The Riots on July 13-16 One of Mr. Lincoln’s aides, William O. Stoddard, had asked to take a leave from Washington to recover from overwork and malaria. Accompanied by his brother Henry, Stoddard went to New York City where “we walked blindly into the Draft Riot…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >

The Riots’ Causes According to Herbert Asbury in The Gangs of New York, Democratic political leaders “frequently appeared at Police Headquarters, and at a time when houses were being looted and burned and Negroes tortured and hanged…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >

The 1863 Draft Riots The draft riots stemmed from many causes — not the least of which was the way that violence had been employed for political reasons in the past three decades. But the proximate cause was the fact that New York City… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Mayoral Elections New York City politics was not for the faint of heart. “Our city legislators, with but few exceptions, are an unprincipled, illiterate, scheming set of cormorants, foisted upon the community through the machinery of primary elections, bribed…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Gubernatorial Elections Republicans working with War Democrats on a Union ticket had won an overwhelming victory in the 1861. There were efforts during the spring of 1862 to keep the Union effort alive. But Republicans had a difficult time keeping… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

1864 Patronage Problems Patronage in New York was never simple. Not only were there competing Republican factions. There were competing Republican newspapers. And the battles between the political factions also became the battles between… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Civil War Patronage Horace Greeley was opposed to anything that Thurlow Weed was for — and he put aside differences with other New York Republicans to focus on a common enemy. “Other Lincoln men who did not want to see Lincoln become Weed’s man were…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Pre-Inaugural Patronage According to historian Burton J. Hendrick: “The two most powerful Republican papers in New York City, the Tribune and the Evening Post, had joined hands in this twofold campaign to keep Seward and Cameron out of the administration and get… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Presidential Patronage The fight over patronage which consumed Mr. Lincoln after the election was really a fight over political power and a continuation of fights that had been going on for a decade or more. The fight took place on… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Post-Convention Campaign After the Republican National Convention in May, the feud between Thurlow Weed on one side and Horace Greeley intensified. Seward biographer Frederic Bancroft wrote: “It was on Weed that the blow fell with the greatest effect. He was…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >