Civil War
Hundreds of thousands of New York's young men fought during the Civil War, more than any other Northern state. A war was not in the best interest of business, because much of New York's trade was based on moving Southern goods. The city's large Democrat community feared the impact of Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. By the time of the 1861 Battle of Fort Sumter, political differences had vanished and the state quickly met Lincoln's request for soldiers and supplies. While no battles were waged in New York, the state wasn't immune to Confederate conspiracies, including one to burn various New York cities and another to invade the state via Canada.
In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in states that were still in rebellion against the union. In March 1863, the federal draft law was changed so that male citizens between 20 and 35 and unmarried citizens to age 45 were subject to conscription. Those who could afford to hire a substitute or pay $300 were exempt. Antiwar newspaper editors attacked the law. Democratic Party leaders raised the specter of a deluge of southern blacks. On the lottery's first day, July 11, 1863, the first lottery law was held. On Monday, July 13, 1863, five days of large-scale riots began.
Read more about this topic: History Of New York
Famous quotes by civil war:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)