"A Crisis Unprecedented" > "One Step Further"
The Chamber of Commerce expended energy and resources to further the Union effort, but it was a conservative mobilization; the merchants’ fondest wish was for a return to the status quo antebellum. As the conflict dragged on, it became increasingly apparent that great change was unavoidable. “We have Civil War in our country,” a university professor wrote to the Chamber in late 1861, “whatever its issue may be, one thing seems to be beyond all doubt – neither cotton nor slavery will come forth from this war as they went into it.”
At first, the merchants had pledged to unify irrespective of previous political disagreements. As the months passed, however, their initial solidarity had gradually fissured. And, slavery was one of the central points of division. There had always been a few ardent abolitionists among the City’s leading merchants, but during the crises of the 1850s most had chosen political and commercial stability over anti-slavery idealism.
This attitude was challenged by the war. Defeating the Confederacy was good business – not only were there millions of southern debts still outstanding, but Northern financiers were loaning ever-increasing sums to the federal government – and freeing slaves would surely hasten a Southern collapse.
If it had once been a moral issue, emancipation had become a military one, as well. Yet, the businessmen remained split. When some members joined a group to push for radical war aims, others barred them from using the Chamber’s rooms. During the first excitement of Fort Sumter, the group’s public utterances had not mentioned slavery as a factor in the conflict. By August 1862, however, the Chamber of Commerce joined several institutions to issue a statement, saying, “We believe, in sadness, but in all earnestness, that the success of our war for the Union depends upon the President’s issuing a proclamation of emancipation to every slave that will leave the rebels, and come within our lines.”
This was a great distance traveled in a short time, though it was still not enough for the Liberator, the leading newspaper of the Abolitionist cause. In an article headlined, “One Step Further,” a writer began by saying, “I admire the resolutions adopted in New York City by committees representing the Chamber of Commerce…” But, the author objected to freeing only slaves behind enemy lines. If, he noted, victory “depends upon emancipation, why not proclaim universal emancipation, and thus secure justice to the slave, obedience to God, and salvation to our country?”
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued a few weeks after this exchange, adhered closely to the Chamber’s formula – freeing the slaves in Confederate territory, while saying nothing about those in border states or occupied areas.
In 1863, the solidarity of the Chamber of Commerce was tested again, as the City whirled through several days of rioting in resistance to military conscription. The main victims were African-American residents, but demonstrators also called out, “Down with the rich men!” and targeted the property and symbolic landmarks of New York’s elites. George Opdyke – Mayor of the City and leader of the Chamber – had his house attacked. And it was rumored that at certain key moments the gunboats that had been stationed in the harbor to protect against the predations of the Alabama, had repositioned themselves in order to fire upon the riotous citizens instead.