The disturbance came to an end on the night of the fourth day, when a
small detachment of soldiers met a body of rioters, and firing into
them, killed thirteen, and wounded eighteen more. Governor Seymour gave
but little help in the disorder, and left a stain on the record of his
courage by addressing a portion of the mob as "my friends." The
opportune arrival of national troops restored, and thereafter
maintained, quiet and safety.
Some temporary disturbance occurred in Boston, but was promptly put
down, and loud appeals came from Philadelphia and Chicago to stop the
draft. The final effect of the conscription law was not so much to
obtain recruits for the service, as to stimulate local effort throughout
the country to promote volunteering, whereby the number drafted was
either greatly lessened or, in many localities, entirely avoided by
filling the State quotas.
The military arrest of Clement L. Vallandigham, a Democratic member of
Congress from Ohio, for incendiary language denouncing the draft, also
grew to an important incident. Arrested and tried under the orders of
General Burnside, a military commission found him guilty of having
violated General Order No. 38, by "declaring disloyal sentiments and
opinions with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the
government in its efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion"; and
sentenced him to military confinement during the war.
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