The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-04 00:00:00

STAMPED ....sd.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, JULY 2
All fears of an immediate renewal of the riots o
last week are at an end. Business has resumed its
usual aspect; the streets are free for traffic from one
end of the city to the other; the labourers have re-
turned to their work, and the negroes have again
ventured to show themselves in their ordinary
haunts and to follow their ordinary business. The
order has gone forth from Washington that the
draught will be rigidly enforced ; but very few per-
sons are to be found who believe in the menace, or
think it anything more than "buncombe," or an
assertion of the dignity and supremacy of the Go-
vernment. As it is well known at Washington
that the great majority of the labouring population
of New York are of Irish birth and descent, and
that they, far more than the Germans and native-
born Americans, are opposed to the conscription, Mr.
Lincoln (or perhaps it was Mr. Seward) bethought
himself of the old and never-failing dodge of Ame-
rican politicians whenever they find themselves in a
difficulty with their own people, and instructed his
supporters in the press to notify that the enforce-
ment of the draught was not necessary for the con-
quest of the South, but for the probable contingency
of a war with reat Britain. It was thought that
if anything could reconcile the Irish to compulsory
service in the Federal army it would be the prospect
of a war with the " Sassenach,” and that for this
object, if for no other, the hundred and thirty
thousand strong men of the Finnian or Feenian
brotherhood would cheerfully gird their loins for
battle, and exert all their influence with their com-
patriots to induce them to do likewise. So ready
was the Federal Government for a new war, with
all its consequences, that it was declared to be its
unalterable determination to
make the legal deci-
sion of the British Courts in the case of the Alex-
andra a pretext for the immediate declaration of
hostilities. It cannot be said, however, that this
well-worn expedient answered its purpose. For
once the Irish were hard of belief, and could not
see the wisdom of rushing needlessly into a new war
when the old one was so difficult to bring to an hon-
ourable conclusion. If the Federal Government
required volunteers for such a war, it is highly pro-
bable that large numbers of the Americo-Hibernians
would respond with enthusiasm ; but not even for
a war with Great Britain—which they do not be-
lieve to be imminent, or even likely, whatever the
organs of the Government may be instructed to allege
to the contrary—will they submit to the draught.
They have been taught that it is illegal. They know
it to be disagreeable, and they will resist again, as
they resisted before, should the Government attempt
to enforce it. And as nearly the whole of the Demo-
cratic party in this State, with Governor Seymour at
ite head, share their views, and are determined to
test the validity of the act in the courts of New
York, and ultimately, if necessary, to appeal to the
Supreme Court of Judicature at Washington, the
chances are that there will be no more rioting, and
that the Federal Government will be baulked, at
least for awhile, of its favourite design of over-
riding the State authority and establishing martial
law in New York. I have reason to know, how-
ever, that the quietude of the people is more as-
sumed than real, that the opposition to the draught
is unabated, and that, should the Government, in
spite of the sharp notice it has received of its un-
popularity, persist in the endeavour to enforce it,
the action of the multitude will be more formidable
than before, and will severely test the Federal power
in this city. The people will not interfere with the
mechanical process of the draught. The wheels of
Fortune will be allowed to turn freely in the places
appointed for the purpose; the blind-folded dippers
into the urn will draw out the names without in-
terruption, and the lists of the conscripts will ap-
pear in the newspapers as if everything was alike
fair and acceptable to the people. The opposition
will break out at a later stage of the proceedings,
at the expiry of the days of grace, when the con-
script who does not present himself for military
duty is to be considered a deserter. All over New
York and in the adjoining cities of Brooklyn and
Jersey, as well as in remoter and less known suburbs
of this great capital, the working men have enrolled
themselves into clubs and secret societies, the mem-
bers of which severally and collectively pledge
themselves not to allow any one of their number to
be abducted from his home of business, or forcibly
taken away for military service, without offering
armed resistance. They will stand
upon the de-
fensive. They will permit no burning
down of

houses, no pillage, no indiscriminate cud. break of
riot or hostility, bat will simply defer d themselves
in their homes and call their neighbours to the
rescue, -as they would in the case of attack upon
their lives and property by a gang of burglars and
assassins. This is understood to be the programme,
and, if rigidly carried out, it is one that cannot
tail to produce a very serious state of sffairs. So
sensible are the commercial and moneyed classes of
the danger that every possible effort will be made,
by offers of bounty money, to get together a new
army of 40,000 or 50,000 men, or whatever num-
ber the Government may consider to be the full
quota of this State, towards the 300,000 that are
considered necessary to carry on the war, in addi-
tion to the armies already in the field. The Courts
of Aldermen and Common Council have already
voted 2,500,000 dols. for the purpose, to be raised by
taxation on city property—a measure of very doubt-
ful legality, but the mere proposal of which shows
the great unpopularity of the draught, and the ex-
treme lengths to which many people are willing to
go in their efforts to render it unnecessary.
But amid all this perplexity and peril the doctri-
naires and philosophers, who wish to make Federal
America a nation instead of a congeries of States,
and to cement the discordant materials by the esta-
blishment of a stringent military despotism, con-
tinue to urge upon the President the duty of
quenching attempted insurrection in seas of blood,
if it cannot be quenched at a cheaper rate ; to en-
force the conscription coute que coute ; to take ad-
vantage of the first outbreak to supersede Governor
Seymour or hurry him off to Fort Lafayette, and to
invest General Butler with supreme dictatorial
power over the three States of New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It is understood that
Mr. Seward is the sole great obstacle in the way of
this dangerous experiment ; that Messrs. Chase,
Stanton, Halleck, and Welles are in its t'avour ; and
that the President hesitates to take ea serious a step
in opposition to the solemn Warning of the most
conservative as well as taint sagacious member of
his Cabinet. The people who recommend this des-
perate strategy have lost all hope, however promis-
ing the present appearances of victory may be, of
the final subjugation of the South; and look to the
utter abrogation and annulment of State rights in
the North, to be effected at all hazards, as the
only possible means by which the North can be
kept together. Their model Government is not
that for which their Anglo-Saxon progenitors
shed their blood, or which offers itself for example
to the world in the mild constitutional monarchy
of Great Britain, but the autocratic and military
despotism of France. They admit, when closely
pressed, that the Republicanism of 'Washing-
ton and Jefferson is a proved failure, and that
the future Republic of the North must be one, in-
divisible and homogeneous, with a strong and irre-
sistible central Government in the hands of the first
man of indomitable will and high military genius
who shall succeed in grasping the reins of power.
They shut their eyes to the consequences. They do
not value liberty a straw. They are ripe for despot-
ism. They court it, they pray for it, and all present
indications seem to prefigure that they will inevit-
ably attain it—though not by so short a process as
they fondly imagine, and not perhaps until these
degenerate Americans shall have offered for the
wonder and instruction of all time a more unhappy
spectacle than has ever yet been offered by a civi-
lised nation.
A little incident in the history of the late cruel
onslaught upon the coloured people which has fallen
within my personal notice deserves to be recorded.
A negro in one of the pleasant transmarine suburbs
of this city, of which it is not necessary to mention
the name, became or the second day of the riots ob •
noxious to a crowd of Irish and other " rowdies'
bent not only on resistance to the draught, but on
any mischief that might offer itself to their idle
hands. The negro kept an ice cream saloon and
restaurant, was an excellent cook and waiter, and
employed several coloured people in his business, was
very useful to the richer inhabitants whenever they
had dinner or evening parties which required extra
assistance, was a prosperous tradesman, as he de-
served to be, and was, moreover, very much re-
spected by all who knew or had occasion to employ
him. Envious of his prosperity, and indignant that
a" nigger" should be better provided with worldly
goods than themselves, a crowd of men and boys of
the labouring class, reinforced by a mob of thieves
and plunderers, gathered round his house towards
nightfall, threatening to burn it down and hang the
whole of the occupants. The shutters and doors
were hastily closed and secured, and it seemed for a
few moments as if it would fare ill with the unhappy
family, consisting of husband, wife, and two chil-
dren, besides the black servants and waiters. For-
tunately a mechanic of a superior grade, and himself
an employer of labour, was on the spot,, and had
courage enough to attempt tostem the tide of popu-
lar passion and influence enough to be successful.
He addressed the crowd in a few energetic sentences,
imploring them to go peaceably home and reserve
their displeasure for the officers of the draught. He
finally prevailed on them to desist from their pur-
pose of arson, and to content themselves with break-
ing the black man's windows. But during the
greater part of the night a few of the rioters lin-
gered around the place, determined to hang the
negro if he ventured abroad. Ultimately, however,
either from the exhaustion of their patience, or the
rumoured arrival of the military and police, they
withdrew, but not before they had threatened him
with instant death if he dared to open his shop on
the morrow. As soon as all was quiet the negro and
his family took the opportunity to escape. Clamber-
ing over the wall at the rear of their premises, their
first intention was to make their way to the open
country and encamp in the woods. Remembering,
however, that there was one gentleman who had
been kinder to them than others, they determined
to go to his house and solicit his protection. They
went and were hospitably admitted, the gentleman
and his family, the females as well as the males, de-
claring that they would protect the lives of the
hapless fugitives at the hazard of their own. Here
they have been hiding for seven days, and still
remain in close confinement. And who, it will be
asked, was this good Samaritan? Was he a friend
of Emancipation ? No. Was be a professed
humanitarian? No. Was he a Minister of the
Gospel ? No. Had he ever, like Messrs. Cheever,
Beecher, Phillips, and Greely, proclaimed himself
to be the especial friend of the negro race ? No.
Had he ever advocated their social and political
equality with white men, or made himself con-
spicuous in any way as their advocate? No. Was
he known to be more benevolent and charitable than
his neighbours ? No. What, then, was the secret
impulse that drew the negroes towards him in their
hour of peril ? Nothing but the fact that he was
Virginian. He was a man from the South, who had
been a slaveowner, and who, like his countrymen.
.
thoroughly understood the negro eharacters.bK
Know
edition-
ing all about him, and that he was not an
ist, a preacher, or a philosopher, they singnlev,cl,hhiiernb
out from all the men of the little world
white multitude that was raging
o demand, but it was
they moved to be their protector
fforromt h
et
ihre
blood.fu ry o f
Ita
was a dangerous serviesde
tred. Let those who will
generously an do
ahnefseievaellyetehse
lee
epiotien
no
thee
surprise. moral o
tf
ItnandeEer trenanmgl ele.ar
England
idle In
tofmtAmericashyo e
perhaps ithow wi
helpi eu xl d-
to prove that
ossn,s
be consentv
etoryme
cruel
a ans lda vt
he
aotf,
of s theri
ennedgsr of intellect
h is may
uthnedenregt roocmiracyni .
—and would rather
i aef
finncoki tenn'h°acywi essr
eas on
trust his life to the honour of a Southern gentleman
be,wh at
hteev rl
a theck md
than to the kindly charity of allorthern Abolitionist.
—by instinct,
The animosity of the crowd against the negroes
was so great during the culmination of the riots
that it even went the length of threatening to set
fire to two British vessels in the North eiver, both
of them commanded by negro captains, and manned

by nfromee,” ,J.amo •
catieowa.s;
sthoemooneffrtre Boreelwizew, andere tvhioeloonthtelye
assaulted in the streets,roibohanadid, fled for protection to
the office of
Mr. A
to Lord
the British Consul.
That gentleman, having no adequate means at his
disposal, telegraphed Lyons for a ship of
war, and yesterday morning her Majesty's ship
Challenger arrived and dropped anchor at the en-
trance of the Hudson. In meantimethe the negroes,
all of whom were British subjects, found refuge to
the number of 75 on board the French ma
the Cardenas, bearing the flag of Admiral ;.°t-war
dr
who kindly volunteered to give the men shelter until
they could be transferred to the more legitimate
safeguard of the ship of their own Sovereign. It is
calculated that nearly 600 persons were either killed
or wounded in the riots. Coroners' inquests have
been held upon 76, the great majority of whom were
Irish. The number of negroes hanged, beaten to
death, or thrown into the viver is estimated at about
20 ; but the bodies of five only have been recovered
and accounted for. The negro fugitives who en-
camped on Long Island have for the most part re-
turned ; and as many of these unhappy persons have
been reduced to destitution by the destruction of
their homes and furniture, and the enforced cessa-
tion of their usual labours, a subscription has been
commenced in their behalf, which already amounts
to a very considerable sum. Many of the principal
banks and insurance companies have contributed
largely, and leading members of both political par-
ties have aided the cause with their names and their
money.