ORANGE RIOTS OF 1870 AND 1871.
Religious Toleration.--Irish Feuds.--Battle of Boyne
Water.--Orangemen.--Origin and Object of the Society.--A Picnic at Elm
Park.--Attacked by the Ribbonmen.--The Fight.--After Scenes.--Riot
of 1871.--Conspiracy of the Irish Catholics to prevent a Parade of
Orangemen.--Forbidden by the City Authorities.--Indignation of
the People.--Meeting in the Produce Exchange.--Governor Hoffman's
Proclamation.--Morning of the 12th.--The Orangemen at Lamartine
Hall.--Attack on the Armories.--The Harpers threatened.--Exciting
Scenes around Lamartine Hall and at Police Head-quarters.--Hibernia
Hall cleared.--Attack on an Armory.--Formation of the Procession.--Its
March.--Attacked.--Firing of the Military without Orders.--Terrific
Scene.--The Hospitals and Morgue.--Night Scenes.--Number of killed and
wounded.--The Lesson.
In a free country like ours, where toleration of all religions alike is
one of the fundamental principles of the Government, one would naturally
think that open persecution of any sect or body of religionists was
impossible. But the Irish, unfortunately, have brought with them to this
country not merely many of their old customs and national fetes, but
their old religions feuds.
Nearly two hundred years ago, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange,
or William the Third, a Protestant, met the Catholic King, James the
Second, of England, In deadly battle, in the vales of Meath, through
which the Boyne River flows, and utterly routed him, and compelled him
to flee to the Continent for safety. According to old style, this was on
the first day of July, as the old ballad says:
"'Twas bright July's first morning clear,
Of unforgotten glory,
That made this stream, through ages dear,
Renowned in song and story."
According to new style, however, this has become the twelfth of the
month. The Ulster Protestant Society, known as Orangemen, was founded
in 1795. It was a secret political organization, founded, it is said, to
counteract the Ribbonmen, or Protectors, as they were called. Its object
in this country, it is asserted, is entirely different, and more in
harmony with other societies that have their annual celebration in New
York City and other places.
It is not necessary to go over the bitter feuds between these and
the Catholic Irish in the old country. The hates they engendered were
brought here, but kept from any great outward manifestation, because the
Orangemen indulged in no public displays. We believe that there had been
only one procession previous to this. In this year, however, an imposing
display was resolved upon, but no trouble was anticipated, and no
precautions taken by the police. It was not proposed to parade the
streets, but to form, and march in procession up Eighth Avenue, to Elm
Park, corner of Ninetieth Street and Eighth Avenue, and have a picnic,
and wind up with a dance. As the procession passed Fourth Street, in
full Orange regalia, and about twenty-five hundred strong (men, women,
and children), playing "Boyne Water," "Derry," and other tunes obnoxious
to the Catholics, some two hundred Irishmen followed it with curses and
threats.
Violence was, however, not feared, and the procession continued on, and
at length reached the new Boulevard road, where a large body of Irishmen
were at work. Beyond, however, the interchange of some words, nothing
transpired, and it entered the park, and began the festivities of the
day.
In the meanwhile, however, the rabble that had followed them came upon
the Ribbonmen at work on the Boulevard road, and persuaded them to throw
up work and join them, and the whole crowd, numbering probably about
five hundred, started for the park. The foreman of the gang of three
hundred workmen saw at once the danger, and hurried to the Thirty-first
Precinct station, corner of One Hundredth Street and Ninth Avenue, and
told Captain Helme of the state of things.
The latter immediately thought of the picnic, and, anticipating trouble,
telegraphed to Jourdan for reinforcements. In the meanwhile, the mob,
loaded with stones, advanced tumultuously towards the park, within
which the unsuspecting Orangemen were giving themselves up to enjoyment.
Suddenly a shower of stones fell among them, knocking over women and
children, and sending consternation through the crowd. Shouts and curses
followed, and the Orangemen, rallying, rushed out and fell furiously
on their assailants. Shovels, clubs, and stones were freely used, and
a scene of terrific confusion followed. The fight was close and bloody,
and continued for nearly half an hour, when Sergeant John Kelly, with
a force of sixteen men, arrived, and rushing in between the combatants,
separated them, and drove the Orangemen back into the park. The mob then
divided into two portions, of between two and three hundred each. One
party went by way of Ninth Avenue, and, breaking down the fence on that
side, entered the park, and fell with brutal fury on men, women, and
children alike. A terrible fight followed, and amid the shouts and
oaths of the men and screams of the women and children, occasional
pistol-shots were heard, showing that murder was being done. The
enraged, unarmed Orangemen, wrenched hand rails from the fence, tore up
small trees, and seized anything and everything that would serve for a
weapon, and maintained the fight for a half an hour, before the police
arrived. The second portion went by Eighth Avenue, and intercepted
a large body of Orangemen that had retreated from the woods, and a
desperate battle followed. There were only two policemen here, and of
course could do nothing but stand and look on the murderous conflict.
In the meantime, the force telegraphed for by Captain. Helme arrived. It
consisted of twenty men, to which Captain Helme added the reserve
force, with a sergeant from the Eighth, Ninth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth,
and Nineteenth Precincts, making in all some fifty men. These he divided
into two portions, one of which he sent over to Eighth Avenue to protect
the cars, into which the fugitives were crowding, while the other dashed
furiously into the park, and fell on the combatants with their clubs.
They soon cleared a lane between them, when turning on the Ribbonmen,
they drove them out of the park. They then formed the Orangemen into
a procession, and escorted them down the city. A portion, however, had
fled for the Eighth Avenue cars; but a party of Ribbonmen were lying in
wait here, and another fight followed. Huge stones were thrown through
the windows of the cars, the sides broken in, over the wreck of which
the mob rushed, knocking down men, women, and children alike, whose
shouts, and oaths, and screams could be heard blocks off. The scene was
terrific, until the arrival of the police put an end to it, and bore the
dead and wounded away.
About seven o'clock, Superintendent Jourdan arrived in the precinct,
accompanied by Inspectors Dilks and Walling, and Detectives Farley and
Avery. In the basement of the Thirty-first Precinct station, on a low
trestle bed, three bloody corpses were stretched, while the neighboring
precincts were filled with the wounded. Two more died before morning.
The street near each station was crowded with Orangemen inquiring after
friends.
Although no more outbreaks occurred, the most intense excitement
prevailed among the Irish population of the city, and it was evident
that it needed only a suitable occasion to bring on another conflict.
THE RIOT OF 1871.
When the next anniversary of the Orangemen came round, it was discovered
that a conspiracy had been formed by a large body of the Catholic
population to prevent its public celebration. The air was full of
rumors, while the city authorities were in possession of the fullest
evidence that if the Orangemen paraded, they would be attacked, and
probably many lives be lost. They were in great dilemma as to what
course to pursue. If they allowed the procession to take place, they
would be compelled to protect it, and shoot down the men whose votes
helped largely to place them in power. If they forbade it, they feared
the public indignation that would be aroused against such a truckling,
unjust course. As the day drew near, however, and the extensive
preparations of the Irish Catholics became more apparent, they
finally determined to risk the latter course, and it was decided that
Superintendent Kelso should issue an order forbidding the Orangemen to
parade. This ludicrous attempt on the part of the Mayor to shift the
responsibility from his own shoulders, awakened only scorn, and the
appearance of the order was followed by a storm of indignation that was
appalling. The leading papers, without regard to politics, opened on him
and his advisers, with such a torrent of denunciations that they quailed
before it. Processions of all kinds and nationalities were allowed
on the streets, and to forbid only one, and that because it was
_Protestant_, was an insult to every American citizen. Even Wall Street
forgot its usual excitement, and leading men were heard violently
denouncing this cowardly surrender of Mayor Hall to the threats of a
mob. An impromptu meeting was called in the Produce Exchange, and a
petition drawn up, asking the president to call a formal meeting, and
excited men stood in line two hours, waiting their turn to sign it.
The building was thronged, and the vice-president called the meeting to
order, and informed it that the rules required twenty-four hours' notice
for such a meeting. The members, however, would listen to no delay, and
with an unanimous and thundering vote, declared the rules suspended. The
action of the city authorities was denounced in withering terms, and a
committee of leading men appointed to wait on them, and remonstrate with
the Mayor. One could scarcely have dreamed that this order would stir
New York so profoundly. But the people, peculiarly sensitive to any
attack on religious freedom, were the more fiercely aroused, that in
this case it was a Catholic mob using the city authority to strike
down Protestantism. The Mayor and his subordinates were appalled at the
tempest they had raised, and calling a council, resolved to revoke the
order. In the meantime, Governor Hoffman was telegraphed to from Albany.
Hastening to the city, he, after a consultation with Mayor Hall, decided
to issue the following proclamation:
"Having been only this day apprised, while at the capital, of the
actual condition of things here, with reference to proposed processions
to-morrow, and having, in the belief that my presence was needed,
repaired hither immediately, I do make this proclamation:
"The order heretofore issued by the police authorities, in reference to
said processions, being duly revoked, I hereby give notice that any
and all bodies of men desiring to assemble in peaceable procession
to-morrow, the 12th inst., will be permitted to do so. They will be
protected to the fullest extent possible by the military and police
authorities. A police and military escort will be furnished to any body
of men desiring it, on application to me at my head-quarters (which will
be at police head-quarters in this city) at any time during the day. I
warn all persons to abstain from interference with any such assembly or
procession, except by authority from me; and I give notice that all the
powers of my command, civil and military, will be used to preserve
the public peace, and put down at all hazards, every attempt at
disturbances; and I call upon all citizens, of every race and religion,
to unite with me and the local authorities in this determination, to
preserve the peace and honor of the city and State."
Dated at New York, this eleventh day of July, A. D. 1871. JOHN T.
HOFFMAN.
It was thought by many that this would counteract the effects of the
cowardly order of the police superintendent. But whatever its effect
might have been, had it been issued earlier, it now came too late to
do any good. The preparations of the Roman Catholics were all made. A
secret circular had fallen into the hands of the police, showing that
the organization of the rioters was complete-the watchwords and signals
all arranged, and even the points designated where the attacks on the
procession were to be made. Arms had been collected and transported
to certain localities, and everything betokened a stormy morrow.
Consequently, General Shaler issued orders to the commanders of the
several regiments of militia, directing them to have their men in
readiness at their respective armories at 7 o'clock next morning,
prepared to march at a moment's warning. His head-quarters, like those
of General Brown in the draft riots, were at the police head-quarters,
so as to have the use of the police telegraph, in conveying orders to
different sections of the city. Meanwhile, detachments were placed on
guard at the different armories, to frustrate any attempt on the part of
the mob to seize arms.
The night, however, wore quietly away, and in the morning the Governor's
proclamation appeared in the morning papers, showing the rioters the
nature of the work before them, if they undertook to carry out their
infamous plans. It seemed to have no effect, however. Early in the
morning sullen groups of Irishmen gathered on the corners of the
streets, where the Irish resided in greatest numbers, among which were
women, gesticulating and talking violently, apparently wholly unaware
that the authorities had any power, or, at least, thought they dared
not use it. Other groups traversed the streets, while at the several
rendezvous of the Hibernians, many carried muskets or rifles without any
attempt at concealment. In the upper part of the city, a body of rioters
began to move southward, compelling all the workmen on their way to
leave work and join them. One or two armories were attacked, but the
rioters were easily repulsed. The demonstrations at length became so
threatening, that by ten o'clock the police seized Hibernia Hall.
About the same time, the Orangemen--who on the issue of Kelso's order
had determined not to parade but on the appearance of the Governor's
proclamation changed their mind--began to assemble at Lamartine Hall, on
the corner of Eighth Avenue and Twenty-ninth Street. Their room was in
the fourth story, and the delegates from the various lodges brought with
them their badges and banners, which they displayed from the windows.
This brought a crowd in front of the building, curious to know what was
going on in the lodge room. Soon five hundred policemen, ten or fifteen
of them on horseback, appeared under the command of Inspectors Walling
and Jamieson, and occupied both sides of Twenty-ninth Street, between
Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Several policemen also stood on Eighth Avenue,
while the door of the hall was guarded by others. Inside the hall there
were probably some seventy-five or a hundred Orangemen, discussing the
parade. Some stated that a great many, concluding there would be none,
had gone to their usual work, while others, alarmed at the threats of
the Hibernians, would not join it. But after some discussion, it was
resolved, that although the number would be small, they would parade
at all hazards; and at eleven o'clock the door was thrown open, and
the Orangemen, wearing orange colors, were admitted, amid the wildest
cheering. An invitation was sent to the lodges of Jersey City to join
them, but they declined, preferring to celebrate the day at home.
Two o'clock was the hour fixed upon for the parade to begin, and the
authorities at police head-quarters were so advised. In the meantime a
banner had been prepared on which was inscribed in large letters,
"AMERICANS! FREEMEN!! FALL IN!!!"
in order to get accessions from outsiders, but without success.
The line of march finally resolved upon was down Eighth Avenue to
Twenty-third Street, and up it to Fifth Avenue, down Fifth Avenue to
Fourteenth Street, along it to Union Square, saluting the Lincoln and
Washington statues as they passed, and then down Fourth Avenue to Cooper
Institute, where the procession would break up.
About one o'clock, a party of men came rushing down Eighth Avenue,
opposite Lamartine Hall, cheering and shouting, led by a man waving a
sword cane. As he swung it above his head it parted, disclosing a long
dirk. The police immediately advanced and swept the street. Eighth
Avenue was cleared from Thirtieth Street to Twenty-eighth Street, and
the police formed several deep, leaving only room enough for the cars to
pass.
In the meantime, around police head-quarters, in Mott Street, things
wore a serious aspect. From six o'clock in the morning, the various
detachments of police kept arriving until Bleecker, Houston, Mulberry,
and Mott Streets were dark with the massed battalions, ready to move at
a moment's notice. Rations were served out to them standing. Early in
the day, Governor Hoffman and staff arrived, and were quartered in the
Superintendent's room, while General Shaler and staff were quartered in
the fire marshal's office. Commissioners Manierre, Smith, and Barr were
in their own rooms, receiving reports from the various precincts
over the wires. A little after nine a dispatch came, stating that the
quarrymen near Central Park had quitted work, and were gathering
in excited groups, swearing that the Orangemen should not parade.
Immediately Inspector Jamieson, with two hundred and fifty policemen,
was despatched in stages to Forty-seventh Street and Eighth Avenue, to
watch the course of events. Another dispatch stated that an attack
was threatened on Harper's building, in Franklin Square, and Captain
Allaire, of the Seventh Precinct, was hurried off with fifty men
to protect it. A little later came the news that the Orangemen had
determined to parade at two o'clock, and a police force of five hundred,
as we have already stated, were massed in Eighth Avenue, opposite
Lamartine Hall. About noon, a body of rioters made an attack on the
armory, No. 19 Avenue A, in which were a hundred and thirty-eight stands
of arms. Fortunately, the janitor of the building saw them in time to
fasten the doors before they reached it, and then ran to the
nearest police-station for help, from which a dispatch was sent to
head-quarters. Captain Mount, with a hundred policemen, was hurried off
to the threatened point. He arrived, before the doors were broken in,
and falling on the rioters with clubs, drove them in all directions.
During the forenoon, Drill-captain Copeland was given five Companies,
and told to seize Hibernia Hall, where arms were being distributed. As
he approached, he ordered the mob to disperse, but was answered with
taunts and curses, while the women hurled stones at his face. He then
gave the order to charge, when the men fell on the crowd with such fury,
that they broke and fled in wild confusion. Meanwhile, the detectives
had been busy, and secured eighteen of the ring-leaders, whom they
marched to police head-quarters.
As the hour for the procession to form drew near, the most intense
excitement prevailed at police head-quarters, and the telegraph was
watched with anxious solicitude. The terrible punishment inflicted on
the rioters in 1863 seemed to have been forgotten by the mob, and it
had evidently resolved to try once more its strength with the city
authorities. Around the Orange head-quarters a still deeper excitement
prevailed. The hum of the vast multitude seemed like the first
murmurings of the coming storm, and many a face turned pale as the
Orangemen, with their banners and badges, only ninety in all, passed out
of the door into the street. John Johnston, their marshal, mounted on
a spirited horse, placed himself at their head. In a few minutes, the
bayonets of the military force designed to act as an escort could
be seen flashing in the sun, as the troops with measured tread moved
steadily forward. Crowds followed them on the sidewalks, or hung from
windows and house-tops, while low curses could be heard on every side,
especially when the Twenty-second Regiment deliberately loaded their
pieces with ball and cartridge. The little band of Orangemen looked
serious but firm, while the military officers showed by their
preparations and order that they expected bloody work. The Orangemen
formed line in Twenty-ninth Street, close to the Eighth Avenue, and
flung their banners to the breeze. A half an hour later, they were ready
to march, and at the order wheeled into Eighth Avenue. At that instant a
single shot rang out but a few rods distant. Heads were turned anxiously
to see who was hit. More was expected as the procession moved on. A
strong body of police marched in advance. Next came the Ninth Regiment,
followed at a short interval by the Sixth. Then came more police,
followed by the little band of Orangemen, flanked on either side, so as
fully to protect them, by the Twenty-second and Eighty-fourth Regiments.
To these succeeded more police. The imposing column was closed up by
the Seventh Regiment, arresting all eyes by its even tread and martial
bearing. The sidewalks, doorsteps, windows, and roofs were black with
people. The band struck up a martial air, and the procession moved on
towards Twenty-eighth Street. Just before they reached it, another shot
rang clear and sharp above the music. No one was seen to fall, and the
march continued. At the corner of Twenty-seventh Street, a group of
desperate-looking fellows were assembled on a wooden shed that projected
over the sidewalk. Warned to get down and go away, they hesitated, when
a company of soldiers levelled their pieces at them. Uttering defiant
threats, they hurried down and disappeared. As the next corner was
reached, another shot was fired, followed by a shower of stones. A scene
of confusion now ensued. The police fell on the bystanders occupying the
sidewalks, and clubbed them right and left without distinction, and the
order rolled down the line to the inmates of the houses to shut their
windows. Terror now took the place of curiosity; heads disappeared, and
the quick, fierce slamming of blinds was heard above the uproar blocks
away. The procession kept on till it reached Twenty-fourth Street,
when a halt was ordered. The next moment a shot was fired from the
second-story windows of a house on the north-east corner. It struck the
Eighty-fourth Regiment, and in an instant a line of muskets was pointed
at the spot, as though the order to fire was expected. One gun went off,
when, without orders, a sudden, unexpected volley rolled down the line
of the Sixth, Ninth, and Eighty-fourth Regiments. The officers were
wholly taken by surprise at this unprecedented conduct; but, recovering
themselves, rushed among the ranks and shouted out their orders to cease
firing. But the work was done; and as the smoke slowly lifted in the hot
atmosphere, a scene of indescribable confusion presented itself. Men,
women, and children, screaming in wild terror, were fleeing in every
direction; the strong trampling down the weak, while eleven corpses lay
stretched on the sidewalk, some piled across each other. A pause of a
few minutes now followed, while the troops reloaded their guns. A new
attack was momentarily expected, and no one moved from the ranks to
succor the wounded or lift up the dead. Here a dead woman lay across a
dead man; there a man streaming with blood was creeping painfully up a
doorstep, while crouching, bleeding forms appeared in every direction.
Women from the windows looked down on the ghastly spectacle,
gesticulating wildly. The police now cleared the avenue and side
streets, when, the dead and wounded were attended to, and the order
to move on was given. General Varian, indignant at the conduct of the
Eighty-fourth in firing first without orders, sent it to the rear, and
replaced it on the flank of the Orangemen with a portion of the
Ninth. The procession, as it now resumed its march and moved through
Twenty-fourth Street, was a sad and mournful one. The windows were
filled with spectators, and crowds lined the sidewalks, but all were
silent and serious. Not till it reached Fifth Avenue Hotel were
there any greetings of welcome. Here some three thousand people were
assembled, who rent the air with cheers. No more attacks were made, and
it reached Cooper Institute and disbanded without any further incident.
In the meantime, the scene at the Bellevue Hospital was a sad and
painful one. The ambulances kept discharging their bloody loads at the
door, and groans of distress and shrieks of pain filled the air. Long
rows of cots, filled with mangled forms, were stretched on every side,
while the tables were covered with bodies, held down, as the surgeons
dressed their wounds. The dead were carried to the Morgue, around which,
as night came on, a clamorous crowd was gathered, seeking admission, to
look after their dead friends. A similar crowd gathered at the door of
the Mount Sinai Hospital, filling the air with cries and lamentations.
As darkness settled over the city, wild, rough-looking men from the
lowest ranks of society gathered in the street where the slaughter took
place, among whom were seen bare-headed women roaming about, making
night hideous with their curses.
A pile of dead men's hats stood on the corner of Eighth Avenue and
Twenty-fifth Street untouched, and pale faces stooped over pools of
blood on the pavement. The stores were all shut; and everything wore
a gloomy aspect. The police stood near, revealed in the lamplight, but
made no effort to clear the street. It seemed at one time that a serious
outbreak would take place, but the night passed off quietly, and the
riot was ended, and the mob once more taught the terrible lesson it is
so apt to forget.
Two of the police and military were killed, and twenty-four wounded;
while of the rioters thirty-one were killed, and sixty-seven
wounded--making in all one hundred and twenty-eight victims.
There was much indignation expressed at the troops for firing without
orders, and firing so wildly as to shoot some of their own men. It was,
of course, deserving the deepest condemnation, yet it may have saved
greater bloodshed. The fight evidently did not occur at the expected
point, and doubtless the result here, prevented one where the mob was
better organized, and would have made a more stubborn resistance.
That innocent persons were killed is true; but if they will mingle in
with a mob, they must expect to share its fate, and alone must bear the
blame. Troops are called out to fire on the people if they persist in
violation of the peace and rights of the community. Of this all are
fully aware, and hence take the risk of being shot. Soldiers cannot be
expected to discriminate in a mob. If the military are not to fire on
a crowd of rioters until no women and children, can be seen in it, they
had better stay at home.
To a casual observer, this calling out of seven hundred policemen and
several regiments of soldiers, in order to let ninety men take a foolish
promenade through a few streets, would seem a very absurd and useless
display of the power of the city; and the killing of sixty or seventy
men a heavy price to pay for such an amusement. But it was not ninety
Orangemen only that those policemen and soldiers enclosed and shielded.
They had in their keeping the laws and authority of the city, set at
defiance by a mob, and also the principle of religious toleration and
of equal rights, which were of more consequence than the lives of ten
thousand men. The day when New York City allows itself to be dictated
to by a mob, and Protestants not be permitted to march as such quietly
through the streets, her prosperity and greatness will come to an end.
The taking of life is a serious thing, but it is not to weigh a moment
against the preservation of authority and the supremacy of the law.
One thing should not be overlooked--the almost universal faithfulness
of the Roman Catholic Irish police to their duty. In this, as well as
in the draft riots, they have left a record of which, any city might be
proud. To defend Protestant Irishmen against Roman Catholic friends and
perhaps relatives, is a severe test of fidelity; but the Irish police
have stood it nobly, and won the regard of all good citizens. [Footnote:
Twenty-four pages are here added to correct the omission in paging the
engravings.]
[Illustration: RECEIVING AND REMOVING DEAD BODIES IN THE MORGUE.]