3) Letter from a rioter that appeared in the New York Times, July 15, 1863.

MONDAY NIGHT&endash;&endash;UP TOWN

To the Editors of the New-York Times,

You will, no doubt, be hard on us rioters tomorrow morning, but the 300-dollar law has made us nobodies, vagabonds and cast-outs of society, for whom nobody cares when we must go to war and be shot down. We are the poor rabble, and the rich rabble is our enemy by this law. Therefore we will give our enemy battle right here, and ask no quarter. Although we got hard fists, and are dirty without, we have soft hearts, and have clean consciences within, and that's the reason we love our wives and children more than the rich, because we have not much besides them; and we will not go and leave them at home for to starve... Why don't they let the [slave] kill the slave-driving race and take possession of the South, as it belongs to them.

A POOR MAN, BUT A MAN FOR ALL THAT.

 

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