[CIVIL WAR] -- [NEW YORK CITY DRAFT RIOTS]. To the Laboring Men of New York. 18 July 1863.

Visible 11 5/8 x 18 3/4 in. printed broadside (toning); framed to 12 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. (not examined out of frame). Signed in type "A Democratic Workingman".

A rare broadside urging Democratic men to not riot and avoid violence, using moral and economic arguments including, "Comrades:---Do you want to pay heavy taxes?" and "It is cheaper and better to Stand by the Law!"

The working classes of heavily-immigrant New York City had been lukewarm to the war from the start, as many of the South's exports passed through the ports and markets of the city and therefore provided many immigrant jobs. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 strengthened immigrant opposition to the war as many foresaw emancipated African Americans migrating to the city to compete for already low-paying jobs. The conscription act was the final straw, and local Democrats and Southern sympathizers seized on the opportunity to foment rebellion against African Americans, Republican supporters, newspaper offices, and eventually federal troops, resulting in what was likened to a Confederate victory.

Printer Samuel Tousey put his presses to work immediately, plastering his "Stop and Think!" and "Don't Unchain the Tiger!" and 7 other broadsides with W.O. Bourne, throughout the city in an attempt to quell the hysteria. Although signed "A Democratic Workingman", Tousey was in fact a committed Republican. His New York Times obituary of 1887 states that "he joined the Republican Party at its organization, and throughout the war was on terms of intimacy with many of its leaders," and says of his anti-riot appeals such as the one offered here, that "a most wholesome a effect was produced." RARE: OCLC locates only 12 copies.

Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana, and Historical Documents