Analysis of the Draft Riots in 1863
Analysis of the Draft Riots in 1863
There was a pressing need for more people to participate in the Civil War of 1863, which compelled the United States Congress to pass legislation, known as the Enrollment (Conscription) Act, on 3 March 1963. Opponents of the administration and opponents of President Abraham Lincoln vigorously attacked the bill (the Conscription Act), criticizing with particular emphasis a provision that enabled draftees to obtain exemption from service by supplying a substitute or by the payment of $300. Pressed by the inflationary war economy, the city’s laborers, mostly Irish immigrants, were demanding higher wages from the owners of the docks and factories only to find their jobs threatened by the installation of new machinery and the hiring of blacks and new immigrants. Conscription was the immediate cause for the significance disturbances in New York riots known as New York’s Bloodiest Week.
On March 3, 1863, the United States Congress enacted the Enrollment (Conscription) Act. It declared all able-bodied men between 20 and 45 liable to military service for three years. These men were drafted into two classes; the first being all men between 20 and 35, and the second being married men over 35 (only to be called on the never to come date when the first class was depleted). The purpose of this Act was to spur volunteerism (which worked, statistically speaking). Each state was broken down into congressional districts and if enough volunteers
Filled the quota, no draft took place in that district. Unfortunately, this led to numerous instances of fraud and other abnormalities on all sides. Many enrollees took inaccurate population counts, some officials padded the rolls with fictitious names to fill the quota, and many men just took off. As exemptions were also granted for medical reasons, and that of being the sole family provider, doctors were bribed, affidavits were filed falsely, and many other abuses took place.
The poor saw the draft as a heavy burden that the rich could escape the draft by hiring substitutes. One of the evil loopholes of the Conscription Act was the option for those who could afford it to hire a substitute to take the drafted man’s spot. In the South, at times the price for a substitute was over $1000. And in the North, high prices paid for substitutes by states and local communities. ...