Posted on 04/21/2008 9:32:59 AM PDT by Between the Lines
So Bill Clinton wasn’t the first bastard in the White House?
From your link I don't see any evidence that Fernando Wood was involved in planning the riot or in instigating it despite what the New York Times, his historical enemy, says. Opposition to Lincoln's policies is not instigating a riot.
Wood opposed Republican policies as did the Democrat governor of the state, and I don't doubt that Wood and/or others might have said that immigrant workers would have their jobs threatened by blacks as a result of the emancipation act. Wood may have also said the draft was wrong, something believed by a lot of people back then. It looked unfair to poor Irish immigrant when richer people could avoid being drafted by paying $300. The immigrants didn't need Wood to tell them that was unfair. It was a dumb policy.
The book The New York City Draft Riots says there was no evidence that even the most fiery Copperheads plotted the riot which instead seems to have been planned in saloons, in the streets, and in the kitchens over the weekend before the riot started first thing Monday [Link, page 13].
I found the following quote in July 16, 1863, The New York Daily News edited by Fernando Wood's brother:
Notwithstanding all that was done on Tuesday to satisfy the turbulent populace; and the confident hope of all good citizens that the riot would cease with Tuesday night's excesses, the riot raged yesterday more fiercely than on any previous day, although the personnel was greatly changed. There were but few, comparatively speaking,of those who rose for the purpose of opposing the draft in the ranks of the rioters yesterday. The mob seemed composed mainly of the vagabonds of the town -- pickpockets, thieves, and the multitude of "prowlers about the streets." Many of the workingmen and firemen who had strenuously opposed the enforcement of the draft, as soon as its suspension was announced, joined the ward organizations for the protection of unoffending persons and property.
Lowlife opportunists and looter guys had a field day, like in modern riots.
My link above on page 17 quotes an analysis of the riot that characterized Monday as "The Conscription Riot" and Tuesday as "The Riot of Thieves, not only from New York, but from Philadelphia, Boston, and all quarters, who rushed here to steal." Thievery wasn't the only thing going on however -- blacks were still being sought out and killed in the latter days of the riot. Over 100 people died during the riot including about 19 blacks.
There were also draft riots in Boston and Troy. See Boston and Troy.
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