tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37362918932640982842012-02-16T13:47:44.280-08:00http://www.danceandsing.comMarcinkowskinoreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-38838389262003204322012-01-14T02:32:00.000-08:002012-01-14T02:32:44.276-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />Znudziły Ci się długie rozgrywki w <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/dobredarmowegry">gry</a>,&nbsp; które sporo kosztują i spowalniają komputer.<br />Zobacz jakie gry przygotowaliśmy dla wybrednych graczy. U nas znajdziesz wszystkie najnowsze pozycje jakie pojawiły się na rynku<br /><br /><a href="http://friendfeed.com/dobredarmowegry/">Gry plaformowe</a><br /><br />Komputerowa gra platformowa (zwyczajowa nazwa platformówka) – gra zręcznościowa polegająca głównie na poruszaniu bohatera po wielu mniej lub bardziej urozmaiconych lokacjach, często po wielopoziomowych platformach - stąd nazwa gatunku, unikaniu pułapek i likwidacji bądź unikaniu przeciwników, a zbieraniu różnych nagród i dodatków - takich jak choćby pieniążków, kamieni szlachetnych, dodatkowych żyć czy powerupów.<br /><br /><a href="http://twitterfeed.com/feeds/3915935/detail">Gry strategiczne</a><br /><br />Pojęcie gra strategiczna odnosi się do bardzo szerokiej grupy gier - przede wszystkim jednak chodzi tu o jedno- bądź wielo-osobowe gry, w których wygrana zależy nie tylko od losu, ale przede wszystkim od strategii, wiedzy i planowania.<br /><br />Zobacz <a href="http://www.dobredarmowegry.pl/">dobre darmowe gry </a><br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-3883838926200320432?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-77131563169610735252012-01-12T06:31:00.000-08:002012-01-12T06:31:08.245-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Zajmujemy się szeroko pojętą webmasterką polegającą nad kompleksowym zarządzaniu stronami internetowymi.<br />W naszym portfolio mamy domeny, które gromadzą kilkadziesiąt tysięcy odwiedzin dziennie.&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/pisanie-tekstow/">Teksty na stronę</a><br /><strong>Teksty na stronę internetową</strong> – ciekawe artykuły specjalnie na Państwa stronę internetową. Poświęcone one będą prowadzonej przez Państwa działalności bądź tematyce strony.<br /><strong>Teksty ofertowe</strong> – teksty informacyjne, które w przejrzysty sposób zaznajamiają z Państwa ofertą. Klienci, którzy je przeczytają nie będą tracić czasu na zadawanie kolejnych pytań.<br />I wiele więcej...<br />Zobacz ofertę: tekstwriter.pl<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-7713156316961073525?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-9826865214431407462011-12-18T16:22:00.000-08:002011-12-18T16:22:20.064-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Warsztat szkoleniowy pokazuje i uświadamia, w jaki sposób ludzie na siebie oddziałują i z czego składa się komunikacja międzyludzka. Uczestnicy zapoznają się w praktyce z najskuteczniejszymi stylami i strategiami komunikacyjnymi, umożliwiającymi dokładne zrozumienie drugiej strony.<b> </b><br /><b>Najbliższe szkolenia</b><br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ochrona danych osobowych w świetle nowelizacji ustawy<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Warszawa 2011-12-19 - 2011-12-19<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Przeciwdziałanie dyskryminacji w pracy zawodowej<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; e-learning 2011-12-19<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Przeciwdziałanie mobbingowi w pracy zawodowej. Kurs dla pracowników<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; e-learning<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ochrona danych osobowych w firmie. Kurs podstawowy dla pracowników firm<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; e-learning<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Przeciwdziałanie mobbingowi w pracy zawodowej. Kurs dla zarządzających w firmie<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; e-learning<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ochrona danych osobowych w firmie. Kurs dla zarządzających systemem ochrony danych osobowych<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; e-learning&nbsp; <br /><a href="https://plus.google.com/100184129357995076539">Plus Szkolenia SEO Pozycjonowanie</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-982686521443140746?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-34128343941193958332011-12-04T05:03:00.000-08:002011-12-04T05:03:05.478-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:HyphenationZone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Standardowy; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}</style> <![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Co to jest zaplecze ? Nie to nie tyły na sklepie, a bardzo pożyteczna sprawa.<br />Jeśli prowadzisz własną stronę internetową na pewno chciałbyś być jak najwyżej w wyszukiwarce Google. Na wysokość Twojej pozycji mają wpływ linki pozycjonujące przychodzące do Twojej strony.<br />Dlatego możesz stworzyć takie zaplecze na własnym serwerze. Dzięki temu nie musisz już płacić za pozycjonowanie. Teraz możesz sam umieszczać linki.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Ile kosztuje założenie zaplecza ?<br /><br />To bardzo indywidualna sprawa. Ilość tekstów na stronach i wielkość zaplecza zależy od trudności fraz jakie chcesz wypozycjonować.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Podobne:<br /><a href="http://tuck-tucks.blogspot.com/2011/12/zaplecze-seo.html">http://tuck-tucks.blogspot.com/2011/12/zaplecze-seo.html</a>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://adsensekeywordstips.blogspot.com/2011/12/pozycjonowanie-przez-zaplecze.html">http://adsensekeywordstips.blogspot.com/2011/12/pozycjonowanie-przez-zaplecze.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://plasticsurgeryinformations.blogspot.com/2011/12/cennik-i-oferta-pozycjonownia-stron-w.html">http://plasticsurgeryinformations.blogspot.com/2011/12/cennik-i-oferta-pozycjonownia-stron-w.html&nbsp;</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Udziały rynku optymalizacji dla wyszukiwarek internetowych są różne w zależności od rynku i także jego konkurencyjności. W 2003 roku Danny Sullivan ustalił, że Google realizuje ok. 75% wszystkich wyszukiwań. Na rynkach poza USA udział Google jest często większy i w 2007 roku Google było dominującą wyszukiwarką na świecie. W 2006 roku Google obejmowało 40% rynku w USA, ale miało ok. 85-90% udziałów w Niemczech. Podczas gdy w tym samym czasie w USA istniały ponad setki firm przeprowadzających optymalizację dla wyszukiwarek internetowych, w Niemczech było zaledwie pięć. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-3412834394119395833?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-50075968186321038602011-10-31T17:48:00.000-07:002011-10-31T17:49:59.919-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Brakuje Ci tekstów na stronę ? Zobacz oferty firmy TekstWriter.<br /><div class="date"><span> <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/copywriting/" rel="tag">Copywriting</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/opieka-nad-stronami/" rel="tag">Opieka nad stronami</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/optymalizacja-stron/" rel="tag">Optymalizacja stron</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/pozycjonowanie-stron/" rel="tag">Pozycjonowanie stron</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/webmastering/" rel="tag">Webmastering</a></span></div><div class="date"> <div class="date"><span> <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/copywriterzy/" rel="tag">Copywriterzy</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/copywriting/" rel="tag">Copywriting</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/sprzedaz-tekstow/" rel="tag">Sprzedaż tekstów</a> • <a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/oferta/teksty-na-strone/" rel="tag">Teksty na stronę</a></span></div><span>&nbsp;</span></div><br /><br /><br />Odkąd do budowy atrakcyjnie wyglądającej strony nie wystarcza już sama znajomość odrobiny grafiki oraz <a href="http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML" title="HTML">HTML</a>/<a href="http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamiczny_HTML" title="Dynamiczny HTML">DHTML</a>, coraz częściej przygotowywaniem witryn internetowych zajmują się osobne firmy zatrudniające kilka osób, z których każda specjalizuje się i odpowiada za część elementów witryny.<br /><ul><li class="page_item page-item-11"><a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/zarzadzanie-stronami/" title="Zarządzanie">Zarządzanie</a></li><li class="page_item page-item-12"><a href="http://www.tekstwriter.pl/pisanie-tekstow/" title="Pisanie tekstów">Pisanie tekstów</a></li></ul></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-5007596818632103860?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-254072897975922132011-10-30T05:38:00.001-07:002011-10-30T05:38:09.347-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Teraz mój blog mediowy teraz na twitterze. Serdecznie zapraszam.<br /><br /><a href="http://friendfeed.com/marcinmedia">http://friendfeed.com/marcinmedia</a><br /><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/MarcinMedia">http://twitter.com/MarcinMedia</a><br /><br /><a href="http://twitterfeed.com/feeds/3524713/detail">http://twitterfeed.com/feeds/3524713/detail</a><br />Życzę miłej lektury<br />&nbsp; </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-25407289797592213?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-90270425376758454992011-09-23T07:42:00.000-07:002011-09-23T07:42:00.547-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><h3>Nowe połączenia PKS BUS </h3><h3>Trasa: Lublin - Siedlce </h3><br /><strong>Firma:</strong> Omegabus, <br /><br />Przystanek końcowy w Siedlach przy dworcu PKP... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/omegabus/" rel="tag">Omegabus</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=242&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/30/szczecin-paryz/" id="post-255" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Szczecin – Paryż"><h3>Trasa: Szczecin - Paryż</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Wimar, <br /><br />SZCZECIN – PARYŻ przez NIEMCY, BELGIĘ... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/wimar/" rel="tag">Wimar</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=255&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/30/szczecin-berlin/" id="post-253" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Szczecin – Berlin"><h3>Trasa: Szczecin - Berlin</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Her Bus, <br /><br />Zapewniamy codzienne połączenia z Berlinem i lotni... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/her-bus/" rel="tag">Her Bus</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=253&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/25/25-08-11165109/" id="post-246" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Lublin Katowice"><h3>Trasa: Katowice - Lublin</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Omegabus, <br /><br />Odjazdy ul.Słowackiego... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/omegabus/" rel="tag">Omegabus</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=246&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/25/lublin-bialystok/" id="post-244" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Lublin Białystok"><h3>Trasa: Białystok - Lublin</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Omegabus, <br /><br />Rezerwacje miejsc prowadzimy tylko na liniach komu... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/omegabus/" rel="tag">Omegabus</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=244&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/25/warszawa-olsztyn/" id="post-233" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Warszawa Olsztyn"><h3>Trasa: Warszawa - Olsztyn</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Plewka Grzelak, Transwal, <br /><br />Przedsprzedaż biletów (24 godzin wcześniej) w kasi... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/plewka-grzelak/" rel="tag">Plewka Grzelak</a>, <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/transwal/" rel="tag">Transwal</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=233&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/25/wroclaw-krakow/" id="post-228" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Wrocław Kraków"><h3>Trasa: Wrocław - Kraków</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Link Bus, <br /><br />Cena promocyjna obowiązuje przy zakupie biletu u k... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/link-bus/" rel="tag">Link Bus</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=228&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/22/olsztyn-warszawa-2/" id="post-222" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Olsztyn – Warszawa"><h3>Trasa: Olsztyn - Warszawa</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Plewka Grzelak, Transwal, <br /><br />Przedsprzedaż biletów w kasie o 5 zł taniej. Zapra... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/plewka-grzelak/" rel="tag">Plewka Grzelak</a>, <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/transwal/" rel="tag">Transwal</a><br />|<a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=222&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/17/krakow-wroclaw/" id="post-205" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Kraków Wrocław"><h3>Trasa: Kraków - Wrocław</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> Link BU, <br /><br />Cena promocyjna obowiązuje przy zakupie biletu u k... <div class="metadata"> Tagi: <a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/tag/link-bu/" rel="tag">Link BU</a><br /><br /><a class="post-edit-link" href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/wp-admin/post.php?post=205&amp;action=edit" title="Edytuj wpis"></a></div><a href="http://www.pksbusrozklad.pl/17/hrubieszow-lublin/" id="post-199" rel="bookmark" title="pks bus Hrubieszów Lublin"><h3>Trasa: Hrubieszów - Lublin</h3></a> <strong>Firma:</strong> KAZAN BUS, </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-9027042537675845499?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-1650430586356711332011-03-07T05:20:00.000-08:002011-03-07T05:20:40.826-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">dy blogowanie stało się moim sposobem na nudę, nie mogę oderwać się od wyszukiwania ciekawych newsów. Codzinnie sprawdzam to i owo i czasami nie wiem co wybrać.<br />Działam też na kilku platformach takich jak tweeter czy Friend Feed. Lista poniżej:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://friendfeed.com/marcinkowsky">http://friendfeed.com/marcinkowsky</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/marcinkowskypl">http://twitter.com/#!/marcinkowskypl</a><br /><a href="http://flaker.pl/marcinkowsky">http://flaker.pl/marcinkowsky</a><br /><br /><a href="http://marcinkowsky.blip.pl/">http://marcinkowsky.blip.pl/</a><br /><br /><a href="http://di.com.pl/profil/marcinkowsky">http://di.com.pl/profil/marcinkowsky</a><br /><br />pozdrawiam ! </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-165043058635671133?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-67236757242746335362009-05-28T01:14:00.000-07:002009-05-28T01:17:23.001-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z2HROzIyjLs/Sh5INfec6jI/AAAAAAAAABw/_AOcmWB3IoU/s1600-h/screenshot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z2HROzIyjLs/Sh5INfec6jI/AAAAAAAAABw/_AOcmWB3IoU/s400/screenshot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340785604732709426" border="0" /></a><br />Free Wordpress Theme<br />Simple and Elegant:<br /><a href="http://www.danceandsing.com/Simple_and_Elegant_Wordpress_Theme.zip">Download</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-6723675724274633536?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-79742962096613404242009-05-26T05:06:00.000-07:002009-05-26T05:08:36.564-07:00Poprzez najbliższy okres Warmia natomiast Mazury będą ograbione podpory śmigłowca Lotniczego Pogotowia Ratunkowego z Olsztyna. Jakiegokolwiek poprzez awarie drzwi, spowodowana przez samolot premiera reklama Donalda Tuska, który urwał drzwi helikoptera.<br /><br />Jak oznajmia Radio Zet, w niedzielę premier odlatywał z Olsztyna po konwencji wyborczej pretendentów Platformy <a href="http://www.obmawiamy.pl/reklama-w-internecie/">reklama internetowa</a> Społecznej reklamy internetowej do parlamentu europejskiego. W sekundy startu impuls powietrza śmigła jego samolotu szarpnął drzwiami stojącego as wzdłuż śmigłowca LPR. ORAZ drzwi odpadły.<br /><br />Według dyrektora pogotowia Roberta Gałązkowskiego, cała kondycja była skutkiem błędu pielęgniarki, jaka nie domknęła drzwi.<br /><br /><br />REKLAMA Czytaj dalej<br /><br /><br /><br />Naprawa rozwalonej części helikoptera może potrwać dzień czy dwa. Na ciosie lecz olsztyńskie Powietrzne Pogotowie Ratunkowe pozostało uziemione.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-7974296209661340424?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-18143319071729467022008-03-17T09:00:00.001-07:002008-03-17T09:00:20.648-07:00<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/AFHofghTxZ0' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/AFHofghTxZ0'/></object></p><p>W naszym pubie - Marcin Dolecki Olsztyn - www.4club.pl</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-1814331907172946702?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-9195167113070010622008-01-28T06:12:00.001-08:002008-01-28T06:12:46.129-08:00<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/2NbRhjeLFIs' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/2NbRhjeLFIs'/></object></p><p>Video Marcin Dolecki</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-919516711307001062?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-88091856331409880872008-01-27T14:03:00.001-08:002008-01-27T14:03:36.454-08:00<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/w0YoGoKFY9k' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/w0YoGoKFY9k'/></object></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3736291893264098284-8809185633140988087?l=marcindolecki.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Marcinkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736291893264098284.post-52751493431979170802007-02-24T11:33:00.000-08:002007-02-24T11:36:46.622-08:00<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/e7694oO_510"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/e7694oO_510" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br />Project Gutenberg's The Great Riots of New York 1712 to 1873, by J.T. Headley<br /><br />Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the<br />copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing<br />this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.<br /><br />This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project<br />Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the<br />header without written permission.<br /><br />Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the<br />eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is<br />important information about your specific rights and restrictions in<br />how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a<br />donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.<br /><br /><br />**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**<br /><br />**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**<br /><br />*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****<br /><br /><br />Title: The Great Riots of New York 1712 to 1873<br /><br />Author: J.T. Headley<br /><br />Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6856]<br />[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]<br />[This file was first posted on February 2, 2003]<br /><br />Edition: 10<br /><br />Language: English<br /><br />Character set encoding: ASCII<br /><br />*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT RIOTS OF NEW YORK ***<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Produecd by Richard Prairie, David Moynihan, Charles Franks<br />and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> THE<br /><br /> GREAT RIOTS<br /><br /> OF<br /><br /> NEW YORK<br /><br /> 1712 to 1873<br /><br /> INCLUDING A FULL AND COMPLETE ACCOUNT<br /><br /> OF THE<br /><br /> FOUR DAYS' DRAFT RIOT OF 1863<br /><br /> By HON. J.T. HEADLEY<br /><br /><br /> TO<br /><br /> THE METROPOLITAN POLICE,<br /><br /> WHOSE<br /><br /> UNWAVERING FIDELITY AND COURAGE IN THE PAST,<br /><br /> ARE A SURE GUARANTEE OF WHAT THEY WILL DO<br /><br /> FOR<br /><br /> NEW YORK CITY IN THE FUTURE,<br /><br /> THIS WORK<br /><br /> IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED<br /><br /> BY<br /><br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /><br /><br />LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.<br /><br />1. BURNING OF THE PROVOST-MARSHAL'S OFFICE<br /><br />2. THE OLD NEW YORK HOSPITAL, SCENE OF THE DOCTORS' RIOT<br /><br />3. COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM (ERECTED SINCE THE RIOT)<br /><br />4. HEADQUARTERS METROPOLITAN POLICE<br /><br />5. HEADQUARTERS METROPOLITAN FIRE DEPARTMENT<br /><br />6. FORT LAFAYETTE, NEW YORK HARBOR<br /><br />7. FORT HAMILTON, NEW YORK HARBOR<br /><br />8. SCENE IN LEXINGTON AVENUE<br /><br />9. ATTACK ON THE TRIBUNE OFFICE<br /><br />10. FIGHT BETWEEN RIOTERS AND MILITIA<br /><br />11. HANGING AND BURNING A NEGRO IN CLARKSON STREET<br /><br />12. THE DEAD SERGEANT IN TWENTY-SECOND STREET<br /><br />13. DRAGGING COLONEL O'BRIEN'S BODY IN THE STREET<br /><br />14. BURNING SECOND AVENUE ARMORY<br /><br />15. RECEIVING DEAD BODIES AT THE MORGUE<br /><br />PREFACE.<br /><br />The materials for the descriptions of the Negro and Doctors' Riots were<br />gathered from the Archives of the Historical Society; those of the<br />immediately succeeding ones, from the press of the times.<br /><br />For the scenes and incidents that occurred on the stage and behind the<br />curtain in the Astor-place Opera Riot, I am indebted to a pamphlet<br />entitled "_Behind the Scenes_."<br /><br />The materials for the history of the Draft Riots were obtained in part<br />from the Daily Press, and in part from the City and Military Authorities,<br />especially Commissioner Acton, Seth Hawley, General Brown, and Colonel<br />Frothingham, who succeeded in putting them down.<br /><br />Mr. David Barnes, who published, some ten years ago, a pamphlet entitled<br />"The Metropolitan Police," kindly furnished me facts relating to the<br />Police Department of great value, and which saved me much labor and time.<br /><br />Much difficulty has been encountered in gathering together, from various<br />quarters, the facts spread over a century and a half, but it is believed<br />that everything necessary to a complete understanding of the subjects<br />treated of has been given, consistent with the continuity and interest of<br />the narrative.<br /><br />Of course some minor riots--a collection of mobs that were easily<br />dispersed by the police, and were characterized by no prolonged struggle<br />or striking incidents--are not mentioned.<br /><br />CONTENTS.<br /><br />CHAPTER I.<br /><br />Character of a City illustrated by Riots.--New Material for History of<br />Draft Riots.--History of the Rebellion incomplete without History of<br />them.--The Fate of the Nation resting on the Issues of the Struggle in New<br />York City.--The best Plan to adopt for Protection against Mobs.<br /><br />CHAPTER II.<br /><br />THE NEGRO RIOTS OF 1712-1741.<br /><br />Almost impossible for the present Generation to comprehend its true<br />Character and Effect on the People.--Description of New York at that<br />Time.--The Negro Slaves.--The Negro Riot of 1712.--Description of it.--The<br />Winter of 1741.--Governor's House burned down.--Other Fires.--Suspicion of<br />the People.--Arrest and Imprisonment of the Blacks.--Reward offered for<br />the supposed Conspirators.--Alarm and Flight of the Inhabitants.--<br />Examination and Confession of Mary Burton.--Peggy, the Newfoundland<br />Beauty, and the Hughson Family.--The Conspiracy.--Executions.--Fast.--<br />Hughson's Hearing.--Hung in Chains.--The Body, and that of a Negro, left<br />to swing and rot in the Air.--Strange Change in the Appearances of the<br />Bodies.--The People throng to look at them.--Negroes burned at the Stake.<br />--Terrific Spectacle.--Bloody Summer.--Execution of a Catholic Priest.--<br />Strange Scenes.--Upper Classes accused.--Executions stopped.--Reason of<br />the Panic.<br /><br />CHAPTER III.<br /><br />THE STAMP-ACT RIOT OF 1765.<br /><br />Thorough Understanding of the Principles of Liberty by the People.--The<br />Stamp Act.--How viewed by the Colonists.--Colden strengthens Fort George<br />in Alarm.--Arrival of the Stamps.--How the News was received by the Sons<br />of Liberty.--A Bold Placard.--Stamp Distributor frightened.--Patriotic<br />Action of the Merchants.--Public Demonstration against the Stamp Act.--<br />Colden takes Refuge in the Fort.--Dare not fire on the People.--The People<br />at the Gate demand the Stamps.--Colden and Lord Bute hung in Effigy.--<br />Colden's Coach-house broken open.--The Images placed in the Coach, and<br />dragged with Shouts through the Streets.--Hung again in Sight of the<br />Fort.--A Bonfire made of the Fence around Bowling Green, and the<br />Governor's Carriages, while the Garrison look silently on.--Prejudice<br />against Coaches.--Major James' House sacked.--Great Joy and Demonstration<br />at the Repeal of the Stamp Act.--Celebration of the King's Birthday.--<br />Loyalty of the People.--Mutiny Act.--A Riot becomes a Great Rebellion.<br /><br />CHAPTER IV.<br /><br />DOCTORS' RIOT, 1788.<br /><br />Body-snatching.--Bodies dug up by Medical Students.--Excitement of the<br />People.--Effect of the Discovery of a human Limb from the Hospital.--Mob<br />ransack the Building.--Destruction of Anatomical Specimens.--Arrival of<br />Mayor, and Imprisonment of Students.--Second Day.--Examination of Columbia<br />College and Physicians' Houses.--Appeal of the Mayor and distinguished<br />Citizens to the Mob.--Mob attempt to break into Jail and seize the<br />Students.--The Fight.--The Military called out.--Beaten by the Mob.--<br />Larger Military Force called out.--Attacked by the Mob.--Deadly Firing.--<br />Great Excitement.--Flight of Doctors and Students.<br /><br />CHAPTER V.<br /><br />SPRING ELECTION RIOTS OF 1834.<br /><br />Fatal Error in our Naturalization Laws.--Our Experiment of Self-government<br />not a fair one.--Fruit of giving Foreigners the Right to Vote.--Bitter<br />Feeling between Democrats and Whigs.--First Day of Election.--Ships<br />"Constitution" and "Veto."--Whigs driven from the Polls.--Excitement.--<br />Whigs determined to defend themselves.--Meeting called.--Resolutions.--<br />Second Day's Election.--Attack on the Frigate "Constitution."--A Bloody<br />Fight.--Mayor and Officers wounded.--Mob triumphant.--Excitement of the<br />Whigs.--The Streets blocked by fifteen thousand enraged Whigs.--Military<br />called out.--Occupy Arsenal and City Hall all Night.--Result of the<br />Election.--Excitement of the Whigs.--Mass-meeting in Castle Garden.<br /><br />CHAPTER VI.<br /><br />ABOLITION RIOTS OF 1834 AND 1835.<br /><br />The Slavery Question agitated.--The End, Civil War.--The Results.--William<br />Lloyd Garrison.--Feeling of the People on the Subject.--First Attempt to<br />call a Meeting of the Abolitionists in New York.--Meeting in Chatham<br />Street Chapel.--A Fight.--Mob take Possession of Bowery Theatre.--Sacking<br />of Lewis Tappan's House.--Fight between Mob and Police.--Mobbing of Dr.<br />Cox's Church, in Laight Street.--His House broken into.--Street<br />Barricaded.--Attack on Arthur Tappan's Store.--Second Attack on Church in<br />Laight Street.--Church sacked in Spring Street.--Arrival of the Military.<br />--Barricades carried.--Mr. Ludlow's House entered.--Mob at Five Points.--<br />Destruction of Houses.--The City Military called out.--Mob overawed, and<br />Peace restored.--Five Points Riot.--Stone-cutters' Riot.<br /><br />CHAPTER VII.<br /><br />FLOUR RIOT OF 1837.<br /><br />Starvation will always create a Riot.--Foreign Population easily aroused<br />against the Rich.--Severe Winter of 1836.--Scarcity of Flour.--Meeting of<br />Citizens called without Result.--Meeting called in the Park.--Speeches.--<br />Sacking of Hart & Co.'s Flour Store, in Washington Street.--Strange<br />Spectacle.--National Guards called out.--Disperse the Mob.--Attack on<br />Herrick's Flour Store.--Folly of the Riot.<br /><br />CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br />ASTOR-PLACE RIOTS, 1849.<br /><br />Rivalry between Forrest and Macready.--Macready's Arrival in this<br />Country.--The Announcement of his Appearance at the Astor-place Opera<br />House, and Forrest at the Broadway Theatre the same Night posted Side by<br />Side.--Bowery Boys crowd the Opera House.--Anxiety of the Managers.--<br />Consultations and Dramatic Scenes behind the Curtain.--Stamping of the<br />People.--Scene on raising the Curtain.--Stormy Reception of Macready.--<br />Howled down.--Mrs. Pope driven from the Stage by the Outrageous Language<br />of the Mob.--Macready not allowed to go on.--His foolish Anger.--Flees for<br />his Life.--His Appearance the Second Night.--Preparations to put down the<br />Mob.--Exciting Scene in the Theatre.--Terrific Scenes without.--Military<br />arrive.--Attacked by the Mob.--Patience of the Troops.--Effort to avoid<br />Firing.--The Order to Fire.--Terrific Scene.--Strange Conduct of Forrest.<br />--Unpublished Anecdote of General Scott.<br /><br />CHAPTER IX.<br /><br />POLICE RIOT--DEAD-RABBITS' RIOT--BREAD RIOT, 1857.<br /><br />Creation of the Metropolitan District.--Collision between Mayor Wood's<br />Police and the Metropolitan Police.--Seventh Regiment called out.--Dead-<br />Rabbits' Riot.--Severe Fight between the Roach Guards and Dead Rabbits.--<br />Police driven back.--Barricades erected.--Military called out.--Killed and<br />Wounded.--Bread Riot.--Financial Distress.<br /><br />CHAPTER X.<br /><br />DRAFT RIOTS OF 1863.<br /><br />Cause of the Riots.--The London _Times_.--Draft called a despotic<br />Measure.--The despotic Power given to Washington by Congress.--Despotic<br />Action sometimes Necessary, in order to save the Life of the Nation.--The<br />Rights of Government.--Drafting he Legitimate Way to raise an Army--It is<br />not Unequal or Oppressive.<br /><br />CHAPTER XI.<br /><br />Rights of Municipalities.--Interference of the Legislature with the City<br />Government.--Conflict between the Governor and Police Commissioners.--A<br />Wrong becomes a Practical Blessing.--Provost Marshals.--Riot not<br />anticipated.--Bad time to commence the Draft.--Preparations of<br />Superintendent Kennedy.--The Police System.--Attack on Provost Marshal<br />Captain Erhardt.--Telegrams of the Police.--Kennedy starts on a Tour of<br />Observation.<br /><br />CHAPTER XII.<br /><br />Commencement of the Mob.--Its Line of March.--Its immense Size.--Attacks a<br />Provost-marshal's Office, in Third Avenue.--Set on Fire.--Terrible<br />Struggle of Kennedy for his Life with the Mob.--Carried to Head-quarters<br />unconscious.--Acton's Preparations.--The Telegraph System.--Mob cutting<br />down Telegraph Poles.--Number of Despatches sent over the Wires during the<br />Riot.--Superintendent of Telegraph Bureau seized and held Prisoner by the<br />Mob.<br /><br />CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br />Soldiers beaten by the Mob.--Gallant Fight of Sergeant McCredie.--Mob<br />Triumphant.--Beat Police Officers unmercifully.--Fearful Scenes.--Fifty<br />thousand People block Third Avenue.--A whole Block of Houses burning.--<br />Attack on a Gun Factory.--Defeat of the Broadway Squad.--Houses sacked in<br />Lexington Avenue.--Telegraph Dispatches.--Bull's Head Tavern burned.--<br />Block on Broadway burned.--Burning of the Negroes' Orphan Asylum.--Attack<br />on Mayor Opdyke's House.--A Crisis nobly met.--Gallant Fight and Victory<br />of Sergeant Carpenter.--A thrilling Spectacle.<br /><br />CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br />No Military in the City.--The Mayor calls on General Wool, commanding<br />Eastern Department, for Help.--Also on General Sandford.--General Wool<br />sends to General Brown, commanding Garrison in the Harbor, for U. S.<br />Troops.--Marines of the States appealed to for Troops.--General Brown<br />assumes Command.--Attack of Mob on the _Tribune_ Building.--Its<br />severe Punishment.--Government Buildings garrisoned.--Difficulty between<br />Generals Brown and Wool.--Head-quarters.--Police Commissioners' Office<br />Military Head-quarters.<br /><br />CHAPTER XV.<br /><br />Telegraph Bureau.--Its Work.--Skill and Daring and Success of its Force.--<br />Interesting Incidents.--Hairbreadth Escapes.--Detective Force.--Its<br />arduous Labors.--Its Disguises.--Shrewdness, Tact, and Courage.--Narrow<br />Escapes.--Hawley, the Chief Clerk.--His exhausting Labors.<br /><br />CHAPTER XVI.<br /><br />DRAFT RIOT--SECOND DAY.<br /><br />Appearance of the City.--Assembling of the Mob.--Fight between Rioters and<br />the Police and Soldiers.--Storming of Houses.--Rioters hurled from the<br />Roofs.--Soldiers fire on the People.--Awful Death of Colonel O'Brien.--<br />Fight in Pitt Street.--Deadly Conflict for a Wire Factory.--Horrible<br />Impaling of a Man on an Iron Picket.--Mystery attached to him.--Second<br />Attack on Mayor Opdyke's House.--Second Fight for the Wire Factory.--<br />Telegraphic Dispatches.--Citizens Volunteering.--Raid on the Negroes.--<br />They are hunted to Death.--Savage Spectacle.--Negroes seek Head-quarters<br />of Police.--Appearance and State of the City.--Colonel Nugent's House<br />sacked.--Fight with the Mob in Third Avenue.--Battle at Gibbon's House.--<br />Policeman Shot.--Night Attack on Brooks and Brothers' Clothing Store.--<br />Value of the Telegraph System.--Captain Petty.--Seymour's Speech to the<br />Mob.--Cars and Stages seized.--Barricades.--Other Fights.--Acton and his<br />Labors.<br /><br />CHAPTER XVII.<br /><br />DRAFT RIOT--THIRD DAY.<br /><br />Scenes in the City and at Head-quarters.--Fight in Eighth Avenue.--Cannon<br />sweep the Streets.--Narrow Escape of Captain Howell and Colonel Mott.--<br />Battle for Jackson's Foundry.--Howitzers clear the Street.--State of<br />Things shown by Telegraph Dispatches.--General Sandford sends out a Force<br />against a Mob, at Corner of Twenty-ninth Street and Seventh Avenue.--<br />Colonel Gardin's Fight with the Mob.--Is Wounded.--Mob Victorious.--Dead<br />and Wounded Soldiers left in the Street.--Captain Putnam sent to bring<br />them away.--Disperses the Mob.--Terrific Night.<br /><br />CHAPTER XVIII.<br /><br />DRAFT RIOT--FOURTH DAY.<br /><br />Proclamations by the Governor and Mayor.--City districted.--Appearance of<br />the East Side of the City.--A small Squad of Soldiers chased into a<br />Foundry by the Mob.--Fierce Fight between the Mob and Military in Twenty-<br />ninth Street.--Soldiers driven from the Ground, leaving a dead Sergeant<br />behind.--Captain Putnam sent to bring the Body away.--Mows down the<br />Rioters with Canister.--Storms the Houses.--Utter Rout of the Mob.--<br />Colored Orphans and Negroes taken by Police to Blackwell's Island.--<br />Touching Scene.--Coming on of Night and a Thunder-storm.--Returning<br />Regiments.--Increased Force in the City to put down Violence.--Archbishop<br />Hughes offers to address the Irish.--Curious Account of an Interview of a<br />Lady with him and Governor Seymour.--Strange Conduct of the Prelate.<br /><br />CHAPTER XIX.<br /><br />CLOSING SCENES.<br /><br />Tranquil Morning.--Proclamation of the Mayor.--Mob cowed.--Plunderers<br />afraid of Detection.--Dirty Cellars crowded with rich Apparel, Furniture,<br />and Works of Art.--Archbishop Hughes' Address.--Useless Efforts.--Acton's<br />Forty-eight Hours without Sleep over.--Change in Military Commanders in<br />the City.--General Brown relinquishes his Command.--True Words.--Noble<br />Character and Behavior of the Troops and Police.--General Brown's<br />invaluable Services.<br /><br />CHAPTER XX.<br /><br />Continued Tranquillity.--Strange Assortment of Plunder gathered in the<br />Cellars and Shanties of the Rioters.--Search for it exasperates the<br />Irish.--Noble Conduct of the Sanitary Police.--Sergeant Copeland.--<br />Prisoners tried.--Damages claimed from the City.--Number of Police<br />killed.--Twelve hundred Rioters killed.--The Riot Relief Fund.--List of<br />Colored People killed.--Generals Wool and Sandford's Reports.--Their<br />Truthfulness denied.--General Brown vindicated.<br /><br />CHAPTER XXI.<br /><br />ORANGE RIOTS OF 1870 AND 1871.<br /><br />Religious Toleration.--Irish Feuds.--Battle of Boyne Water.--Orangemen.--<br />Origin and Object of the Society.--A Picnic at Elm Park.--Attacked by the<br />Ribbonmen.--The Fight. After Scenes.--Riot of 1871.--Conspiracy of the<br />Irish Catholics to prevent a Parade of Orangemen.--Forbidden by the City<br />Authorities.--Indignation of the People.--Meeting in the Produce<br />Exchange.--Governor Hoffman's Proclamation.--Morning of the 12th.--The<br />Orangemen at Lamartine Hall.--Attack on the Armories.--The Harpers<br />threatened.--Exciting Scenes around Lamartine Hall and at Police Head-<br />quarters.--Hibernia Hall cleared.--Attack on an Armory.--Formation of the<br />Procession.--Its March.--Attacked.--Firing of the Military without<br />Orders.--Terrific Scene.--The Hospitals and Morgue.--Night Scenes.--Number<br />of killed and wounded.--The Lesson.<br /><br /><br />THE GREAT RIOTS OF NEW YORK CITY.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER I.<br /><br />Character of a City illustrated by Riots.--New Material for History of<br />Draft Riots.--History of the Rebellion incomplete without History of<br />them.--The Fate of the Nation resting on the Issues of the Struggle in New<br />York City.--The best Plan to adopt for Protection against Mobs.<br /><br />The history of the riots that have taken place in a great city from its<br />foundation, is a curious and unique one, and illustrates the peculiar<br />changes in tone and temper that have come over it in the course of its<br />development and growth. They exhibit also one phase of its moral<br />character--furnish a sort of moral history of that vast, ignorant,<br />turbulent class which is one of the distinguishing features of a great<br />city, and at the same time the chief cause of its solicitude and anxiety,<br />and often of dread.<br /><br />The immediate cause, however, of my taking up the subject, was a request<br />from some of the chief actors in putting down the Draft Riots of 1863, to<br />write a history of them. It was argued that it had never been written,<br />except in a detached and fragmentary way in the daily press, which, from<br />the hurried manner in which it was done, was necessarily incomplete, and<br />more or less erroneous.<br /><br />It was also said, and truly, that those who, by their courage and energy,<br />saved the city, and who now would aid me not only officially, but by their<br />personal recollections and private memoranda, would soon pass away, and<br />thus valuable material be lost.<br /><br />Besides these valid reasons, it was asserted that the history of the<br />rebellion was not complete without it, and yet no historian of that most<br />important event in our national life had given the riots the prominence<br />they deserved, but simply referred to them as a side issue, instead of<br />having a vital bearing on the fate of the war and the nation. On no single<br />battle or campaign did the destiny of the country hinge as upon that<br />short, sharp campaign carried on by General Brown and the Police<br />Commissioners against the rioters in the streets of New York, in the<br />second week of July, 1863. Losses and defeats in the field could be and<br />were repaired, but defeat in New York would in all probability have ended<br />the war. It is not necessary to refer to the immediate direct effects of<br />such a disaster on the army in the field, although it is scarcely possible<br />to over-estimate the calamitous results that would have followed the<br />instantaneous stoppage, even for a short time, of the vast accumulations<br />of provisions, ammunition, and supplies of all kinds, that were on their<br />way to the army through New York. Nor is it necessary to speculate on the<br />effect of the diversion of troops from the front that such an event would<br />have compelled, in order to recover so vital a point. Washington had<br />better be uncovered than New York be lost. One thing only is needed to<br />show how complete and irreparable the disaster would have been; namely,<br />the effect it would have had on the finances of the country. With the<br />great banking-houses and moneyed institutions of New York sacked and<br />destroyed, the financial credit of the country would have broken down<br />utterly. The crash of falling houses all over the country that would have<br />followed financial disaster here, would have been like that of falling<br />trees in a forest swept by a hurricane. Had the rioters got complete<br />possession of the city but for a single day, their first dash would have<br />been for the treasures piled up in its moneyed institutions. Once in<br />possession of these, they, like the mobs of Paris, would have fired the<br />city before yielding them up. In the crisis that was then upon us, it<br />would not have required a long stoppage in this financial centre of the<br />country to have effected a second revolution. With no credit abroad and no<br />money at home, the Government would have been completely paralyzed. Not<br />long possession of the city was needed, but only swift destruction.<br /><br />Doubtless the disastrous effects would have been increased tenfold, if<br />possible, by uprisings in other cities, which events showed were to<br />follow. Even partial success developed hostile elements slumbering in<br />various parts of the country, and running from Boston almost to the<br />extreme West.<br /><br />In this view of the case, these riots assume a magnitude and importance<br />that one cannot contemplate without a feeling of terror, and the truth of<br />history requires that their proper place should be assigned them, and<br />those who put them down have an honorable position beside our successful<br />commanders and brave soldiers. It is also important, as a lesson for the<br />future, and naturally brings up the question, what are the best measures,<br />and what is the best policy for the city of New York to adopt, in order to<br />protect itself from that which to-day constitutes its greatest danger--<br />_mob violence?_ If it ever falls in ruins, the work of destruction<br />will commence and end within its own limits. We have a police and city<br />military which have been thought to be sufficient, but experience has<br />shown that though this provision may be ample to restore law and order in<br />the end, it works slowly, often unwisely, and always with an unnecessary<br />expenditure of life. In conversing with those of largest experience and<br />intelligence in the police department on this subject of such great and<br />growing importance, we are convinced, from their statements and views, a<br />vast improvement in this matter can be made, while the cost to the city,<br />instead of being increased, will be lessened; that is, a cheaper, wiser,<br />and more effectual plan than the present one can be adopted. Of course<br />this does not refer to mere local disturbances, which the police force in<br />the ordinary discharge of its duties can quell, but to those great<br />outbreaks which make it necessary to call out the military. Not that there<br />might not be exigencies in which it would be necessary to resort, not only<br />to the military of the city, but to invoke the aid of neighboring States;<br />for a riot may assume the proportions of a revolution, but for such no<br />local permanent remedy can be furnished.<br /><br />The objections to relying on the military, as we invariably do in case of<br />a large mob, are many. In the first place, it takes the best part of a day<br />to get the troops together, so that a mob, so far as they are concerned,<br />has time not only to waste and destroy for many hours, but increase in<br />strength and audacity. The members of the various regiments are scattered<br />all over the city, engaged in different occupations and employments, and<br />without previous notice being given, it is a long and tedious process to<br />get them to their respective headquarters and in uniform. This wastes much<br />and most valuable time. Besides, they are compelled to reach the mustering<br />place singly or in small groups, and hence liable to be cut off or driven<br />back by the mob, which in most cases would know the place of rendezvous.<br /><br />In the second place, the members are taken out from the mass of the<br />people, between whom there might be a strong sympathy in some particular<br />outbreak, which would impair their efficiency, and make them hesitate to<br />shoot down their friends and acquaintances.<br /><br />In the third place, in ordinary peace times, these uniformed regiments are<br />not the steadiest or most reliable troops, as was witnessed in the riots<br />of 1863, as well as in those of the Astor Place in 1849.<br /><br />They hesitate, or are apt to become hasty or disorganized in a close,<br />confused fight, and driven back. In the commencement of a riot, a defeat<br />of the military gives increased confidence, and indeed, power to a mob,<br />and snakes the sacrifice of life, in the end, far greater.<br /><br />In the fourth place, clearing the streets does not always dissipate a mob.<br />A whole block of houses may become a fortress, which it is necessary to<br />storm before a permanent victory is gained. Half-disciplined men,<br />unaccustomed, and unskilled to such work, make poor headway with their<br />muskets through narrow halls, up stairways, and through scuttle-holes.<br /><br />In the fifth place, the military of the city cannot be called away from<br />their work for two or three days, to parade the city, without a heavy<br />expense, and hence the process is a costly one.<br /><br />In the last place, the firing of these troops at the best is not very<br />judicious, and cannot be discriminating, so that those are shot down often<br />least culpable, and of least influence in the mob--in fact, more lives<br />usually are taken than is necessary.<br /><br />The simplest, most efficient, and most economical plan would be to select<br />five hundred or more of the most courageous, experienced, and efficient<br />men from the police department, and form them into a separate battalion,<br />and have them drilled in such evolutions, manoeuvres, and modes of attack<br />or defence, as would belong to the work they were set apart to do. A<br />battery might be given them in case of certain emergencies, and a portion<br />carefully trained in its use. At a certain signal of the bell, they should<br />be required to hasten, without a moment's delay, to their head-quarters. A<br />mob could hardly be gathered and commence work before this solid body of<br />disciplined, reliable men would be upon them. These five hundred men would<br />scatter five thousand rioters like chaff before them. It would be more<br />efficient than two entire regiments, even if assembled, and would be worth<br />more than the whole military of the city for the first half day.<br /><br />Besides, clubs are better than guns. They take no time to load--they are<br />never discharged like muskets, leaving their owners for the time at the<br />mercy of the mob. Their volleys are incessant and perpetual, given as long<br />and fast as strong arms can strike. They are also more discriminating than<br />bullets, hitting the guilty ones first. Moreover, they disable rather than<br />kill--which is just as effectual, and far more desirable. In addition to<br />all this, being trained to one purpose, instructed to one duty, a mob<br />would be their natural enemies, and hence sympathy with them in any cause<br />almost impossible.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER II.<br /><br /><br />THE NEGRO RIOTS OF 1712-1741.<br /><br />Almost impossible for the present Generation to comprehend its true<br />Character and Effect on the People.--Description of New York at that<br />Time.--The Negro Slaves.--The Negro Riot of 1712.--Description of it.--The<br />Winter of 1741.--Governor's House burned down.--Other Fires.--Suspicion of<br />the People.--Arrest and Imprisonment of the Blacks.--Reward offered for<br />the supposed Conspirators.--Alarm and Flight of the Inhabitants.--<br />Examination and Confession of Mary Burton.--Peggy, the Newfoundland<br />Beauty, and the Hughson Family.--The Conspiracy.--Executions.--Fast.--<br />Hughson's Hearing.--Hung in Chains.--The Body, and that of a Negro, left<br />to swing and rot in the Air.--Strange Change in the Appearances of the<br />Bodies.--The People throng to look at them.--Negroes burned at the Stake.<br />--Terrific Spectacle.--Bloody Summer.--Execution of a Catholic Priest.--<br />Strange Scenes.--Upper Classes accused.--Executions stopped.--Reason of<br />the Panic.<br /><br />Probably no event of comparatively modern times--certainly none in our<br />history--has occurred so extraordinary in some of its phases, as the negro<br />riot of 1741. We cannot fully appreciate it, not merely because of the<br />incompleteness of some of its details, nor from the lapse of time, but<br />because of our inability to place ourselves in the position or state of<br />mind of the inhabitants of New York City at that period. We can no more<br />throw ourselves into the social condition, and feel the influences of that<br />time, than we can conceive the outward physical appearance of the embryo<br />metropolis. It is impossible to stand amid the whirl and uproar of New<br />York to-day, and imagine men ploughing, and sowing grain, and carting hay<br />into barns, where the City Hall now stands. The conception of nearly all<br />the city lying below the Park, above it farms to Canal Street, beyond that<br />clearings where men are burning brush and logs to clear away the fallow,<br />and still farther on, towards Central Park, an unbroken wilderness, is so<br />dim and shadowy, that we can hardly fix its outlines. Yet it was so in<br />1741. Where now stands the Tombs, and cluster the crowded tenements of<br />Five Points, was a pond or lakelet, nearly two miles in circumference and<br />fifty feet deep, and encircled by a dense forest. Its deep, sluggish<br />outlet into the Hudson is now Canal Street. In wet weather there was<br />another water communication with the East River, near Peck Slip, cutting<br />off the lower part of the island, leaving another island, containing some<br />eight hundred acres. Through Broad Street, along which now rolls each day<br />the stream of business, and swells the tumult of the Brokers' Board, then<br />swept a deep stream, up which boatmen rowed their boats to sell oysters.<br />The water that supplied these streams and ponds is now carried off through<br />immense sewers, deep under ground, over which the unconscious population<br />tread. Where Front and Water Streets on the east side, and West Greenwich<br />and Washington on the west side, now stretch, were then the East and<br />Hudson Rivers, having smooth and pebbly beaches. There was not a single<br />sidewalk in all the city, and only some half dozen paved streets. On the<br />Battery stood the fort, in which were the Governor's and secretary's<br />houses, and over which floated the British flag.<br /><br />But all this outward appearance is no more unlike the New York of to-day<br />than its internal condition.<br /><br />The population numbered only about ten thousand, one-fifth of which was<br />negroes, who were slaves. Their education being wholly neglected, they<br />were ignorant and debased, and addicted to almost every vice. They were,<br />besides, restive under their bondage amid the severe punishments often<br />inflicted on them, which caused their masters a great deal of anxiety. Not<br />isolated as an inland plantation, but packed in a narrow space, they had<br />easy communication with each other, and worse than all, with the reckless<br />and depraved crews of the vessels that came into port. It is true, the<br />most stringent measures were adopted to prevent them from assembling<br />together; yet, in spite of every precaution, there would now and then come<br />to light some plan or project that would fill the whites with alarm. They<br />felt half the time as though walking on the crust of a volcano, and hence<br />were in a state of mind to exaggerate every danger, and give credit to<br />every sinister rumor.<br /><br />The experience of the past, as well as the present state of feeling among<br />the slaves, justified this anxiety and dread; for only thirty years before<br />occurred just such an outbreak as they now feared. On the 7th of April, in<br />1712, between one and two o'clock in the morning, the house of Peter Van<br />Tilburgh was set on fire by negroes, which was evidently meant as a signal<br />for a general revolt.<br /><br />The cry of fire roused the neighboring inhabitants, and they rushed out<br />through the unpaved muddy streets, toward the blazing building. As they<br />approached it, they saw, to their amazement, in the red light of the<br />flames, a band of negroes standing in front, armed with guns and long<br />knives. Before the whites could hardly comprehend what the strange<br />apparition meant, the negroes fired, and then rushed on them with their<br />knives, killing several on the spot. The rest, leaving the building to the<br />mercy of the flames, ran to the fort on the Battery, and roused the<br />Governor. Springing from his bed, he rushed out and ordered a cannon to be<br />fired from the ramparts to alarm the town. As the heavy report boomed over<br />the bay and shook the buildings of the town, the inhabitants leaped from<br />their beds, and looking out of the windows, saw the sky lurid with flames.<br />Their dread and uncertainty were increased, when they heard the heavy<br />splash of soldiers through the mud, and the next moment saw their bayonets<br />gleam out of the gloom, as they hurried forward towards the fire. In the<br />meantime, other negroes had rushed to the spot, so that soon there were<br />assembled, in proportion to the white population, what in the present<br />population of the city would be fully 10,000 negroes.<br /><br />The rioters stood firm till they saw the bayonets flashing in the fire-<br />light, and then, giving one volley, fled into the darkness northward,<br />towards what is now Wall Street. The scattered inhabitants they met, who,<br />roused by the cannon, were hastening to the fire, they attacked with their<br />knives, killing and wounding several. The soldiers, firing at random into<br />the darkness, followed after them, accompanied by a crowd of people. The<br />negroes made for the woods and swamps near where the Park now stands, and<br />disappearing in the heavy shadows of the forest, were lost to view.<br />Knowing it would be vain to follow them into the thickets, the soldiers<br />and inhabitants surrounded them and kept watch till morning. Many, of<br />course, got off and buried themselves in the deeper, more extensive woods<br />near Canal Street, but many others were taken prisoners. Some, finding<br />themselves closely pressed and all avenues of escape cut off, deliberately<br />shot themselves, preferring such a death to the one they knew awaited<br />them. How many were killed and captured during the morning, the historian<br />does not tell us. We can only infer that the number must have been great,<br />from the statement he incidentally makes, that "during the day _nineteen<br />more were_ taken, tried, and executed--some that turned State's<br />evidence were transported." "Eight or ten whites had been murdered," and<br />many more wounded.<br /><br />It was a terrible event, and remembered by the present inhabitants with<br />horror and dismay. To the little handful occupying the point of the<br />island, it was a tragedy as great as a riot in New York to-day would be,<br />in which was a loss of 5,000 or more on each side.<br /><br />Many middle-aged men, in 1741, were young men at that time, and remembered<br />the fearful excitement that prevailed, and it was a common topic of<br />conversation.<br /><br />The state of things, therefore, which we have described, was natural. This<br />was rendered worse by the arrival, in the winter of 1741, of a Spanish<br />vessel, which had been captured as a prize, the crew of which was composed<br />in part of negroes, who were sold at auction as slaves. These became very<br />intractable, and in spite of the floggings they received, uttered threats<br />that they knew would reach their masters' ears. Still, no evidence of any<br />general plot against the inhabitants was suspected, and things were moving<br />on in their usual way, when, on the 18th of March, a wild and blustering<br />day, the Governor's house in the fort was discovered to be on fire. Fanned<br />by a fierce south-east wind, the flames spread to the King's chapel, the<br />secretary's house, barracks, and stables; and in spite of all efforts to<br />save them, were totally consumed. The origin of the fire was supposed to<br />be accidental, but a few days after, Captain Warren's house, near the<br />fort, was found to be on fire. Two or three days later, the storehouse of<br />Mr. Van Zandt was discovered on fire. Still, no general suspicions were<br />aroused. Three more days passed, when a cow-stall was reported on fire,<br />and a few hours later, the house of Mr. Thompson; the fire in the latter<br />case originating in the room where a negro slave slept. The very next day,<br />live coals were discovered under the stable of John Murray, on Broadway.<br />This, evidently, was no accident, but the result of design, and the people<br />began to be alarmed. The day following, the house of a sergeant near the<br />fort was seen to be on fire, and soon after, flames arose from the roof of<br />a dwelling near the Fly Market. The rumor now spread like wildfire through<br />the town that it was the work of incendiaries. It seems to us a small<br />foundation to base such a belief on, but it must be remembered that the<br />public mind was in a state to believe almost anything.<br /><br />The alarm was increased by the statement of Mrs. Earle, who said that on<br />Sunday, as she was looking out of her window, she saw three negroes<br />swaggering up Broadway, engaged in earnest conversation. Suddenly she<br />heard one of them exclaim, "Fire! fire! Scorch! scorch! a little d--n by<br />and by!" and then throwing up his hands, laughed heartily. Coupled with<br />the numerous fires that had occurred, and the rumors afloat, it at once<br />excited her suspicions that this conversation had something to do with a<br />plot to burn the city. She therefore immediately reported it to an<br />alderman, and he, next day, to the justices.<br /><br />Although the number of buildings thus mysteriously set on fire was, in<br />reality, small, yet it was as great in proportion to the town then, as<br />three hundred would be in New York to-day. Less than that number, we<br />imagine, would create a panic in the city, especially if the public mind<br />was in a feverish state, as, for instance, during the recent civil war.<br /><br />Some thought the Spanish negroes had set the buildings on fire from<br />revenge, especially as those of the Government were the first to suffer.<br />Others declared that it was a plot of the entire negro population to burn<br />down the city. This belief was strengthened by the fact that, in one of<br />the last fires, a slave of one of the most prominent citizens was seen to<br />leap from the window, and make off over garden fences. A shout was<br />immediately raised by the spectators, and a pursuit commenced. The<br />terrified fugitive made desperate efforts to escape, but being overtaken,<br />he was seized, and, pale as death, lifted on men's shoulders and carried<br />to jail.<br /><br />Added to all this, men now remembered it lacked but a few days of being<br />the anniversary of the bloody riot of thirty years ago. They began to<br />watch and question the negroes, and one of the Spanish sailors, on being<br />interrogated, gave such unsatisfactory, suspicious answers, that the whole<br />crew were arrested, and thrown into prison. But that same afternoon, while<br />the magistrates, whom the alarming state of things had called together,<br />were in consultation about it, the cry of "Fire!" again startled the<br />entire community. The ringing of the alarm-bell had now become almost as<br />terrifying as the sound of the last trumpet, and the panic became general.<br />The first step was to ascertain if there were any strangers in town who<br />might be concealed enemies, and a thorough search was made--the militia<br />being ordered out, and sentries posted at the ends of all the streets,<br />with orders to stop all persons carrying bags and bundles. This was done<br />on the 13th of April. None being found, the conclusion became inevitable<br />that some dark, mysterious plot lay at the bottom of it all, and the<br />inhabitants thought the city was doomed, like Sodom. First, the more<br />timorous packed up their valuable articles and fled into the country, up<br />toward Canal Street. This increased the panic, which swelled until almost<br />the entire population were seen hurrying through the streets, fleeing for<br />their lives. The announcement of an approaching army would not have<br />created a greater stampede. Every cart and vehicle that could be found was<br />engaged at any price, into which whole families were piled, and hurried<br />away to the farms beyond Chambers Street, in the neighborhood of Canal<br />Street. It was a strange spectacle, and the farmers could hardly believe<br />their senses, at this sudden inundation into their quiet houses of the<br />people of the city. The town authorities were also swept away in the<br />general excitement, and negroes of all ages and sexes were arrested by the<br />wholesale, and hurried to prison. The Supreme Court was to sit in the<br />latter part of April, and the interval of a few days was spent in efforts<br />to get at the guilty parties. But nothing definite could be ascertained,<br />as the conspirators, whoever they were, kept their own secret. At length,<br />despairing of getting at the truth in any other way, the authorities<br />offered a reward of a hundred pounds, and a full pardon to any one who<br />would turn State's evidence, and reveal the names of the ringleaders. This<br />was pretty sure to bring out the facts, if there were any to disclose, and<br />almost equally sure to obtain a fabricated story, if there was nothing to<br />tell. A poor, ignorant slave, shaking with terror in his cell, would<br />hardly be proof against such an inducement as a free pardon, and to him or<br />her an almost fabulous sum of money, if he had anything to reveal, while<br />the temptation to invent a tale that would secure both liberty and money<br />was equally strong.<br /><br />On the 21st of April the court met, Judges Philips and Horsmander<br />presiding. A jury was impanelled, but although there was no lack of<br />prisoners, there was almost a total want of evidence sufficient to put a<br />single man on trial. The reward offered had not borne its legitimate<br />fruits, and no one offered to make any revelations.<br /><br />Among the first brought up for examination was Mary Burton, a colored<br />servant girl, belonging to John Hughson, the keeper of a low, dirty negro<br />tavern over on the west side of the city, near the Hudson River. This was<br />a place of rendezvous for the worst negroes of the town; and from some<br />hints that Mary had dropped, it was suspected it had been the head-<br />quarters of the conspirators. But when, brought before the Grand Jury, she<br />refused to be sworn. They entreated her to take the oath and tell the<br />whole truth, but she only shook her head. They then threatened her, but<br />with no better success; they promised she should be protected from danger<br />and shielded from prosecution, but she still maintained an obstinate<br />silence. They then showed her the reward, and attempted to bribe her with<br />the wealth in store for her, but she almost spat on it in her scorn. This<br />poor negro slave showed an independence and stubbornness in the presence<br />of the jury that astonished them. Finding all their efforts vain, they<br />ordered her to be sent to jail. This terrified her, and she consented to<br />be sworn. But after taking the oath, she refused to say anything about the<br />fire. A theft had been traced to Hughson, and she told all she knew about<br />that, but about the fires would neither deny nor affirm anything. They<br />then appealed to her conscience painted before her the terrors of the<br />final judgment, and the torments of hell, till at last she broke down, and<br />proposed to make a clean breast of it. She commenced by saying that<br />Hughson had threatened to take her life if she told, and then again<br />hesitated. But at length, by persistent efforts, the following facts were<br />wrenched from her by piecemeal. She said that three negroes--giving their<br />names--had been in the habit of meeting at the tavern, and talking about<br />burning of the fort and city and murdering the people, and that Hughson<br />and his wife had promised to help them; after which Hughson was to be<br />governor and Cuff Phillipse king. That the first part of the story was<br />true, there is little doubt. How much, with the imagination and love of<br />the marvellous peculiar to her race, she added to it, it is not easy to<br />say. She said, moreover, that but one white person beside her master and<br />mistress was in the conspiracy, and that was an Irish girl known as Peggy,<br />"the Newfoundland Beauty." She had several _aliases_, and was an<br />abandoned character, being a prostitute to the negroes, and at this time<br />kept as a mistress by a bold, desperate negro named Caesar. This<br />revelation of Mary's fell on the Grand Jury like a bombshell. The long-<br />sought secret they now felt was out. They immediately informed the<br />magistrates. Of course the greatest excitement followed. Peggy was next<br />examined, but she denied Mary Burton's story _in toto_--swore that<br />she knew nothing of any conspiracy or of the burning of the stores; that<br />if she should accuse any one it would be a lie, and blacken her own soul.<br /><br />It is rather a severe reflection on the courts of justice of that period,<br />or we might rather say, perhaps, a striking illustration of the madness<br />that had seized on all, that although the law strictly forbade any slave<br />to testify in a court of justice against a white person, yet this girl<br />Mary Burton was not only allowed to appear as evidence against Peggy, but<br />her oath was permitted to outweigh hers, and cause her to be sentenced to<br />death. The latter, though an abandoned, desperate character, was seized<br />with terror at the near approach of death, and begged to be allowed<br />another examination, which was granted, and she professed to make a full<br />confession. It is a little singular that while she corroborated Mary<br />Burton's statement as to the existence of a conspiracy, she located the<br />seat of it not in Hughson's tavern, but in a miserable shanty near the<br />Battery, kept by John Romme, who, she said, had promised to carry them all<br />to a new country, and give them their liberty, if they would murder the<br />whites and bring him the plunder. Like Mary Burton's confession, if<br />truthful at all, it evidently had a large mixture of falsehood in it.<br /><br />On Saturday, May 9th, Peggy was again brought in, and underwent a<br />searching examination. Some of her statements seemed improbable, and they<br />therefore tested them in every possible way. It lasted for several hours,<br />and resulted in a long _detailed_ confession, in which she asserted,<br />among other things, that it was the same plot that failed in 1712, when<br />the negroes designed to kill all the whites, in fact, exterminate them<br />from the island. She implicated a great many negroes in the conspiracy;<br />and every one that she accused, as they were brought before her, she<br />identified as being present at the meetings of the conspirators in Romme's<br />house. The court seemed anxious to avoid any collusion between the<br />prisoners, and therefore kept them apart, so that each story should rest<br />on its own basis. By this course they thought they would be able to<br />distinguish what was true and what was false.<br /><br />Either from conscious guilt, or from having got some inkling of the charge<br />to be brought against him, Romme fled before he could be arrested. His<br />wife, however, and the negroes whose names Peggy gave, were sent to jail.<br /><br />On the 11th of May, or twenty days after the court convened, the<br />executions commenced. On this day, Caesar and Prince, two of the three<br />negroes Mary Burton testified against, were hung, though not for the<br />conspiracy, but for theft. They were abandoned men, and died recklessly.<br />Peggy and Hughson and his wife were next condemned. The former, finding<br />that her confession did not, as had been promised, secure her pardon,<br />retracted all she had said, and exculpated entirely the parties whose<br />arrest she had caused.<br /><br />An atmosphere of gloom now rested over the city; every face showed signs<br />of dread. In this state of feeling the Lieutenant-governor issued a<br />proclamation, appointing a day of fasting and humiliation, not only in<br />view of this calamity, but on account also of the want and loss caused by<br />the past severe winter, and the declaration of war by England against<br />Spain. When the day arrived, every shop was closed and business of all<br />kinds suspended, and the silence and repose of the Sabbath rested on the<br />entire community. Without regard to sect, all repaired to the places of<br />worship, where the services were performed amid the deepest solemnity.<br /><br />The day of execution appointed for Hughson, his wife, and Peggy was a<br />solemn one, and almost the entire population turned out to witness it. The<br />former had declared that some extraordinary appearance would take place at<br />his execution, and every one gazed on him as he passed in a cart from the<br />prison to the gallows. He was a tall, powerful man, being six feet high.<br />He stood erect in the cart all the way, his piercing eye fixed steadily on<br />the distance, and his right hand raised high as his fetters would permit,<br />and beckoning as though he saw help coming from afar. His face was usually<br />pale and colorless, but to-day it was noticed that two bright red spots<br />burned on either cheek, which added to the mystery with which the<br />superstitious spectators invested him. When the sad procession arrived at<br />the place of execution, the prisoners were helped to the ground, and stood<br />exposed to the gaze of the crowd. Hughson was firm and self-possessed; but<br />Peggy, pale, and weeping, and terror-struck, begging for life; while the<br />wife, with the rope round her neck, leaned against a tree, silent and<br />composed, but colorless as marble. One after another they were launched<br />into eternity, and the crowd, solemn and thoughtful, turned their steps<br />homeward.<br /><br />Hughson was hung in chains; and in a few days a negro was placed beside<br />him, and here they swung, "blind and blackening," in the April air, in<br />full view of the tranquil bay, a ghastly spectacle to the fishermen as<br />they plied their vocation near by. For three weeks they dangled here in<br />sunshine and storm, a terror to the passers-by. At length a rumor passed<br />through the town that Hughson had turned into a negro, and the negro into<br />a white man. This was a new mystery, and day after day crowds would come<br />and gaze on the strange transformation, some thinking it supernatural, and<br />others trying to give an explanation. Hughson had threatened to take<br />poison, and it was thought by many that he had, and it was the effect of<br />this that had wrought the change in his appearance. For ten days the<br />Battery was thronged with spectators, gazing on these bloated, decomposing<br />bodies, many in their superstitious fears expecting some new<br />transformation. Under the increasing heat of the sun, they soon began to<br />drip, till at last the body of Hughson burst asunder, filling the air with<br />such an intolerable stench that the fishermen shunned the locality.<br /><br />As simple hanging was soon thought not sufficient punishment, and they<br />were left to swing, and slowly rot in chains, so this last was at length<br />thought to be too lenient, and the convicts were condemned to be burned at<br />the stake. Two negroes, named Quack and Cuffee, were the first doomed to<br />this horrible death. The announcement of this sentence created the<br />greatest excitement. It was a new thing to the colonists, this mode of<br />torture being appropriated by the savages for prisoners taken in war.<br />Curious crowds gathered to see the stake erected, or stare at the loads of<br />wood as they passed along the street, and were unloaded at its base. It<br />was a strange spectacle to behold--the workmen carefully piling up the<br />fagots under the spring sun; the spectators looking on, some horrified,<br />and others fierce as savages; and over all the blue sky bending, while the<br />gentle wind stole up from the bay and whispered in the tree-tops overhead.<br />On the day of execution an immense crowd assembled. The two negroes were<br />brought forward, pale and terrified, and bound to the stake. As the men<br />approached with the fire to kindle the pile, they shrieked out in terror,<br />confessed the conspiracy, and promised, if released, to tell all about it.<br />They were at once taken down. This was the signal for an outbreak, and<br />shouts of "burn 'em, burn 'em" burst from the multitude. Mr. Moore then<br />asked the sheriff to delay execution till he could see the Governor and<br />get a reprieve. He hurried off, and soon returned with a conditional one.<br />But, as he met the sheriff on the common, the latter told him that it<br />would be impossible to take the criminals through the crowd without a<br />strong guard, and before that could arrive, they would be murdered by the<br />exasperated populace. They were then tied up again, and the torch applied.<br />The flames arose around the unhappy victims. The curling smoke soon hid<br />their dusky forms from view, while their shrieks and cries for mercy grew<br />fainter and fainter, as the fierce fire shrivelled up their forms, till at<br />last nothing but the crackling of the flames was heard, and the shouting,<br />savage crowd grew still. As the fire subsided, the two wretched creatures,<br />crisped to a cinder, remained to tell, for the hundredth time, to what<br />barbarous deeds terror and passion may lead men.<br /><br />Some of the negroes went laughing to the place of execution, indulging in<br />all sorts of buffoonery to the last, and mocking the crowd which<br />surrounded them.<br /><br />All protested their innocence to the last, and if they had confessed<br />previously, retracted before death their statements and accusations. But<br />this contradiction of themselves, to-morrow denying what to-day they had<br />solemnly sworn on the Bible to be true, instead of causing the authorities<br />to hesitate, and consider how much terror and the hope of pardon had to do<br />with it, convinced them still more of the strength and dangerous nature of<br />the conspiracy, and they went to work with a determination and<br />recklessness which made that summer the bloodiest and most terrific in the<br />annals of New York. No lawyer was found bold enough to step forward and<br />defend these poor wretches, but all volunteered their services to aid the<br />Government in bringing them to punishment. The weeks now, as they rolled<br />on, were freighted with terror and death, and stamped with scenes that<br />made the blood run cold. This little town, on the southern part of<br />Manhattan Island was wholly given to panic, and a nameless dread of some<br />mysterious, awful fate, extended even to the scattered farm-houses near<br />Canal Street. Between this and the last of August, a hundred and fifty-<br />four negroes, exclusive of whites, were thrown into prison, till every<br />cell was crowded and packed to suffocation with them. For three months,<br />sentence of condemnation was on an average of one a day. The last<br />execution was that of a Catholic priest, or rather of a schoolmaster of<br />the city, who was charged with being one. Mary Burton, after an interval<br />of three months, pretended to remember that he was present with the other<br />conspirators she had first named as being in Hughson's tavern.<br /><br />His trial was long, and apparently without excitement. He conducted his<br />own case with great ability, and brought many witnesses to prove his good<br />character and orderly conduct; but he, of course, could not disprove the<br />assertion of Mary, that she had some time or other seen him with the<br />conspirators at Hughson's tavern--for the latter, with his wife and Peggy,<br />and the negroes she had before named, had all been executed. Mary Burton<br />alone was left, and her evidence being credited, no amount of testimony<br />could avail him.<br /><br />Although the proceedings were all dignified and solemn, as became an<br />English court, yet the course the trial took showed how utterly unbalanced<br />and one-sided it had become. To add weight to Mary's evidence, many<br />witnesses were examined to prove that Ury, though a schoolmaster, had<br />performed the duties of a Catholic priest, as though this were an<br />important point to establish. The attorney-general, in opening the case,<br />drew a horrible picture of former persecutions by the Papists, and their<br />cruelties to the Protestants, until it was apparent that all that the jury<br />needed to indorse a verdict of guilty was evidence that he was a Catholic<br />priest. Still it would be unfair to attribute this feeling wholly to<br />religious intolerance or the spirit of persecution. England was at this<br />time at war with Spain, and a report was circulated that the Spanish<br />priests in Florida had formed a conspiracy to murder the English<br />colonists. A letter from Ogilthorpe, in Georgia, confirmed this. Ury, who<br />was an educated Englishman, but had led an adventurous life in different<br />countries, could not disprove this, and he was convicted and sentenced to<br />be hung. He met his fate with great composure and dignity, asserting his<br />innocence to the last. He made the eighteenth victim hung, while thirteen<br />had been burned at the stake, and seventy-one transported to various<br />countries.<br /><br />At the average rate of two every week, one hanged and one burned alive,<br />they were hurried into eternity amid prayers, and imprecations, and<br />shrieks of agony. The hauling of wood to the stake, and the preparation of<br />the gallows, kept the inhabitants in a state bordering on insanity.<br />Business was suspended, and every face wore a terrified look. The voice of<br />pity as well as justice was hushed, and one desire, that of swift<br />vengeance, filled every heart. Had the press of to-day, with its system of<br />interviewing, and minuteness of detail and description, existed then,<br />there would have been handed down to us a chapter in human history that<br />could be paralleled only in the dark ages.<br /><br />A swift massacre, a terrible slaughter, comes and goes like an earthquake<br />or a tornado, and stuns rather than debases; but this long, steady<br />succession of horrible executions and frightful scenes changed the very<br />nature of the inhabitants, and they became a prey to a spirit demoniacal<br />rather than human. The prayers and tears of those led forth to the stake,<br />their heartrending cries as they were bound to it, and their shrieks of<br />agony that were wafted out over the still waters of the bay, fell on hard<br />and pitiless hearts. The ashes of the wood that consumed one victim would<br />hardly grow cold before a new fire was kindled upon them, and the charred<br />and blackened posts stood month after month, hideous monuments of what man<br />may become when judgment and reason are surrendered to fear and passion.<br />The spectacle was made still more revolting by the gallows standing near<br />the stake, on which many were hung in chains, and their bodies left to<br />swing, blacken, and rot in the summer air, a ghastly, horrible sight.<br /><br />Where this madness, that had swept away court, bar, and people together,<br />would have ended, it is impossible to say, had not a new terror seized the<br />inhabitants. Mary Burton, on whose accusation the first victims had been<br />arrested and executed, finding herself a heroine, sought new fields in<br />which to win notoriety. She ceased to implicate the blacks, and turned her<br />attention to the whites, and twenty-four were arrested and thrown into<br />prison. Elated with her success, she began to ascend in the social scale,<br />and criminated some persons of the highest social standing in the city,<br />whose characters were above suspicion. This was turning the tables on them<br />in a manner the upper class did not expect, and they began to reflect what<br />the end might be. The testimony that was sufficient to condemn the slaves<br />was equally conclusive against them. The stake and the gallows which the<br />court had erected for the black man, it could not pull down because a<br />white gentleman stood under their shadow.<br /><br />Robespierre and his friends cut off the upper-crust of society without<br />hesitation or remorse; but unfortunately the crust next below this became<br />in turn the upper-crust, which also had to be removed, until at last they<br />themselves were reached, when they paused. They had advanced up to their<br />necks in the bloody tide of revolution, and finding that to proceed<br />farther would take them overhead, they attempted to wade back to shore. So<br />here, so long as the accusations were confined to the lowest class, it was<br />all well enough, but when _they_ were being reached, it was high time<br />to stop. The proceedings were summarily brought to a close, further<br />examinations were deemed unnecessary, and confessions became flat and<br />unprofitable; and this strange episode in American history ended.<br /><br />That there had been cause for alarm, there can be no doubt. That threats<br />should be uttered by the slaves, is natural; for this would be in keeping<br />with their whole history in this country. Nor is it at all improbable that<br />a conspiracy was formed; for this, too, would only be in harmony with the<br />conduct of slaves from time immemorial. The utter folly and hopelessness<br />of such a one as the blacks testified to, has been urged against its<br />existence altogether. If the argument is good for anything, it proves that<br />the conspiracy thirty years before never existed, and that the Southampton<br />massacre was a delusion, and John Brown never hatched his utterly insane<br />conspiracy in Harper's Ferry. There have been a good many servile<br />insurrections plotted in this country, not one of which was a whit more<br />sensible or easier of execution than this, which was said to look to the<br />complete overthrow of the little city. That the fires which first started<br />the panic were the work of negro incendiaries, there is but little doubt;<br />but how far they were a part of a wide-laid plan, it is impossible to<br />determine.<br /><br />Unquestionably, success at the outset would have made the movement<br />general, so that nothing but military force could have arrested it.<br /><br />There is one thing, however, about which there is no doubt--that a panic<br />seized the people and the courts, and made them as unreliable as in the<br />days of the Salem witchcraft. But these striking exhibitions of the<br />weakness of human nature under certain circumstances have been witnessed<br />since the world was made, and probably will continue to the end of time,<br />or until the race enters on a new phase of existence. Panics, even among<br />the most veteran soldiers, sometimes occur, and hence we cannot wonder<br />they take place amid a mixed population. Popular excitements are never<br />characterized by reason and common-sense, and never will be. In this case,<br />there was more reason for a panic than at first sight seems to be.<br /><br />In the first place, the proportion of slaves to the whites was large. In<br />the second place, they were a turbulent set, and had shown such a<br />dangerous spirit, that the authorities became afraid to let them assemble<br />together in meetings. This restriction they felt sorely, and it made them<br />more restive. All were aware of this hostile state of feeling, and were<br />constantly anticipating some outbreak or act of violence. Besides, it was<br />but a few years since the thing they now feared did actually take place.<br />And then, too, the point first aimed at was significant, and showed a<br />boldness founded on conscious strength. Right inside the fort itself, and<br />to the Governor's house, the torch was applied. It certainly looked<br />ominous. Besides, the very wholesale manner in which the authorities<br />thought it best to go to work increased the panic. In a very short time<br />over a hundred persons were thrown into prison. The same proportion to the<br />population to-day would be over ten thousand. Such a wholesale arrest<br />would, of itself, throw New York into the wildest excitement, and conjure<br />up all sorts of horrible shapes. Add to this, an average of two hundred<br />burned at the stake, and two hundred hung every week, or more than fifty a<br />day, and nearly three times that number sentenced to transportation, and<br />one can faintly imagine what a frightful state of things would exist in<br />the city. The very atmosphere grew stifling from the smoke of burning men<br />and women, while the gallows groaned under its weight of humanity. Had<br />this been the wild work of a mob it would have been terrible enough, but<br />when it was the result of a deliberate judicial tribunal, which was<br />supposed to do nothing except on the most conclusive evidence, the sense<br />of danger was increased tenfold. The conclusion was inevitable, that the<br />conspiracy embraced every black man in the city, and was thoroughly<br />organized. In short, the whole place was, beyond doubt, resting over a<br />concealed volcano, and the instinct of self-preservation demanded the most<br />summary work. Let the inhabitants of any city become thoroughly possessed<br />of such an idea, and they will act with no more prudence or reason than<br />the people of New York at that time did. An undoubted belief in such a<br />state of things will confuse the perceptions and unbalance the judgment of<br />a community anywhere and everywhere on the globe.<br /><br />Still, consistent as it is with human history, one can hardly believe it<br />possible, as he stands in New York to-day, that men have there been burned<br />at the stake under the sanction of English law, or left to swing and rot<br />in the winds of heaven, by order of the Supreme Court of the city.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER III.<br /><br /><br />THE STAMP-ACT RIOT OF 1765.<br /><br />Thorough Understanding of the Principles of Liberty by the People.--The<br />Stamp Act.--How viewed by the Colonists.--Colden strengthens Fort George<br />in Alarm.--Arrival of the Stamps.--How the News was received by the Sons<br />of Liberty.--A Bold Placard.--Stamp Distributor frightened.--Patriotic<br />Action of the Merchants.--Public Demonstration against the Stamp Act.--<br />Colden takes Refuge in the Fort.--Dare not fire on the People.--The People<br />at the Gate demand the Stamps.--Colden and Lord Bute hung in Effigy.--<br />Colden's Coach-house broken open.--The Images placed in the Coach, and<br />dragged with Shouts through the Streets.--Hung again in Sight of the<br />Fort.--A Bonfire made of the Fence around Bowling Green, and the<br />Governor's Carriages, while the Garrison look silently on.--Prejudice<br />against Coaches.--Major James' House sacked.--Great Joy and Demonstration<br />at the Repeal of the Stamp Act.--Celebration of the King's Birthday.--<br />Loyalty of the People.--Mutiny Act.--A Riot becomes a Great Rebellion.<br /><br />At the present day, when personal ambition takes the place of patriotism,<br />and love of principle gives way to love of party; when the success of the<br />latter is placed above constitutional obligations and popular rights, one<br />seems, as he turns back to our early history, to be transported to another<br />age of the world, and another race of beings.<br /><br />Nothing shows how thoroughly understood by the common people were the<br />principles of liberty, and with what keen penetration they saw through all<br />shams and specious reasoning, than the decided, nay, fierce, stand they<br />took against the stamp act. This was nothing more than our present law<br />requiring a governmental stamp on all public and business paper to make it<br />valid. The only difference is, the former was levying a tax without<br />representation--in other words, without the consent of the governed. The<br />colonies assembled in Congress condemned it; hence the open, violent<br />opposition to it by the people rises above the level of a common riot, and<br />partakes more of the nature of a righteous revolution. Still, it was a<br />riot, and exhibited the lawless features of one.<br /><br />The news of the determination of the English Government to pass a stamp<br />act, raised a storm of indignation throughout the colonies, from<br />Massachusetts to South Carolina, and it was denounced as an oppressive,<br />unrighteous, tyrannical measure. From the wayside tavern and the pulpit<br />alike, it was attacked with unsparing severity. The Government, however,<br />thought it a mere ebullition of feeling, that would not dare exhibit<br />itself in open opposition. Nor does this confidence seem strong, when we<br />remember the weakness of the colonies on the one side, and the strength of<br />an organized government, with the law and force both, on the other.<br /><br />Cadwallader Colden, a Scotchman by birth, and a clergyman by profession,<br />was at that time acting Governor of New York; and to guard against any<br />resort to force on the part of the people when the stamps should arrive,<br />had Fort George, on the Battery, reinforced by a regiment from Crown<br />Point, its magazines replenished, the ramparts strengthened, and its guns<br />trained on the town. The people saw all this, and understood its import;<br />but it had the opposite effect from that which was intended, for, instead<br />of overawing the people, it exasperated them.<br /><br />At length, in October, 1765, a ship with the British colors flying came<br />sailing up the bay, and anchored off Fort George. In a short time the<br />startling tidings was circulated, that she brought a quantity of stamps.<br />It was like sounding an alarm-bell, and the streets became thronged with<br />excited men, while all the provincial vessels in the harbor lowered their<br />colors to half-mast, in token of mourning. In anticipation of this event,<br />an organization of men had been formed, called "Sons of Liberty." They at<br />once assembled, and resolved at all hazards to get hold of those stamps.<br />They had caused the act itself to be hawked about the streets as "the<br />folly of England and the ruin of America," and now they determined to<br />measure their strength with the Governor of the colony. That night, when<br />the town was wrapped in slumber, they quietly affixed on the doors of<br />every public office and on corners of the streets, the following placard:<br /><br />PRO PATRIA.<br /><br />_The first man that either distributes or makes use of stamped paper,<br />let him take care of his house, person, and effects._<br /><br />VOX POPULI.<br /><br />"WE DARE."<br /><br />To the stamp distributors they said, "Assure yourselves, the spirit of<br />Brutus and Cassius is yet alive. We will not submit to the stamp act upon<br />any account or in any instance."<br /><br />McEvers, the head stamp distributor, frightened by the bold, determined<br />attitude of the people, refused to receive the stamps, and Golden had them<br />sent for greater safety to Fort George. He had written, to the British<br />Secretary, "_I am resolved to have the stamps distributed_." But the<br />people were equally resolved they should not be. Still, on the 30th day of<br />October, he and all the royal governors took the oath to carry the stamp<br />act into effect; but they soon discovered that they could find no one bold<br />enough to act as distributor. All along the sea-coast, in every part of<br />the colonies, the people were aroused, and either assembling quietly, or<br />called together by the ringing of bells and firing of cannon, presented<br />such a united, determined front, that not one person remained duly<br />commissioned to distribute stamps. On the last day of October, the<br />merchants of New York came together, and bound themselves to "send no new<br />orders for goods or merchandise, to countermand all former orders, and not<br />even receive goods on commission, unless the stamp act be repealed"--that<br />is, give up commerce at once, with all its wealth and benefits, rather<br />than submit to a tax of a few shillings on paper.<br /><br />Friday, the 1st of November, was the day fixed upon for a public<br />demonstration of the people throughout the colonies against it, and never<br />dawned a morning more pregnant with the fate not only of a nation, but of<br />the world.<br /><br />From New Hampshire to South Carolina it was ushered in by the tolling of<br />muffled bells, the firing of minute-guns, and flags hung at half-mast.<br />Eulogies were pronounced on liberty, and everywhere people left their<br />shops and fields, and gathered in excited throngs to discuss the great<br />question of taxation.<br /><br />"Even the children at their games, though hardly able to speak, caught up<br />the general chorus, and went along the streets, merrily carolling:<br />'Liberty, Property, and no Stamps.'" [Footnote: Bancroft.]<br /><br />In New York the uprising was terrific, for the population rushed together<br />as one man--as Gage, the commander of Fort George said, "by thousands."<br /><br />The sailors flocked in from the vessels, the farmers from the country, and<br />the shouts, and ringing of bells, and firing of cannon made the city<br />fairly tremble. Colden was terrified at the storm that was raised, and<br />took refuge in the fort. An old man, bent and bowed with the weight of<br />eighty years, he tottered nervously to the shelter of its guns, and<br />ordered up a detachment of marines from a ship of war in port, for his<br />protection. In his indignation, he wanted to fire on the people, and the<br />black muzzles of the cannon pointing on the town had an ominous look.<br />Whether he had threatened to do so by a message, we do not know; at any<br />rate, the people either suspected his determination or got wind of it, for<br />during the day an unknown person handed in at the fort-gate a note,<br />telling him if he did, the people would hang him, like Porteus of<br />Edinburgh, on a sign-post. He wisely forebore to give the order, for if he<br />had not, his gray hairs would have streamed from a gibbet.<br /><br />At length the day of turmoil wore away, and night came on, but with it<br />came no diminution of the excitement. Soon as it was dark, the "Sons of<br />Liberty," numbering thousands, surged tumultuously up around the fort, and<br />demanded that the stamps should be given up that they might be destroyed.<br />Golden bluntly refused, when with loud, defiant shouts they left, and went<br />up Broadway to "the field" (the present Park), where they erected a<br />gibbet, and hanged on it Colden in effigy, and beside him a figure holding<br />a boot; some said to represent the devil, others Lord Bute, of whom the<br />_boot_, by a pun on his name, showed for whom the effigy was<br />designed.<br /><br />The demonstration had now become a riot, and the Sons of Liberty<br />degenerated into a mob. The feeling that had been confined to words all<br />day must now have some outlet. A torchlight procession was formed, and the<br />scaffold and images taken down, and borne on men's shoulders along<br />Broadway towards the Battery. The glare of flaring lights on the buildings<br />and faces of the excited crowd, the shouts and hurrahs that made night<br />hideous, called out the entire population, which gazed in amazement on the<br />strange, wild spectacle.<br /><br />They boldly carried the scaffold and effigies to within a few feet of the<br />gate of the fort, and knocked audaciously for admission. Isaac Sears was<br />the leader of these "Sons of Liberty."<br /><br />Finding themselves unable to gain admittance, they went to the Governor's<br />carriage-house, and took out his elegant coach, and placing the two<br />effigies in it, dragged it by hand around the streets by the light of<br />torches, amid the jeers and shouts of the multitude. Becoming at last<br />tired of this amusement, they returned towards the fort, and erected a<br />second gallows, on which they hung the effigies the second time.<br /><br />All this time the cannon, shotted and primed, lay silent on their<br />carriages, while the soldiers from the ramparts looked wonderingly, idly<br />on. General Gage did not dare to fire on the people, fearing they would<br />sweep like an inundation over the ramparts, when he knew a general<br />massacre would follow.<br /><br />The mob now tore down, the wooden fence that surrounded Bowling Green, and<br />piling pickets and boards together, set them on fire. As the flames<br />crackled and roared in the darkness, they pitched on the Governor's coach,<br />with the scaffold and effigies; then hastening to his carriage-house<br />again, and dragging out a one-horse chaise, two sleighs, and other<br />vehicles, hauled them to the fire, and threw them on, making a<br />conflagration that illumined the waters of the bay and the ships riding at<br />anchor. This was a galling spectacle to the old Governor and the British<br />officers, but they dared not interfere.<br /><br />What was the particular animosity against those carriages does not appear,<br />though it was the only property of the Governor they destroyed, unless<br />they were a sign of that aristocratic pride which sought to enslave them.<br />There were, at this time, not a half-dozen coaches in the city, and they<br />naturally became the symbols of bloated pride. It is said the feeling was<br />so strong against them, that a wealthy Quaker named Murray, who lived out<br />of town, near where the distributing reservoir now is, kept one to ride<br />down town in, yet dared not call it a coach, but a "_leathern<br />convenience_."<br /><br />Although Sears and other leaders of the Sons of Liberty tried to restrain<br />the mob, their blood was now up, and they were bent on destruction. Having<br />witnessed the conflagration of the Governor's carriages, they again<br />marched up Broadway, and some one shouting "James' house," the crowd took<br />up the shout, and passing out of the city streamed through the open<br />country, to where West Broadway now is, and near the corner of Anthony<br />Street. This James was Major in the Royal Artillery, and had made himself<br />obnoxious to the people by taking a conspicuous part in putting the fort<br />into a state of defence. He had a beautiful residence here, which the mob<br />completely gutted, broke up his elegant furniture, destroyed his library<br />and works of art, and laid waste his ornamented grounds. They then<br />dispersed, and the city became quiet.<br /><br />The excitement was, however, not quelled--the people had not yet got hold<br />of the stamps, which they were determined to have. Colden, having seen<br />enough of the spirit of the "Sons of Liberty," was afraid to risk another<br />night, even in the fort, unless it was in some way appeased; and so the<br />day after the riot, he had a large placard posted up, stating that he<br />should have nothing more to do with the stamps, but would leave them with<br />Sir Henry Moore, the newly appointed Governor, then on his way from<br />England.<br /><br />This, however, did not satisfy the Sons of Liberty: they wanted the stamps<br />themselves, and through Sears, their leader, insisted on their being given<br />up--telling him very plainly if he did not they would storm the fort, and<br />they were determined to do it.<br /><br />The Common Council of the city now became alarmed at the ungovernable,<br />desperate spirit of the mob, which seemed bent on blood, and begged the<br />Governor to let them be deposited in the City Hall. To this he finally<br />though reluctantly consented, but the feeling in the city kept at fever<br />heat, and would remain so until the act itself was repealed.<br /><br />Moore, the new Governor, soon arrived, and assumed the reigns of<br />government. The corporation offered him the freedom of the city in a gold<br />box, but he refused to receive it, unless upon stamped paper. It was<br />evident he was determined to enforce the stamp act. But on consulting with<br />Colden and others, and ascertaining the true state of things, he wisely<br />abandoned his purpose, and soon made it publicly known. To appease the<br />people still more, he dismantled the fort, which was peculiarly obnoxious<br />to them from the threatening attitude it had been made to assume. Still,<br />the infamous act was unrepealed, and the people refused to buy English<br />manufactures, and commerce languished.<br /><br />At length, Parliament, finding that further insistance in carrying out the<br />obnoxious act only worked mischief, had repealed it. When the news reached<br />New York, the most unbounded joy was manifested. Bells were rung, cannon<br />fired, and placards posted, calling on a meeting of the citizens the next<br />day to take measures for celebrating properly the great event. At the<br />appointed time, the people came together at Howard's Hotel, and forming a<br />procession, marched gayly to "the field," and right where the City Hall<br />now stands, then an open lot, a salute of twenty-one guns was fired. A<br />grand dinner followed, at which the Sons of Liberty feasted and drank<br />loyal toasts to his Majesty, and all went "merry as a marriage-bell." The<br />city was illuminated, and bonfires turned the night into day. In a few<br />weeks, the King's birthday was celebrated with great display. A huge pile<br />of wood was erected in the Park, and an ox roasted whole for the people.<br />Cart after cart dumped its load of beer on the ground, till twenty-five<br />barrels, flanked by a huge hogshead of rum, lay in a row, presided over by<br />men appointed to deal out the contents to the populace. A boisterous<br />demonstration followed that almost drowned the roar of the twenty-one<br />cannon that thundered forth a royal salute. As a fitting wind-up to the<br />bacchanalian scene, at night twenty-five tar-barrels, fastened on poles,<br />blazed over the "common," while brilliant fireworks were exhibited at<br />Bowling Green. The feasting continued late in the night, and so delighted<br />were the "Sons of Liberty," that they erected a mast, inscribed "to his<br />most gracious Majesty, George the Third, Mr. Pitt, and Liberty." A<br />petition was also signed to erect a statue to Pitt, and the people seemed<br />determined by this excess of loyalty to atone for their previous<br />rebellious spirit. The joy, however, was of short duration--the news of<br />the riots caused Parliament to pass a "mutiny act," by which troops were<br />to be quartered in America in sufficient numbers to put down any similar<br />demonstration in future, a part of the expense of their support to be paid<br />by the colonists themselves. This exasperated "the Sons of Liberty", and<br />they met and resolved to resist this new act of oppression to the last.<br />The troops arrived in due time, and of course collisions took place<br />between them and the people. Matters now continued to grow worse and<br />worse, until the "riot of the Sons of Liberty" became a revolution, which<br />dismembered the British Empire, and established this great republic, the<br />influence of which on the destiny of the world no one can predict.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER IV.<br /><br /><br />DOCTORS' RIOT, 1788.<br /><br />Body-snatching.--Bodies dug up by Medical Students.--Excitement of the<br />People.--Effect of the Discovery of a human Limb from the Hospital.--Mob<br />ransack the Building.--Destruction of Anatomical Specimens.--Arrival of<br />Mayor, and Imprisonment of Students.--Second Day.--Examination of Columbia<br />College and Physicians' Houses.--Appeal of the Mayor and distinguished<br />Citizens to the Mob.--Mob attempt to break into Jail and seize the<br />Students.--The Fight.--The Military called out.--Beaten by the Mob.--<br />Larger Military Force called out.--Attacked by the Mob.--Deadly Firing.--<br />Great Excitement.--Flight of Doctors and Students.<br /><br />In former times "body-snatching," or digging up bodies for dissections,<br />was much, more heard of than at present. The fear of it was so great,<br />that often, in the neighborhood where medical students were pursuing their<br />studies, persons who lost friends would have a watch kept over their<br />graves for several nights, to prevent them from being dug up. Neither the<br />high social position of parties nor sex was any barrier to this<br />desecration of graves, and the public mind was often shocked by accounts<br />of the young and beautiful being disinterred, to be cut up by medical<br />students. In the city there was, a few years ago--and perhaps there is<br />now--a regular commercial price for bodies.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL.--Scene of the Doctors' Riot. Located<br />formerly on Broadway at the head of Pearl Street.]<br /><br />[Illustration: THE COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM 143d St. The former building<br />destroyed during the Draft Riot of 1863.]<br /><br />Although it was conceded that for thorough instruction in medical science,<br />subjects for dissection were necessary, yet no one outside of the medical<br />profession could be found to sanction "bodysnatching." There is a<br />sacredness attached to the grave that the most hardened feel. Whenever the<br />earth is thrown over the body of a man, no matter how abject or sinful he<br />may have been, the involuntary exclamation of every one is "_requiescat<br />in pace_." When, it comes to be one of our own personal friends, a<br />parent, sister, or child, to this feeling of sacredness is added that of<br />affection, and no wrong is like that of invading the tomb of those we<br />love. Shakespeare left his curse for him who should disturb his bones; and<br />all feel like cursing those who disturb the bones of friends who are<br />linked to them by blood and affection.<br /><br />In the winter of 1787 and 1788, medical students of New York City dug up<br />bodies more frequently than usual, or were more reckless in their mode of<br />action, for the inhabitants became greatly excited over the stories that<br />were told of their conduct. Some of these, if true, revealed a brutality<br />and indecency, shocking as it was unnecessary. Usually, the students had<br />contented themselves with ripping open the graves of strangers and<br />negroes, about whom there was little feeling; but this winter they dug up<br />respectable people, even young women, of whom they made an indecent<br />exposure.<br /><br />The stories did not lose anything by repetition, and soon the conduct of<br />physicians and medical students became a town talk. There seemed to be no<br />remedy for this state of things; the graveyards, which were then in the<br />heart of the city, were easily accessible; while plenty of men could be<br />found, who, for a small sum, would dig up any body that was desired. A<br />mere accident caused this state of feeling to culminate and suddenly break<br />out into action. In the spring, some boys were playing in the rear of the<br />hospital, when a young surgeon, from a mere whim, showed an amputated arm<br />to them. One of them, impelled by curiosity, immediately mounted a ladder<br />that stood against the wall, used in making some repairs, when the surgeon<br />told him to look at his mother's arm. The little fellow's mother had<br />recently died, and filled with terror, he immediately hastened to his<br />father, who was a mason, and working at the time in Broadway. The father<br />at once went to his wife's grave, and had it opened. He found the body<br />gone, and returned to his fellow-workmen with the news. They were filled<br />with rage, and, armed with tools, and gathering a crowd as they marched,<br />they surged up around the hospital.<br /><br />At first many seemed to be impelled only by curiosity, but as the throng<br />increased, the masons became eager for decisive action. Threats and<br />denunciations began to arise on every side, and then appeals for<br />vengeance, till at length they rushed for the door, and pouring into the<br />building, began the work of destruction. For a while there was a terrible<br />rattling of bones, as they tore down, and smashed every anatomical<br />specimen they could lay their hands on. Valuable imported ones shared the<br />common fate. They swarmed through the building, and finally came upon<br />fresh subjects, apparently but just dug up. This kindled their rage<br />tenfold, and the students, who thus far had been unmolested, were in<br />danger of being roughly handled.<br /><br />The news of the gathering of the crowd and its threatening aspect, had<br />reached the Mayor, who immediately summoned the sheriff, and taking him<br />with several prominent citizens, hastened to the spot. Finding the<br />students in the hands of the infuriated mob, he released them, and to the<br />satisfaction, apparently, of the rioters, sent them to jail for safe-<br />keeping.<br /><br />There was now nothing left for them to do, and they dispersed, and the<br />matter was thought to be ended.<br /><br />But, during the evening, knots of men were everywhere discussing the<br />events of the day, and retailing the exciting reports that were now flying<br />thickly around; and next morning, whether from any concert of action, or<br />impelled by mere curiosity, is not known, crowds began to fill the street<br />and yard in front of the city hospital. The discovery of the bodies the<br />day before had deepened the excitement, and now a more thorough<br />examination of the building was proposed, and also an examination of the<br />physicians' houses. Matters were beginning to wear a serious aspect, and<br />the Governor, Mayor, Chancellor, and some of the prominent citizens of the<br />town, came together to consult on a course of action. It was finally<br />resolved to resort in a body to the spot where the mob was assembled, and<br />make a personal appeal to it. They did so, and presented an imposing<br />appearance as they advanced up Broadway. Although representing the State<br />and city, they did not presume on their authority, but attempted<br />persuasion. Mounting the steps, they in turn addressed the throng, which<br />now kept momentarily increasing, and exhorted them as law-abiding citizens<br />to use no violence. Some made most pathetic appeals to their feelings,<br />their pride and self-respect; indeed, begged them, by every consideration<br />of home and justice, to desist, and retire peacefully to their homes. They<br />solemnly promised that a most thorough investigation should be made, and<br />they should have all the satisfaction the laws could afford. More they<br />ought not to ask. These appeals and promises produced a favorable effect<br />on many of the mob, and they left. But the greater part refused to be<br />pacified. Their blood was up, and they insisted on making the examination<br />themselves. They did not propose to commit any violence, but having begun<br />their investigations they were determined to go through with them.<br /><br />The Mayor and the Governor seemed to have an unaccountable repugnance to<br />the use of force, and let the mob depart for Columbia College without any<br />resistance. The professors and students were amazed at this sudden<br />inundation of the crowd, who swarmed without opposition through every part<br />of the building. Finding nothing to confirm their suspicions, they left<br />without doing any material injury. Still unsatisfied, however, they<br />repaired to the houses of the neighboring physicians, and the leaders,<br />acting as a delegation of the crowd, went through them with the same<br />result. It was a singularly well-behaved mob, and they received the report<br />of the self-constituted committees with apparently perfect satisfaction,<br />and when they had made the round of the houses, gradually broke up into<br />knots and dispersed.<br /><br />But the lawless spirit of a mob seldom arrests and controls itself. Having<br />once felt its strength and power, it is never satisfied till it measures<br />them against those of the legal authorities, and yields only when it must.<br />Hence, as a rule, the quicker "it feels the strong hand of power" the<br />better for all parties. Promising legal satisfaction, to law-breakers is a<br />very unsatisfactory proceeding. Obedience first and discussion afterwards<br />is the proper order to be observed.<br /><br />The Mayor had hardly time to congratulate himself on having overcome so<br />easily a serious difficulty, before he found that he had not as yet<br />touched it. In the afternoon, the crowd again began to assemble, and this<br />time around the jail, with the avowed purpose of taking vengeance on the<br />students and physicians locked up there for safe-keeping. Having asserted<br />and exercised, against all law, the right of domiciliary visits, it was<br />but a short and easy step to assert the right to punish also contrary to<br />law. As they gathered in front of the jail, it was seen that a different<br />spirit from that which they had hitherto exhibited ruled them. The tiger<br />was unchained, and loud shouts and yells were heard. "Bring out your<br />doctors! bring out your doctors!" arose on every side. They threatened to<br />tear down the building unless they were given up. The inmates became<br />thoroughly alarmed, and barricaded the doors and windows, and armed<br />themselves the best way they could for self-defence. Attempts were made to<br />parley with the crowd, but they would listen to nothing, and answered<br />every appeal with loud shouts for the doctors. What they _intended_<br />to do with them by way of punishment was not so clear, though what their<br />fate would have been, if once at their mercy, there was little doubt. The<br />city authorities now became alarmed, murder was imminent, and having no<br />police force sufficient to cope with such a formidable mob, they decided<br />that the city was in a state of insurrection, and called out the military.<br />About three o'clock, the force marched up the street, and passed quietly<br />through the crowd, which opened as they advanced. As they moved past, a<br />shower of dirt and stones followed them, accompanied with taunts, and<br />jeers, and mocking laughter. The whole military movement was evidently<br />intended only for intimidation--to show the rioters what could be done if<br />they resorted to violence; for the soldiers, instead of taking up their<br />quarters, as they should have done, in the building, having exhibited<br />themselves, marched away. But the mob, still retaining its position and<br />threatening attitude, another force, a little later, consisting of only<br />twelve men, was sent up. This was worse than nothing, and as the little<br />handful marched solemnly up, the crowd broke out into derisive laughter,<br />and all sorts of contemptuous epithets were heaped upon them. Instead of<br />waiting for them to come near, they rushed down, the street to meet them,<br />and swarming like bees around them, snatched away their muskets, and broke<br />them to pieces on the pavement. [Footnote: John Jay and Baron Steuben were<br />both wounded in trying to allay the mob.] The soldiers, disarmed,<br />scattered, and hustled about, were glad to escape with whole bodies.<br /><br />This first act of open resistance excited the rioters still more--they had<br />passed the Rubicon, and were now ready for anything, and "to the jail! to<br />the jail!" arose in wild yells, and the turbulent mass poured like a<br />tumultuous sea around the building. They rushed against the doors, and<br />with united shoulders and bodies endeavored to heave them from their<br />hinges. But being secured with heavy bolts and bars, they resisted all<br />their efforts. They then smashed in the windows with stones, and attempted<br />to force an entrance through them; but the handful of men inside took<br />possession of these, and, with such weapons as they could find, beat them<br />back. Numbers were of no avail here, as only a few at a time could<br />approach a window, while those within, being on the defensive, knocked<br />them back as often as they attempted to climb in. The rioters, baffled in<br />their attempts, would then fall back, and hurl paving-stones and bricks at<br />the windows, when those who defended them would step one side. But the<br />moment the former advanced again, the latter would crowd the windows with<br />clubs and sticks. The enraged assailants tore off pickets, and advancing<br />with these, made desperate efforts to clear the windows. But those within<br />knew it was a matter of life and death with them, and stubbornly held<br />their ground. The fight was thus kept up till dark, amid yells and shouts<br />and a pandemonium of noises, and no efforts apparently were made to put an<br />end to it, and release the inmates of the jail. But steps had been taken<br />to organize and arm a large body of militia under an experienced officer,<br />and now in the dim starlight their bayonets were seen gleaming, as they<br />marched steadily forward on the dark, heaving mass that filled the street<br />far as the eye could see. The rioters, however, instead of being<br />intimidated at the sight, sent up a yell of defiance, and arming<br />themselves with stones and brick-bats, hurled them in a blinding volley on<br />the troops. So fierce was the assault, that before the latter had time to<br />form, many were knocked down, and some badly wounded. The commanding<br />officer, finding the fight thus forced on him, gave the order in a ringing<br />voice, "Ready, aim, fire!" A flash broad as the street followed, lighting<br />up the gloom, and revealing the scowling faces of the mob, the battered<br />front of the jail, and the pale faces of those guarding the windows. They<br />had not expected this close, point-blank volley, for the timid action of<br />the authorities had not prepared them for it, and they stopped in<br />amazement and hesitation. The commanding officer understood his business,<br />and instead of waiting to see if they would disperse, poured in another<br />volley. The rioters were confounded as they saw their comrades fall by<br />their side, but still stood at bay; until at last, seeing the dead and<br />wounded on every side, they could stand it no longer, but broke and fled<br />in every direction. In a few minutes the street was clear of all but the<br />dead and wounded, the groans of the latter loading the night air. The poor<br />wretches were carried away, and the troops remained on the spot all night.<br />The next day the city was in a fever of excitement. The number of killed<br />was greatly exaggerated, and the denunciations of the butchery, as it was<br />called, were fierce and loud. On almost every corner groups of excited men<br />were seen in angry discussion--multitudes gathered in front of the jail,<br />and gazed with horror on the blood-stained pavement.<br /><br />The soldiers who had committed the slaughter were cursed and threatened by<br />turns, but they quietly rested on their arms, ready, it was evident, to<br />repeat the experiment at the first open act of violence. For awhile there<br />was danger of a general outbreak throughout the city; but the authorities<br />had become thoroughly aroused to the danger of the situation, and seeing<br />that the quicker they brought the conflict to a close, the better, made<br />such a display of force, that the riotous spirit was overawed. Still, it<br />was not entirely subdued, and it was evident that it was kept under by<br />fear alone. The physicians of the city came in for almost as large a share<br />of the hatred as the military. They were the original cause of the<br />disturbance, and threats against them became so open and general, that<br />they were in constant dread of personal violence, and many fled from the<br />city. They scattered in every direction, and there threatened to be a<br />general Hegira of physicians. All the medical students were secretly<br />stowed into carriages, and hurried off into the country, where they<br />remained till the excitement died away. It did not, however, subside<br />readily; indeed, the danger of open revolt was so great for several days,<br />that the military continued to keep guard at the jail.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER V.<br /><br /><br />SPRING ELECTION RIOTS OF 1834.<br /><br />Fatal Error in our Naturalization Laws.--Our Experiment of Self government<br />not a fair one.--Fruit of giving Foreigners the Right to Vote.--Bitter<br />Feeling between Democrats and Whigs.--First Day of Election.--Ships<br />"Constitution" and "Veto."--Whigs driven from the Polls.--Excitement.--<br />Whigs determined to defend themselves.--Meeting called.--Resolutions.--<br />Second Day's Election.--Attack on the Frigate "Constitution."--A Bloody<br />Fight.--Mayor and Officers wounded.--Mob triumphant.--Excitement of the<br />Whigs.--The Streets blocked by fifteen thousand enraged Whigs.--Military<br />called out.--Occupy Arsenal and City Hall all Night.--Result of the<br />Election.--Excitement of the Whigs.--Mass-meeting in Castle Garden.<br /><br />This country never committed a more fatal mistake than in making its<br />naturalization laws so that the immense immigration from foreign countries<br />could, after a brief sojourn, exercise the right of suffrage. Our form of<br />government was an experiment, in the success of which not only we as a<br />nation were interested, but the civilized world. To have it a fair one, we<br />should have been allowed to build and perfect the structure with our own<br />material, not pile into it such ill-formed, incongruous stuff as the<br />despotisms of Europe chose to send us. Growing up by a natural process,<br />educating the people to the proper exercise of their high trust,<br />correcting mistakes, and adjusting difficulties as we progressed, the<br />noble building would have settled into greater compactness as it arose in<br />height, and all its various proportions been in harmony. We should have<br />built slowly but surely. But when there was thrown upon us a mass of<br />material wholly unfit for any political structure, and we were compelled<br />to pile it in hap-hazard, it was not long before the goodly edifice began<br />to show ugly seams, and the despotisms of Europe pointed to them with<br />scorn, and asked tauntingly how the doctrine of self-government worked.<br />They emptied their prisons and poor-houses on our shores, to be rid of a<br />dangerous element at home, and we, with a readiness that bordered on<br />insanity, not only took them into our bosoms, but invited them to aid us<br />in making our laws and electing our rulers. To ask men, the greater part<br />of whom could neither read nor write, who were ignorant of the first<br />principles of true civil liberty, who could be bought and sold like sheep<br />in the shambles, to assist us in founding a model republic, was a folly<br />without a parallel in the history of the world, and one of which we have<br />not yet begun to pay the full penalty. It was a cruel wrong, not only to<br />ourselves, but to the oppressed masses of Europe, who turned their longing<br />eyes on us for encouragement and the moral aid which our success would<br />give them in their struggles against despotism.<br /><br />If the reason given for endowing this floating population--and dangerous<br />element under any circumstances--with the full rights of citizens had been<br />the true one, namely: to be just to them, and consistent with the great<br />doctrine of equality on which our Government rested, there might be some<br />little comfort in reflecting on the mistake we made. But this was false.<br />The right of suffrage was given them by a party in order to secure their<br />votes, and secure them, too, by appealing to those very passions that made<br />them dangerous to the republic, and which the interest of all alike<br />required should be removed instead of strengthened.<br /><br />All the good the Democratic party has ever done this country will hardly<br />compensate for the evil of this one act.<br /><br />If our experiment shall finally prove a failure, we verily believe it will<br />be owing to the extension of the political franchise to whites and blacks<br />who were unfit to use it, and cared for it not because of its honor, or<br />the good use to which it might be put, but as a piece of merchandise to be<br />sold to the highest bidder or used as a weapon of assault against good<br />order and righteous laws.<br /><br />Of course, the first pernicious effect of this transfer of power to<br />ignorant, reckless men would be felt at the polls in New York City, where<br />this class was in the greatest number. The elections here soon became a<br />farce, and the boasted glory of a free ballot-box a taunt and a by-word.<br />That gross corruption and villany practised here should eventually result<br />in the open violation of law, as it did in the charter election of 1834,<br />was natural.<br /><br />Political animosity was probably more bitter between the Democrats, under<br />Jackson's administration, and the Whigs, than between any two political<br />parties since the time of Federalists and Democrats, in the days of the<br />elder Adams.<br /><br />In the spring of 1834 especially, party spirit ran very high in the city.<br />As usual, for a month or more before the election, which took place on the<br />second Tuesday in April, all kinds of accusations and rumors were afloat.<br />There was no registry law, and comparatively few places for the polls, so<br />that there could be little check on voting, no end to repeating, while the<br />gathering of an immense crowd around each place of voting became<br />inevitable. At this election, there was a split in the Democratic party,<br />Mr. Verplanck being the candidate of the Independent Democrats, and Mr.<br />Lawrence of the "Tammany."<br /><br />The most extensive preparations were made on both sides for the conflict,<br />and it was generally expected there would be a personal collision in some<br />of the wards.<br /><br />Tuesday, the 8th of April, dawned dark and stormy, and the rain began to<br />fall heavily, at times coming down in torrents. But to such a fever heat<br />had the public feeling been carried, that no one seemed to heed the storm.<br />The stores were closed, business of all kinds suspended; while the streets<br />were black with men hurrying to the polls. At twelve o'clock the American<br />flag was hoisted on the Exchange, when the building became deserted, and<br />all gathered at the places where the voting was going on. Men stood in<br />long lines, extending clear out into the street, patiently enduring the<br />pelting rain, waiting till their turn came to vote.<br /><br />The famous expression of Jackson, "Perish credit, perish commerce," had<br />been taken out of the connection in which it was used, and paraded<br />everywhere. The sailors had been enlisted in the struggle, and rigged up a<br />beautiful little frigate in complete order, and named it the<br />"Constitution." Mounting it on wheels, several hundred of them paraded it<br />through the streets and past the polls. As they passed through Wall<br />Street, thundering cheers greeted them, and the excited populace, heedless<br />of the rain, fell into the procession, till it swelled to thousands, who,<br />with songs and shouts, followed after. Fearful of the effect of this<br />demonstration on the voters, the Jackson men hastily rigged out a boat,<br />surmounted by a flag on which was painted in large characters, "Veto;" and<br />"Constitution" and "Veto" sailed after each other through the city. This<br />should have been prevented by the authorities, for it was impossible for<br />these two processions to meet without a fight occurring, while it was<br />equally certain that the Whig one would be attacked, if it attempted to<br />pass the polls in those wards in which the roughs had the control. But the<br />"Hickory poles" had inaugurated a new mode of carrying on political<br />campaigns. Appeals were made to the senses, and votes obtained by outward<br />symbols, rather than by the discussion of important political questions.<br />This mode of electioneering culminated with the log-cabin excitement.<br /><br />In the Eleventh Ward, the Jackson party had two private doors through<br />which to admit their voters to the polls, while bullies kept back from the<br />main entrance the Independent Republicans. In most of the strong Jackson<br />wards, where it was all on one side, the voting went on peaceably enough,<br />but in the Sixth, it was soon evident that a storm was inevitable. Oaths<br />and threats and yells of defiance made the polls here seem more like an<br />object on which a mob was seeking to wreak its vengeance, than a place<br />where freemen were depositing their votes under sanction of law. The babel<br />of sound continued to grow worse in spite of the rain, and swelled louder<br />and louder, till at last the Jackson roughs, headed by an ex-alderman,<br />made a rush for the committee room where their opponents were assembled.<br />Some of them were armed with clubs, and others with knives, which they<br />brandished fiercely as they burst into the room. Before the members could<br />offer any resistance, they were assailed with such fury, that in a short<br />time nearly twenty were stretched bleeding and maimed on the floor; one so<br />badly wounded that he was carried out lifeless, and apparently dead. It<br />was a savage onslaught, and those who escaped injury reached the street<br />hatless, and with coats half-torn from their backs. The mob, now being<br />complete masters of the room, tore down all the banners, destroyed the<br />ballots, and made a complete wreck of everything. The Whig leaders,<br />enraged at such dastardly, insulting treatment, despatched a messenger in<br />all haste to the Mayor for help, but he replied that he could not furnish<br />it, as all the available force was away in other sections of the city on<br />duty. The excitement among the Whigs now became fearful, and they<br />determined to take the matter in their own hands. The election was to last<br />three days, and they concluded to let the polls, when the mob entered,<br />take care of themselves the balance of the day, and organize a plan for<br />self-protection on the morrow.<br /><br />A call was at once issued for a meeting at Masonic Hall, and that night<br />four thousand Whigs packed the building, from limit to limit. General<br />Bogardus was called to the chair, who, after stating the object of the<br />meeting, and describing the conduct of the mob in the Sixth Ward, offered<br />the following resolutions:<br /><br />"_Whereas_, The authority of the POLICE of the city has been set at<br />defiance by a band of _hirelings, mercenaries_, and _bullies_ in<br />the Sixth Ward, and the LIVES of our citizens put in jeopardy. And<br />_whereas_ it is evident that we are in a state of anarchy, which<br />requires the prompt and efficient interposition of every friend of good<br />order who is disposed to sustain the constitution and laws, therefore, be<br />it<br /><br />"_Resolved_, That in order to preserve the _peace_ of the city,<br />and especially of the Sixth Ward, the friends of the constitution and the<br />liberties of the citizen will meet at this place (Masonic Hall), to-morrow<br />(Wednesday), at half-past seven o'clock A.M., and repair to the Sixth Ward<br />poll, for the _purpose of keeping it open to_ ALL VOTERS until such<br />time as the official authorities may 'procure a sufficient number of<br />special constables to keep the peace.'<br /><br />"_Resolved_, That while at the Sixth Ward poll, those who are not<br />residents thereof will not take part in the election, but simply act as<br />_conservators of the peace_, until such times as the MAJESTY OF THE<br />LAWS shall be acknowledged and respected."<br /><br />These resolutions were carried with acclamations and shouts and stamping<br />of feet.<br /><br />There was no bluster in these resolutions, but their meaning was apparent<br />enough, and the city authorities understood it. From that hall, next<br />morning, would march at least five or six thousand determined men, and if<br />the mob rallied in force, to repeat the action of the day before, there<br />would be one of the bloodiest fights that ever disgraced the city. It was<br />believed that the great mass of the rioters were Irishmen, and the thought<br />that native-born Americans should be driven from their own ballot-box by a<br />herd of foreigners, aroused the intensest indignation. It was an insult<br />that could not and should not be tolerated.<br /><br />The next morning, at half-past seven, Masonic Hall was filled to<br />repletion. The excitement can be imagined, when such a crowd could be<br />gathered at this early hour.<br /><br />In the Ninth Ward a meeting was also called, and a resolution passed,<br />tendering a committee of one hundred to the general committee; that, with<br />a committee of the same number from each of the fourteen wards of the<br />city, would make a battalion eighteen hundred strong, to be ready at a<br />moment's notice, to march to any poll "to protect the sacred right of<br />suffrage."<br /><br />These measures had their desired effect. The presence of large bodies of<br />men at the different polls, for the purpose of protecting them, overawed<br />the unorganized mob, although in some of the wards attempts were made to<br />get up a riot. Stones and clubs were thrown, and one man stabbed; it was<br />thought at the time fatally. The Sixth Ward, "the Bloody Sixth," as it was<br />called, was the point of greatest danger, and thither the Mayor repaired<br />in person, accompanied by the sheriff and a large posse, and remained the<br />greater part of the day. Threats and opprobrious epithets were freely<br />used, and occasionally a paving-stone would be hurled from some one on the<br />outskirts of the crowd; but the passage to the polls was kept open, and by<br />one o'clock the citizens could deposit their votes without fear of<br />personal violence.<br /><br />The evil of having the election continue three days now became more<br />apparent than ever. The disorderly class, "the roughs," by their<br />protracted drinking, became more and more maddened, and hence riper for<br />more desperate action. This second night was spent by them in carousing,<br />and the next morning they turned out to the polls, not only ready, but<br />eager for a fight. Early in the forenoon, the frigate "Constitution" was<br />again on its voyage through the streets, followed by a crowd. As it passed<br />Masonic Hall, the head-quarters of the Whig Committee, it was saluted with<br />cheers. This was followed by a rush upon it, on the part of the mob, who<br />attempted to destroy it. The Whigs inside of the building, seeing the<br />attack, poured forth with a loud cheer, and fell on the assailants with<br />such fury, that they turned and fled. The news of what was passing, had,<br />in the meantime, reached the Sixth Ward folks, and a shout was raised for<br />followers. Instantly a huge crowd, composed of dirty, ragged, savage-<br />looking men, broke away with discordant yells, and streamed up Duane<br />Street towards the building, picking up paving-stones and brick-bats, and<br />pulling down pickets as they ran. Coming in sight of the little frigate,<br />they raised a shout and dashed on it. The procession had now passed the<br />hall, but the Whigs, informed of what was going on, again sallied forth to<br />the help of the sailors, who were fighting manfully against overwhelming<br />odds. But they were soon overpowered, and again took refuge in the hall.<br />This was now assailed, and stones came crashing through the windows. The<br />Mayor was sent for, and soon appeared with the sheriff, backed by forty<br />watchmen. Mounting the steps, he held up his staff of office, and<br />commanded the peace. But the half-drunken mob had now got beyond the fear<br />of the mere symbol of authority, and answered him with a shower of stones,<br />and then charged on the force that surrounded him. A fierce and bloody<br />fight followed. Citizens rushed out to the help of the Mayor, while the<br />watchmen fell on the mob with their clubs. They soon stretched on the<br />pavement more than their own number, but the odds against them was too<br />great. The Mayor received a wound--ten or fifteen watchmen besides<br />citizens were wounded--Captains Stewart, Munson, and Flaggs, badly<br />injured, the latter with his skull horribly fractured, ribs broken, and<br />face cut up. A few of the rioters were arrested, but the great mass broke<br />through all opposition, and streaming into the hall, forced the committee<br />to creep through back passages and windows.<br /><br />The news of this high-handed outrage was carried like the wind to the<br />lower anti-Democratic wards, and the excited Whigs came streaming up,<br />until Duane, Elm, Pearl, Cross, Augustus, and Chatham Streets, up to<br />Broadway, were black with determined, enraged citizens. Ten or fifteen<br />thousand were in a short time assembled, and a fearful battle seemed<br />inevitable. In this appalling state of things, the Mayor called a<br />consultation, and it was decided to declare the city in a state of<br />insurrection, and call on the military for help. A messenger was<br />immediately despatched to the Navy Yard for a company of marines. Colonel<br />Gamble, commanding, replied that he would be glad to comply with the<br />request, and put himself at their head, but that he had just sent them on<br />board the "Brandywine" and "Vincennes." Application was then made to<br />Commodore Hidgely, commander of the station; but he refused, on the ground<br />that he had no authority to interfere. A messenger was then hurried across<br />to Governor's Island for help, but he met with no better success. As a<br />last resort, General Sanford was now directed to call out the city<br />military.<br /><br />All this time the crowd kept increasing, while from out its bosom came an<br />angry murmur like the moaning of the sea before a storm. The polls were<br />deserted, and it seemed impossible that the opposing forces could be long<br />kept apart. At length word passed through the Whigs that the mob were<br />about to take possession of the arsenal. Instantly several hundred<br />citizens made a dash for it, and occupied it. This was a brilliant piece<br />of strategy, and no sooner did the rioters hear of it, than they swarmed<br />around the building with yells and imprecations. The Whigs, however, held<br />it, and some of them passed out arms to their friends.<br /><br />Three terrible hours had now passed since the first outbreak, and from the<br />Park to Duane Street, Broadway, and the cross streets on the east side of<br />it, were packed with excited men, their shouts, calls, and curses rising<br />over the dwellings in tones that sent terror to the heart. But for the<br />narrow streets, in which but few could come in contact, there would<br />doubtless have been a collision long before.<br /><br />But at this critical moment a detachment of infantry and two squadrons of<br />cavalry came marching down Broadway, and in close column. The crowd<br />divided as they advanced, and they drew up before the arsenal. The<br />gleaming of the bayonets and the rattle of sabres had a quieting effect on<br />the rioters, and they began to disperse again to the polls, to watch the<br />progress of the voting. In the meantime, the infantry took up their<br />quarters at the arsenal, and the cavalry at the City Hall, for the night.<br /><br />When the polls closed at evening, the ballot-box of the Sixth Ward was<br />taken under a strong guard to the City Hall, and locked up for the night.<br />It was followed by four or five thousand excited men, but no violence was<br />attempted.<br /><br />The election was over. For three days the city had been heaving to the<br />tide of human passion, and trembling on the verge of a great disaster, and<br />all because a few ruffians, not a fourth part of whom could probably read<br />or write, chose to deny the right of suffrage to American citizens, and<br />constitute themselves the proper representatives of the city.<br /><br />But the excitement did not end with the election. It was very close, and<br />as the returns came in slowly, the people assembled in great numbers, to<br />hear them reported. The next day, till three o'clock at night, ten or<br />fifteen thousand people blocked Wall Street, refusing to disperse, till<br />they knew the result. It was finally announced that Mr. Lawrence, the<br />Democratic candidate, was elected by a small majority.<br /><br />The next thing was to ascertain the character of the Common Council. The<br />same mighty throng assembled next day, forgetting everything else in the<br />intense interest they felt in the result. It would seem impossible to get<br />up such a state of feeling over the election of a few local officers, but<br />the city shook from limit to limit as the slow returns came in. At last,<br />it was announced that the Whigs had carried the Common Council by a small<br />majority. As the news passed through the immense concourse, a shout vent<br />up that shook Wall Street from Broadway to the East River. It rolled back<br />and forth like redoubled thunder, till every throat was hoarse.<br /><br />When the crowd at last dispersed, it was only to assemble again in<br />separate bodies in different parts of the city, and talk over the victory.<br /><br />Even then the excitement was not allowed to die away. The event was too<br />great to be permitted to pass without some especial honor, and a mass-<br />meeting was called in Castle Garden to celebrate it. Webster was sent for<br />to make a speech, the most distinguished speakers of New York were called<br />upon, and a day of general rejoicing followed, great as that which<br />succeeded Lee's surrender.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER VI.<br /><br /><br />ABOLITION RIOTS OF 1834 AND 1835.<br /><br />The Slavery Question agitated.--The End, Civil War.--The Results.--William<br />Lloyd Garrison.--Feeling of the People on the Subject.--First Attempt to<br />call a Meeting of the Abolitionists in New York.--Meeting in Chatham<br />Street Chapel.--A Fight.--Mob take Possession of Bowery Theatre.--Sacking<br />of Lewis Tappan's House.--Fight between Mob and Police.--Mobbing of Dr.<br />Cox's Church, in Laight Street.--His House broken into.--Street<br />Barricaded.--Attack on Arthur Tappan's Store.--Second Attack on Church in<br />Laight Street.--Church sacked in Spring Street.--Arrival of the Military.<br />--Barricades carried.--Mr. Ludlow's House entered.--Mob at Five Points.--<br />Destruction of Houses.--The City Military called out.--Mob overawed, and<br />Peace restored.--Five Points Riot.--Stone-cutters' Riot.<br /><br />Most of the riots of New York have grown out of causes more or less local,<br />and wholly transient in their nature. Hence, the object sought to be<br />obtained was at once secured, or abandoned altogether. But those arising<br />from the formation of Abolition societies, and the discussion of the<br />doctrine of immediate emancipation, were of a different character, and<br />confined to no locality or time. The spirit that produced them developed<br />itself in every section of the country, and the question continued to<br />assume vaster proportions, till the Union itself was involved, and what<br />was first only a conflict between the police of the city and a few hundred<br />or thousands of ignorant, reckless men, grew at last into the most<br />gigantic and terrible civil war that ever cursed the earth. The Union was<br />rent asunder, and State arrayed against State, while the world looked on<br />aghast at the strange and bloody spectacle. The final result has been the<br />emancipation of the slaves, and their endowment with all the rights and<br />privileges of American citizens. But with this has come a frightful<br />national debt, the destruction of that feeling of common interest and<br />patriotism, which is the strongest security of a country; a contempt for<br />the Constitution, the concentration of power in the hands of Congress,<br />small regard for State rights, while the controlling power in the South<br />has passed into the hands of an ignorant, incapable, irresponsible class;<br />and, worse than all, the people have become accustomed to the strange<br />spectacle, so fraught with danger in a republic, of seeing the<br />legislatures and executives of sovereign States overawed and overborne by<br />the national troops. That frightful conflict for the slave has sown<br />dangerous seed; what the final harvest will be, the future historian alone<br />will be able to show.<br /><br />The inconsistency of having a system of slavery incorporated into a<br />republican government was always felt by good men North and South, as well<br />as its damaging effect on the social and political well-being of the whole<br />community; and steps had been taken both in Virginia and Kentucky to do<br />away with it by legislative action. Whether these incipient steps would<br />ever have ended in relieving us of the evil, can only be conjectured. We<br />only know that a peaceable solution of the question was rendered<br />impossible, by the action of the Abolitionists, as they were called, who,<br />governed by the short logic, that slavery being wrong, it could not exist<br />a moment without sin, and therefore must be abandoned at once without<br />regard to consequences. The system of slavery was no longer a social or<br />political problem, calling for great wisdom, prudence, statesmanship, and<br />patience, but a personal crime, not to be tolerated for a moment. The<br />whole South was divided by them into two classes, the oppressor and<br />oppressed, the kidnapper and kidnapped, the tyrant and the slave--a<br />relationship which liberty, religion, justice, humanity, alike demanded<br />should be severed without a moment's delay.<br /><br />These views, in the judgment of the press at the time, and of sound<br />statesmen, would eventually end in civil war, if adopted by the entire<br />North, and hence they denounced them. The Abolitionists were considered by<br />all as enemies to the Union, whom the lower classes felt should be put<br />down, if necessary, by violence. This feeling was increased by the action<br />of William Lloyd Garrison, the founder of the society, who went to<br />England, and joined with the antislavery men there in abusing this country<br />for its inconsistency and crime. These causes produced a state of public<br />feeling that would be very apt to exhibit itself on the first opportunity.<br />When, therefore, in the autumn of 1833, after Garrison's return from<br />England, a notice appeared for an antislavery meeting in Clinton Hall,<br />some of the most respectable men in New York determined to attend, and<br />crush out, by the weight of their influence, the dangerous movement.<br />Another class was resolved to effect the same project in another way, and<br />on the 2d of October the following placard was posted in naming letters<br />all over the city:<br /><br />NOTICE<br /><br />_To all persons from the South_.<br /><br />All persons interested in the subject of the meeting called by J. Leavitt,<br />W. Goodell, W. Green, J. Rankin, Lewis Tappan,<br /><br />At Clinton Hall, this evening, at 7 o'clock, are requested to attend at<br />the same hour and place.<br /><br />MANY SOUTHERNERS.<br /><br />New York, _October_ 2d, 1833.<br /><br />N.B. All citizens who may feel disposed to manifest the _true_<br />feeling of the State on this subject, are requested to attend.<br /><br />Putting the appeal in the name of the Southerners, was an artful device<br />to call out the people.<br /><br />At an early hour crowds began to assemble in front of Clinton Hall; but to<br />their surprise they found a notice nailed on the door, that no meeting<br />would be held. Many, seeing it, returned home; but still the crowd<br />continued to swell to thousands, who rent the air with shouts and threats<br />against Garrison. Determined not to be disappointed in a meeting of some<br />kind, they forced their way upstairs, till the room in which it was to be<br />held was crammed to suffocation. The meeting was then organized, and<br />waited till quarter past seven, when it was moved to adjourn to Tammany<br />Hall. There it was again organized, and a gentleman was about to address<br />the crowd, when a man stepped forward to the president, and stated that<br />the meeting announced to be held in Clinton Hall was at that moment under<br />full headway in Chatham Street Chapel. Instantly several voices shouted,<br />"Let us go there and rout them!" But the chairman said they had met to<br />pass certain resolutions, and they should attend to this business first,<br />and then every one could do as he liked. The resolutions were read, and<br />after some remarks had been made upon them, adopted, and the meeting<br />adjourned. A portion of those present, however, were not satisfied, but<br />resolved to go to the chapel and break up the meeting there. The little<br />handful assembled within, apprised of their approach, fled, so that when<br />the mob arrived, the building, though the doors were open and the lights<br />burning, was empty. It immediately took possession of the room, and giving<br />a negro who was foremost in the sport the name of one of the<br />Abolitionists, made him chairman. The most absurd resolutions were then<br />offered, and carried, when the chairman returned thanks for the honor done<br />him amid the most uproarious laughter, and what had threatened to be a<br />serious riot ended in a wild, lawless frolic.<br /><br />This was the beginning of the Abolition riots in New York City, which<br />afterwards, to a greater or less extent, prevailed for years in different<br />parts of the Union.<br /><br />Next summer the excitement, which during the winter had nothing to call it<br />forth, broke out afresh, ending in destruction of property and bloodshed,<br />and the calling out of the military. On the evening of the 7th of July, an<br />assembly of colored persons of both sexes occupied Chatham Street Chapel,<br />for the purpose of listening to a sermon from a negro preacher. The New<br />York Sacred Music Society had leased the building for certain evenings in<br />the week, of which it was asserted this was one. Justice Lowndes, of the<br />Police Court, was president, and Dr. Rockwell vice-president of the<br />society, and they repaired to the building during the evening, and finding<br />it occupied, at once claimed their right to it, and demanded that the<br />blacks should leave. But the latter, having hired and paid for it, refused<br />to do so, when a fight ensued, in which lamps and chairs were broken,<br />loaded canes used freely, and some persons seriously injured. The news of<br />the fight spread rapidly, and a dense crowd gathered around the door. But<br />the police soon arrived, and forcing their way in, drove white and black<br />out together, and locked up the church.<br /><br />The riot, however, continued for some time in the street; but the blacks,<br />finding themselves outnumbered, fled, and peace was restored.<br /><br />A portion of the crowd, having recognized Lewis Tappan, one of the leading<br />Abolitionists, followed him home with hoots and yells, and even hurled<br />stones at his house after he had entered it.<br /><br />The next evening, at dusk, the crowd began again to assemble in front of<br />the chapel. But the lessee of it had closed and locked the gates. The<br />multitude determined, however, not to be disappointed of a meeting, and<br />forcing open the gates, obtained entrance. The meeting was then organized,<br />and Mr. William W. Wilder called to the chair. After making a speech, in<br />which he showed the evil effects of a sudden abolition of slavery, by<br />relating his experience in San Domingo, he moved an adjournment until the<br />next meeting of the Antislavery Society. The motion was carried, and the<br />assembly broke up. This was, however, altogether too quiet a termination<br />for a part of the crowd, and a shout was made for the Bowery Theatre. The<br />attacks on us by the English, for upholding slavery, and their sympathy<br />and aid for Garrison, and co-operation with him in agitating the question<br />of abolition in this country, had rekindled the old slumbering feeling of<br />hostility to that country; and Mr. Farren, the stage manager of the<br />Bowery, being an Englishman, it was transferred to him, especially as<br />reports had been circulated that he had spoken disrespectfully of the<br />Americans.<br /><br />This night having been selected to give him a benefit, his enemies had<br />posted placards over the city, stating the fact of his hostility to this<br />country--whether with the intention of causing a thin house, or breaking<br />it up altogether, is not known. At all events, the mob resolved on the<br />latter course, and streaming up the Bowery in one wild, excited mass,<br />gathered with loud shouts in front of the theatre. The doors were closed<br />in their faces, but pressing against them with their immense weight, they<br />gave way, and like a dark, stormy wave, they surged up the aisles toward<br />the foot-lights. In the garish light, faces grew pale, and turned eagerly<br />toward the doors for a way of escape. But these were jammed with the<br />excited, yelling mob. The play was "Metamora," and was under full headway,<br />when this sudden inundation of the rioters took place. The actors stopped,<br />aghast at the introduction of this new, appalling scene. Messrs. Hamlin<br />and Forrest advanced to the front of the stage, and attempted to address<br />them; but apologies and entreaties were alike in vain. The thundering<br />shouts and yells that interrupted them were not those of admiration, and<br />spectators and actors were compelled to remain silent, while this strange<br />audience took complete possession of the house, and inaugurated a play of<br />their own.<br /><br />But the police, having received information of what was going on, now<br />arrived, and forcing their way in, drove the rioters into the street, and<br />restored order. But the demon of lawless violence, that was now fully<br />raised, was not to be thus laid. Some one got hold of a bell, and began to<br />ring it violently. This increased the excitement, and suddenly the shout<br />arose, "to Arthur Tappan's." [Footnote: A silk merchant, and one of the<br />leading Abolitionists.] The cry was at once taken up by a thousand voices,<br />and the crowd started down the street. But instead of going to his house,<br />they went to that of his brother, Lewis, in Hose Street, a still more<br />obnoxious Abolitionist. Reaching it, they staved open the doors, and<br />smashed in the windows, and began to pitch the furniture into the street.<br />Chairs, sofas, tables, pictures, mirrors, and bedding, went out one after<br />another. But all at once a lull occurred in the work of destruction. In<br />pitching the pictures out, one came across a portrait of Washington.<br />Suddenly the cry arose, "It is Washington! For God's sake, _don't burn<br />Washington_!" In an instant the spirit of disorder was laid, and the<br />portrait was handed carefully from man to man, till at length the<br />populace, bearing it aloft, carried it with shouts to a neighboring house<br />for safety. It was one of those strange freaks or sudden changes that will<br />sometimes come over the wildest and most brutal men, like a gleam of<br />gentle light across a dark and stormy sea--the good in man for a moment<br />making its voice heard above the din and strife of evil passions.<br /><br />This singular episode being terminated, they returned to their work of<br />destruction. But suddenly the cry of "Watchmen!" was heard, and the next<br />moment the police came charging down the street. The mob recoiled before<br />it, then broke and fled, and the former took possession of the street. But<br />the latter, coming across some piles of brick, filled their arms and hands<br />full, and rallying, returned. Charging the watchmen in turn with a<br />blinding shower of these, they drove them from the ground. They then<br />kindled a fire on the pavement, and as the flames flashed up in the<br />darkness and gained headway, they piled on bedding and furniture, till the<br />whole street was illuminated with the costly bonfire. This caused the<br />fire-bells to be rung, and soon the engines came thundering down the<br />street, before which the crowd gave way. The burning furniture was then<br />extinguished, and the house taken possession of. It was now two o'clock in<br />the morning, and the mob dispersed.<br /><br />The next day nothing was talked about in the saloons, groggeries, and on<br />the corners of the by-streets, but the events of the night before; and as<br />evening came on, a crowd began to assemble in front of the battered,<br />dilapidated house of Lewis Tappan. Another attack was imminent, when the<br />police came up and dispersed them. They had not, however, abandoned the<br />purpose for which they had assembled.<br /><br />The little band of Abolitionists, that the year before had been composed<br />mostly of comparatively obscure men, had now increased both in numbers and<br />men of influence. Persecution had produced its usual effects--advanced the<br />cause it designed to destroy. Among other well-known citizens who had<br />joined their ranks were the two brothers, Dr. Abraham Cox, M.D., and Dr.<br />Samuel Cox, the latter, pastor of Laight Street Church, and one of the<br />most popular preachers of the city. Though opposed by a large majority of<br />his congregation, he had become known as a bold, outspoken man against<br />slavery; and now the mob, bent on mischief, streamed across the city<br />toward his church. It was dark, and as they gathered in a black, dense<br />mass in front of it, suddenly, as if by a common impulse, a loud yell<br />broke forth, and the next moment a shower of stones and brick-bats fell on<br />the windows. Babel was now let loose, and, amid the crashing of window-<br />glass, arose every variety of sound and all kinds of calls, interspersed<br />with oaths and curses on "Abolitionists and niggers."<br /><br />Shrieks of laughter and obscene epithets helped to swell the uproar. It<br />was evident they would not be satisfied until they left the church a ruin;<br />but at this critical moment, the Mayor, Justice Lowndes, the District<br />Attorney, and a posse of police officers and watchmen arrived on the<br />ground. Expecting trouble, they had arranged to be ready at a moment's<br />warning to hasten to any threatened point. Their unexpected presence<br />frightened the crowd, and fearing arrest, they slunk away in squads, and<br />the danger seemed over. But, evidently by previous arrangement, the broken<br />fragments, arriving by different streets, came together in front of Dr.<br />Cox's house, in Charlton Street.<br /><br />The doctor, however, was not at home. He had received warnings and threats<br />from various quarters, and knowing, from the fate of Lewis Tappan's house,<br />what that of his own would be, he had, during the day, quietly removed his<br />furniture, and in the afternoon put his family on board of a steamboat,<br />and left the city.<br /><br />The mob found the door barricaded, but they broke it open, and began to<br />smash the windows and blinds of the lower story. Before, however, they had<br />begun to sack the house, police-officers and watchmen, with two<br />detachments of horse, arrived and dislodged them. They did not, however,<br />disperse. A more dangerous and determined spirit was getting possession of<br />them than they had before evinced. Crowding back on each other, they<br />packed the street east, within four blocks of Broadway. Seizing some<br />carts, they made a hasty barricade of them across the streets, while a<br />neighboring fence supplied them with clubs. A large number were armed with<br />paving-stones, which they would smite loudly together, saying in deep<br />undertones, "_all together_." As they thus stood savagely at bay, a<br />collision seemed inevitable, and had they been attacked, would doubtless<br />have made a desperate fight. But being let alone they slowly dispersed. A<br />portion, however, though it was now late at night, could not retire<br />without venting a little more spite, and returning to the church, broke in<br />some more windows.<br /><br />Dr. Cox came back to his house next morning, to see if it was safe. As he<br />left the mutilated building, a crowd of boys, who were looking at the<br />ruins, immediately gave chase to him with yells and derisive laughter, and<br />pressed him so closely, at the same time hurling dirty missiles at him,<br />that he was compelled to take shelter in the house of a parishioner.<br /><br />The crowd around the house continued to increase all the morning, but a<br />hundred policemen arriving at one o'clock, no disturbance of the peace was<br />attempted. In the afternoon, Mayor Lawrence issued a proclamation,<br />denouncing the rioters, and calling on all good citizens to aid in<br />maintaining the peace, and assuring them that he had taken ample measures<br />to repress all attempts at violence. At the Arsenal, City Hall, and<br />Bazaar, large bodies of troops were assembled, ready to march at a<br />moment's notice; and it was evident that the coming night was to witness a<br />trial of strength between the rioters and the city authorities.<br /><br />As soon as it was fairly dark, large crowds gathered in front of Arthur<br />Tappan's store, and began to stone the building. Some fifteen or twenty<br />watchmen were stationed here, and endeavored to arrest the ringleaders,<br />when the mob turned on them, and handled them so roughly that they were<br />compelled to take refuge in flight. Alderman Lalagh was severely wounded;<br />but he refused to leave, and standing fiercely at bay, denounced and<br />threatened the maddened wretches, who in turn swore they would take his<br />life. He told them to force open the doors if they dare; that the inside<br />was full of armed men, who were ready to blow their brains out the moment<br />the door gave way. This frightened them, and they had to content<br />themselves with stoning the windows, and cursing the Abolitionist who<br />owned the building. In the meantime, Justice Lowndes came up with a strong<br />police force, when they fled.<br /><br />While this was going on here, similar scenes were passing in other parts<br />of the city. At dark, some three or four hundred gathered around Dr. Cox's<br />church, in Laight Street, discussing the conduct of the Abolitionists, but<br />making no outward demonstrations calling for the interference of the<br />police, until nine o'clock, when a reinforcement came yelling down Varick<br />Street, armed with stones and brick-bats. These charged, without halting,<br />so furiously on the police-officers, and the few watchmen stationed there,<br />that, bruised and bleeding, they were compelled to flee for their lives.<br />The next moment stones rattled like hail against the church, and, in a few<br />minutes, the remaining windows were smashed in. The police rallied when<br />they reached Beach Street, and hurried off a messenger to the City Hall<br />for the military. In the meantime, loud shouts were heard in the direction<br />of Spring Street, and with answering shouts the mob left the church, and<br />rushed yelling like Indians to the spot. A vast crowd was in front of a<br />church there, under the care of Rev. Mr. Ludlow, another Abolitionist, and<br />had already commenced the work of destruction. They had torn down the<br />fence surrounding it, and were demolishing the windows. Through them they<br />made an entrance, and tore down the pulpit, ripped up the seats, and made<br />a wreck of everything destructible without the aid of fire. The session-<br />room shared the same fate, and the splintered wreck of both was carried in<br />their arms, and on their shoulders, out of doors, and piled into<br />barricades in the street on both sides of the building, to stop the<br />anticipated charge of cavalry. Carts, hauled furiously along by the mob,<br />were drawn up behind this, and chained together, making a formidable<br />obstruction. They then rung the bell furiously, in order to bring out the<br />firemen. The watch-house bell in Prince Street gave a few answering<br />strokes, but information being received of what was going on, it ceased,<br />and the firemen did not come out. It was now near eleven o'clock, when,<br />all at once, an unearthly yell arose from the immense throng. Word had<br />passed through it that the military was approaching. Pandemonium seemed<br />suddenly to have broken loose, and shouts, and yells, and oaths arose from<br />five thousand throats, as the men sprung behind their barricades. It was a<br />moonless night, but the stars were shining brightly, and, in their light,<br />the sheen of nearly a thousand bayonets made the street look like a lane<br />of steel. The Twenty-seventh Regiment of National Guards, led by Colonel<br />Stevens, had been sent from the City Hall, and their regular heavy tramp<br />sounded ominously, as they came steadily on. The church-bell was set<br />ringing furiously by the mob and there was every appearance of a<br />determined resistance. As Colonel Stevens approached the first barricade,<br />he halted his regiment, and ordered his pioneer guard to advance. They<br />promptly obeyed, armed with their axes. A shower of stones met them, while<br />clubs were waved frantically in the air, accompanied with oaths and<br />threats. They, however, moved firmly up to the barricade, and the shining<br />steel of their axes, as they swung them in the air, was as terrific as the<br />gleam of the bayonets, and the crowd retired precipitately behind the<br />second barricade. The first was now speedily torn down, and the head of<br />the column advanced. The second was a more formidable affair, in fact, a<br />regular bastion, behind which were packed in one dense mass an immense<br />body of desperate men, reaching down the street, till lost in the<br />darkness. It seemed now that nothing but deadly volleys would answer. One<br />of the city officers advised Colonel Stevens to retreat, but, instead of<br />obeying, he ordered the pioneer guard to advance, and sustained it by a<br />detachment of troops. Amid the raining missiles they moved forward, when<br />the crowd fell back, some fleeing up the side streets. The guard then<br />mounted the barricade, and in a short time it was scattered in every<br />direction; and when the order "Forward" was given, the column marched<br />straight on the mob. At this moment, Justice Lowndes, at the head of a<br />band of watchmen, arrived on the ground, when the two forces moved forward<br />together, clearing the street of the rioters. While the fight was going<br />on, some of the gang remained inside the church, and kept the bell ringing<br />violently, until Colonel Stevens ordered one of his officers to cut the<br />rope.<br /><br />A portion of the mob now hurried to Thompson Street, where Mr. Ludlow<br />resided. The family had retired for the night, but their repose was<br />suddenly broken by loud yells and the sound of stones dashing in their<br />windows. Jumping up in wild alarm, they saw the doors broken in, through<br />which streamed the shouting, yelling crowd.<br /><br />Either from fear of the military, which they knew would soon be upon them,<br />or some other cause, they decamped almost as suddenly as they came, and<br />relieved the terror-stricken household of their presence.<br /><br />About this time, another immense mob had collected at Five Points. The<br />rioters here seemed to be well organized, and to act in concert. Runners<br />were kept passing between the different bodies, keeping each informed of<br />the actions of the other, and giving notice of the approach of the police.<br /><br />The destruction at Five Points was on a more extensive scale, and the<br />gatherings in this, then dangerous section of the city--the home of<br />desperadoes and depraved beings of every kind--were of such a character,<br />that for a time the city authorities seemed to be over-awed. The rioters<br />had it all their own way for several hours, and the midnight heavens<br />became lurid with burning dwellings. It somehow got round that they had<br />resolved to attack every house not illuminated with candles, and these<br />dirty streets soon became brilliant with the lighted windows. Five houses<br />of ill-fame were gutted, and almost entirely demolished. St. Philip's<br />Church, in Centre Street, occupied by a colored congregation, was broken<br />into, and for two hours the mob continued the work of destruction<br />unmolested. They left it a complete ruin. A house adjoining, and three<br />houses opposite, shared the same fate. The mob was everywhere; and<br />although the police made some arrests and had some fights, they were too<br />weak to effect much. About one o'clock a shout arose, "away to Anthony<br />Street!" and thither the yelling wretches repaired.<br /><br />The Mayor was at the City Hall all night, doing what he could; but the mob<br />had arranged their plans to act in concert, appearing in separate bodies<br />in different sections of the city at the same time, so that he hardly<br />knew, with the force at his disposal, where to strike. The next morning he<br />issued another proclamation, calling on the citizens to report to him and<br />be organized into companies to aid the police. He called also on all the<br />volunteer military companies of the city to rally to the support of the<br />laws. They did so, and that (Saturday) night they, with most of the fire<br />companies, who had offered their services, were stationed in strong bodies<br />all over the city; and the rioters saw that their rule was ended. Beside,<br />many of the most notorious ringleaders had been arrested and put in<br />prison. A short fight occurred in Catharine Street between the police and<br />mob, in which both had some of their men badly hurt; and an attempt was<br />made to get up a riot in Reade Street, but it was promptly put down. The<br />city was rife with rumors of bloody things which the mob had threatened to<br />do; but, with the exception of the military in the streets, the city on<br />Sunday presented its usual appearance. The lawless spirit was crushed out,<br />and a hundred and fifty of the desperadoes who had been instrumental in<br />rousing it were locked up to await their trial.<br /><br />In June of the summer of 1835 occurred the Five Points riot, which grew<br />out of the feeling between Americans and foreigners. It threatened for a<br />time to be a very serious matter, but was finally quelled by the police<br />without the aid of the military. Dr. W. M. Caffrey was accidentally killed<br />by one of the mob, and Justice Lowndes was dangerously wounded.<br /><br />In connection with the series of riots of 1834 and 1835, might be<br />mentioned the Stonecutters' riot, though it was promptly suppressed.<br /><br />STONECUTTERS' RIOT.<br /><br />The contractors for the building of the New York University found that<br />they could purchase dressed stone at Sing Sing, the work of the prisoners<br />there, much cheaper than in New York, and so concluded to use it. This,<br />the stonecutters of the city said, was taking the bread out of their<br />mouths, and if allowed to go on would destroy their business. They held<br />excited meetings on the subject, and finally got up a procession and<br />paraded the streets with placards asserting their rights and denouncing<br />the contractors. They even attacked the houses of some of the citizens,<br />and assumed such a threatening attitude, that the Twenty-seventh Regiment,<br />Colonel Stevens, was called out. Their steady, determined march on the<br />rioters dispersed them and restored quiet. Apprehensions were felt,<br />however, that they would reassemble in the night and vent their rage on<br />the University building, and so a part of the regiment encamped in<br />Washington Square in full view of it. They remained here four days and<br />nights, until the excitement subsided, and the work could go on<br />unmolested.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER VII.<br /><br /><br />FLOUR RIOT OF 1837.<br /><br />Starvation will always create a Riot.--Foreign Population easily aroused<br />against the Rich.--Severe Winter of 1836.--Scarcity of Flour.--Meeting of<br />Citizens called without Result.--Meeting called in the Park.--Speeches.--<br />Sacking of Hart & Co.'s Flour Store, in Washington Street.--Strange<br />Spectacle.--National Guards called out.--Disperse the Mob.--Attack on<br />Herrick's Flour Store.--Folly of the Riot.<br /><br />Hunger will drive any people mad, and once let there be real suffering for<br />want of food among the lower classes, while grain is piled up in the<br />storehouses of the rich, and riots will surely follow. In the French<br />Revolution of 1789, there was a great scarcity of provisions, which caused<br />frightful outbreaks. It will never do to treat with scorn the cry of<br />millions for bread. When, amid the general suffering in Paris, one said to<br />Foulon, the minister of state, the people are starving for bread, he<br />replied, "Let them eat hay." The next day he was hung to a lamp-post. The<br />tumultuous multitude marching on Versailles, shouting wildly for "bread,"<br />was a fearful spectacle. One can hardly blame starving men from seizing<br />food by violence, if it can be got in no other way; and if ever a mob<br />could be justifiable, it would be when they see their families suffering<br />and perishing around them, in the very sight of well-stored granaries.<br /><br />In the old despotisms of Europe, the poor and oppressed attribute all<br />their want and suffering to the rich and powerful, so that they are not<br />held back from redressing their wrongs by ignorance of their source, but<br />fear of the strong hand of their rulers.<br /><br />These men, embittered not only by their own sufferings, but by the<br />traditions of the past, when they come to this country are easily roused<br />to commit acts of violence by anything that reminds them of their old<br />oppressions. They have tasted the wormwood and the gall, and refuse to<br />have it pressed to their lips in a country where liberty is the birthright<br />of all. This is what has made, and still makes, the foreign population<br />among us so dangerous. The vast proportion of them are from this very<br />class. Ignorant of everything but their wrongs, they rise in angry<br />rebellion at any attempt, or fancied attempt, to renew them here.<br />Unfortunately there are Americans among us, who, knowing this, work upon<br />this sensitive, suspicious feeling, to accomplish their own ends. The<br />politician does it to secure votes; but the worst class is composed of<br />those who edit papers that circulate only among the scum of society, and<br />embittered by the sight of luxuries beyond their reach, are always ready<br />to denounce the rich and excite the lower classes against what they call<br />the oppression of the aristocracy.<br /><br />It is doubtful whether the frightful riot of 1863 would ever have taken<br />place, but for this tone assumed by many of the city papers. So of this<br />flour riot, it probably would never have happened, but for demagogues, who<br />lashed the ignorant foreign population into fury against their rich<br />oppressors. Starvation, which as we said may be a justification of<br />violence, did not exist--it was only the high price of provisions, growing<br />out of scarcity, that caused it, but which scarcity, they were told, was<br />created solely by the cupidity of the rich.<br /><br />The year in which the great fire occurred, was a disastrous one to the<br />crops of the country. The mighty West, that great granary of the nation,<br />was not then open as now, and the main supply of grain came from east of<br />the Alleghanies. Hence the cause which would create a short crop in one<br />section, would be apt to prevail more or less over all the grain region.<br />We imported wheat at this time very largely; not only from England, but<br />from the Black Sea.<br /><br />In September, flour was about seven dollars a barrel, but this, as the<br />winter came on, went up to twelve dollars--a great rise at that time.<br /><br />From Virginia, a great wheat State, came disastrous tidings; not only was<br />the crop short and the price of flour high, but it was said that the<br />latter would probably go up to fifteen or twenty dollars a barrel. In<br />Troy, a great depot for State flour, it was stated that there were only<br />four thousand barrels against thirty thousand at the same time the<br />previous year. As February came on, a report circulated in the city that<br />there were only three or four weeks' supply on hand. This was repeated in<br />the penny papers, with the information added, that in certain stores were<br />hoarded vast amounts of grain and flour, kept out of the market to compel<br />a still greater advance in the price. This was very probably true, as it<br />is a rule with merchants, when they have a large stock of anything on<br />hand, of which there threatens to be a scarcity, to hold on in order to<br />make the scarcity greater--thus forcing higher prices. This will always<br />prove a dangerous experiment in this country in the article of flour. It<br />is the prime necessary of life, and the right to make it scarce for the<br />sake of gain, and at the expense of human suffering, will always be<br />questioned by the poorer classes.<br /><br />Although the stock of grain on hand at this time was small, there was no<br />danger of starvation, nor was it to the instinct of self-preservation that<br />demagogues appealed. They talked of the rich oppressing the poor by their<br />extortions--of monopolists, caring only to increase their gains without<br />regard to the distress they occasioned.<br /><br />There was, doubtless, much suffering among the poorer classes, not only on<br />account of the high price of flour, but also of all the necessary articles<br />of living. Meat advanced materially, while from some strange fatality,<br />coal went up to ten dollars a ton. There seemed no reason for this, as the<br />amount sent to market was said to be largely in excess of the previous<br />year. In Canada, coal was so scarce, that the line of steamers between<br />Montreal and Quebec was suspended before winter set in.<br /><br />This state of things excited the attention of the people generally, and in<br />the fore-part of this month, a public meeting was called at the Tabernacle<br />to consider what could be done. It amounted to nothing. Some speeches were<br />made, resolutions offered, but nothing practical was proposed. The<br />temperance people attempted to make a little capital out of it, by<br />asserting that the high price of grain was owing to the amount used by the<br />distilleries--rye being sold as high as one dollar and seventy cents per<br />bushel.<br /><br />But a different class of people were now discussing the subject, and in a<br />different spirit. Their attention was directed to _men_, not<br />_theories_--the individual oppressors, not the general causes.<br /><br />Chief among those against whom the popular feeling was now directed, was<br />Hart & Co., large commission merchants in Washington Street, between Dey<br />and Cortlandt Streets. Their store was packed with flour and wheat, and<br />every day men passed it with sinister looks. Sometimes a little knot of<br />men would stop opposite it, and talk of the loads of grain stored up<br />there, while their own families were pinched for bread. They would gaze<br />savagely on its heavy iron doors, that seemed to defy the weak and<br />helpless, and then walk on, muttering threats and curses. These signs of a<br />gathering storm were, however, unheeded by the proprietors. Others, better<br />informed, were not so tranquil; and by anonymous letters tried to arouse<br />Mr. Hart to take precautionary measures. An anonymous letter addressed to<br />Mr. W. Lenox was picked up in the Park, in which the writer stated that a<br />conspiracy was formed for breaking open and plundering Mr. Hart's store,<br />and gave the following plan of action. On some dark night, two alarms of<br />fire were to be given, one near the Battery, and the other up town, in<br />order to draw off the watchmen and police, when a large crowd already<br />assembled in the neighborhood would make a sudden rush for the building,<br />and sack it before help could arrive. This letter was handed to the High<br />Constable Hays, who showed it to Hart & Co., but they seemed to regard it<br />as an attempt to frighten them. This was followed by anonymous letters<br />from other parties, that reached the Mayor, insisting on it that danger<br />was hanging over this house. He sent them to Hart & Co., but they,<br />thinking it was only a trick to put down the price of flour, paid no<br />attention to them. They locked their three massive iron doors at night as<br />usual, and went to their homes without fear, and the underground swell<br />kept on increasing in volume.<br /><br />The first plan of operation, if it ever existed, was either abandoned by<br />the mob or deferred till after other measures were tried.<br /><br />At length, on the afternoon of the 10th of February, the following placard<br />was posted up all over the city:<br /><br />BREAD, MEAT, RENT, FUEL!<br /><br />_The voice of the people shall he heard and will prevail._<br /><br />The people will meet in the PARK, _rain or shine_, at four o'clock on<br /><br />MONDAY AFTERNOON,<br /><br />to inquire into the cause of the present unexampled distress, and to<br />devise a suitable remedy. All friends of humanity, determined to resist<br />monopolists and extortioners, are invited to attend.<br /><br />Moses Jacques. Daniel Graham. Paulus Hedle. John Windt. Daniel A.<br />Robertson. Alexander Ming, Jr. Warden Hayward. Elijah F. Crane.<br /><br />NEW YORK, _Feb_. 10_th_, 1837.<br /><br />The idle crowd had all day Sunday to talk over this call. Everywhere knots<br />of men were seen gathered before these placards--some spelling out slowly,<br />and with great difficulty, the words for themselves--others reading the<br />call to those unable to read it. The groggeries were filled with excited<br />men, talking over the meeting, and interspersing their oaths with copious<br />draughts of liquor, and threatening openly to teach these rich oppressors<br />a lesson they would not soon forget.<br /><br />There was something ominous in the hour selected for the meeting; four<br />o'clock in February meant night, before it would get under full headway.<br />It was evident that the leaders did not mean the meeting to be one of mere<br />speech-making. They knew that under cover of darkness, men could be<br />incited to do what in broad daylight they would be afraid to undertake.<br /><br />Before the time appointed, a crowd began to assemble, the character of<br />which boded no good. Dirty, ragged, and rough-looking, as they flowed from<br />different quarters together into the inclosure, those who composed it were<br />evidently a mob already made to hand.<br /><br />At length, four or five thousand shivering wretches were gathered in front<br />of the City Hall. Moses Jacques, a man who would make a good French<br />Communist to-day, was chosen chairman. But this motley multitude had no<br />idea or respect for order, or regular proceedings, and they broke up into<br />different groups, each pushing forward its favorite orator.<br /><br />One of the strangest freaks of this meeting, was an address to a<br />collection of Democrats by Alexander Ming, Jr. He forgot all about the<br />object of the meeting, and being a strong Bentonian, launched out into the<br />currency question, attributing all the evils of the Republic, past,<br />present, and to come, to the issue of bank-notes; and advising his hearers<br />to refuse to take the trash altogether, and receive nothing but specie.<br />This was the more comical, as not one out of ten of the poor wretches he<br />addressed had the chance to refuse either. Half starving, they would have<br />been glad to receive anything in the shape of money that would help them<br />through the hard winter. Yet when Mr. Ming offered a resolution, proposing<br />a memorial to the Legislature, requiring a law to be passed, forbidding<br />any bank to issue a note under the denomination of a hundred dollars, the<br />deluded people, who had been listening with gaping mouths, rent the air<br />with acclamations. It was a curious exhibition of the wisdom of the<br />sovereign people--this verdict of a ragged mob on the currency question.<br />They were so delighted with this lucid exposition of the cause of the<br />scarcity of flour, that they seized the orator bodily, and elevating him<br />on their shoulders, bore him across the street to Tammany Hall, where<br />something beside specie was received from behind the bar to reward their<br />devotion.<br /><br />There was, however, some excuse for him. He had been several times<br />candidate for city register, and hence was more anxious to secure votes<br />than flour--be a popular demagogue rather than a public benefactor.<br /><br />But there were other speakers who kept more directly to the point. They<br />launched at once into a bitter tirade against landlords for their high<br />rents, and against monopolists for holding on to flour at the expense of<br />the poor and suffering. Knowing the character of the audience before them,<br />and their bitter hatred of the rich that had grown with their growth, and<br />strengthened with their strength in the old country, it was not difficult<br />to lash them into a tempest of passion. They depicted the aristocrats<br />around them rolling in wealth, wrung from their necessities--laughing at<br />their sufferings while rioting in luxury--nay, hoarding up the very bread<br />without which they must starve, in order to realize a few dollars more on<br />a barrel of flour. Loud oaths and deep muttered curses followed these<br />appeals, and the excited multitude became agitated with passion. One of<br />the speakers closed his bitter harangue with "Fellow-citizens, Mr. Eli<br />Hart has now 53,000 barrels of flour in his store; let us go and offer him<br />eight dollars a barrel for it, and if he will not take it--" It was not<br />difficult to know how he meant to close the sentence; but just then, a<br />friend shrewder than he, seeing the legal consequences to themselves of an<br />open proposition to resort to violence, touched him on the shoulder, when<br />in a lower tone of voice he concluded: "_we shall depart in peace_."<br />In the excitement of the moment, he had evidently forgotten the guarded<br />language he intended to use, and was about to utter that which would have<br />consigned him to a prisoner's cell, but checked himself in time. He was<br />willing others should suffer the consequence of violating the law, to<br />which his appeals urged them; but his love for the poor did not prompt him<br />to share their fate.<br /><br />It was bitterly cold, and it was a wonder that the crowd had listened<br />patiently so long. The proposition to go to Hart's store with a demand for<br />flour, was instantly seized, and those around the speaker started off with<br />a shout, and streaming down Broadway, poured in one dark living stream<br />along Cortlandt Street into Washington Street. The clerks in the store<br />heard the turmoil, and suspecting the object of the rioters, rushed to the<br />doors and windows, and began to close and bolt them. There were three<br />large iron doors opening on the sidewalk, and they had succeeded in<br />bolting and barring all but one, when the mob arrived. Forcing their way<br />through this middle door, the latter seized the barrels, and began to roll<br />them out into the street. Mr. Hart, who, either from curiosity to hear<br />what the meeting would propose to do, or from his suspicions being aroused<br />from what he had previously heard, was on the spot, and as soon as he saw<br />the crowd stream out of the Park, down Broadway, he hurried to the police,<br />and obtaining a posse of officers, made all haste for his store. But as<br />they were going down Dey Street, the mob, which blocked the farther end,<br />rushed on them with such fury, that before they had time to defend<br />themselves, their clubs, or staves as they were then called, were wrenched<br />from their hands and broken into fragments. The crowd was not yet very<br />great, and the disarmed officers forced their way into Washington Street<br />and into the store. Their presence frightened the few inside, and they<br />hastily decamped. The Mayor, who was in his room at the City Hall, had been<br />speedily notified of the riot, and hurried to the spot. The crowd<br />remaining in the Park had also been informed of what was going on, and<br />dashing madly down Broadway, and through Cortlandt Street, joined with<br />loud shouts their companions in front of the store. The Mayor mounted a<br />flight of steps, and began to harangue the mob, urging them to desist, and<br />warning them of the consequences of their unlawful action. He had not<br />proceeded far, however, before brick-bats, and sticks, and pieces of ice<br />came raining around him in such a dangerous shower, that he had to give it<br />up, and make his way to a place of safety. The street was now black with<br />the momentarily increasing throng, and emboldened by their numbers, they<br />made a rush at the entrance of the store. Driving the police-officers<br />before them, they wrenched by main force one of the heavy iron doors from<br />its hinges. A half a score of men at once seized it, and using it as a<br />battering-ram, hurled it with such force against the others, that after a<br />few thundering blows, they one after another gave way, and the crowd<br />poured in. The clerks fled, and the rioters went to work without<br />hindrance. Mounting to the upper lofts, they first broke in all the doors<br />and windows, and then began to roll and heave out the flour. The barrels<br />on the ground-floor were rolled, swift as one could follow another, into<br />the street, when they were at once seized by those waiting without, and<br />their heads knocked in, and their contents strewn over the pavement. On<br />the upper lofts, they were rolled to the broken windows, and lifted on to<br />the sill, and tumbled below. Warned by their descent, the crowd backed to<br />the farther side of the street. Part would be staved in by their fall;<br />those that were not, were seized as they rolled off the sidewalk, and the<br />heads knocked out. One fellow, as he stood by the window-sill and pitched<br />the barrels below, shouted as each one went with a crash to the flagging:<br />"_Here goes flour at eight dollars a barrel!_"<br /><br />The scene which now presented itself was a most strange, extraordinary<br />one. The night was clear and cold, and the wintry moon was sailing<br />tranquilly through the blue and starlit heavens, flooding here and there<br />the sea of upturned faces with its mellow light, or casting the deep<br />shadow of intervening houses over the black mass, while the street looked<br />as if a sudden snow-storm had carpeted it with white. The men in the<br />windows and those below were white with flour that had sifted over their<br />garments; while, to give a still wilder aspect to the scene, women, some<br />bareheaded, some in rags, were roaming around like camp-followers after<br />plunder. Here a group had seized empty boxes; there others pressed forward<br />with baskets on their arms; and others still, empty-handed, pushed along,<br />with their aprons gathered up like a sack. These all knelt amid the flour,<br />and scooped it up with an eagerness that contrasted strangely with the<br />equal eagerness of those who were scattering it like sand over the street.<br />The heavy thud of the barrels as they struck almost momentarily on the<br />sidewalk, could be distinctly heard above the shouts of the men. Some of<br />the mob found their way into Mr. Hart's counting-room, and tore up his<br />papers and scattered them over the floor. It was evident they were bent on<br />utter destruction; but when about five hundred barrels of flour had been<br />destroyed, together with a thousand bushels of wheat in sacks, a heavy<br />force of police came marching along the street. These were soon after<br />followed by detachments of the National Guards from Colonel Smith's and<br />Hele's regiments. The flashing of the moonbeams on the burnished barrels<br />and bayonets of their muskets, struck terror into the hearts of the<br />rioters. The cry of "The soldiers are coming!" flew from lip to lip,<br />causing a sudden cessation of the work of destruction, and each one<br />thought only of self-preservation. Many, however, were arrested, and sent<br />off to Bridewell under the charge of Officer Bowyer, with a squad of<br />police. The latter were assailed, however, on the way, by a portion of the<br />mob that pursued them, and a fierce fight followed. In the struggle,<br />Bowyer and his assistants had their clothes torn from their backs, and<br />some of the prisoners were rescued.<br /><br />In the meantime, the military paraded the street, clearing it of the mob,<br />and preventing their return. In front of the store, and far beyond it, the<br />flour lay half-knee deep--a sad spectacle, in view of the daily increasing<br />scarcity of grain.<br /><br />Just before the military and police reached the ground, some one in the<br />crowd shouted "Meeches." This was another flour store at Coenties Slip, on<br />the other side of the city, nearly opposite. A portion of the mob on the<br />outside, that could not get to the store, and aid in the work of<br />destruction, at once hurried away to this new field of operations. On the<br />way over, they passed Herrick & Co.'s flour store, and stopped to demolish<br />it. They were loaded down with brick-bats, which they hurled at the<br />windows, smashing them in. The doors followed, and the crowd, rushing<br />through, began to roll out the barrels of flour. But when some twenty or<br />thirty were tumbled into the street, and about half of them staved in,<br />they, for some cause or other, stopped. Some said that they ceased because<br />the owner promised, if they did, he would give it all away to the poor the<br />next day. At all events, they would soon have been compelled to abandon<br />the work of destruction, for the police hastened to the spot, accompanied<br />by a large body of citizens, who had volunteered their help. Some were<br />arrested, but most of the ringleaders escaped.<br /><br />How many of those who attended the meeting in the Park anticipated a mob<br />and its action, it is impossible to say; but that a great number of them<br />did, there can be no doubt.<br /><br />By nine o'clock the riot was over, and those who had engaged in it were<br />either arrested or dispersed.<br /><br />The next day, Mr. Hart issued a card, denying that the exorbitant price of<br />flour was owing to his having purchased a large quantity for the sake of<br />monopolizing it, but to its scarcity alone.<br /><br />It was certainly a very original way to bring down the price, by<br />attempting to destroy all there was in the city. Complaining of suffering<br />from the want of provisions, they attempted to relieve themselves by<br />putting its possession out of their power altogether. With little to eat,<br />they attempted to make it impossible to eat at all. A better illustration<br />of the insensate character of a mob could not be given.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br /><br />ASTOR-PLACE RIOTS, 1849.<br /><br />Rivalry between Forrest and Macready.--Macready's Arrival in this<br />Country.--The Announcement of his Appearance at the Astor-place Opera<br />House, and Forrest at the Broadway Theatre the same Night posted Side by<br />Side.--Bowery Boys crowd the Opera House.--Anxiety of the Managers.--<br />Consultations and Dramatic Scenes behind the Curtain.--Stamping of the<br />People.--Scene on raising the Curtain.--Stormy Reception of Macready.--<br />Howled down.--Mrs. Pope driven from the Stage by the Outrageous Language<br />of the Mob.--Macready not allowed to go on.--His foolish Anger.--Flees for<br />his Life.--His Appearance the Second Night.--Preparations to put down the<br />Mob.--Exciting Scene in the Theatre.--Terrific Scenes without.--Military<br />arrive.--Attacked by the Mob.--Patience of the Troops.--Effort to avoid<br />Firing.--The Order to Fire.--Terrific Scene.--Strange Conduct of Forrest.<br />--Unpublished Anecdote of General Scott.<br /><br />Probably there never was a great and bloody riot, moving a mighty city to<br />its profoundest depths, that originated in so absurd, insignificant a<br />cause as the Astor-place riot. A personal quarrel between two men growing<br />out of professional jealousy, neither of whom had any hold on the<br />affections of the people, were able to create a tumult, that ended only by<br />strewing the street with the dead and wounded.<br /><br />Mr. Forrest, it is true, had a certain professional popularity, but<br />nothing to awaken a personal enthusiasm for him. Viewing the matter in<br />this light, some have thought, there was a mysterious underground<br />influence at work, that has never yet been discovered. But one needs not<br />to go far to find the causes that produced it.<br /><br />In the first place, ever since our revolt from England, especially since<br />the second war with her, in which the contest for the supremacy of the<br />seas was decided, the spirit of rivalry between the two countries has been<br />intense and often bitter. No matter what the contest was, whether between<br />two boats, or two bullies in the ring, it at once assumed the magnitude of<br />a national one, and no matter how conducted, the winner was always charged<br />with unfairness. It so happened that Forrest and Macready were the two<br />popular tragic actors on either side of the Atlantic. If they had stayed<br />at home, nothing would have been thought of it, but each invaded the<br />domain of the other, and laid claim to his laurels. Of course criticism<br />followed, national prejudices were aroused, and national peculiarities<br />ridiculed. The press took sides, and fanned the excitement. Among other<br />things, it was currently reported that when Forrest was in London,<br />Macready went to see him act, and publicly hissed him. This was generally<br />believed, and of course it alone would insure the latter an unwelcome<br />reception from Forrest's admirers here, should he ever appear on our<br />stage.<br /><br />Apparently unconscious of this hostility toward him, Macready came over in<br />the spring of 1849, and at once made an engagement at the Astor-place<br />Opera House, corner of Eighth Street and Lafayette Place. He was to appear<br />as Macbeth; and the play was announced sometime beforehand. Forrest at the<br />same time had an engagement at the Broadway Theatre. On the 7th of May,<br />the following two significant placards appeared side by side in all the<br />streets.<br /><br />ASTOR PLACE OPERA HOUSE.<br /><br />_This evening will be performed_<br /><br />MACBETH.<br /><br />MACBETH ... Macready. LADY MACBETH ... Mrs. Pope.<br /><br />BROADWAY THEATRE.<br /><br />_This evening will be performed_<br /><br />MACBETH.<br /><br />MACBETH ... Mr. Forrest. LADY MACBETH ... Mrs. Wallack.<br /><br />This public exhibition of rivalry stimulated the hostility of those<br />opposed to Macready, and there were some fears of disturbance; but nothing<br />serious was anticipated--in fact, it was rather a good advertisement, and<br />promised full houses. Niblo, one of the managers of the Opera House,<br />unwisely gave out tickets for more people than the building would hold,<br />and when, before evening, he found they were taken, he was alarmed. It<br />looked as if they had been so eagerly bought up for other purposes than<br />merely to hear Macready. He therefore went to the Chief of Police, and<br />requested the presence of a force in case any disturbance should be<br />attempted. It was promised, but as it turned out, most of it came too late<br />to be of any service.<br /><br />A tremendous crowd assembled in front of the building long before dark,<br />and the moment the doors were open, a rush was made, and the human tide<br />poured in, and flowing swiftly over the house, soon filled every part of<br />it, except the boxes. These filled up more slowly; but long before the<br />curtain rose, the house was packed to repletion, while the amphitheatre<br />and parquette were crowded with hard-looking men--a dense mass of bone and<br />muscle. The fashionable portion of the audience in the boxes began to feel<br />anxious, for not only were all the seats occupied, but all the aisles and<br />every foot of standing room. Some were in their shirt-sleeves, others were<br />ragged and dirty, while all had their hats on. Such an audience had never<br />before been seen in the Opera House, and it boded no good. Still, this<br />heterogeneous mass was orderly, but it was noticed that at short intervals<br />telegraphic signals were made by those nearest the stage to those in the<br />wings of the amphitheatre, and answered, indicating a thoroughly arranged<br />plan. The time before the play was to commence passed slowly, but the<br />hard-looking crowd seemed very patient. Occasionally, to vary the<br />monotony, some joke would be passed around, and once a man who was above<br />called out to those below, imitating the English pronunciation: "I say,<br />Jim, come 'hup 'ere! 'ere's some of Macready's hangels--'haint they sweet<br />'uns?" If a lorgnette was levelled from one of the boxes, those noticing<br />it below would put their thumbs to their noses and gyrate with their<br />fingers in return. On the whole, however, the strange-looking crowd were<br />orderly, although the quiet had an ominous look.<br /><br />But at half-past seven, the hour for the play to commence, that regular<br />stamping, common to most theatres, began. But in this case, it did not<br />continue for a little while and then die away, but beginning in a low<br />rumble, every moment gathered strength and grew louder, till it rolled<br />like thunder through the building, shaking the very walls, and making the<br />glasses in the great central chandelier jingle, as though knocked together<br />by invisible hands. As the mighty sound echoed through the recesses and<br />dressing-rooms behind the scenes, Niblo became agitated, and stepping<br />forward on the stage, peered behind the edge of the curtain, and surveyed<br />the strange scene. Turning to Mr. Bowyer, of the chief's bureau, who was<br />by his side, he said: "This looks rather dubious, Mr. Bowyer." "Yes," he<br />replied, "the 'Boy's' are here certainly. What made you sell so many<br />tickets? People are making a tremendous rush at the doors yet, and the<br />house is full; over full already." Niblo then turned to his partner, and<br />said: "What do you think, Mr. Hackett. Is there going to be a<br />disturbance?" "I don't know," he replied; "you must ask Mr. Bowyer."<br /><br />The latter, putting his eye to the crack, took a careful survey of the<br />audience, and remarked: "There is mischief in the parquette and<br />amphitheatre, but probably no actual violence will be attempted; the<br />'boys' will make a noise, and endeavor to prevent the play from<br />proceeding, but possibly they will do nothing further; they seem to be<br />patient and good-natured, but Mr. Macready may expect a rough reception."<br /><br />Macready, who had been dressing, now approached and also took a peep from<br />behind the curtain. His gaze was long and searching. The scrutiny did not<br />satisfy him, and he turned away and began to pace backward and forward in<br />one of the wings, moody and thoughtful. The stamping had ceased while the<br />orchestra was playing, but it now commenced again, apparently louder than<br />ever. Lady Macbeth in full dress now came on the stage, pale and agitated.<br />She also took a peep from behind the curtain. The spectacle frightened<br />her, and turning to Mr. Hackett, she whispered, rather than exclaimed, "My<br />God! Mr. Hackett, what is the matter? Are we to be murdered to-night?" "My<br />dear Madam," he replied, "keep calm, there is no cause for alarm;<br />everything will go on smoothly;" but his pale face and anxious look belied<br />his words. It seemed now as if the house would come down under the<br />continuous, furious stamping. Hackett turned to Bowyer, and asked if the<br />chief had come. The latter replied he did not know; and another silence<br />followed in the group behind the curtain, while they stood and listened to<br />the thundering tramp, tramp, that rose like muffled thunder. At length<br />Hackett asked: "How many policemen are there in the house?" "I don't<br />know," replied Bowyer. "But the chief should have known," retorted the<br />former. "What do you want the police to do, Mr. Niblo?" quietly asked<br />Bowyer. The latter hesitated a moment, when the attaches of the theatre<br />came crowding forward in alarm, and asking by their scared looks what it<br />all meant.<br /><br />Macready and Mrs. Pope, in full costume, were at this time standing apart,<br />talking together, evidently discussing the best course to be pursued. The<br />uproar seemed to grow louder, and prudence dictated a suspension of the<br />play; but Macready, after a moment's hesitation, determined to risk it,<br />and suddenly gave the signal to raise the curtain. The bell tinkled, and<br />the curtain slowly rose, revealing the gorgeous scene and the actors<br />standing in a blaze of light. Instantly the tumult ceased, and a deep<br />sudden hush succeeded. Those roughs were evidently taken aback by the<br />dazzling splendor that burst upon them. It was a new revelation to them,<br />and for the moment they seemed to forget the object of their coming, and<br />to be wholly absorbed in the vision before them.<br /><br />The first scene passed off quietly, and the fears of a disturbance were<br />allayed. In the second, taking Duncan for Macbeth, the crowd began to<br />hiss, but soon finding their mistake ceased. It was evident that some one<br />better posted than the mass had control of this wild element, so eager to<br />be let loose. At length Macbeth came on, and was received with deafening<br />cheers by those in the boxes. As these died away, a hiss ran through the<br />amphitheatre and parquette, followed by cat-calls, cock-crowing, and<br />sounds of every imaginable description. Macready had hardly uttered a<br />single sentence, before his voice was totally drowned in the uproar.<br />Forced to stop; he quietly folded his arms and faced the storm, expecting<br />it would soon blow over. Finding himself mistaken--that if anything it<br />grew louder and fiercer, his disdain turned into foolish anger, and<br />advancing to the footlights, and throwing all the contempt and scorn into<br />his face that he was master of, he deliberately walked the entire breadth<br />of the stage, gazing haughtily as he did so, into the faces of the roughs<br />nearest him, who were bawling their throats hoarse. This did not mend<br />matters any, as he easily could have foreseen, had he known this type of<br />American character better. He then attempted to go on and outbellow, if<br />possible, the audience. But it was like shouting amid the roar of<br />breakers. Nobody heard a word he said, still he stuck to it till he got<br />through that portion of the act. It was now Lady Macbeth's turn, and the<br />appearance of a woman, it was thought, would command that respect which in<br />America is almost always accorded to one. But her reception was worse than<br />that of Macready, for not content with shouts and yells they heaped<br />disgusting epithets on her, and were so vulgar in their ribaldry that she<br />flew in affright from the stage, "blushing," it was said, "even through<br />the rouge on her face." Macready, however, showing, if nothing else, good<br />English pluck, determined to go on. But he had scarcely finished the first<br />sentence, when some potatoes struck the stage at his feet; then rotten<br />eggs, breaking and spattering their sickening contents over his royal<br />robes; while howls that seemed to come from the lower regions arose on<br />every side. It was Pandemonium broke loose, and those in the boxes,<br />thoroughly alarmed, jumped to their feet and stood as if paralyzed, gazing<br />on the strange spectacle below. Macready's passions were now thoroughly<br />aroused, and he stubbornly stood his ground. Suddenly a chair hurled from<br />above, and evidently aimed at his head, struck the stage at his feet and<br />broke into fragments, followed by the shout, "Go off the stage, you<br />English fool! Hoo! Three cheers for Ned Forrest!" which were given with a<br />will. Then came another chair, narrowly missing Macready's head, who, now<br />alarmed for his personal safety, fled from the stage, and the curtain<br />fell. But the bedlam that had been let loose did not stop. Hoots, curses,<br />threats of vengeance, and the confused sounds of a mob given wholly over<br />to passion, struck terror into all hearts; and Macready, fearing a rush<br />would be made for him behind the scenes, left the theatre by a private<br />door, and jumping into a carriage was rapidly driven to his hotel. The<br />manager, alarmed for the safety of the building, attempted to announce his<br />departure to the audience, but in vain. They would not listen to him, and<br />as a last resort he chalked in large letters on a board, "_Macready has<br />left the theatre_" and hoisted it before the footlights. This had the<br />desired effect, and the headlong crowd, with shouts and laughter, began to<br />tumble out. Once in the street, they sent up a loud hurrah, and dispersed<br />in groups to their various drinking places, to talk over their victory and<br />damn all Englishmen.<br /><br />The fact that the mob refrained from damaging the theatre, shows that they<br />did not desire destruction; they had only done in their rough way what<br />other men deemed respectable, and even legislators, have often done, and<br />almost as boisterously, to prevent an obnoxious person from being heard.<br />They certainly had many respectable precedents for their course, and Mr.<br />Macready should have done what others have been compelled to do--given up<br />the attempt and waited for a more propitious time. That a man has a right<br />to play or speak, is true; but men of all grades have always asserted the<br />right to show their displeasure of the acting of the one or the sentiments<br />of the other. Not that there is any excuse for such conduct as we have<br />described, but it can be hardly called a serious riot, although by<br />whomsoever committed is unquestionably riotous in its character.<br /><br />Of this contemptible, disgraceful interference of his friends in his<br />quarrel, Forrest had nothing to say--he kept a studied silence. How a man<br />with any self-respect could have refrained from denouncing it, and<br />repudiating all sympathy and connection with it by a public card, it will<br />be difficult for men of ordinary sensibility to imagine.<br /><br />Macready now determined to throw up his engagement altogether, but after<br />much consultation and deliberation changed his mind. A letter was<br />addressed to him by many of the most wealthy and prominent citizens of the<br />city, in which they expressed their regret at the treatment he had<br />received, and urged him not to yield to such a lawless spirit. They<br />promised that he should be protected in his rights, and hoped he would<br />give the city an opportunity to wipe out the stain that had been put upon<br />its character. This he unwisely consented to do, and the next Thursday was<br />fixed for his appearance in the same play. When the placards announcing it<br />were pasted up, there appeared immediately alongside of them another,<br />announcing the appearance on the same evening of Forrest, in the Broadway<br />Theatre, in the character of the "Gladiator."<br /><br />In the meantime other posters appeared, and among them the following in<br />startling capitals:<br /><br />"WORKINGMEN!<br /><br />SHALL AMERICANS OR ENGLISH RULE IN THIS CITY?<br /><br />The crew of the British steamer have threatened all Americans who shall<br />dare to offer their opinions this night at the<br /><br />ENGLISH ARISTOCRATIC OPERA HOUSE.<br /><br />WORKINGMEN! FREEMEN! STAND UP TO YOUR LAWFUL RIGHTS."<br /><br />It will be observed, that this artful appeal was like a two-edged sword,<br />cutting both ways. It aimed at the same time to stir up the hatred of the<br />lower classes against the upper, by the word aristocratic; and the<br />national hatred of the English, by calling it the _English<br />aristocratic_ Opera House to be guarded by English sailors. Both<br />parties now began active preparations for the eventful night--the rioters<br />by increasing and organizing their forces, and setting on foot plans to<br />get possession of the house; the friends of Macready, to prevent this from<br />being done, and at the same time secure sufficient aid from the<br />authorities to suppress all open violence. To keep the rowdies from<br />occupying the house, tickets were sold or given away only to those known<br />to be friendly to Macready; while to suppress violence, three hundred<br />police were promised, to be supported if necessary by two regiments of<br />soldiers, who were ordered to be under arms at their quarters, ready to<br />march at a moment's notice.<br /><br />As the day advertised for the play approached, the excitement deepened,<br />and serious trouble seemed unavoidable. On the appointed evening, a strong<br />body of police was quietly placed inside of the house, with definite<br />instructions how to act. In the meantime, an immense crowd had assembled<br />in front of the building, and, when at last the doors opened, a rush was<br />made for them. But the police kept the crowd back, and only those who had<br />tickets were admitted. When the house was fairly filled, the doors were<br />closed and fastened. In the meantime the windows had been barricaded, with<br />the exception of one, which was overlooked. This the now disappointed<br />rabble assailed with stones, sending them through it, in among the<br />startled audience. They tried also to break down one of the doors, but the<br />policemen's clubs stopped them. Then commenced a series of yells and<br />shouts, mingled with horrid oaths and threats as the baffled wretches<br />surged around the building. Finding nothing else to vent their rage on,<br />they attacked the lamps in the neighborhood, breaking them to pieces, and<br />putting out the lights.<br /><br />In the meantime, the play inside, with this wild accompaniment without,<br />commenced. Notwithstanding all the care that had been taken, a large<br />number of roughs had succeeded in procuring tickets, showing that some<br />professedly respectable men had been in collusion with them. Although the<br />rioters inside were in a minority, they were not daunted, and being<br />determined that the play should not go on, commenced stamping and yelling<br />so, that Macready's voice from the outset was completely drowned.<br /><br />The police in disguise had mingled all day with the rioters, and<br />ascertained what the mode of action inside the house was to be. At a<br />certain point in the play, a signal was to be given, on seeing which the<br />entire body was to make a rush for the stage and seize Macready. The Chief<br />of Police arranged his plans accordingly, and imparted them to the force<br />under him. He therefore made no effort to stop the noise, but waited for<br />the expected signal. At length it was given, and the entire body of<br />rioters rose with a yell and sprang forward. But at that moment, the chief<br />gave _his_ signal, which was lifting his hat from his head. Every eye<br />of those determined policemen had been intently watching it, and as it now<br />rose, they sprang with a single bound upon the astonished rowdies, and<br />before they could recover from their surprise, most of them were outside<br />of the building, while the ringleaders were kept back and caged inside.<br /><br />The play now went on, but it was a spiritless affair. Every ear was turned<br />to hear the muffled roar of the voices outside, which every moment<br />increased in power as the mighty multitude kept swelling in numbers.<br /><br />The afterpiece was omitted, and Macready escaping through a private door,<br />hastened to his hotel. It seemed for a time that the building would be<br />torn down; but at length, a regiment of the National Guard, preceded by a<br />body of cavalry, was seen marching steadily up Broadway. The crowd parted<br />as it advanced, and as it turned into Eighth Street, the sharp word of<br />command, "right wheel," rang out distinct and clear over the uproar. The<br />rioters, instead of being intimidated, rushed to a pile of paving-stones<br />that unfortunately happened to be near, and arming themselves with these,<br />began to pelt the horses, which soon became unmanageable, so that the<br />cavalry force had to retire.<br /><br />The infantry then advanced, but were received with such a deluge of stones<br />that they, too, fell back to Broadway. Here they rallied, and at the order<br />forward, moved steadily on the mob, and forced their way to the front of<br />the Opera House. While forming line here on the sidewalk, they were<br />assailed so fiercely with paving-stones, that the soldiers fell rapidly.<br />The rioters were in close quarters, and the heavy stones, hurled at such a<br />short distance, were almost as deadly as musket-balls. Captain Pond soon<br />fell wounded, when the second in command told the sheriff that if he did<br />not give the order to fire, the troops would be withdrawn, for they<br />couldn't stand it. Recorder Talmadge, unwilling to resort to such a<br />desperate measure, attempted to harangue the mob. He begged them, in God's<br />name, to disperse and go home--if they did not, the soldiers would<br />certainly fire on them, etc. The only reply was hoots and yells of<br />defiance, and paving-stones. The Recorder then forced his way up to<br />General Hall, standing at the right of the battalion, and said: "You must<br />order your men to fire; it is a terrible alternative, but there is no<br />other." The General asked for the Mayor, for he was doubtful of his<br />authority to do so, without his order. "He won't be here," replied<br />Talmadge. General Sandford then said: "Well, the National Guards will not<br />stand and be pounded to death with stones; nearly one-third of the force<br />is already disabled." After a little more hurried conversation, the<br />sheriff said, "If that be so, you have permission to fire." The uproar all<br />this time was deafening, and the order, "Ready!" of General Sandford,<br />could hardly be heard; but the sharp, quick rattle of steel rose<br />distinctly over the discord. Still terribly repugnant to shoot down<br />citizens, General Hall and Colonel Duryea made another attempt to address<br />the crowd, and begged them to cease these attacks. "Fire and be d--ned!"<br />shouted a burly fellow. "Fire, if you dare--take the life of a freeborn<br />American for a bloody British actor! D--n it, you dassent fire!" and he<br />boldly bared his breast to the levelled muskets. "Fire, will you?" yelled<br />another, as he hurled a paving-stone at General Sandford, wounding his<br />sword arm. "Hit 'em again!" shouted a third, who saw the well-directed<br />aim. Still averse to shedding blood, General Hall told the soldiers to<br />elevate their pieces over the heads of the people, and fire at the blank<br />wall of Mr. Langton's house opposite, hoping thus to frighten the mob. But<br />this only awakened derision, and the leaders shouted, "Come on, boys! they<br />have blank cartridges and leather flints!" In the meantime, the police,<br />who had mingled with the mob, and were making arrests, began to force<br />their way out, in order to escape the fire that now seemed inevitable. The<br />troops moved across the street, and faced toward the Bowery, obeying the<br />word of command promptly, and marching with great steadiness, although the<br />pelting they received was murderous. To retreat would be pusillanimous, to<br />stand there and be pelted to death worse still; and General Hall finally<br />gave the order to fire point blank, but to aim low, so that men would be<br />wounded, rather than killed. The command fell clear and distinct, "Fire!"<br /><br />A single musket shot on the extreme left was the only response. They were<br />too near--their muzzles almost touching the hearts of the men, and it<br />seemed terribly murderous to fire. "Fire!" shouted General Sandford.<br /><br />Three more musket-shots, only, followed. "Fire!" Duryea then cried out, in<br />ringing tones. A swift volley ran along the line, shedding a momentary<br />glare on the wild faces of the mob, the streets, and adjoining houses, and<br />then came the report. This time the dead in their midst told the rioters<br />that it was child's play no longer, and they fell back. But getting a new<br />supply of paving-stones, they rallied, and once more advanced on the<br />troops. A second volley, more murderous than the first, sent them crowding<br />back on each other in terror. The troops now wheeled, and formed line<br />again in front of the Opera House. It had got to be eleven o'clock, and<br />more troops were ordered up, with two cannon. The mob, though dismayed,<br />still refused to retire, and hung sullen and threatening as a thunder-<br />cloud on the skirts of the military, and a third volley was poured into<br />them. The rioters now separated, and fell back into the darkness, when the<br />troops were ordered to fire the fourth time, in different directions--one<br />wing down Eighth Street, and the other into Lafayette Place. This last<br />volley, judging from the testimony of reliable witnesses, was altogether<br />needless. The conflict was over.<br /><br />A lawyer of Wall Street, noted for his philanthropy and kindness, resided<br />in Fourth Avenue, and being informed by a friend, late in the evening,<br />that men were lying dead and wounded in Astor Place, he hastened down to<br />see if he could be of any assistance to the poor creatures. Reaching<br />Lafayette Place, he saw in the dim light a line of soldiers drawn up,<br />though he saw no mob, only a few scattered men, who seemed to be<br />spectators. Suddenly he heard the order to fire, and the next moment came<br />a flash and report. He could not imagine what they were firing at; but<br />suddenly he felt his arm numb, and the next moment he grew faint and<br />dropped on the sidewalk, his arm broken to shivers. The brother of a well-<br />known banker was shot in Broadway by a random bullet; and a man, while<br />stepping out of a car in Third Avenue, was shot dead. Other innocent<br />persons fell victims, as they always must, if they will hang on the skirts<br />of a mob from curiosity. Men anxious to witness a fight must take the<br />chances of getting hurt.<br /><br />Great excitement followed; an indignation meeting was called in the Park,<br />coroners' juries stultified themselves, and a senseless outcry was made<br />generally. Twenty-two were killed and thirty wounded. It was a terrible<br />sacrifice to make for a paltry quarrel between two actors about whom<br />nobody cared; and in this light alone many viewed it, forgetting that when<br />the public peace is broken, it matters not how great or insignificant the<br />cause, it must be preserved; and if the police or military are called out<br />to do it, and are attacked, they must defend themselves, and uphold the<br />laws, or be false to their trust. The authorities have to do with riots,<br />not their causes; put them down, not deprecate their existence, or argue<br />their justice.<br /><br />If public indignation had been turned against Forrest, it would have been<br />more sensible. He knew perfectly well that if his friends persisted in<br />their determination to attack Macready, the second night, blood would be<br />spilt. It was _his_ quarrel, and yet he deliberately kept his lips<br />closed. He neither begged them for their own sake, nor for his, or as good<br />citizens, to forbear, and let his rival alone; nor after it was known that<br />many had been killed, did he express a single word of regret; apparently<br />having no feeling but gratification, that even at such a fearful sacrifice<br />his hated rival had been driven from the field. But responsibility is not<br />so easily shaken off, and in real life as well as in tragedy, conscience<br />will force a man to cry:<br /><br />"Out! damned blood spot! Out, I say!"<br /><br />Macready left the country, and the excitement died away; but the painful<br />memories of this absurd yet deadly riot will remain till the present<br />generation has passed from the stage.<br /><br />We cannot close this account more fitly than by relating an anecdote of<br />General Scott connected with it, that has never been made public. He was<br />living at the time in Second Avenue, nearly opposite Astor Place. He was<br />occupying the upper part of the house that evening, and his wife the<br />lower. When the first volley over the heads of the people was fired, he<br />hastened down, and sent off a servant to ascertain what it meant. Before<br />the latter returned, he heard a second volley. Hurrying below, he<br />despatched a second servant to find out what was going on, and went back<br />to his room. A third volley smote on his ear, and deeply agitated he<br />hurried below, and began to pace the room in an excited manner. His wife,<br />observing how much he was moved, remarked pleasantly: "Why, General, you<br />are frightened!" This was rather a staggerer to the old hero, and he<br />turned and exclaimed: "Am I a man to be frightened, madam? It is<br />_volley_ firing, madam--_volley_ firing. They are shooting down<br />American citizens!" The old chieftain had heard that firing too often on<br />the field of battle, to be ignorant of its meaning. He had seen ranks of<br />living men reel and fall before it; nay, stood amid the curling smoke when<br />his staff was swept down by his side, calm and unmoved, but here he was<br />unmanned. Over the ploughed and blood-stained field, he had moved with<br />nerves as steady as steel, and pulse beating evenly; but now he paced his<br />safe and quiet room with his strong nature painfully agitated, and all<br />because American citizens were being shot down by American citizens. The<br />fact speaks volumes for the nobleness of his nature, and that unsullied<br />patriotism which sheds tenfold lustre on his well-earned laurels.<br /><br />[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS METROPOLITAN FIRE DEPARTMENT.]<br /><br />[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS METROPOLITAN POLICE, 300 Mulberry Street.]<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER IX.<br /><br /><br />POLICE RIOT--DEAD-RABBITS' RIOT--BREAD RIOT.<br /><br />Creation of the Metropolitan District.--Collision between Mayor Wood's<br />Police and the Metropolitan Police.--Seventh Regiment called out.--Dead-<br />Rabbits' Riot.--Severe Fight between the Roach Guards and Dead Rabbits.--<br />Police driven back.--Barricades erected.--Military called out.--Killed and<br />Wounded.--Bread Riot.--Financial Distress.<br /><br />The year 1857 was a remarkable one in the history of New York City, and<br />indeed of the whole country. The year previous had been characterized by<br />intense political excitement, for the presidential campaign had been<br />carried on as a sectional fight or a war between the upholders and enemies<br />of the institution of slavery as it existed at the South. Pennsylvania<br />alone by her vote defeated the antislavery party, and the South, seeing<br />the danger that threatened it, had already begun to prepare for that<br />tremendous struggle, that afterwards tested to the utmost the resources<br />and strength of the North; while a financial storm overwhelmed the entire<br />country in disaster. To these were added local causes, which affected New<br />York City particularly, and made it a year of uncommon disturbance.<br /><br />The Republican party being largely in the ascendant in the State,<br />determined to revolutionize the municipal government, and place the<br />Democratic city partially under Republican rule. Many bills were passed<br />during the session of Legislature, peculiarly obnoxious to the city<br />authorities, but that which excited the most bitter opposition was called<br />the Metropolitan Police Act, by which the counties of New York, Kings,<br />Westchester, and Richmond were made one police district, to be controlled<br />by a board of commissioners, consisting of five members appointed by the<br />Governor and Senate, and to hold office for five years. This board having<br />organized, proceeded to create a police department. Mayor Wood denied the<br />constitutionality of the act and retained the old police--so that there<br />were two police departments existing at the same time in the city. The<br />Mayor resorted to all kinds of legal measures to defeat the action of the<br />board, and the question was finally referred to the Court of Appeals for<br />decision.<br /><br />In the mean time the death of a street commissioner left a vacancy to be<br />filled. Governor King, acting under the recent law, appointed Daniel D.<br />Conover to fill it, while the Mayor appointed Charles Devlin. A third<br />claimant for the place appeared in the deputy, who asserted his right to<br />act until the decision of the Court of Appeals was rendered. Conover had<br />no idea of waiting for this, and proceeded to assume the duties of his<br />office. The Mayor of course resisted, and so Conover got out a warrant<br />from the Recorder to arrest the former on the charge of inciting a riot,<br />and another on the charge of personal violence. Armed with these papers,<br />and backed by fifty of the new policemen, he proceeded to the City Hall.<br />The Mayor, aware of the movement, had packed the building with his own<br />police, who refused him admittance. The new police attempted to force an<br />entrance, when a fight followed, in which twelve policemen were severely<br />injured. While things were in this critical condition, the Seventh<br />Regiment passed down Broadway on its way to the boat for Boston, whither<br />it was going to receive an ovation. A request for its interference was<br />promptly granted, and marching into the Park they quickly quelled the<br />riot, and the writs were served on the Mayor.<br /><br />Intense excitement followed, and so great was the fear of a terrible<br />outbreak, that nine regiments were put under arms, ready to march at a<br />moment's notice.<br /><br />But on the 1st of July the Court of Appeals decided the act to be<br />constitutional, and the disturbance ended. But of course, while this<br />strife was going on between the police, but little was done to arrest<br />disorder in the city. The lawless became emboldened, and in the evening<br />before the 4th of July a disturbance began, which for a time threatened<br />the most serious consequences.<br /><br />DEAD-RABBITS' RIOT.<br /><br />The origin of the term "Dead Rabbits," which became so well known this<br />year from being identified with a serious riot, is not certainly known. It<br />is said that an organization known as the "Roach Guards," called after a<br />liquor dealer by that name, became split into two factions, and in one of<br />their stormy meetings some one threw a dead rabbit into the room, and one<br />party suddenly proposed to assume the name.<br /><br />These two factions became bitterly hostile to each other; and on the day<br />before the 4th of July came in collision, but finally separated without<br />doing much damage. They were mostly young men, some of them being mere<br />boys.<br /><br />The next day, the fight was renewed at Nos. 40 and 42 Bowery Street, and<br />clubs, stones, and even pistols were freely used. The "Dead Rabbits" were<br />beaten and retired, yelling and firing revolvers in the air, and attacking<br />everybody that came in their way. Their uniform was a blue stripe on their<br />pantaloons, while that of the Roach Guards was a red stripe. People in the<br />neighborhood were frightened, and fastened their doors and windows. No<br />serious damage was done, however.<br /><br />About ten o'clock, a policeman in Worth Street, while endeavoring to clear<br />the sidewalk, was knocked down and severely beaten. At length, breaking<br />away from his assailants, he hastened to the central office in White<br />Street, and reported the state of things. A squad of police was<br />immediately dispatched to arrest the ringleaders. On reaching Centre<br />Street they found a desperate fight going on, and immediately rushed in,<br />to put a stop to it. The belligerents at once made common cause against<br />them. A bloody hand-to-hand conflict followed, but the police at length<br />forced the mob to retreat. The latter, however, did not give up the<br />contest, but mounting to the upper stories and roofs of the tenement-<br />houses, rained down clubs and stones so fiercely, that the police were<br />driven off with only two prisoners.<br /><br />Comparative quiet was now restored, though the excitement spread in every<br />direction. It lasted, however, only an hour or two, when suddenly a loud<br />yell was heard near the Tombs, accompanied with the report of fire-arms,<br />and crowds of people came pouring down Baxter and Leonard Streets, to get<br />out of the way of bullets. Some wounded men were carried by, and the<br />utmost terror and confusion prevailed. The air was filled with flying<br />missiles and oaths, and shouts of defiance. Now the Dead Rabbits would<br />drive their foes before them, and again be driven back. The bloody fight<br />thus swayed backwards and forwards through the narrow streets for a long<br />time. At length twenty-five Metropolitan Police appeared on the scene,<br />while fifty more were held in reserve. Though assailed at every step with<br />clubs and stones, they marched steadily on, clearing the crowd as they<br />advanced, and forcing the Dead Rabbits into the houses, whither they<br />followed them, mounting even to the roof, and clubbing them at every step.<br />After clearing the houses, they resumed their march, when they were again<br />attacked by the increasing crowd, many of them armed with muskets and<br />pistols. Barricades were now erected, behind which the mob rallied, and<br />the contest assumed the aspect of a regular battle. The notorious Captain<br />Rynders came on the ground, between six and seven o'clock, and attempted<br />to restore quiet. Not succeeding, however, he repaired to the office of<br />the Police Commissioners, and told Commissioner Draper, if he had not<br />police force enough to disperse the mob, he should call out the military.<br />The latter replied that he had made a requisition on Major-General<br />Sandford, for three regiments, and that they would soon be on the ground.<br />But it was nine o'clock before they made their appearance. The police then<br />formed in two bodies of seventy-five men each, and supported, one by the<br />Seventy-first Regiment and the other by the Eighth, marched down White and<br />Worth Streets. This formidable display of force overawed the rioters, and<br />they fled in every direction. This ended the riot, although the military<br />were kept on duty during the night.<br /><br />At times, the fight was close and deadly, and it was reported that eight<br />were killed and some thirty wounded.<br /><br />BREAD RIOT.<br /><br />In the autumn, there came a financial crisis, that was so wide-spread and<br />disastrous that the lower classes suffered for want of food. Banks<br />suspended specie payment, manufactories were forced to stop work, and<br />paralysis fell on the whole industry of the nation. It was estimated that<br />ten thousand persons were thrown out of employment. These soon used up<br />their earnings, and destitution and suffering of course followed. Their<br />condition grew worse as cold weather came on, and many actually died of<br />starvation. At length they became goaded to desperation, and determined to<br />help themselves to food. Gaunt men and women, clad in tatters, gathered in<br />the Park, and that most fearful of all cries, when raised by a mob,<br />"Bread," arose on every side. Propositions were made to break open the<br />stores, and get what they needed. Flour was hoarded up in them because so<br />little could be got on from the West. The granaries there were groaning<br />with provisions; but there was no money to pay for the transportation.<br />There was money East, but kept locked up in fear. As this became known to<br />the mob, their exasperation increased. To know that there were both food<br />enough and money enough, while they were starving to death, was enough to<br />drive them mad, and there were ominous mutterings. Fortunately, the<br />authorities saw in time the threatened danger, and warded it off. A great<br />many were set to work on the Central Park and other public works, while<br />soup-houses were opened throughout the city, and private associations<br />formed to relieve the suffering; and the winter passed without any<br />outbreak, though more than five thousand business-houses in the country<br />failed, with liabilities reaching three hundred millions of dollars.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER X.<br /><br /><br />DRAFT RIOTS OF 1863.<br /><br />Cause of the Riots--The London _Times_.--Draft called a despotic<br />Measure.--The despotic Power given to Washington by Congress.--Despotic<br />Action sometimes Necessary, in order to save the Life of the Nation.--The<br />Rights of Government.--Drafting the Legitimate Way to raise an Army--It is<br />not Unequal or Oppressive.<br /><br />The ostensible cause of the riots of 1863 was hostility to the draft,<br />because it was a tyrannical, despotic, unjust measure--an act which has<br />distinguished tyrants the world over, and should never be tolerated by a<br />free people. Open hostility to oppression was more than once hinted in a<br />portion of the press--as not only a right, but a duty.<br /><br />Even the London _Times_ said, "It would have been strange, indeed, if<br />the American people had submitted to a measure which is a distinctive mark<br />of the most despotic governments of the Continent." As if the fact that a<br />measure, because resorted to by a despotic government, was therefore<br />necessarily wrong. It might as well be said, that because settling<br />national difficulties by an appeal to arms has always been a distinctive<br />feature of despotic governments, therefore the American people should<br />refuse to sustain the government by declaring or prosecuting any war; or<br />that because it has always been a distinctive feature of despotic<br />governments to have naval and military schools, to train men to the art of<br />war, therefore the American people should not submit to either. It is not<br />of the slightest consequence to us what despotic governments do or not do;<br />the simple question is, whether the measure is necessary for the<br />protection of our own government, and the welfare of the people. To leave<br />this untouched, and talk only about despotism, the right of the people,<br />and all that, is mere demagogism, and shows him who utters it to be unfit<br />to control public opinion. Besides, there is a great difference between<br />measures that are despotic, which are put forth to save the nation's life,<br />or honor, and those put forth to destroy freedom, and for selfish ends.<br />Not that, intrinsically, despotic measures are always not to be deprecated<br />and avoided, if possible; for if tolerated in one case, they may be<br />exacted in another.<br /><br />[Illustration: FORT LAFAYETTE, NEW YORK HARBOR.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FORT HAMILTON, from whence U.S. Troops were sent to aid in<br />suppressing the Draft Riot of 1863.]<br /><br />Liberty can never be guarded too carefully, or the barriers erected around<br />the rights of every individual respected too scrupulously. But everything<br />in this world is a choice between two evils. The greatest wisdom cannot<br />avoid _all_ evils; it can only choose the least. Sound statesmanship<br />regards any stretch of power better than the overthrow of the nation.<br />Probably there never was a more able and wise body of men assembled, or<br />more jealous of any exercise of arbitrary power, than the First Congress<br />of the United States; and yet, almost in the commencement of our struggle<br />for independence, when events wore such a gloomy aspect that failure<br />seemed inevitable, rising above its fears of despotic measures, in its<br />greater fear of total defeat, it conferred on Washington powers that made<br />him to a large extent military dictator. He was authorized to raise<br />sixteen battalions of infantry, three thousand light-horse, three<br />regiments of artillery, together with a corps of engineers, and _appoint<br />the officers himself_. He had, also, full power, when he deemed it<br />necessary, to call on the several States for the militia; to appoint<br />throughout _the entire army all the officers under brigadiers_; fill<br />up all vacancies; to take whatever he wanted for the use of his troops,<br />wherever he could find it, with no other restriction than that he must pay<br />for it, which last was nullified, because he was empowered to _seize and<br />lock up every man who refused to receive in pay Continental money_. It<br />would seem impossible that a body of men who were so extremely sensitive<br />in bestowing power on a military commander, and so watchful of the rights<br />of individuals, could have committed such an act; and yet, who does not<br />see that, under the circumstances, it was wise. Now, granting that<br />conscription is a despotic measure, no truthful, candid man will deny<br />that, in case of a war, where men must be had, and can be got in no other<br />way, that it would be the duty of government to enforce it. It is idle to<br />reply that the supposition is absurd--that in this country such a thing<br />can never happen; for what has been in the world can be again. Besides,<br />this does meet the question of the _right_ of the Government, that<br />must be settled before the emergency comes. Now, we do not believe there<br />is sounder principle, or one that every unbiassed mind does not concede<br />with the readiness that it does an axiom, that, if necessary to protect<br />and save itself, a government may not only order a draft, but call out<br />_every_ able-bodied man in the nation. If this right does not inhere<br />in our government, it is built on a foundation of sand, and the sooner it<br />is abandoned the better.<br /><br />But we go farther, and deny that a draft is a despotic measure at all, but<br />is a just and equitable mode of raising an army. True, if troops enough<br />can be raised on a reasonable bounty, it is more expedient to do so; but<br />the moment that bounty becomes so exorbitant as to tempt the cupidity of<br />those in whom neither patriotism nor sense of duty have any power,<br />volunteering becomes an evil. We found it so in our recent war. The bounty<br />was a little fortune to a certain class, the benefit of which they had no<br />idea of losing by being shot, and hence they deserted, or shammed<br />sickness, so that scarce half the men ever got to the front, while those<br />who did being influenced by no motive higher than cupidity, became<br />worthless soldiers. A draft takes in enough men of a higher stamp to<br />leaven the mass. The first Napoleon, when asked what made his first "army<br />of Italy" so resistless, replied that almost every man in it was<br />intelligent enough to act as a clerk. The objection that a rich man, if<br />drafted, can buy a substitute, while the poor man, with a large family<br />depending upon him, must go, if of any weight at all, lies against the<br />whole structure of society, which gives the rich man at every step<br />immunities over the poor man. When pestilence sweeps through a city, the<br />rich man can flee to a healthy locality, while the poor man must stay and<br />die; and when the pestilence of war sweeps over the land, must one attempt<br />to reverse all this relation between wealth and poverty?<br /><br />When society gets in that happy state, that the rich man has no advantages<br />over the poor, there will be no need either of drafting or volunteering.<br />Yet, after all, it is not so unequal as it at first sight appears. War<br />must have money as well as men, and the former the rich have to furnish;<br />and if they do this, it is but fair that they should be allowed to furnish<br />with it also the men to do their fighting. Besides, there must be some<br />rule that would exempt the men that carry on the business of the country.<br /><br />We have said this much, because the riots in New York, which might have<br />ended in national destruction, were brought about by preaching views<br />directly the opposite of these.<br /><br />The military spirit is so prevalent in the nation, that in any ordinary<br />war the Government can get all the troops it wants by giving a moderate<br />bounty, and wages but a little greater than can be secured at any ordinary<br />business or occupation. Still, the right to raise them differently should<br />never be denied it.<br /><br />When the old militia system was given up in the State, and a certain<br />number of regiments were raised and equipped and drilled for active duty,<br />and for which the people paid taxes, it was thought they would furnish all<br />the quota that would ever be called for from the State--and in any<br />ordinary war will. The crisis, however, in which we found ourselves had<br />never been anticipated, and hence not provided against, and when Congress<br />attempted to do it in what seemed to it the best way, an outcry was raised<br />of injustice and oppression. It was hard, doubtless, but there are a great<br />many hard things in the world that have been and have to be borne. The<br />feeling of hostility unquestionably would have been less intense, had not<br />so many of those to be drafted been bitterly opposed to the war. Believing<br />it to have been brought about by the reckless demagogism and fanaticism of<br />their political opponents, and levied as it was against those who had been<br />their warm political friends, indeed, chief dependence for political<br />success, it was asking a good deal, to require them to step to the front,<br />and fight in such a war. Whether this feeling was right or wrong, had<br />nothing to do with the influence it actually exerted.<br /><br />On this feeling was based, in fact, the real hostility to the draft, in<br />which a portion of the press shared. But, as we said before, we having<br />nothing to do with the justice or injustice of this belief or feeling; we<br />only state the fact, with our denial that it furnished any excuse for the<br />denunciations uttered against the draft as a wrong use of power, or the<br />refusal to submit to it on that account. The Government, whether wrong or<br />right, must be supported, or abandoned and given over to revolution. In<br />ordinary times, denunciation of its measures, and the most strenuous<br />opposition to them, is the right and often the duty of every conscientious<br />man. This right, exercised by the press, is one of the most effectual<br />checks against abuses, and the most powerful lever to work reform and<br />changes. But in a great crisis, to set one's self against a measure on<br />which the fate of the nation hangs, is a flagrant abuse of that right; for<br />the effort, if successful, will not work change and an improved condition<br />of things, but immediate, irretrievable ruin, and put the nation beyond<br />the reach of reform.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XI.<br /><br /><br />Rights of Municipalities.--Interference of the Legislature with the City<br />Government.--Conflict between the Governor and Police Commissioners.--A<br />Wrong becomes a Practical Blessing.--Provost Marshals.--Riot not<br />anticipated.--Bad time to commence the Draft.--Preparations of<br />Superintendent Kennedy.--The Police System.--Attack on Provost Marshal<br />Captain Erhardt.--Telegrams of the Police.--Kennedy starts on a Tour of<br />Observation.<br /><br />The rights of municipalities have been conceded from the first dawn of<br />constitutional liberty indeed municipal freedom may be said to be the<br />first step in the onward progress of the race toward the full recognition<br />of its rights. To interfere with a great commercial city like New York,<br />except by general laws, is as a rule unwise, impolitic, and, indeed,<br />unjust. Like a separate State, it had better suffer many and great evils,<br />than to admit the right of outward power to regulate its internal affairs.<br />To do so, in any way, is fraught with mischief; but to do so as a<br />political party, is infinitely more pernicious. It leaves a great<br />metropolis, on which the welfare of the commercial business of the nation<br />mainly depends, a foot-ball for ambitious or selfish politicians to play<br />with. But as there are exceptions to all rules, so there may be to this--<br />still they should always be exceptions, and not claimed as a settled<br />policy.<br /><br />We mention this, because the interference of the Legislature, or rather<br />the dominant part of it, in the internal policy of New York, about the<br />time the war commenced, was in itself a mischievous and tyrannical act,<br />while, under the circumstances that soon after occurred, it proved of<br />incalculable benefit.<br /><br />With the city stripped of its military, and the forts in the harbor of<br />their garrisons, the police, under the old regime, during the draft riots,<br />would have been trustless and powerless, even if the city government had<br />attempted to uphold the national authority, which is doubtful. The<br />Republicans established a Board of Police Commissioners, the majority of<br />which were of their own political faith, who had the entire control of the<br />department. Under their hands, an entire different set of men from those<br />formerly selected, composed the force, and a regular system of drills, in<br />fact, a thorough organization, adopted.<br /><br />But in 1862 the Democrats elected their governor, though they failed to<br />secure the Legislature. Mr. Seymour, immediately on his inauguration,<br />summoned the Commissioners to appear before him, the object of which was<br />to change the character of the board. The latter understood it, and<br />refused to appear. Legal proceedings were then commenced against them, but<br />they were staved off, and in the meantime the Legislature had got to work,<br />and took the matter in hand; and Messrs. Bowen, Acton, and Bergen, were<br />made to constitute the board--John A. Kennedy being superintendent of<br />police. Mr. Bowen, the president of the board, having been appointed<br />brigadier-general, resigned, and Mr. Acton, under the law, became<br />president. This political character of the board, so diametrically opposed<br />to the feelings and wishes of the vast majority of the citizens, tested by<br />the ordinary rules and principles of a Republican Government, was unjust;<br />a palpable, deliberate encroachment on the right of self-government. But<br />as we remarked, just now, it was fortunate for the country that such a<br />state of things existed. In the extraordinary, not anticipated, and<br />perilous condition in which we found ourselves, everything was changed.<br />Neither constitutions nor laws had been framed to meet such an emergency,<br />and both, in many cases, had to be suspended. What was right before, often<br />became wrong now, and vice versa. The article inserted in the Constitution<br />of the State, that the moment a bank refused specie payment, it became<br />bankrupt, was a wise and just provision, but to enforce it now, would be<br />financial ruin, and it was not done.<br /><br />This usurpation of the government of New York by the Republican party,<br />which seemed so unjust, was, doubtless, under the circumstances, the<br />salvation of the city. It was, moreover, highly important to the whole<br />country, in the anomalous war which threatened our very existence, that<br />the controlling power of the city should be in sympathy with the General<br />Government, but it was especially, vitally so, when the latter put its<br />provost marshals in it to enforce the draft. That this _mode_ of<br />enforcing the draft by provost marshals, was an encroachment on the rights<br />and powers of the separate States, there can be no doubt. It is equally<br />clear that the proper way was to call on the separate governors for their<br />quota, and let _them_ enforce the draft. If they refused to do it,<br />then it was time for the General Government to take the matter in its own<br />hand. This, however, was no encroachment on _individual_ rights. The<br />oppressive nature of the act and the result were the same to the person,<br />whether enforced by the State or General Government. Still it was a total<br />departure from the practice of the General Government since its first<br />organization, and it moreover established a dangerous precedent, which the<br />sooner it is abandoned the better. But this had nothing to do with the<br />opposition to the draft. That was a personal objection.<br /><br />With the Police Department in sympathy with the rioters, it is not<br />difficult to see what the end would have been. We do not mean by that,<br />that the heads of the department would not have endeavored to do their<br />duty, but it would have been impossible to control the kind of element<br />they would inevitably have to deal with. This even the long-tried, trusted<br />leaders of the Democratic party acknowledged. In fact, the police force<br />would not have been in a condition, with ever so good a will, to have<br />acted with the skill and promptness it did.<br /><br />The draft riots, as they are called, were supposed by some to be the<br />result of a deep-laid conspiracy on the part of those opposed to the war,<br />and that the successful issue of Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania was to be<br />the signal for open action. Whether this be so or not, it is evident that<br />the outbreak in New York City on the 13th of July, not only from the<br />manner of its commencement, the absence of proper organization, and almost<br />total absence of leadership, was not the result of a general well-<br />understood plot. It would seem from the facts that those who started the<br />movement had no idea at the outset of proceeding to the length they did.<br />They simply desired to break up the draft in some of the upper districts<br />of the city, and destroy the registers in which certain names were<br />enrolled.<br /><br />A general provost marshal had been appointed over the whole city, which<br />was subdivided into various districts, in each of which was an assistant<br />provost marshall. Although there had been no provision for a general<br />assistant provost marshal or aid, yet Colonel Nugent acted in this<br />capacity. The drafting was to take place in the separate districts, under<br />the direction of the assistant provost marshals.<br /><br />Although there had been some rumors of resistance to it, they received<br />very little credence, and no special provision was made for such an<br />emergency. The city was almost denuded of the military; the regiments<br />having been called to Pennsylvania to repel Lee's invasion; yet so little<br />fear was entertained, that even the police department was not requested to<br />make any special preparation. The Invalid Corps, as it was called,<br />composed of the maimed and crippled soldiers who could no longer keep the<br />field, were thought to be quite sufficient to preserve the peace.<br /><br />The draft commenced on Saturday in the Eleventh and Ninth Districts, and<br />passed off quietly; and it was thought the same order would be maintained<br />throughout, and if any force were necessary to repress violence, it would<br />be when the conscripts were required to take their place in the ranks.<br /><br />Still Superintendent Kennedy of the Police Department feared there might<br />be some difficulty experienced by the officers in charge of the draft,<br />even if no serious resistance should be offered. Some of the enrolling<br />officers, a short time previous, while taking the names of those subject<br />to draft, had been assailed with very abusive language, or their questions<br />received in sullen silence or answered falsely; fictitious names often<br />being given instead of the true ones. In the Ninth District, embracing the<br />lower part of the city, the provost marshal, Captain Joel T. Erhardt, came<br />near losing his life in the performance of this duty. At the corner of<br />Liberty Street and Broadway a building was being torn down, preparatory to<br />the erection of another, and the workmen engaged in it threatened the<br />enrolling officer who came to take down their names, with violence, and<br />drove him off.<br /><br />Captain Erhardt, on the report being made to him, repaired to head-<br />quarters, and requested of Colonel Nugent a force of soldiers to protect<br />the officer in the discharge of his duty. But this the latter declined to<br />do, fearing it would exasperate the men and bring on a collision, and<br />requested the Captain to go himself, saying, if he did, there would be no<br />difficulty. Captain Erhardt declined, on the ground that he was not an<br />enrolling officer. But Colonel Nugent persisting, the Captain finally told<br />him, if he ordered him, as his superior officer, to go, he would. Nugent<br />replied that he might so consider it. Erhardt then said he would go, but<br />only on one condition, that if he got in trouble and asked for help, he<br />would send him troops. To this he agreed, and Captain Erhardt proceeded to<br />the building on the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, and stepping on<br />a plank that led from the sidewalk to the floor, asked a man on a ladder<br />for his name. The fellow refused to answer, when an altercation ensuing,<br />he stepped down, and seizing an iron bar advanced on the provost marshal.<br />The latter had nothing but a light Malacca cane in his hand, but as he saw<br />the man meant murder he drew a pistol from his pocket, and levelled it<br />full at his breast. This brought him to a halt; and after looking at<br />Erhardt for awhile he dropped his bar. Erhardt then put up his pistol, and<br />went on with his enrolling. The man was dogged and angry, and watching his<br />opportunity, suddenly made a rush at the provost marshal. The latter had<br />only time to deal him, as he sprang forward, one heavy blow with his cane,<br />when they closed. In a moment both reeled from the plank and fell to the<br />cellar beneath, the provost marshal on top. Covered with dirt, he arose<br />and drew his pistol, and mounted to the sidewalk.<br /><br />The foreman sympathized with the workmen, and Erhardt could do nothing.<br />Determined to arrest them for resisting the draft, he despatched a<br />messenger to Colonel Nugent for the promised force. None, however, was<br />sent. He, in the meantime, stood with drawn pistol facing the men, who<br />dared not advance on him. Aid not arriving, he sent again, and still later<br />a third time. He stood thus facing the workmen with his pistol for three<br />hours, and finally had to leave without making any arrests. This failure<br />of Colonel Nugent to fulfil his promise and perform his duty came near<br />costing Erhardt his life, and then and there starting the riot. The next<br />day he had the foreman arrested, and completed his work of enrolling.<br /><br />The time selected for commencing the draft was unfortunate. Saturday, of<br />all days in the week, was the worst. It was a new thing, and one under any<br />circumstances calculated to attract universal attention among the lower<br />classes, and provoke great and angry discussion. Hence, to have the draft<br />commence on Saturday, and allow the names to be published in the papers on<br />Sunday morning, so that all could read them, and spend the day in talking<br />the matter over, and lay plans for future action, was a most unwise,<br />thoughtless procedure. If there had been any choice as to the day, one, if<br />possible, should have been chosen that preceded the busiest day of the<br />week. To have the list of twelve hundred names that had been drawn read<br />over and commented on all day by men who enlivened their discussion with<br />copious draughts of bad whiskey, especially when most of those drawn were<br />laboring-men or poor mechanics, who were unable to hire a substitute, was<br />like applying fire to gunpowder. If a well-known name, that of a man of<br />wealth, was among the number, it only increased the exasperation, for the<br />law exempted every one drawn who would pay three hundred dollars towards a<br />substitute. This was taking practically the whole number of soldiers<br />called for out of the laboring classes. A great proportion of these being<br />Irish, it naturally became an Irish question, and eventually an Irish<br />riot. It was in their eyes the game of hated England over again--<br />oppression of Irishmen. This state of feeling could not be wholly<br />concealed. Kennedy, aware of it, felt it necessary, on Monday morning, to<br />take some precautionary measures. Still, in the main, only small squads of<br />policemen were sent to the various points where the drafting was to take<br />place, and merely to keep back the crowd and maintain order, in case a few<br />disorderly persons should attempt to create disturbance. It was true, a<br />rumor had been put in circulation that a body of men had planned to seize<br />the arsenal, and Kennedy, as a matter of precaution, sent fifty policemen<br />to occupy it. But during the morning, word was brought him that the<br />street-contractor's men in the Nineteenth Ward were not at work. This<br />looked ominous, and he began to fear trouble. Thinking that Provost<br />Marshal Maniere's office, 1190 Broadway, and that of Marshal Jenkins,<br />corner of Forty-sixth Street and Third Avenue, would be more likely to be<br />the points attacked, he hurried off the following telegrams:<br /><br />July 13, 8.35 A.M. From Central Office to Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and<br />Twenty-first Precincts: Send ten men and a sergeant forthwith to No. 677<br />Third Avenue, and report to Captain Porter of Nineteenth Precinct for<br />duty. J. A. KENNEDY.<br /><br />July 13, 8.50 A.M. To Twenty-ninth Precinct: Place a squad of ten of your<br />men, with a competent sergeant, at No. 1190 Broadway, during the draft--if<br />you want more, inform me. J. A. K.<br /><br />8.55 A.M. To Sixteenth and Twentieth Precincts: Send your reserve to<br />Seventh Avenue Arsenal forthwith.<br /><br />J. A. K.<br /><br />Telegrams were now pouring in from different quarters, showing that<br />mischief was afoot, and at nine o'clock he sent the following despatch:<br /><br />"To all platoons, New York and Brooklyn: Call in your reserve platoons,<br />and hold them at the stations subject to further orders."<br /><br />It should be noted, that ordinarily one-half of the police of the<br />Metropolitan District, which took in Brooklyn, is relieved from both<br />patrol and reserve duty, from six o'clock in the morning till six in the<br />evening. The other half is divided into two sections, which alternately<br />perform patrol and reserve duty during the day. A relief from patrol duty<br />of one of these sections takes place at eight o'clock A.M., when it goes<br />to breakfast. Hence, the orders issued by the Superintendent to call in<br />these could not reach them without a considerable delay.<br /><br />It now being about ten o'clock, Mr. Kennedy, having despatched an<br />additional body of men to the Twenty-ninth Precinct, got into his light<br />wagon, to take a drive through the districts reported to be most<br />dangerous. He went up far as the arsenal, and giving such directions as he<br />thought necessary, started across the town to visit Marshal Jenkins'<br />quarters in the Twenty-ninth Precinct.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XII.<br /><br />Commencement of the Mob.--Its Line of March.--Its immense Size.--Attacks a<br />Provost-marshal's Office, in Third Avenue.--Set on Fire.--Terrible<br />Struggle of Kennedy for his Life with the Mob.--Carried to Head-quarters<br />unconscious.--Acton's Preparations.--The Telegraph System.--Mob cutting<br />down Telegraph Poles.--Number of Despatches sent over the Wires during the<br />Riot.--Superintendent of Telegraph Bureau seized and held Prisoner by the<br />Mob.<br /><br />Meanwhile, events were assuming an alarming aspect in the western part of<br />the city. Early in the morning men began to assemble here in separate<br />groups, as if in accordance with a previous arrangement, and at last moved<br />quietly north along the various avenues. Women, also, like camp followers,<br />took the same direction in crowds. They were thus divided into separate<br />gangs, apparently to take each avenue in their progress, and make a clean<br />sweep. The factories and workshops were visited, and the men compelled to<br />knock off work and join them, while the proprietors were threatened with<br />the destruction of their property, if they made any opposition. The<br />separate crowds were thus swelled at almost every step, and armed with<br />sticks, and clubs, and every conceivable weapon they could lay hands on,<br />they moved north towards some point which had evidently been selected as a<br />place of rendezvous. This proved to be a vacant lot near Central Park, and<br />soon the living streams began to flow into it, and a more wild, savage,<br />and heterogeneous-looking mass could not be imagined. After a short<br />consultation they again took up the line of march, and in two separate<br />bodies, moved down Fifth and Sixth Avenues, until they reached Forty-sixth<br />and Forty-seventh Streets, when they turned directly east.<br /><br />The number composing this first mob has been so differently estimated,<br />that it would be impossible from reports merely, to approximate the truth.<br />A pretty accurate idea, however, can be gained of its immense size, from a<br />statement made by Mr. King, son of President King, of Columbia College.<br />Struck by its magnitude, he had the curiosity to get some estimate of it<br />by timing its progress, and he found that although it filled the broad<br />street from curbstone to curbstone, and was moving rapidly, it took<br />between twenty and twenty-five minutes for it to pass a single point.<br /><br />A ragged, coatless, heterogeneously weaponed army, it heaved tumultuously<br />along toward Third Avenue. Tearing down the telegraph poles as it crossed<br />the Harlem & New Haven Railroad track, it surged angrily up around the<br />building where the drafting was going on. The small squad of police<br />stationed there to repress disorder looked on bewildered, feeling they<br />were powerless in the presence of such a host. Soon a stone went crashing<br />through a window, which was the signal for a general assault on the doors.<br />These giving way before the immense pressure, the foremost rushed in,<br />followed by shouts and yells from those behind, and began to break up the<br />furniture. The drafting officers, in an adjoining room, alarmed, fled<br />precipitately through the rear of the building. The mob seized the wheel<br />in which were the names, and what books, papers, and lists were left, and<br />tore them up, and scattered them in every direction. A safe stood on one<br />side, which was supposed to contain important papers, and on this they<br />fell with clubs and stones, but in vain. Enraged at being thwarted, they<br />set fire to the building, and hurried out of it. As the smoke began to<br />ascend, the onlooking multitude without sent up a loud cheer. Though the<br />upper part of the building was occupied by families, the rioters, thinking<br />that the officers were concealed there, rained stones and brick-bats<br />against the windows, sending terror into the hearts of the inmates. Deputy<br />Provost Marshal Vanderpool, who had mingled in the crowd, fearing for the<br />lives of the women and children, boldly stepped to the front, and tried to<br />appease the mob, telling them the papers were all destroyed, and begged<br />them to fall back, and let others help the inmates of the building, or<br />take hold themselves. The reply was a heavy blow in the face. Vanderpool<br />shoved the man who gave it aside, when he was assailed with a shower of<br />blows and curses. Fearing for his life, he broke through the crowd, and<br />hastened to the spot where the police were standing, wholly powerless in<br />the midst of this vast, excited throng.<br /><br />In the meantime, the flames, unarrested, made rapid way, and communicating<br />to the adjoining building, set it on fire. The volumes of smoke, rolling<br />heavenward, and the crackling and roaring of the flames, seemed for a<br />moment to awe the mob, and it looked silently on the ravaging of a power<br />more terrible and destructive than its own.<br /><br />At this time Superintendent Kennedy was quietly making his way across the<br />town toward the office of with a heavy club, endeavored to break in his<br />skull, but Kennedy dodged his blows. Careful only for his head, he let<br />them beat his body, while he made desperate efforts to break through the<br />mass, whose demoniacal yells and oaths showed that they intended to take<br />his life. In the struggle the whole crowd, swaying to and fro, slowly<br />advanced toward Lexington Avenue, coming, as they did so, upon a wide mud-<br />hole. "Drown him! drown, him!" arose at once on every side, and the next<br />moment a heavy blow, planted under his ear, sent him headforemost into the<br />water.<br /><br />Falling with his face amid the stones, he was kicked and trampled on, and<br />pounded, till he was a mass of gore. Still struggling desperately for<br />life, he managed to get to his feet again, and made a dash for the middle<br />of the pond. The water was deep, and his murderers, disliking to get wet,<br />did not follow him, but ran around to the other side, to meet him as he<br />came out. But Kennedy was ahead of them, and springing up the bank into<br />Lexington Avenue, saw a man whom he knew, and called out: "John Eagan,<br />come here and save my life!" Mr. Eagan, who was a well-known and<br />influential resident of that vicinity, immediately rushed forward to his<br />assistance, and arrested his pursuers. But the Superintendent was so<br />terribly bruised and mangled, that Eagan did not recognize him. He,<br />however, succeeded in keeping the mob back, who, seeing the horrible<br />condition their victim was in, doubtless thought they had finished him.<br />Other citizens now coming forward, a passing feed wagon was secured, into<br />which Kennedy was lifted, and driven to police head-quarters. Acton, who<br />was in the street as the wagon approached, saw the mangled body within,<br />did not dream who it was. The driver inquired where he should take him.<br />"Around to the station," carelessly replied Acton. The driver hesitated,<br />and inquired again, "Where to?" Acton, supposing it was some drunkard,<br />bruised in a brawl, replied rather petulantly, "Around to the station."<br />The man then told him it was Kennedy. Acton, scanning the features more<br />closely, saw that it indeed was the Superintendent himself in this<br />horrible condition. As the officers gathered around the bleeding, almost<br />unconscious form, a murmur of wrath was heard, a sure premonition what<br />work would be done when the hour of vengeance should come.<br /><br />Kennedy was carried into head-quarters, and a surgeon immediately sent<br />for. After an examination had shown that no bones were broken, he was<br />taken to the house of a friend, and, before the week closed, was on his<br />feet again.<br /><br />Acton, now the legal head of the police force, soon showed he was the<br />right man in the right place. Of a nervous temperament, he was quick and<br />prompt, yet cool and decided, and relentless as death in the discharge of<br />his duty. Holding the views of the first Napoleon respecting mobs, he did<br />not believe in speech-making to them. His addresses were to be locust<br />clubs and grape-shot. Taking in at once the gravity of the situation, he,<br />after despatching such force as was immediately available to the scene of<br />the riot, telegraphed to the different precincts to have the entire<br />reserve force concentrated at head-quarters, which were in Mulberry<br />Street, near Bleecker.<br /><br />He saw at once, to have his force effective it must be well in hand, so<br />that he could send it out in any direction in sufficient strength to bear<br />down all opposition. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of his policy,<br />for we shall see, after it had been accomplished, the police never lost a<br />battle.<br /><br />There being thirty-two precincts in the limits of the Metropolitan Police,<br />a vast territory was covered. These were reached by a system of telegraph<br />wires, called the Telegraph Bureau, of which James Crowley was<br />superintendent and Eldred Polhamus deputy. There were three operators--<br />Chapin, Duvall, and Lucas. A telegraph station was in each precinct--thus<br />making thirty-two, all coming to a focus at head-quarters. These are also<br />divided into five sections--north, south, east, west, and central. The<br />Commissioners, therefore, sitting in the central office, can send messages<br />almost instantaneously to every precinct of the city, and receive<br />immediate answers. Hence, Mr. Acton was a huge Briareus, reaching out his<br />arms to Fort Washington in the north, and Brooklyn in the south, and at<br />the same time touching the banks of both rivers. No other system could be<br />devised giving such tremendous power to the police--the power of instant<br />information and rapid concentration at any desired point. That it proved<br />itself the strong right arm of the Commissioners, it needs only to state,<br />that during the four days of the riot, between five and six thousand<br />messages passed over the wires, showing that they were worked to their<br />utmost capacity, day and night. The more intelligent of the mob understood<br />this, and hence at the outset attempted to break up this communication, by<br />cutting down the poles on Third Avenue. This stopped all messages to and<br />from the precincts at Fort Washington, Manhattanville, Harlem, Yorkville,<br />and Bloomingdale, as well as with the Nineteenth Precinct.<br /><br />But fortunately, the orders to these had passed over the wires before the<br />work was completed. Subsequently, the rioters cut down the poles in First<br />Avenue, in Twenty-second Street, and Ninth Avenue, destroying<br />communication between several other precincts.<br /><br />Mr. Crowley, the Superintendent of the Telegraph Bureau, was made<br />acquainted early, Monday, by mere accident with this plan of the rioters.<br />Coming to town in the Third Avenue cars from Yorkville, where he resided,<br />he suddenly found the car arrested by a mob, and getting out with the<br />other passengers, discovered men chopping furiously away at the telegraph<br />poles; and without stopping to think, rushed up to them and ordered them<br />to desist. One of the ruffians, looking up, cried out, "he is one of the<br />d--d operators." Instantly yells arose, "Smash him," "Kill him," when<br />those nearest seized him. By great adroitness he disarmed their suspicions<br />sufficiently to prevent further violence, though they held him prisoner<br />for an hour. At last, seeing an opportunity when more important objects<br />attracted their attention, he quietly worked his way out and escaped.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br />Soldiers beaten by the Mob.--Gallant Fight of Sergeant McCredie.--Mob<br />Triumphant.--Beat Police Officers unmercifully.--Fearful Scenes.--Fifty<br />thousand People block Third Avenue.--A whole Block of Houses burning.--<br />Attack on a Gun Factory.--Defeat of the Broadway Squad.--Houses sacked in<br />Lexington Avenue.--Telegraph Dispatches.--Bull's Head Tavern burned.--<br />Block on Broadway burned.--Burning of the Negroes' Orphan Asylum.--Attack<br />on Mayor Opdyke's House.--A Crisis nobly met.--Gallant Fight and Victory<br />of Sergeant Carpenter.--A thrilling Spectacle.<br /><br />In the meantime, the mob that stood watching the spreading conflagration<br />in Third Avenue increased rapidly, fed by tributaries from the tenement-<br />houses, slums, and workshops in that vicinity. But they were soon startled<br />from their state of comparative quietness, by the cry of "the soldiers are<br />coming." The Invalid Corps, a small body sent from the Park, was<br />approaching. As it came up, the soldiers fired, either blank cartridges,<br />or over the heads of the crowd, doubtless thinking a single discharge<br />would disperse it. The folly of such a course was instantly shown, for the<br />mob, roused into sudden fury, dashed on the small body of soldiers before<br />they could reload, and snatching away their muskets, pounded them over the<br />head, and chased them like sheep for ten blocks. One soldier was left for<br />dead on the pavement, beaten to a jelly. Another, breaking from the crowd,<br />attempted to climb some rocks near Forty-second Street, when his pursuers<br />grabbed him and dragged him to the top, where they tore off his uniform,<br />and beat him till he was senseless, and then threw him down to the bottom<br />and left him.<br /><br />In the meantime, Sergeant McCredie, "fighting Mac," as he was called, from<br />the Fifteenth Precinct, Captain C. W. Caffrey, arrived on the scene with a<br />few men. Marching down Forty-third street to Third Avenue, they looked up<br />two blocks, and to their amazement beheld the broad avenue, as far as they<br />could see, blocked with the mob, while before it, bearing swiftly down on<br />them, and running for life, came the terror-stricken Invalid Corps. At<br />this juncture, other squads sent from various precincts arrived, swelling<br />this force to forty-four. It was a mere handful among these enraged<br />thousands; but McCredie, who at once took command, determined to stand his<br />ground, and meet as best he could the overwhelming numbers that came<br />driving down like a storm, filling the air with yells and oaths, and<br />brandishing their clubs over their heads. He thought that another police<br />force was beyond the mob, on the north, and if he could press through and<br />form a junction with it, the two combined would be strong enough to hold<br />their own. He therefore quickly formed his men in line across the street,<br />and awaited the shock. As the disorderly mass following up the fugitives<br />drew near, McCredie ordered a charge, and this mere handful of men moved<br />swiftly and steadily upon it. The rioters, stunned by the suddenness and<br />strength of the blow, recoiled, and the police, following up their<br />advantage, drove them back, step by step, as far as Forty-sixth street.<br />Here the sergeant, instead of meeting another body of police, as he<br />expected, met a heavier body of rioters that were blocking up Forty-sixth<br />Street on both sides of the avenue. Backed by these, the main body rallied<br />and charged on the exhausted police force in turn, and almost surrounded<br />them. To render their already desperate situation hopeless, another mob<br />suddenly closed in behind them from Forty-fifth street.<br /><br />Thus attacked in front and rear with clubs, iron bars, guns and pistols,<br />and rained upon with stones and brick-bats from the roofs of the houses,<br />they were unable longer to keep together, and broke and fled--part up the<br />side streets, and some down the avenue--bruised, torn, and bleeding.<br /><br />The desperate nature of this first conflict can be imagined, when, out of<br />the fourteen men composing Sergeant McCredie's original force, only five<br />were left unwounded. At the very outset of the charge, the sergeant<br />himself was struck with an iron bar on the wrist, which rendered the arm<br />almost useless. In the retreat, four men assailed him at once. Knocking<br />down two, he took refuge in the house of a German, when a young woman told<br />him to jump between two mattresses. He did so, and she covered him up just<br />as his pursuers forced their way in. Streaming through the house from<br />cellar to garret, they came back, and demanded of the young woman where<br />the man was hid. She quietly said he had escaped by the rear of the house.<br />Believing she told the truth, they took their departure. Officer Bennett<br />was knocked down three times before he ceased fighting. The last time he<br />was supposed to be dead, when the wretches began to rob him even of his<br />clothing, stripping him of every article except his drawers. He was soon<br />after taken up and carried to St. Luke's Hospital, and placed in the dead-<br />house, where he lay for several hours. When the sad news was brought to<br />his wife, she hastened to the hospital, and fell weeping on the lifeless<br />form of her husband. She could not believe he was dead, and laying her<br />hand on his heart, found to her joy that it pulsated. She immediately flew<br />to the officials of the hospital, and had him brought in, and restoratives<br />applied. He revived, but remained unconscious for three days, while the<br />riot raged around him. Officer Travis, in the flight down the avenue, saw,<br />as he looked back, that his foremost pursuer had a pistol. Wheeling, he<br />knocked him down, and seized the pistol, but before he could use it, a<br />dozen clubs were raining blows upon him, which brought him to the ground.<br />The infuriated men then jumped upon him, knocking out his teeth, breaking<br />his jaw-bone and right hand, and terribly mutilating his whole body.<br />Supposing him to be dead, they then stripped him stark naked and left him<br />on the pavement, a ghastly spectacle to the passers-by. Officer Phillips<br />ran the gauntlet almost unharmed, but was pursued block after block by a<br />portion of the mob, till he reached Thirty-ninth street. Here he attempted<br />to enter a house, but it was closed against him. As he turned down the<br />steps, one of the pursuers, in soldier's clothes, levelled his musket at<br />him and fired. Missing his aim, he clubbed his weapon, and dealt him a<br />deadly blow. Phillips caught the musket as it descended, and wrenching it<br />from his grasp, knocked the fellow down with it, and started and ran<br />across some vacant lots to Fortieth Street. But here he was headed off by<br />another portion of the mob, in which was a woman, who made a lunge at him<br />with, a shoemaker's knife. The knife missed his throat, but passed through<br />his ear. Drawing it back, she made another stab, piercing his arm. He was<br />now bleeding profusely, and his death seemed inevitable, when a stranger,<br />seeing his condition, sprang forward, and covering his body, declared he<br />would kill the first man that advanced. Awed by his determined manner, the<br />fiends sullenly withdrew. Officers Sutherland and Mingay were also badly<br />beaten. Officer Kiernan, receiving a blow on his head with a stone,<br />another on the back of his neck with a hay-bale rung, and two more on the<br />knees, fell insensible, and would doubtless have been killed outright, but<br />for the wife of Eagan, who saved Kennedy. Throwing herself over his body,<br />she exclaimed, "for God's sake do not kill him." Seeing that they had got<br />to attack this lady to get at Kiernan, they passed on.<br /><br />The scene in Third Avenue at this time was fearful and appalling. It was<br />now noon, but the hot July sun was obscured by heavy clouds, that hung in<br />ominous shadows over the city, while from near Cooper Institute to Forty-<br />sixth Street, or about thirty blocks, the avenue was black with human<br />beings,--sidewalks, house-tops, windows, and stoops all filled with<br />rioters or spectators. Dividing it like a stream, horse-cars arrested in<br />their course lay strung along as far as the eye could reach. As the glance<br />ran along this mighty mass of men and women north, it rested at length on<br />huge columns of smoke rolling heavenward from burning buildings, giving a<br />still more fearful aspect to the scene. Many estimated the number at this<br />time in the street at fifty thousand.<br /><br />In the meantime the fire-bell had brought the firemen on the ground, but<br />the mob would not let them approach the burning houses. The flames had<br />communicated with the adjoining block and were now making fearful headway.<br />At length Engineer Decker addressed the mob, which by this time had grown<br />thinner by the main mass moving farther down town, who told them that<br />everything relating to the provost marshal's office was destroyed, and now<br />the fire was destroying private property, some of which doubtless belonged<br />to persons friendly to them, and finally persuaded them to let the engines<br />work. Water was soon deluging the buildings, and the fire at length<br />arrested, but not until four were consumed with all their contents.<br /><br />The drawing commenced in the Eighth District, 1190 Broadway, Captain<br />Maniere provost marshal, on the same morning, and continued quietly until<br />about 12 o'clock, when it was adjourned, and policemen who had been<br />stationed there to guard it were sent over to the Ninth District, where<br />the mob was carrying everything before it. But coming in small bodies,<br />they were easily overcome and scattered. Sergeant Ellison, especially, got<br />badly beaten; and Sergeant Wade, who came up soon after, and charged<br />gallantly on the mob, shared the same fate, and had to be taken to St.<br />Luke's Hospital. The work of destruction having commenced, it went on<br />after this with the wild irregularity characteristic of mobs. The news of<br />the uprising and destruction of property, as it spread through those<br />portions of the city where the low Irish dwelt, stirred up all the<br />inmates, and they came thronging forth, till there were incipient mobs on<br />almost every corner. From this time no consecutive narrative can be given<br />of the after doings. This immense mass seemed to split up into three or<br />four sections, as different objects attracted their attention; and they<br />came together and separated apparently without any concert of action. A<br />shout and a cry in one direction would call off a throng, while a similar<br />shout in another would attract a portion thither. Some feeling the need of<br />arms, and remembering that a gun factory was at the corner of Second<br />Avenue and Twentieth Street, called out to the crowd, and soon a large<br />body was rushing in that direction. The Police Commissioners had also<br />thought of this, and hastily sent off the Broadway squad to occupy it, and<br />they succeeded, by going singly and in pairs, in reaching it--thirty-five<br />all told. These men, selected for their size, being all six feet or<br />upward, were ordered to hold the place at all hazards.<br /><br />In the meantime the mob endeavored to gain admittance, but warned off by<br />Sergeant Burdick, left. But scarcely a quarter of an hour had elapsed,<br />when they returned heavily reinforced, armed with all kinds of weapons,<br />and yelling and hooting like fiends. Stones and bricks came crashing<br />through the windows, but still the squad, though every man was armed with<br />a carbine, did not fire.<br /><br />The mob then tried to set the factory on fire, but failed. Enraged at<br />being baffled, a powerful man advanced on the door with a sledge-hammer,<br />and began to pound against it. At length one of the panels gave way, and<br />as a shout arose from those looking on, he boldly attempted to crawl<br />through. The report of a solitary carbine was heard, and the brains of the<br />man lay scattered on the floor. This staggered the mob for a moment, but<br />soon fear gave way to rage, and shots and stones were rained against the<br />building, smashing in the windows, and rapidly making a clean breach<br />through the door. Burdick sent to Captain Cameron for aid, but he replied<br />that he could not reach him.<br /><br />At 3:45 the following telegram was sent from the Eighteenth Precinct:<br /><br />"The mob have attacked the armory, Second Avenue and Twenty-first Street.<br />There is danger of firing the building."<br /><br />Fifteen minutes later came: "It is impossible for us to protect the<br />armory at Second Avenue and Twenty-first Street."<br /><br />_Answer_--"Draw your men off. D. C."<br /><br />The squad, in evacuating the building, found themselves cut off both in<br />front and at the sides.<br /><br />The only mode of escape was through a hole in the rear wall, some eighteen<br />feet from the ground, and scarcely a foot and a half in diameter. Piling<br />up boxes to reach this aperture, these large men squeezed themselves<br />through one by one, feet foremost, and swinging to a gutter-trough,<br />dropped into the yard below. Climbing from thence over a wall into a<br />stone-yard, they sped across it to the Eighteenth Precinct Station in<br />Twenty-second Street. Here taking off their uniforms, they made their way<br />singly, or in groups of two or three, back to the central office.<br /><br />No sooner did they leave the building than the mob entered it, and the<br />work of pillage commenced. Every man armed himself with a musket. The<br />stacks of weapons left, after they had taken all they wanted, were broken<br />up or rendered useless. One thrown out of the window fell on a man's head<br />in the street and killed him.<br /><br />While the armory was being attacked, another mob was sacking and burning<br />houses on Lexington Avenue, near Forty-seventh Street. Within five minutes<br />from the announcement of this fact, came from the Sixth Precinct the<br />following dispatch: "A mob of about seven hundred attacked some colored<br />people in Baxter Street, and then went to the saloon of Samuel Crook, in<br />Chatham Street, and beat some colored waiters there."<br /><br />A few minutes later from Sixteenth came: "A crowd of about three hundred<br />men have gone to the foot of Twenty-fourth Street, to stop men in the<br />foundry from working"<br /><br />At the same time the following was received from the Twenty-first<br />Precinct: "The mob avow their determination of burning this station. Our<br />connection by telegram may be interrupted at any moment."<br /><br />Another from the Twentieth said: "A very large crowd is now going down<br />Fifth Avenue, to attack the _Tribune_ building."<br /><br />As fast as the wires could work, followed "from the Twenty-fourth<br />Precinct:"<br /><br />"The mob have fired the buildings corner of Broadway and Twenty-fourth<br />Street."<br /><br />All this time, while new notes of alarm were sounded, and the police<br />department was struggling to get its force in hand, the work of<br />destruction was going on in the upper part of the city. Bull's Head<br />Tavern, in Forty-sixth Street, attracted the attention of the mob. The<br />sales of the immense herds of cattle in the adjoining yard had been<br />suspended, and the hotel closed. The crowd, however, forgetting the draft,<br />and intent only on pillage, streamed up around it, and shouted, "Fire it!<br />fire it!" While some were calling for axes and crowbars, ten powerful men<br />jumped on the stoop, and with a few heavy blows sent the hall door flying<br />from its hinges. The yelling crowd then rushed in, and after helping<br />themselves to what they wanted, applied the torch, and soon the entire<br />building was a mass of flame.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE RIOT IN LEXINGTON AVENUE.]<br /><br />At this time another mob was sacking houses in Lexington Avenue. Elegant<br />furniture and silver plate were borne away by the crowd, while the ladies,<br />with their children and servants, fled in terror from the scene. The<br />provost marshal's head-quarters were also set on fire, and the whole block<br />on Broadway, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Streets, was burned<br />down, while jewelry stores and shops of all kinds were plundered and their<br />contents carried off. A vast horde followed the rioters for the sole<br />purpose of plunder, and loaded down with their spoils, could be seen<br />hastening home in every direction.<br /><br />While these fires were under full headway, a new idea seemed to strike the<br />mob, or at least a portion of it. Having stopped the draft in two<br />districts, sacked and set on fire nearly a score of houses, and half<br />killed as many men, it now, impelled by a strange logic, sought to destroy<br />the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, extending from Forty-third to<br />Forty-fourth Street. There would have been no draft but for the war--there<br />would have been no war but for slavery. But the slaves were black, ergo,<br />all blacks are responsible for the war. This seemed to be the logic of the<br />mob, and having reached the sage conclusion to which it conducted, they<br />did not stop to consider how poor helpless orphans could be held<br />responsible, but proceeded at once to wreak their vengeance on them. The<br />building was four stories high, and besides the matrons and officers,<br />contained over two hundred children, from mere infants up to twelve years<br />of age. Around this building the rioters gathered with loud cries and<br />oaths, sending terror into the hearts of the inmates. Superintendent<br />William E. Davis hurriedly fastened the doors; but knowing they would<br />furnish but a momentary resistance to the armed multitude, he, with<br />others, collected hastily the terrified children, and carrying some in<br />their arms, and leading others, hurried them in a confused crowd out at<br />the rear of the building, just as the ruffians effected an entrance in<br />front. Then the work of pillage commenced, and everything carried off that<br />could be, even to the dresses and trinkets of the children, while heavy<br />furniture was smashed and chopped up in the blind desire of destruction.<br />Not satisfied with this, they piled the fragments in the different rooms,<br />and set fire to them. At this juncture Chief Engineer Decker arrived, and<br />determined, if possible, to save the building, addressed the crowd, as he<br />had in the morning, hoping to induce them to forbear further violence, and<br />let him extinguish the flames. But they had now got beyond argument of any<br />kind, and knocking him down twice, pitched him into the street. But ten<br />brave firemen at this juncture rushed to his side, and together fought<br />their way through the crowd into the building, where they were joined by<br />two assistant engineers, Lamb and Lewis. They at once began to scatter and<br />extinguish the burning fragments, keeping back for a while, by their bold<br />bearing, the rioters. The latter, however, soon rallied in force, and some<br />mounting to the loft, set it on fire in every part. Decker and his few<br />gallant allies, finding it impossible to save the building, retreated into<br />the street, and soon the massive structure was a sheet of flame.<br /><br />The crowd now proceeded to Mayor Opdyke's house, and gathering in front of<br />it, sent up shouts and calls for the Mayor. They were, however, deterred<br />at that time from accomplishing their purpose by an appeal from Judge<br />Barnard, who addressed them from the steps of an adjoining house.<br /><br />Soon after, an immense mob was reported coming down Broadway, for the<br />purpose, some thought, of attacking the negro waiters in the Lafarge<br />House, between Amity and Bleecker Streets, but in fact to attack police<br />head-quarters in Mulberry Street, and break up the very centre of<br />operations. It was a bold stroke, but the ringleaders had been drinking<br />all day, and now, maddened by liquor, were ready for the most desperate<br />attempts. When the news of this movement reached head-quarters, the<br />commissioners saw that a crisis had come. The mob numbered at least five<br />thousand, while they could not muster at that moment two hundred men. The<br />clerk, Mr. Hawley, went to the commissioners' room, and said: "Gentlemen,<br />the crisis has come. A battle has got to be _fought now_, _and won<br />too_, or all is lost." They agreed with him. "But who," they asked,<br />"will lead the comparatively small force in this fight?" He replied that<br />he thought that Sergeant Carpenter should be selected, as one of the<br />oldest and most experienced officers on the force. "Well," they said,<br />"will you go down to his room and see what he says about it?" He went, and<br />laid before him the perilous condition of things, and that an immediate<br />and successful battle _must_ be fought.<br /><br />Carpenter heard him through, and taking in fully the perilous condition of<br />things, paused a moment, and then rising to his full height and lifting<br />his hand, said, with a terrible oath, "I'll go, and I'll win that fight,<br />or _Daniel Carpenter will never come back a live man_." He walked out<br />and summoned the little force, and as "Fall in, men; fall in," was<br />repeated, they fell into line along the street. When all was ready, Acton<br />turned to Carpenter, every lineament of whose face showed the stern<br />purpose that mastered him, and quietly said, "_Sergeant make no<br />arrests_."<br /><br />It was to be a battle in which no prisoners were to be taken. "All<br />_right_" replied Carpenter, as he buttoned up his coat and shouted<br />"Forward." Solid, and silent save their heavy, measured tread on the<br />pavement, they moved down Bleecker Street towards Broadway. As they turned<br />into the latter street, only a block and a half away, they saw the mob,<br />which filled the entire street far as the eye could reach, moving<br />tumultuously forward. Armed with clubs, pitchforks, iron bars, and some<br />with guns and pistols, and most of them in their shirt-sleeves and<br />shouting as they came, they presented a wild and savage appearance.<br />Pedestrians fled down the side streets, stores were hastily closed, stages<br />vanished, and they had the street to themselves. A huge board, on which<br />was inscribed "No Draft," was borne aloft as a banner, and beside it waved<br />the Stars and Stripes.<br /><br />The less than two hundred policemen, compact and firm, now halted, while<br />Carpenter detached two companies of fifty each up the parallel streets to<br />the right and left, as far as Fourth Street. Coming down this street from<br />both directions, they were to strike the mob on both flanks at the same<br />time he charged them in front. He waited till they had reached their<br />positions, and then shouted, "_By the right flank Company front, double-<br />quick_, CHARGE." Instantaneously every club was swung in air, and solid<br />as a wall and swift as a wave they swept full on the astonished multitude;<br />while at the same time, to cut the monster in two, the two companies<br />charged in flank. Carpenter, striding several steps in advance, his face<br />fairly blazing with excitement, dealt the first blow, stretching on the<br />pavement a powerful ruffian, who was rushing on him with a huge club. For<br />a few minutes nothing was heard but the heavy thud of clubs falling on<br />human skulls, thick and fast as hailstones on windows. The mob, just<br />before so confident and bold, quailed in terror and would have broke and<br />fled at once, but for the mass behind which kept bearing down on them.<br />This, however, soon gave way before the side attacks and the panic that<br />followed. Then the confusion and uproar became terrible, and the mass<br />surged hither and thither, now rolling up Broadway, and again borne back<br />or shoved up against the stores, seeking madly for a way of escape. At<br />length, breaking into fragments, they rushed down the side streets, hotly<br />pursued by the police, whose remorseless clubs never ceased to fall as<br />long as a fugitive was within, reach. Broadway looked like a field of<br />battle, for the pavement was strewn thick with bleeding, prostrate forms.<br />It was a great victory and decisive of all future contests.<br /><br />Having effectually dispersed them, Carpenter, with the captured flag,<br />marched up to Mayor Opdyke's house, when, finding everything quiet, he<br />returned to head-quarters. This successful attack of the police was<br />received with cheers by those spectators who had witnessed it.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br />No Military in the City.--The Mayor calls on General Wool, commanding<br />Eastern Department, for Help.--Also on General Sandford.--General Wool<br />sends to General Brown, commanding Garrison in the Harbor, for U. S.<br />Troops.--Marines of the Navy Yard ordered up.--Eventually, West Point and<br />several States appealed to for Troops.--General Brown assumes Command.--<br />Attack of Mob on the _Tribune_ Building.--Its severe Punishment.--<br />Government Buildings garrisoned.--Difficulty between Generals Brown and<br />Wool.--Head-quarters.--Police Commissioners' Office Military Head-<br />quarters.<br /><br />The terrible punishment the rioters received at the hands of Carpenter<br />had, however, only checked their movements for a time; and, as the sun<br />began to hang low in the summer heavens, men looked forward to the coming<br />night with apprehension.<br /><br />In the meantime, however, the authorities, conscious of the perilous<br />condition of the city, had resorted to every means of defence in their<br />power. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, nearly the whole of its<br />military force, on which it depended in any great emergency, was absent.<br />Lee's brilliant flank movement around Hooker and Washington, terminating<br />in the invasion of Pennsylvania, had filled the country with<br />consternation. His mighty columns were moving straight on Philadelphia,<br />and the Government at Washington, roused to the imminent danger, had<br />called for all the troops within reach, and New York had sent forward<br />nearly every one of her regiments. Ordinary prudence would have dictated<br />that the draft should be postponed for a few days, till these regiments,<br />now on their way back, or preparing to return, should arrive. It was<br />running a needless risk to urge it in such a crisis--indeed, one of the<br />follies of which the Administration at this time was so needlessly guilty.<br /><br />General Wool, at this juncture, commanded the Eastern Department, with his<br />head-quarters at the corner of Bleecker and Greene Streets. Mayor Opdyke<br />immediately called on him for help, and also on Major-general Sandford,<br />commanding the few troops that were left in the city. The latter<br />immediately issued an order requesting the Seventh Regiment to meet that<br />evening, at their drill-rooms, at eight o'clock, to consult on the<br />measures necessary to be taken in the present unexpected crisis, and<br />another to the late two-years' volunteers then in the city, to report at<br />the same hour in Grand Street, to Colonel William H. Allen, for temporary<br />duty.<br /><br />General Wool, also, during the afternoon, while the rioters were having it<br />all their own way, sent an officer to the adjutant-general of General<br />Brown, commanding the troops in garrison in New York harbor, ordering up a<br />force of about eighty men immediately.<br /><br />General Brown, on his way from his office to Fort Hamilton, was informed<br />by Colonel Stinson, chief clerk, that a serious riot was raging in the<br />city, and that General Wool had sent to Fort Hamilton for a detachment of<br />some eighty men, and that a tug had gone for them. Surprised at the<br />smallness of the number sent (he was, by special orders of the War<br />Department, commandant of the city, and commander of all the forts and<br />troops in the harbor except Fort Columbus), he immediately ordered the<br />company at Fort Wood to the city, and sent a tug for it. He then made a<br />requisition on the quartermaster for transportation of all the other<br />companies, and proceeded without delay to Fort Hamilton. General Brown's<br />office was close to General Wool's; but he did not think proper to consult<br />him on the movement.<br /><br />General Brown, immediately on his arrival at Fort Hamilton, directed that<br />all the troops there, as well as at Forts Lafayette and Richmond, be got<br />in readiness to move at a moment's notice, and also that a section of<br />artillery be organized, in case it should be wanted. Having taken these<br />wise precautions he hastened up to the city, and reported to General Wool.<br />The result proved the wisdom of his forecast. A new order was at once<br />dispatched for the remaining troops, and just at twilight, Lieut. McElrath<br />saw two steamers making directly for the fort. They were hardly fastened<br />to the dock, when an officer stepped ashore and handed him an order from<br />General Brown to send up at once all the efficient troops in the forts,<br />and have their places supplied as best he could with some volunteer<br />artillery companies.<br /><br />The reports coming in to police head-quarters had shown that it was no<br />common uprising of a few disaffected men to be put down by a few squads of<br />police or a handful of soldiers. The Mayor, after consulting with the<br />Police Commissioners, felt that it was the beginning of a general outbreak<br />in every part of the city, and by his representations persuaded General<br />Wool to apply to Rear-admiral Paulding, commanding the Navy Yard, for a<br />force of marines, and eventually to Colonel Bowman, Superintendent of West<br />Point, and also to the authorities of Newark, and Governors of New York,<br />New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island for troops.<br /><br />General Brown, after reporting to General Wool, repaired to police head-<br />quarters, which he adopted as his own, and issued the following order:<br /><br />"HEAD-QUARTERS, NEW YORK, July 13, 1863.<br /><br />"In obedience to the orders of the Major-general commanding the Eastern<br />Department, the undersigned assumes command of the United States troops in<br />this city.<br /><br />"Lieutenant-colonel Frothingham and Captain Revolle are of the staff of<br />the undersigned, and will be obeyed accordingly.<br /><br />"HARVEY BROWN,<br /><br />"_Brevet Brigadier-general_."<br /><br />He also sent a dispatch to General Sandford, at the arsenal, notifying him<br />of his action, and requesting him to come down and consult with him on the<br />course to be pursued. General Sandford, after awhile, did come down, and,<br />to General Brown's amazement, insisted that all the troops should be sent<br />up to the arsenal. General Brown, seeing the utter madness of such a<br />disposition of his force, refused decidedly to permit it to be done. This<br />was of course denying Sandford's claim to be his superior officer. It was<br />well for the city that he took this ground.<br /><br />Mayor Opdyke also issued a proclamation, calling on the rioters to<br />disperse.<br /><br />But while these measures were being set on foot, the rioters were not<br />idle.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON THE TRIBUNE BUILDING.]<br /><br />All day long a crowd had been gathering in the Park around the City Hall,<br />growing more restless as night came on. The railroad-cars passing it were<br />searched, to see if any negroes were on board, while eyes glowered<br />savagely on the _Tribune_ building. They had sought in an eating-<br />house for the editor, to wreak their vengeance on him. Not finding him,<br />they determined that the building, from which was issued the nefarious<br />paper, should come down, but were evidently waiting for help to arrive<br />before commencing the work of destruction. The mob, which Carpenter had so<br />terribly punished in Broadway, were marching for it, designing to burn it<br />after they had demolished police head-quarters. Their dispersion delayed<br />the attack, and doubtless broke its force, by the reduction of numbers it<br />caused. There seemed enough, however, if properly led, to effect their<br />purpose, for the Park and Printing-house Square were black with men, who,<br />as the darkness increased, grew more restless; and "Down with it! burn<br />it!" mingled with oaths and curses, were heard on every side.<br /><br />At last came the crash of a window, as a stone went through it. Another<br />and another followed, when suddenly a reinforcing crowd came rushing down<br />Chatham Street. This was the signal for a general assault, and, with<br />shouts, the rabble poured into the lower part of the building, and began<br />to destroy everything within reach. Captain Warlow, of the First Precinct,<br />No. 29 Broad Street, who, with his command, was in the gallant fight in<br />Broadway, after some subsequent fighting and marching, had at length<br />reached his head-quarters in Broad Street, where a despatch met him, to<br />proceed at once to the _Tribune_ building. He immediately started off<br />on the double-quick. On reaching the upper end of Nassau Street, he came<br />to a halt, and gave the club signal on the pavement, to form column.<br />Captain Thorne, of the City Hall, in the meantime, had joined his force to<br />him, with the gallant Sergeant Devoursney. Everything being ready, the<br />order to "Charge" was given, and the entire force, perhaps a hundred and<br />fifty strong, fell in one solid mass on the mob, knocking men over right<br />and left, and laying heads open at every blow. The panic-stricken crowd<br />fled up Chatham Street, across the Park, and down Spruce and Frankfort<br />Streets, punished terribly at every step. The space around the building<br />being cleared, a portion of the police rushed inside, where the work of<br />destruction was going on. The sight of the blue-coats in their midst, with<br />their uplifted clubs, took the rioters by surprise, and they rushed<br />frantically for the doors and windows, and escaped the best way they<br />could. In the meantime, those who had taken refuge in the Park found<br />themselves in the lion's jaws. Carpenter had hardly rested from his march<br />up Fifth Avenue to Mayor Opdyke's house, when he, too, received orders to<br />hasten to the protection of the _Tribune_ building. Taking one<br />hundred of his own men, and one hundred under Inspector Folk, of Brooklyn,<br />who had been early ordered over, and been doing good service in the city,<br />he marched down Broadway, and was just entering the Park, when the<br />frightened crowd came rushing pell-mell across it. Immediately forming<br />"company front," he swept the Park like a storm, clearing everything<br />before him. Order being restored, Folk returned with his force to<br />Brooklyn, where things began to wear a threatening aspect, and Carpenter<br />took up his station at City Hall for the night.<br /><br />This ended the heavy fighting of the day, though minor disturbances<br />occurred at various points during the evening. Negroes had been hunted<br />down all day, as though they were so many wild beasts, and one, after<br />dark, was caught, and after being severely beaten and hanged to a tree,<br />left suspended there till Acton sent a force to take the body down. Many<br />had sought refuge in police-stations and elsewhere, and all were filled<br />with terror.<br /><br />The demonstrations in the lower part of the city excited the greatest<br />anxiety about the Government buildings in that section--the Custom House<br />and Sub-treasury were tempting prizes to the rioters. General Sandford,<br />commanding the city military, had sent such force as he could collect<br />early in the day to the arsenal, to defend it; for, should the mob once<br />get possession of the arms and ammunition stored there, no one could tell<br />what the end would be. United States troops also were placed in Government<br />buildings to protect them. Almost the last act of the mob this evening was<br />the burning of Postmaster Wakeman's house, in Eighty-sixth Street. Mrs.<br />Wakeman was noted for her kindness to the poor and wretched, who now<br />repaid her by sacking and burning her house. The precinct station near by<br />was also destroyed.<br /><br />In the meanwhile, an event happened which threatened to disarrange all the<br />plans that had been laid. Military etiquette often overrides the public<br />good, and here, at this critical moment, General Wool chose to consider<br />that, as General Sandford was Major-general, though not in the United<br />States service, he, therefore, ranked Brigadier-general Brown of the<br />regular army, and required him to act under the other's orders. This,<br />Brown promptly refused to do, and asked to be relieved, telling General<br />Wool that such a proceeding was an unheard-of thing. That he was right the<br />order below will show [Footnote: [GENERAL ORDER No. 36.] WAR DEPARTMENT,<br /><br />_Adjutant-general's Office, Washington_, April 7th, 1863.<br /><br />6. The military commander's duties in reference to all troops and enlisted<br />men who happen to serve within the limits of his command will be<br />_precisely those of a commanding officer of a military post_.<br /><br />The duties of military commanders above defined, will devolve in the<br />_City of New York, and the military posts in that vicinity_, on<br />Brevet Brigadier-general H. Brown, Colonel Fifth U. S. Artillery.<br /><br />By order of the Secretary of War, (Signed) L. THOMAS, _Adjutant-<br />general_.] that his troops must be under his own command, as he was<br />responsible for their action to the Government, and Sandford was not.<br />Wool, however, continued obstinate, and a total disruption seemed<br />inevitable. Mayor Opdyke, President Acton, Governor Seymour, with several<br />prominent American citizens, were present, and witnessed this disagreement<br />with painful feelings. They knew that it would work mischief, if not<br />paralyze the combined action they hoped to put forth in the morning.<br />General Brown, finding Wool inflexible, turned away, determined to retire<br />altogether. The Mayor and others followed him, and begged him not to<br />abandon them in the desperate strait they were in--to think of nothing but<br />saving the city. General Brown had been too hasty, sticking on a point of<br />mere etiquette, with, perhaps, too much tenacity. True, an officer must<br />insist on his rank as a rule, but there are emergencies when everything of<br />a personal nature must be forgotten--crises where it may be an officer's<br />duty to serve in any capacity, however subordinate, and trust to being<br />righted afterwards. Luckily, General Brown, on a sober second thought,<br />took the proper view, and returned to General Wool, and asked to be<br />reinstated in his command, but giving him to understand that, though he<br />would co-operate in every possible way with General Sandford, he still<br />must retain distinct and separate command of his own troops. This was<br />right, and whether General Wool perfectly understood the arrangement, or<br />seeing how deeply the gentlemen present felt on the subject, chose not to<br />press a mere point of etiquette, does not appear. We only know that if<br />General Brown had given up the command of his troops, the results to the<br />city would have been disastrous.<br /><br />While these events were passing in the St. Nicholas Hotel, the streets<br />were comparatively quiet. It had been a hard day for the rioters, as well<br />as for the police, and they were glad of a little rest. Besides, they had<br />become more or less scattered by a terrific thunderstorm that broke over<br />the city, deluging the streets with water. In the midst of it, there came<br />a telegraphic dispatch to the commissioners, calling for assistance. The<br />tired police were stretched around on the floor or boxes, seeking a little<br />rest, when they were aroused, and summoned to fall in; and the next moment<br />they plunged into the darkness and rain. They were drenched to the skin<br />before they had gone a block, but they did not heed it--and then, as to<br />the end, and under all circumstances, answered promptly and nobly to every<br />call.<br /><br />Acton had now gathered a large force at head-quarters, and felt ready to<br />strike at any moment.<br /><br />While the men flung themselves on the hard floor, like soldiers on the<br />field of battle, ready to start on duty at the first call, Acting<br />Superintendent Acton and his assistants never closed their eyes, but spent<br />the night in telegraphing, organizing, and preparing for the fiercer<br />fights of next day. Much was to be done to cover and protect a district<br />that reached from Brooklyn to Westchester, and it was an anxious night.<br />They had one consolation, however: though taken unawares, they had at the<br />close of the day come out victors, which gave them confidence in the<br />future, especially as now Brown and his trained soldiers were with them.<br /><br />Some fifteen or twenty policemen had been more or less severely injured,<br />while the number of the killed and wounded of the mob was wholly unknown.<br />Both the dead and maimed were left by the police where they fell, and were<br />almost immediately hurried away by their friends.<br /><br />The destruction of property on this first day, consisted of four buildings<br />on Third Avenue burned, also a block on Broadway between Twenty-eighth and<br />Twenty-ninth Streets; two brown-stone dwellings in Lexington Avenue;<br />Allerton's Hotel near Bull's Head; a cottage, corner of Forty-fifth Street<br />and Fifth Avenue; the Colored Orphan Asylum, and the armory corner of<br />Twenty-first Street and Second Avenue.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XV.<br /><br />Telegraph Bureau.--Its Work.--Skill and Daring and Success of its Force.--<br />Interesting Incidents.--Hairbreadth Escapes.--Detective Force.--Its<br />arduous Labors.--Its Disguises.--Shrewdness, Tact, and Courage.--Narrow<br />Escapes.--Hawley, the Chief Clerk.--His exhausting Labors.<br /><br />One thing Commissioners Acton and Bergen in their consultation settled<br />must be done at all hazards--telegraphic communication must he kept open<br />with the different precincts. Otherwise it would be impossible to<br />concentrate men at any given point, quick enough to arrest the mob before<br />they spread devastation and conflagration far and wide. Every hour gained<br />by a mob in accumulating or organizing its forces, increases the<br />difficulty of dispersing it. The rioters understood this partially, and<br />had acted accordingly; but the rich spoils they had come across during the<br />day, had driven, for the time being, all other thoughts but plunder out of<br />their heads. Some communications had already been destroyed, and the<br />rioters would evidently by morning have their eyes open to the importance<br />of doing this everywhere, and their efforts must be foiled, no matter what<br />the risk or sacrifice might be. They had already cut down over sixty<br />poles, and rendered upwards of twelve miles of wire useless; and how much<br />more would share the same fate the next day, no one could tell.<br /><br />The superintendent and deputy of the Telegraph Bureau, Messrs. Crowley and<br />Polhamus, with the operators mentioned before, were, therefore, set at<br />work this very evening in the storm, to restore the broken lines.<br /><br />This was a perilous undertaking, for if once discovered, their lives would<br />be instantly sacrificed.<br /><br />The details of their operations, their disguises, ingenious contrivances,<br />deceptions, and boldness in carrying out their object, would make an<br />attractive chapter in itself. Often compelled to mingle with the mob,<br />always obliged to conceal what they were about, not daring to raise a pole<br />or handle a wire unless cautiously or secretly, they yet restored the<br />lines in the north section by morning, and those in the south by Wednesday<br />evening. Sometimes they were compelled to carry a wire over the top of a<br />house, sometimes round it, through a back-yard; in short, every device and<br />expedient was resorted to by these daring, sharp-witted men. Once Polhamus<br />had his boots burned off in tramping through the burning ruins of a<br />building after the wires. Once he and Mr. Crowley came near being clubbed<br />to death by the police, who mistook them for rioters, so ingeniously and<br />like them were they at work among the ruins. Captain Brower rescued them,<br />or their services might have ended on the spot.<br /><br />This work was kept steadily up during the continuation of the riots. On<br />one occasion, Mr. Crowley, hearing that the wires were down in the Ninth<br />and Tenth Avenues, hastened thither alone, when he encountered a large<br />mob. Fearing to pass through it he hesitated a moment, when he noticed a<br />carriage driving in the direction he wished to go, in which was a Catholic<br />priest. He immediately hailed it and was taken in. As the carriage entered<br />the mob, the latter surrounded it, and supposing the inmates were<br />reporters, began to yell "Down with the d--d reporters;" but the moment<br />they recognized the priest, they allowed it to pass. Often the two would<br />take a hack; and passing themselves off as drivers, go through infected<br />districts, and search points to which they otherwise could not have gone.<br />One time they were returning from an expedition through Third Avenue, and<br />had reached Houston Street, when they were hailed by a gang of rioters,<br />who demanded to be taken downtown. They had to comply, for the men were<br />armed with pistols, and so took them in and kept along Houston Street,<br />under the pretence of going down through Broadway, knowing that when they<br />reached Mulberry Street they would be in hailing distance of the head-<br />quarters of the police. It was just after daybreak, and Crowley and<br />Polhamus urged on the horses, expecting in a few minutes to have their<br />load safely locked up. The fellows evidently not liking the vicinity to<br />which the drivers were taking them, ordered them to wheel about, which<br />they were compelled to do, and drive under their direction to an old house<br />in the Tenth Ward. There they got out, and offering the drivers a drink<br />and fifty cents, let them go. On one occasion, Crowley, while examining<br />the wires in Second Avenue, was suspected by the mob, who fell upon him,<br />and it was only by the greatest coolness and adroitness he convinced them<br />he was a rioter himself, and so escaped. At another time they were going<br />along in a common wagon, when they were hemmed in by a crowd, and escaped<br />by passing themselves off as farmers from Westchester. Had they been<br />discovered, they would have been killed on the spot.<br /><br />DETECTIVE FORCE.<br /><br />The duties of this force are well known, but during the riots they had<br />something more important to do than to work up individual cases. The<br />force, with John Young as chief, and M. B. Morse as clerk, consisted in<br />all of seventeen persons. These men are selected for their superior<br />intelligence, shrewdness, sagacity, and undoubted courage. Full of<br />resources, they must also be cool, collected, and fearless. During the<br />riots they were kept at work day and night, obtaining knowledge of facts<br />that no others could get, and thus supplying the different precincts and<br />head-quarters with invaluable information. Their duty was a most perilous<br />one, for it called them to go into the very heart of the turbulent<br />districts; nay, into the very midst of the mob, where detection would have<br />been followed by death, and that of the most horrible kind. Chief Young,<br />with his clerk, was engaged at head-quarters, so that fifteen men had to<br />perform the required work for the whole city. Sometimes alone, sometimes<br />two or three together, they seemed omnipresent. In all sorts of disguises,<br />feigning all sorts of employments and characters, sometimes on horseback<br />and again driving an old cart or a hack, they pressed with the most<br />imperturbable effrontery into the very vortex of danger. Ever on the<br />watch, and accustomed to notice every expression of the countenance, they<br />would discover at a single glance when they were suspected, and remove the<br />suspicion at once by some clever device. Sometimes one of them, seeing<br />himself watched, would quietly ascend the steps of a residence, and<br />ringing the bell, make some inquiry as though he were on business, and<br />then deliberately walk off; or if he thought it would not do to have his<br />face too closely scanned, he would step inside and wait till the crowd<br />moved on. Sometimes, with a stone or club in their hands, they would shout<br />with the loudest, and engaging in conversation with the ringleaders<br />themselves, ascertain their next move; then quietly slip away to the<br />nearest station, and telegraph to head-quarters the information. When the<br />telegraph had been cut off, they had to take the place of the wires, and<br />carry through the very heart of the crowd their news to the department.<br /><br />On their ears again and again would ring the fearful cry, "There goes<br />Kennedy's spies;" and it required the most consummate acting and self-<br />possession to allay the suspicion. Often on a single word or act hinged<br />their very lives. Some of these men were in the mob that made the first<br />attack on Mayor Opdyke's house, and while apparently acting with it,<br />learned of the intended movement down to police head-quarters, and at once<br />telegraphed the fact, which enabled Carpenter to prepare for them, and<br />give them the terrible beating we have described. At the burning and<br />sacking of different buildings they were present, and often would follow<br />unnoticed the ringleaders for hours, tracking them with the tireless<br />tenacity of a sleuth hound, until they got them separate from the crowd,<br />and then pounce suddenly upon them, and run them into the nearest station.<br />The lawlessness that prevailed not only let loose all the thieves and<br />burglars of the city, but attracted those from other places, who practised<br />their vocation with impunity. To lessen this evil, the detectives one<br />night quietly made visits to some half a dozen "lushing cribs," as they<br />are called, in Eighth and Fourteenth Streets, and seized about thirty<br />noted thieves, burglars, and garroters, and locked them up for safe-<br />keeping. They also warned the negroes of threatened danger, and directed<br />them, to places of safety; and in case of emergency acted as guides to the<br />military in their operations. In short, they were ubiquitous,<br />indefatigable, and of immense service. They played the part of unerring<br />pointers to the commissioners, telling them when and where to strike; yet<br />strange to say, such was their skill, their ingenuity, and exhaustless<br />resources, that they all escaped being assaulted, save one named Slowly.<br />He was passing through the very heart of the riotous district, in Second<br />Avenue, when some one who had evidently been once in his clutches,<br />recognized him, and pointing him out, shouted "Detective!" Instantly a<br />rush was made for him, and he was knocked down, and kicked and stamped<br />upon. Regaining, with a desperate effort, his feet, he sprang up the steps<br />of a house, and fought his assailants fiercely, till the lady of the<br />house, seeing his perilous situation, courageously opened the door and let<br />him in, and then bolted and barred it in the face of the mob. Through some<br />strange apprehension, the baffled wretches, though they howled, and swore,<br />and threatened, did not force an entrance, and he escaped.<br /><br />In this connection, while speaking of those whose duties were uniform and<br />running through the whole period of the riots, might be mentioned Seth C.<br />Hawley, the chief clerk. Like Acton, he has a nervous, wiry temperament.<br />This often makes a man rash and headlong, and hence not reliable; but when<br />combined, as in him, with perfect self-possession and self-control,<br />imparts enormous power. It matters not how nervous and excitable a man is,<br />if danger and responsibility instead of confusing and unsettling him, only<br />winds him up to a higher tension, till he becomes like a tightly-drawn<br />steel spring. Excitement then not only steadies him, but it quickens his<br />perceptions, clears his judgment, gives rapidity to his decisions, and<br />terrible force to his blow. Mr. Hawley's duties were of a various and<br />exhausting kind, so that during all the riots, he allowed himself only one<br />hours' rest out of every twenty-four. Besides his ordinary supervisory<br />duties over the clerks, etc., he had to see to the execution of the almost<br />incessant orders of the commissioners, provide and issue arms, see to the<br />refugees and prisoners, and act as commissary to over four thousand men on<br />duty in and around head-quarters. Two men more perfectly fitted to work<br />together in such a crisis as this, than he and Acton, could not well be<br />found.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XVI.<br /><br /><br />SECOND DAY.<br /><br />Appearance of the City.--Assembling of the Mob.--Fight between Rioters and<br />the Police and Soldiers.--Storming of Houses.--Rioters hurled from the<br />Roofs.--Soldiers fire on the People.--Awful Death of Colonel O'Brien.--<br />Fight in Pitt Street.--Deadly Conflict for a Wire Factory.--Horrible<br />Impaling of a Mart on an Iron Picket.--Mystery attached to Him.--Second<br />Attack on Mayor Opdyke's House.--Second Fight for the Wire Factory.--<br />Telegraphic Dispatches.--Citizens Volunteering.--Raid on the Negroes.--<br />They are hunted to Death.--Savage Spectacle.--Negroes seek Head-quarters<br />of Police.--Appearance and State of the City.--Colonel Nugent's House<br />sacked.--Fight with the Mob in Third Avenue.--Battle at Gibbon's House.--<br />Policeman Shot.--Night Attack on Brooks and Brothers' Clothing Store.--<br />Value of the Telegraph System.--Captain Petty.--Seymour's Speech to the<br />Mob.--Cars and Stages seized.--Barricades.--Other Fights.--Acton and his<br />Labors.<br /><br />The early July morning broke tranquilly over the great city, and the<br />rattling of vehicles was heard in some of the streets, where men were<br />going to their places of business. In a large portion of it everything<br />wore its usual air of tranquillity, yet a close observer would notice an<br />uneasiness resting on the countenances of men. Furtive glances were cast<br />down side streets, and people seemed on the watch, as though in<br />expectation of something to come, and the very atmosphere appeared laden<br />with evil omens. Around police head-quarters, and inside the building,<br />were large bodies of policemen and the U. S. troops under General Brown.<br />But uptown, in the vicinity of Thirteenth Street and Second and Third<br />Avenues, crowds of men began early to assemble, though perfectly quiet in<br />their demeanor, while smaller knots in the adjoining wards could be seen<br />discussing the events of the day before. In the meantime, exciting reports<br />came from Harlem and Yorkville--as early as five o'clock, the following<br />telegram was sent to the Twentieth Precinct: "Notify General Sandford to<br />go immediately to Eighty-sixth Street and Harlem--mob burning." Indeed the<br />air was charged with electricity, but the commissioners now felt ready to<br />meet the storm whenever and wherever it should burst. A large force of<br />special policemen had been sworn in, while General Brown had over seven<br />hundred troops, ready to co-operate with the police. The public buildings<br />were all well guarded--Sandford had a strong force in the arsenal, and the<br />military and civil authorities stood waiting the next movement of the mob.<br />Telegrams arriving, showed that the northern part of the city was alive<br />with gathering crowds, while from Sixth Avenue on the west nearly to<br />Second Avenue in the east, and down almost to Broome Street, the streets<br />were black with excited men. Stores were closed, factories emptied of<br />their hands, who voluntarily joined the rioters, or were forced into their<br />ranks, and there was evidently a gathering of the elements in those<br />directions for a fearful storm. Soon immense crowds began to patrol the<br />streets in different wards, showing that simultaneous action would be<br />required at various points. The troops were called out and marshalled in<br />Mulberry Street, and those companies selected for immediate action drawn<br />up in line. Colonel Frothingham, after an earnest conversation with the<br />officers, addressed the soldiers. He told them that the fate of the city<br />was in their hands, and everything depended on their good conduct. Knowing<br />the temptations to disorderly conduct in the midst of the great city, he<br />urged on them especially to obey implicitly their officers under all<br />circumstances. His manner and words were earnest, and listened to with<br />profound attention. Soon a company headed by Sergeant Carpenter, with a<br />police force two hundred and fifty strong, started for Second and Third<br />Avenues, where the greatest gatherings were reported to be.<br /><br />At this time the rioters seemed hesitating about their course of action.<br />There was apparently no recognized leader, no common understanding and<br />purpose, though all were engaged in animated discussions of some topic.<br />Dirty, ferocious-looking women were scattered through the crowd; some of<br />the men were armed, while all looked defiant and determined.<br /><br />There were doubtless many who had come from mere curiosity, and a few<br />attempted to allay the excitement, among them a Catholic priest, who<br />harangued them, urging them to maintain peace. His address seemed to have<br />considerable influence on those immediately around him; but as soon as he<br />left, his words were forgotten, and the mighty throng, estimated by some<br />at ten thousand, began to be agitated by passion. What would have been the<br />first act of violence, it is impossible to say, had they been left<br />undisturbed. But at the cry of "the police and soldiers are coming,"<br />everything else was forgotten.<br /><br />Inspector Carpenter, coming down Twenty-first Street, struck Second<br />Avenue, and wheeling, moved in solid column through the crowd up to<br />Thirty-second Street. The force was assailed with hoots and yells, and all<br />kinds of opprobrious epithets, but no violence was shown, until it had<br />crossed Thirty-second Street. The mob not only filled the street, but<br />numbers, with piles of stones and brick-bats, had climbed to the roofs of<br />the houses. These deeming themselves secure, suddenly, with one accord,<br />rained their missiles on the rear of the column.<br /><br />The men fell rapidly, and two were dangerously hurt. Carpenter immediately<br />halted his command, and ordered fifty men to enter the houses, and<br />mounting to the roof, clear them of the assailants. Barricaded doors were<br />at once broken in, and every one that opposed their progress clubbed<br />without mercy, as they made their way to the upper floors. Captain Mount<br />of the Eleventh Precinct, led this storming party. Officers Watson and<br />Cole distinguished themselves by being the first on the roof, fighting<br />their way through a narrow scuttle. As the police, one by one, stepped on<br />to the roof, they rushed on the desperadoes with their clubs, and felled<br />them rapidly. Those who attempted to escape through the scuttles were met<br />by the police in the rooms below; or if one chanced to reach the street,<br />he was knocked down by those keeping guard there. Some dropped from second<br />and third story windows, and met with a worse fate than those who staid<br />behind. One huge fellow received such a tremendous blow, that he was<br />knocked off his feet and over the edge of the roof, and fell headlong down<br />a height of four stories to the pavement beneath. Crushed to death by the<br />force of the fall, he lay a mangled heap at the feet of his companions.<br /><br />The fight was sharp and fierce, and kept up for nearly an hour, and bodies<br />scattered around showed with what deadly force the club had been wielded.<br />But with the clearing of the houses there came a lull in the conflict, and<br />the immense crowd looked on in sullen silence, as the police reformed in<br />the street, and recommenced their march. The military force that had<br />accompanied the police, had formed on the avenue, about a block and a half<br />above where the latter were stationed, while the detachment was clearing<br />the houses. Two howitzers were placed in position commanding the avenue.<br />Colonel O'Brien, of the Eleventh New York Volunteers, who was raising a<br />regiment for the war, had gathered together, apparently on his own<br />responsibility, about fifty men, and appearing on the field, from his<br />superior rank, assumed command. For a short time the rioters remained<br />quiet, but as the police marched away, they suddenly awoke out of their<br />apparent indifference. Maddened at the sight of the mangled bodies of<br />their friends stretched on the pavement, and enraged at their defeat by<br />the police, they now turned on the soldiers, and began to pelt them with<br />stones and brick-bats. O'Brien rode up and down the centre of the street a<br />few times, evidently thinking his fearless bearing would awe the mob. But<br />they only jeered him, and finding the attack growing hotter and more<br />determined, he finally gave the order to fire. The howitzers belched forth<br />on the crowd, the soldiers levelled their pieces, and the whistling of<br />minie-balls was heard on every side. Men and women, reeled and fell on the<br />sidewalk and in the street. One woman, with her child in her arms, fell,<br />pierced with a bullet. The utmost consternation followed. The crowd knew<br />from sad experience that the police would use their clubs, but they seemed<br />to think it hardly possible that the troops would fire point-blank into<br />their midst. But the deadly effect of the fire convinced them of their<br />error, and they began to jostle and crowd each other in the effort to get<br />out of its range. In a few minutes the avenue was cleared of the living,<br />when the wounded and dead were cared for by their friends. Order had been<br />restored, and O'Brien, with some twenty or thirty men, marched down to<br />police head-quarters, and offered his services to Genera Brown. Colonel<br />Frothingham thanked him, but soon saw that the Colonel was not in a fit<br />state to have command of troops, and so reported to General Brown. O'Brien<br />appeared to comprehend the state of things, and asked to be excused on the<br />plea of sickness. He was excused, and rode away. Whether he disbanded his<br />handful of men, or they disbanded themselves, was not stated, but<br />_he_ was soon back again at the scene of the riot. His residence was<br />close by, but had been deserted that morning by the family, which had fled<br />in alarm to Brooklyn. Scowling visages lowered on the colonel, as he rode<br />slowly back among the crowd, and low muttered threats were heard. Although<br />an Irishman, and well-known in that neighborhood, his sympathy with the<br />Government had awakened more or less hostile feeling against him, which<br />his conduct to-day kindled into deadly hate. Apparently unconscious or<br />reckless of this, he dismounted, and entered a neighboring drug-store or<br />saloon. After remaining a few moments he came out, and paused as he beheld<br />the crowd that had assembled around the door. There was little said, but<br />dark and angry countenances were bent on him from every side, and he saw<br />that mischief was intended. Drawing his sword, and taking a revolver in<br />the other hand, he deliberately walked out into the street. He had taken<br />but a few steps, when a powerful blow on the back of his head made him<br />stagger forward. In an instant a rush was made for him, and blows were<br />rained so fast and fierce upon him, that he was unable to defend himself.<br />Knocked down and terribly mangled, he was dragged with savage brutality<br />over the rough pavement, and swung from side to side like a billet of<br />wood, till the large, powerful body was a mass of gore, and the face<br />beaten to a pumice. The helpless but still animate form would then be left<br />awhile in the street, while the crowd, as it swayed to and fro, gazed on<br />it with cool indifference or curses. At length a Catholic priest, who had<br />either been sent for, or came along to offer his services wherever they<br />might be needed, approached the dying man and read the service of the<br />Catholic Church over him, the crowd in the meantime remaining silent.<br />After he had finished, he told them to leave the poor man alone, as he was<br />fast sinking. But as soon as he had disappeared, determined to make sure<br />work with their victim, they again began to pound and trample on the body.<br />In the intervals of the attack, the still living man would feebly lift his<br />head, or roll it from side to side on the stones, or heave a faint groan.<br /><br />The whole afternoon was spent in this fiendish work, and no attempt was<br />made to rescue him. Towards sundown the body was dragged into his own<br />back-yard, his regimentals all torn from him, except his pantaloons,<br />leaving the naked body, from the waist up, a mass of mangled flesh clotted<br />with blood.<br /><br />But the dying man could not be left alone in his own yard. A crowd<br />followed him thither, among which were women, who committed the most<br />atrocious violence on the body, until at last, with one convulsive<br />movement of the head, and a deep groan, the strong man yielded up his<br />life.<br /><br />While this tragedy was being enacted here, similar scenes were occurring<br />all over the city. Mobs were everywhere, the spirit of pandemonium was<br />abroad, and havoc and revenge let loose.<br /><br />Lieutenant Wood, whom General Brown had sent off, with a company of<br />regulars, came in conflict with a mob, two thousand strong, in Pitt and<br />Delancey Streets. Marching along Houston to the Bowery, he turned down the<br />latter, and kept on to Grand. On reaching Pitt Street, he beheld the<br />hooting, yelling crowd coming straight towards him. He immediately formed<br />his little force of one hundred and fifty men in line across the street,<br />and brought them to "shoulder arms." One of the ringleaders stepped<br />forward to speak to him, when Lieutenant Wood waved him off. This was the<br />signal for the attack, and immediately a shower of stones fell among the<br />soldiers. The officer ordered the men to fire--it was said over the heads<br />of the rioters--in order to disperse them. The result was scattering shots<br />in return from the latter. Wood then ordered a point-blank volley, when<br />men tumbled over right and left. The crowd did not wait for a second, but<br />fled in every direction. Wood then marched back to headquarters, but on<br />the way slipped and sprained his ankle, which caused a report that he had<br />been wounded.<br /><br />A bloody conflict also took place between the police and mob in the same<br />avenue where Colonel O'Brien fell, below Thirtieth Street. There was a<br />wire factory here, in which several thousand carbines were stored. Of<br />this, some of the rioters were aware, and communicated the fact to others,<br />and a plan was formed to capture them. Having discovered from the<br />morning's experience that the military had been called in to aid the<br />police, arms became imperatively necessary, if they hoped to make a<br />successful resistance. All public depositories of arms they knew were<br />guarded, but this factory was not, and hence they resolved to capture it<br />without delay. Swarming around it, they forced the entrance, and began to<br />throw out the carbines to their friends. The attack, however, had been<br />telegraphed to head-quarters, and Inspector Dilks was despatched with two<br />hundred men to save the building, and recover any arms that might be<br />captured. He marched rapidly up to Twenty-first Street, and down it to the<br />avenue. Here he came suddenly upon the mob, that blocked the entire<br />street. As the head of the force appeared, the rioters, instead of being<br />frightened, greeted it with jeers and curses. It was two hundred against a<br />thousand; but the inspector did not hesitate a moment on account of the<br />inequality of numbers, but instantly formed his men and ordered a charge.<br />The mob, instead of recoiling, closed desperately on the police, and a<br />fierce hand-to-hand encounter took place. The clubs, however, mowed a<br />clean swath along the street, and the compact little force pushed like a<br />wedge into the throng, and cleared a bloody space for itself. The orders<br />were to recapture all the arms; for this was of more vital importance than<br />the capture of men. Wherever, therefore, a musket was seen, a man would<br />dash for it, and, seizing it, fight his way back into line. On the<br />pavement, the sidewalk, and in the gutters, men lay bleeding and dying,<br />until at last, the more resolute having been knocked on the head, the vast<br />crowd, like a herd of buffalo, broke and tore madly down the street. One<br />of the leaders was a man of desperate courage, and led on the mob with<br />reckless fury, though bleeding freely from the terrible punishment he<br />received. As his comrades turned to flee, leaving him alone, a fearful<br />blow sent him reeling and staggering towards the sidewalk. As he reached<br />it, he fell heavily over against the iron railing, and his chin striking<br />one of the iron pickets, the sharp point entered it and penetrated through<br />to the roof of his mouth. No one noticed him, or if they did, paid no<br />attention to him in the headlong flight on the one hand, and swift pursuit<br />on the other. Thus horridly impaled, his body hanging down along the<br />sidewalk, the wretched man was left to die. At length Captain Hedden<br />noticed him, and lifting up the corpse, laid it down on the sidewalk. It<br />was found, to the surprise of all, to be that of a young man of delicate<br />features and white, fair skin. "Although dressed as a laborer, in dirty<br />overalls and filthy shirt, underneath these were fine cassimere pants,<br />handsome, rich vest, and fine linen shirt." [Footnote: D.M. Barnes.] He<br />was evidently a man in position far above the rough villains he led on,<br />but had disguised himself so, as not to be known. He never was known. The<br />corpse, during the fight that followed, disappeared with the bodies of<br />many others.<br /><br />The street being cleared, Dilks turned his attention to the factory, which<br />was filled with armed rioters, who were determined to defend it to the<br />last. Detaching a portion of his force, he ordered it to take the building<br />by storm. Dashing over all obstacles, the men won the stairway step by<br />step, and entering the main room on the second story, felled a man at<br />almost every blow. Those who succeeded in escaping down-stairs were<br />knocked on the head by the force in the street, and soon no rioters were<br />left but the dead and dying. How many fell in this fight it is impossible<br />to tell; but one physician alone dressed the wounds of twenty-one<br />desperately wounded men. Taking what guns they could find and had captured<br />in the street, the force marched triumphantly back, cheered on their way<br />by the spectators.<br /><br />In the meantime, Mayor Opdyke's house in Fifth Avenue had again been<br />attacked and partially sacked. Captain Maniere, one of the provost<br />marshals, however, assembled a small force, and drove out the rioters, who<br />were mostly young men and boys, before the work of destruction was<br />complete. The news of this attack had been telegraphed to head-quarters of<br />the police, and Captain Helme, of the Twenty-seventh Precinct, despatched<br />to its defence. At his approach the rioters dispersed. Soon after, he was<br />ordered with his command over to the Second Avenue, accompanied by a<br />detachment of troops under Captain Franklin. This was in the afternoon--<br />the mob had reassembled, and reinforced by those who had been dispersed at<br />Thirty-fourth Street, where Colonel O'Brien fell, had overcome the small<br />body of police at the wire factory, and again taken possession of it. They<br />had found some boxes of guns that had been overlooked by Dilks, and having<br />armed themselves, determined to hold it. Even women joined in the defence.<br />As the force approached, it was greeted with shouts of defiance and<br />missiles of every kind. An immense crowd was gathered outside, while the<br />windows of the five-story building were filled with angry, excited faces,<br />and arms wildly gesticulating. Charging on this dense mass, and clubbing<br />their way to the building, the police entered it, and streaming up the<br />stairways, cleared it floor by floor, some being knocked senseless, others<br />leaping from windows, to be killed by the fall, and others escaping down-<br />stairs, to be met by the force in the street. A thorough search was now<br />made for arms, and the building emptied of them. Taking possession of<br />these, the police and military took up their line of march for head-<br />quarters. They had not proceeded far, however, before the mob that had<br />scattered in every direction began to pour back again into the avenue, and<br />close on the military that were bringing up the rear. Following them with<br />hoots and yells that were unheeded, they became emboldened, and pressing<br />nearer, began to hurl stones and bricks, and everything they could lay<br />their hands on, against the soldiers. The latter bore it for awhile<br />patiently; but this only made the wretches more fierce and daring. Seeing<br />there was but one way to end this, Captain Franklin ordered his men to<br />"About face;" and "ready, aim, fire," fell in quick succession. The<br />yelling, shouting crowd were in point-blank range, and the volley told<br />with deadly effect. The street was strewed with dead and dying, while the<br />living fled down the avenue.<br /><br />In the meantime, mobs had sprung up in every part of the city; some larger<br />and some smaller; some after negroes, others firing buildings or sacking<br />them.<br /><br />Some idea of the pressure on the Police Commissioners during this<br />forenoon, and the condition the city was in, may be gathered from the<br />following despatches, which are only a small portion of those received and<br />answered in two hours:<br /><br />10.20. From Thirteenth. Send military here immediately.<br /><br />10.22. To Seventh. Find military and send them to Thirteenth Street<br />forthwith.<br /><br />10.45. From Sixteenth. A mob has just attacked Jones' soap factory; stores<br />all closed.<br /><br />10.50. To Twenty-sixth. Tell Inspector Leonard to send one hundred men<br />here forthwith.<br /><br />10.55. To Twentieth. From General Brown. Send to arsenal and say a heavy<br />battle is going on. Captain Wilkins and company of regulars will report to<br />me here at once.<br /><br />11.18. From Sixteenth. Mob is coming down to station-house; we have no<br />men.<br /><br />11.20. From Eighteenth. The mob is very wild, corner Twenty-second Street<br />and Second Avenue. They have attacked the Union steam factory.<br /><br />11.35. To Twenty-sixth. Send another one hundred men here forthwith.<br /><br />11.35. From Twentieth. Send one hundred men to disperse mob assailing<br />Mayor Opdyke's house.<br /><br />11.38. To Twenty-first. Can you send a few men here?<br /><br />11.40. From Twenty-second. The mob has gone to Mr. Higgins' factory, foot<br />of Forty-third Street, to burn it.<br /><br />11.45. From Eighteenth. What shall we do? The mob is about 4,500 strong.<br /><br />_Answer_. Clear them down, if you can.<br /><br />11.50. From Eighteenth. We must leave; the mob is here with guns.<br /><br />11.50. From Twentieth. Mob tearing up track on Eleventh Avenue.<br /><br />11.58. The mob have just sacked a large gun-store in Grand Street, and are<br />armed, and are on the way to attack us.<br /><br />12.10. To Fifteenth. Send your men here forthwith.<br /><br />12.35. From Twentieth. Send two hundred men forthwith to Thirty-fifth<br />Street arsenal.<br /><br />12.36. From Twenty-first. The mob have just broken open a gun-store on<br />Third Avenue, between Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Streets, and are<br />arming.<br /><br />12.40. From Twenty-first. Send help--the crowd is desperate.<br /><br />And so on.<br /><br />Between these rapid telegrams asking for help, were others making and<br />answering inquiries. And so it was kept up from daylight till midnight for<br />three days in succession. These urgent calls for help coming from every<br />quarter at the same time, would have thrown into inextricable confusion a<br />less clear head than Acton's. It was a terrible strain on him, and had it<br />continued a little longer, would have cost him his life. In the midst of<br />it all he received anonymous letters, telling him he had but one more day<br />to live.<br /><br />But while the police head-quarters were thus crowded with business, and<br />the commissioners were straining every nerve to meet the frightful state<br />of things in the city, other means were being taken to add to their<br />efficiency.<br /><br />Governor Seymour had reached the city, and after being closeted with Mayor<br />Opdyke, had issued a proclamation, calling on the rioters to disperse, and<br />saying that they would be put down at all hazards.<br /><br />At a meeting of the merchants and bankers in Wall Street, it was resolved<br />to close up business, and form volunteer companies of a hundred men each,<br />to serve under the military. General Wetmore was one of the first to offer<br />his services. The high-spirited citizen, William E. Dodge, was among the<br />most prominent advocates of the measure, and soon found himself a captain<br />under orders. The steamboat of the harbor police was busy in bringing<br />troops and cannon from Riker's and Governor's Island, and rapidly steaming<br />from point to point on the river, to prevent destruction around the docks.<br />Around the arsenal cannon were placed. At the city armory, corner of White<br />and Elm Streets, were a company of the Eighty-fourth New York Militia, and<br />some of the Zouaves and other troops. The Sub-treasury and Custom House<br />were defended by the Tenth National Zouaves and a hundred and fifty armed<br />citizens. In front of the Government stores in Worth and White streets,<br />the Invalid Corps and a company of marines patrolled, while howitzers<br />loaded with grape and canister, stood on the corner of the street. Nearly<br />four hundred citizens had been sworn in at police head-quarters as special<br />policemen, and had been furnished with clubs and badges. All this time the<br />fight was going on in every direction, while the fire-bells continually<br />ringing increased the terror that every hour became more wide-spread.<br />Especially was this true of the negro population. From the outset, they<br />had felt they were to be objects of vengeance, and all day Monday and to-<br />day those who could leave, fled into the country. They crowded the ferry-<br />boats in every direction, fleeing for life. But old men and women, and<br />poor families, were compelled to stay behind, and meet the fury of the<br />mob, and to-day it became a regular hunt for them. A sight of one in the<br />streets would call forth a halloo, as when, a fox breaks cover, and away<br />would dash a half a dozen men in pursuit. Sometimes a whole crowd streamed<br />after with shouts and curses, that struck deadly terror to the heart of<br />the fugitive. If overtaken, he was pounded to death at once; if he escaped<br />into a negro house for safety, it was set on fire, and the inmates made to<br />share a common fate. Deeds were done and sights witnessed that one would<br />not have dreamed of, except among savage tribes.<br /><br />At one time there lay at the corner of Twenty seventh-Street and Seventh<br />Avenue the dead body of a negro, stripped nearly naked, and around it a<br />collection of Irishmen, absolutely dancing or shouting like wild Indians.<br />Sullivan and Roosevelt Streets are great negro quarters, and here a negro<br />was afraid to be seen in the street. If in want of something from a<br />grocery, he would carefully open the door, and look up and down to see if<br />any one was watching, and then steal cautiously forth, and hurry home on<br />his errand. Two boarding-houses here were surrounded by a mob, but the<br />lodgers, seeing the coming storm, fled. The desperadoes, finding only the<br />owner left behind, wreaked their vengeance on him, and after beating him<br />unmercifully, broke up the furniture, and then fired the buildings. A<br />German store near by, because it was patronized extensively by negroes,<br />shared the same fate, after its contents had been distributed among<br />themselves. A negro barber's shop was next attacked, and the torch applied<br />to it. A negro lodging-house in the same street next received the visit of<br />these furies, and was soon a mass of ruins. Old men, seventy years of age,<br />and young children, too young to comprehend what it all meant, were<br />cruelly beaten and killed. The spirit of hell seemed to have entered the<br />hearts of these men, and helpless womanhood was no protection against<br />their rage. Sometimes a stalwart negro would break away from his<br />murderers, and run for his life. With no place of safety to which he could<br />flee, he would be headed off in every direction, and forced towards the<br />river. Driven at last to the end of a pier, he would leap off, preferring<br />to take his chances in the water rather than among these bloody men. If<br />bruised and beaten in his desperate struggle for life, he would soon sink<br />exhausted with his efforts. Sometimes he would strike out for a ship, but<br />more often dive under the piers, and hold on to a timber for safety, until<br />his yelling pursuers had disappeared, when he would crawl stealthily out,<br />and with terrified face peer in every direction to see if they had gone.<br />Two were thus run off together into the East River. It was a strange<br />spectacle to see a hundred Irishmen pour along the streets after a poor<br />negro. If he could reach a police station he felt safe; but, alas! if the<br />force happened to be away on duty, he could not stay even there. Whenever<br />the police could strike the track of the mad hunt, they stopped it<br />summarily, and the pursuers became the pursued, and received the<br />punishment they had designed for the negro. All this was in the nineteenth<br />century, and in the metropolis of the freest and most enlightened nation<br />on earth.<br /><br />[Image: Hanging and burning a negro in Clarkson Street.]<br /><br />The hunt for these poor creatures became so fearful, and the utter<br />impossibility to protect them in their scattered localities so apparent,<br />that they were received into the police stations. But these soon proved<br />inadequate, and they were taken to head-quarters and the arsenal, where<br />they could be protected against the mob. Here the poor creatures were<br />gathered by hundreds, and slept on the floor, and were regularly fed by<br />the authorities.<br /><br />It is impossible to give a detailed account of what transpired in every<br />part of the city. If there had been a single band of rioters, no matter<br />how large, a force of military and police, properly armed, could have been<br />concentrated to have dispersed it. But bodies of men, larger or smaller,<br />bent on violence and devastation, were everywhere; even out at Harlem<br />eight buildings were burned, and the lower end of Westchester was in a<br />state of agitation and alarm. A mob of thousands would be scattered, only<br />to come together at other points. A body of police and military plunging<br />through the heaving multitude, acted often only as a stone flung into the<br />water, making but a momentary vacuum. Or, if they did not come together<br />again, they swung off only to fall in, and be absorbed by a crowd<br />collected in another part of the city. The alarm of Monday had only been<br />partial, but to-day it culminated. Families, husbands, and sons left their<br />business, and with arms patrolled the streets. Stores were shut up, stages<br />and cars stopped running, and all business was suspended.<br /><br />The blood flowing through the thousand arteries of this great mart seemed<br />suddenly frozen in its channels, and its mighty pulsations to stop at the<br />mandate of lawless men. The city held its breath in dread, but there were<br />firm hearts at police head-quarters. Acton never flinched, and in General<br />Brown he found a soldier that knew his duty, and would do it at all<br />hazards. Still, the uprising kept swelling into vaster proportions,<br />embracing a still larger territory.<br /><br />Broadway was deserted. A few hacks could be seen, but with very different<br />occupants than those which they ordinarily contained. The iron shutters<br />were closed on the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and a stack of arms stood in the<br />hall-way. Crowds of respectable citizens, not on duty, were making all<br />haste toward railroad depots and steamboat landings. Every boat, as it<br />swung from the dock, was loaded to its utmost capacity with people leaving<br />a city that seemed doomed to destruction; going, many knew not where, only<br />out of New York. Cars were packed, and long trains were made up to carry<br />the crowds in haste to get away. But travel on the Hudson River Road was<br />soon stopped by the mob, that tore up the track to prevent communication<br />with other parts of the State, and the arrival of troops.<br /><br />The Harlem and Third Avenue tracks were also torn up, as the rioters were<br />determined to isolate the great city, which they had doomed to<br />destruction. Passing from one object to another, now acting as if from<br />plan, and now intent only on destruction and plunder, the crowd streamed<br />from point to point with shouts and yells, that sent terror through the<br />adjoining streets. Suddenly, some one remembered that they were in the<br />vicinity of Colonel Nugent's house, in Yorkville, the assistant provost<br />marshal general, and shouting out the news, a rush was made for it, and it<br />was sacked from top to bottom.<br /><br />As the police were gathered together either at the precinct stations or<br />head-quarters, ordinary patrol duty was out of the question; hence, many<br />isolated, acts of violence could be committed with impunity. This freedom<br />from close surveillance, coupled with the contagion of the lawless spirit<br />which was abroad, made every section of the city where the lower classes<br />lived more or less restless. It was impossible for the police to divide<br />itself up so to furnish protection in individual cases, and yet be in<br />sufficient force to cope with the mobs, that numbered by thousands.<br />Although the whole city was heaving like a troubled sea, yet the main<br />gathering this day had been in the upper part and on both sides of it. The<br />terrific contests we described farther back were in the Second Avenue, on<br />the east side, but, nearly opposite, in the Sixth Avenue, crowds had been<br />gathering since early in the forenoon.<br /><br />For a long time they swayed backward and forward, apparently without any<br />definite purpose, and moved only by the spirit of disorder that had taken<br />possession of the city. But about two o'clock, these various bodies began<br />by mutual attraction to flow together, and soon became one immense mass,<br />and impelled by some information or other, gathered threateningly around a<br />large mansion on the corner of Forty-sixth Street and Fifth Avenue. They<br />had supplied themselves with all sorts of weapons, revolvers, old muskets,<br />stones, clubs, barrel-staves--in short, everything that could be found,<br />that might be of service in a fight--and soon commenced plundering the<br />residence. But their movements had been telegraphed to head-quarters, and<br />Captain Walling, of the Twentieth Precinct, was dispatched thither, with a<br />company of regulars under Captain Putnam, a descendant of "Old Put." The<br />report soon spread through the crowd, that bayonets could be seen coming<br />up the avenue. Marching up to Forty-sixth Street, the force turned into<br />it, towards the Fifth Avenue; and breaking into the charge step, with the<br />order "no prisoners" ringing in their ears, struck the mob almost in the<br />centre, cutting it in two, like a mighty cleaver. There was no need of<br />bayonets--the police, at the head of the military, went right through it,<br />and scattered the men in every direction. The force then divided into<br />squads, and each one taking a section of the mob, followed it up on a<br />swift run, and smote them right and left for several blocks. The larger<br />portion went down Sixth Avenue, and seeing only a portion of the police<br />pursuing, turned and showed fight, when the leader received a bullet in<br />the head and fell. Seeing their leader fall, the mob wheeled and took to<br />their heels.<br /><br />Captain Walling in one instance saw a crowd with fire-arms standing in an<br />alley-way. Just then a fire-engine and company came down the street, and<br />he with his small force got behind it, and kept concealed until opposite<br />the unsuspecting crowd, when, with a shout, they dashed on it. A volley<br />received them,--with answering volley, the police charged into the narrow<br />opening. The rioters fled into a tenement-house, from which came yells and<br />screams of terrified women and children. Walling had some sharpshooters<br />with him, to pick off those beyond the reach of the clubs. One fellow,<br />armed, was seen astraddle of the ridge pole of a house. The next moment a<br />sharpshooter covered him, and he tumbled headlong to the ground. The same<br />afternoon he saw some twenty or thirty men attempting to stave in a<br />hardware store, evidently after pistols. Walling charged on them alone,<br />and with one terrible blow, his club sent the leader to the pavement with<br />his brains oozing out.<br /><br />Although the draft was almost forgotten by the rioters, in the thirst for<br />plunder and blood, still men in the streets and some of the papers talked<br />of its being unconstitutional, and to be contested in the courts--others<br />that it had been and would be suspended, as though any disposal of it now<br />could affect the conduct of the rioters. Force was the only argument they<br />would listen to. The riot had almost ceased to wear any political aspect<br />since the attack on the _Tribune_ office, the day before, had been<br />defeated. An occasional shout or the sight of a negro might now and then<br />remind one of its origin, but devastation and plunder were the great<br />objects that urged on the excited masses. The sacking of Opdyke's house<br />was done chiefly by a few youngsters, who were simply following the<br />example set them the day before; while the burning of negro buildings, the<br />chasing and killing of negroes, seemed to have only a remote connection<br />with the draft, and was simply the indulgence of a hatred they were<br />hitherto afraid to gratify. So the setting fire to the Weehawken ferry<br />afterwards, could be made to grow out of politics only so far as a man who<br />kept a liquor saloon there was a known Republican. This seemed a weak<br />inducement to draw a crowd so far, when more distinguished victims were<br />all around them. It is more probable that some personal enemy of parties<br />in the vicinity, finding the mob ready to follow any cry, led them<br />thither; for one man seemed to be the leader, who, mounted on a fine<br />cavalry horse, and brandishing a sword, galloped backwards and forwards<br />through the crowd, giving his orders like a field officer. Mobs springing<br />up everywhere, and flowing together often apparently by accident, each<br />pursuing a different object: one chasing negroes and firing their<br />dwellings; others only sacking; a house, and others still, wreaking their<br />vengeance on station-houses, while scores, the moment they got loaded down<br />with plunder, hastened away to conceal it--all showed that the original<br />cause of the uprising had been forgotten. A strong uncertainty seemed at<br />times to keep them swaying backwards and forwards, as though seeking a<br />definite object, or waiting for an appointed signal to move, and then at<br />some shout would rush for a building, a negro, or station-house.<br /><br />The mob was a huge monster--frightful both in proportions and appearance,<br />yet not knowing where or how to use its strength. The attack on Mr.<br />Gibbon's house at Twenty-ninth Street and Eighth Avenue, during this<br />afternoon, was attributed to the fact that he was Mr. Greeley's cousin,<br />and that the former sometimes slept there--rather a far-fetched inference,<br />as though a mob would be aware of a fact that probably not a dozen<br />immediate neighbors knew.<br /><br />Some one person might have raised a cry of "Greeley's house," which would<br />have been sufficient to insure its destruction. The police being notified<br />of this attack, sent a squad of men with a military force to disperse the<br />mob. Captain Ryer formed his troops in front of the house, and Sergeant<br />Devoursney did the same with a part of his men, while the other portion<br />was sent into the building, that was filled with men, women, and children,<br />loading themselves down with the spoils. The appearance of the caps and<br />clubs in the rooms created a consternation that would have been ludicrous,<br />but for the serious work that followed. No defence was made, except by a<br />few persons singly. One fellow advanced to the door with a pistol in his<br />hand, and fired, sending a ball through Officer Hill's thigh. The next<br />instant the latter felled him to the floor with his club, and before he<br />could even attempt to rise he was riddled with balls. Some of the women<br />fell on their knees, and shrieked for mercy; while one strong Irish woman<br />refused to yield her plunder, and fought like a tigress. She seized an<br />officer by the throat, and trying to strangle and bite him, would not let<br />go till a blow sobered her into submission.<br /><br />Some were loaded with shawls and dresses, and one burly, ferocious-looking<br />Irishman carried under his arm a huge bundle of select music. As the<br />police chased the plunderers down-stairs, and out into the street, in some<br />unaccountable way the troops got so confused that they fired a volley that<br />swept the police as well as the rioters. Officer Dipple was so severely<br />wounded that he died the following Sunday, while Officers Hodson and<br />Robinson both received flesh wounds.<br /><br />In the upper part of the city, few buildings, except those too near police<br />and army head-quarters, or too well defended, offered much spoil except<br />private houses, and these had been the chief objects of attack. But Brooks<br />and Brothers' clothing store in Catharine Street, situated in a part of<br />the city thickly populated with the very class mobs are made of, became<br />toward evening an object of great attraction to groups of hard-looking men<br />and women. As night settled down, the heavens being overcast, it became<br />very dark; for in all the neighboring houses the lights were extinguished<br />by the inmates, who were terribly alarmed at the rapidly increasing crowd<br />in the street. To deepen and complete the gloom the rioters turned off the<br />gas. Officer Bryan, of the Fourth Ward, telegraphed to head-quarters the<br />threatening appearance of things, and a force of fifty or sixty men were<br />at once despatched to the spot. In the mean time Sergeant Finney, with<br />Platt and Kennedy, stood at the entrance to defend the building till the<br />police could arrive.<br /><br />For awhile the three determined police officers, standing silent in the<br />darkness, overawed the leaders. But soon from the crowd arose shouts, amid<br />which were heard the shrill voices of women, crying, "Break open the<br />store." This was full of choice goods, and contained clothing enough to<br />keep the mob supplied for years. As the shouts increased, those behind<br />began to push forward those in front, till the vast multitude swung<br />heavily towards the three police officers. Seeing this movement, the<br />latter advanced with their clubs to keep them back. At this, the shouts<br />and yells redoubled, and the crowd rushed forward, crushing down the<br />officers by mere weight. They fought gallantly for a few minutes; but,<br />overborne by numbers, they soon became nearly helpless, and were terribly<br />beaten and wounded, and with the utmost exertions were barely able to<br />escape, and make their way back to the station. The mob now had it all its<br />own way, and rushing against the doors, burst bolts and bars asunder, and<br />streamed in. But it was dark as midnight inside, and they could not<br />distinguish one thing from another; not even the passage-ways to the upper<br />rooms of the building, which was five stories high. They therefore lighted<br />the gas, and broke out the windows. In a few minutes the vast edifice was<br />a blaze of light, looking more brilliant from the midnight blackness that<br />surrounded it. The upturned faces of the excited, squalid throng below<br />presented a wild and savage spectacle in the flickering light. Men and<br />women kept pouring in and out, the latter loaded with booty, making their<br />way home into the adjacent streets, and the former rushing after their<br />portion of the spoils. Coats and pantaloons, and clothing of every<br />description, were rapidly borne away; and it was evident, give them time<br />enough, the crowd would all disappear, and there would be scarcely enough<br />left to finish the work of destruction. Thinking only of the rich prize<br />they had gained, they seemed to forget that retribution was possible, when<br />suddenly the cry of "Police! police!" sent a thrill of terror through<br />them. Sergeant Delaney, at the head of his command, marched swiftly down<br />the street, until close upon the mob, when the order, "Double-quick," was<br />given, and they burst with a run upon them. For a moment, the solid mass,<br />by mere weight, bore up against the shock; but the clubs soon made a lane<br />through it broad as the street. Just then a pistol-shot rung from a house,<br />almost over their heads. Many of the rioters were armed with muskets, and<br />the comparatively small police force, seeing that firearms were to be<br />used, now drew their revolvers, and poured a deadly volley right into<br />their midst. Several fell at the first discharge; and immediately terror<br />seized that portion of the multitude nearest the police, especially the<br />women, and many fell on their knees, crying for mercy. Others forced their<br />way recklessly over their companions, to get out of reach. As the police<br />made their way to the front of the store, they formed line, while Sergeant<br />Matthew, of the First Precinct, with his men, entered the building. The<br />scene here became more frightful than the one without. The rioters on the<br />first floor made but little resistance, and, thinking only of escape,<br />leaped from the windows, and rushed out of doors like mad creatures. But<br />as they attempted to flee, those without knocked them over with their<br />clubs. Having cleared this story, the police mounted to the second, where<br />the rioters, being more closely penned, showed fight. Pistol-shots rang<br />out, and some of the police officers had narrow escapes. One powerful<br />bully fought like a tiger, till two policemen fell upon him with their<br />clubs, and soon left him stark and stiff. At last they drove the whole<br />crowd into a rear building, and kept them there till they had time to<br />secure them.<br /><br />Just as the store was cleared, Sergeant Carpenter, who had been sent as a<br />reinforcement in case of need, came up with a hundred and fifty men, and<br />charging on the crowd, sent them flying down the narrow streets. After<br />quiet had been restored, a military force arrived and took possession of<br />the building.<br /><br />Just previous to this, another attempt was made to burn the _Tribune_<br />building, but was easily repelled. The _Times_ office, near by,<br />warned by the fate of its neighbor the night before, had established a<br />regular garrison inside, while it brilliantly illuminated the open space<br />all around it, in the circle of which the rioters did not care to come.<br /><br />The invaluable service of the telegraph was tested to-day, not merely in<br />enabling General Brown and the commissioners to despatch men quickly to a<br />threatened point, but to keep a force moving from one ward to another, as<br />messages came in, announcing the incipient gathering in different<br />districts. Word sent to the station in the neighborhood where they were<br />acting, would instantly change their route; and knots of men, which if<br />left alone would soon have swelled into formidable mobs, were broken up,<br />for they found military and police force marching down on them before they<br />could form a plan of action. Nor was this all. A force sent to a certain<br />point, after dispersing the mob, would be directed to make a tour through<br />the disaffected districts--all the time keeping up its communication with<br />head-quarters, so that if any serious demonstration was made in that<br />section of the city, it could be ordered there at once, thus saving half<br />the time it would take to march from head-quarters. Thus, for instance,<br />Captain Petty was ordered this morning to head-quarters from the City<br />Hall, where he had passed the night, and directed to take two hundred men<br />(including his own precinct force), and go to the protection of a soap<br />factory in Sixteenth Street, Eighth and Ninth Avenues. He moved off his<br />command, marching rapidly up Broadway and down Sixteenth Street. The mob<br />saw it coming two blocks off, and immediately scattered in every<br />direction, which awakened the supreme contempt of the captain. He now<br />marched backward and forward, and through the cross streets, up as far as<br />Nineteenth Street, scattering every fragment of the mob that attempted to<br />hold together, and finally returned to head-quarters. This was a long<br />march, but the men had scarcely rested, when the captain was hurried off<br />to aid in the protection at the wire factory in Second Avenue. In the<br />fierce fight that followed, he, with ten men at his back, charged up the<br />broad stairway, fighting his way step by step to the fifth story. Caught<br />up here at the top of the building, the rioters were clubbed without<br />mercy. Some, to escape the terrible punishment, plunged down the hatchway;<br />others attempted to dash past the men, and escape down the stairs. At one<br />time eight bodies lay in the door-way, blocking it up. He then marched<br />back to head-quarters. He had been marching and fighting all day. Similar<br />exhausting duties were performed by other commands, both police and<br />military. Inspector Dilks, with his force gathered from various precincts,<br />passed the entire day in marching and fighting. The men, weary and hungry,<br />would reach head-quarters or certain points, hoping to get a little rest<br />and refreshment, when the hurried order would come to repair to a point a<br />mile off, where the mob was firing and sacking houses, and off they would<br />start on the double-quick. Uncomplaining and fearless of danger, and never<br />counting numbers, both police and soldiers were everywhere all this day,<br />and proved themselves as reliable, gallant, and noble a set of men as ever<br />formed or acted as the police force of any city in the world.<br /><br />In the meantime, Governor Seymour and the Mayor of the city were not idle.<br />The latter at the City Hall, fearing an attack, asked Acton for a guard of<br />protection, and fifty men were sent him. Report of the mob assembled<br />there, reached Governor Seymour, at the St. Nicholas, and he immediately<br />hastened thither, and addressed the crowd from the steps, which allayed<br />excitement for the time. This speech was variously commented upon. Some of<br />the criticisms were frivolous, and revealed the partisan, rather than the<br />honest man. If the Governor had not previously issued a proclamation to<br />the whole city, in which he declared without reservation that the mobs<br />should be put down at all hazards--if this speech had been his only<br />utterance, then the bitter denunciations against him would have been<br />deserved. It would have been pusillanimous, cowardly, and unworthy the<br />Governor of the State. But he spoke in his official capacity, not only<br />firmly, emphatically, and in no ambiguous terms, but he had hurried up the<br />military, and used every means in his power to accumulate and concentrate<br />the forces under his control to put down the riot. No faint-heartedness or<br />sentimental qualmishness marked any of his official acts. Prompt,<br />energetic, and determined, he placed no conditions on his subordinates in<br />the manner of putting down the mob, and restoring the supremacy of the<br />law. But here in this address he was speaking to men who, as a body at<br />least, had as yet committed no overt act; and many doubtless were<br />assembled expecting some public declaration from the City Hall. He was not<br />addressing the plunderers and rioters that were firing houses and killing<br />negroes, but a mixed assembly, the excitement of which he thought best to<br />allay, if possible. Some said he began his address with "My friends;"<br />others, "Fellow-citizens." Whether he did one, or the other, or neither,<br />is of no consequence and meant nothing. To have commenced, "Ye villains<br />and cut-throats, disperse at once, or I'll mow you down with grape-shot!"<br />might have sounded very brave, but if that was all he was going to say, he<br />had better kept his room.<br /><br />A _proclamation_ like this address would have been infamous. Here is<br />where the mistake was made in the criticisms heaped upon it. His official<br />acts were all such as became the Chief Magistrate of New York. The speech,<br />therefore, must be judged rather by the rules of taste and propriety,<br />than, by those which apply to him officially. If a man's official acts are<br />all right, it is unjust to let them go for nothing, and bring into<br />prominence a short address made without premeditation in the front of an<br />excited, promiscuous assembly, moved by different motives. That it was<br />open to criticism in some respects, is true. It should have been imbued<br />more with the spirit of determination to maintain order and suppress<br />violence, and less been said of the measures that had or would be taken to<br />test the constitutionality of the draft, and of his purpose, if it were<br />decided in the courts to be wrong, to oppose it. Such talk had better be<br />deferred till after order is restored. When men begin to burn and plunder<br />dwellings, attack station-houses, hang negroes, and shoot down policemen,<br />it is too late to attempt to restore peace by talking about the<br />constitutionality of laws. The upholding of laws about the<br />constitutionality of which there is no doubt, is the only thing deserving<br />of consideration. The Common Council of the city exhibited in this respect<br />a most pusillanimous spirit, by offering resolutions to have the<br />constitutionality of the law tested, when, the entire constitution and<br />laws of the State were being subverted! Unquestionably, some charity<br />should be extended to men who are pleading for those whose votes elevated<br />them to office. Brutuses are rare nowadays; and politicians do not like to<br />shoot down their own voters--they would much rather make more voters out<br />of men no more fit to exercise the right of suffrage than horses and<br />mules.<br /><br />Governed by a similar spirit, Archbishop Hughes, although he had yielded<br />to the pressure made on him and issued an address to the Irish, calling on<br />them to abstain from violence, yet accompanied it with a letter to Horace<br />Grreeley, directly calculated to awaken or intensify, rather than allay<br />their passions. He more than intimated that they had been abused and<br />oppressed, and thought it high time the war was ended. The proclamation<br />was short, but the letter was a long one, full of a vindictive spirit, and<br />showing unmistakably with whom his sympathies were.<br /><br />Towards evening a mob assembled over in Ninth Avenue, and went to work<br />with some system and forethought. Instead of wandering round, firing and<br />plundering as the whim seized them, they began to throw up barricades,<br />behind which they could rally when the military and police came to attack<br />them. Indeed, the same thing had been done on the east side of the city;<br />while railroads had been torn up, and stages stopped, to keep them from<br />carrying policemen, rapidly from one quarter to another. During the day,<br />Colonel Frothingham had stood in Third Avenue, and stopped and emptied<br />every car as it approached, and filled it with soldiers, to be carried to<br />the upper part of the city. Acton, too, had sent round to collect all the<br />stages still running in Broadway and the Bowery, and in a short time they<br />came rumbling into Mulberry Street, forming a long line in front of head-<br />quarters. A telegram from Second Avenue demanded immediate help, and the<br />police were bundled into them and hurried off. One driver refused to stir,<br />saying, roughly, he was not hired to carry policemen. Acton had no time to<br />argue the case, and quickly turning to a policeman, he said: "Put that man<br />in cell Number 92." In a twinkling he was jerked from his seat and hurried<br />away. Turning to another policeman, he said: "Mount that box and drive."<br />The next moment the stage, with a long string of others, loaded inside and<br />out with the bluecoats, was whirling through the streets. He had done the<br />same with the Sixth Avenue cars. The son-in-law of George Law<br />remonstrated, saying that it would provoke the mob to tear down the<br />railroad buildings. There was no time to stand on ceremony; the cars were<br />seized, and the company, to save their property, paid a large sum to the<br />ringleaders of the rioters. In fact, a great many factories and buildings<br />were bought off in the same way; so that the leaders drove quite a<br />thriving business.<br /><br />But, as before remarked, the commencement of barricades to obstruct the<br />movements of the police and military, after the Parisian fashion, was a<br />serious thing, and must be nipped in the bud; and Captain Walling, of the<br />Twentieth Precinct, who had been busy in this part of the city all the<br />afternoon in dispersing the mob, sent to head-quarters for a military<br />force to help remove them. He also sent to General Sandford, at the<br />arsenal, for a company of soldiers, which was promised, but never sent. At<br />six o'clock a force of regulars arrived from General Brown, and repaired<br />to the Precinct station-house. Captain Slott, of the Twentieth Precinct,<br />took command of the police force detailed to cooperate with the troops,<br />but delayed action till the arrival of the company promised from the<br />arsenal. Meanwhile, the rioters kept strengthening the barricades between<br />Thirty-seventh and Forty-third Streets, in Eighth Avenue, by lashing<br />carts, wagons, and telegraph poles together with wire stripped from the<br />latter. The cross streets were also barricaded. Time passed on, and yet<br />the bayonets of he expected reinforcement from the arsenal did not appear.<br />The two commanding officers now began to grow anxious; it would not do to<br />defer the attack till after dark, for such work as was before them<br />required daylight. At length, as the sun stooped to the western horizon,<br />it was resolved to wait no longer, and the order to move forward was<br />given. As they approached the first barricade, by Thirty-seventh Street, a<br />volley as poured into them from behind it, followed by stones and brick-<br />bats.<br /><br />The police now fell back to the left, and the regulars advancing, returned<br />the fire. The rioters, however, stood their ground, and for a time nothing<br />was heard but the rapid roll of musketry. But the steady, well-directed<br />fire of the troops, at length began to tell on the mob, and they at last<br />broke, and fled to the next barricade. The police then advanced, and tore<br />down the barricade, when the whole force moved on to the next. Here the<br />fight was renewed, but the close and rapid volley of the troops soon<br />scattered the wretches, when this also was removed. They kept on in this<br />way, till the last barricade was abandoned, when the uncovered crowd broke<br />and fled in wild disorder. The soldiers pressed after, breaking up into<br />squads, and chasing and firing into the disjointed fragments as they<br />drifted down the various streets.<br /><br />There was more or less disturbance in this section, however, till<br />midnight. At nine o'clock, an attack was made on a gun and hardware store,<br />in Thirty-seventh Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, but Sergeant<br />Petty was sent thither with a small force, and scattered them at the first<br />charge. At midnight, an attempt was made to destroy the colored church in<br />Thirtieth Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues; but before the<br />rioters had accomplished their work, Captain Walling, with his entire<br />force and the regulars, came up, and though met with a volley, fell on<br />them in such a headlong charge, that they scattered down the street.<br /><br />All this time the arsenal presented the appearance of a regular camp;<br />videttes were kept out, sentries established, howitzers commanded the<br />streets, and everything wore the look of a besieged fortress.<br /><br />Sandford, whom Wool wished to take command of all the troops, evidently<br />thought that he had as much as he could do to hold that building, without<br />doing anything to quell the riot in the city.<br /><br />One of the first companies that came up from the forts the day before, and<br />hence belonged to General Brown's force, got, no one could hardly tell<br />how, into the arsenal, and were there cooped up as useless as though in<br />garrison--for if seven hundred men with cannon sweeping every approach<br />could not hold it, seven thousand could not. General Brown and Acton<br />needed this company badly, but how to get it was the question. Governor<br />Seymour held no direct communication with the Police Commissioners; for<br />they were not on friendly terms, as they were holding their places in<br />defiance of him, he having removed them some time before. Mr. Hawley, the<br />chief clerk, who knew the Governor personally, acted, therefore, as the<br />channel of communication between them. He now went to him, and asked him<br />how things were at the arsenal. He replied, he did not know--no report had<br />been sent him. Hawley then asked him to send an officer and ascertain, and<br />get back the company belonging to General Brown's command. He replied he<br />had no one to send. Hawley then offered to go himself, if he would give an<br />order to this company of United States troops to report at once to General<br />Brown at police head-quarters. He did so, and Hawley, reaching the arsenal<br />in safety, gave the order to the adjutant-general, before calling on<br />Sandford, so as to be sure it was obeyed.<br /><br />On the northern limits of the city, serious disturbances had occurred<br />during the day, especially in Yorkville, to which Acton was compelled to<br />send a strong force. The mob also attempted to burn Harlem bridge, but the<br />heavy rain of the night before had made it so wet that it would not<br />ignite. Down town, likewise, mobs had assembled before the Western Hotel<br />and other places, but were dispersed before they had inflicted any damage.<br />Almost the last act in the evening was an attack on the house of Mr.<br />Sinclair, one of the owners of the _Tribune_.<br /><br />But rioters must eat and sleep like other people, and though knots of them<br />could be seen in various parts of the city, the main portion seemed to<br />have retired soon after midnight.<br /><br />In the police head-quarters, men were lying around on the floor in the<br />warm July night, snatching, as best they could, a little repose. General<br />Brown and staff, in their chairs or stretched on a settee, nodded in this<br />lull of the storm, though ready at a moment's notice to do their duty. But<br />there was no rest for Acton. He had not closed his eyes for nearly forty<br />hours, and he was not to close them for more than forty to come.<br /><br />With his nerves strung to their utmost tension, and resolved to put down<br />that mob though the streets ran blood, he gave his whole soul to the work<br />before him. He infused his determined, fearless spirit into every one who<br />approached him. Anonymous letters, telling him he had not another day to<br />live, he flung aside with a scornful smile, to attend to the telegraph<br />dispatches from the different precincts.<br /><br />Troops and men were stationed at various points, and gunboats were<br />patrolling the rivers, and he must be on the alert every moment. The fate<br />of a great city lay on his heart, and he could not sleep.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE DEAD SERGEANT IN 22d STREET]<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XVII.<br /><br /><br />DRAFT RIOT--THIRD DAY.<br /><br />Scenes in the City and at Head-quarters.--Fight in Eighth Avenue.--Cannon<br />sweep the Streets.--Narrow Escape of Captain Howell and Colonel Mott.--<br />Battle for Jackson's Foundry.--Howitzers clear the Street.--State of<br />Things shown by Telegraph Despatches.--General Sandford sends out a Force<br />against a Mob, at Corner of Twenty-ninth Street and Seventh Avenue.--<br />Colonel Gardin's Fight with the Mob.--Is Wounded.--Mob Victorious.--Dead<br />and Wounded Soldiers left in the Street.--Captain Putnam sent to bring<br />them away.--Disperses the Mob.--Terrific Night.<br /><br />Tuesday had been a day of constant success to the police and military, and<br />many thought that the rioters were thoroughly disheartened, and but little<br />more hard fighting would be done. There had been two days of exhausting<br />work, and both parties were well tired out. The commissioners, certainly,<br />could not stand this terrible strain much longer. Forty-eight hours<br />without sleep or rest, and all the time under the intensest mental strain,<br />was telling on even the wiry Acton, though he would confess to no fatigue.<br /><br />To one who could take in all that was passing in New York on this morning,<br />the city would have presented a strange appearance.<br /><br />The magnitude and demonstrations of the mob had aroused great fear for the<br />Navy Yard and the naval property of the Government, and the marine company<br />that had been on duty with the police was recalled by Admiral Paulding for<br />their protection; and this morning six war-vessels, carrying in all over<br />ninety guns, shotted and trained, could be seen drawn up, so as to command<br />every avenue to the yard, while the iron-clad battery _Passaic_ and a<br />gun-boat lay off the Battery to protect Fort Columbus during the absence<br />of its garrison. Marines armed to the teeth, and howitzers, guarded all<br />the entrances to the Navy Yard. Broadway was almost deserted--no stages<br />were running, street-cars had disappeared--only here and there shutters<br />were taken down from the stores, and it looked like Sabbath day in the<br />city. But at police head-quarters all was activity. The African church<br />nearly opposite was filled with soldiers stretched on the seats and floor<br />of the building. Another house, a few doors from the police building, was<br />also crowded with soldiers. The owner of this empty house, having sent a<br />flat refusal to Acton's request for the use of it, the latter quietly told<br />the policemen to stave in the door. It took but a few minutes to send it<br />from its hinges; and now the troops were quartered in it also; for all<br />those in the service of the United States, under General Brown, had their<br />head-quarters here.<br /><br />In the basement of the police building was the telegraph, with the wires<br />running like nerves to every part of the city, over which inquiries and<br />answers were continually passing. Rooms all around were filled with<br />rations obtained from a neighboring grocery and meatmarket, taken with or<br />without leave. On the main floor, on one side, in their office sat the<br />weary commissioners; on the other, were Inspectors Carpenter, Dilks, and<br />Leonard, fit, each one to be a general, while scattered around were police<br />captains, detectives, and patrolmen. On the second story were the clerks,<br />copyists, etc.; while the top floor was crowded with colored refugees, who<br />had fled thither for protection. Some were standing and conversing, others<br />sitting in groups on boxes, or walking from room to room; many of these<br />sad and serious, as they thought of missing relatives and friends, while<br />the colored man placed over them, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, was,<br />with his assistants, dealing out provisions.<br /><br />But soon it was announced that a vast crowd, numbering some five thousand,<br />was assembled near Eighth Avenue and Thirty-second Street, sacking houses<br />and hanging negroes. General Dodge and Colonel Mott, with Captain Howell,<br />commanding Eighth Regiment Artillery, were at once despatched thither. As<br />they marched up the avenue, they saw three negroes hanging dead, while the<br />crowd around filled the air with fiendish shouts. As the firm, compact<br />head of the column moved forward, the mob fell back, but did not scatter.<br />Colonel Mott dashed forward on horseback and cut down one of the negroes<br />with his sword. This seemed to be the signal for the mob to commence the<br />attack, and the next moment they rushed forward on the soldiers with<br />stones, brick-bats, and slung-shots. Colonel Mott then told Captain Howell<br />to bring two pieces into battery on the corner of Thirty-second Street and<br />Seventh Avenue, so as to sweep the streets; but he could not get through<br />the dense crowd to do so. The infantry and cavalry were then ordered up<br />and told to clear the way. The former, with level bayonets, and the latter<br />with drawn sabres, charged on the mass, which parted and fell back some<br />distance, and then halted. Captain Howell then advanced alone, and ordered<br />the rioters to disperse, or he should fire on them. To this they replied<br />in sullen silence. The apparent unwillingness of the captain to fire<br />emboldened them to believe that he would not fire at all. Although they<br />refused to disperse, the officers, as long as they made no assault,<br />declined to give the word to fire. This delay encouraged the rioters still<br />more; and either believing the guns, whose muzzles pointed so<br />threateningly on them, were loaded with blank cartridges, or grown<br />desperate and reckless with rage, they suddenly, as though moved by a<br />common impulse, rushed forward and rained stones and missiles of every<br />kind on the soldiers. Seeing that their object was to seize the guns and<br />turn them on the troops, the word to fire was given. The next moment a<br />puff of smoke rolled out, followed with a report that shook the buildings.<br />As the murderous shot tore through the crowded mass, they stopped, and<br />swayed heavily back for a moment, when the pieces were quickly reloaded,<br />and again sent their deadly contents into their midst, strewing the<br />pavements with the dead and dying. Those, however, in the rear, being<br />protected by the mass in front, refused to give way, and it was not till<br />five or six rounds had been fired that they finally broke and fled down<br />the side streets. The military then broke into columns and marched up and<br />down the streets, scattering everything before them, and arresting many of<br />the rioters.<br /><br />Having finished their work, they returned to head-quarters. As they left<br />the district, the mob, or a portion of it, gathered together again, and<br />strung up afresh the lifeless bodies of the negroes.<br /><br />A few hours later, Captain Brower, with a police force, was sent thither,<br />to take down and remove the bodies of any negroes that might be still<br />hanging. He did so without molestation.<br /><br />Captain Howell's murderous fire on the mob came very near causing his<br />death two days after. Having the curiosity to witness the scene of his<br />struggle with the mob, he took his carriage, and drove over to it. A gang<br />of seven or eight ruffians, seeing his uniform, cried out, "There's the<br />man who fired on us here--let us hang him." Their shouts called others to<br />the spot, and almost before the captain was aware of his danger, some<br />fifty men were assembled, and at once made a dash at the driver, and<br />ordered him to stop. Captain Howell, quickly drawing his revolver, pointed<br />it at the driver, and ordered him to turn down Thirty-first Street, and<br />give his horses the whip, or he would shoot him on the spot. The man<br />obeying, lashed his horses into a run. At this moment the crowd was all<br />around the carriage, and one man was climbing up behind, when he fell and<br />was run over. A shower of stones and brick-bats followed, breaking in the<br />panels of the carriage, and narrowly missing the captain's head.<br /><br />One stone struck an old wound in his side, and for a moment paralyzed his<br />arm. The crowd with yells and shouts followed after, when he turned and<br />emptied his revolver at them through the back window, which brought them<br />to a halt. Colonel Mott had a similar escape the day before. Passing down<br />one of the avenues in a carriage, he was recognized by some of the<br />rioters, who immediately assailed him with stones, and fired at him. One<br />of the bullets passed through the cushion on which he was sitting.<br /><br />Soon after this affair in Seventh Avenue, word was telegraphed that<br />Jackson's foundry, corner of Twenty-eighth Street, First and Second<br />Avenues, was threatened. A military force was despatched forthwith to it,<br />piloted by four policemen. At Twenty-first Street and First Avenue, they<br />were fired on by the mob. The attack was continued through the street to<br />Second Avenue, and up this to Twenty-fifth Street, without any notice<br />being taken of it by the troops. Made reckless by this forbearance, the<br />rioters began to close up in more dangerous proximity, when the howitzer<br />was unlimbered and pointed down the avenue. The mob not liking the looks<br />of this, scattered, when the column resumed its march. The mob then<br />rallied, and followed after, with shouts and distant shots, till the<br />foundry on Twenty-eighth Street was reached. Here another mob came up from<br />First Avenue, and the two made a simultaneous attack. The command was then<br />given to fire, and a volley was poured into the crowd. Rapidly loading and<br />firing, the troops soon stretched so many on the pavement, that the rest<br />broke and fled. The military then entered the building and held it. The<br />mob gathered around it, threatening to storm it, but could not pluck up<br />courage to make the attempt. They seemed especially exasperated against<br />the policemen, and had the effrontery to send a committee to the officer<br />in command, demanding their surrender. If their request was refused, they<br />declared they would storm the building at all hazards; but if complied<br />with, they would disperse. The committee had to shout out their demands<br />from the street. In reply, the officer told them if they did not take<br />themselves off instantly, he would fire upon them; upon which they<br />incontinently took to their heels.<br /><br />As the day wore on, things began to wear a still more threatening aspect.<br />Despatches came in from every quarter, announcing the activity of the<br />mob. To a question sent to the Thirteenth Precinct, a little past twelve,<br />inquiring how things were going on in Grand Street, was returned the<br />following reply: "Lively; store-keepers have fired into the mob; no force<br />there yet."<br /><br />12.20. From Twenty-first. Building corner Thirty-third Street, Second<br />Avenue, is set on fire by the mob.<br /><br />12.50. From Fifteenth. Send assistance to Twenty-first Precinct; they are<br />about attacking it.<br /><br />12.55. From Twenty-sixth. It is reported that Government stores in<br />Greenwich, near Liberty, are on fire; fired by mob.<br /><br />1.10. From Twenty-seventh. Send more men here forthwith.<br /><br />1.25. From Fourth. Fire corner of Catharine Street and East Broadway.<br /><br />1.45. A man just in from Eleventh Precinct, reports a number of bands of<br />robbers, numbering from fifty to one hundred each, breaking into stores in<br />Houston, near Attorney Street.<br /><br />1.47 P.M. From Twenty-ninth. The mob have cleared Twenty-first Precinct<br />station-house.<br /><br />2 P.M. From Twenty-ninth. A large mob surrounded Captain Green's house,<br />Twenty-eighth Street, Third Avenue. He escaped out of the back window;<br />they threatened to hang him.<br /><br />3.10 P.M. To Eleventh. Send to foot of Fourteenth Street, East River, and<br />if military is there, send word here forthwith.<br /><br />3.15. From Twenty-fourth. Mob are firing the building on Second Avenue,<br />near Twenty-eighth Street. Immediate assistance is required. Houses<br />occupied by negroes, who are fleeing for their lives.<br /><br />3.25. From Twentieth. The mob are sacking houses at Twenty-seventh Street<br />and Seventh Avenue. We have no force to send.<br /><br />3.30. From Twenty-first. There is an attack on the colored people in<br />Second Avenue, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Streets.<br /><br />3.40. From Eleventh. Send to 242 Stanton Street, and take possession of<br />cavalry swords forthwith.<br /><br />There were five thousand cavalry swords there, and the mob were assembling<br />to capture them; and the telegram announcing the fact, and the one<br />ordering a force to seize them, were received and answered the same<br />minute.<br /><br />3.55. To Twenty-first. How do things look?<br /><br />_Ans_. Very bad; large crowd in Thirty-fifth Street, near Third<br />Avenue, and no assistance from adjoining precinct.<br /><br />4 o'clock. To Twenty-first. What is going on?<br /><br />_Ans_. The mob have captured some five or six negroes, and are<br />preparing to hang them; be quick with reinforcements.<br /><br />4.43. From Twentieth. News have just come in that the mob are about to<br />attack the Twenty-second Precinct station-house.<br /><br />5.15. From Sixteenth. Send us one hundred special shields and clubs; the<br />citizens are arming up well.<br /><br />5.15. From Twenty-ninth. Who feeds the special men?<br /><br />_Ans_. You must, far as able.<br /><br />_Reply_. No money.<br /><br />_Ans_. It makes no difference; they must be fed; we are responsible.<br /><br />5.20. From Twenty-ninth. The rioters are now on Seventh Avenue and Twenty-<br />eighth Street. They have just killed a negro; say they are going to cut<br />off the Croton; they have pickaxes and crowbars; and also say they will<br />cut off the gas; so reported by one of our men, who has been in the crowd;<br />they were about to fire corner of Twenty-eighth Street and Seventh Avenue,<br />when he came away.<br /><br />To have cut off the water and extinguished the gas, would have been<br />master-strokes; but the military arrived in time to prevent it.<br /><br />5.25. From First. Riot at Pier 4, North River; they have killed negroes<br />there.<br /><br />Thus, at the same moment, from the two extreme ends of the city, came the<br />news of riots and calls for help. From points five miles apart, the wires<br />would bring simultaneously tidings that showed the mob omnipresent.<br /><br />In the midst of all these incessant exhausting labors, the following<br />telegram came from the Twentieth Precinct:<br /><br />"General Sandford says he has so many negroes at the arsenal, that he must<br />get rid of them."<br /><br />Acton's answer was characteristic. He had no time for formalities or<br />courteous exchange of views. In an instant there flashed back over the<br />wires the curt reply:<br /><br />"Tell General Sandford he must do the best he can with them there."<br /><br />General Sandford had at this time about the same number of men under his<br />command at the arsenal that General Brown had at police head-quarters; yet<br />the former, up to this morning, had not sent out a single company to<br />assist the police to arrest the devastations of the mob. He apparently did<br />not know what was going on, had hardly kept up any communication with the<br />Police Commissioners or Governor Seymour, but now begs the former to<br />relieve him of some colored refugees, as if the overworked commissioners<br />had not enough on their hands already. This request is especially<br />noteworthy, when taken in connection with his after report, in which he<br />states that on this morning the riot was substantially over; so much so,<br />at least, that the police could do all that was necessary without the aid<br />of the military. It would seem that if he really thought that the rest of<br />the work should be left to them, he might have sent off some of his<br />troops, and made room for the negroes in the arsenal.<br /><br />At about two o'clock in the afternoon word was received that a large<br />number of muskets were secreted in a store on Broadway, near Thirty-third<br />Street; and Colonel Meyer was ordered to proceed thither, with thirty-<br />three soldiers belonging to Hawkins' Zouaves, and take possession of them.<br />Reaching the place, he found a large mob gathered, which was momentarily<br />increasing. He, however, succeeded in entering the building, and brought<br />out the arms. An Irishman happening to pass by in his cart, the colonel<br />seized it, and pitching in the guns, closed around it, and moved off.<br /><br />Citizens offering their services were coming in all day, and a company was<br />formed and placed under the command of Charles A. Lamont, and did good<br />service. Others also were enrolled and placed on duty.<br /><br />Colonel Sherwood's battery of rifled cannon arrived in the afternoon, and<br />was put in position in front of the arsenal, where the firing of pickets<br />all day would indicate that an attack was momentarily expected. This did<br />not look as if General Sandford thought the riot substantially over.<br /><br />At about five o'clock, it was ordered by Sandford, with an infantry force<br />of one hundred and fifty, to corner of Twenty-seventh Street and Seventh<br />Avenue, to quell a mob assembled in large numbers at that point, and which<br />were gutting, and plundering, and firing houses. As they approached, they<br />saw flames bursting from windows, while, to complete the terror of the<br />scene, the body of a negro hung suspended from a lamp-post, his last<br />struggle just ended. At the same time that the military arrived, firemen,<br />who had come to put out the fire, reached the spot in another direction.<br />One portion of the mob immediately took shelter behind the latter, so that<br />the troops dared not fire and clear the streets, while another ran up to<br />the house-tops, armed with guns and pistols, for the purpose of firing<br />into the ranks below. The colonel told his men to keep a sharp lookout,<br />and at the first shot fire. Scores of guns were immediately pointed<br />towards the roofs of the houses. In the meantime, from some cause not<br />fully explained, the imposing force, after this demonstration, marched<br />away, leaving the mob in full possession of the field. It had hardly<br />reached the protection of the arsenal again, when the plundering and<br />violence recommenced; and in a short time two more negroes were amusing<br />the spectators with their death throes, as they hung by the neck from<br />lamp-posts. This was the second expedition sent out by Sandford, the<br />commander-in-chief of the military, during the riot.<br /><br />Towards evening word was brought to the Seventh Regiment armory that the<br />mob had gathered in great force in First Avenue, between Eighteenth and<br />Nineteenth Streets.<br /><br />Colonel Winston, in command, immediately ordered out a force, composed in<br />part of the military, and in part of enrolled citizens, and with a battery<br />of two howitzers, under command of Colonel Jardine, of Hawkins' Zouaves,<br />marched rapidly to the scene of disturbance. Passing down Nineteenth<br />Street to the avenue, it halted, and unlimbering the pieces, trained them<br />so as to command the avenue, while the infantry formed in line to support<br />them. As soon as the rioters saw the guns bearing on them, they dodged<br />into basements, and mounted to the windows and roofs of the tenement<br />buildings that abounded in that vicinity. A number of them armed with<br />muskets and pistols, and the rest with stones and brick-bats, began a<br />fierce and determined attack on the troops. The howitzers, loaded with<br />grape and canister, at once swept the street. After the first discharge,<br />but few ventured to show themselves in the avenue, until after they heard<br />the report, when they would dodge from behind corners and fire back. But<br />from the tops of the houses an incessant fusillade was kept up. The<br />soldiers endeavored to pick them off, but the rioters presented a small<br />mark compared to that which the troops, massed in the open streets,<br />furnished; and it was soon apparent that the fight was unequal. If they<br />had only had a police force to enter the buildings, and hunt the men from<br />the roofs, the fight would soon have been over. But the commander,<br />thinking he could not spare a sufficient number to do this work, or that<br />the soldiers, cumbered with their muskets, which, after the first<br />discharge, would have to be clubbed, could make no headway in such a hand-<br />to-hand fight, made no effort to dislodge the wretches, who loaded and<br />fired with the most imperturbable coolness. One man was seen to step round<br />the corner, after the discharge of the battery, and resting his gun on the<br />shoulder of a fellow-rioter, take as deliberate aim at Colonel Jardine as<br />he would at a squirrel on the limb of a tree, and fire. The ball struck<br />the colonel in the thigh, and brought him to the pavement. Other officers<br />shared his fate, while at every discharge, men would drop in the ranks.<br />The howitzers rattled their shot on the deserted pavements and walls of<br />the houses, but did no damage to the only portion of the enemy they had to<br />fear, while the fight between the infantry and the rioters was like that<br />between soldiers in the open field and Indians in ambush. Colonel Winston<br />soon saw that it was madness to keep his men there, to be picked off in<br />detail, and ordered a retreat. At the first sign of a retrograde movement,<br />a cry rang along the avenue; and from the side streets, and basements, and<br />houses, the mob swarmed forth so furiously, that it assumed huge<br />proportions at once, and chased the retiring soldiers with yells and<br />taunts, and pressed them so hotly that they could not bring off all their<br />killed and wounded. Among those left behind was Colonel Jardine. He took<br />refuge in a basement, where the mob found him, and would have killed him<br />on the spot, had not one of them recognized him as an old acquaintance,<br />and for some reason or other protected him from further violence; and he<br />was eventually carried to the house of a surgeon near by.<br /><br />The mob were left masters of the field, and soon began their depredations.<br />The state of things was at length reported to police head-quarters, and<br />General Brown sent off Captain Putman, with Captain Shelby and a hundred<br />and fifty regulars and two field-pieces, to disperse the mob and bring<br />away the dead and wounded of Winston's force that might remain. They<br />reached the spot between ten and eleven o'clock at night. The dimly<br />lighted streets were black with men, while many, apprised of the approach<br />of the military, mounted again to the roofs as before. Putnam immediately<br />charged on the crowd in the street, scattering them like a whirlwind. He<br />then turned his guns on the buildings, and opened such a deadly fire on<br />them that they were soon cleared. Having restored order, he halted his<br />command, and remained on the ground till half-past twelve.<br /><br />At the same time a mob was pulling down the negro houses in York Street,<br />which they soon left a heap of ruins. Houses plundered or set on fire in<br />various parts of the city, combined with the ringing of fire-bells,<br />thunder of cannon, and marching of troops, made this night like its<br />predecessor--one of horror.<br /><br />There was also a disturbance in Brooklyn. Shaw's and Fancher's elevators,<br />and Wheeler's store on the docks, were set on fire, and a force ordered to<br />put them out.<br /><br />The illumination of the windows from the _Times_ building this<br />evening shed a brilliant glow over Printing-house Square, and flooded the<br />Park to the City Hall with light, while an armed force within was ready to<br />fire on any mob that should dare expose itself in the circle of its<br />influence.<br /><br />At 12.15 the following telegram was sent:<br /><br />"To all stations. How are things in your precinct?"<br /><br />_Answer_. "All quiet."<br /><br />Thus the third night of this terrible riot passed away still unsubdued,<br />and still Acton sat at his post, awake, while others slept, and kept<br />feeling through the telegraph wires the pulse of the huge, fevered city.<br />The regiments coming back from Pennsylvania might arrive at any time, and<br />he was anxious to know the moment they reached the New York docks. The<br />Seventh Regiment, especially, he knew was expected to reach the city that<br />night by special train. Policemen were therefore kept on the watch; but<br />the regiment did not arrive till after daylight. About half-past four in<br />the morning, the steady ranks were seen marching along Canal Street<br />towards Broadway, and soon drew up in front of St. Nicholas Hotel.<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XVIII.<br /><br /><br />FOURTH DAY.<br /><br />Proclamations by the Governor and Mayor.--City districted.--Appearance of<br />the East Side of the City.--A small Squad of Soldiers chased into a<br />Foundry by the Mob.--Fierce Fight between the Mob and Military in Twenty-<br />ninth Street.--Soldiers driven from the Ground, leaving a dead Sergeant<br />behind.--Captain Putnam sent to bring the Body away.--Mows down the<br />Rioters with Canister.--Storms the Houses.--Utter Rout of the Mob.--<br />Colored Orphans and Negroes taken by Police to Blackwell's Island.--<br />Touching Scene.--Coming on of Night and a Thunderstorm.--Returning<br />Regiments.--Increased Force in the City to put down Violence.--Archbishop<br />Hughes offers to address the Irish.--Curious Account of an Interview of a<br />Lady with him and Governor Seymour.--Strange Conduct of the Prelate.<br /><br />Only the principal disturbances of the third day were given, and of these<br />the accounts were very succinct. The movements of the mobs and the<br />conflicts with them were so similar in character, that a detailed<br />description of them would be a mere repetition of what had gone before.<br />After the police force, and the troops under General Brown had become<br />organized so as to move and act together, each fight with the rioters was<br />almost a repetition of its predecessor. Having adopted a plan of<br />procedure, they seldom deviated from it, and the story of one fight became<br />the story of all--a short struggle and a quick victory.<br /><br />It was hoped this morning that the rioters would conclude that they could<br />not carry out their mad designs; for the enrolment of large bodies of<br />citizens, and the announcement of the speedy return of several regiments,<br />showed that all the force necessary to subdue them was, or soon would be,<br />on hand. The day before, the Governor had issued a proclamation, declaring<br />the city to be in a state of insurrection; but this morning appeared a<br />proclamation from Mayor Opdyke, announcing that the insurrection was<br />practically ended. It is true he called on the citizens to form voluntary<br />associations, with competent leaders, to patrol their separate districts,<br />to protect themselves from roaming gangs of plunderers, and so spare the<br />exhausted police and military. Yet he called on the citizens to resume<br />their usual avocations, and directed the railroad and stage lines to<br />resume their routes. This opinion of the Mayor was strengthened by the<br />positive announcement that the draft had been suspended, and the passage<br />of an ordinance by the City Council, appropriating $2,500,000 towards<br />paying $300 exemption money to the poor who might be drafted. It was<br />plain, if the draft was the cause of the continued riot, it would now<br />cease. But in spite of all this, bad news came from Harlem, and Yorkville,<br />and other sections. In fact, it was evident that the Police Commissioners<br />did not share fully in the pleasant anticipations of the Mayor. Having<br />ascertained that the leaders of the mob, learning from experience, had<br />organized more intelligently, and designed to act in several distinct and<br />separate bodies in different sections, they, with General Brown, divided<br />the city into four districts, in each one of which were to be stationed<br />strong bodies of the police and military, so that they could act with more<br />expedition and efficiency than if they were sent out from the common head-<br />quarters in Mulberry Street. It would, beside, save the fatigue of long<br />marches. Those separate stations were in Harlem, Eighteenth, Twenty-ninth,<br />and Twenty-sixth Precincts. A good deal was also expected by an invitation<br />given by Archbishop Hughes, that appeared in the morning papers, to the<br />Irish to meet him next day in front of his house, where, though crippled<br />from rheumatism, he would address them from the balcony. The Eighth Avenue<br />cars had been started, as well as those of the Third; and many stores were<br />opened. Still, on the east side of the city, in the neighborhood of First<br />Avenue, most of the shops were closed.<br /><br />It should be here remarked to the credit of the German population, which<br />were very numerous in certain localities on this side of the city, that<br />they had no sympathy with the rioters; on the contrary, sent word to the<br />Police Commissioners not to be concerned about their locality; they had<br />organized, and would see that order was maintained there. No better title<br />to American citizenship than this could be shown.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE RIOTERS DRAGGING COL. O'BRIEN'S BODY THROUGH THE<br />STREET.]<br /><br />Though early in the morning, it was comparatively quiet on the east side<br />of the city; yet near First Avenue knots of men could be seen here and<br />there, engaged in loud and angry conversation. They looked exhausted and<br />haggard, but talked defiant as ever, swearing terrible vengeance against<br />the military; for, though hidden from sight, in the miserable tenement-<br />houses near by, lay their dead, dying, and wounded friends by scores. Near<br />Nineteenth Street, the scene of the conflict the evening previous, there<br />were stones, brick-bats, shivered awning-posts, and other wrecks of the<br />fight. The grog-shops were open, in which men with bloody noses, and<br />bruised and battered faces, obtained the necessary stimulus to continue<br />the desperate struggle. Dirty, slovenly-dressed women stood in the door-<br />ways or on the steps, swearing and denouncing both police and military in<br />the coarsest language. Though the immense gatherings of the preceding days<br />were not witnessed, yet there was a ground-swell of passion that showed<br />the lawless spirit was not subdued, though overawed. But the Police<br />Commissioners were now prepared for whatever might occur. The Seventh<br />Regiment had been stationed on the west side of the city, with a wide<br />district to keep in order, thus enabling them to concentrate larger forces<br />in other directions. But, although everything wore this favorable aspect<br />to the authorities, it was evident towards noon, from the steadily<br />increasing size of the groups observed in the morning, that they had<br />resolved to try again their strength with the military. The state of<br />things was telegraphed to police head-quarters, but the report making the<br />mob not formidable, only a company of about twenty-five men were sent out.<br />Finding the rioters numbered about two hundred or more, and not daring to<br />fire their howitzer, lest, before it could be reloaded, the former would<br />rush forward and seize it, they concluded to retire. The mob at once set<br />furiously on them, and forced them to take refuge in Jackson's foundry.<br />The following telegram to head-quarters announced the fact:<br /><br />"1.25. From Twenty-first. The mob has charged our military, about twenty-<br />five in number, and driven them into Jackson's foundry, First Avenue and<br />Twenty-eighth Street. The mob are armed, and every time a regular shows<br />himself they fire. A few good skirmishers would pick off these riflemen<br />and relieve the military."<br /><br />This was soon succeeded by the following:<br /><br />"1.54. From Twenty-first. Send military assistance immediately to First<br />Avenue and Twenty-eighth Street. The mob increases, and will murder the<br />military force."<br /><br />_Ans_. "They are on their way up."<br /><br />They soon arrived, and were at once furiously attacked by the mob. The<br />soldiers fired into them, but they boldly held their ground, and were<br />evidently bent on a desperate fight.<br /><br />The former now took up their stations at the junction of the streets, and<br />were about to sweep them with canister, when from some cause a delay was<br />ordered. This increased the boldness of the mob, and they taunted and<br />derided the soldiers. But in a few minutes a reinforcement of regulars<br />arrived on the ground and charged bayonets. The rioters fell back, but<br />rallying, forced the soldiers to retire in turn. The latter, however,<br />returned to the charge, when the mob again gave way, but still stubbornly<br />refused to disperse.<br /><br />News of the magnitude of the struggle reached the Seventh Regiment, and<br />they rapidly marched to the spot. Their steady tramp along the pavement,<br />and well-set ranks, discouraged the crowd, and they marched and counter-<br />marched through the streets without molestation.<br /><br />The mob, however, dispersed only to reassemble again in Twenty-ninth<br />Street, and began to plunder the stores in the vicinity, and spread<br />devastation on every side.<br /><br />This being reported to head-quarters, a military force was despatched to<br />disperse them. The rioters, however, instead of retreating, attacked them<br />with the greatest fury. Almost every house was filled with them, and they<br />lined the roofs with muskets and pistols, from which they poured down a<br />deadly fire. For nearly a half an hour the fire was kept up without<br />cessation, and many were killed. A sergeant was knocked down by a brick-<br />bat, and then seized and beaten to death. The troops finding themselves<br />unable to dislodge the assailants, retreated, leaving the body of the<br />sergeant in the street, where it lay for three hours. General Brown not<br />having a sufficient number of troops on hand, the mob all this time had it<br />their own way. It was nine o'clock before he could despatch Captain Putnam<br />with a strong force to put an end to the disgraceful scene. Arriving on<br />the spot, the latter addressed the crowd, saying that he had come to carry<br />away the dead body of the sergeant, and should do it at all hazards. But<br />he had hardly placed it in a wagon, when the crowd began to assail his<br />troops. He immediately unlimbered his pieces, when it scattered in every<br />direction. But the rioters came together again at the corner of Thirty-<br />first Street and Second Avenue, where they were met by reinforcements, and<br />made a stand. They filled the houses, and mounted to the roofs, armed with<br />muskets and revolvers, and as Putnam appeared, commenced a rapid fire.<br />Placing his pieces in position, this gallant officer swept the street with<br />canister, which soon cleared it. Eleven of the ringleaders were shot down,<br />and bodies lay thick on the pavement. But this did not intimidate those in<br />the windows, or on the roofs, and they kept up a steady fire. Putnam, who<br />showed by his cool courage that the fighting stock from which he came had<br />not degenerated, now ordered his men to turn their fire on the buildings.<br />At each discharge, the heavy volleys brought down many of the wretches,<br />some pitching headlong from the roof, and dashing out their brains on the<br />pavement and flagging below. But the fight was very unequal, for the<br />assailants would expose their bodies as little as possible; Putnam saw<br />that the houses must be stormed, and gave the order to do it. The fight<br />was now transferred to the inside, and became close and murderous. In the<br />narrow halls and on the stairways, numbers were of no avail, and the<br />rioters fought with a desperation they had not before exhibited. There was<br />no way of escape, and they seemed to prefer death to being taken<br />prisoners, and for a half an hour maintained the conflict in the darkened<br />rooms and passages with a ferocity that was appalling. At last, however,<br />with their numbers sadly thinned, they were forced to yield, and took<br />refuge in flight. Many, unable to get away, hid under beds and in closets,<br />but the soldiers ferreted them out, and carried them to police head-<br />quarters.<br /><br />The arsenal had not been attacked, as Sandford seemed every day to think<br />it would be. Many colored people, as before stated, took refuge in it; and<br />about noon on this day, a body of police arrived before it, with the<br />children of the Colored Orphan Asylum that had been burned on Monday, in<br />charge. They had since that time been scattered round in station-houses,<br />but were now to be escorted to Blackwell's Island, for better security. It<br />was an impressive spectacle this army of children presented, as they drew<br />up in line in front of the arsenal to wait for those within to join them.<br />The block was filled with them. The frightened little fugitives, fleeing<br />from they scarce knew what, looked bewildered at their novel position. It<br />seemed impossible that they ever could have been the objects of any one's<br />vengeance. With a strong body of police in front and rear, and a<br />detachment of soldiers on either side, they toddled slowly down to the<br />foot of Thirty-fifth Street, from whence they were taken by boats to the<br />Island.<br /><br />The Sixty-fifth New York Regiment arrived from Harrisburg in the<br />afternoon, and just before midnight the One Hundred and Fifty-second also<br />reached the city, and marched up Broadway to police head-quarters, where<br />they were stowed away to get some rest.<br /><br />A heavy storm that set in during the evening, helped to scatter the crowd<br />that would otherwise have gathered on this warm July night, but it at the<br />same time gave a sombre aspect to the city. The crescent moon was veiled<br />in black, and thunderous clouds that swept heavily over the city, deepened<br />the gloom, and seemed portentous of greater evil. The closing of all the<br />stores and shop-windows at nightfall, through fear, left the streets<br />lighted only by the scattering lamps. This unusual stretch of blank dead<br />walls, emitting no ray of light, rendered the darkness made by the<br />overhanging storm still more impenetrable. Flashes of lightning would<br />reveal small groups of men bent on plunder, in sections where the military<br />and police were not stationed, but no open violence was attempted. In<br />other directions, the bayonets of the soldiers would gleam out of the<br />dense shadows, as they silently held the posts assigned them, ready to<br />march at a moment's notice. This was the fourth night, and the cannon<br />planted in the streets, and the increased military force, showed that<br />peace was not yet fully restored. The Seventh Regiment was quartered in<br />Thirty-fourth Street, part of the soldiers within a building, and crowding<br />every window to catch the first sign of disturbance, and part stationed<br />below, or marching back and forth in the street. Other troops and<br />policemen were massed at head-quarters, ready to move, at the word of<br />command, to any point threatened by the mob.<br /><br />The fourth night was passing away, and still Acton clung to his post, and<br />refused to take even a moment's rest. His whole nature had been keyed up<br />to meet the grave responsibilities that lay upon him, and through the<br />wires he still watched every threatened point in the city, with sleepless<br />vigilance. In the meantime, over a thousand special policemen had been<br />sworn in, and five hundred or more citizens had voluntered their services,<br />while the steady arrival of returning regiments swelled the military force<br />into formidable proportions.<br /><br />During the day, Senators Connolly and O'Brien had waited on General Brown,<br />and asked him to remove the military from their ward, as their presence<br />excited the people. The General very bluntly refused, saying he should not<br />permit his troops to retire from before an armed mob. He was asked also to<br />order the troops to leave Jackson's foundry for the same reason, and gave<br />an equally emphatic refusal. There was now to be no compromise with the<br />rioters, no agreement entered into. They had got beyond the character of<br />citizens with rights to be respected--they were assassins and murderers,<br />to whom was submitted the simple question of subjection to law and<br />authority, or death.<br /><br />The fighting through the day had been severe, but the disturbance had not<br />been so wide-spread and general. Outside of the city, there had been<br />threatening rumors. It was reported that there was danger of an uprising<br />in Westchester, where some leading Democrats had taken open opposition to<br />the draft, and a gun-boat had gone up as far as Tarrytown; but nothing<br />serious occurred.<br /><br />The rioters being almost exclusively Irish, it was thought that an address<br />from Archbishop Hughes would go far to quiet the ringleaders, and he had<br />therefore issued the following call, already referred to:<br /><br />To the men of New York, who are now called in many of the papers rioters.<br /><br />MEN!<br /><br />I am not able, owing to rheumatism in my limbs, to visit you, but that is<br />not a reason why you should not pay me a visit in your whole strength.<br />Come, then, tomorrow (Friday) at two o'clock, to my residence, north-west<br />corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-sixth street. There is abundant space<br />for the meeting, around my house. I can address you from the corner of the<br />balcony. If I should not be able to stand during its delivery, you will<br />permit me to address you sitting; my voice is much stronger than my limbs.<br />I take upon myself the responsibility of assuring you, that in paying me<br />this visit or in retiring from it, you shall not be disturbed by any<br />exhibition of municipal or military presence. You who are Catholics, or as<br />many of you as are, have a right to visit your bishop without molestation.<br /><br />JOHN HUGHES, Archbishop of New York.<br /><br />NEW YORK, _July_ 16, 1863.<br /><br />A curious incident was related subsequently in one of the New York papers,<br />respecting the manner in which an interview was brought about between him<br />and Governor Seymour, and which resulted in the resolution of the<br />Archbishop to address the rioters. The substance of the account was, that<br />a young widow of high culture, formerly the wife of a well-known lawyer of<br />this city--a woman living in an atmosphere of art, and refinement, and<br />spending her time in study, became so excited over the violence and<br />bloodshed that the authorities seemed unable to suppress, and finding that<br />the Irish were at the bottom of the trouble, determined to appeal to<br />Archbishop Hughes personally, to use his high authority and influence to<br />bring these terrible scenes to a close.<br /><br />Acting on this determination, she set out this morning for the<br />Archbishop's residence, but on arriving was told that he was at the<br />residence of Vicar-general Starrs, in Mulberry Street. Hastening thither,<br />she asked for an interview. Her request was denied, when she repeated it;<br />and though again refused, would not be repelled, and sent word that her<br />business was urgent, and that she would not detain him ten minutes. The<br />Archbishop finally consented to see her. As she entered the library, her<br />manner and bearing--both said to be remarkably impressive--arrested the<br />attention of the prelate. Without any explanation or apology, she told him<br />at once her errand--that it was one of mercy and charity. She had been<br />educated in a Roman Catholic convent herself, in which her father was a<br />professor, and she urged him, in the name of God, to get on horseback, and<br />go forth into the streets and quell the excitement of his flock. She told<br />him he must, like Mark Antony, address the people; and in rescuing this<br />great metropolis from vandalism, would become a second Constantine, an<br />immortal hero. It was his duty, she boldly declared; and though she did<br />not profess to be a Jeanne d'Arc or Madame Roland, but a plain woman of<br />the present day, she would ride fearlessly by his side, and if he were<br />threatened, would place her body between him and danger, and take the blow<br />aimed at him. The cautious and crafty prelate was almost carried away by<br />the impassioned and dramatic force of this woman, but he told her it would<br />be presumption in him to do so; in fact, impossible, as he was so crippled<br />with rheumatism and gout, that he could not walk. She then asked him to<br />call the crowd, and address them from the balcony of his house. He replied<br />that he was just then busy in writing an answer to an attack on him in the<br />_Tribune_. She assured him that such a controversy was worse than<br />useless--that another and higher duty rested on him. She pressed him with<br />such importunity and enthusiasm, that he finally consented; but as a last<br />effort to get rid of her, said he feared the military would interfere and<br />attack the mob. She assured him they would not, and hurried off to the St.<br />Nicholas to see Governor Seymour about it. She found the ante-room filled<br />with officials and other personages on important business, waiting their<br />turn to be admitted. But her determined, earnest manner so impressed every<br />one with the importance of her mission, that precedence was granted her,<br />and she found herself at once beside the astonished Governor. Without any<br />preliminaries, she told him she had just come from the head of the church,<br />and wanted his excellency to visit him immediately. No business was of<br />such vital importance as this. The self-possessed Governor coolly replied<br />that he should be glad to see the Archbishop, but business was too<br />pressing to allow him to be absent even a half an hour from his duties.<br />She hastened back to Archbishop Hughes, and prevailed on him to write a<br />note to Governor Seymour, asking him to call and see him, as he was unable<br />to get out. Fortified with this, she now took a priest with her, and<br />providing herself with a carriage, returned to head-quarters, and<br />absolutely forced, by her energy and determination and persuasive manner,<br />the Governor to leave his business, and go to the Archbishop's. The<br />invitation to the Irish to meet him was the result of this interview.<br /><br />Why Archbishop Hughes took no more active part than he did in quelling<br />this insurrection, when there was scarcely a man in it except members of<br />his own flock, seems strange. It is true he had published an address to<br />them, urging them to keep the peace; but it was prefaced by a long,<br />undignified, and angry attack on Mr. Greeley, of the _Tribune_, and<br />showed that he was in sympathy with the rioters, at least in their<br />condemnation of the draft. The pretence that it would be unsafe for him to<br />pass through the streets, is absurd; for on three different occasions<br />common priests had mingled with the mob, not only with impunity, but with<br />good effect. He could not, therefore, have thought himself to be in any<br />great danger. One thing, at any rate, is evident: had an Irish mob<br />threatened to burn down a Roman Catholic church, or a Roman Catholic<br />orphan asylum, or threatened any of the institutions or property of the<br />Roman Church, he would have shown no such backwardness or fear. The mob<br />would have been confronted with the most terrible anathemas of the church,<br />and those lawless bands quailed before the maledictions of the<br />representative of "God's vicegerent on earth." It is unjust to suppose<br />that he wished this plunder and robbery to continue, or desired to see<br />Irishmen shot down in the streets; it must, therefore, be left to<br />conjecture, why he could not be moved to any interference except by<br />outside pressure, and then show so much lukewarmness in his manner--in<br />fact, condemning their opponents almost as much as themselves.<br /><br />The excitement consequent on the draft, exhibited in outbreaks in various<br />parts of the country, and in the vicinity of New York, was increased by<br />the reports of violence and fighting in the latter city. In Troy there was<br />a riot, and the mob, imitating the insane conduct of the rioters in New<br />York, proceeded to attack an African church. But a priest, more bold or<br />more patriotic than Archbishop Hughes, interfered and saved it. That the<br />latter, armed with nothing but the crucifix, could have effected as much<br />as the police and military together, there can be but little doubt. This<br />open and decided sympathy with law and order, and bitter anathemas against<br />the vandals who sought the destruction of the city, were the more<br />demanded, as such a large proportion of the police force were Roman<br />Catholics, and in their noble devotion to duty, even to shooting down<br />their own countrymen and men of a similar faith, deserved this<br />encouragement from the head of the church.<br /><br />[Illustration: BURNING OF THE SECOND AVENUE ARMORY.]<br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER XIX.<br /><br /><br />CLOSING SCENES.<br /><br />Tranquil Morning.--Proclamation of the Mayor.--Mob cowed.--Plunderers<br />afraid of Detection.--Dirty Cellars crowded with rich Apparel, Furniture,<br />and Works of Art.--Archbishop Hughes' Address.--Useless Efforts.--Acton's<br />Forty-eight Hours without Sleep over.--Change in Military Commanders in<br />the City.--General Brown relinquishes his Command.--True Words.--Noble<br />Character and Behavior of the Troops and Police.--General Brown's<br />invaluable Services.<br /><br />This week of horrors--a week unparalleled in the history of New York--was<br />drawing to a close. It had been one of terror and dismay to the<br />inhabitants, who thought only of the immediate effects on themselves of<br />the triumph of the mob. A great city laid in ashes, given, up to robbers<br />and cut-throats, is at any time a terrible spectacle; but New York in<br />ruins at this time was a republic gone--a nation, uncrowned and left<br />desolate; but the battle, both for the nation and city, had been nobly<br />fought and won; and Friday, the fifth day of this protracted struggle,<br />dawned bright and tranquil. The storm of the night before had passed away,<br />and the streets, thoroughly washed by the drenching rain, stretched clean<br />and quiet between the long rows of buildings, emblematic of the<br />tranquillity that had returned to the city.<br /><br />The cars were seen once more speeding down to the business centres, loaded<br />with passengers. Broadway shook to the rumbling of the heavy omnibuses;<br />shutters were taken down, and the windows again shone with their rich<br />adornments. The anxious look had departed from the pedestrians, for the<br />heavy cloud, so full of present woe and future forebodings, had lifted and<br />passed away.<br /><br />The following proclamation of Mayor Opdyke will show the true state of<br />things on this morning, and what the people had most to fear:<br /><br />"The riotous assemblages have been dispersed. Business is running in its<br />usual channels. The various lines of omnibuses, railway, and telegraph<br />have resumed their ordinary operations. Few symptoms of disorder remain,<br />except in a small district in the eastern part of the city, comprising a<br />part of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Wards. The police is everywhere<br />alert. A sufficient military force is now here to suppress any illegal<br />movement, however formidable.<br /><br />"Let me exhort you, therefore, to pursue your ordinary business. Avoid<br />especially all crowds. Remain quietly at your homes, except when engaged<br />in business, or assisting the authorities in some organized force. When<br />the military appear in the street, do not gather about it, being sure that<br />it is doing its duty in obedience to orders from superior authority. Your<br />homes and your places of business you have a right to defend, and it is<br />your duty to defend them, at all hazards. Yield to no intimidation, and to<br />no demand for money as the price of your safety. If any person warns you<br />to desist from your accustomed business, give no heed to the warning, but<br />arrest him and bring him to the nearest station-house as a conspirator.<br /><br />"Be assured that the public authorities have the ability and the will to<br />protect you from those who have conspired alike against your peace,<br />against the government of your choice, and against the laws which your<br />representatives have enacted.<br /><br />"GEORGE OPDYKE, Mayor."<br /><br />Down-town there was scarcely anything to show that New York had for nearly<br />a week been swept by one of the most frightful storms that ever desolated<br />a city. Even in the disaffected districts, no crowds were assembled. In<br />the co