Commissioners against the rioters in the streets of New York, in the
second week of July, 1863. Losses and defeats in the field could be and
were repaired, but defeat in New York would in all probability have ended
the war. It is not necessary to refer to the immediate direct effects of
such a disaster on the army in the field, although it is scarcely possible
to over-estimate the calamitous results that would have followed the
instantaneous stoppage, even for a short time, of the vast accumulations
of provisions, ammunition, and supplies of all kinds, that were on their
way to the army through New York. Nor is it necessary to speculate on the
effect of the diversion of troops from the front that such an event would
have compelled, in order to recover so vital a point. Washington had
better be uncovered than New York be lost. One thing only is needed to
show how complete and irreparable the disaster would have been; namely,
the effect it would have had on the finances of the country. With the
great banking-houses and moneyed institutions of New York sacked and
destroyed, the financial credit of the country would have broken down
utterly. The crash of falling houses all over the country that would have
followed financial disaster here, would have been like that of falling
trees in a forest swept by a hurricane. Had the rioters got complete
possession of the city but for a single day, their first dash would have
been for the treasures piled up in its moneyed institutions. Once in
possession of these, they, like the mobs of Paris, would have fired the
city before yielding them up. In the crisis that was then upon us, it
would not have required a long stoppage in this financial centre of the
country to have effected a second revolution. With no credit abroad and no
money at home, the Government would have been completely paralyzed. Not
long possession of the city was needed, but only swift destruction.

Doubtless the disastrous effects would have been increased tenfold, if
possible, by uprisings in other cities, which events showed were to