The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-28 00:00:00

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I ,lIR RIOTS IN NEW YORK.

*(From the Times' Correspondent.)

NEW YORK, July 13.

The onfoxv;ement of the conscription has fallen
with th.e aulddenness of a surprise upon the people of
New York.. So lately as a fortnight ago no one
believedt that the Government would dare to resort
to it ; )Jut, emboldened by the check which General
Meads e was enabled to offer to the advancing armies
of G eneral Lee, and still more by the surrender of
Yid sburg, Mr. Lincoln and his advisers have
ply .cked up heart, and taken astep that may yetprove
tc, be the most momentous of the war. They calculated
upon the good temper of the people consequent upon
the first promise of success that has rewarded them
for "pegging away." A few days will show whether
or not their confidence has been misplaced. The
draught commenccd on Saturday, and will be con-
tinued during the present week in all the emigres-
nional districts of the city. Fearful, apparently, of
the resistance of the working classes, especially of
th(die of foreign birth, the Government has adopted
tLe precaution of taking each diettict separately,
and of sending a military guard of 400 men to pre-
side ovet the turning of the wheel, to see fair play
and to preserve order. The Republican papers and
all the supporters of the Administration take especial
pains to spread abroad the impression that the draught
is a mere formality, that the rebellion is all but sup-
pressed,that the existing armies are more than ample
to give it the coup de grace, and that none of the
enforced levies will Ever be required to do other
than militia duty in the towns and cities where
they will be drawn, and that they will under no
circumstances be incorporated with the armies now
in the field. It is much too early to ascertain to
what extent these representations are believed by
the people most interested. There is no question
that the conscription is in itself intensely un-
popular, and that among the Irish and Germans,
and to a smaller extent among the native-born
Americans, Trades' Unions, and other societies have
been organised in opposition to enforced military
service, and that many valiant resolutions have
been adopted, on paper, in assertion of the determi-
nation of the Americans, like Britons, " never to be
slaves.' The doubt is whether the opposition will
take the shape of armed resistance—a doubt which
among the native-born Americans is justified by the
well-known civic cowardice—Or, if that epithet be
considered too strong, the respect for law, or what
appears to be law—that characterises the Americans
as a people. They will fight obstinately against a
foreign or a domestic foe, as their past and present
history proves ; but they are reluctant to take
up arms in the street against their own Govern-
ment, however great the provocation, as French-
men, Italians, Poles, or Germans would do, and
have often done. It would not, therefore, be sur-
prising if the only resistance to the draught should
come from the turbulent foreign element that
abounds in this city, or if the Government should,
in case of its assuming any large proportions, re-
solve to overpower it by force of arms. It does not
seem, however, as if any army or portion of an
army to be raised by this means could be of much
service to the Government. The conscription an-
swers its purpose in the Soutb, and is cheerfully
submitted to because the conscripts are inspired with
a burning hatred against the Northern people,
whom they consider tyrants, oppressors, "Yankees,"
and " worse than hyenas" who desire to overrun
their country, exterminate the people, and confis-
cate the property of all classes. But no such danger
affronts the North, and no such passions, either of
hatred or patriotism, exist. In the minority of cases,
where such passions find play they are to be dis-
covered among the non-fighting classes, the pugna-
cious disputants of the pulpit and the lecture-rooms,
and the strong-minded women, whose type is Anna

Dickinson, and whose model gentleman is General
Butler. Whatever these people and the war con-
tractors may think or say, there is a growing feel-
ing throughout the North that the Southerners are
as right in their assertion of the principle of inde-
pendence as they are gallant in defending it, and a
growing disinclination to fight for the emancipa-
tion of negroes and the destruction of the Constitu-
tion, under the protection of which both North and
South had attained so high a pitch of greatness
and prosperity. The feeling is too strong and too
widely diffused to be mistaken. It has not been
weakened by the temporary success of General
Meade, nor would the defeat of the Army of the
Potomac, which the present disposition and strength
of the contending forces do not render at all impro-

bable, have any perceptible effect in diminishing
it. These persons say that if the Union cannot be
preserved by the willing arms of volunteer soldiers,
the Union is dead, and would not be worth the
trouble of resuscitation, if resuscitation were pos-
sible.

JULY 14.

I had written thus-fax-yesterday, when the report
reached me that the most serious riot that had ever
occurred in America had broken out in the upper
congressional district of the city, where the draught
had first commenced, and that a mob of men and
women variously estimated at from 20,000 t 040,000,
had suddenly appeared, acting without concert or
known leaders, and were committing havoc that,
unless speedily checked, might lead to awful loss of
life and immense destruction of property. The
report, though possibly exaggerated as to the
numbers of the rioters, was in other respects true.
The pent-up passions of the multitude bad broken
loose, and there was imminent peril of a catas-
trophe that might have delivered the city to
the unrestrained possession of a populace that
had tasted blood and grown furious on the diet.
T.. 4e readers of this correspondence have been
from time to time informed that the working classes
vi
e not
°illy disgusted with the war and all re-
lating
say it ; that they did not sympathise with or
tape Ily interest in the abolition of slavery, except
to'cond -
with
merruistt;that they looked upon the negroes
and dislike ; that they felt the bur-
den of the war in the enhancement of the price of
food and clothing, and of every article of comfort
and necessity; and
to the that, above all, they were op-
posedbanded principle of a conscription and had
All these themselvesmotive into secret societies to resist it.
and were sof action came into play yester-
day,
of the women,intensified by the sympathy and sup-
portwhoturned out into the streets
numbers to incite their
in immense '
fathers, husbands or lovers
sof those who sons, brothers,
struction. The Hal to the work of de-
the Ninth Districtwere draughted in
wereatd published in the evening
repeated
papers on Saturday,
journals.
This publication in the Sunday
their doom that the was the only notice of
all day on Sunday the unfortunates
had '
il.
received; and
excited groups 2 e lists were studied by
working
street corners, at church or g men, gathered at
less tranquil resorts of lager doors, and at the
shops, and hotel bars. The verbal
saloons, grog.
at
draught was loud and universal.opposition It
to b© illegal, unfair in its ' was declare d
mode
of are
exempting from personal service the operations, as
rich enough to pay 300 dollars, on man who was
tion of power on the part of the Federal Gas
an
"sum'''.
ment which could not be submitted to in overn-
that still claimed to be free. It a country
was alleged in
of the Sunday journals that no less one
a person thanthe
State, had
Congress declared his opinion that the act of Was
unconstitutional and could not be enforced;
and that
its legality would be tested before the recognised tri-

bunals of New York. This statement, which ought to
have allayed the agitation of the people, produced a
contrary effect. Early in the day gangs of workmen
went from workshop to workshop to call upon their
fellows to leave their labour and proceed to the
building in the Third-avenue where the formalities
of the draught were to be resumed. By 11 o'clock
some thousands of persons had collected. They com-
menced by throwing stones at the windows. They
next rushed into the office, seized the wheel by which
the lots were drawn and broke it into fragments, got
hold of the enrolment lists and tore them into shreds,
thus rendering the prosecution of the draught im-
possible until a new enrolment had been completed
—assaulted and severely ill-treated the functionaries
employed, and were debating what was next to be
done, when a man suddenly appeared on the plat-
form with a pail of turpentine, which he deliberately
poured upon the floor. A lucifer match was imme-
diately applied, the turpentine blazed up furiously,