Thread: Our Past Predicts a Dangerous Future

If anyone here has seen the movie "Gangs of New York" then you know what I am about to say. It seems sometime before/during the Civil War the USA was undergoing a huge influx of immigrants from Europe. A national debate, that sometimes turned bloody, broke out all over the country with New York City being one of the worst places. The debate was between "Natural Borns" and "Immigrants" you HAD to be in one of these groups and many joined gangs. The gangs fought each other and influenced local elections. Eventually a compromise between the too was stuck, with the immigrants rights being the largest.

Today there are eery similarities to this time past. Only today we have three distinctive groups: "Natural Borns", "Immigrants" and "Illegals". If we are too win this fight we will need the help of the legal immigrants, all of them.

There is no room for a race debate. No room for deragatory name calling or even outburst of angers to those who oppose us (there were a few incidents at the Dallas rally today, mostly incited by the other side). This is a job for all of America's children and all of those who want to be America's children.

I fear if we do not keep on a peaceful path and combine the power of Naturals and Legals that this issue will begin being settled like it was in the old days.

Well Dragons5, it's funny you should say that because I was thinking of making a sign for tomorrow's protest that says something like: "We're here FOR LEGAL Immigrants."

A lot of people are feeling very sympathetic towards them because of the negative effect illegal immigration has on them. People don't know whether they're legal or illegal.

Remeber when President Bush said, "America should not have to choose between being a lawful society or a welcoming society." That is the only sentence regarding illegal immigration that he's ever said that I think is true.

We should NOT have to choose between being a lawful society or a welcoming society but that's exactly what we have had to do.
We're choosing "lawful".

What would President Bush suggest we choose ? What would he choose to have at his ranch if forced to choose !!

Dragons5,

First of all remember that Gangs of New York is a movie and not actual history. Anyone that puts their trust in Hollywood to tell them how history was is taking a big gamble.

Secondly, yes immigration and assimilation were always issues. ALIPAC's concept from the start has been to incorporate LEGAL immigrants into our plans. That goal has come to fruition as we have had the support of many legal immigrants here on our boards and I here a lot from them via email and phone calls. They are in our contributors list.

The thing that is important to note that in the past immigration history of America, when things became too much for the nation to handle then the people here exerted their will and put the brakes on immigration and illegal immigration. This has been the natural cycle.

In the 1930's and the 1950's there were surges in illegal immigration and the US cracked down. Our opponents claim there were lots of abuses during the crack downs.

This time we have a problem again and unlike the past forces are trying to stop the American public from limiting the influx till the immigrants can assimilate and order can be restored.

Should we fail to address this, then the natural cycle that America has followed of increased immigration and then restriction will be broken and the pattern of success that brought America to where it is today will be altered.

Legal immigrants are responding and they are standing with us.

One of the Legal immigrants that helped inspire the creation of ALIPAC was sworn in as a US citizen three weeks ago.

W

"We're here FOR LEGAL Immigrants."

that is so true. I posted somewhere that I saw a protester carrying a sign that read

LEGALIZE IMMIGRATION!

I had to laugh, IMMIGRATION is legal, INVASION isn't

the riots in New York were over the draft -- the powers of the federal government and the threat of "cheap labor" -- I have seen some reports that the dead was over a 1,000.

"White workers compared their value unfavorably to that of southern slaves, stating that "[we] are sold for $300 [the price of exemption from war service] whilst they pay $1000 for negroes." . . . "

New York City Draft Riots
(July 11-13, 1863)

"The nation is at this time in a state of Revolution, North, South, East, and West," wrote the Washington Times during the often violent protests that occurred after Abraham Lincoln issued the March 3, 1863, Enrollment Act of Conscription. Although demonstrations took place in many Northern cities, the riots that broke out in New York City were both the most violent and the most publicized.

With a large and powerful Democratic party operating in the city, a dramatic show of dissent had been long in the making. The state's popular governor, Democrat Horatio Seymour, openly despised Lincoln and his policies. In addition, the Enrollment Act shocked a population already tired of the two-year-old war.

By the time the names of the first draftees were drawn in New York City on July 11, reports about the carnage of Gettysburg had been published in city papers. Lincoln's call for 300,000 more young men to fight a seemingly endless war frightened even those who supported the Union cause. Moreover, the Enrollment Act contained several exemptions, including the payment of a "commutation fee" that allowed wealthier and more influential citizens to buy their way out of service.

Perhaps no group was more resentful of these inequities than the Irish immigrants populating the slums of northeastern cities. Poor and more than a little prejudiced against blacks-with whom they were both unfamiliar and forced to compete for the lowest-paying jobs-the Irish in New York objected to fighting on their behalf.

On Sunday, June 12, the names of the draftees drawn the day before by the Provost Marshall were published in newspapers. Within hours, groups of irate citizens, many of them Irish immigrants, banded together across the city. Eventually numbering some 50,000 people, the mob terrorized neighborhoods on the East Side of New York for three days looting scores of stores. Blacks were the targets of most attacks on citizens; several lynchings and beatings occurred. In addition, a black church and orphanage were burned to the ground.

All in all, the mob caused more than $1.5 million of damage. The number killed or wounded during the riot is unknown, but estimates range from two dozen to nearly 100. Eventually, Lincoln deployed combat troops from the Federal Army of the Potomac to restore order; they remained encamped around the city for several weeks. In the end, the draft raised only about 150,000 troops throughout the North, about three-quarters of them substitutes, amounting to just one-fifth of the total Union force.
Source: The Civil War Society's "Encyclopedia of the Civil War"

http://www.civilwarhome.com/draftriots.htm

New York City Draft Riots

The wife of a bedridden Union surgeon was a horrified witness to the New York City Draft Riots of July 1863.

By J.D. Haines


Martha Derby Perry was stunned when she looked out her upper-floor window into the New York City street below. She was sitting at the bedside of her husband, assistant surgeon John Perry of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteers, as he recovered from a severely fractured leg. Below, she "saw rushing up Lexington Avenue, within a few paces of our house, a great mob of men, women, and children; the men, in red working shirts, looking fairly fiendish as they brandished clubs, threw stones, and fired pistols. Many of the women had babies in their arms, and all of them were completely lawless as they swept on."

For five days, from Monday, July 13, until Friday, July 17, 1863, terror reigned in the streets of New York. Armed mobs protesting the first Federal conscription threatened the nation's manufacturing and commercial center. What began as a demonstration against the draft and Abraham Lincoln's Republican administration rapidly degenerated into bloody race riots that left at least 105 people dead. The New York City Draft Riots were by far the most violent civil disorder in 19th-century America. The widespread destruction threatened the very foundations of the Union.


The New York City Draft Riots came at a critical point during Lincoln's efforts to centralize the Federal government's power. The war was not going well for Lincoln in the spring of 1863. After two years of fighting, the Union Army had shown few signs that it could win the conflict and both sides had suffered enormous casualties. The Union ranks continued to thin due to death and desertion, and many three-year enlistments would soon be up. Volunteers could no longer be counted upon to replenish the ranks.

The War Department concluded that only a draft could supply the necessary manpower. A Federal provost marshal for each congressional district was appointed and empowered to conduct the draft and arrest those refusing to comply. The new law made all men between 20 and 35 and all unmarried men between 35 and 45 liable for military duty. Drafted men who presented an "acceptable substitute" or paid $300 were exempted. This placed the burden of service most heavily on poor whites, who resented the exemption.

For the first time in American history, the Federal government imposed itself directly into the affairs of the working class. The draft act juxtaposed three emotional issues--rich-poor relations, black-white relations and local-federal relations--into one explosive issue. Poor white laborers, many of them recent immigrants to the United States, felt threatened by the possible influx of cheap black labor. Since blacks were not full citizens, they could not be drafted. The rich could afford exemption. Poor whites, with some justice, felt discriminated against, which created an atmosphere that was ripe for revolt.

The draft began as scheduled on Saturday, July 11, and New Yorkers quickly realized that the governor and the Democrats were not going to be able to prevent conscription. Over the weekend of July 11 and 12, working people gathered in saloons, streets and kitchens to discuss their response to the draft lottery, which was scheduled to resume on Monday, July 13. As New York Her-ald Editor James Gordon Bennett later wrote, "Those who heard the scattered groups of laborers and mechanics who congregated in different quarters on Saturday evening...might have reasonably argued that a tumult was at hand."

The Draft Riots began on July 13 between 6 and 7 a.m. Employees of the city's railroads, shipyards, machine shops and ironworks and hundreds of other laborers failed to show up for work. By 8 o'clock, the workers were streaming up Eighth and Ninth avenues, closing shops, factories and construction sites and urging their workers to join them. The procession congregated in Central Park for a brief meeting, then formed into two columns that marched to the Ninth District provost marshal's office. They carried "NO DRAFT" placards.

At 10:30, the draft lottery got underway with the large crowd of protestors assembled outside. No one seemed to know what to do next until a fire engine company, Engine Company Number 33, arrived. The firemen set the provost marshal's office on fire, and the riot was ignited.

One way to understand the impact of the violence is to examine firsthand accounts of the events, like those of Martha Derby Perry. She left a detailed record of her experiences in letters to her family in Boston, which she later published in her husband's 1906 book, Letters From a Surgeon.

John Perry was a student at Harvard Medical School when the Civil War broke out. He joined the Union Army before completing his studies and was assigned as assistant surgeon with the 20th Massachusetts Volunteers. In the spring of 1863, Perry suffered a severe leg fracture in a horseback-riding accident and was transported to New York City, where he could recuperate with his wife and her family. Unfortunately, Perry could not locate a surgeon to set his broken leg. As he wrote, "At last, in sheer desperation, I asked my wife's brother to find splints, plaster and bandages and we, together, set my leg with good and permanent results."

The chapter in Dr. Perry's book concerning the Draft Riots was written by Martha Perry while her husband was recovering, "waiting with keen impatience for the time when he could return to his regiment." The noise below caught her attention that Mon-day: "On the first day of the riot, in the early morning, I heard loud and continued cheers at the head of the street, and supposed it must be news of some great victory. In considerable excitement I hurried downstairs to hear particulars, but soon found that the shouts came from the rioters who were on their way to work. About noon that same day we became aware of a confused roar; as it increased, I flew to my window, and saw rushing up Lexington Avenue, within a few paces of our house, a great mob of men, women and children..."

Even though many of the men were armed and "fairly fiendish," Martha "drew the cot upon which John was lying, his injured leg in a plaster cast, up to the window, and threw his military coat over his shoulders, utterly unconscious of the fact that if the shoulder straps had been noticed by the rioters they would have shot him, so blind was their fury against the army. The mass of humanity soon passed, setting fire to several houses quite near us, for no other reason, we heard afterward, than that a policeman, whom they suddenly saw and chased, ran inside one of the gates, hoping to find refuge. The poor man was almost beaten to death, and the house, with those adjoining, burned.

"At all points fires burst forth, and that night the city was illuminated by them. I counted from the roof of our house five fires just about us."

The next day, Mrs. Perry remembered, "was a fearful one. Men, both colored and white, were murdered within two blocks of us, some being hung to the nearest lamppost, and others shot. An army officer was walking in the street near our house, when a rioter was seen to kneel on the sidewalk, take aim, fire and kill him, then coolly start on his way unmolested. I saw the Third Avenue street car rails torn up by the mob. Throughout the day there were frequent conflicts between the military and the rioters, in which the latter were often victorious, being partially organized, and well armed with various weapons taken from the stores they had plundered.

"I passed the hours of that dreadful night listening to the bedlam about us; to the drunken yells and coarse laughter of the rioters wandering aimlessly through the streets, and to the shouts of a mob plundering houses a block away."

http://historynet.com/acw/bldraftriots/index1.html