The New-York Times saw the state election in November 1863 as a chance for voters to express their support for the Lincoln election and its vigorous prosecution of the war. A Democrat paper in upstate New York saw a vote for the Union party (Republicans and War Democrats) as supporting President Lincoln’s latest call for “volunteers” with a quota attached that would suck even more manpower out of the state.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in October 1863:
A PLEASING PICTURE. – The call upon New York for 108, 035 more men. This will take every able-bodied man between the ages of 20 and 35, and draw largely on the second class. Those who vote the administration ticket on Tuesday next, vote to conscript this large number of their fellow-citizens. The apportionment is a monstrous fraud and swindle, well known to the “powers that be.”
