eatened with
civil war if the act was enforced. Nevertheless, the public drawing
by lot began on the days announced. In New York the first drawing took
place on Saturday, July 12th, and the lists were published in the Sunday
papers. As might be expected, many of the men drawn were of foreign
birth, and all day Sunday, the foreign quarter of New York was a
cauldron boiling.

On Monday, the resumption of the drawing was the signal for revolt.
A mob invaded one of the conscription offices, drove off the men in
charge, and set fire to the building. In a short while, the streets were
filled with dense crowds of foreignborn workmen shouting, "Down with
the rich men," and singing, "We'll hang Horace Greeley on a sour apple
tree." Houses of prominent citizens were attacked and set on fire, and
several drafting offices were burned. Many negroes who were seized were
either clubbed to death or hanged to lamp posts. Even an orphan asylum
for colored children was burned. The office of the "Tribune" was raided,
gutted, and set on fire. Finally a dispatch to Stanton, early in the
night, reported that the mob had taken possession of the city.

The events of the next day were no less shocking. The city was almost
stripped of soldiers, as all available reserves had already been hurried
south when Lee was advancing toward Gettysburg. But such militia as
could be mustered, with a small force of federal troops, fought the mob
in the streets. Barricades were carried by storm; blood was freely shed.
It was not, however, until the fourth day that the rebellion was finally
quelled, chiefly by New York regiments, hurried north by Stanton--among
them the famous Seventh--which swept the streets with cannon.

The aftermath of the New York riots was a correspondence between Lincoln
and Seymour. The latter had demanded a suspension of the draft until the
courts could decide on the constitutionality of the Conscription Act.
Lincoln refused. With ten thousand troops now assembled in New York, the
draft was resumed, and there was no further trouble.

The resistance to the Government in New York was but the most terrible
episode in a protracted contention which involves, as Americans are
beginning to see, one of the most fundamental and permanent questions
of Lincoln's rule: how can the exercise of necessary war powers by
the President be reconciled with the guarantees of liberty in the
Constitution? It is unfortunate that Lincoln did not draw up a fu