invested and threatened with attack and demolition, bravely said: "They
are, in purpose and in essence, a Diversion in favor of Jefferson Davis
and Lee. Listen to the yells of the mob and the harangues of its
favorite orators, and you will find them surcharged with 'Nigger,'
'Abolition,' 'Black Republican,' denunciation of prominent Republicans,
The Tribune, etc. etc.--all very wide of the Draft and the exemption.
Had the Abolitionists, instead of the Slaveholders, revolted, and
undertaken to upset the Government and dissolve the Union, nine-tenths
of these rioters would have eagerly volunteered to put them down. It is
the fear, stimulated by the recent and glorious triumphs of the Union
Arms, that Slavery and the Rebellion must suffer, which is at the bottom
of all this arson, devastation, robbery, and murder."

The Democratic Governor, Seymour, by promising to "have this Draft
suspended and stopped," did something toward quieting the Riots, but it
was not until the Army of the Potomac, now following Lee's retreat, was
weakened by the sending of several regiments to New York that the
Draft-rioting spirit, in that city, and to a less extent in other
cities, was thoroughly cowed.

[In reply to Gov. Seymour's appeal for delay in the execution of
the Draft Law, in order to test its Constitutionality, Mr. Lincoln,
on the 7th of August, said he could not consent to lose the time
that would be involved in obtaining a decision from the U. S.
Supreme Court on that point, and proceeded: "We are contending with
an Enemy who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can
reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a
slaughter-pen. No time is wasted, no argument is used.

"This system produces an Army which will soon turn upon our now