No Wealth To Purchase Liberty
Fortunate sons paid to avoid the American Civil War during the Draft Riots of 1863
America is really a young nation, forged by the barrel of a gun. The westward expansion of the early settlers caused countless skirmishes with the British, Native American populations, Mexicans and whoever else was in the way.
Sometimes it was other non-native Americans. Of course, the most notable is the American Civil War (1860 to 1865) that killed over 600,000 combatants. It was not a popular war for many on either side of the North vs. South divide.
Protest songs of the era highlight the real feelings of poor sharecropper farmers and newly-arrived immigrants. Luckily, these songs are embedded in our nascent history, if not remembered well enough in current times.
For Boomers like me, the 1960s represented the advent of protest and anti-war songs, mainly due to the Vietnam War. But let’s look back to the 1860s to fully understand this authentic American tradition.
The United States of 1863
The United States is a misnomer. America is a patchwork of peoples with different cultures, histories, attitudes and ideas, spread over a wide landscape of intermingled boundaries. In reality, America has always been a conflict zone, not a union.
In retrospect, the American Civil War instigated the country down an angry path to racism and class warfare that still resonates 150 years later.
The year 1863 was trouble for everyone. The country was mired in a debilitating domestic war; westward expansion consumed military troops, sacrificed settlers and annihilated native Indians; and it dealt with a heavy influx of foreign immigrants during a war-ravaged economy.
But the war effort required more fighting men to replace soldiers killed in battle. President Abraham Lincoln enacted the Enrollment Act of 1863, also known as the Civil War Military Draft Act, to bolster the supply of new conscripts. The law sought to recruit American males between 20 and 45, including any ‘alien immigrants’ applying for citizenship.
Unless exempted.
Military Draft Act of 1863
The Military Draft Act was a watershed moment. It was a national draft that forced many a reluctant recruit to join the Union Army war effort, a hardship unwanted by the newer immigrant classes.
Compulsory military service meant that each state was given a quota to overcome the lack of volunteers replenishing the army. The government sent out draft agents to cities and towns to round up suitable conscripts. These officials were met head on by mobs of hardscrabble working class citizens with guns that resisted the draft due to competition, elitism and racism.
America is a layered nation. Immigrants came in waves at different times. The latest arrivals started at the bottom and were poor. The rich and upper classes treated them like street rats and scavengers. In the northern states, free Blacks competed with whites to fill jobs as barbers, waiters, longshoremen and servants. Joining the Union Army to die for freedom made no sense to poor white working class people, who already blamed their predicament on the Black population, as well as, hating the rich bastards who controlled everything.
Making matters worse was the ‘substitute’ exemption, of the Military Draft Act, afforded to the rich to avoid military service. For $300 (equivalent to $7,055 in 2022), a person could pay to stay out of the war, or buy a substitute person to take his place. According to historian Howard Zinn, many of America’s famous families - Morgan, Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Armour - used this escape route to save their own skins:
Mellon's father had written to him that "a man may be a patriot without risking his own life or sacrificing his health. There are plenty of lives less valuable.”
Thus, the fortunate sons of the fortunate ones. This too is an American tradition writ large.
Draft Riots of 1863
Anyone familiar with United States history knows that New York City was the gateway for immigrants arriving from Europe. The working class enclaves of Irish, Germans and others were a hotbed of draft resistance.
In July 1862, President Lincoln called out for volunteers to fight for the Union in the civil war. A popular poem turned song of the day responded to Lincoln with patriotic fervor:
Narrated by Rick Scobi
We Are Coming, Father Abra'am
by James S. Gibbons
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear.
We dare not look behind us but steadfastly before.
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!
We are coming, coming, our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!
If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!
We are coming, coming, our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!
If you look up all our valleys where the growing harvests shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds,
And learning how to reap and sow against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!
We are coming, coming, our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!
You have called us, and we're coming by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage grip, to wrench the murderous blade;
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade.
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!
We are coming, coming, our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!Umm … not so fast. A lot of those farmers and factory workers did not want to leave their wives and children behind, nor drop their plows and tools for the cause. Instead, they used every firearm and pitchfork to fight off the warmongers seeking to fill their conscript quotas.
A parody song of “We Are Coming, Father Abra'am” called “Song of the Conscripts,” expressed the common sentiment of draft resisters and highlighted the real issue of 1863 in the following verse:
Narrated by Rick Scobi
Song of the Conscripts
(Unknown)
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more,
We leave our homes and firesides with bleeding hearts and sore,
Since poverty has been our crime, we bow to thy decree,
We are the poor who have no wealth to purchase liberty.In the summer of 1863, this parody song was published in war opposition newspapers and song copies were circulated throughout New York City. The stage was set. President Lincoln was in charge of the war machine. His mission was urgent: to draft more men to fight the Confederacy and save the Union. Draft resisters also had a strong mission: to save their own lives, preserve their families and stay out of the “rich man’s war.”
Another popular wartime song, “Come In Out of the Draft,” lamented the difficulties of new conscripts to avoid going to war:
Verse Rendition by Rick Scobi
Come In Out of the Draft (How Are You, Conscript?)
by Frank Wilder
How are you, Conscript?
How are you, I say?
Have you got "three hundred greenbacks"
To "pony up" and pay?
If not you are "a goner"
Now don't you fret and cry,
For you're only going to Dixie
To fight and "mind your eye"Resentment within the Irish-American community in New York City was intense. They felt betrayed by their own politicians; they detested the abolitionists for assisting Blacks and attacked police and pro-war supporters. For four days, rioters fought soldiers and police in the streets, ransacked Black-owned businesses and homes, torched pro-Lincoln newspapers offices, demolished public buildings and even burned down a Black orphanage.
What started as a rebellion against government control was feed by anger, race-blaming and a soft target to morph into one of America’s worst ever race riots. Over 100 people died in the city, leaving a long-lasting mark that remains today.
New York City was not alone. Other riots erupted in Boston, Hartford, Newark, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.
Civil unrest, protest songs and a fierce, independent mindset are all hallmarks of the American experience. Unfortunately, so is war.
Wars are for the rich, not the poor and working classes. Even today, the bulk of Americans signing up to join the military are from the middle and lower classes, the South and minority groups. My dad served 22 years in the Air Force and spent a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was white, uneducated and from South Carolina. The Pentagon knows the demographics and knows whom to recruit.
Ukraine is just the latest example of the machinations of the war machine. Wars are for weapons makers, oligarchs and politicians. Dying, as a patriot of course, is for the rest of us.
In order to honor our feisty traditions and secure our own futures, we need more protest songs.
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The Covid bug hit our home in late June and we spent the last month dealing with it. We are all fine now, but a scratchy throat remains a lingering remnant. This hurt song production for July, but I think my voice is different now. Thanks for your patience.
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