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278 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

in favor of the one, as against the other. In a word, in all that he did, or
attempted, he made it manifest that the one great and all commanding object
with him, was the peace and preservation of the Union, and that this was the
motive and main spring of all his measures. His wisdom and moderation at
this point were for a season useful to the loyal cause in the border states, but
it may be fairly questioned, whether they did not chill the union ardor of the
loyal people of the north in some degree, and diminish rather than increase the
sum of our power against the rebellion: for moderate, cautious, and guarded
as was this proclamation it created a howl of indignation and wrath amongst
the rebels and their allies. The old cry was raised by the copperhead organs of
"an abolition war," and a pretext was thus found for an excuse for refusing to
enlist, and for marshaling all the negro prejudice of the north on the rebel side.
Men could say they were willing to fight for the union, but that they were not
willing to fight for the freedom of the negroes; and thus it was made difficult
to procure enlistments or to enforce the draft. This was especially true of New
York, where there was a large Irish population. The attempt to enforce the
draft in that city was met by mobs, riot, and bloodshed. There is perhaps no
darker chapter in the whole history of the war, than this cowardly and bloody
uprising in July, 1863. For three days and nights New York was in the hands
of a ferocious mob, and there was not sufficient power in the government of
the country or of the city itself, to stay the hand of violence, and the effusion
of blood. Though this mob was nominally against the draft which had been
ordered, it poured out its fiercest wrath upon the colored people and their
friends. It spared neither age nor sex; it hanged negroes simply because they
were negroes, it murdered women in their homes, and burned their homes
over their heads, it dashed out the brains of young children against the lamp
posts, it burned the colored orphan asylum, a noble charity on the corner of
5th ave. and 45th st., and scarce allowing time for the helpless two hundred
children to make good their escape, plundering the building of every valuable
piece of furniture; and colored men, women, and children were forced to seek
concealment in cellars or garrets or wheresoever else it could be found until
this high carnival of crime and reign of terror should pass away.

In connection with Geo. L. Stearns, Thomas Webster, and Col. Wagner. I
had been at Camp William Penn, Philadelphia, assisting in the work of filling
up the colored regiments, and was on my way home from there just as these
events were transpiring in New York. I was met by a friend at Newark who
informed me of this condition of things. I, however, pressed on my way to the
Chambers street station of the Hudson River Railroad in safety, the mob being
in the upper part of the city, fortunately for me, for not only my color, but my