More than a thousand men had been killed and three thousand wounded—among them many women.
The Democratic papers now boldly demanded that the draft should be officially suspended until its constitutionality could be tested by the courts. The State and Municipal authorities of New York appealed to the President to suspend the draft.
He answered:
"If I suspend the draft there can be no army to continue the war and the days of the Republic are numbered. The life of the Nation is at stake."
They begged for time, and he hesitated for a day. The victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg were forgotten in the grim shadow of a possible repetition of the French Revolution on a vast scale throughout the North. The mob had already sacked the office of the Times in Troy, broken out in Boston, and threatened Cincinnati.
The President gave the Governor of New York his final answer by sending an army of ten thousand veterans into the city. He planted his artillery to sweep the streets with grape and cannister, and ordered the draft to be immediately enforced.
The new wheel was set up, and turned with bayonets. The mobs were overawed and the ranks of the army were refilled.