August 22, 1863---The Seamy Side of New York Democracy

AUGUST 22, 1863:                     

The correspondent of the British newspaper The Spectator writes a scathing indictment of local politics in New York:

“CHARLESTON is not yet quite taken, but New York is; and, as I said in my last letter, that is the more important victory. The quiet which has prevailed here during the draft, there not having been the first symptom even of a row, and the changed tone of the pro-slavery Democratic press, are due less to the thorough preparation of the Police Department and the presence of national troops in considerable force, than to the discovery . . . that the jurisdiction and authority of the National Government are supreme and absolute . . . and thus that a man drafted into the service of that Government cannot be taken from it by State authority, except by armed and successful revolution . . . that the militia regiments, although they are ready to obey Governor Seymour's order at a day's warning, to march southward against the rebels, or to march northward against the rioters, cannot be depended upon by him if he sets himself up against the national authority . . .

They laugh at the Governor's airs as "Commander-in-Chief " --- a phrase he has been very fond of using lately; they say that until the rebellion is put down they regard themselves as actually, though not formally, in the national service as a reserve corps for emergencies, and that the President is their Commander-in-Chief . . . Under these circumstances, Governor Seymour's ability to lay siege to Forts Lafayette and Hamilton is discovered to be somewhat inadequate . . .

Meantime, and before this subject of the draft and the riots fades from our memories, let me give you a few facts and figures which have a bearing upon our Governor's recent ungraceful and undignified position. There are in the city of New York, as in older capitals, certain quarters which are almost entirely given up to the lowest and vilest classes of society; these being composed here, with exceptions so rare as to be unnoticeable, of persons of foreign birth. Names have been given to these quarters, as Mackerelville, Five Points, Cow Bay, Orleans Hook, &c., &c . . .

In these thirty-three election districts, according to the records of the Police Department, are two thousand seven hundred and forty-three groggeries, two hundred and seventy-nine notorious and disorderly brothels, one hundred and seventy known and habitual resorts of thieves and ruffians, one hundred and five policy shops (places in which a vile kind of lottery business is done), gambling and dance houses unnumbered, and also the head-quarters of the mob during the late riots . . .

Now, in these districts, at the last State election, Governor Seymour received 12,664 votes . . . But his majority is the whole State was only 10,752; so that you will see that from these dens of thieves, ruffians, and drunkards came not only the full majority by which he was elected, but 226 votes to spare. Remember that he is at present the pro-slavery Democratic candidate for the next Presidency, and that these quarters can always be relied upon to "go it blind" for the nominee of that party, unless he has given them personal offence, and you will see why it was that Governor Seymour, though not at heart a traitor, but only a narrow-minded partizan politician, temporized with the rioters, and called them openly his friends. It was by taking up their residence for a sufficient time in these election districts, that Fernando Wood and his brother Benjamin Wood, who made a fortune by dealing in " policies," were able to secure their return as members of Congress. Corrupt as the politics of New York are, they could have succeeded in no other way.”