Conscription Act Dbq

In 1863, seeing the confederates oncoming to the North, The Congress decided to recruit more people to the army. Consequently, the Conscription Act led to the riots in New York City during 11-16 July 1963 that is known in history as the Draft Week. In fact, the uprising was a rebellion of the Irish immigrants against the black inhabitants of New York, which finally became one of the most destructive riots in the history of the city.
Iver Bernstein, the researcher of the draft riots, claims: “The provisions of the law highlighted three explosive issues in mid-century New York City: relations between the wealthy and the poor, between blacks and whites, and between the city and the nation”. First of all, the Act assumed a three hundred dollar payoff or a possibility to replace a conscript with someone else. “The Conscription Act was less easily tolerated: the baldly inequitable three-hundred-dollar commutation clause seemed a naked exercise of class power by the wealthy”. It denounced the insecurity of the New York lower classes, which have no way except joining the army.
For example, immigrants were recognized as American citizens due to the efforts of the Democratic Party Tammany Hall, which led to the fact that the Conscription Act spread on them, as well. Furthermore, Tammany Hall watched the lottery, which chose conscripts, and it helped to keep the city in peace for a while.
The Draft Riots were smothered as soon as the American government reacted to them and sent federal troops to the New York City. Lasting only three days, riots brought destruction to the city and uncovered many antagonisms among its inhabitants. Hence, these New York mass riots were a complex conflict, which was based on several inflamed issues, such as class tensions, racial hatred, the problem of immigrants and disturbances of criminal gangs of the