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upon by the sailors then in port, and they resolved to right their fancied wrongs by force. Early on the morning of April 7th the firing of a house was the signal for the uprising. Several whites having been killed, the troops were ordered from the fort, and many negroes were shot, either on the street or after speedy trials. It is estimated that the total number of those who were killed and executed was as great for the city of those days as 5,000 would be to-day. The great insurrection of the negroes occurred in 1741, when hundreds of them were decapitated, burned at the stake, or transported, simply on the say-so of "Peggy" and Mary Burton. The whole legal machinery simply assisted a mob — organized under the leadership of Judge Horsmanden and the attorney-general- to carry out its spirit of vindictiveness without order, reason, or law.

If we continue our investigation we shall find that the "swell mob" of London was not a more dangerous foe to the social and political commonwealth than were the "Dead Rabbits" and the "Roach Guards" who battled for days with the police in the Bowery of thirty years ago, their opportunity having arisen from a conflict of authority and a doubt as to which police force was "regular," the old or the new.

The draft riots of New York in 1863 were conspicuous instances of the fact that politics arouses the unruly elements of society. Those terrible days of July commenced with an attack upon the enrolling offices where the draft for soldiers to put down the rebellion was progressing. Conflicts with the police followed, Superintendent Kennedy coming in for an especial share. Then came the persecution and death of dozens of colored people, the burning of their Orphan Asylum and an armory on Second Avenue, and the attempts to fire the colored school belonging to St. John's Chapel, the "Tribune" building, and many other structures. At length the weather-beaten veterans came from the front and fought the rioters inch by inch until they were subdued with an estimated loss of more than 1,000.

Although this riot far surpassed any other that has taken place on American soil, it was the same in spirit as the election riot of 1834, also in New York. On that occasion the conflict came between the Jackson Democrats and the alliance of the Whigs with the Independent Democrats. Brute force was used on either side to prevent the casting of ballots, until finally, on the third and last day of the election, the mayor was wounded and police captain Flagg was killed. The militia was called out, and the rioters ended their work.

The abolition riots of 1833 were much more directly the ancestors, so to speak, of the draft riots of thirty years later. At that time Mr. Garrison and other anti-slavery speakers were obliged to speak where they could, or to abandon their meetings altogether. Attacks were made upon the residences of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and many other leading abolitionists; but the excesses seldom extended beyond the destruction of property.

There was also, in that generation, a series of riots against foreigners which showed a malevolent spirit that would not be tolerated to-day. For speaking disrespectfully of the institution of slavery, an Englishman, who managed the Bowery Theatre, was obliged to stop his play. At the Five Points there was a battle between Americans and foreigners which ended in bloodshed. But the most terrible instance of the warfare upon foreigners was the Astor-Place riot of 1849, occasioned by the rivalry between Forrest and Macready. It had been charged that Macready once hissed Forrest when the latter was playing in London. Hence the matter became one of national retaliation on the part of some when Macready came over to America. On the same evening "Macbeth was advertised for Mr. Forrest at the Broadway Theatre, and for Mr. Macready at the Astor - Place Opera - House. Rumors of insults to Macready were rife, and they were met with rumors that the crew of a British steamer then in the harbor would defend the person of the British actor. The rabble entered the opera-house, and Macready was forced to leave the stage and to retire to his hotel. Many of the leading citizens were so ashamed of these proceedings that they sent a written request to the foreign actor, asking that the play be repeated on the next evening. The rabble again came; but they were kept from the interior of the opera-house. The actor and his supporters moved perfunctorily through the play and slipped away quietly to their hotels. The rabble outside had now grown into a riot, and the Seventh Regiment was summoned. Upon its appearance, Recorder Talmadge called upon the rioters to disperse. General Hall and Colonel Duryea attempted to be heard, but in vain. The insurgents crowded upon the soldiers and pelted them with stones and other missiles. "Fire if you dare, and take the life of a freeborn American for a bloody British actor," shouted a rioter. Others dared the troops and crowded them still closer. At last the command was given to fire. Only one musket was discharged. Another command resulted in the discharge of three more muskets. The third command led to a volley; and the second and

third volleys made an end of the riot, more than twenty having been killed, and thirty wounded. It was the first instance in American history when the citizen soldiery upheld the law with nerve and decision, and the incident helped to make the reputation of the regiment that was then on duty. Forrest never alluded to the matter, but Macready left at once for more hospitable shores.

Among the riots which may be classed as political we must not overlook those beginnings of the American Revolution that were brought about by the imposition of the Stamp Act. For years after the end of the late civil war in the United States the people were paying their mites toward its expenses with scarce a murmur. But their ancestors of one hundred years ago were up in arms against the monstrous injustice of paying for stamped paper, the revenue of which was to help pay for the French and Indian wars. The Mexicans of 1884 in turn protested with violence against the imposition of a tax payable in stamps. There was a concerted opposition throughout all of the American colonies in 1765. In New York the mob drove Governor Colden into the fort, burned him and Lord Bute in effigy, destroyed the house of the commander of artillery, and made an unsuccessful search for the stamped paper. At that time, Sir William Johnson wrote to the Hon. Mrs. Crosby of "the violent and unreasonable conduct of the Americans occasioned by the Stamp Act, all of which has been excited by a few pretended patriots and lawyers whose business must decrease from the duties on law proceedings."

Violent and revolutionary as were these acts, they were foreshadowed by the troubles in the manor of Livingston in 1753, when the authorities of Massachusetts Bay entered the manor and carried away Robert Vanduersen and his son Johannis for denying their jurisdiction. This invasion led to a proclamation by Governor Clinton for the apprehension of the rioters. And they were foreshadowed also by the attacks upon Governor Leisler in the streets of New York in 1690, the rioters refusing to pay the taxes levied by the Assembly for the war, and demanding that certain malefactors be released from prison.

Even religion has sometimes been invoked to inspire the cause of the law-breakers. We read of riots between the Orangemen and their foes in a small hamlet of Newfoundland. But it is only the outcome of the Orange riots which took place in Montreal several years ago, the question being whether the Orangemen were a “regular organization," (and thus entitled to parade), or

not. And this Montreal riot, which resulted in the death of Hackett and others, would perhaps have never taken place had not very much the same question been discussed in New York city in July, 1871. The Orangemen sought to parade. There was no law, as in Montreal, requiring them to be certified as regularly organized. Threats were made that they should not parade. The louder the threats the greater became their desire to parade. The question became removed from the domain of a religious warfare to that of the right of an American citizen. Those who threatened had already had their parade. The law, enforced by the military, stepped in and declared that if one side might parade the other might parade also. To assert this cost many lives, through a blunder of the military. But the rights of the citizen were vindicated.

The most expansive branch of our subject is that relating to disturbances that have been caused by a reduction of wages. The consideration of strikes is foreign to the scope of the present inquiry, save when they take on forms of violence. Under this head we may include the "anti-rent" riots of 1766, along the lower part of the Hudson River, when jails were broken open and rioters were released. Also the similar riots of forty years ago, among the Delaware hills and the fastnesses of the Helderbergs, the object being to defy the exaction of ground-rent by the descendants of the Patroon. Bread riots are in the same class of protests against low wages. And even here we discover that the ravages of the mob when they destroyed Eli Hart's flour in New York city, in 1837, were only repetitions of the excesses that took place in Montreal in 1758, "on the occasion of the reduction and change of the food," a revolt so formidable that it had to be put down by Chevalier de Levis.

Indulgence must be asked while we dwell for a moment on the most extensive strike that has ever been attempted in America, and one which was the cause of riots in several localities. This strike was foreshadowed by a smaller strike along the line of the Erie and other railroads in March, 1874, but it was left for the month of July, 1877, to witness a development to its greatest proportions. There were no signs of what was to come when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, on the 16th, carried into effect the ten per cent. reduction of wages already agreed upon by the managers of the great trunk lines. Earnest protests had been made elsewhere, but no violence had been used. On the afternoon of the 16th forty firemen and twenty brakemen left their trains. By

noon of the next day the road was in the control of the strikers, a conflict had taken place, and the militia had been overawed at Martinsburg. Then followed the riot at Baltimore, which was participated in not so much by railroad men as by men wholly out of employment. The governors of West Virginia and Maryland appealed to President Hayes, and United States troops were sent into those States to sustain the proclamation of the national executive. On the 18th the authorities of the Pennsylvania Railroad imposed additional work on the event of freight trains in that locality, an act that gave an excuse to the employees of that road for joining in the strike. The sheriff read the proclamation of Governor Hartranft without effect. The military of Pittsburgh were called out, only to throw away their arms and fraternize with the mob and their allies, the police, when the regiment from Philadelphia had discharged a volley prematurely. The Philadelphians fled to the roundhouse for their lives, their shelter was fired, and they fought their way to another place of safety. The disorders extended to Philadelphia, but they were quickly suppressed by General Hancock, who had come over from Baltimore by order of the President and by request of the Governor. In the mining regions about Pottsville, Shamokin, Scranton, and the Lehigh Valley the "Molly Maguires " made the most of their opportunity by joining the strikers. Along the Erie Railway a reduction of wages led to riots at Hornellsville and Susquehanna, a proclamation by Governor Robinson, and the speedy summoning of militia from Brooklyn and New York. All along the other great trunk lines trains were stopped, at Columbus, Toledo, Cleveland, Fort Wayne, and other centres, and traffic and travel were entirely suspended. On the 23d Cincinnati was at the mercy of a mob, but no violence followed. The strikes, now practically over at the East so far as the development into riots was concerned, began to be more alarming at the West. Several weeks before the outbreak the "Grand Army of Starvation" had resolved to demand of the Common Council of Chicago the collection of back taxes and the employment of all laborers without work by the municipal authorities. This restless element, encouraged by what was taking place elsewhere, brought on the riots about Turner Hall and the Halstead Street viaduct, and made it necessary to call for United States troops. In St. Louis the citizens and the public were organized so thoroughly that the United States troops were not needed when they came. The negroes forced all owners of steamboats along the levees to pledge an

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