American History - Part 103 - Lincoln - NY City Draft Riots - Copperhead to Canada
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-06-18

The worst anti-war riots, however, took place in New York City.
 On July 13, 1863, a crowd formed outside a New York draft office. Inside, army officials were choosing the names of men who would be taken into the army.
 Each name was written on a separate piece of paper. The papers were mixed together in a big box. The officials then began to remove the papers one at a time. They made a list of the names. These were the men of New York who must go off to fight.
 On that day, however, the list was never completed. The crowd outside the draft office became louder. There were shouts of protest against the draft and against the Civil War.
 Suddenly, a stone crashed through the office window. Then another. And another. The army officials escaped. But a policeman inside could not get away. The rioters beat him badly. Then they set fire to the draft office and several buildings nearby. The riot spread across the city.
 The riot began as a political protest against the draft. Poor men opposed the draft, because it permitted rich men to escape military service.
 The law said a man who was drafted could stay out of the army by doing one of two things. He could pay the government three hundred dollars. Or he could pay another man to serve in his place. If a drafted man could not do either thing, then he must join the army or be shot as a deserter.
Poor men protested against the law. They said it was unfair. "It's a rich man's war," they cried, "but a poor man's fight. The rich man's money against the poor man's blood."
 There was something else that deeply troubled working men in the North. Anti-war activists told them that the war was not being fought to save the Union, but to free Negro slaves.
Then, on July thirteenth, the angers and fears of working men in New York exploded. Their attack on the draft office that day was just the beginning. The violence lasted three days.
 The rioters beat many policemen to death. They beat, burned, and hanged every Negro they could find. They also killed many whites who tried to protect the Negroes. By the time soldiers stopped the rioting, one thousand persons had been killed.
 The leaders of the anti-war movement in the north were members of the opposition Democratic Party. They wore on their coats a copper penny showing the head of a Native American Indian. This gave them the name "Copperheads." One important Copperhead was a former congressman from Ohio, Clement Vallandigham.
The former congressman was taken before a military court. 
They found him guilty. And they sentenced him to remain in a Union military prison until the end of the war.
 People throughout the north were angry. Many did not support Clement Vallandigham's ideas. But they supported his right to speak freely.
 President Lincoln could approve or reject Vallandigham's sentence. His decision would show which issue was more i  the citizens' right to free speech, or national security.
 Lincoln was a good politician and a smart lawyer. He found an unexpected way to deal with the problem. He neither approved nor rejected the sentence. He changed it.
 Lincoln ordered Vallandigham to be turned over to the Confederate army. Then he explained that Vallandigham had not been arrested for criticizing the government.
 "His arrest was made," Lincoln said, "because he was trying -- with some success -- to prevent men from entering the army. He was urging soldiers already in the army to leave it. Mr. Vallandigham was not arrested because he was damaging the political chances of the administration, or the interests of the commanding general, but because he was damaging the army, upon which the life of the nation depends."
 
"You want peace," Lincoln said, "and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we get it. There are but three ways possible."
 "First, to put down the southern rebellion by force of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for it? If you are, then we are so far agreed. If you are not for it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against this. Are you for the Union? If you are, you should say so clearly. If you are not for force, and not for dissolving the Union, there only remains some kind of compromise. I do not believe any such compromise is possible."
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