not very responsible offer of "$500 for the sight of a Black Republican," chalked in gigantic letters on the fence of the adjacent cattle-market, failed to elicit any proffers.

The enrolling office of the VIIIth District stood at the corner of Broadway and 29th-st., in a block of stores filled with costly goods, including a goldsmith's shop, heavily stocked with watches and jewelry. These were speedily stripped of their conof the Union arms, that Slavery and the Rebellion must suffer, which is at the bottom of all this arson, devastation, robbery, and murder.

The riots, thus begun on Monday, July 13th, were kept up throughout the three following days, and extended to Brooklyn, where an expensive new Grain Elevator, worth $100,000, which was obnoxious as reducing the demand for labor, was among the buildings burned. But, by this time, some soldiers had been called in from the military posts in the harbor, and some militia mustered in the city; so that, though there was more fighting than on the first day, there was less devastation; and the loss of life was decidedly greatest on the side of the rioters, who were gradually crowded back into those quarters where they were naturally strongest, and no longer plundered and burned at will. But the running of the city railroads was generally stopped by the mob on these days, in order to impede the movements of the defenders of order, as well as to swell the ranks of the rioters; laborers could not be obtained to load vessels in port, and the industry of the city was very generally paralyzed.

But a riot stoutly confronted and checked has reached its culminating point; and this one-which would almost certainly have broken out on

And this fact should arouse every devotee of Liberty and Law to oppose to the rioters the sternest resistance."

THE RIOT STOPPED-GOV. SEYMOUR ON THE DRAFT. 507

a small body of soldiers under Capt. | quickly subsided when that was overPutnam, 12th regulars, whom Gen. Harvey Brown, commanding in the city under Gen. Wool, had sent to quell the riot, and who did it, by ordering his men to fire at those who were hurling missiles at them from the house-tops, while a body of artillerymen entered the houses and made prisoners of their male inmates. Capt. Putnam returned 13 killed, 18 wounded, and 24 prisoners; while of his men but two or three suffered injury. The whole amount of property destroyed by the rioters, for which the City was held responsible to the owners, was valued at about $2,000,000.

borne. So there was, at different periods of the War, forcible resistance offered to conscription in two or three counties of Wisconsin, perhaps a few more of Pennsylvania, and possibly two or three other localities. But in no single instance was there a riot incited by drafting, wherein Americans by birth bore any considerable part, nor in which the great body of the actors were not born Europeans, and generally of recent importation. Considering how widespread, earnest, intense, was the feeling of repugnance to the War, especially after it had assumed an antiSlavery aspect, this fact tends strongly to establish the natural strength in a republic of the sentiment of deference to law and to rightful authority, even when that authority is held to be abused or perverted.

Gov. Seymour next appealed" to the President, urging a suspension of the Draft, because of the alleged ex

During this night and the following day, several regiments of our disciplined Militia arrived, on their return from Pennsylvania, soon followed by other regiments of veterans from the Army of the Potomac; and it would not thereafter have been safe to attempt rioting. The City authorities now appropriated large (borrowed) sums to pay bounties for volunteers }; so that the City's quotas were sub-cessive stantially filled without recourse to drafting: the Government much preferring volunteers, of course, but utterly unwilling, because unable, to forego a resort to drafting when men were not otherwise forthcoming. In other words, it could not admit that its right to endure depended on the volunteering in sufficient numbers of citizens to defend its existence.

There were simultaneous and subsidiary riots in Boston, in Jersey City, and at Troy and Jamaica, N.Y.; with preliminary perturbations in many other places; but all these were plainly sympathetic with and subordinate to the New York effort, and

36

quota required of the urban districts of his State-saying

owes this to itself; as these inequalities fall "It is just to add that the Administration most heavily on those districts which have been opposed to its political views."

He further insisted that the enforcement of the Draft be postponed till after its constitutionality shall have been adjudged by the courtssaying:

a

"It is believed by at least one-half of the

people of the loyal States that the Conscription Act, which they are called upon to obey because it is on the statute-book, is in itself violation of the supreme constitutional law. There is a fear and suspicion that, while they are threatened with the severest penalties of the law, they are to be deprived of its protection. *** I do not dwell upon what I

believe would be the consequence of a violent, harsh policy before the constitutionalAug. 3.

ity of the Act is tested. You can scan the | I am charged, of maintaining the unity and immediate future as well as I. The temper the free principles of our cominon counof the people to-day you can readily learn."

At this time, Democratic organizations and meetings were denouncing the Draft as unconstitutional, and calling on the Governor to invoke the military power of the State to maintain its sovereignty and rightful jurisdiction, and protect its citizens from a ruthless conscription.

President Lincoln, in response" to the Governor's appeal, after proposing to suspend the Draft in the City

districts, in so far as it was claimed to be excessive, until after a fair and rigid scrutiny, said:

"I do not object to abide the decision of the United States Supreme Court, or of the Judges thereof, on the constitutionality of the Draft law. In fact, I should be willing to facilitate the obtaining of it. But I cannot consent to lose the time while it as being obtained. We are contending with an enemy who, as I understand, drives every ablebodied man he can reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers already in the field, if they shall

not be sustained by recruits as they should be. It produces an army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side, if we first waste time to reexperiment with the volunteer system, already deemed by Congress, and palpably, in fact, so far exhausted as to be inadequate; and then more time to obtain

a Court decision as to whether a law is con

stitutional which requires a part of those not now in the service to go to the aid of those who are already in it; and still more time to determine with absolute certainty that we get those who are to go in the precisely legal proportion to those who are not to go. My purpose is to be in my action just and constitutional, and yet practical, in performing the important duty with which

try."

The Autumnal Elections inevitably hinged on and embodied the popular judgment on the issues thus made the National cause were reflected in up; and the brighter prospects of the general success of the Republican

candidates.

Vermont-the first to vote thereof her always heavy Republican maafter" did, indeed, show a reduction jority-the Democratic party having made no effort" in 1862, and now doing its best; whereas, her election in the former year had been unaffected by the wave of depression and discouragement that swept soon afterward over the loyal States. fornia voted next : going 'Union throughout by a very large majority" nearly equal to that of 1861; but Maine-voting somewhat later felt the full impulse of the swelling tide, and showed it in her vote."

42

Cali

44

,

But the October Elections were far more significant and decisive. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Andrew G. Curtin-who had aided the war to the extent of his ability—was presented by the Republicans for rëelection; while the Democrats opposed to him Judge Geo. W. Woodward," who, it If the Union is to be divided, I was certified, had declared in 1861want the line of separation run north of Pennsylvania "-and who, not far from the day of election, united with 44 Sept. 14. 45 1862. Repub. Gov. Coburn, 45,534

1863

Democratic.

Gov. F. F. Low, 64,447. Downey, 44,715.

War Dem. Peace Dem. Jameson, Bradbury, 7,178 32,331

46 See his' Peace' speech, Vol. I, pp. 363-5.

CURTIN REELECTED-VALLANDIGHAM DEFEATED. 509 his Democratic brethren on the bench | by the election of Judge Agnew, re