Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

1 p. on bifolium; 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (247 x 197 mm); signature slightly smudged; very light spotting.

A RESOLUTE PRESIDENT LINCOLN RESUMES THE DRAFT, calling for 2,050 men in the 2nd District in the state of New York.

Less than a month after the New York Draft Riots—the deadliest rioting in American history—President Lincoln orders a resumption of the hated draft in that state.

The four-day rioting that broke out in Lower Manhattan from 13-16 July 1863 was the most serious violent challenge in the north to authority during Lincoln's time in office. By 1863, after two long years of intense bloodshed, enthusiasm in the North for the War had declined, and the Union Army struggled to recruit and maintain its troop numbers. In New York, simmering tensions within the Irish and German working-class community over opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation, and its egalitarian and competitive implications, came to a boiling point with the passage of the first federal conscription law in March of 1863. This draft forced all men between the ages of 20-35, and all unmarried men between 35-45, to enlist in the Union Army. Exceptions were made for African-Americans (as they were not considered citizens) and those who could hire a substitute or pay a $300 exemption fee (the equivalent of one year's salary for the average American worker).

These class and racial antipathies, goaded by anti-abolitionist and anti-war publications written by Confederate and Democratic sympathizers, came to a head the day after the first draft lottery, on July 12. Largely led by a mob of Irish laborers, rioters attacked military and government buildings, abolitionist offices, and then Black men and women, their homes, and their businesses--notoriously setting fire to the Colored Orphan Asylum. The insurrection was only quelled by the arrival of Union troops, many having just fought in the Battle of Gettysburg a month earlier.

Despite the destruction that left over 300 dead, as well as opposition from New York's governor and Democratic establishment, who viewed the draft as unconstitutional, here Lincoln defiantly signs an order authorizing the draft's resumption.

While draft calls signed by Lincoln for states other than New York appear frequently at auction, those relating to the site of the insurrection, and dated after the riots, are much more uncommon.

Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California
Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994