e 
 
 523 
 F- 
 
Reproduced by DUOPAGE process 
 in the United States of America 
 
 MICRO PHOTO INC. 
 
 Cleveland 12, Ohio 
 
NEW YORK 
 
 AND 
 
 THE CONSCRIPTION 
 
 OF 1863 
 
 A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
 CIVIL WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES B. FRY 
 
 RETIRED " 
 
 ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GRNF.RAI., WITH HANK OK COLONRI. 
 
 UREVBT MAJOR.GP.NRRAI. U. S. ARMY 
 I.ATK PROVOST-MAR^HAI. GRNRKAI, OF THR UNITED STATES 
 
 NEW YORK & LONDON 
 G. P. PUTNAM S SONS 
 
 \ bt Stmcherbotker |hris 
 
 1885 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1885, 
 Bv G. P. PUTNAM S SONS. 
 

 NEW YORK 
 
 AND 
 
 THE CONSCRIPTION. 
 
 The New York Herald of November 4, 1878, gave an 
 account of an interview at Deerfield Farm, near Utica, 
 New York, between one of its correspondents and Ex- 
 Governor Horatio Seymour, from which the following is 
 
 an extract : 
 x 
 
 "A REMINISCENCE OF THE DRAFT. 
 
 41 When an enrolment for draft was ordered during th 
 rebellion," he proceeded, " every consideration of justic 
 and duty called for its honest execution. It was a lottery 
 for life, and it was a great crime to make it unfair. Whc 
 it was completed it was found to be cruelly unjust. No 
 only were the quotas asked of New York as a whol 
 more than those of any other Atlantic State, but this ex 
 cess was imposed in a cruel way upon the city. * * 
 The matter was the subject of a correspondence wit 
 President Lincoln which resulted in the appointment b 
 the Presic^nt of two men and of one man by myself a 
 Governor ;.o conduct an inquiry. The two Commission 
 crs named by the President were from other States, wer 
 officers of the army, and were naturally inclined to dis- 
 
 323 
 
2 NEW YOKK 
 
 trust the charge of unfairness. They spent a long time 
 in a laborious search into the facts. Rising above all 
 prejudices, they decided that the quotas of New York and 
 Brooklyn were erroneous and excessive and should be 
 reduced." * * * 
 
 " The riot was caused not only by an unjust enrolment 
 but by the way the draft was made. It was begun with 
 out giving any notice to General Wool in command of 
 the United States forces, to Mayor Opdyke, or to the 
 Governor of the State. It was at a time when the city 
 regiments were in Pennsylvania volunteering to defend 
 that State from the attack of Lee s army. The United 
 States soldiers were withdrawn for the same purpose ; 
 and so far as military force was concerned, the city was 
 left almost in a defenseless state." 
 
 The New York Times of August 18, 1879, contained 
 a life* of Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, from which the 
 following is an extract : 
 
 " On Saturday, July *e-, while he was at Long Branch, 
 and still engaged in this work of providing for the defense 
 of the coast, he was startled by a telegram informing him 
 that the long-threatened and much dreaded conscription of 
 men for the Union Army had been commenced in New 
 York City. This telegram was a private one. Governor 
 Seymour never received any official notification that the 
 draft was to commence, or that it had commenced, nor 
 was any such notification sent to Mr. Opdyke, the Mayor 
 of the city, or to General Wool, the United States officer 
 in command. Without any communication with those 
 gentlemen, or with the Department of Police, * * * the 
 Provost Marshal, at whose instance is to this day a mat- 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 3 
 
 ter of doubt, commenced the draft. The drawing began 
 on Saturday in a district where the enrolment was so ex 
 cessive, so grossly unjust, that the Government caused it 
 to be changed. * * * It has been claimed that there 
 was in all this a deep-seated design for political purposes, 
 to force a portion of the community into such excesses 
 as would make it necessary to declare the Empire City 
 under martial law. This claim has not been justified, but 
 that the Provost Marshals, or those behind them, by their 
 action in the matter, threw prudence, propriety, and 
 common sense to the winds, there can, in view of subse 
 quent events, be no doubt. * * * On Sunday night, 
 when he first received word that the draft was actually 
 in progress, he tried to make his way to the city, but 
 found that he could not do so. The next morning at a 
 very early hour he received a second telegram, inform 
 ing him that serious disturbances were expected to follow 
 the announcement of the conscription. Fearing the 
 worst, and without having tasted food, he hurried to the 
 Metropolis." 
 
 The foregoing extracts bear strong evidence of authen 
 ticity. They have stood for many years without dis 
 avowal or denial. In a book in which Governor Seymour 
 occupies the first place, called Twelve Americans, by 
 Howard Carroll, published by Harpers, in 1883, the state 
 ment from the New York Times given in the Appendix A, 
 is substantially repeated. In the preface the author says : 
 " It is particularly worthy of note, that the material for 
 these sketches of their lives, was, in every case, obtained 
 during long and frequent personal interviews with them. 
 Originally the sketches appeared in comparatively meagre 
 outline in the columns of the New York Times" Un- 
 
4 NEW YORK 
 
 pleasant affairs in which the Governor s part was very 
 important if not satisfactory, are thus again brought into 
 notice. Lincoln and Stanton and Whiting and Dix and 
 Canby and many others concerned are dead, but the 
 records remain. Lest the allegations of bad judgment, 
 neglect, crime, unfairness, grievous wrong, " throwing 
 prudence, propriety, and common sense to the winds," etc., 
 leveled by high authority against officers of the general 
 government, pass unchallenged into history, it is proposed 
 to make a review of the general subject in the light of 
 official documents and well established facts, and leave 
 the reader to draw conclusions and make comments. 
 
 To understand the occurrences discussed it is necessary 
 to recall the state of affairs in the spring and summer of 
 1862. Let the Adjutant-General of New York bear wit 
 ness upon that point. In his report to the Governor of the 
 State, dated December 31, 1862 (the close of Governor 
 Morgan s term and the beginning of Governor Seymour s), 
 he says : " Without any general or formal call your Ex 
 cellency was advised in a dispatch from the Adjutant- 
 General of the Army of May 2ist, that an additional 
 force of three years volunteers would be accepted, and a 
 plan of organization was at once decided on and promul 
 gated in General Orders 31, issued on the 23d. Owing, 
 however, to the great demand for labor in the field and 
 workshop no great progress was made, and on the 1st of 
 July, more than a month after, although one hundred and 
 fifty authorizations to raise companies had been issued, 
 the aggregate of the enlistments did not exceed three 
 thousand men. There was nothing of that eagerness to 
 enter the service which had been manifested at previous 
 periods, and it appeared as if the people had fallen into an 
 apathy from which only an extraordinary effort could 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION, 5 
 
 arouse them. Meanwhile, the most important events 
 were transpiring. The losses sustained by our army in 
 Virginia from sickness, and in the sanguinary engage 
 ments which had taken place on the Peninsula, had re 
 duced it to a defensive attitude, and rendered its rein 
 forcement or withdrawal a matter of necessity. In the 
 West, notwithstanding the success of the military opera 
 tions which terminated with the occupation of Corinth, 
 the waste from disease and battle, and the necessity of 
 occupyii strategic points, had so much reduced the 
 force ava lable for field operations, that the Confederates, 
 with numbers greatly augmented through a rigorous con 
 scription, were preparing to assume the offensive in a 
 series of movements which subsequently brought them to 
 the banks of the Ohio and Potomac." 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when, on the 28th of 
 June, 1862, the Governors of the loyal States united in 
 an appeal to the President to call upon the several States 
 for more men. In response, the President, on July 2, 
 1862, issued his call for 300,000 volunteers. This was 
 felt, in fact was known, to be the final effort to suppress 
 the rebellion by voluntary military service. Every pos 
 sible form of encouragement was adopted for the purpose 
 of stimulating enlistments, and with some success in the 
 State of New York and throughout the United States. 
 Hut the demand for troops during the summer increased 
 more rapidly than the supply, so that on the 4th of Au 
 gust the President issued his Proclamation for 300,000 
 nine months militia, and the War Department followed 
 the Proclamation with orders and instructions, under 
 which the Governors of some of the States commenced a 
 draft as ordered by the general Government on the 3d of 
 September. At that date the military reverses of the 
 
6 NEW YORK 
 
 season had culminated in the disastrous campaign of the 
 army of Northern Virginia, under General Pope, and the 
 prospect of raising troops became very gloomy. Of the 
 300,000 militia required only about 87,000 " were ever 
 credited as having been drafted into the service under 
 the call, This number was much reduced by desertion 
 before the men could begot out of their respective States, 
 and but a small portion of them actually joined the ranks 
 of the army. This draft constituted the last demand of 
 the general Government for men previous to the inaugu 
 ration of the system of conscription in the following 
 Spring" (Report of Adjt.-Genl. Hillhouse, of New 
 York). A law of the State of New York then in force 
 required an enrolment of all persons liable to bear arms. 
 No appropriation had been made by the Legislature for 
 carrying the law into effect. The means were, however, 
 provided on the personal responsibility of Governor Mor 
 gan, and an enrolment was made prior to the call of 
 August 4, 1862. But as the enrolment was thought to be 
 too imperfect for the draft ordered by the President, and 
 as the War Department had issued instructions and pro 
 vided means for an enrolment,* and had ordered that an 
 allowance prior to draft be made to towns and counties 
 for volunteers previously furnished, a new enrolment was 
 ordered in New York. This was in the fall of 1862. It 
 is mentioned to show, as explained by General Hillhouse, 
 Adjutant-General of New York, in his report of December 
 31, 1862, that the United States enrolment made in 1863, 
 which is especially discussed further on, was no strange 
 measure to the people of New York, and that lack of ac- 
 
 * This, however, was not under the so-called enrolment act, which was 
 not pa.sbcd till March, 1863. 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. ^ 
 
 quaintancc with the subject was not the reason why they 
 at first failed to aid in making and correcting It. 
 
 Speaking of the State enrolment of 1862, General Hill- 
 house says: " In anticipation of a draft every citizen who 
 was himself enrolled felt at once a personal interest in the 
 completeness of the work, and instead of offering impedi 
 ments to its prosecution, naturally desired that every per 
 son within the prescribed ages should be entered on the 
 lists," and he adds that "the enrolment was entirely suc 
 cessful." But, as reported by General Hillhouse, although 
 the draft for nine months militia was for various reasons 
 deferred, it had resulted in promoting enlistments and 
 completing the quota under the call of July 2d, for vol 
 unteers for three years, and 30,000 three years men in 
 addition, to count against the last call, that of August 4, 
 1862. But nevertheless at the close of Governor Morgan s 
 term, December 31, 1862, General Hillhouse reports the 
 State as deficient 28,517 men in volunteers furnished since 
 July 2, 1862, and of this deficiency he says 18,523 be 
 longed to the City of New York. He, however, modifies 
 the effect of this large proportion adverse to the City by 
 saying, " It should be stated here that the credit to the 
 City and County of New York is based on the actual re 
 turns filed in this office, but it is believed that it is less 
 than the volunteers furnished." 
 
 In the State of New York an active and exciting po 
 litical struggle took place in the autumn of 1862. Gen 
 eral James S. Wadsworth, an eminent citizen and a dis 
 tinguished officer of the Union Army, had been called 
 from the field to run as the Republican candidate for 
 Governor against Horatio Seymour, also an eminent and 
 
8 NEW YORK 
 
 highly respected citizen, who was the candidate of the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 Speaking in a political sense, rigorous prosecution of 
 the war was a Republican measure ; and the opposition to 
 the war was embodied in the Democratic party. In New 
 York the Democratic platform of 1862 was very brief. It 
 denounced arbitrary arrests, supported the use of " all le 
 gitimate means to suppress the rebellion and restore the 
 Union as it was, and maintain the Constitution as it is ; " 
 resolved, that " the war was not waged in any spirit of 
 oppression or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, 
 or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights 
 or established institutions of those States, but to defend 
 and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to 
 preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and 
 rights of the several States unimpaired, and that as soon 
 as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." 
 
 The Republican platform was elaborate and radical. It 
 urged the Government to prosecute the war by all the 
 means "that the God of battles" had "placed in its 
 power." The confiscation of the property of " traitors in 
 arms " was advocated, the President s intention to eman 
 cipate slaves was emphatically approved, and the enroll 
 ing, arming, and disciplining the militia of the States 
 recommended. 
 
 The election resulted in favor of Seymour. The first 
 fourteen districts, which include Brooklyn and New York 
 City (where the riots subsequently occurred), gave him a 
 majority of 54,582; the remainder of the State gave 
 Wadsworth a majority of 43,830, electing Seymour by a 
 majority of 10,752. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1863, ttye outgoing administra 
 tion of Governor Morgan turned over to the incoming 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION 9 
 
 administration of Governor Seymour, the revised State 
 enrolment, the Government s order for draft of the militia, 
 and the deficiency of New York heretofore mentioned ; 
 and facts and details in connection with these matters as 
 well as with the general subject of recruitment, were spread 
 upon the records of the State by the comprehensive and 
 able report heretofore mentioned of Adjutant-General 
 Hillhouse. At this period the activity in the reinforce 
 ment of the armies which had marked the first year of the 
 war was replaced by industry and ingenuity in the prep 
 aration of "claims" by the various States, counties, and 
 towns, for men previously furnished. It is due to New 
 York to say that under the readjustment arising from these 
 " claims " for credit, it was conceded in the summer of 
 1863 that she had a small surplus instead of a deficiency. 
 But volunteering was practically at an end as a system in 
 itself to be relied upon for strengthening the army. 
 
 41 The desire to enter the service, prompted by the first 
 ebullition of military ardor, had subsided and was replaced 
 by the popular demand that the different States should 
 furnish proportional numbers of men for the army." 
 
 "The demand for reinforcements from the various 
 armies in the field steadily and largely exceeded the cur 
 rent supply of men. The old agencies for filling the ranks 
 proved more and more ineffective. It was evident that 
 the efforts of the Government for the suppression of the 
 rebellion would fail .without resort to the unpopular but, 
 nevertheless, truly republican measure of conscription. 
 The national authorities, no less than the purest and wis 
 est minds in Congress, and intelligent and patriotic citi 
 zens throughout the country, perceived that besides a more 
 reliable, regular, and abundant supply of men, other sub 
 stantial benefits would be derived from the adoptiqn and 
 
10 NEW YORK 
 
 enforcement of the principle that every citizen owes mili 
 tary service to the country in the hour of extremity. It 
 would effectually do away with the unjust and burdensome 
 disproportion in the number of men furnished by different 
 States and localities." (Report of P. M. G.). 
 
 In a letter dated August 4, 1862, to Count A. de Gas- 
 parin, President Lincoln said : " Our great army has dwin 
 dled rapidly, bringing the necessity for a new call earlier 
 than was anticipated. We shall easily obtain the new levy, 
 however. Be not alarmed if you shall learn that we have 
 resorted to a draft for part of this. It seems strange even 
 to me, but it is true, that the Government is now pressed 
 to this course by a popular demand. Thousands who 
 wish not to personally enter the service are nevertheless 
 anxious to pay and send substitutes, provided they can 
 have assurance that unwilling persons similarly situated 
 will be compelled to do likewise." 
 
 Henry Wilson (Republican) said in the Senate: "The 
 immense numbers already summoned to the field, the 
 scarcity and high rewards of labor, press upon all of us 
 the conviction that the ranks of our wasted regiments 
 cannot be filled again by the old system of volunteering. 
 The needs of the nation demand that we should rely not 
 upon volunteering, nor upon the calling forth of the mili 
 tia, but that we should fill the regiments now in the field, 
 worn and wasted by disease and death, by enrolling and 
 drafting the population of the country under the constitu 
 tional authority to raise and support armies." 
 
 Senator Richardson (Democrat) said : I agree with the 
 Senator from Massachusetts that it is necessary to fill up 
 the ranks of our army; and that it is necessary there 
 should be a conscription bill." 
 
 Senator McDougal (Democrat) said : " Now in regard 
 
*** 
 
 AND THE CONSCRIPTION. II 
 
 to the conscription question I will say for myself that I 
 regretted much, when this war was first organized, that 
 the conscription rule did not obtain. I went from the 
 extreme east to the extreme west, of the loyal States. I 
 found some districts where some bold leaders brought out 
 all the young men, and sent them or led them to the field. 
 In other districts, and they were the most numerous, the 
 people made no movement towards the maintenance of 
 the war ; there were whole towns and cities I may say, 
 where no one volunteered to shoulder a musket, and no 
 one offered to lead them into the service. The whole 
 business has been unequal and wrong from the first. The 
 rule of conscription should have been the rule to bring 
 out men of all classes, and make it equal throughout the 
 country, and therein the North has failed." 
 
 These are merely brief examples of the opinions and 
 sentiments which resulted in the passage of the Act of 
 March 3, 1863, entitled " An Act for enrolling and call 
 ing out the national forces and for other purposes." 
 The main requirements of the law were the enrolment and 
 draft of the national forces and the arrest of deserters. 
 In his final report, dated March 17, 1866, the Provost 
 Marshal General said : " The public safety would have 
 been risked by longer delay in the enactment of this law. 
 A general apathy prevailed throughout the country on 
 . the subject of volunteering. Recruiting had subsided, 
 while desertion had greatly increased, and had grown into 
 a formidable and widespread evil. The result of the im 
 portant military operations during the first months of 1863 
 had been unfavorable and exercised a depressing effect 
 upon the public mind. The battle of Stone River left 
 the Army of the Cumberland crippled upon the field, and 
 forced it to inactivity for months in an intrenched camp. 
 
12 NEW YORK 
 
 Our advance on Vicksburg by way of Haines Bluff had 
 been repulsed with serious loss. A knowledge of the ex 
 tent of the disaster at Fredericksburg had reached and 
 dispirited the loyal people. The first attack on Fort Sum- 
 ter by the Navy had failed. The short but bloody and 
 disastrous campaign of Chancellorsville was made, and the 
 Army of the Potomac once more confined to the defensive. 
 The rebel army was stronger in numbers than at any 
 other period of the war. And last, not least, a powerful 
 party in the North, encouraged by these events, opposed 
 the raising of the new levies, and especially the enforce 
 ment of the new conscription law." It was a palpable 
 fact at the period referred to, that our success depended 
 on raising more troops, and that more troops could be 
 raised only by carrying out the enrolment act. Defeat of 
 the enforcement of this measure would have been the 
 loss of the Union cause. 
 
 Affairs had reached such a point in the spring of 1863 
 that, for high public officers at least, there was no neutral 
 ground between supporting the enforcement of the Enrol 
 ment Act and the prosecution of the war as part and parcel 
 of the same thing, and opposing them. A Governor who 
 was not unmistakably for them was, under the attending 
 circumstances, by the very nature of his position, against 
 them. Horatio Seymour was then Governor of the State 
 of New York. He thought conscription unwise. 
 
 The only officers authorized by the Enrolment Act were 
 a Provost Marshal General of the United States, and a Pro 
 vost Marshal for each Congressional District. For the pur 
 poses of enrolment and draft a board was created in each 
 district consisting of the Provost Marshal, a so-called 
 Commissioner, and a Surgeon. This board had power to 
 appoint persons to make the enrolment. The criticisms 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 13 
 
 of the enrolment and draft in certain districts of New 
 York City, make it necessary to explain who were ap 
 pointed to office under the Enrolment Act for those dis 
 tricts, and upon what recommendations the appointees 
 were chosen. 
 
 The Provost Marshals were : 
 
 4/// District, Joel B. Erhardt (recommended by F, A. 
 
 Conkling, Mayor Opdykc, Henry J. Raymond, L. E. 
 
 Chittenden, E. C. Benedict, E. Delafield Smith, VVm. 
 
 M. Evarts, Wm Hunt, General John P. Hatch and 
 
 others). 
 5/7* District. John Duffy (recommended by Horace 
 
 Greeley, Wm. Hall, Judges Hilton, Daly and White, 
 
 Mayor Opdyke, H. J. Raymond, W. C. Bryant, Jas. 
 
 T. Brady and Edwards Pierrcpont). 
 6t/t District. James W. Farr (recommended by Gov 
 ernor Morgan and F. A. Conkling). 
 7/// District. Frederick C. Wagner (recommended by 
 
 Governor Morgan, Senator Harris, Mayor Opdyke, 
 
 and Thurlow Weed). 
 8/// District. Benj. F. Manierre (recommended by 
 
 Preston King, Horace Greeley, Hiram Barney, Wm. 
 
 C. Bryant, Curtis Noyes, and Geo. P. Putnam. 
 f)th District. Chas. E. Jenkins (recommended by 
 
 Mayor Opdyke, Edgar Ketchum, D. Dudley Field, 
 
 Edwards Pierrepont, and Hiram Walbridge). 
 
 The recommendations on which Commissioners and 
 Surgeons were appointed were generally the same and 
 in all cases as good as those for the Provost Marshals. 
 The foregoing specification of indorses and the remarks 
 which follow concerning the officers detailed as Provost 
 
14 NEW YORK 
 
 Marshals General of the State of New York are given as 
 bearing on the charges of injustice, outrage, etc., made 
 concerning the enrolments and draft in the districts pre 
 sided over by the gentlemen named. Although these 
 men, residents of New York City, were officers of the 
 general Government, proceeding under an act of Congress, 
 the War Department was alive to the necessity of secur 
 ing the co-operation of State authorities in administering 
 the enrolment act, and, knowing that it would not be 
 practicable for the Provost Marshal General in Washing 
 ton to gather detailed reports from every district in the 
 United States, cull them, and then supply the Governors 
 of States with all the particulars which it might be well 
 for them to have, nor convenient to Governors to de 
 pend on such a resource, resolved to place an officer of 
 the army on duty at the capital of each State to act as 
 Provost Marshal General for the State. Instead, how 
 ever, of having but one such officer in New York, it was 
 thought best to place three in that State, making for that 
 purpose the northern, southern, and western divisions. 
 In selecting officers to occupy these positions care was 
 taken to seek those who would be likely to secure the 
 favor and co-operation of the authorities and the people 
 of New York. Major Fred. Townsend, i8th U. S. Infan 
 try, was, on the 25th of Ap-il, 1863, detailed for the 
 northern division, Headquarters at Albany. Major (now 
 General) Townsend was a well-known and highly esteemed 
 resident of Albany, who held the office of Adjutant- 
 General of thq State prior to the war, and has held the 
 same office since. 
 
 Colonel Robert Nugent, 6Qth New York Volunteers, 
 an honorable man, a gallant officer, a war-democrat, an 
 Irishman, a resident of New York City, was assigned to 
 
AMD THE COXSCKfrr/ON. I 5 
 
 the southern division, embracing New York City and 
 Brooklyn; and for the western division, Major A. S. 
 Diven, of the lo/th Regiment New York Volunteers, was 
 designated May 1 5th. He was a resident of Elmira, of 
 superiorability and unimpeachable character, mvar-dcmo- 
 crat, and, as stated by Mr. W. H. Seward, at whose in 
 stance he was selected, an intimate acquaintance and 
 personal friend of Governor Seymour. 
 
 These are the gentlemen under whom the United 
 States enrolment and draft of 1863 were conducted. 
 
 But the efforts of the War Department to acquaint 
 the Governor with all that was going on under the 
 enrolment act, and secure his co-operation did not end 
 with the mere assignment to duty of the three officers 
 just named. On the dates mentioned above as those of 
 their assignment, a formal letter of instructions* was given 
 each of the three, from which the following is an extract : 
 
 " While the Governor of New York has no control 
 over you, you will be required to acquaint yourself with 
 his views and wishes and give them due weight in deter 
 mining as to the best interests of the general Govern 
 ment, of which you are the representative. To this end 
 you will use all proper means to gain and to retain the con 
 fidence and good-will of the Governor and his State offi 
 cers. You will endeavor by all means in your power to 
 secure for the execution of the Enrolment Act, the aid and 
 hearty co-operation of his Excellency the Governor, and 
 of the civil officers in his State, as also of the people." 
 
 A letter in terms as follows was addressed to Governor 
 Seymour (and similar letters to other Governors) : 
 
 * See Appendix 13. 
 
1 6 NEW YORK 
 
 ,\ 
 
 " PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL S OFFICE, 
 WASHINGTON, U. C,, April 24, 1863, 
 
 44 To His Excellency Horatio Seymour, 
 Governor of New York. 
 
 44 SIR: With a view to uniform and harmonious execu 
 tion of the Enrolment Act it has been deemed best to 
 assign an officer of this Department of rank to duty at 
 the Capital of New York. He will be instructed to confer 
 with your Excellency, to superintend the operations of 
 the Provost Marshals and Boards of Enrolment in the 
 several Districts of the State, excepting the first nine, to 
 secure from the Provost Marshals and Boards and submit 
 to the State Executive such rolls and reports as may be 
 deemed necessary for the files of the State, and to prepare 
 from the State records, and transmit to the Provost 
 Marshals and Boards of Enrolment such information 
 placed at his disposal by the State authorities as may be 
 necessary or useful to them in the performance of the 
 duties assigned them. With similar views and for a like 
 purpose it has been decided to assign an officer to the 
 City of New York to exercise the same functions for the 
 first nine Congressional Districts of your State. 
 
 44 In accordance with the foregoing, Major Frederick 
 Townsend, i8th U. S. Infantry, has been directed to take 
 post at Albany, and Col. Robert Nugent, 6Qth N. Y. Vols., 
 at New York City. 
 
 44 These are officers of superior ability and gentlemen of 
 attainments, and it is hoped their assignment will prove 
 agreeable to your, Excellency. 
 
 44 The War Department will be pleased if your Excel 
 lency will communicate freely with them and secure, as 
 far as possible, for all officers appointed under the Enrol- 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 1 7 
 
 ment Act, the co-operation of the civil officers of your 
 
 State. 
 
 11 1 am, Sir, 
 
 " Very respectfully 
 
 "Your obedient Servant, 
 (Signed) " JAMES B. FRY. 
 
 "Pro-Aft. Genera/: 
 
 A similar letter * was addressed to the Mayor of New 
 York City, on whom Colonel Nugent called for co-opera 
 tion as he did on the Governor. 
 
 The foregoing arrangements made by the War Depart 
 ment, enabled Governors to keep themselves as fully 
 informed as they chose to be concerning the enrolment 
 and draft in their respective States, and with very few ex 
 ceptions, harmony and co-operation between the States 
 and the United States were secured. It will be seen 
 further on, however, that when the draft was ordered 
 in July, 1863, that fact was made known to the Gov 
 ernor of New York and other Governors by special let 
 ters. 
 
 Presuming that military guards for the Provost Marshals 
 in the City of New York would be necessary, a letter on 
 that subject was addressed to General Wool, May 21, 
 1863, by the Provost Marshal General, in which he 
 said: 
 
 41 1 have the honor to request that you will give the 
 requisite orders to furnish the Provost Marshals of the 
 different districts in the City of New York with such 
 guards as may be necessary at their respective Head 
 quarters until their places can be supplied by men from 
 the Invalid Corps, now organizing. 
 
 * See Appendix C. 
 
18 NEW YORK 
 
 " Col. Robert Nugent, A. A. P. M. Gen l for New York 
 City, is directed to call upon you and confer in regard 
 to this matter." 
 
 THE ENROLMENT. 
 
 Under these preliminary arrangements, the enrolment 
 of 1863 began. 
 
 It was of great importance to the people of the State as 
 well as to the general Government that a correct enrol 
 ment should be made. The Adjutant-General of New 
 York, when speaking, in his report of December 31, 1862, 
 of the principle of compulsory service, said to the Gov 
 ernor : " Nor is it less a matter of interest to the States. 
 Whatever may be the plan adopted, the force required 
 must be drawn from their population liable to military 
 duty, on which the 1,000,000 of volunteers hitherto sent to 
 the field has already made serious inroads. They have, 
 moreover, a common interest with the general Govern 
 ment in such an application of their military resources as 
 will render them most effective for the purposes in view 
 with the least possible waste, and with as little hardship 
 as possible to the community." 
 
 The co-operation of the State authorities so plainly 
 pointed out in the foregoing quotation as essential to the 
 welfare of the State, and which vvas so earnestly solicited 
 by the War Department, was almost indispensable to a 
 correct enrolment and a just apportionment of compulsory 
 service. But Governor Seymour gave no assistance ; in 
 fact, so far as the Government officers engaged in the enrol 
 ment could learn, he gave the subject no attention. But 
 he subsequently urged that the draft should be abandoned 
 on account of errors, which he alleged, in the enrolment, 
 and which, if they existed, he had failed to co-operate in 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 1 9 
 
 preventing. Documents hereinafter cited will define more 
 plainly his position in the matter. 
 
 The Enrolment Act was approved March 3, 1863. Sec 
 tion 9 required that the enrollers " immediately proceed 
 to enrol " and report the result "on or before the 1st day 
 of April " to the Board of Enrolment, and the Board was 
 required by the Act to consolidate the names into one 
 list and transmit the same to the Provost Marshal Gen 
 eral " on or before the 1st day of May." There was, it is 
 true, a proviso that if these duties could not be done in the 
 time specified, they should be performed as soon there 
 after as practicable; but neither the intention of the law, 
 nor the manifest necessity under which it was enacted, per 
 mitted delay, or, as President Lincoln expressed it in his 
 letter to Governor Seymour, dated August 7, 1863, " we 
 could not waste time to re-experiment with the volunteer 
 system already deemed by Congress, and palpably in fact* 
 so far exhausted as to be inadequate; and then more time 
 to obtain a correct decision as to whether a law is consti 
 tutional which requires a part of those not now in the ser 
 vice to go to the aid of those who are already in it ; and 
 still more time to determine with absolute certainty that 
 we get those who are to go in the precisely legal propor 
 tion to those who are not to go." " My purpose," the 
 President added, " is tot>e in my actions just and consti 
 tutional, and yet practical in performing the important 
 duty with which I am charged, of maintaining the unity 
 and the free principles of our common country." 
 
 This is enough to indicate the extreme pressure under 
 which the enrolment was made in the spring of 1863. The 
 co-operation of the State authorities was earnestly sought, 
 the enrollers were carefully selected by the Boards com 
 posed of well selected citizens, and were sworn to execute 
 
2O NEW YORK 
 
 faithfully and without partiality or favor the duties of 
 their offices, and commenced their labors about the 2$th 
 of May. 
 
 The manner of making this enrolment and some partic 
 ulars in relation to it are shown in Appendix D. 
 
 THE DRAFT. 
 
 The law made it the duty of the President to draft into 
 the army as many of the men liable to service, borne on 
 the enrolment, as he might from time to time find neces 
 sary, coupled with the condition, however, that in assign 
 ing quotas the number of volunteers and militia, and the 
 periods of their service, previously furnished by the several 
 States, should be duly credited. 
 
 That there might be no loss of time, as soon as the en 
 rolment of a district was completed, the President made 
 an order on that district for one-fifth of its enrolled men 
 of the class liable to be called out. 
 
 The first order for draft, under the Enrolment Act, in the 
 State of New York was issued July i, 1863, for the 3Oth 
 District. Orders immediately followed for drafts in 
 other districts, some of them being in the City of New 
 York. 
 
 Colonel Nugent, Assistant Provost Marshal General of 
 Southern New York, was told in a letter of July 7th from 
 the Provost Marshal General, " Should you consider it 
 most expedient to do so, you are at liberty to execute the 
 draft in New York City by districts, in one or more at a 
 given time, rather than simultaneously throughout the 
 city." He 1 began on Saturday, July u. The following 
 account, from Applet on s Encyclopaedia, of what occurred, 
 is substantially confirmed by the official records and is 
 sufficiently accurate : 
 
AND THE CONSCRIP2ION. 21 
 
 T/ic Riot. " The several deputies received official 
 requisitions direct from the President, calling for specified 
 numbers of men, and were instructed to commence oper 
 ations on the nth of July. In compliance with this or 
 der Provost Marshal Jenkins, of the ninth congressional 
 district in New York, publicly announced through the 
 press, that on Saturday, the nth, the ballots would be 
 publicly counted at the corner of Forty-sixth Street and 
 Third Avenue, and that immediately thereafter the wheel 
 would be turned and the draft begin. Rumors of popu 
 lar dissatisfaction were heard on every side, trouble was 
 apprehended, and the police were notified to hold them 
 selves in readiness for any emergency. On Saturday 
 morning a large crowd assembled at the appointed place, 
 but as everything was conducted quietly, systematically, 
 and fairly, no opportunity for disturbance occurred. The 
 day passed pleasantly, the crowd were in good humor, 
 well-known names were saluted with cheers, and at night, 
 as the superintendent of the police passed out from the 
 office, he remarked that there was no danger to be appre 
 hended ; the Rubicon was passed, and all would go well. 
 The names of the conscripts were published by the press 
 of Sunday morning, with incidents, jocular and otherwise, 
 connected with the proceedings. In the neighborhood 
 in which the initial working of the law was attempted, an 
 excitable element of the city s population resided. Very 
 many poor men were, by the turn of the wheel, forced 
 instantly, as it were, from home and comfort, wrested 
 from the support of a needy family, to be sent they knew 
 not whither, perhaps to the battle field, or, perhaps, to the 
 grave. Such were the apprehensions of many imprudent 
 persons, who were liable to the draft, and such their 
 anxieties for the fate of their wives and children, that as- 
 
22 NEW YORK 
 
 sociations were formed to resist it, at the last alternative, 
 with bloodshed." * * * 
 
 It is not necessary to go into the details of the riot, 
 which continued for four days. The main purpose is 
 in consequence of the articles cited in the beginning to 
 show the attitude of Governor Seymour towards the 
 Enrolment Act and the riot. Those articles give it as 
 a positive and important assertion from him that he was 
 not notified of the draft, the implication being that the 
 Government authorities had in this respect, through 
 design or neglect, omitted an important act of courtesy 
 or duty; and that if the Governor had been notified he 
 could and would have done something to prevent the riot 
 or would have made preparations to suppress it. There is 
 nothing in the history of the affair to encourage the belief 
 that if the Governor had regarded the notices which were 
 sent to him, he would have done anything else than 
 strive to have the draft abandoned or postponed. But to 
 leave the field of conjecture, the fact is that the Governor 
 was formally and distinctly notified of the draft. By the 
 following letters the Provost Marshal General not only 
 notified him, but closed the notification by saying: "I 
 beg that you will do all in your power to enable the 
 officers acting under me to complete the draft, promptly, 
 effectually, fairly and successfully." 
 
 " PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL S OFFICE, ( 
 WASHINGTON, I). C., July i, 1863. f 
 
 44 His Excellency, Horatio Seymour % 
 
 Governor of New York, Albany, N. Y. 
 
 "SIR: Orders have this day been sent to the Board 
 of Enrolment in the 3<Dth District of New York to make 
 a draft in that District for 2539 men f tne ^ rs ^ class. 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 2$ 
 
 It is deemed important not to invite public discussion 
 as to operations under the Enrolment Act, but it is 
 proper that I should advise you of such steps taken 
 under it as may bear upon your State. 
 
 " The records from which calculations were made as 
 well as the calculations themselves determining the 
 quota are on file in this office ; they are impartial and 
 claimed to be entirely correct, but if an error should be 
 discovered or pointed out in them it will be duly cor 
 rected in the next subsequent draft. 
 
 11 I beg that you will do all in your power to enable 
 the officers acting under me to complete the draft 
 promptly, effectually, fairly, and successfully. 
 11 I am, Sir, Very Respectfully, 
 " Your Obedient Servant, 
 
 [Signed.} " JAMES B. FRY, 
 14 Provost Marshal General 
 
 A letter the same in terms as the foregoing but 
 announcing the draft in the 8th district and also in the 
 1 5th, 2 1st, 26th, 28th and 29th, was sent to Governor 
 Seymour by the Provost Marshal General on the 3d of 
 July, 1863, and similar letters were sent as follows: 
 
 July, 6, 1863. As to the 1st, ;th, 9th, i6th, and 2$th 
 
 Districts. 
 
 July 10, 1863. As to the loth District. 
 
 July 13, 1863. As to the 2d, 1 3th, 23d, and 24th 
 
 Districts. 
 
 July 24, 1863. As to the 28th District. 
 
 July 28, 1863. As to the 3 1st District. 
 
 The draft was commenced in the New England States 
 before it was in New York. The arrangements for 
 
24 NEW YORK 
 
 furnishing the Governors of those States with informa 
 tion and the special notices of the draft sent to them (as 
 well in fact as to the Governors of all the States) corre 
 sponded with those sent to the Governor of New York. 
 They made no complaint of lack of information. 
 
 Not only were the foregoing notifications sent to the 
 Governor of New York, but the following letter from him 
 is very good evidence that it was upon ample information 
 concerning the draft, if not upon these notifications that 
 he acted in sending his Adjutant-General to Washington 
 on the nth of July, the very day the draft began in the 
 city, and two days before the riots, "for the purpose of 
 urging a suspension of the draft." 
 
 NEW YORK, July 13, 1863. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR : I have received your note about 
 the draft. On Saturday last I sent my Adjutant-General 
 to Washington for the purpose of urging a suspension of 
 the draft, for I know that the City of New York can 
 furnish its full quota by volunteering. I have received a 
 despatch from General Sprague that the draft is sus 
 pended. There is no doubt the conscription is post 
 poned. I learn this from a number of sources. If I get 
 any information of a change of policy at Washington I 
 will let you know. 
 
 " Truly Yours, 
 [Signed.] " HORATIO SEYMOUR, 
 
 " HON. SAMUEL SLOAN, 
 
 " PRKSIURNT HUDSON R. R. Co., 
 
 "NEW YORK." 
 
 It seems therefore that the Governor had enough infor 
 mation about the draft to try to stop it. 
 
- . 
 AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 25 
 
 These documents refute, in fact flatly contradict, the 
 assertion in its broad meaning that the Governor was not 
 notified of the draft. But Governor Seymour is a man of 
 strict integrity and great purity of character. There has\ 
 probably been some misunderstanding as to his meaning - 
 if he denied that he was notified of the intended draft. 
 The matter, therefore, requires more careful examina 
 tion. Let us see exactly what was said. In his letter 
 of August 3, 1863, to the President, the Governor stated 
 in relation to the draft (which preceded the riot), " the 
 Provost Marshal commenced this draft without consulta 
 tion with the authorities of the State or of the city." In 
 response to this the Provost Marshal General in a report 
 to the Secretary of War, dated August 10, 1863, said, 
 11 Governor Seymour, who had been requested by my 
 letter of 25th April to co-operate in carrying out the law, 
 was, on the 1st of July, informed by my letter that the 
 draft was ordered in the districts named, and was request 
 ed to aid in securing the execution of the orders. He has 
 subsequently been duly informed of all orders issued for 
 draft in the different districts of his State and his assist 
 ance solicited." Thus was this charge made and met 
 officially in 1863. It, however, reappears formally, but 
 not officially, these many years afterward. The New 
 York Herald of November 4, 1878, quotes Governor 
 Seymour as saying, " The riot was caused not only by an 
 unjust enrolment, but by the way the draft was made. 
 It was begun without giving any notice to * * * the 
 Governor of the State ; " and the New York Times of 
 August 28, 1 879, and the book called Twelve Americans, 
 say, it is presumed by the Governor s authority, " Gov 
 ernor Seymour never received any official notification 
 that the draft was to commence or that it had com- 
 4 
 
26 NEW YORK 
 
 menced," and they add, the Provost Marshals, or those 
 behind them, " threw prudence, propriety and common 
 sense to the winds." Probably everybody who has 
 read these articles has given them the meaning here 
 tofore mentioned, to wit : that, in ordering the draft, 
 the Government officers, through design or neglect, 
 omitted an important act of courtesy or duty towards the 
 State authorities, and that the latter were therefore ab 
 solved from responsibility for mischief which they might 
 have prevented or mitigated if it had not been for the 
 omission. The truth is, the Governor knew, and admitted 
 at the time, that he had been notified of the draft. 
 
 In a letter to the President, dated August 21, 1863, he 
 said (modifying the statement in his letter of August 3d), 
 " in no instance have I received notice of the time when 
 a draft was to be made in any district. The notices sent 
 to me only stated that the enrolments were completed in 
 certain districts, and that orders had been made directing 
 a draft for the number to be taken from such districts. 
 On Tuesday, the day before the draft was to be made in 
 New York, I received a notice of this description, and 
 this is the only official notice I have received with regard 
 to it. These notices do not give any intimations when 
 the draft will, commence." 
 
 This letter shows that by August 21 the Governor s 
 complaint that he had not been notified of the draft had 
 assumed a much milder form, to wit: that he had not 
 been notified of the exact time when the drawing of 
 names from the wheel would begin. He admitted that 
 he had been informed when the draft was ordered. The 
 records confirm his admission, and show not only that he 
 had been precisely and officially notified that the draft 
 was ordered, but also that his co-operation in executing 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 2? 
 
 the law was solicited. The draft was ordered from Wash 
 ington as soon as the Provost Marshal of a congressional 
 district reported that he was ready; and the drawing of 
 names by the Provost Marshal was commenced as soon as 
 practicable after he received the order from Washington 
 to proceed. As Governor Seymour was, in case of every 
 district, formally notified when the draft was ordered, and 
 was requested to aid in its enforcement, the modified 
 complaint that he was not told when the actual draw 
 ing of names would begin in each case is not worthy 
 of serious consideration. The officers charged with the 
 conscription designed to give, and did give, to the Gov 
 ernor all the information in the matter of the enrol 
 ment and draft in his State that he could need ; and there 
 was no neglect or omission on the part of the general 
 Government to which his action or want of action con 
 cerning the draft and the draft riots is in the slightest 
 degree fairly attributable. 
 
 Furthermore, the Governor s complaint that he was 
 not notified when the drawing would begin, might 
 have been very easily forestalled by the Governor him 
 self. The arrangement, heretofore explained, under 
 which Assistant Provost Marshals General were on duty in 
 New York, enabled the Governor to obtain quite as early 
 notice of the drawings and the exact time fixed for them 
 as the authorities in Washington could receive. The 
 Assistant Provost Marshals General of States had no right 
 to prevent or postpone the draft. Their duty was to en 
 force it, and the correspondence and intercourse between 
 them and Governors concerning these drawings would 
 necessarily relate to the co-operation proposed by the 
 latter in the execution of the law. The occupations of 
 Governor Seymour permitted but little, if any, inti- 
 
28 NEW YORK 
 
 mate intercourse between him and the Assistant Provost 
 Marshals General with a view to enforcing the draft, and 
 this may in some degree account for his lack of familiarity 
 with operations which so urgently needed his aid and 
 encouragement. 
 
 In the newspaper articles and the book already cited 
 if he is correctly quoted in them as well as in his 
 letter of August 3, 1863, to the President, the Governor 
 speaks disapprovingly of the fact that the draft was or 
 dered while much of the available militia of the State was 
 absent, aiding to repel the rebel invasion of Pennslyvania. 
 It must be remembered that the same invasion which 
 called away the militia impressed on the Government the 
 necessity for immediate enforcement of the draft, to 
 strengthen the army. 
 
 It was somewhat unfortunate that while the militia was 
 absent, and when the draft about which the Governor 
 felt so much apprehension, which was in progress in 
 New England, with the noise of which the whole country 
 was ringing, and which Governor Seymour had been for 
 mally notified was to be commenced in New York City, 
 both the Governor and his Adjutant-General as well as 
 the militia should be absent from the State, the former 
 at Long Branch, and the latter in Washington, by the 
 former s orders, trying to prevent the draft in New 
 York.* 
 
 Fortunately the invaders of Pennsylvania were beaten 
 back. The campaign of Gettysburg ended in our favor, 
 
 * The New York Times says that when Governor Seymour heard at Long 
 Branch of the disturbances in New York City, "he hurried to the metrop 
 olis without having tasted food." Why the Governor fasted at Long Branch 
 is a mystery. 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 2Q 
 
 and part of the Army of the Potomac became available 
 for the campaign in New York. 
 
 But if the militia had been at home, would the Gov 
 ernor have marshaled his forces on the assumption that 
 the people of New York City were going to resort to a 
 formidable violation of law and order? Would he have 
 agreed that the President should concentrate Federal for 
 ces in New York on such an assumption ? The argument 
 in relation to such proceedings would have been that a 
 threat of that kind was an insult to the good citizens of 
 New York, and was likely to create the resistance and 
 violence which the display of military force was intended 
 to prevent. 
 
 The question is, was it, under the circumstances, throw 
 ing "prudence, propriety, and common sense to the 
 winds" to begin the draft in New York City with such prep 
 arations only as were actually made ? If so, what ought 
 to have been done ? It must be conceded that the Enrol 
 ment Act was passed to be promptly enforced. There 
 was no dispute that a pressing necessity existed for more 
 troops. The enforcement of the law was the way pro 
 vided by Congress if it was not the only way to obtain 
 them. The draft was going on favorably in New England. 
 It was about to be started in various parts of the country. 
 The Provost Marshals in charge of districts in New York 
 City had reported the completion of the enrolment and 
 readiness for the draft. The Governor of New York had 
 been requested to co-operate, and up to that time had 
 made no objection and given no warning of danger. The 
 questions were, should the draft go on in New York 
 City, as elsewhere, should it be abandoned or postponed 
 there, or should resistance be assumed and military 
 force presumably large enough to overawe or overcome 
 
30 NEW YORK 
 
 a formidable uprising be concentrated in the city before 
 trying to execute the law without such threatening prep 
 arations? These questions were carefully weighed by 
 the President and by the War Department. The con 
 clusions were that no exception in the application of the 
 law should be made in New York, that no presump 
 tion that the State or City authorities would fail to co 
 operate with the Government should be admitted, that 
 a Federal military force ought not to be assembled in 
 New York City on the mere assumption that a law of the 
 United States would be violently and extensively re 
 sisted, and that if it were thought best to assemble such 
 a force, there was none to be had without losing cam 
 paigns then going on, or battles then impending. 
 
 It was therefore resolved to proceed with the draft on 
 the assumption that the law could be enforced without an 
 army, to have the police on hand in full force at the places 
 of draft, and small military guards in attendance at suit 
 able points. In the light of over 22 years it has not 
 been made to appear that more military preparations 
 would have been justifiable under the circumstances, 
 nor that the draft should have been abandoned or post 
 poned. 
 
 Beginning the drawing on Saturday has been given as 
 one of the causes of the riot, and that perhaps is what 
 is referred tb in speaking of the faulty manner of making 
 the draft. It is true that as Sunday intervened be 
 tween beginning and ending the drawing in the district 
 where the riot began, a day was thus afforded for the 
 operation of bad influences. But the same length of 
 time was afforded for the operation of good influences, 
 and perhaps it was admissible in this Christian land and 
 in the loyal State of New York to hope for as much effect 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 31 
 
 on Sunday from the latter as from the former. The criti 
 cism of beginning on Saturday seems rather trivial. Law- 
 breakers do not regulate their depredations by the days 
 of the week. But it must be acknowledged that what bad 
 judgment there was in beginning the drawings on Satur 
 day is chargeable to officers of the general Govern 
 ment who acted under the demand, which admitted of 
 no delay, for recruits to strengthen the armies in the 
 field. 
 
 In his letter of August 3d, 1863, to the President, 
 Governor Seymour, said : 
 
 " As the draft was one of the causes of the late riot in 
 the city of New York, and as that outbreak had been 
 urged by some as a reason for its immediate execution in 
 that city, it is proper that I should speak of that event. 
 I know you will agree with me that justice and prudence 
 alike demand that this lottery for life should be con 
 ducted with the utmost fairness and openness, so that all 
 may know that it is impartial and equal in its operation. 
 It is the right of every citizen to be assured that in all 
 public transactions there is strict impartiality. In a mat 
 ter so deeply affecting the persons and happiness of our 
 people this is called for by every consideration. I am 
 happy to say that in many of the districts in this State 
 the enrolled lists were publicly exhibited, the names were 
 placed in the wheels from which they were to be drawn 
 in the presence of men of different parties and of known 
 integrity, and the drawings were conducted in a manner 
 to avoid suspicion of wrong. As the enrolments are 
 made in many instances by persons unknown to the pub 
 lic, who are affected by their actions, and who have no 
 voice in their selection, care should be taken to prove the 
 correctness of every step. Unfortunately this was not 
 
32 NEW YORK 
 
 done in the district of New York where the drawing com 
 menced. The excitement caused by this unexpected 
 draft, led to an unjustifiable attack upon the enrolling 
 officers, which ultimately grew into the most destructive 
 riot known in the history of our country." 
 
 As confirmatory of the Governor s purpose in this letter 
 to attribute the riots to the enrolment, in part at least, 
 the Herald article heretofore given quotes him as saying : 
 " The riot was caused not only by an unjust enrolment , 
 but by the way the draft was made." That is to say, the 
 Governor offers an alleged unfair enrolment and an " un 
 expected draft as causes for the riot. The act of Con 
 gress was passed for the purpose of raising troops by 
 draft, and the enrolment was made with a view to that 
 operation. The President s orders required a draft ; these 
 orders were made known not only to the Provost Mar- 
 shals, but to the Governors of States. The drawing was 
 commenced in Rhode Island, July 7th ; in Massachusetts, 
 July 8th. The newspapers of the day teemed with ac 
 counts of it. There was therefore no conceivable reason 
 why the draft which began in New York City July u, 
 1863, should have been unexpected. Nor is there any 
 good ground for the intimation that the nature of the 
 enrolment had any influence in producing the riot. No 
 complaint of the enrolment was received by the War 
 Department from Governor Seymour or any one else un 
 til the riots had occurred, nor had any claim been made 
 that quotas should be calculated on population or any 
 other basis than the enrolment. It was entirely an after 
 thought to depict the alleged over-enrolment in some of 
 the city districts as a wrong, and one of such elasticity 
 that it might be drawn back to serve as an explanation 
 of riotous crimes for which there was, even on the part 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 33 
 
 of the criminals themselves, no pretence that it had been 
 the cause.* 
 
 The real cause of the riot was that in a community 
 where a considerable political element was active in oppo 
 sition to the way the war was conducted, if not to the war 
 itself, and where there was a strong opinion adverse to the 
 principles of compulsory service, certain lawless men pre 
 ferrcd fighting the Government at home, when it made 
 the issue of forcing them by lot to fight its enemies 
 in the field. 
 
 Governor Seymour was one of those whose convictions 
 were against the wisdom of trying to force men into the 
 army, if not against the right of the Government to do 
 so. His arguments and efforts were not aimed at an im 
 provement in the processes for enrolment, but at prevent 
 ing any draft at all. A few facts will serve to justify 
 this statement. While the riot was going on he had an 
 interview with Colonel Nugent, the acting Provost Mar 
 shal General, New York City, and insisted on the Colonel s 
 announcing a suspension of the draft. The draft had 
 already been stopped by violence. The announcement 
 was urged by the Governor, no doubt, because he thought 
 it would allay the excitement; but it was, under the cir 
 cumstances, making a concession to the mob, and endan 
 gering the successful enforcement of the law of the land. 
 
 On the iQth of July the Governor addressed a letter as 
 follows to the President : 
 
 " At my request the Honorable Samuel J. Tilden goes 
 
 *On the i6th of July the U. S. Marshal, Robert Murray, telegraphed the 
 Secretary of War, " I have arrested the principal orator of the mob, a 
 Southern man by the name of Andrews." There is nothing to show that 
 this orator of the mob had charged the riot as due in any degree to the 
 character of the enrolment, or the manner of making the draft. 
 5 
 
34 NEW YORK 
 
 to Washington for the purpose of stating to you my views 
 and wishes with regard to affairs in this State. He is 
 thoroughly acquainted with my opinions and purposes. I 
 trust you will give him an opportunity to communicate 
 with you at length. I shall also address a letter to you 
 in the course of a few days." 
 
 The connection between the visit and the draft is shown 
 by the first paragraph of the letter from the Governor, 
 heretofore mentioned. It was dated August 3d, and 
 began : 
 
 11 At my request a number of persons have called upon 
 you with respect to the draft in this State, more particu 
 larly as it affected the cities of New York and Brook 
 lyn." * * * 
 
 This letter of August 3d was preceded by a telegram 
 from the Governor to the President, saying : I ask that 
 the draft be suspended in this State until I can send to 
 you a communication I am preparing." This was fol 
 lowed by another telegram dated August 3d, saying in 
 answer to an inquiry from the President, " My letter will 
 reach you on Wednesday. 1 wish all drafts delayed, par 
 ticularly in New York and Brooklyn." 
 
 In his letter of August 3d the Governor says, " The harsh 
 measure of raising troops by compulsion has heretofore 
 been avoided by the Government. * * * I believe it 
 will be found that the abandonment of voluntary enlist 
 ments for a forced conscription will prove to be unfor 
 tunate as a policy. * * * I ask that the draft may be sus 
 pended in this State, as has been done elsewhere, until 
 we shall learn the results of recruiting, which is now 
 actively going on. It is believed by at least one-half pf 
 the people of the loyal States that the Conscription Act, 
 which they are called upon to obey because it stands on 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION 35 
 
 the statute book, is in itself a violation of the Supreme 
 Constitutional law. * * * The successful execution of 
 the conscription act depends upon the settlement by 
 judicial tribunals of its constitutionality. * * * It should 
 be determined in advance of the enforcement which must 
 be destructive of so many lives. It would be cruel mockery 
 to withhold such decision until after the irremediable 
 injury of its execution. * * * I do not dwell upon what 
 I believe would be the consequence of a violent, harsh 
 policy, before the constitutionality of the act is tested. 
 You can scan the immediate future as well as I. I earnestly 
 request that you will direct that the enrolling officers 
 shall submit to the State authorities their lists, and that 
 an opportunity shall be given to me as Governor of this 
 State, and to other proper State officials to look into the 
 fairness of these proceedings." 
 
 To look into the fairness of the enrolment and con 
 tribute to it, was just what the Governor, without eficct, 
 had been earnestly requested to do by the Provost Marshal 
 General s letter of April 25, 1863. His compliance would 
 have contributed to a more prompt and equitable enforce 
 ment of the draft. To have submitted the lists to " the 
 State authorities" in August, could have resulted only in 
 defeating the draft, or at least leaving the time of its en 
 forcement subject to the discretion of those who did not 
 want it enforced at all. 
 
 This probably is enough to show that the Governor s 
 hostility was to the measure itself rather than to the man 
 ner of its execution, but more conclusive proof is given 
 in the appendix, documents E. t F., G., H., I. and J. being 
 letters from Generals Diven, Canby and Dix. 
 
 President Lincoln, fully comprehending that the Gov 
 ernor s object was defeat or postponement of the draft, 
 
36 NEW YORK 
 
 answered accordingly. In a letter to the Governor, dated 
 August 7, 1863, after making an arbitrary reduction of the 
 quotas in certain districts in New York, the President 
 said: 
 
 " Your communication of the 3d instant has been re 
 ceived and attentively considered. I cannot consent to 
 suspend the draft in New York, as you request, because 
 among other reasons time is too important. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " I shall direct the draft to proceed in all the districts, 
 drawing, however, at first from each of the four districts, 
 to wit: the second, fourth, sixth and eighth, only two 
 thousand two hundred being the average quota of the 
 other class. After this drawing, these four districts, and 
 also the seventeenth and twenty-ninth shall be carefully 
 re-enrolled and, if you please, agents of yours may witness 
 every step of the process. 
 
 ****** 
 
 "I do not object to abide a decision of the United 
 States Supreme Court, or of the Judges thereof, on the 
 constitutionality of the draft law. In fact, I would be 
 willing to facilitate the obtaining of it, but I can not con 
 sent to lose the time while it is being obtained." 
 
 * - * * * * * 
 
 The foregoing letter from the President settled the ques 
 tion of delaying the draft on the ground of testing the 
 constitutionality of the law. But by the time (August 
 8th) that decision reached the Governor he had received 
 from his Judge Advocate General, Nelson J. Waterbury, 
 a report on the subject of enrolment and draft, which en 
 abled the Governor, in his future efforts to prevent a draft, 
 to give more prominence to alleged wrongs in the enrol- 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 37 
 
 ment. He wrote the President as follows on the 7th and 
 8th of August : 
 
 "ALBANY, Friday, August 7, 1863. 
 "President of the United States, 
 
 " DEAR SIR: On Monday last, I sent you a commu 
 nication with respect to the Conscription Act. I also sent 
 some tables showing the injustice of the enrolment. To 
 morrow I will send you more full and accurate statements 
 which will place the errors, if they are not shameless 
 frauds, in a more clear and striking light. I think I have 
 information as to the manner the law has been perverted 
 which may enable Government to bring some of the enrol 
 ling officers to justice. 
 
 "However much I may differ from you in my views of 
 the policy of your administration, and although I may, 
 unconsciously to myself, be influenced by party prejudices, 
 I can never forget the honor of my country so far as to 
 spare any effort to stop proceedings under the draft in 
 this State and more particularly in the cties of New 
 York and Brooklyn which I feel will bring disgrace not 
 only upon your administration, but upon the American 
 name. 
 
 44 1 shall be able to send you those additional statements 
 in the course of to-morrow. 
 
 "Truly Yours, etc., 
 
 (Signed), " HORATIO SEYMOUR." 
 
 This letter was promptly supplemented as follows : 
 
 "ALBANY, August 8, 1863. 
 
 " To the President of the United States. 
 
 " DEAR. SIR: I received your communication of the 
 7th instant this morning. While I recognize the conces- 
 
38 NEW YORK 
 
 sions you have made, I regret your refusal to comply 
 with my request to have the draft in this State suspended 
 until it can be ascertained if the enrolments are made in 
 accordance with the laws of Congress or with principles 
 of justice. I know that our army needs recruits, and for 
 this among other reasons I regret a decision which 
 stands in th* way of a prompt and cheerful movement 
 to fill up the thinned ranks of our regiments. New York 
 has never paused in its efforts to send volunteers to the 
 assistance of our gallant soldiers in the field. It has not 
 only met every call heretofore made, while every other 
 Atlantic and New England State save Rhode Island was 
 delinquent, but it continued liberal bounties to volun 
 teers when all efforts were suspended in many other 
 quarters. Active exertions are now made to organize 
 new and fill up old regiments; these exertions would be 
 more succesful if the draft was suspended, and much 
 better men than reluctant conscripts would join our 
 armies. 
 
 " On the /th inst. I advised you by letter that I would 
 furnish the strongest proofs of injustice, if not of fraud, 
 in the enrolments of certain districts. I now send you 
 a full report made to me by Judge Advocate General 
 Waterbury. I am confident when you have read it you 
 will agree with me that the honor of the nation and of 
 your administration demands that the abuses it points 
 out should t?e corrected and punished. You say that * we 
 are contending with an enemy who as you understand 
 drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks 
 very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter 
 pen. You will agree with me that even this, if impar 
 tially done to all classes, is more tolerable than any 
 scheme which shall fraudulently force a portion of the 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 39 
 
 community into military service by a dishonest perver 
 sion of the law. You will see by the report of Mr. 
 Waterbury that there is no theory which can explain or 
 justify the enrolments in this State. I wish to call your 
 attention to the tables on pages five, six, seven and eight 
 which show that in the nine congressional districts of 
 Manhattan, Long and Staten Islands the number of 
 conscripts called for is 33,729, while in nineteen other 
 districts the number of conscripts called for is only 
 39,626 ! This draft is to be made upon the first class ; 
 upon those between the ages of twenty and thirty-five. 
 It appears by the census of 1860 that in the first nine 
 congressional districts there are 164,797 males between 
 twenty and thirty-five. They are called upon for 33,729 
 conscripts. In the other nineteen districts, with a popu 
 lation of males between twenty and thirty-five of 270,786, 
 only 39,626 conscripts are demanded. Again, to show 
 the partisan character of the enrolment, you will find on 
 the twentieth page of Mr. Waterbury s report that in the 
 first nine congressional districts the total vote of 1860 
 was 151,243. The number of conscripts now demanded 
 is 337 2 9- I" the nineteen districts the total vote was 
 457 2 57 yet these districts arc called upon to furnish 
 only 39,626 drafted men. Each of the nine districts gave 
 majorities in favor of one political party. Each of the 
 nineteen districts gave majorities in favor of the other 
 party. You can not and will not fail to right these gross 
 wrongs. 
 
 " Truly Yours, etc., 
 
 (Signed.) " HORATIO SEYMOUR." 
 
 In relation to the larger numbers of men found by the 
 enrolment to be living in some districts than in others in 
 
4O NEW YORK 
 
 1863, it may be mentioned for what it is worth, that 
 the war had then been going on about two years, and its 
 early demands had skimmed off the cream of the nation s 
 loyalty, and very naturally most men would be found re 
 maining in those districts which were most unfriendly to 
 the war or the manner in which the Government con 
 ducted it. 
 
 To the foregoing communications, the President, on 
 the nth of August replied as follows: 
 
 " EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, ) 
 August II, 1863.) 
 
 11 His Excellency Horatio Seymour, 
 
 Governor of New York. 
 
 Yours of the 8th instant with Judge Advocate General 
 Waterbury s report was received to-day. Asking you to 
 remember that I consider time as being very important 
 both to the general cause of the country and to the soldiers 
 already in the field, I beg to remind you that I waited at 
 your request from the 1st to the 6th instant to receive 
 your communication dated the 3rd. In view of its great 
 length and the known time and apparent care in its prep 
 aration I did not doubt that it contained your full case 
 as you desired to present it. It contained figures for twelve 
 districts, omitting the other nineteen, as I supposed 
 because you found nothing to complain of as to them. I 
 answered accordingly. In doing so I laid down the 
 principle to which I proposed adhering, which is to pro 
 ceed with the draft, at the same time employing infallible 
 means to avoid any great wrongs. With the communi 
 cation received to-day you send figures for twenty-eight 
 districts, including the twelve sent before, and still omit 
 ting three from which I suppose the enrolments are not 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 41 
 
 yet received. In looking over the fuller list of twenty- 
 eight districts, I find that the quotas for sixteen are above 
 2,000 and below 2,700, while of the rest six are above 
 2,700 and six are below 2,000. Applying the principle to 
 these new facts, the 5th and 7th districts must be added 
 to the four in which the quotas have already been reduced 
 to 2,200 for the first draft and* with these four others, 
 must be added to those to be re-enrolled. The corrected 
 case will then stand : The quotas of the 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 
 7th, and 8th districts, fixed at 2, 200 for the first draft. The 
 Provost Marshal General informs me that the drawing is 
 already completed in the i6th, I7th, i8th, 22d, 24th, 26th, 
 27th, 28th, 29th, and 3Oth districts. In the others, except 
 the three outstanding, the drawing will be made upon the 
 quotas now fixed. After the first draft the 2d, 4th, 5th, 
 6th, 7th, 8th, i6th, I7th, 2ist, 25th, 2Qth, and 3ist districts 
 will be re-enrolled for the purpose and in the manner 
 stated in my letter of the 7th instant. The same principle 
 will be applied to the now outstanding districts when they 
 shall come in. 
 
 " No part of my former letter is repudiated by reason 
 of not being re-stated in this, or for any other cause. 
 
 " Your Obedient Servant, 
 (Signed) "A". LINCOLN." 
 
 This practically terminated the controversy concerning 
 the enrolment so far as the first draft (July, 1863) was 
 concerned. The subject received further consideration, 
 however, under a subsequent call for troops, as will be 
 seen further on. A few words more are necessary to 
 finish the account of the draft which had been stopped by 
 the mob on the I3th of July, 1863. 
 
 In addition to other measures for suppressing the 
 
 6 
 
42 NEW YORK 
 
 riots, the Government promptly ordered home the New 
 York militia, which had been sent to Pennsylvania, and 
 on the i6th of July the Secretary of War telegraphed Gov 
 ernor Seymour as follows: " Eleven New York regiments 
 are relieved and are at Frederick and will be forwarded 
 to New York as fast as transportation can be furnished 
 them. Please signify to me anything you may desire to 
 be done by the Department. Whatever means are at its 
 disposal shall be at your command for the purpose of 
 restoring order in New York. 
 
 " EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 " Secretary of War." 
 
 On the I ;th of July the Provost Marshal General 
 issued a circular in terms as follows : 
 
 "The operations of the draft lately ordered in the 
 New England and Middle States, though in most in 
 stances completed or now in progress without opposi 
 tion, have in one or two cities been temporarily inter 
 rupted. Provost Marshals are informed that no orders 
 have been issued countermanding the draft. Adequate 
 force has been ordered by the Government to the points 
 where the proceedings have been interrupted. Provost 
 Marshals will be sustained by the military forces of the 
 country in enforcing the draft, in accordance with the 
 laws of the United States, and will proceed to execute 
 the orders heretofore given for draft as rapidly as shall be 
 practicable by aid of the military forces ordered to co 
 operate with and protect them." 
 
 Prior to the resumption of the draft, General Dix was 
 assigned to chief command in New York, with General 
 Canby as immediate commander under him in the city. 
 Letters from these two officers cited in another connec- 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 43 
 
 tion give some evidence of the necessity which had sud 
 denly arisen for troops to carry out the laws. General 
 Dix s efforts were directed first, but without success, to 
 obtaining the requisite force from Governor Seymour, as 
 shown by letter in Appendix K. 
 
 It was not until the i$th of August that the Governor 
 answered General Dix s letters of July 3Oth and August 
 8th, asking that the State furnish the necessary force to 
 execute the law. In consequence of the delay (see Gen 
 eral Dix s letter, Appendix N.), Dix had already applied 
 to the general Government for troops, which were sent. 
 
 The Governor said : " As you state in your letter that 
 it is your duty to enforce the act of Congress, and as you 
 apprehend its provisions may excite popular resistance, 
 it is proposed you should know the position which will 
 be held by the State authorities. Of course, under no 
 circumstances can they perform duties expressly confided 
 to others ; nor can they undertake to relieve others from 
 their proper responsibilities. But there can be no viola 
 tions of good order or riotous proceedings, no disturb 
 ances of the public peace which are not infractions of the 
 laws of the State, and those laws will be enforced under 
 all circumstances." 
 
 It will be observed that the only guarantee the Govern 
 or gave was that there should be no infractions of the 
 laws of the State. He was asked whether he would aid 
 in enforcing a law of the United States. As he gave no 
 assurance on* that point after the subject had undergone 
 full discussion and the necessity for his co-operation had 
 been demonstrated by the riots, it is not to be supposed 
 that he would have aided in enforcing the obnoxious Con 
 scription Act, even if he had known the very moment when 
 the first name was to be drawn from the wheel by the 
 
44 NEW YORK 
 
 Provost Marshal at the corner of Forty-sixth Street and 
 Third avenue, where the riot began. 
 
 The Government had been forewarned by General Dix ; 
 and telegrams, to be found in Appendices P. and Q.,show 
 that military operations in Virginia were modified to 
 answer the public demands in New York, and give the 
 strength of the force detached from the Army of the Po 
 tomac to enforce the Enrolment Act in the Metropolis 
 of the Nation. 
 
 It was at that moment a fixed fact that the draft would 
 be made under the protection of the United States 
 forces ; and that those forces would promptly and effect 
 ually put down any and all resistance. Then on the i8th 
 of August (1863) Governor Seymour issued a proclama 
 tion warning the people against disorders, and saying : 
 " I again repeat to you the warning which I gave to you 
 during the riotous proceedings of last month, that 
 the only opposition to the conscription which can be al 
 lowed is an appeal to the Courts." And adding: "I 
 hereby admonish all judicial and executive officers whose 
 duty it is to enforce the law and preserve public order, 
 that they take vigorous and effective measures to put 
 down any riotous or unlawful assemblages ; and if they 
 find their power insufficient for that purpose, to call upon 
 the military in the manner pointed out by the Statutes 
 of the State. If these measures should prove insuffi 
 cient, 1 shall then exert the full power of the State, in 
 order that the public order may be preserved, and the 
 persons and properties of the citizens be fully pro 
 tected." 
 
 Owing to this proclamation, and the presence of ten 
 thousand veteran troops from the Army of the Potomac, 
 there was no resistance when the drawing was resumed 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 45 
 
 in New York City on the iQth of August (1863). The 
 draft went on. 
 
 CLAIMS FOR CREDITS, Ac. 
 
 The Enrolment Act required the President, in assigning 
 quotas, to give credit for all volunteers and militia fur 
 nished from the beginning of the rebellion, and fairness, 
 as well as the terms of the law, called for an adjustment 
 of accounts. This brought about a general scramble for 
 " credits," in which New York City came out eminently 
 successful. 
 
 A large part of the energy and industry which charac 
 terized the raising of troops during the first two years of 
 the war was, early in the third year, directed in the differ 
 ent States and districts to securing " credit " for what had 
 been done, and reducing in clue proportion the Govern 
 ment s demands for what remained to be done in the way 
 of furnishing troops for the field. These credits were not 
 only for the soldiers who actually took the field, but em 
 braced that class referred to in the report of the Adjutant- 
 General of New York of December 31, 1862, where he 
 says, " the aggregate number of volunteers claimed to 
 have been enlisted exceeds the number known to have 
 left the State since July 2d, but the difference can readily 
 be accounted for when it is considered that the offer of 
 bounties by towns and counties has induced enlistments 
 merely as a means of obtaining money. The desertions 
 consequent on such a system and prompted by it, have 
 reached an alarming extent and defied all ordinary means 
 of prevention. It is believed that in the interior of the 
 State the number of volunteers claimed is not in excess 
 of the number actually enlisted, though in view of the 
 fact that the payment of town bounties has induced de- 
 
46 NEW YORK 
 
 sertion, and a large number of the recruits have been re 
 jected on the final muster, it is no doubt in excess of the 
 number that have actually entered the service. In the 
 counties comprising the first seven districts, however, the 
 difference between the number of volunteers claimed and 
 the number known to have actually entered the service is 
 so great as to render the reports from these districts unre 
 liable as a basis for establishing their deficiencies. There 
 is no doubt that the authorities have paid bounties to a 
 large number of men who have subsequently deserted, 
 and, indeed, who never had any intention of entering the 
 service. So far from this, there is good evidence to be 
 lieve that there has been an organized scheme through 
 which large sums of money have been drawn from the 
 authorities by persons who have at once disappeared, 
 perhaps to repeat the operation in another locality. 
 There is now at large in the districts mentioned a large 
 number of persons who have deserted under these circum 
 stances, and it is a question of importance to determine 
 how far the counties are to have credit for them. It is 
 claimed that the bounties have been paid in good faith 
 and on evidence of enlistment and muster which appeared 
 to justify it, and that having furnished the men and 
 turned them over to the military authorities, the counties 
 cannot thereafter be fairly held responsible for them, un 
 less they were rejected on final muster. The answer to 
 this is, that while the military authorities are responsible 
 for desertions arising from ordinary causes, they cannot 
 undertake to provide against it where the enlistment is 
 part of a scheme to obtain money injudiciously offered 
 after the liberal donations made by the State and general 
 Government." 
 
 As early as August 2 1st, two days after the draft was 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 47 
 
 resumed in New York City, Governor Seymour sent a 
 letter to the President- urging the claims for " credits " of 
 New York, especially the city, which was embraced in 
 the districts above discussed by the Adjutant-General of 
 the State. The President had the claims for " credits " 
 adjusted as rapidly and as fairly as he could, but held to 
 the enforcement of the Enrolment Act. His position on 
 the subject is shown by the following telegram which he 
 sent to Governor Seymour: 
 
 " Your dispatch of this morning is just received, and I 
 fear I do not perfectly understand it. My view of the 
 principle is that every soldier obtained voluntarily leaves 
 one less to be obtained by draft. The only difficulty is 
 in applying the principle properly. Looking to time, as 
 heretofore, I am unwilling to give up a drafted man now 
 even for the certainty, much less for the mere chance of get 
 ting a volunteer hereafter. Again, after the draft in any dis 
 trict, would it not make trouble to take a drafted man out 
 and put a volunteer in, for how shall it be determined 
 which drafted man is to have the privilege of thus going 
 out to the exclusion of all the others? And even before 
 the draft in any district the quota must be fixed ; and the 
 draft might be postponed indefinitely if every time a vol 
 unteer is offered the officers must stop and reconstruct 
 the quota. At least I fear there might be this difficulty ; 
 but at all events let credit for volunteers be given up to 
 the last moment which will not produce confusion or de 
 lay. That the principle of giving credit for volunteers 
 shall be applied by districts seems fair and proper, though 
 I do not know how far by present statistics it is practica 
 ble. When for any cause a fair credit is not given at one 
 time, it should be given as soon thereafter as practicable. 
 
48 NEW YORK 
 
 My purpose is to be just and fair and yet not to lose 
 time. 
 
 " A. LINCOLN." 
 
 The letter of August 2ist from Governor Seymour to 
 the President, mentioned above, also conveyed a statement 
 that residents of New York were being taken in great 
 numbers and enlisted in other States, and a request that 
 " a general order be published whereby all peisons enter 
 ing the military service of the United States as substitutes 
 for conscripts or otherwise shall be credited by the proper 
 authorities to the State in which they shall have been en 
 rolled and liable to military service, and that such persons 
 be counted on the quota of such States." This, besides 
 raising a point of law, suggested delay, or as Mr. Lincoln 
 expressed it to Governor Seymour, it brought in the cle 
 ment of time. For example, if a man enrolled and liable 
 to duty in Connecticut were drafted, having by law the 
 privilege of going in person or furnishing a substitute, he 
 might present as his substitute a man from New York. 
 Under the proposed order the drafting officers would have 
 to ascertain the place of enrolment, etc,, of the substitute, 
 and take the necessary steps for having him credited to 
 that place, which, of course, might be very remote, and 
 involve time and correspondence. But it also involved 
 charging to the account of the Government two soldiers 
 when it only got one. The legal point was referred to 
 the Judge Advocate General and he gave (See Appendix 
 R.) an opinion adverse to Governor Seymour. 
 
 SECOND CALL FOR TROOl S UNDER THE ENROLMENT ACT. 
 
 On the i;th of October, 1863, the President called for 
 300,000 volunteers, and ordered that a draft be made for 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION, 49 
 
 all deficiencies which might exist, January 5, 1864, on 
 the quotas assigned to districts by the War Department. 
 This brought up again the question of the enrolment in 
 New York. The Herald article heretofore embodied 
 quotes Governor Seymour as saying of the enrolment, 
 " the matter was the subject of a correspondence with 
 President Lincoln which resulted in the appointment by 
 the President of two men, and of one man by myself as 
 Governor, to conduct an inquiry. The two commissioners 
 named by the President were from other States, were offi 
 cers of the army, and were naturally inclined to distrust 
 the charge of unfairness. They spent a long time in labo 
 rious research into the facts. Rising above all prejudice, 
 they decided that the quotas of New York and Brooklyn 
 were erroneous and excessive, and should be reduced." 
 
 The members of this commission were Wm. F. Allen, 
 of New York, John Love, of Indiana, and Chaunccy Smith, 
 of Massachusetts. It is not correct, as stated above, that 
 two of them were officers of the army. Judge Allen, the 
 senior member, a man of unquestionable ability and in 
 tegrity, was a prominent Democrat in politics. He was 
 selected by Governor Seymour. General Love had been 
 a Lieutenant in the army, but resigned February I, 1853. 
 During the rebellion he was a "war" Democrat, and was 
 an active and influential member of the Democratic party 
 to the time of his death a few years ago. Mr. Smith, a 
 lawyer by profession, never an officer of the army, was 
 probably not specially attached to either political party. 
 These gentlemen acquitted the enrolling officers of the 
 charges of unfairness, outrage, grievous wrong-doing, etc., 
 etc., which Governor Seymour brought at the time, and 
 which are repeated in the newspaper articles of 1878 and 
 1879 heretofore quoted, and in the book of 1883. 
 7 
 
$O NEW YORK 
 
 The Commission said: " Justice to the enrolling offi 
 cers and agents requires that it should be distinctly stated 
 that their fidelity or integrity is by no means impeached 
 by any inaccuracies that may have existed in the enrol 
 ment. They were the necessary result of the execution 
 of the law under the circumstances, and with the means 
 at the command of the officers, and it is not perceived how 
 they could be avoided." In relation to the correction of 
 the enrolment, so as to make it a just and proper basis 
 for the assignment of quotas, the Commission said : " A 
 new enrolment was of course out of the question, and 
 could one have been made it is not perceived how the dif 
 ficulties before encountered could have been overcome, or 
 the mistakes and errors of the first enrolment amended. 
 The same causes of error and imperfection still exist and 
 are at work, and would undoubtedly produce the same 
 results. The difficulty in the first enrolment was not in 
 the enrolling agents but in the system, and means and 
 appliances at the command of the agents. The Commis 
 sion were unable to devise any process or means to correct 
 the enrolment and make it what it should be as a reliable 
 and satisfactory basis for the adjustment of quotas, * * * 
 and the Commission are of the opinion that any enrolment 
 made by faithful agents with the present limitations on 
 their powers and discretion, and with their present helps 
 and means, must be excessive and cannot constitute a 
 proper basis for apportionment of men to be furnished 
 upon a call for volunteers." 
 
 The Commission reached the conclusion that the " way 
 the error could be corrected and the quota made right" 
 was to adjust the quota " upon the basis and in proportion 
 to the entire population." This, the Commission thought, 
 would be constitutional and legal. On this point the 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 5 1 
 
 Commission added : " Without questioning or calling in 
 question the construction of the Conscription Act in the 
 orders or calls made under it, the Commission, in view of 
 the fact that the enrolment is clearly and confessedly in 
 accurate and imperfect, and in the City of New York ex 
 cessive, arc unanimously of the opinion that the popula 
 tion constitutes the only safe and proper basis for the 
 assignment of quotas and the apportionment of men to be 
 furnished by the State of New York upon a call for vol 
 unteers. But while no other basis than the enrolment is 
 recommended for any draft that may be ordered, the 
 Commission are unanimously of the opinion and recom 
 mend that in any case if a State or district will and docs 
 furnish its just share and proportion of men required un 
 der any call or order for a draft, in proportion to popula 
 tion, such State or district should be held to have fully 
 complied with the call and be relieved from the draft." 
 
 The conclusion of the Commission that population 
 should be the basis for quotas, rests, mainly, on the assump 
 tion that (as they express it) " a call for volunteers is in 
 one sense a tax upon the States and communities * 
 so that the burthen falls upon property as directly as if 
 Congress had laid a direct tax for the same purpose." The 
 Commission held therefore that this process would be 
 constitutional, and that it would be legal, they maintained 
 because, as they reported, " in all the acts of Congress 
 thus far passed upon the subject of raising volunteers by 
 calls upon the several States, population has been made 
 the basis of the apportionment. Acts of July 22, 1861, 
 July 25, 1861, and July 17, 1862, are explicit upon the 
 subject. These acts are not repealed and still apply to 
 any calls made under them, and whether they should 
 govern the call of October 17, 1863, is not for the Com- 
 
52 NEW YORK 
 
 mission to decide. They are only referred to as expres 
 sions of the judgment of the legislature, of the proper 
 basis for a call for volunteers, where no other mode is 
 prescribed." 
 
 As soon as the Commission s report reached Washing 
 ton the Provost Marshal General was required to give his 
 views upon it, which he did both verbally and in writing. 
 He pointed out the fact that the call of October 17, 1863, 
 then pending, was not made under the Acts of 1861, or 
 1862, authorizing volunteers to be called out on the basis 
 of population, but was made under the Enrolment Act of 
 March 3, 1863, which called as shown by the President s 
 proclamation and instructions given at the time for per 
 sonal service and not taxes, and which required the ap 
 portionment of quotas to be made on the basis of the en 
 rolment, and said: "The Commission has evidently been 
 absorbed by the conviction that the raising of men is, and 
 will necessarily continue, to be equivalent to levying spe 
 cial taxes and raising money, and they would therefore 
 require the same proceeds under the Enrolment Act from 
 a district of rich women which they would from a district 
 with the same number of men of equal means. I assume 
 that we are looking for personal military service from those 
 able to perform it, that we make no calls for volunteers 
 in the sense in which the Commission understands it, but 
 that we assign to the districts under the Enrolment Act 
 fair quotas of the men we have found them to contain." 
 * * * " That for the Government to defer personal ser 
 vice for the purpose of enabling the people to raise money 
 to be used as bounties would be to depart from the sound 
 principles of the law by which it can require and secure 
 the services of its forces." 
 
 The Provost Marshal General maintained that the Com- 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 53 
 
 mission were too strict and absolute in their construction 
 of the terms " erroneous and imperfect," as applied to 
 the enrolment, and of the term "just and equitable," as 
 applied to the quotas based upon it. He said : " I do 
 not dispute that the enrolment in the State of New York 
 is erroneous and imperfect, but I deny, and the Commis 
 sion has failed to establish, that its errors and imperfec 
 tions are greater than those to be found in any other 
 basis that could be obtained. I do not dispute that it 
 cannot be relied upon as a just and equitable basis for the 
 assignment of quotas; but I assert, and no one can 
 deny, that no just and equitable basis can be found for 
 the assignment of quotas, and in this war our cause would 
 be lost if all men stood exactly on the order of their going. 
 * * * The Commission states that the inaccuracies of 
 the enrolment were a necessary result, under the circum 
 stances, but it fails to show that inaccuracies to an equal 
 or greater extent would not appear on any other basis. 
 The Commission seems to have disregarded the fact that 
 the sources of error were well known to the officers of 
 this bureau, and that extraordinary pains were taken to 
 remove them, and it condemns the enrolment after arriving 
 at certain results by a comparison of the enrolment of 1863, 
 with certain tables prepared by it from the census of 1860. 
 It is not deemed necessary to discuss at length the results 
 derived from such a comparison. The census of 1860 is 
 no more likely to have been correct throughout the 
 country at the time it was taken than the enrolment is 
 now, * * * but if the census in 1860, and the enrol 
 ment of 1863, were at those periods equally near correct, 
 it is unreasonable if not absurd to suppose that the mu 
 tations of three years have not added so much to the 
 inaccuracies of the census of 1860 as to render it at this 
 
54 NEW YORK 
 
 time more unreliable and unjust as a basis for quotas than 
 the enrolment of 1863." In relation to the Commission s 
 finding that it was " unable to devise any process or 
 means to correct the enrolment and make it what it 
 should be as a reliable and satisfactory basis for the ad 
 justment of the quota," the Provost Marshal General 
 reported that * if correct, this conclusion of the Commis 
 sion in connection with what precedes it would of course 
 lead to an entire abandonment of the enrolment, and all 
 action dependent upon it." 
 
 The general Government regarded giving up the enrol 
 ment at that time as abandoning the reinforcement of the 
 armies, and a surrender to the rebellion. There was no 
 doubt in Washington that the original Enrolment Act 
 contemplated the basing of quotas on the enrolment. If 
 there was doubt elsewhere as to the purpose of Congress 
 it was removed by the amended act approved February 
 24, 1864, which says the quotas of wards, precincts, etc., 
 " shall be as nearly as possible in proportion to the num 
 ber of men resident therein liable to render military 
 service." 
 
 The Provost Marshal General insisted "notwithstand 
 ing the inability of the Commission to devise any means 
 by which the enrolment can be made what it should be as 
 a reliable basis," that as it stood it was the legal and best 
 basis, and that its material errors could be corrected, and 
 he pointed out the sources of improvement which could 
 be counted on. 
 
 Mr. William Whiting, Solicitor of the War Depart 
 ment, said in an official opinion concerning the legality 
 of the enrolment: " The original enrolment was made 
 in pursuance of the Act of March 3, 1863, Chapter 
 75, and though some names were omitted which should 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 55 
 
 have been added, and other names were inserted which 
 should have been omitted, yet, considering the novelty 
 of the law, the great number of officers acting under 
 it without experience and the magnitude and diffi 
 culty of the labor they were called on to perform, it 
 is remarkable that the enrolment was so speedily and 
 correctly made." 
 
 There were grave objections already indicated, to 
 basing quotas on the census instead of the enrolment. 
 The population to be used for the purpose was that of 
 1860. If it were a fair basis when made the lapse of 
 three years had effected great changes in it, especially in 
 regard to the men liable to military service. During 
 the first two years of the struggle the States and Districts 
 most ardent in support of the war had sent forward as 
 volunteers a much larger proportion of their men than 
 those States and Districts which opposed or were indif 
 ferent to the war. To require the former to furnish from 
 the men remaining a quota based on the population 
 including those who had gone to the field would have 
 been worse than simple injustice ; it would have been 
 punishing prompt and liberal response to the demands of 
 the Government and rewarding neglect and refusal to 
 comply with those demands. Nevertheless as a conces 
 sion to Governor Seymour the President, without surren 
 dering the principle, reduced the quota of New York and 
 disposed of the subject as follows : 
 
 " EXECUTIVE MANSION, J 
 WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864. J 
 
 44 Hon. Secretary of War : 
 
 " SIR : -You ask some instructions from me in relation 
 to the Report of special Commission constituted by an 
 
$6 NEW YORK 
 
 order of the War Department, dated December 5, 1863, 
 * to revise the enrolment and quotas of the City and 
 State of New York, and report whether there be any, 
 and what errors or irregularities therein, and what correc 
 tions, if any, should be made. 
 
 " In the correspondence between the Governor of New 
 York and myself last summer, I understood him to com 
 plain that the enrolments in several of the districts of 
 that State had been neither accurately nor honestly made ; 
 and in view of this, I, for the draft then immediately ensu 
 ing, ordered an arbitrary reduction of the quotas in several 
 of the districts wherein they seemed too large, and said : 
 After this drawing, these four Districts, and also the seven 
 teenth and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled, 
 and, if you please, agents of yours may witness every 
 step of the process. In a subsequent letter I believe 
 some additional districts were put into the list of those 
 to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work over, accord 
 ing to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and 
 thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. 
 The Commission, whose work I am considering, seem to 
 have proceeded upon a totally different idea. Not going 
 forth to find men at all, they have proceeded altogether 
 upon paper examinations and mental processes. One of 
 their conclusions, as I understand, is, that as the law 
 stands, and attempting to follow it, the enrolling officers 
 could not have made the enrolments much more accu 
 rately than they did. The report, on this point, might be 
 useful to Congress. The Commission conclude that the 
 quotas for the draft should be based upon entire popula 
 tion, and they proceed upon this basis to give a table for 
 the State of New York, in which some districts are 
 reduced and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 57 
 
 let the quotas stand, as made by the enrolling officers, 
 in the districts wherein the table requires them to be 
 increased ; and let them be reduced according to the 
 table in the others: This to be no precedent for subse 
 quent action ; but as I think this report may, on full 
 consideration, be shown to have much that is valuable in 
 it, I suggest that such consideration be given it ; and 
 that it be especially considered whether its suggestions 
 can be conformed to without an alteration of the law. 
 11 Yours truly, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 " Referred to Col. Fry, Provost Marshal General, with 
 directions to make the ensuing draft in New York in 
 conformity with the instructions of the President herein 
 contained. 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 From this time on, the revision of the enrolment was 
 continuously and carefully conducted by the War De 
 partment, but without any special aid or co-operation 
 from Governor Seymour, and without further definite 
 complaint from him until a new draft was ordered the 
 following summer. 
 
 THE THIRD CALL UNDER THE ENROLMENT ACT, ETC. 
 
 The President made a call on the i8th of July, 1864, 
 for 500,000 men, and quotas based on the revised enrol 
 ment were distributed. On the 3d of the following 
 month August Governor Seymour in a letter to the 
 Secretary of War renewed his opposition to the enrol 
 ment and quotas of his State, especially the Cities of New 
 York and Brooklyn, He said: "It is my duty to call 
 8 
 
$8 NEW YOKK 
 
 your attention to the enrolment made with a view to the 
 draft lately ordered by the President. * * * Since 
 the enrolments were made there has been no opportunity 
 to correct them. Neither can this be done in time. 
 While names may be added to the lists, those which are 
 improperly placed there cannot be stricken off. In large 
 cities the names in excess cannot be detected, as the 
 citizens are not familiar with the names and condition of 
 their neighbors. In the country it is otherwise." Refer 
 ring to the commission through which the quotas of the 
 preceding year were reduced, he said : " I urge that some 
 similar plan be adopted now, whereby the quotas of this 
 State which, especially in the districts I have named, in 
 cluding New York City and Brooklyn, appear to be un 
 equal and oppressive, may be adjusted equitably in pro 
 portion to the demands made in other parts of the 
 country. 1 
 
 Under date of August 10, 1864, the Provost Marshal 
 General reported to the Secretary of War on the matters 
 submitted in the Governor s letter. He showed that the 
 Governor was entirely mistaken in saying " since the en 
 rolments were made there has been no opportunity to 
 correct them ;" that, on the contrary, special opportunities 
 had been afforded to make correction^, commencing as 
 far back as November 17, 1863, when orders were pub 
 lished for that purpose. He added that the Governor 
 was informed of these opportunities, and he quoted a 
 communication issued from the Governor s own head 
 quarters, and signed by his Adjutant-General, embodying 
 the Provost Marshal General s orders of May 18 and 
 19, 1864, which orders directed that no efforts be spared 
 to revise the enrolment, and that explanation be made to 
 the people of their interest in aiding the revision. 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 59 
 
 The Governor said in his letter, " if a comparison is 
 made between cities of different States, the disproportion 
 of men demanded from New York and Brooklyn is still 
 more startling. While in these cities twenty-six per cent, 
 of the population is enrolled, in Boston only twelve and 
 a half per cent., or less than one-half that ratio, are liable 
 to be drafted." 
 
 To this the Provost Marshal General replied : " I am 
 unable to see by what mode of calculation this startling 
 disproportion is arrived at. The population of New 
 York City and Brooklyn, by the last census, is 1,092,791. 
 The enrolment in those cities is 184,925, the percentage 
 of the population winch has been enrolled is therefore 
 16.92. I cannot discover how the Governor can make it 
 26. The percentage in Boston is correctly given at 12.50 
 Instead of the ratio of enrolled men to population in Bos 
 ton being less than one half the same ratio in New 
 York and Brooklyn, it appears that there is a difference of 
 but one quarter between the two. The startling dis 
 proportion, therefore, seems to be founded not altogether 
 upon fact, but partially at least, upon an error in calcula 
 tion ;" and speaking of the discrepancies which the Gov 
 ernor claimed by comparisons between the enrolment and 
 population, he added, the enrolment 4< is a mere question 
 of/<7f/; it is the ascertainment of the number of men of 
 a certain description in defined areas; it was made with 
 care, and has been revised with pains on the part of the 
 United States officers ; and there is no force in the com 
 parisons instituted by the Governor of New York, except 
 so far as they show that the interest taken by the popu 
 lation in perfecting the enrolment is greater in some 
 places than in others." The Provost Marshal General 
 showed further that the enrolment lists were continu- 
 
60 NEW YORK 
 
 ously open to revision, and that any name erroneously on 
 them would be stricken off as soon as the error was 
 pointed out to the Hoard of Enrolment by anybody. He 
 also showed that while the quotas of New York were 
 larger than those of the New England States, they were 
 smaller than those of New Jersey, much smaller than 
 those of several of the Western States (where the propor 
 tion of men was large), and that they were but 104 men 
 per congressional district above the average of the 
 United States ; and he closed by saying : " I can see no 
 reason why the law should not be applied to New York 
 as well as to the other States." 
 
 The Secretary of War then addressed a letter to Gov 
 ernor Seymour as follows : 
 
 " WAR DKI ARTMKNT, \ 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, 
 
 August 11, 18(14. ) 
 
 44 SIR : In answer to your letter of the 3d instant I have 
 the honor to submit the report of the Provost Marshal 
 General, which I trust will satisfy you that the objections 
 which you have made against the quotas assigned to the 
 State of New York are not well founded. 
 
 44 Your communication contains no specification of 
 unfaithfulness, neglect or misconduct by any enrolling 
 officer, nor that any errors or mistakes exist in the enrol 
 ment but what are unavoidable in making an enrolment 
 or taking a census. The opportunity for the interested 
 localities to revise and correct the draft, under the pro 
 visions of the law, has been afforded, and will continue 
 down to the time of the draft. A Commission was ap 
 pointed last year with a view to ascertain whether any 
 mistakes or errors had been made by the enrolling 
 officers ; but the commissioners bore their testimony to 
 
AVI) THK CONSCRIPTION. 6 1 
 
 the fidelity with which the work was done. -They were 
 of opinion, however, that the basis or principle for the 
 assignment of quotas operated unequally in New York, 
 and, with a view to harmony, the President directed a 
 eduction in some districts, but without the increase of 
 others recommended by the commissioners. The basis 
 for the assignment is now fixed absolutely by act of Con 
 gress, and this department has no power to change it. 
 
 " In your letter of the 3d inst. it is stated that you do 
 not mean to find fault with those who made them (the 
 enrolments) in New York and Brooklyn. 
 
 44 It is plain, then, that a Commission could do no more 
 than substitute some other basis of assigning the quota, 
 as was done by the Commission of last year; and this 
 course would now be contrary, to the terms of the statute. 
 A Commission, therefore, would only operate to hinder 
 and delay the Government in strengthening the armies in 
 the field, enable the enemy to protract the war, and ex 
 pose our arms to disaster and defeat. I do not, therefore, 
 feel authorized to appoint a Commission : 
 
 " First. Because there is no fault found by you with 
 the enrolling officers, nor any mfstake, fraud or neglect on 
 their part alleged by you, requiring investigation by a 
 Commission. 
 
 11 Second. The errors of the enrolment, if there be any, 
 can readily be corrected by the Board of Enrolment es 
 tablished by law for the correction of the enrolment. 
 
 " Third. The commission would not have, nor has the 
 Secretary of War, or the President, power to change the 
 basis of the draft prescribed by the Act of Congress. 
 
 " Fourth. The commission would operate to postpone 
 the draft, and perhaps fatally delay strengthening the 
 
62 NEW YORK 
 
 armies now in the field, thus aiding the enemy and endan 
 gering the National Government. - 
 
 " Every facility will be afforded by this department to 
 correct any error or mistake that may appear in the en 
 rolment, and no effort will be spared to do justice to the 
 Cities of New York and Brooklyn, and apply the law with 
 equality and fairness to every district and in every 
 State. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 11 Very respectfully, 
 
 14 Your obedient servant, 
 " EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 " Secretary of War. 
 " To HIS EXCELLENCY, 
 " HORATIO SEYMOUR, 
 
 "GOVERNOR OK NEW YORK, ALIIANY." 
 
 In his correspondence of 1863 Governor Seymour al 
 leged grievous wrongs " errors, if they are not shameless 
 frauds," etc, against the officers of the general Govern 
 ment charged with the enrolment. The request for his 
 full co-operation in making that enrolment was supple 
 mented by applications for his aid in revising it, Mr. 
 Lincoln saying August 7, 1863, " agents of yours may 
 witness every step of the process." In 1864, however, as 
 shown by the letter to which the above is an answer, 
 while still complaining of the result of the enrolment, 
 the Governor acquits the officers whom he had previously 
 accused. I^e says (letter August 5, 1864, to Secretary 
 of War), " I do not mean to find fault with those who 
 made them in New York and Brooklyn." This revised 
 judgment in 1864, when he was better informed on the 
 subject than in 1863, does not appear in the ffcrnld of 
 
AND THE CONSCRIPTION. 63 
 
 1878, the Times of 1879, heretofore quoted, nor in the 
 Twelve Americans of 1 1883, which purport to give Gov 
 ernor Seymour s views at present. 
 
 The act for enrolment and draft was unpopular and 
 very difficult to execute. It has not been the purpose in 
 this account to apologize for the shortcomings and blun 
 ders which attended the administration of it. They arc 
 left to the judgment of the impartial historian, who, no 
 doubt, will view them in the light of attending circum 
 stances. Documents enough have been produced, how 
 ever, to show that Governor Seymour s real opposition 
 was to the law itself, and he was so earnest and persistent 
 in that as to prevent him from being an impartial judge 
 of the manner in which the law was carried out. 
 
 In the fall of 1864 the Democratic party lost the State 
 of New York, and on the 1st of January, 1865, Governor 
 Fenton, a Republican, succeeded Governor Seymour. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 CHAPTER XII, 
 
 TIIK DRAFT RIOTS OF 1863. 
 
 EARLY in July, 1863, Governor Seymour received from General Wool, the 
 United States officer in command of the department, a letter in which he 
 declared that New York City was absolutely without defence from attacks 
 which might he made by rebel gun-boats or ships-of-war, and asked for 
 State troops to hold the harbor fortifications. The communication was a 
 most urgent one. The City of New York was not only the financial centre 
 of the Union, but, to a great extent, the treasury of the nation and storehouse 
 of the Army and Navy. Knowing that such an attack as General Wool feared 
 would be followed by evils, the extent of which no man could estimate, Gov. 
 Seymour, without delay, set about complying with the request made by the 
 representative of the Government, and at the same time determined that he 
 would himself make an inspection of the fortifications. Accompanied by ex- 
 Gov. Morgan and Controller Kobison, he did so, and found that General Wool s 
 fears were only too well founded, The so-called defences on the East River 
 and in the harbor were tantamount to no defences at all, and at Throgg s 
 Neck many of the guns commanding the entrance to the city through the 
 Sound were not even mounted. Thoroughly alarmed, and greatly fearing 
 that some adventurous rebel cruiser might obtain information of the city s 
 condition, the Governor, with characteristic energy, gave orders for the 
 transportation of troops from Rochester and other points in the interior to 
 the city fortifications. On Sunday, July 12, while he was at Long Hranch 
 and still engaged in this work of providing for the defence of the coast, he 
 was startled by a telegram, informing him that the long-threatened and 
 much-dreaded conscription of men for the Union Army had been commenced 
 in New York City. This telegram was a private one. Gov. Seymour never 
 received any official notification that the draft was to commence, or that it 
 had commenced, nor was any such notification sent to Mr. Opdyke, the 
 Mayor of the City, or to General Wool, the United States officer in command. 
 Without any communication with those gentlemen or with the Department 
 9 
 
66 APPENDIX A. 
 
 of Police, and without for a moment considering that the forts and arsenals 
 of the city had been stripped of their garrisons, that nearly every volunteer 
 soldier and militiaman in the State had, at the urgent call of the President, 
 been hurried off to the support of Meade and the defence of terror-stricken 
 Pennsylvania, the Provost Marshal at whose order is to this day a matter 
 of doubt commenced the draft. The drawing began on Saturday in a 
 district where the enrolment was so excessive, so grossly unjust, that the 
 Government subsequently ordered it to be changed. Most of those whose 
 names came from the wheel were of one nationality, a nationality noted as 
 much for its warm-hearted impulse and reckless generosity as for its tend 
 ency to riot and disorder. The names of the conscripts appeared in the 
 papers on Sunday, when they had ample time to meet together and curse the 
 conscription. It has been claimed that there was in all this a deep-seated 
 design for political purposes, to force a portion of the community into such 
 excesses as would make it necessary to declare the Empire City under martial 
 law. This claim has not been justified, bat that the Provost Marshals, or 
 those behind them, by their action in the matter, threw prudence, propriety, 
 and common sense to the winds, there can, in view of subsequent events, be 
 no doubt. 
 
 Because of his connection with the terrible riots which followed this con 
 scription, managed or mismanaged, as it was, with criminal recklessness, 
 Gov. Seymour has been ns severely criticised, and perhaps mure bitterly 
 denounced than any public man of his time. It is possible that the follow 
 ing details of that connection, details heretofore known only to a few in 
 timate friends, may cause tliost; who so criticised and denounced him to 
 form a different, and it may be a juster, opinion of his motives and action. 
 On Sunday night, when he first received word that the draft was actually in 
 progress, he tried to make his way to the city, but found that he could not 
 do so. The next morning, at a very early hour, he received a second tele 
 gram, informing him that serious disturbances were expected to follow the 
 announcementiof the conscription. Fearing the worst, and without having 
 tasted food, he hurried to the metropolis, and, being previously advised, 
 went at once to the St. Nicholas Hotel. Here he found Mayor Opdyke, 
 General Wool, and Mr. Barney, the Collector of the Port, already assembled. 
 Without disparagement to those gentlemen, it may be said that they were 
 more sensible of the danger which threatened the city than they were of any 
 expedient by which it might be averted. They had every reason to be 
 alarmed. A mob, comprising thousands of ruffians maddened by drink, was 
 at large in the streets. The Provost Marshal s office had been sacked, and 
 the block of buildings in which it was situated burned to the ground. The 
 fire-bells tolled out terrible warnings. Clouds of lurid smoke shut out the 
 
APPENDIX A. 67 
 
 sun. The authorities were openly defied. Riot ruled the town. No man 
 could say what an hour would bring forth. The very air was filled with un 
 told alarm. 
 
 Hardly had the chief magistrate of the State arrived at the St. Nicholas 
 Hotel when the proprietor, fearing that his presence and that of other offi 
 cers of the law might incite the mob to attack the building, begged him for 
 God s sake to leave it. He and Mayor Opdykc did so. They hastened to 
 the City Hall, and with the scant means at their command, did everything 
 possible to put down the disturbances. The city was declared in a state of 
 insurrection. In order that there might be no conflict between the militia 
 and the police force, which was believed to be unfriendly to the State Govern- 
 ment, Mr. Seymour gave to General I^edlic, a Republican, authority to repre 
 sent him, and to deal with the police and military. 
 
 Hut still the riot went on. Men were shot down in the streets, houses 
 were sacked, and great buildings fell crumbling in flame. A crowd gathered 
 round the City Hall. There were in it quiet, respectable men, and others 
 mad with excitement. The Governor was called upon to speak. Hoping 
 to disperse the mob, desiring to conciliate the good citizens in the crowd, 
 and, above all things, wishing to gain time, protect property, and prevent 
 bloodshed (these were his motives, as he himself has explained them to me), 
 he went boldly before the excited people and implored them to disperse to 
 their homes without further violations of the peace. At the same time he 
 said, according to one report of his short and hurried speech a report the 
 accuracy of which he has even now no desire to question " I beg you to 
 listen to m<; as a friend, for I am your friend and the friend of your families. 
 Further than this, he assured them that if they had been wronged in anyway, 
 he would use every exertion to see that justice was done them. Then the 
 crowd left the City Hal! Square, and from that day to this Horatio Seymour 
 has been by one class of the community denounced for " holding a palaver 
 with bloody criminals" and making "friends" of thieves, cut-throats, and 
 ruffians. Governor Seymour does not desire to reply to these attacks. In 
 vindication of his course, if such vindication be necessary, he simply points 
 to the fact that in forty-eight hours the riots, undoubtedly the most formi 
 dable which ever occurred on this continent, were checked and controlled 
 by the State and city authorities without aid from the General Government. 
 In order to accomplish this result it was necessary for the law officers, acting 
 under the authority of the Governor, to shoot down nearly a thousand of the 
 rioters whom he has been accused of " temporizing" with. 
 
 Regarding this terrible period in the history of the city, Governor Seymour 
 has long remained silent, but touching the manner in which the riots were 
 suppressed he now authorizes the following statement, which, it may be well 
 
68 APPENDIX A. 
 
 to add, is given in his own word* : " The draft riots of 1863 were put down 
 mainly by the energy, boldness and skill of the Police Department. In say 
 ing this I am certainly not influenced by prejudice, for the force was politi 
 cally, and, in some degree personally, unfriendly to myself. Indeed, in their 
 reports they have not seen fit to make mention of any co-operation on my 
 part with their efforts. But they did their duty bravely and efficiently. 
 They proved that the City of New York could, by its police alone, in the 
 absence of its military organizations, cope with the most formidable disor 
 ders. I do not know of any instance in history where so many desperate 
 men were shot down mainly by the police of a city. More than a thousand 
 of the rioters were killed or wounded to death. Yet so little justice has been 
 done to the City of New York that many think it was protected by the forces 
 of the United States. In fact, the Navy-Yard, the vast amount of military 
 stores of the General Government, and its money in the sub-treasury, were 
 mainly protected by the civil officers. So protected, while the military or 
 ganizations of the State were absent in Pennsylvania in answer to an appeal 
 from the Government of the United States to help it against an invasion of 
 General Lee. Even General Grant, in one of his papers, spoke of the riot 
 in New York as an occasion when the General Government hail helped Stale 
 or local authorities to maintain peace and order. I wrote to him correcting 
 this error, and it gives me pleasure to say that he received my communica 
 tion in a spirit of courtesy and of fairness which ever marks the character of 
 an honorable man. It is now time that justice should be done the City of 
 New York in this matter, and in the hope that such justice may be done I 
 repeat these facts." 
 
 before leaving this period in Governor Seymour s life, it will be well to 
 add that subsequent to the riots, Mr. Watson, then Assistant Secretary of 
 War, told him that a number of prominent men had made application to 
 the national administration to place the city under martial law, and that he 
 (Watson) was sent to New York to see if there was any warrant or necessity 
 for such action ; that he could find none, and had reported to the department 
 that Governor Sejymour and the civil authorities were doing everything that 
 could be done to keep the peace. Ntw York Times, 1870,. 
 
APPENDIX B. 69 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 PROVOST MARSHAL GKNRRAL S OFFICF., | 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. ///n/25, 1863. ) 
 
 You will be exclusively under the orders of this Department ; yet, while 
 the Governor of New York has no control over you, you will he required to 
 acquaint yourself with his views and wishes and give them due weight in de 
 termining as to the best interests of the General Government of which you are 
 the representative. To this end you will use all proper means to gain and 
 to retain the confidence and good will of the Governor and his State officers. 
 You will endeavor by all means in your power to secure for the execution of 
 the Enrolment Act, the aid and hearty cooperation of His Excellency the 
 Governor, and of the civil officers in his State as also of the people. 
 ******** 
 
 The State of New York has failed to furnish her full quota of men under 
 the President s calls of July 2d, and Aug. 4, 1862, for six hundred thou 
 sand men. You will at once calculate by reference to the State records what 
 pivporlivn of the deficiency is due to each district under your charge in the 
 State, and inform the Department of the result at the earliest day practicable, 
 * * * taking for the calculation such information in regard to the actual 
 deficiency as the State records may give you. 
 
 The enrolment lately made by the State will probably be useful to the 
 Boards in the different districts under your control, and you are therefore de 
 sired to have prepared at once and transmitted to them respectively such ex 
 tracts from the State enrolment lists as will facilitate their business. 
 ******** 
 
 You will take especial care to ascertain and report to this office all cases 
 wherein the Provost Marshals, Surgeons, Commissioners, Enrolling Officers 
 or other employes of this Department shall have proved themselves unworthy 
 or incompetent to fill the positions to which they have been appointed. 
 ** * * 
 
 Very respectfully 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 (Signed) JAMES B. FRY, 
 
 Pro. -ATI General. 
 To COL. ROBKRT" NUGENT, 
 69TH N. Y. VOLS. 
 
 A Letter, in terms as follows, was addressed to Mayor Opdyke : 
 
7 APPENDIX C t D. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 ROVOST MARSH/ 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., April 25, 1863 
 
 PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL S OFFICE,) 
 
 To His Honor, George Opdykt, 
 
 Mayor of the City of New York, 
 
 SIR : With a view to uniform and harmonious execution of the Enrolment 
 Act, it has been deemed best to assign an officer of this Department of Rank 
 to duty at the City of New York. He will be instructed tu confer with the 
 Governor and yourself, to superintend the operations of the Provosl Marshals 
 in the first nine Districts of the State, to secure from the Provost Marshals 
 and Boards in these Districts and submit to the State Executive such rolls 
 and reports as may be deemed necessary for the files of the State, and to 
 prepare from the State Records and transmit to the Provost Marshals and 
 Hoards of Enrolment in these districts such information, placed at his dis 
 posal by the State authorities as may be necessary or useful to thtm in the 
 performance of the duties assigned to them. In accordance with the forego- 
 ing, Col. Robert Nugent, 69th N. Y. Volunteers, has been directed to take 
 post at New York City. He is an officer of superior ability and a gentleman 
 of attainments, and it is hoped his assignment will prove agreeable lo your 
 Honor. 
 
 The War Department will be pleased if your Honor will communicate 
 freely with him and secure as far as possible for all officers appointed under 
 the Enrolment Act in these districts the cooperation of the civil officers of 
 your city. I am, Sir, 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 (SigHi a) JAM KS 1$. FRY. 
 
 Pro. Af l Central. 
 
 I 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 (Extract from final report of Provost Marshal General.) 
 
 * * * " The paramount duty of the bureau was to complete an enrol 
 ment at the earliest practicable date, make it as nearly correct as possible, 
 and under it commence the urgently needed re-enforcement of the armies. 
 The enrolment could be made without injustice to any one, as those who 
 were granted the special favor of exception and exemption from the opera- 
 
APPENDIX D. 71 
 
 tions of the act could receive the privilege to which they were entitled after 
 being drafted. To have undertaken so to m.ike the enrolment as not to in 
 clude those who were excused from military service by special enactment, 
 would have been to defeat the purpose of the act, in an attempt as a first 
 t/ufy to secure to a privileged class the immunities extended to them before 
 they were ascertained to be due. Supposing all enrolling officers to have 
 been honest and capable, the difficulties and delays they would have met in 
 attempting to decide in advance all cases of exemption which would be pre 
 sented by persons of the numerous class excepted by the act would have 
 prevented the completion of the enrolment in time to be of use during the 
 war. To this should be added the opposition to be encountered in making 
 an enrolment of any kind, and the fact that the enrollers had, necessarily, to 
 be selected in haste, were but temporarily employed, without power to sum 
 mon witnesses, and exposed by their irresponsibility and the absence of 
 supervision to the temptation of bribery and favoritism. All this made it 
 clear that the best interests of the Government required that the enrolling 
 officers should not be invested with the power of deciding the questions of 
 exemptions arising under the act. In order, therefore, to get an enrolment 
 for immediate use which, as stated, would be as fair to one place ns to 
 another, and which could subsequently be corrected in all places alike, I 
 directed the boards of enrolment to instruct their enrolling officers to enrol 
 all male citizens of the United States, and persons of foreign birth who had 
 declared on oath their intention to become citizens, under and in pursuance 
 of the laws thereof, between the ages of twenty (20) and forty-five (45) years, 
 and not permit the omission from the enrolment lists of the names of persons 
 who mij;ht claim to belong to the classes excepted by the law, and to reserve 
 the question of their exemption for consideration after the draft. 
 
 " The following extract from a report made by Captain Erhardt, the Pro 
 vost Marshal of the 4th District, New York City, the enrolment of which 
 was made the subject of special complaint, illustrates ihe method of making 
 the enrolment, and the pains taken to avoid errors. The mode of operation 
 was not identically the same in all the districts, but varied only according to 
 the circumstances existing in different districts, nnd the character of the 
 officers and employe s engaged in the work. Captain* Krhardt says : 
 
 1 have the honor to state that there have been enrolled in my district 
 
 Of first class . 54t37* 
 
 Of second class 23,405 
 
 Making a total of names enrolled 77i777 
 
 From these were taken those who actually lived in this district, and 
 
72 APPENDIX D. 
 
 those alone were borne upon the consolidated lists sent to the Provost Mar 
 shal General, viz. : 
 
 " Of the first class 30,844 
 
 " Of the second class 11,148 
 
 " A total of. 41,992 
 
 " With this exception that those who were not known to live in any other 
 district, by their own refusal to give their residence, doing business in this, 
 were presumed to live in this, and were sent on the consolidated lists accord 
 ingly. These names were in the proportion of, perhaps, one to fifty (I to 
 50), so that perhaps eight hundred may be on the consolidated lists so sub* 
 ject to draft here who may show, in case of their being drafted, that they 
 reside in another district, and are not liable. This list, with the deduc 
 tions of those who reside here, would leave thirty-five thousand seven 
 hundred and eighty-five [35,785] enrolled here not borne upon the consoli 
 dated lists of this district. 
 
 " The enrolment of this district was made by an enrolling officer for each 
 election district, who reported at the headquarters of the district each day with 
 the filled sheets, which were then given in, and an account kept of the 
 amount of sheets (filled) each enrolling officer brought in. The enrolment 
 was completed on the 2yth day of June, and the number of names returned 
 to this office amounted to fifty-four thousand three hundred ami seventy-two 
 (54. 372) of class one, and twenty-three thousand four hundred and five (23,405) 
 of class two ; total number, seventy-seven thousand seven hundred ami sev 
 enty-seven (77,777). 
 
 "The consolidation was made by first making an alphabetical list of each 
 ward ; the names were carefully revised, and the residence of every person, 
 within the ages named in the act, residing in this district, marked by the 
 ward of this district in which he resided. They were then transferred to an 
 other copy, care being taken to gather all who resided in the ward, copying 
 from other wards. ( On the completion of that copy the lists were again re 
 vised for the purpose of ascertaining duplicates, in this manner : by taking 
 the fust name of each letter and going through all the rest of the letter, to 
 ascertain that that name was down but once; then taking the second name, 
 and again going through those remaining, until the whole had undergone a 
 careful and actual scrutiny ; and in the same manner with class two. This 
 was the work of many days and nights, yet it resulted in a correct list. \Vhe, 
 a doubt arose as to whether the party under search was a duplicate, an en 
 rolling officer was sent to the residence of such a party to ascertain whether 
 such name was a duplicate or not. 
 
APPENDIX E. 73 
 
 " Upon the completion of that copy another copy was made, and all errors 
 stricken from and transfers made, should any be found in it. After a care 
 ful revision of that copy the final copy was made for the department, and 
 from that the cards prepared for the draft, and carefully compared with the 
 list, and verified by actual count. 
 
 "Numerous and weighty obstacles were encountered in making this en- 
 rolment. The large floating population of the country, and the disposition 
 and right of our people to go from place to place without let or hindrance, 
 rendered it exceedingly difficult to perfect it. Most of the embarrassments 
 resulted, however, from the opposition encountered in almost every house, if 
 not to the act itself, at least to its application to the particular persons whose 
 names were sought for enrolment. The law made it the duty of this bureau 
 to ttikr. but did not make it the duty of any one to givf, the names of those 
 liable to draft. Every imaginable artifice was adopted to deceive and defeat 
 the enrolling officers. Open violence was sometimes met with. Several en- 
 rollers lost their lives. Some were crippled. The property of others was 
 destroyed to intimidate them and prevent the enrolment. In certain mining 
 regions organized bodies of men openly opposed the enrolment, rendering it 
 necessary that the United States authorities should send troops to overcome 
 their opposition. There were secret societies, newspapers and politicians 
 who fostered and encouraged this widespread opposition. 
 
 " Under these serious drawbacks the first enrolment was made. It was 
 no more imperfect than had been expected, and the first draft (as explained 
 hereafter in this report) was, according to it, conducted in such a manner ai 
 tn neutralize to a great extent (if not entirely) the irregularities and hardships 
 that might have resulted from the errors it contained." 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 KLMTRA. May 22, 1863. 
 
 Colonel James B. Fi \\ 
 
 Marshal General. 
 
 COI.ONKI.: I have just returned from Albany where I had a protracted audi 
 ence with Governor Seymour. My attention as yours must have been had 
 been attracted to his remarkable letter to the meeting at the Capitol the pre 
 ceding evening, denouncing the proceeding agafhst Valandingham. This 
 letter was of course the subject of conversation. My personal relations with 
 the Governor having always been friendly, and much of the conversation hav 
 ing been confidential in Its character, I hardly know how to communicate to 
 10 
 
74 APPENDIX F. 
 
 you regarding it. I feel authorized, however, to say that the Governor will 
 co-operate with the General Government in such measure* as may be adopted 
 for raising armies and carrying on the war. He thinks the question of con- 
 stitutionality of the law will be raised, but says that is a question for the 
 courts, lie wanted me to understand and to communicate to the President 
 that he was exceedingly tenacious in relation to the question of arbitrary ar 
 rests. I referred him to the law of Congress upon this subject as contained 
 in the Act authorizing the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and the Act 
 relating to the draft. I understood him to be content if arrests were made 
 in compliance with those provisions, and if my advice were of any value I 
 would suggest that these laws be respected, as they were framed after a great 
 
 deal of consideration and had the support of the best minds in Congress. 
 
 ******* 
 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 (Signed) A. S. DIVKN, 
 
 A. A. P. M. Gen I. 
 
 P. S. I would thank you to show the Secretary of War so much of this 
 letter at least as relates to my interview with Governor Seymour. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 A. A. P. M. GKN I. S OmcK, \ 
 ELMIKA, N. Y., 
 
 July 23, 1863. ) 
 Colonel James B. Fry, 
 
 J rwvst Marshal General. 
 
 COLONKI. : I understand the position of Governor Seymour in relation to 
 the draft to be this. That any drafted man has a right to the writ of habeas 
 corpus ; that if the military authorities refuse to produce a man held by them 
 as a drufted man, ami to abide the decision of the Judge, that then he would 
 employ all the power vested in him as Governor, including, of course, his 
 military power as Commander-in-chief of the Militia of the State, to secure 
 the right. 
 
 Now I assume that the Governor is sincere, when he says if the law is 
 declared by the courts to be constitutional, then all his power shall be used 
 for its enforcement. How can the adjudication be had without embarrassing 
 delay? is the question. Of course the tribunal of last resort is the one to 
 appeal to, before this could be said to be definitely declared. 
 
APPENDIX G. 75 
 
 I propose this cither of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States can issue the writ of habeas corpus. Let application for a writ be at once 
 made to each of the Judges for the discharge of a drafted man, and on the 
 question of granting or denying the writ, the Justices can separately give their 
 opinions, and thus within a few days the mind of the Court can be ascertained. 
 There can be no doubt surely about the decision. I at least have not the 
 legal discernment to appreciate any point that has been made against the 
 validity of the law. This proposition I would make to Governor Seymour if 
 authorized, and it would certainly test the sincerity of his profession, and 
 would fulfil the pledges he has made to the men complaining of the law, 
 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 (Signed) A. S. DIVRN, 
 
 A. A. P. Af. Cent. IV. D. t N. Y. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 BUFFALO, NFAV YORK, \ 
 August 6, 1863. \ 
 If is Excellency Hcmtio Seymout^ 
 Goi Ctnor of AVrc York. 
 
 DEAR SIR: As I promised you I would, I visited Washington and conferred 
 with (lie authorities relative to the subject of our conversation. The executive 
 officers of the Government in execution of the laws of Congress will do 
 nothing to assume that these laws are invalid, particularly as in this case 
 they entertain no doubts as to the constitutionality of the law providing for 
 the draft. They would be glad at the same time where doubts exist to have 
 the parties entertaining them satisfied without embarrassing the operations of 
 the Government. 
 
 The course suggested at our personal interview, to reach an adjudication 
 that should be final and satisfactory, is the only one that occurs to me and I 
 hope will be resorted to. 
 
 On application for the writ of habeas corpus directly to one of the Justices 
 of the Supreme Court, if the applicant simply states the ground for applying 
 for the writ to be the invalidity of the law under which he is held, the Justice 
 would in granting or denying the writ, have but the single question to pass 
 upon and would if counsel was to be heard give time and place for hearing. 
 The question can thus be put at rest, and I sincerely hope you will advise 
 this course to be adopted by those who want to contest the validity of this 
 
76 APPENDIX H. 
 
 Act of Congress, as I should regret to have anything occur in the State of 
 New York that could delay the reinforcement of an army com posed so largely 
 of her own devoted men. 
 
 I am, Governor, very sincerely, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 (Signed) A. S. DIVEN, 
 
 A. A. P. Af. C., W. D. t N .y. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS CITY AND HARBOR OF NEW YORK, i 
 CITY OF NEW YORK, July 28, 1863. [ 
 Tkt Genfral-in~Chi<f t 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication 
 of yesterday. Assuming, as in my judgment we should, that the enforcement 
 of the draft will be resisted and that this resistance may take the form of 
 an insurrection against the General Government, it will be prudent to re 
 inforce the troops now here to such an extent as will secure the forts in the 
 harbor against any sudden seizure by the mob or by insurgents. 
 
 The volunteer recruits in this neighborhood and the State militia furnish 
 in numbers a sufficient force for this purpose, but it is still questionable how 
 far the local troops may be relied on in the event of an outbreak. The State 
 authorities have not yet declared themselves with sufficient distinctness to 
 deprive the disaffected of all hope of sympathy if not of assistance in any 
 movement they may undertake, and it is to be apprehended that they may 
 not do this until it is too late. If the proper course is adopted by them there 
 will be no serious trouble. If it is not there will be, and it will not be safe to 
 allow the control of the harbor to depend in any degree upon this chance. 
 
 I think the minimum force required for this purpose will be four regiments 
 of infantry of medium strength 2,000 or 2,400 men and they should be 
 drawn from the troops that will not sympathize with any local excitement, as 
 that will enable us to employ without danger some portion of the volunteer 
 recruits now in this neighborhood. 
 
 The contingency may not occur, and in that case the troops may soon be 
 returned, but the lesson will not be thrown away. 
 Very respectfully, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 ED. R. S. CANUY, 
 
APPENDIX I, J. 77 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OP THE EAST, 
 NEW YORK .CITY, August 12, 1863. \ 
 
 Hon. Edwin Af. Stanton, 
 
 Secretary of War, 
 
 ***** 
 SIR : I am constrained to believe that the whole moral influence of the 
 executive power of the State will be thrown against the execution of the law 
 for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and a case may occur in 
 which the military power of the State will be employed to defeat it. 
 
 **** 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 (Signed) JOHN A. Dix, 
 
 Major- General. 
 
 APPENDIX J. 
 
 NEW YORK, August 12, 1863 
 
 Colonel James B. Fry, 
 
 Provost Marshal General. 
 
 I was in consultation last evening with General Canby, the Mayor and 
 Police Commissioners. We are of opinion that the draft can safely com 
 mence in this city on Monday with a sufficient force, but there ought to be 
 ten thousand troops in the city and harbor. General Canby has now five 
 thousand. Governor Seymour s letters have increased the disaffection and 
 multiplied the chances of collision, and there is little doubt that he will do 
 all in his power to defeat the draft, short of forcible resistance to it. I will 
 write the Secretary of War fully by to-day s mail. 
 
 (Signed), JOHN A. Dix, 
 
 Major Gential. 
 
78 APPENDIX K> L. 
 
 APPENDIX K. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT or THE EAST, ) 
 NEW YORK CITY, July 30, 1863. 
 
 I/is Excellency \ Horatio Seymout, 
 
 Governor of tkc State of New York. 
 
 SIR : As the draft under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1863, for enrol 
 ling and calling out the national forces will probably be resumed in this city 
 at an early day, I am desirous of knowing whether the military power of the 
 State may be relied on to enforce the.execution of the law in case of forcible 
 resistance to it. I am very anxious that there should be perfect harmony of 
 action between the Federal Government and that of the State of New York ; 
 and if under your authority to see the laws faithfully executed, I can feel 
 assured that the act referred to will be enforced, I need not ask the War 
 Department to put at my disposal for the purpose troops in the service of the 
 United States. 
 
 I am the more unwilling to make such a request, as they could not be 
 withdrawn in any considerable number from the field, without prolonging 
 the war and giving aid and encouragement to the enemies of the Union at 
 the very moment when our successes promise, with a vigorous effort, the 
 speedy suppression of the rebellion. 
 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 JOHN A. Dix, 
 
 Ceneml. 
 
 APPENDIX L. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEI-ARTMENT OK THE EAST, 
 NEW YORK, August 8, 1863. 
 
 His Excellency \ Horatio Seymour, 
 
 Governor of the- State of New York, 
 
 SIR : I had the honor to receive on the evening of the 5th inst. your 
 letter of the 3d, in reply to mine of the 3oth ult., informing me that you 
 had made a communication to the President of the United States in relation 
 to the draft in this State, and expressing your belief that his answer would 
 
A P PEN nix L. 79 
 
 relieve you and me "from the painful questions growing out of an armed 
 enforcement of the Conscription Act," etc. 
 
 Your Excellency promises to write me again on the subject when you shall 
 have received the I resident s answer. It will afford me great pleasure to 
 hear from you and to receive an affirmative answer to the inquiry contained 
 in my letter. Hut I owe it to my position as Commander of this Military 
 Department, to anticipate his reply by some suggestions arising out of your 
 answer to me. 
 
 You arc no doubt aware that the draft has been nearly completed in the 
 nine western districts, and that it also has been completed in several dis 
 tricts ; and is in successful progress in others in the central part of the State, 
 under the orders of Provost Marshal General. 
 
 It is my duty now as Commanding Officer of the troops in the service of 
 the United States in the Department if called on by the enrolling officers, 
 to aid them in resisting forcible opposition to the execution of the law; and, 
 it was from an earnest desire to avoid the necessity of employing, for the 
 purpose, any of my forces, which have been placed here to garrison the 
 forts and protect the public property, that I wished to see the draft enforced 
 by the military power of the State, in case of an armed and organized 
 resistance to it. But holding such resistance to the paramount law of Con 
 gress to be disorganizing and revolutionary, leading, unless effectually 
 suppressed, to the overthrow of the Government itself, to the success of the 
 insurgents in the seceded Slates, and to universal anarchy, I designed, if 
 your co-operation could not be relied on, to ask the General Government for 
 a force which should be adequate to ensure the execution of the law, and to 
 meet any emergency growing out of it. 
 
 The Act under which the draft is in progress, was, as your Excellency is 
 aware, passed to meet the difficulty of keeping up the army, through the 
 system of volunteering, to the standard of force deemed necessary to sup 
 press the insurrection. The service of every man capable of bearing arms is, 
 in all countries, those especially in which power is responsible to the people, 
 due to the Government when its existence is in peril. This service is the 
 price of the protection which he receives, and of the safeguards with which 
 the law surrounds him in the enjoyment of his property and life. The Act 
 authorizing the draft is entitled, " An Act for enrolling and calling out the 
 national forces." I regret that your Excellency should have characterized it 
 as " The Conscription Act." A phrase borrowed from a foreign system of 
 enrolment, with odious features from which ours is wholly free, and origin 
 ally applied to the law in question by those who desired to bring it into re 
 proach and defeat its execution. I impute to.your Excellency no such pur- 
 pose. On the contrary, I assume it to have been altogether inadvertent ; 
 
80 APPENDIX L. 
 
 but I regret it, because there is danger that in thus designating it and depre 
 cating " an armed enforcement " of it, you may be understood to regard it as 
 an obnoxious law, which ought not to be carried into execution, thus throw 
 ing the influence of your high position against the Government in a conflict 
 for its existence. 
 
 The call which has been made for service is for one-fifth part of the arms- 
 bearing population, between 20 and 35 years of age, and of the unmarried 
 between 35 and 45. The insurgent authorities at Richmond have not only 
 called into service heretofore the entire class between 18 and 35, but are now 
 extending the enrolment to classes more advanced in age. The burden 
 which the loyal States are called on to sustain is not, in proportion to popu 
 lation, one-tenth part as onerous as that which has been assumed by the 
 seceded States. Shall not we x if necessary, be ready to do as much for the 
 preservation of our political institutions as they are doing to overthrow and 
 destroy them ; as much for the cause of stable government as they for the 
 cause of treason and for the disorganization of society on this continent ? I 
 say the disorganization of society, for no man of reflection can doubt where 
 secession would end if a Southern Confederacy should be successfully estab 
 lished. 
 
 I cannot doubt that the people of this patriotic State, which you justly 
 say has done so much for the country during the existing war, will respond 
 to the call now made upon them. The alacrity and enthusiasm with which 
 they have repeatedly rushed to arms for the support of the Government and 
 the defence of the national flag from insult or degradation, have exalted the 
 character and given new vigor to the moral power of the State, and will in 
 spire our descendants with magnanimous resolutions for generations to come. 
 This example of fidelity to all that is honorable and elevated in public duty 
 must not be tarnished. 
 
 The recent riots in this city, coupled as they were with the most atrocious 
 and revolting crimes, have cast a shadow over it for the moment. Hut the 
 ptomptitudc with which the majesty of the law was vindicated, ami the fear 
 lessness with w^ich a high judicial functionary is pronouncing judgment 
 upon the guilty, have done, and are doing much to efface what, under a dif 
 ferent course of action, might have been an indelible stain upon the reputa 
 tion of the city. It remains only for the people to vindicate themselves from 
 reproach in the eyes of the country and the world by a cheerful acquiescence 
 in the law. That it has defects is generally conceded. That it will involve 
 cases of personal hardship is not disputed. War, when wa^cd for self-de 
 fence, for the maintenance of great principles, and for the national life, is 
 not exempt from the sufferings inseparable from all conflicts which are de 
 cided by the shock of armies, and it is by our firmness and our patriotism in 
 
APPENDIX L. 8 1 
 
 meeting all the calls of the country upon us, that we achieve the victory 
 and prove ourselves worthy of it and the cause in which we toil and 
 suffer. 
 
 Whatever defects the act authorizing the enrolment and draft may have, 
 it is the law of the land, framed in good faith by the representatives of the 
 people, and it must be presumed to be consistent with the provisions 
 of the Constitution until pronounced in conflict with them by competent ju 
 dicial tribunals. Those therefore, who array themselves against it are obnox> 
 ious to far severer censure than the ambitious or misguided men who are 
 striving to subvert the Government ; for, the latter are acting by color of 
 sanction under legislatures and conventions of the people in the States they 
 represent. Among us, resistance to the law by those who claim and enjoy 
 the protection of the Government has no semblance of justification and be 
 comes the very blackest of political crimes, not only because it is revolt 
 against the constituted authorities of the country, but because it would be 
 practically striking a blow for treason, and arousing to new efforts and new 
 crimes, those who are staggering to their fall under the resistless power of 
 our recent victories. 
 
 In conclusion, I renew the expression of my anxiety to be assured by your 
 Excellency at the earliest day practicable, that the military power of the 
 State will, in case of need, be employed to enforce the draft. I desire to re 
 ceive the assurance, because under a mixed system of government like ours, 
 it is best that resistance to the law should be put down by the authority of 
 the State in which it occurs. I desire it also, because I shall otherwise deem 
 it my duty to call on the General Government for a force which shall not 
 only be adequate to insure the execution of the law, but which shall enable 
 me to carry out such decisive measures as shall leave their impress upon the 
 mind of the country for years to come. 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 JOHN A. Dix, 
 
 Major Gtntral. 
 II 
 
82 APPENDIX Af t M 
 
 APPENDIX M. 
 
 DQUARTERS DEPAR 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, August 10, 1863. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST, \ 
 
 Col. Jas. B. Fry, 
 
 Provost Marshal Central. 
 
 COLONEL : 
 
 * * . * # * 
 
 I have asked the Governor whether I can rely on his co-operation with the 
 military power of the State. He has not answered. The President s letter 
 to him, which I have seen this morning, is admirable, and I do not see how 
 he can avoid giving an affirmative answer to my inquiry. 
 
 ******* 
 1 am, respectfully yours, 
 
 JOHN A. Dix, 
 
 Major General. 
 
 APPENDIX N. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST, \ 
 NEW YORK CITY, August 18, 1863. 
 
 His Excellency, Horatio Seymour^ 
 
 Governor of the State of New York. 
 
 SIR: I did not receive until last evening your letter of the isth instant. 
 
 Immediately on my arrival in this city on the i8th ult., I called upon you 
 with General Canby, and in a subsequent interview with you at my head 
 quarters, I expressed the wish that the draft in this State should be executed 
 without the employment of the troops in the service of the United States. 
 In a letter addressed to you on the 3Oth ult., I renewed more formally the 
 expression of this wish, and stated that if the military power of the State could 
 be relied on to enforce the draft, in case of forcible resistance to it, I need 
 not call on the Secretary of War for troops for the purpose. 
 
 In the same spirit when some of the Provost Marshals in the interior ap 
 plied to me for aid against threatened violence, I referred them to you in 
 order that they might be protected by your authority. It was my earnest 
 wish that the Federal arm should neither be seen nor felt in the execution of 
 the law for enrolling and calling out the national forces, but that it might be 
 carried out under the icgis of the State, which has so often been interposed 
 between the General Government and its enemies. Not having received an 
 
APPENDIX O, P. 83 
 
 answer from you, I applied to the Secretary of War on the I4th inst. for a 
 force adequate to the object. 
 
 The call was promptly responded to, and I shall be ready to meet all op 
 position to the draft. I trust, however, that your determination, of which 
 your letter advises me, to call into requisition the military power, if need be, 
 to put down violations of good order, riotous proceedings, and disturbances 
 of the public peace, as infractions of the laws of this State, will render it un 
 necessary to use the troops under my command for that purpose, and that 
 their only service here may be to protect the public property and the officers 
 of the U. S. in the discharge of their duties, and to give those who intend to 
 uphold the Government, as well as those who are seeking to subvert it, the 
 assurance that its authority will always be firmly and effectually maintained. 
 I am, very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN A. Dix, 
 
 Major General. 
 
 APPENDIX O. 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, N. Y., ) 
 August 1 8, 1863. \ 
 Maj. Gen l Ifallfck, 
 Genera l-in -c h iff 
 
 **#* 
 Governor Seymour, at the last moment, has notified me that there can be 
 no violation of good order, no riotous proceedings, and no disturbances of the 
 public peace which are not infractions of laws of the State ; that those laws 
 will be enforced under all circumstances. 
 
 JNO. A. Dix, 
 
 Maj. Gcn l. 
 
 APPENDIX P. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., ( 
 July 29, 1863. 2.30 P.M. f 
 
 Major General Meade, 
 Army of Potomac. 
 
 As it is quite possible that we may be obliged to detach some of your 
 troop* to enforce the draft and to bring on the drafted men, I think it would 
 
84 APPENDIX Q, -ff. 
 
 be best to hold for the present the upper line of the Rappahannock without 
 further pursuit of Lee. I will telegraph you as boon a* I can get a decision 
 in regard to the nth Corps. 
 
 H. W. HALLECK, 
 
 Genera f-in-f hie f. 
 
 APPENDIX Q. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, ) 
 (10:30 A.M.) August 16, 1863. f 
 
 Major General H. W. Halleck t 
 
 Genenil-in- Chief. 
 
 The following regiments will proceed to Alexandria to-day under the com 
 mand of Brig. General T. II. Ruger, viz.: 2d Massachusetts, 3d Wisconsin, 
 37th Indiana, 5th Ohio, 7th Ohio, agth Ohio, 66th Ohio, 4th Ohio, I4th 
 Indiana, 5th Michigan, 126th Ohio. The aggregate strength of these regi 
 ments is about 3,800. General Ruger has been directed to report to you by 
 telegraph on arriving at Alexandria for further instructions, and also by 
 telegraph to the Quartermaster General for transportation. The number of 
 men detached and who have left are as follows: 
 
 August 141)1, Regulars and Vermont Brigade, under General Ayers, 4,000. 
 August 1 5th, Regiments, 1,400. 
 
 August i6th, Ruger*s command 3,800: making in all 9,200, which, when 
 swollen by convalescents, and men detached on extra duty, who will be ^erit 
 as soon as possible, will make the aggregate force fully up to and over 10,000. 
 I do not propose without further orders to send any more. I have sent you 
 my best troops and some of my best officers. 
 
 CEO. G. MEAUK, 
 
 Maior General Comtfg. 
 
 APPENDIX R. 
 
 "OPINION. 
 
 " The position taken by the Governor of New York is not regarded as 
 sustained either by the letter or spirit of the Enrolment Act. The State in 
 which a drafted man is enrolled is necessarily credited with one soldier, 
 whether such drafted man enters the service personally or furnishes a sub 
 stitute, or pays the commutation money. If such person employs a substitute 
 
APPENDIX K. 85 
 
 and that substitute chances to be from another State, then this latter State, 
 according to the Governor s view, must also be credited with one soldier, to 
 that the practical operation of the rule would be to credit the Government 
 with two soldiers, when, in fact, it receives but one. Such an interpretation 
 should not be allowed to prevail, since it has no foundation in reason, and 
 is in derogation of the leading object of the Enrolment Act, which is to pro 
 vide an army for the public defence an object that would be but illy ac 
 complished if, in the computation, one soldier is to be counted to the Gov 
 ernment as two. 
 
 41 J. HOLT, 
 
 " fudge Advocate General." 
 August 24, 1863. 
 
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