Year: 1863




dropping prices. The demand for taow and lard oil was
more active at uniform quotations. hay was in fair
request at advancing rates. and FOR other
dities the demand quite limited At unsettled figures
The freight engagements were light.


The Late Riots-A Mountain Reduced 60
q Molchall.


Now that the smoke and the dust and the
noise aud confusion of the late riots in this city
have cleared away we may without much diff
ficulty get at their true character, their causes
and the elements involved in them. We are all
satisfied that while under the general panic
which they created throughout Manhattan
Island they were greatly magnifed-that, in
brief, what was supposed to be prodigious
mountain has dwindled down to contemplate
molehill.


These riots were commenced by body of
laboring men in an active, lawless demonstra-
ton against the draft, including number of
enraged individuals turned over to the army by
the first days working of the wheel in the dis
affected district. Carrying everything before
them in the outset, and finding neither police
men nor soldiers on hand in sufficient numbers
to check them, the rioters were rapidly joined
by all the thieves, burglars, pickpockets, incen-
diaries and jailbirds of all descriptions in the
neighborhood, until large proportion Of the
villains and vagabonds OF every part Of the
island and every hole and corner of the city
had joined the original mob, and completely
changed its character into various hordes of
rogues and rufians, seizing the occasion for o
carnival Of terrorism. fire, blood and plunder.
/ A single regiment' Of. our State militia on
Monday morning would have been sufficient to
quell the original disturbance. Certainly the
troops and policemen collected by Monday
afternoon, If managed with anything like skill
and system, would have been sufficient in
few hours to put down every vestige of law
less asscmblage. But between our supreme
federal military officer, General Wool, and
Governor Seymour and Mayor Opdyke, all of
whom made great parade of doing wonderful
things, while, in fact, they were doing little or
nothing, there was so much of confusion in
| the management Of our soldiers and policemen
| that IL was not until Wednesday that the war
was turned decisively against the rioters.
It is due, however, to Commissioner Acton,
Of the Metropolitan Board, to say that, from the





the police to the end Of the disturbances, his
conduct was that Of skilful, fearless, energetic
and able officer. He has nobly earned the
gratitude Of the whole community. Captain
Wilson, too, OF the Fort Washington precinct,
operated among the rioters after the fashion of
General Grant, breaking up one gang here,
another there and SO on from point to point
with his faithful squad giving the enemies Of
| law and order no rest, but shifting them hip
and thigh, right and left, till his work was done.
| There were several other detachments of the
| police which did good service against great
| odds in various encounters with the rioters;
| but still there is q considerable number OF
these grenadier Metropolitans who seem to be
fit for little else in their vocation than to escort
the ladies safely across Broadway "among
those horrid omnibuses."


Mayor Opdyke would doubtless have done
something had not this functionary been de-
prived Of the power to do anything by our
tinkering Albany politicians. They have by
their tinkering, in fact, given us such divided
counsels and departments in our city govern
ment as to render it almost completely helpless
in any emergency like that of carnival of
rogues and rufians. II is to be hoped that this
fact will not be forgotten bysbur city members
at the next meeting of the State Legislature.


But these late riots which have 30 disgraced
our city have been exaggerated by our radical
abolition organs into o grand rebel conspiracy
in behalf Of JEFF Davis Nothing could be
more absurd, except the absurd speculations Of
some Of the newspapers Of rebellion. The
Richmond Dispatch for instance, supposcs that
these New York disturbances are but the be-
ginnings Of general Northern rebellion against
the Lincoln despotism. and that by these out
breaks the Davis confederacy is to be lighted TO
its national independence. Such are the straws
that drowning men will snatch at. II will not
be long before these Southern newspaper phi
losophers discover their folly and stupidity in
believing for moment the partisan claptrap
Of our abolition organs in regard to these late
riots. They are ended; for we are sure that
President Lincoln, in returning TO the business
Of the draft will, in liberal application Of the
law, render II acceptable even to the working
man. who has nothing but his daily labor TO
depend upon for the subsistence Of his family.


The New York riots are ended. They will
not be renewed; and the sooner the Newspaper
organs Of Jeif. Davis at Richmond dismiss tho
idea that he has great political conspiracy in
the North moving for his support The sooner
will the misery and the suspense Of Davis and
Hs fellows be ended