New York elections will be “an omen of the future” (1862 map)
Last fall New York State elected Democrat Horatio Seymour as governor. Here the Republican-leaning New York Times sees the approaching election for members of the state legislature and for state-wide offices like comptroller as an opportunity for New York to redeem itself by sending a message of loyalty to the national cause and the national administration. In 1862 voters voted their frustration with the huge military build up and its costs. They ended up with a governor who was too friendly to the South and who called draft rioters “my friends”. The editorial contrasts the foolishly outspoken Vallandigham with the crafty Seymour.
From The New-York Times October 4, 1863:
Justice for New-York The Pending State Election.
In ordinary times such an election as New-York is about to make would excite no particular interest. But these are not ordinary times. We are in the midst of a mighty civil war, and are threatened with foreign war. It is not a question of men. The election will be one of the “signs of the times,” an omen of the future. The Administration and its enemies both make this election a trial of great national questions, and its consequences bear an important relation to our national well-being.
Gov. SEYMOUR has placed New-York in a false position toward the General Government. He has made the Empire State seem less than half loyal. We all know how SEYMOUR’s election was brought about. Thousands of honest men of all former parties, true, loyal and patriotic, cast their votes with “Copperheads” for one who seemed to represent the general discontent and irritation at the apparent want of results from our gigantic military operations and expenses. If none but Copperheads had voted for him he would have remained a private citizen. His election caused exultation among all our country’s enemies. In Richmond, in London and in Mackerelville, it was proclaimed as a defeat of “the war party,” a triumph of “the peace men.” The rebel papers in the Southern States disclaimed all affiliations with their Northern adherents, and called them “scum and rabble,” and “hyenas,” but they exulted in their success, and claimed it as a great victory to their cause. There was a good reason for this rejoicing. A man had been elected as Governor who held relations to men of outspoken disloyalty, which made his support of any “vigorous war measure” a matter of some difficulty, not to say inconsistency. The “Peace Men” were his partisans, and had supported him with a violence that did little credit to their names. They claimed him as the head of this faction, and demanded of him “a vigorous prosecution of peace.”
Seymour’s election caused the draft riots?
We have seen some of the disastrous fruits of this triumph of malcontents and factionists. They felt strong enough to defy the Government. They openly denounced it as an intolerable tyranny, pledged themselves to resist it, and finally a body of them had the madness to plunge into general pillage and murder. For nearly one week we saw robbery, murder, and every fiendish outrage perpetrated at noonday in our streets by gangs of traitors who trampled upon the national standard like a worthless rag — everyone of whom had voted for SEYMOUR, and who all looked to him for impunity, if not for active leadership. The Governor went among them and saw their hands red with the blood of our citizens, and their faces blackened with incendiary fires, and he called them “his friends.”
It was in vain last fall that we proclaimed that the election of SEYMOUR would strengthen the rebels. Honest men, who had determined to vote for him, fired at the imputation of disloyalty, and pointed to the campaign banner: “A more vigorous prosecution of the war.” We struggled against a general depression and discouragement of public feeling. Our arms made no progress; our finances were becoming unhealthy; the rebels seemed to gain power; everything went wrong; there must be fault somewhere, and the opposition party carried the State, and placed SEYMOUR over us as our Chief Magistrate.
For nearly one year he has filled that office, and New-York has seemed but a half-hearted State. We have exhibited the extraordinary spectacle of having placed in the national armies more than 200,000 of our choicest men, every one of whom volunteered, of giving our treasure free as water, and yet to the world wearing the mask of disloyalty, and requiring 30,000 troops to enforce the laws of the United States, which Gov. SEYMOUR refused to carry out.
Our State has been put in a false position, and foully wronged by being suspected. Her Chief Magistrate, as the organ through which she spoke, has belied her opinions and convictions and intentions, and made her seem to utter sentiments which she scorns and loathes. He has lost no opportunity of boasting of what the State had done, even while protesting against nearly all war measures as encroachments upon his powers and prerogatives as Governor of a sovereign State.
For nearly a year the proud and loyal spirit of our people has writhed under the disgrace of seeming to be treacherous and semi-disloyal. We have had nearly a year of this misconstruction — this false position — and now it is for the people to right themselves before the world. SEYMOUR has made his ticket, and he has also made his plea to the public indictments against him. His speech before the Convention was his defence. He summed up his cause, and submitted it to us for our verdict. What shall that verdict be?
But it is not a question of men, or of the mere personal qualities and fitness of these men for certain offices. Great consequences loom up behind these men. We do not claim that these candidates are consciously false to the cause of the country, or that they wish for the success of the rebels. But we do claim that they represent the Opposition party. They represent the cause which all disloyal men sustain. There is not a slavetrader — there is not a rotten-hearted merchant who grows rich by smuggling his goods through the blockade; there is no Southern spy, no negro-hunter, no secret or open enemy of our country and its Government within the length and breadth of the State, who will not work and vote for these candidates. It is the Opposition party, and it will have the support of all of our enemies.
It matters little whether our enemies use the bullet or the ballot — whether the blow be struck upon a battlefield in Virginia, or at an election in New-York. Whatever weakens one side strengthens the other. No man can serve God and the Devil or stand neutral. We are either for or against the Government, and the whole continent is not large enough to contain one foot of neutral ground.
“a crafty and dexterous enemy”
We have now an opportunity to redeem New-York from misconstruction. If defeated at this election, it will be hard to persuade the country that SEYMOUR is not the representative man of his State. It will be hard to show that the National Government has not more enemies than friends in the Empire State.
Our danger at the coming election is in the fact that, like the former one, it will be involved in false issues, and mystified with false pretences. We have the plausible SEYMOUR, and not the outspoken VALLANDIGHAM, for an adversary. New-York is as loyal as Ohio, but we shall struggle under the disadvantage of contending with a crafty and dexterous enemy, who steals our flag and livery, and shouts our battle-cry, “The Union and the Constitution, and the supremacy of the laws.” Let the people beware of the enemies of the Government, and remember their acts for the past year.
The New York state conventions were held in September 1863. Democrats and the Union party (Republicans and War Democrats) nominated candidates for the state-wide offices.
You can read all the details of the political cartoon and a more balanced view of Seymour’s speech at the Library of Congress
