The pictures above and the below article is transcribed from Harper's Weekly Journal of Civilization, dated August 1, 1863:

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          When we wrote last week the new York riots had but just commenced, and there was some doubt how far they might extend and where they might culminate. They are now, to all outward appearance, substantially over. We see no reason, however to alter the opinions expressed in out last issue. The outbreak was the natural consequence of pernicious teachings widely scattered among the ignorant and excitable populace of great city; and the only possible mode of dealing with it was stern and bloody repression. Had the mob been assailed with grape and canister on Monday, when the first disturbance took place, it would have been a saving of life and property. had the resistance been more general, and the bloodshed more profuse than it was, on Thursday, the city would have enjoyed a longer term of peace and tranquillity than we can now count upon.

          It is about as idle now to argue the question of the $300 clause in the Conscription Act as it is to debate the abstract right of secession. Before Monday night the riot had got far beyond the question of the draft. Within an hour after the question of the draft. Within an hour after the destruction of the Provost-Marshall's office the rioters had forgotten all about the $300 question, and were engrossed with villainous projects of murder, arson, and pillage. it was not in order to avoid the draft that the colored orphan asylum was burnt: that private houses were sacked; that inoffensive colored persons were beaten, mutilated, and murdered; that Brooks's clothing establishment and a score of other smaller stores were pillaged; that private citizens were robbed in open daylight in the public streets, beaten and maimed; that the metropolis of the country was kept for nearly a week in a state of agonizing terror and suspense. For these outrages the draft was merely the pretext; the cause was the natural turbulence of a heterogeneous populace, aggravated by the base teachings of despicable politicians and their newspaper organs. Some newspapers dwell upon the fact that the rioters were uniformly Irish, and hence argue that our trouble arises from the perversity of the Irish race. But how do these theorists explain the fact that riots precisely similar to that of last week have occurred within our time at Paris, Madrid, Naples, Rome, Berlin, and Vienna: and that the Lord George Gordon Riots in London, before our time, far surpassed out New York riot in every circumstance or atrocity? Turbulence is no exclusive attribute of the Irish character; it is common to all mobs in all countries. It happens in this city that, in our working classes, the Irish element largely preponderates over all others, and if the populace acts as the populace Irishmen are naturally prominent therein. It happens, also, that, from the limited opportunities which the Irish enjoy for education in their own country, they are more easily misled by knaves, and made the tools of politicians, when they come here, then Germans or men of other races. The impulsiveness of the Celt, likewise, prompts him to be foremost in every outburst, whether for a good or for an evil purpose. But it must be remembered, in palliation of the disgrace which, as Archbishop Hughes says, the riots of last week have heaped upon the Irish name, that in many wards of the city the Irish were during the late riot stanch friends of law and order; that Irishmen helped to rescue the colored orphans in the asylum from the hands of the rioters; that a large proportion of the police, who behaved throughout the riot with the most exemplary gallantry, are Irishmen; that the Roman Catholic priesthood to a man used their influence on the side of the law; and that perhaps the most scathing rebuke administered to t he riot was written by an Irishman -- James T. Brady

           It is important that this riot should teach us something more useful than a revival of Know-Nothing prejudices. We ought to learn from it -- what we should have known before, but communities like individuals learn nothing except from experience -- that riots are the natural and inevitable diseases of great cities, epidemics, like small-pox and cholera, which must be treated scientifically, upon logical principles, and with the light of large experience. In old cities where the authorities know how to treat riots, and resort at once to grape and canister, they never occur twice in a generation, one lesson being sufficient for the most hot-blooded rioter; in other places, where less vigorous counsels prevail, the disease is checked and covered up for a time, but breaks out afresh at intervals of a few months or years. The secret is, of course, that by the former method, the populace are thoroughly imbued with a conviction of the power of the authorities, and of their ability and determination to crush a riot at any cost -- a lesson remembered through life; while in the latter case, the half-quelled rioters are allowed to go home with a sort of felling that they may after all be the stronger party, and the Government the weaker. Hence it is that while the baton is the proper weapon of the policeman in times of peace and order, the rifle and the howitzer are the only merciful weapons in times of riot.

          It is very essential, in suppressing a riot, that the rioters should have no excuse for accusing their opponents of being in any way foreigners or strangers. If it had been true, as was falsely stated during the recent riot, that the issue was between "the people" and  "United States soldiers," the rioters would have fought with more ferocity than they did, knowing that their opponents were "the people" like themselves. It would have a bad effect, as every one can see, to send for troops from New England or Pennsylvania to put down a riot in New York. But if we are to put down our own riots, citizens interested in the preservation of peace and order must be willing to tender their services. It is due to truth to say that the citizens of New York showed very little alacrity in responding to the call of the Mayor and Governor for volunteers to suppress the late riot. Of 400 muskets which lay idle at the armory of the 37th regiment, only 80 found men to carry them, though urgent appeals for men were made by the authorities and officers of the regiment. We can never expect to keep the peace unless we are prepared -- one and all of us -- to turn out in cases of emergency, and fight.

          It is just possible that further disturbances may occur. That the draft will be enforced, an any cost, in the city of New York as in other parts of the country, is obvious enough. The Common Council may possibly pay the $300 for poor men who are drafted; though the right of the city to do so is doubted by many, and the disbursement of the money would inevitably give rise to gross frauds. But with this the Government, in the first place to carry out the laws, in New York as elsewhere; and secondly, to preserve the Union, which can not be done without a draft to fill up the depleted ranks of the army. There are many ways in which mechanics and laborers can, by combining together, insure each other against the draft without breaking the laws. if they choose to proceed thus they will have the aid of every man who has money to spare. But if there is to be any more burning and sacking of houses, and murdering of negroes -- any more attempts to set up the populace of New York above the law -- the consequences will be so terrible that mothers will relate the tale to their children with a shudder for years and years to come.

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