[NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS]. "A GREAT FRAUD." NEW YORK: WORKINGMEN'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATION, [NOVEMBER, 1863]

Printed broadside (19 x 11 1/2 in.; 483 x 293 mm). Foxing and browning, horizontal fold, a few creases, mounted on mat board.

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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Rare broadside printed four months after the New York Draft Riots, reflecting working class reaction against the politicians who misled the people into taking part in the riots. Signed in print by "A Democratic Workingman." The Enrollment Act of 1863 was intended to fill the Union Army's depleted muster rolls, but created an immediate backlash in Northern cities. Resistance was particularly virulent in New York City, where a strong Copperhead contingent attacked the conscription system by disseminating leaflets and "pro-labor" rhetoric in the press, helping to incite violence. When the drawing of draft lots began on 13 July 1863, a mob sacked the District building and attacked firemen and police, setting fires and lynching free blacks. The conflict raged for a full four days, causing roughly 1000 casualties, before Union regiments called from the frontlines restored order at the point of the bayonet.

This is one of several broadsides issued by the Democratic-Republican Workingman's Association of New York in the aftermath of the destructive Draft Riots, arguing that Copperhead politicians had duped the common laborer. The broadside is known in two states, but without the date. OCLC locates copies at New-York Historical Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.