144 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



of troops. Having broken up the places of drafting and 

 burned them without resistance, they then went to burning 

 negro dwellings, and from that to general burning, pillage, 

 plunder, theft, robbery, and murder. A man last evening 

 was seized and choked, in front of our house, until he gave 

 up his purse. Men are knocked down and robbed every- 

 where with perfect impunity, for the police are gathered 

 in companies to fight the rioters en masse, and thus the 

 streets are left unprotected. Nor dare men resist, for 

 worse may befall them. The effect of intimidation is 

 tremendous, and the mob work it skilfully. I ventured 

 out this forenoon to the printer's half a mile or so 

 away. While I was there, up in the fifth story, where 

 they are doing my work, two bullies entered the office 

 below and ordered the establishment instantly closed, and 

 ail the hands (three hundred) turned out, or else they 

 would burn the building. The risk was real ; the order 

 was at once complied with and business stopped. The 

 two bullies went right on doing the same thing to other 

 establishments with equal success, and the consequence is 

 that the streets are deluged with working people out of 

 business. A portion of this crowd is of course sucked into 

 the vortex of strife, and the rest so clog the thoroughfares 

 as to make it dreadful for the military to fire. The inno- 

 cent are far more liable to suffer than the guilty. And as 

 there is no other way under heaven but to fire, great num- 

 bers of women, children, and innocent men are injured. 

 The mob is nearly all composed of Irish, and they are 

 raging for the blood of the negroes. We hear nothing but 

 " damned nigger " and " damned abolitionists " in all direc- 

 tions. But when the blood is up, nothing comes amiss. 

 They cleaned out a whole row of stores on Grand Street 

 yesterday. A hatter thought he was going to escape by 

 damning niggers too, but they took every hat out of his 

 shop. The draft is no doubt unpopular, but those news- 



