by this ferment. Amidst the civil strife of the police, the repression of crime had been neglected. An organized attempt seems to have been made by the ruffians of the city to take advantage of the prevailing demoralization to institute mob rule, in order to rob and plunder under cover thereof. The national holiday afforded an opportunity for this outbreak. On the evening of the 3d of July the disturbance commenced by an altercation between two gangs of rowdies, the one styled the "Dead Rabbits" or or "Roach Guard," from the Five Points District, and the other the "Atlantic Guard" or "Bowery Boys," from the Bowery. The next morning the Dead Rabbits attacked their rivals in Bayard Street, near the Bowery. The greatest confusion followed; sticks, stones, and knives were freely used on both sides, and men, women, and children were wounded. A small body of policemen was dispatched to the spot, but it was soon driven off, with several wounded, and the riot went on. The rioters tore up paving stones, and seized drays, trucks, and whatever came first to hand, wherewith to erect barricades; and the streets of New York soon resembled those of Paris in insurrection. The greatest consternation and horror prevailed through the city; the Seventh Regiment, which was still in Boston, was summoned home by telegraph, and several regiments of the city militia were called out; but the riot was not quelled until late in the afternoon, when six men had been killed and over a hundred wounded. There was little fighting the next day until about seven in the evening, when a new disturbance broke out in Centre and Anthony Streets. The militia were summoned to the spot, and dispersed the crowd. Several regiments were ordered to remain under arms, but no other troubles occurred.

"This riot aroused the citizens to the danger of the position, and intensified the prejudice against the Muni

cipal Police, which was accused of abetting the rioters. Vigorous measures were taken to organize the Metropolitan Police and secure its efficiency, in spite of the factious resistance which still existed. The rioters were by no means quieted, however, and on the 13th and 14th of July another outbreak occurred among the Germans of the Seventeenth Ward, who had hitherto held aloof from the disturbance, which had been almost wholly confined to the Irish. The riot continued for two days, but was finally quelled by the police without the assistance of the militia, who were under arms, awaiting the signal for action. The peace of the city was not again disturbed, and the elements of disorder were gradually restrained.

"The scourge of civil war was quickly succeeded by that of financial distress. In the autumn of 1857 a great monetary tempest swept over the United States. For several years the country had been in the full tide of prosperity. Business was flourishing, commerce prosperous, and credit undisputed both at home and abroad; the granaries were overflowing with the yield of a luxuriant harvest, and everything seemed to prophesy a continued era of prosperity. In the midst of the sunshine a thunderbolt fell upon the country. The credit system had been expanded to its utmost limits, and the slightest contraction was sufficient to cause the commercial edifice to totter on its foundation. The first blow fell on the 24th of August, 1857, by the suspension of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, an institution hitherto regarded as above suspicion, for the enormous sum of seven millions of dollars. This was followed by the suspension of the Philadelphia banks, September 25th, 26th, succeeded by the general suspension of the banks of Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Rhode Island. An universal panic was the result; the whole community seemed paralyzed by an utter lack of confidence; the credit sys

tem fell to the ground, carrying with it the fortunes of half the merchants, and business was prostrated. Failure followed failure. A run upon the banks forced the State Legislature to pass an act, October 13th, 14th, authorizing a general suspension of specie payment by the banks for one year. The city banks, however, resumed payment on the 24th of December. The Massachusetts banks suspended payment on the same day. The panic spread through the United States, and thence extended across the ocean, involving the European nations in the general ruin. The manufactories stopped work throughout the country, thus throwing thousands out of employment and reducing them to a state of utter destitution. A state of terrible suffering ensued. Crowds of the unemployed workmen gathered in the Park, clamoring for bread and threatening to procure it at all hazards, while many more, as needy and less demonstrative, perished silently of cold and starvation. For some time serious danger was apprehended from the rioters, who accused the speculators of being at the root of the evil, and threatened to break open the flour and provision stores and distribute the contents among the starving people. Prompt measures were taken by the corporation to alleviate the suffering and provide for the public safety. Many of the unemployed were set to work on the Central Park and other public works, soup-houses were opened throughout the city, and private associations were formed for the relief of the suffering; but this aid failed to reach all, and many perished from sheer starvation, almost within sight of the plentiful harvests at the West, which lay moldering in the granaries for the want of money wherewith to pay the cost of their transportation. Money abounded, yet those who had it dared neither trust it with their neighbor or risk it themselves in any speculative adventure; but, falling into the opposite extreme of distrust, kept

their treasure locked up in hard dollars in their cash-boxes as the only safe place of deposit. As spring advanced, business gradually revived, the manufactories slowly commenced work on a diminished scale, the banks resumed payment one by one, and a moderate degree of confidence was restored; yet it was long before business recovered its wonted vitality. The failures during the year numbered five thousand one hundred and twenty-three, and the liabilities amounted to two hundred and ninety-one millions seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

"In April of the same year the city government resolved to remove the hundred thousand bodies that filled the Potter's Field, or pauper burial-ground, from the city limits to Ward's Island, where seventy acres had been purchased for the purpose. Previous to 1823 the Washington Parade-ground had been devoted to this use, after which the ground now occupied by the distributing reservoir, on the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, was taken for a public cemetery. At the expiration of two years the bodies were removed from both Washington and Reservoir Squares to the new Potter's Field, bounded by Forty-eighth and Fiftieth Streets, and Fourth and Lexington Avenues. This site was granted by the city, in the following year, to the State Woman's Hospital, founded in 1857 by Dr. J. Marion Sims, and subsequently conducted by Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, the grandson of the eminent lawyer of that name (whose monument forms one of the prominent features of St. Paul's church-yard), and the grand-nephew of the celebrated Irish patriot."*

During the next few years no events stand out particularly prominent in the city's history. It is true that the destruction of the Quarantine buildings on Staten Island

* Mary Booth's History of New York City.

1858.

1860.

1861.

by the populace in July, 1858, occasioned considerable excitement, but the rioters were soon put down. In June, 1860, the city entertained the members of the Japanese Embassy; and in the same summer welcomed successively the Prince de Joinville, Lady Franklin, and the Prince of Wales. In 1861 and 1862, the citizens of New York, almost to a man, and without distinction of party, rose grandly to sustain the Union; but, in 1863, the enviable reputation thus gained was sadly tarnished by an event to which, on account of its importance, the next chapter will be devoted.

1862.

1863.