EXTRACT

FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC MEETING OF THE CITIZENS OF BINGHAMTON, N. Y., ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION OF A NATIONAL FLAG TO MR. MONTGOMERY, OF

VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI, August, 1863.

THE NEW YORK RIOT.

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The recent "conservative" meeting in the city of New York, called by some radical" ill-natured people a riot and a mob, it will be seen, came off about the time of Lee's movement into Pennsylvania, and the raids of Morgan and others into Ohio and Indiana. There are a thousand evidences combining to prove that these several movements had an intimate relation to each other, and that each one was well understood by every other, or rather by those who helped plan the whole. The ominous givings-out which preceded them; the foreign recognition thermometer in England and France, where the mercury rose so speedily at this juncture and simultaneously; the confident and insolent tone of the Confederate press; the mission of the rebel Stephens to Washington; the Copperhead complacency as the movements were inaugurated and progressing, and its malignity on their failure; the mutterings of Lee in his inglorious retreat, that he had not been received and supported by his Northern friends as he expected, and a whole cloud of witnesses besides, prove that the New York movement was a part, and intended to be directly in aid of the plans for promoting the cause of rebellion. The draft was a mere pretence, and had really no more to do with stimulating the action of the mob than that of the Quaker Meeting held in the city a few weeks previous. The whole was originally a device

of some of the most wicked and unscrupulous and pestilent politicians that ever infested society.

The commencement of the draft was, by preconcert, made the occasion for the outbreak, because it was supposed by the managers of the affair that they could at that time, and upon that occasion, better embody their motley crew; better influence the passions of the ignorant and prejudiced, and better turn to political account, and wield in aid of the rebellion, a riot commenced in an ostensible resistance to the draft than otherwise. To be sure, the course of true love between the rebel movements and Copperhead sympathizers, according to the proverb, did not run smooth-and, as they say on railroads, failed to make connection; but this is no answer or offset to the evidence of what was so obviously the original arrangement and intention. The movement was contrived by Copperhead politicians, and was designed to be turned entirely to political advantage in aid of the rebel cause. It was supposed that it would early assume political proportions, and claim to act mainly in resistance to the usurpations and unconstitutional acts of the administration; that it would call loudly for the vindication of the Constitution and laws, would embody a large force, and, at the right point, while it was yet heated, those who set it on foot were to appear at its head, preaching moderation with all the sincerity of Mark Antony, but leading it, at first, in opposition to the administration; then in resistance to the government, and finally in open aid of the rebellion. But the surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson; the failure of Johnston and the retreat of Bragg; the gloomy prospects of Morgan and the chances of his capture; the fact that Lee came too soon and ran away too early; that the draft came too late to have the riot on hand while Lee was threatening Harrisburg and Philadelphia and Baltimore and Washington, and that military forces began to assemble and adduce weighty arguments, proved very serious impediments.

There was, however, one obstacle more serious still; and to this are the public chiefly indebted for the early and signal failure of that part of the performance assigned to the Copperhead politicians of New York, and but for which they would have pressed it further. An ancient legend, which I have never seen authentically contradicted, tells of a girl engaged in the

carrying trade for fairies, who was sent from one point to another with a box of charmed and mysterious contents. It was not the box of Pandora, filled with plagues and the ills of life, but a box filled with miniature human existences in every department and calling and ramification known to men. The girl having been directed not to open the box, and told that alarming consequences would follow if she did so, by a process as natural and a desire as irresistible as that by which our common mother ate of the fruit she was forbidden to taste, on her way, in a secluded field, opened the box, and its contents escaped, and each one commenced to operate his particular trade or pursuit or business;-the cook plied his spit; the tailor heated his goose; the cobbler pounded his lap-stone; the doctor administered his medicine; the fiddler drew his bow; the dancers balanced in the cotillion; the artisan wielded his hammer; the scholar pored over his volumes, and the mathematician solved his problem; and probably, though that is not certain, the reformed Free-soilers abused the Abolitionists, and the KnowNothings were engaged in the organization of the Democratic party. The poor girl in vain endeavored to induce them to return to the box again. She made a speech to them-called them her "friends," and implored them to return; but they were bent upon their own enjoyment rather than hers, and laughed all her efforts and entreaties to scorn; and, scattering far and near, spread over the whole face of the earth, and were gone beyond her influence and control forever. Now, as we have already seen, the outbreak in New York originated with politicians, acting upon and inflaming and encouraging the very worst elements that ever disfigured society-thieves, ruffians, and cut-throats; bawds, pimps, and burglars; house-breakers and murderers; assassins and the settlings and skimmings of loaferdom, after the marketable lazzaroni had been subtracted. The contrivers and leaders who opened the box, and turned loose these offscourings, expected them to act politically-in pretended furtherance of a great conservative movement; to damn Lincoln and his administration; to hurrah for their friends; to clamor for the Constitution and laws; for free speech and the wrongs of Vallandingham and their Southern brethren; while they, the managers, would fan this flame to madness and add the true Copperhead virus to the popular fury

by descanting upon the hardships and oppressions of legal restraints, until they might defy the power of the government and openly assist the rebellion. But no sooner had the outbreak commenced than, as in the legend, each interest entered upon its own work, more intent on personal gain than on "postponing the draft." The thieves and robbers were willing to act politically with the great conservative party, and advance the interests of their leaders, and vindicate the Constitution, after they had for a season looked to their own interests and robbed and sacked stores and houses, and carried home the spoil, but not before. They had been accustomed, from a supposed cruel necessity, to steal and rob in darkness and secrecy, and they were not disposed to so far neglect their own material interests as to let an occasion pass which permitted them to steal in open day, from the choicest assortments, with governors and judges standing by proclaiming their "friendship!" merely to advance the political fortunes of others or to support the Constitution. House-breaking and burning were necessary to successful theft and robbery, and hence the votaries of burglary and arson were primarily engaged in their respective avocations. Theft first and politics afterwards was their motto. Those who had been taught by their conservative leaders that it would disgrace white men if negroes were accepted as soldiers, and taught, too, that it would be unjust and aggressive for white men to be drafted into the service, sought to solve the problem by murdering every negro they could find, old or young, male or fe male; while others, determined to give practical proofs of their conservatism and of their devotion to the Constitution and laws, burned and demolished an orphan asylum, erected by the influences of a holy charity, and destroyed the abodes of otherwise homeless children.

In short, this "movement of the people" was a "house divided against itself," and for that reason it failed to stand. It was set on foot by political leaders, primarily to aid their fortunes and to encourage the rebellion. It was prosecuted by most of their followers to gather supplies for themselves; and the material proved paramount to the political interests; and hence, while it brought rich rewards to its rank and file, it was a barren victory to the "Commander-in-Chief." It was a great success to all but those who got it up by two years' clamor

against government usurpation, and apology for rebellion, and by denouncing everything as unconstitutional except Jeff. Davis' rebellion and Copperhead politics. It was the carnival of thieves. A hungry loafer in Neal's Charcoal Sketches is made to long for the time to come when roast pigs would run about with knives and forks stuck in their backs, waiting for some one to eat them; and when governors and judges attend such mob gatherings, and proclaim, at the top of their voices, their friendship, and tender promises of what they will do officially, the season for running, living roast pigs, with knives and forks in their backs, ought not to be far off.

His Excellency the Governor seems to have made a postponement of the draft an issue with the general government, and is said to have predicted that, if it was not postponed, all the Irish chamber and kitchen maids would turn incendiaries, and burn the city. I do not believe the public either distrust the chamber-maids or favor the postponement. But, whatever these gentle maids may do to others, as we cannot spare our worthy Governor in such times as these, I " implore" them, as my "friends," not to lay violent hands on the Commander-inChief, or burn his lodgings, for, according to high authority, "it is better to marry than to burn," and they can find pleasanter employment than arson in any of its degrees. Governor Seymour has not unfrequently reminded the public that he had taken an oath of rare solemnity to "execute the laws." That oath he has now fulfilled, if never before. He has certainly "executed the laws" upon this occasion, for he has literally crucified them between thieves.

Although this murderous and thieving outbreak will not prove available as Copperhead capital, the rebels, with savage ferocity, already gloat over what they term the "blood-soaked ashes" of our commercial metropolis; and France and England, anxious to aid the rebellion against our government by all the means in their power, will probably "recognize" the New York mob as a "belligerent power." They can do so with as much propriety as they recognized the rebellion as such; and if they do not "recognize" it as a government that prince of charlatans, Louis Napoleon, and the knaves and fools of the British Parliament, ought at least to take the matter into grave consideration.