The American Civil War was in full deadly swing and the Union needed more able-bodied men. Congress passed a federal conscription law—all males, married or not, between 20 and 35, and unmarried men 35 to 45 were subject to duty—except African-Americans. The men were chosen by lottery, but $300 could buy you a stand-in. The only problem? $300 was the annual salary for the average worker. Compare that to today's median wage and you see that only the wealthy could afford to buy their way out.
The first draft took place July 11, 1863. On July 13 the rioting began in New York City. Men who supposedly opposed the slave trade now blamed it and, not just the slaves themselves, but anyone of the same race. The rioters attacked, in this order, the recruiting stations, other government buildings, black citizens, their homes and businesses, white abolitionists, and white women married to black men.
It took 4,000 Federal troops, just returned from the battle of Gettysburg, to restore order. An estimated 1,200 were killed and 3,000 black residents left homeless. The 1863 Draft Riots in New York City remain the deadliest in US history, worse than the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the 1967 Detroit riots.
Funny how your scruples and beliefs can change when your own welfare, like being sent into armed combat, is threatened. And that remains one of the evidences for the truth of the gospel. Why would every apostle still claim the truth of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection even under threat of painful death, and all but John suffer it instead of recanting? Because it was true. They believed because they saw. Why would people become Christians knowing that the next week it could cost them their lives? Because the testimony from those eyewitnesses was overwhelming.
Why would Jesus' brothers, James and Jude who had not believed during his lifetime, suddenly believe that Jesus was the Son of God? And why would the great persecutor, Saul, give up every valuable things in his life and a glorious future in Judaism to proclaim the gospel? Because they saw the resurrected Jesus. They knew it was all true. And when you see the evidence firsthand, and truly believe, nothing else matters.
Those rioters in 1863 were suddenly revealed to be not as pro-abolition as they had claimed to be when it cost them. They gave it up and actually fought to harm the cause.
What about us? Already people are losing businesses because of their moral stand. I truly believe that persecution of some kind is coming. What will it reveal about us?
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls (Heb 10:32-39).
Dene Ward