Glossary

Click on any of the terms to return to that point in the document
Click on any image to see a larger version

.
Abdication: Relinquishment; disclaimer.
Adroit: Skillful
Amelioration: Improvement.
Arrayed: Arranged; positioned as if for battle.
Ascertain: Determine.
Attest: Provide evidence of.
Arduous: Very difficult.
Baser: Lower; cruder.
Breach: Gap.
Broils Conflicts.
Broke the wheel: Demolished the device for randomly selecting the names of those to be drafted.
Cajoling: Coaxing; wheedling.
Castigation: Scolding; chastisement.
Cohort: Group.
Colonel O'Brien  Col. Henry O'Brien of the Eleventh New York Volunteers was murdered on Tuesday, July 14, in revenge for his use of heavy artillery against rioters the previous day.  He was first struck from behind with a club, and then savagely beaten for the next six hours, particularly by women rioters who beat his face to a pulp and continued to hit him until he died.  Click here for more information
Colored asylum: The Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue at 43rd Street. 
Click here for an account of its destruction
Competency: Enough money to allow one to be self-sufficient, and not under the control of another.
Constituents: Elements; components; members of a group.
Constitution: Organization (in this context)
Contagion: A communicable disease (used metaphorically in this case).
Contrivances: Devices.
Covertly: Sneakily; secretly; from in hiding
Cowed: Frightened into submission.
Credulous: Gullible.
Cursorily traversed: Traveled over hastily and incompletely
Demagogue: Rabble-rouser; politician who stirs up the anger of the lower classes
Designing politicians: Scheming politicians. Freeland appears to be attacking "copperhead" Democrats such as Fernando Wood
Destitute: Utterly impoverished.
Diffuse: Unfocused; spread out.
Emancipation: Freeing.
Emissaries: Representatives; agents sent to carry out instructions.
Enfranchisement: The giving of the right to vote.
Engendering: Breeding; producing.
Ensconced: Settled in a secure place.
Entity: A single being.
Faculties: Abilities; particularly mental abilities
Fancied: Imagined.
Fitly Sufficiently.
Fomenting: Stirring up; instigating.
Genius: Spirit.
Grogshop: Tavern; saloon.
High-mettled steed: A lively and nervous horse.
Impelled: Forced.
Inaugurated: Began.
Indigent: Impoverished.
Inhere: To be inherent or essential.
Insurgents: Rebels; in this case, the rioters.
Interested: Having an ulterior motive or a selfish interest.
Intriguing: Plotting. 
Invidious: Offensive; implying a criticism or slight. 
Kennedy: Superintendent of Police John A. Kennedy was savagely beaten by a crowd on Monday, July 13. 
Knots: Small groups. 
Larger capacities: Greater abilities. 
Law-contemning: Law-despising, lawless. 
Lenity: Lenience. 
Levelling dogmas: Rigid beliefs or doctrines that are destructive of the proper distinctions among different classes of people. 
Machinations: Schemes, plots
Magnetic battery: (In this confused metaphor, the writer is suggesting that the feeling that spreads through a crowd is like an electrical or magnetic charge). 
Master mechanics: Skilled craftsmen who employ and train other workers in their craft.
Metropolitan policemen: The new police department established by the state government in 1857 to replace the older municipal police department, which New York Republicans felt was improperly dominated by Democratic Mayor Fernando Wood. Democrats objected to the new force and questioned its legitimacy. For several months the two police forces coexisted, until the Metropolitans sought to arrest Wood and thus provoked a bloody battle with the municipal police force. After the state militia restored order, the New York State Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the Metropolitan force. The older force was dissolved. The Metropolitans thus were associated in the public mind with the Republicans instead of the Democrats, a significant distinction in the context of the Draft Riot.
Miscreants: Evildoers 
.
National conscription: The national draft, intended to replenish the ranks of the Union Army.  Congress had passed the Enrollment Act on March 3, 1863. The Democratic leadership in the city and state of New York, including Governor Horatio Seymour, bitterly denounced the draft. The first names were drawn in July, setting off riots not only in New York but in Boston and other cities as well. New York's riots were by far the worst. Click here for another website with information on this topic.
New-York Hospital: The New-York Hospital occupied a site on Broadway between Duane and Worth streets from the 1770s to the 1870s. It treated mostly charity cases. (Click here to see map). It was replaced in 1877 by a new hospital west of Fifth Avenue between 15th and 16th streets. Click here for a related website.
 
Opulent: Wealthy.
Pale: Enclosed area.
Peacebreakers: Rioters.
Pecuniary: Financial; related to money.
Penury: Extreme poverty.
Perchance: Maybe.
Pilferers: People who steal
Plying: Continuing to supply or offer
Politicians' bubble: An insubstantial issue concocted by politicians.
Precludes: Makes impossible.
Preconcerted: Prearranged.
Preponderate: Dominate; outweigh.
Providence: Care and guardianship. The term usually refers to the care and guardianship of God.
Provost marshals:  The officials responsible for carrying out the draft.
Public conveyances: Vehicles of public transportation; namely, omnibuses, horsecars, and trains.
Quell: Suppress; stop.
Rabble: A worthless, tumultuous mob.
Radical: Essential; root.
Rapine:  Forcible seizure of property; plunder.
 
Redress: Reparation; compensation for a loss or injury.
Republican: This refers to the American system of government (by elected representatives) rather than to the political party.
Salutary: Healthy.
Scheme: The author is suggesting that the Catholic Church is secretly plotting to expand its power in America. This belief was common among many anti-Catholic Protestants in the United States at this time. 
Click here to read more about anti-Catholicism at this time.
School: A group of people who share an opinion or custom.
Scout: Reject contemptuously.
Sedition: Treason.
Sequel: That which follows. (In this case, the remaining part of the text).
Sequester: To confiscate; to seize property.
Sinew: Tendon; something that holds things together.
Social intercourse: Human interaction.
Solicitude: Concern; care.
Stamp: Kind; type; sort.
Staid: Sedate and dignified.
Stay: Restrain.
Stirring: Exciting.
Subjugation: Subordination.
Substratum: Lower level.
Supposition: Belief.
$300 exemption People who were drafted into the Union Army could avoid serving if they paid $300. This was too expensive for most working-class men, who strongly resented having to go to war if rich men did not. 
Click here for a letter on the subject, supposedly from a rioter. Click here for another website with information on this topic.
Tangible: Capable of being felt; palpable.
Unintermitted: Uninterrupted.
Wanton: Immoral; excessive; in defiance of proper limits.
Whence: From where.
Wonted: Usual.
 
Wood, Fernando

Fernando Wood, a Democrat, had served as Mayor of New York in 1855-57 and 1859-61. Wood had expressed sympathy with the Southern states before the war. Once the war broke out, Wood suggested that New York secede from the union to become a "free city."
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 
     
 
 

 

The Fourth Ward:
Life and Death in New York, 1860-1870