USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 53
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" YOUR STAR-SPANGLED BANNER SON."
525
ACTION OF CIVIL AND MILITARY AUTHORITIES.
After the President's proclamation, troops from the slave-labor States pressed eagerly toward the national capital, obedient to the shout of Alexander II. Stephens, as he moved northward from Montgomery to Richmond-" On to Washington !" Their object was the seizure of the Government, its archives and its treasury. At the same time thou- sands of men from the free-labor States were pressing as eagerly for the same goal, to save those precious possessions. News of a murderous attack upon a Massa- chusetts regiment in Baltimore by a mob flashed over the country accelerated the speed of prepara- tion and march for the salvation of the Republic.
Major-General John E. Wool,* the second in command to the general -in - chief of the army (Scott), was at his home in Troy, N. Y. Though seventy-six years of age, he was then an active and vigorous soldier. He hastened to confer with Governor Morgan, at Albany. While they were in JOHN ELLIS WOOL. consultation the governor re- ceived a despatch from Washington urging him to send troops thither as quickly as possible. The general immediately issued orders to the quartermaster at New York to furnish transportation to Washington for all troops that might be sent ; also to the commissary to furnish sub- sistence for them for thirty days.
* John Ellis Wool was born in Newburgh, N. Y., in 1788, and died in Troy, N. Y., in November, 1869. He became in his youth a bookseller in Troy, studied law, and in the spring of 1812 entered the army as captain of a company raised in Troy. He served gallantly in the War of 1812-15. At the peace he was retained in the army. In 1832 he was sent to Europe to examine some of the military systems on the Continent. He became a brigadier-general in 1841, and performed excellent service in Mexico in 1846-48, especially in organizing and disciplining volunteers. For his bravery in the battle of Buena Vista, which he planned, he was brevetted major-general, and received the thanks of Congress and a sword. In 1856 he quelled Indian disturbances in Oregon. At the breaking out of the Civil War General Wool, in command of the Eastern Department, took measures which saved Washington City from capture by the Confederates. He was commissioned major-general in May, 1862, and he commanded the expedition that took possession of Norfolk that month.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
The governor went to New York that night ; the general followed two days afterward, and made his headquarters at the St. Nicholas Hotel. There he conferred with the Union Defence Committee and arranged plans for the salvation of the capital, which was then so isolated by a cordon of enemies that Scott could not communicate by telegraph to a regiment outside the District of Columbia ; neither could any communi- cation reach the President from beyond those limits. Under these cir- cumstances General Wool assumed the gravest responsibilities, and with the assistance of the Union Defence Committee and the co-operation of Commodores Breeze and Stringham, succeeded in saving the capital.
The battle of Bull's Run, in July, gave a new impetus to the demand for troops, and Governor Morgan issued a proclamation for twenty-five thousand three years' men, the money to raise and equip them to be paid by the National Government. The quota of New York was increased from time to time, and on January 1st, 1862, it was one hundred and twenty thousand. Its troops had taken part in every engagement east of the Alleghany Mountains and south of Washington.
A called session of Congress opened on July 4th, for the purpose of providing means for carrying on, the war then just begun. Authority was given for raising five hundred thousand soldiers, and appropriating $500,000,000 to pay the expenses. These acts implied a heavy loan from the people. Could it be obtained ? The question was soon answered. At the close of the year the Secretary of the Treasury had borrowed $+70,000,- 000 of the loyal people, of which sum New York alone had advanced $210,000,000. It was a wonderful exhibition of patriotism and of gen- erons faith in the people. The risk was tremendous, but the jewel to be secured was beyond price. Without this advance arms could not have been bought, nor ships built, nor armies moved, and the Republic must have perished. Again New York saved it. Her sons appreciated the peril and the value of the endangered treasure, and flew to the rescue.
While thousands of loyal men were hastening to the field, loyal women were devising plans and taking measures for their aid and comfort. On the day when the President's call for troops appeared (April 15th), Miss Almena Bates, in Charlestown, Mass., took steps to found an associ- ation for the purpose. On the same day women of Bridgeport, Conn., organized a society to furnish nurses for the sick and wounded soldiers, and provisions and clothing for them. A few days later women of Lowell, Mass., did the same thing, and on the 19th women of Cleve- land, O., formed an association for the more immediately practical pur- pose of giving assistance to the families of volunteers.
This spontaneous outcropping of the tenderest feelings of women
527
RELIEF FOR SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD.
suggested the formation, in the city of New York, of the powerful society known as the United States Sanitary Commission. Fifty or sixty benevolent women of New York met by appointment on April 26tlı, 1861, when a Central Relief Association was suggested. They formed a plan, and the women of the city were invited to assemble at the Cooper Union to consider it on the 29th. Many leading gentlemen of the city were invited to be pres- ent. The response to the call was ample in number, charac- ter, and financial resources. David Dudley Field presided. The Vice-President of the Uni- ted States (Hannibal Hamlin) addressed the meeting. A be- nevolent organization known as the Women's Central Relief Association was effected, and the venerable Dr. Valentine Mott was chosen its president. The chief actor in this move- ment was the Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., pastor of All Souls (Unitarian) Church .*
The necessity for a much HENRY W. BELLOWS. broader field of action was soon perceived, and early in June the Secretary of War authorized the forma- tion of a " Commission of inquiry and advice in respect of the sanitary interests of the United States." Eminent civilians and soldiers formed the commission. Dr. Bellows, its real author, was chosen its president. He submitted a plan of operations which was adopted, and the associa- tion assumed the name of the UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION. +
* Henry Whitney Bellows, D.D., an eloquent clergyman of the Unitarian Church, was born in Boston in June, 1814. He was graduated at Harvard College and at Harvard Divinity School at Cambridge, Mass. He was ordained pastor of the First Unitarian Church (All Souls) in New York in 1838, where he labored successfully forty-four years. He was the principal projector of the Christian Inquirer, a Unitarian newspaper, and its chief contributor. He was the real originator of the United States Sanitary Commission. Dr. Bellows died in January, 1882.
+ The seal of the Sanitary Commission bore the device of an angel of mercy descending from the clouds upon a deserted battle-field, where a soldier is seen administering aid to a wounded comrade. The first officers of the commission were : Henry W. Bellows, D.D., President ; Professor A. D. Bache, LL. D., Vice-President ; Elisha Harris, M.D.,
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Frederick Law Olmsted was appointed its resident secretary, and became its real manager.
The object of the commission was to supplement Government defi- ciencies. An appeal was made to the people for contributions. The response was most generous. Supplies and money flowed in from all quarters sufficient to meet every demand. All over the country men, women, and children were seen working singly or collectively for it. Fairs were held in cities and large towns which raised immense sums of money for the treasury of the commission. The city of Poughkeepsie, with sixteen thousand inhabitants, held a fair and contributed to the treasury of the commission one dollar for each man, woman, and child of its population -- $16,000. The treas- urer of the Soldiers' Sanitary Fair in the city of New York (John H. Gourlie) received from the treasurer of the com- mission a receipt for $1,000,000, the net proceeds of the fair. The com- mission established branches. Ambu- UNITED STATE lances, army wagons, and steamboats were employed in transporting the sick 9Th 1861. and wounded soldiers under its charge. SAN It followed the army closely in all campaigns. Before the smoke of con- SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES SANI- TARY COMMISSION. fliet had been fairly lifted there was seen the commission with its tents, its vehicles, and its supplies.
The grand work of the United States Sanitary Commission was con- tinnally made plain during the war, and especially at its close, when the success of its labors was considered. The loyal people of the land, justly confiding in its wisdom, energy, and integrity, had given to it supplies valued at $15,000,000, and money to the amount of $5,000,000.
Later in the same year (1861) another and most efficient and important association was formed in the city of New York, the chief object of which was to promote the moral and spiritual welfare of the soldiers. It was suggested by Vincent Collyer, an artist, and a most earnest worker in the cause of Christian effort of every kind. It had its origin in the Young Men's Christian Association in New York. At a national con- vention of such associations held in their hall in November to consult
Corresponding Secretary ; General George W. Cullum, Alexander E. Shiras, Robert C. Wood, M.D., Wolcott Gibbs, Cornelius R. Agnew, M.D., George T. Strong, Frederick Law Olmsted, Samuel G. Howe, M.D., and J. S. Newberry, M.D., Commissioners.
529
UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION.
upon the best efforts to be made for the spiritual good of the soldiers, the UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION was organized, and George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, was chosen its presiding officer .*
This commission worked upon the same general plan adopted by the Sanitary Commission. Its labors were by no means confined to spiritual and intellectual ministrations, but were extended to the distribution of a vast amount of food, hospital stores, delicacies, and clothing. It, too, followed the great national armies, and was like a twin angel of mercy with the Sanitary Commission. It co-operated efficiently with the chaplains of the army and navy, and cast about the soldiers and seamen a salutary hedge of Chris- tian influence. The money col- lected for the use of the commis- sion was mostly gathered by the women of various Christian de- nominations. It was a free-will offering, and amounted, in the aggregate, to about $1,000,000. The entire receipts of the com- mission in money and supplies were fully $6,000,000.
In this chapter we have an out- line picture of the attitude of the VINCENT COLLYER. people' of the Commonwealth of New York during that crucial period of its history-namely, the first few months of the kindling and progress of the great Civil War. We have seen how firmly they received the cruel and sudden shock ; how willingly they sacrificed their personal interests for the general good : how generously they gave men and money for the salvation of the life of the Republic ; and what a wonderful system of philanthropic and patri- otic effort they inaugurated and sustained in cansing the loyal people of the land to lay at the feet of the defenders of our common country a free-will offering of $26,000,000 !
* The officers of the Christian Commission were : George H. Stuart, Chairman ; Rev. W. E. Boardman, Secretary ; Joseph Patterson, Treasurer, and George H. Stuart, Bishop E. S. Janes, D.D., Charles Demonds, John P. Croser, and Jay Cooke, Executive Committee.
530
THE EMPIRE STATE.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THERE was a remarkable change in the political aspect of New York late in 1862. The Opposition charged the national administration with a design to destroy the institution of slavery. Countenance was given to this opinion because many of the Republican nominees for office at the fall election were known to be advocates of the anti-slavery cause. The Republican nominee for governor, James S. Wadsworth, held the most extreme radical views of his party on this subject.
The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour for Governor. Both parties expressed, in the resolutions of their respective conventions, their firm determination to uphold the National Government in its struggle with its foes. The citizens of the State were then divided into two great parties, Republican and Democratic. There was a small party of adhe- rents of the Bell organization of 1860, whose views were expressed in the phrase, " The Constitution, the Union, and the Enforcement of the Laws."
At the fall election ex-Governor Seymour and the Democratic candi- dates for State offices were elected by a majority of nearly eleven thou- sand votes. The Senate remained overwhelmingly Republican, while there was a tie in the Assembly at the beginning of 1863.
While the extraordinary expenses of the State on account of the war were increasing, and the commonwealth was pledged to pay its debts in coin, its revenues were diminished over $600,000 by the financial policy of the National Government at that time, in exempting its bonds from State taxation, etc. The banks of the State held $125,000,000 of these varions untaxed bonds. The State debt (canal and funded) in the fall of 1862 was nearly $31,000,000.
Notwithstanding this diminution of its revenue, the State of New York continued its gigantic exertions in support of the National Govern- ment. It appropriated men and money with a lavish hand. During 1862 it sent one hundred and twenty regiments to the field in response to two calls of the President for troops for nine months and for the war -six hundred thousand in number. New York paid a bounty of fifty dollars each for volunteers, for which purpose $3,650,000 were required, making the war expenditure of the State $10,000,000. The subscrip-
531
BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA.
tions of towns and counties for the same purpose were equal in amount, making the contributions of the people of the State $20,000,000.
At the close of 1862 the number of soldiers furnished by the State of New York, including recruits for the regular army and for regiments in other States, was two hundred and nineteen thousand. Of the regiments raised seventy-one had their headquarters in New York City. At the close of the year the citizens of the State had contributed to the support of the Government in taxes, gifts, and loans to the nation $300,000,000 and eighty thousand volunteers.
The beginning of 1863 was the opening of a new era in the life of our Republic. On that day, by a proclamation of emancipation by the Presi- dent of the United States, human slavery was abolished from every part of the Union, and our country became, for the first time, really
" The land of the free and the home of the brave."
Up to that period the fortunes of war had generally favored the ene- mies of the Republic. From that time until peace was secured by the wisdom, patience, and valor of the loyal people, almost continual triumphs rewarded the exertions of the national troops.
Horatio Seymour was again inaugurated Governor of New York on January 1st, 1863. His first message to the Legislature was a vigorous dissent from the entire policy of the national administration. He declared that Congress and the Government had violated the rights of the States. He traced the origin of the war to a disregard of the obligations of the Constitution, disrespect for constituted authority, and local and sectional prejudices. He believed the war might have been averted, but when its floodgates were opened the administration was in- adequate to comprehend its dimensions or to control its sweep. He charged the Government with extravagance and corruption in every department, and violations of the Constitution and laws in making arbitrary arrests in disregard of the rights and authority of the States, suppressing journals, proclaiming martial law, and "attempting to emancipate the slaves." He declared that the administration had effected a complete revolution in the Government ; that national bank- ruptcy and ruin were imminent ; and that the Government, in its per- sistent attempts to subjugate the South, in violation of its solemn pledges at the beginning of the war, had failed in the attainment of its ends. At the same time he declared that the Union must be restored to its integ- rity as it existed before the war ; that the situation as it stood must be accepted ; that the armies in the field must be supported ; that all the requirements of the Constitution must promptly be responded to,
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
and that under no circumstances could a division of the Union be conceded.
This arraignment of the National Government at the bar of public opinion by the distinguished Governor of the great commonwealth of New York had a powerful influence in cooling the ardor of the loyal people, particularly in his own State. The patriotic tone of the message gave it greater puissance. The line of partisan demarcation between the two great political parties, which had been almost obliterated by the com- mon effort to oppose the revolutionary movements of the secessionists, was now conspicuously restored. The Peace Faction made the message an instrument for the discouragement of volunteering, and demagogues at the North who sympathized with the insurgents made it a basis for inflammatory harangnes intended to divide and distract the loyal people, and to excite a counter-demonstration in favor of the schemes of the conspirators.
Early in June a mass-meeting of members of the Peace Faction as- sembled in New York City and adopted a series of characteristic resolu- tions. They declared their fealty to the Constitution and to the " sov- ereignty of the States ;" denied that the National Government had rightful power to " coerce a State ;" asserted that the war was unconstitutional and ought to " be put an end to," and protested against the " cowardly, despotic, and inhuman act of banishing C. L. Vallandigham." # Ad- ministration and Democratic conventions were held in September, the former recommending a vigorous prosecution of the war, the latter pledging their support to the Government in subduing the rebellion and restoring the Union.
The obstructions which the Peace Faction continually cast in the way of enlistments compelled the President, under the authority of Congress, to order a general conscription or draft to fill up the rank of the armies. Organized resistance to this measure instantly appeared. The leaders of the Peace Faction denounced the law and all acts under it, with arbitrary
In the spring of 1863 Clement L. Vallandigham, an ex-member of Congress from Ohio, was especially busy in sowing the seeds of disaffection to the Government among the people of Ohio. General Burnside, in command of the military department in which Vallandigham was operating, had issued a general order for the suppression of seditious speech and action, and threatened the punishment due to spies and traitors to such offenders. Vallandigham defied the military power and denounced the order. He was arrested at his own house at Dayton, was tried by a court-martial, convicted, and sen- tenced to close confinement in a fortress during the remainder of the war. This sentence was commuted to banishment within the Confederate lines. His Southern friends treated him so coldly that he left them in disgust, went to Canada, and tarried awhile with Con- federate refugees there. Meanwhile the Democratic State Convention of Ohio nominated him for governor.
533
DRAFT RIOTS IN NEW YORK CITY.
arrests for treasonable practices," as despotic and unconstitutional. An obscure lawyer in New York named McCunn, who had been elected judge, so decided. He was sustained by three judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania-Lowrie, Woodward, and Thompson. Supported by these decisions, opposition politicians opposed the draft with a high hand. Kindred newspapers and public speakers joined in the denun- ciations. The national anniversary (July 4th) was made the special occa- sion for their utterances.
Distinguished members of the Peace Faction exhorted the people to stand firmly in opposition to what they called the " usurpations of the Government." One of the most exalted among these opponents of the Government, in an address at Tammany Hall on July 4th, uttered sneers because Vicksburg had not been taken, and taunted the President with having uttered a " midnight cry for help" because of Lee's invasion of Maryland. At that moment Vicksburg and thirty-seven thousand prison- ers of war were in the possession of General Grant, and Lee and his legions, discomfited at Gettysburg, were preparing to fly back to Vir- ginia. These two decisive battles of the war had been fought and won by the National troops, and the safety of the Republic was assured in spite of the Peace Faction.
On the evening of July 3d an incendiary hand-bill, calculated to incite to insurrection, was scattered over the city, and a morning newspaper advised its readers to provide themselves with a " good rifled musket, a few pounds of powder, and a hundred or two of shot" to " defend their homes and personal liberties from invasion from any quarter." It is believed that an organized outbreak had been planned and would have been executed, but for the successes of the Nationals at Vicksburg and Gettysburg. The draft began in New York, on July 13th, 1863, in a building on the corner of Forty-sixth Street and Third Avenue. Sud- denly a large crowd, who had cut the telegraph wires leading out of the city, appeared, attacked the building, drove out the men in charge of the
* Just after the proclamation for a conscription appeared, a public meeting was held in Albany to consider the arrest of Vallandigham. Governor Seymour was invited to attend. He declined, but sent a letter in which he expressed his views very freely. He denounced the act as a violation of the most sacred rights of every American citizen. He pronounced the order which, it was alleged, had been violated by the prisoner, invalid. He declared that the governments and the courts of some of the great Western States had sunk into insignificance before despotic military power. He said that, having given to the Government a generous support, the people would now " pause to see what kind of a government it is for which we are asked to pour out our blood and treasure ;" to determine " whether this war is waged to put down rebellion at the South or to destroy free institutions at the North."
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
draft, poured kerosene oil over the floor of the room, and very soon that and the adjoining edifice were in flames. The firemen and the police were driven off. So began a violent tumult in which thousands of men and women, chiefly foreigners by birth and disloyal men from the South- ern States, were engaged for three full days and nights. The draft was only a pretext. The cry against it soon ceased, and was supplemented by shouts of "Down with the Abolitionists ! Down with the nigger ! Hurrah for Jeff Davis ""'
The mob compelled hundreds of citizens driven out of manufacturing establishments, which they had closed, to join them, and, under the in- fluence of strong drink, arson and plunder became the business of the rioters. The special objects of their wrath were the innocent colored people. They laid in ashes the Colored Orphan Asylum. The terrified inmates, who fled in terror, were pursued and eruelly beaten. Men and women were pounded to death in the streets, and the colored people were hunted as if they were noxious wild beasts. Finally the police, aided by some troops, suppressed the insurrection in the city, but not until a thousand persons had been slain or wounded, fifty buildings had been destroyed by the mob, a large number of stores and dwellings not burned had been sacked or plundered, and property valued at $2,000,000 had been wasted. This riot was evidently an irregular outbreak of a vast conspiraey planned by disloyal men in both sections of the Union.
Governor Seymour, who was at the sea-shore a few miles from New York, interposed his personal influence to quell the disturbance on the second day of the riot. He came up to the scene of tumult, and after issuing a proclamation declaring the town to be in a state of insurrection, he repaired to the City Hall, and from its steps addressed the angry multitude in soothing words, telling them that he had sent his adjutant- general to the National Capital to demand a suspension of the draft until a judicial decision coneerning it might be obtained. ITis mild exhorta- tion was unheeded, of course. The mob while waiting went on plun- dering, burning, and murdering, until the strong arm of physical force -military and police-restrained them.
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