"Bread," arose on every side. Propositions were made to break open the
stores, and get what they needed. Flour was hoarded up in them because so
little could be got on from the West. The granaries there were groaning
with provisions; but there was no money to pay for the transportation.
There was money East, but kept locked up in fear. As this became known to
the mob, their exasperation increased. To know that there were both food
enough and money enough, while they were starving to death, was enough to
drive them mad, and there were ominous mutterings. Fortunately, the
authorities saw in time the threatened danger, and warded it off. A great
many were set to work on the Central Park and other public works, while
soup-houses were opened throughout the city, and private associations
formed to relieve the suffering; and the winter passed without any
outbreak, though more than five thousand business-houses in the country
failed, with liabilities reaching three hundred millions of dollars.



CHAPTER X.


DRAFT RIOTS OF 1863.

Cause of the Riots--The London _Times_.--Draft called a despotic
Measure.--The despotic Power given to Washington by Congress.--Despotic
Action sometimes Necessary, in order to save the Life of the Nation.--The
Rights of Government.--Drafting the Legitimate Way to raise an Army--It is
not Unequal or Oppressive.

The ostensible cause of the riots of 1863 was hostility to the draft,
because it was a tyrannical, despotic, unjust measure--an act which has