Important as its
enforcement throughout the country was as a means of filling up the
ranks of our armies, the outbreak in New York made it a thousand times
more important as the only adequate assertion of the supremacy of
national law.
There can be no doubt as to the nature, origin, and purpose of that
outbreak. It was the result of a long-prepared traitorous conspiracy in
the interest of the rebels. The enforcement of the draft against mob
violence instigated by treason, was indispensable not only to the
successful prosecution of the war against the rebels of the South, but
to the maintenance of the supreme authority and power of the National
Government, and of the foundations of social order at the North. Not to
have enforced it might have insured the triumph of the rebellion and the
independence of the South; it certainly would have rendered the North no
longer a country fit for any decent man to live in. Such and so great
was the significance of the crisis. The responsibility of the
Administration was immense. The President met it nobly. He took care
that a sufficient military force--not under the control of Governor
Seymour, but of a well-tried patriot--was present in New York. He
carried out the draft there and everywhere else. He crushed the schemes
and hopes of the traitorous conspirators--more guilty than the rebels in
arms-and gave a demonstration of the _strength of the National
Government_, as grand in its majesty as it was indispensable to the
national salvation in this crisis and to its security in all future
time.
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