The Bill of Rights Institute engages, educates, and empowers individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exist in a free society. Use this Narrative after the Chapter 8 Introductory Essay: to introduce students to the reactions of citizens and immigrants to the conscription laws during the Civil War. This question reveals the irony of the policy of conscription that the U.
The Confederacy had introduced conscription first and experienced its own widespread popular opposition. But as the conflict wore on and casualties mounted, the Northern rush to enlist to put down the rebellion and preserve national unity eventually ebbed, and the question became relevant to the Union.
In July , Congress passed a militia law authorizing the president to draft state militia troops into service in the national army. This motive proved unpopular in many areas of the North, and racist sentiment now combined with fears of job competition with blacks, higher taxes, expanded government power, and what some considered to be the tyranny of a stronger executive branch.
Recruitment for the vast expansion of the armed forces became more difficult, and federal authorities turned more frequently to ever-increasing inducements for volunteers and the threat of conscription.
Opponents reacted with protests and sometimes violence. In response, the army sent troops into areas of resistance, such as the coal regions of Pennsylvania, German Catholic communities in Wisconsin, and parts of southern Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, where large populations of migrants from the South had settled decades before the war.
The provost marshals began arresting those who resisted, and the army imprisoned protesters and newspaper editors whose columns urged antiwar activism and resistance.
This, in turn, led to more protests and opposition. That fall, the Democrats used civil liberties, racism, and opposition to the draft and emancipation to gain ground with voters in the election. The term meant a Democrat who went so far in opposing the war as to commit treason. Although the Republicans held on to their congressional majority and most state legislatures, Democrats won control in several states, including the key state of New York.
Combined with other issues, the draft became a potent political policy that, even as it allowed the government to continue waging the war, served to unify the opposition to it. The next spring, in March , Congress passed the Enrollment Act, a conscription law authorizing a national draft.
Every able-bodied male citizen and immigrant between the ages of 20 and 45 years was to be enrolled in the draft. When districts proved unable to fill their quota of recruits with volunteers, the provost marshals were to implement the draft to make up the difference. In July , the army carried out the first of four drafts; the next three followed in Those whose names were drawn in the draft lottery might be eligible for an exemption — especially if they were the sole means of support for a widow, aging parents, or motherless children.
Substitutes tended to be young men of 18 or 19 years who were old enough to serve but too young to be drafted. Immigrants who had not yet applied for citizenship also provided a large pool of possible substitutes. More than 20 percent of those drafted refused to report for duty, fleeing to the West or going into hiding to avoid the provost marshals.
Immigration raised additional concerns about the draft. Throughout the decades before the war, the number of immigrants had increased exponentially. The beginning of the war slowed the rate to a mere trickle, but the demand for workers during the conflict brought dramatic increases in wages, and the number of immigrants began to grow again in response to such economic opportunities.
Some immigrant men saw military service as a financial boon as well, viewing the bounties offered to enlistees and the hiring of substitutes as a chance to improve their lot. Approximately 25 percent of the Union soldiers were immigrants. Whereas some wanted to enlist, others were tricked into service by manipulative criminals who took advantage of their inability to speak or read English. An illustration of the riot on Lexington Avenue in New York.
An illustration of the riot on Second Avenue in New York. An illustration of the rioters attacking the New York Tribune building. An illustration of the burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum, which housed children. An illustration of a conflict between the rioters and the military. An letter from William Lloyd Garrison worrying that New York riots would prompt similar responses in the "volcanic" North. An excerpt from The Volcano Under the City , an account of the draft riot of Battle of Gettysburg.
On July 15, the third day of the protests, rioting spread to Brooklyn and Staten Island. The following day, the first of more than 4, federal troops arrived, from New York regiments who had been fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg. After clashing with rioters in what is now the Murray Hill neighborhood, the troops were finally able to restore order, and by midnight of July 16 the New York City draft riots had come to an end.
When the Colored Orphan Asylum attempted to rebuild on the same site after the riots, neighboring property owners protested, and the orphanage would eventually be relocated to the sparsely settled area north of the city that would later become Harlem. Stunned by the riots, the abolitionist movement in New York City revived itself slowly, and in March , less than a year after the draft riots, New York City saw its first all-Black volunteer regiment in the Union Army march with pomp and circumstance through the streets before boarding their ship in the Hudson River.
William F. Leslie M. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of violent clashes during which mobs of U. The June riots took their name from the baggy suits worn by many minority youths The Detroit Riots were among the most violent and destructive riots in U.
By the time the bloodshed, burning and looting ended after five days, 43 people were dead, injured, nearly 1, buildings had been burned and some 7, National Guard and U.
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