Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1853-1860.] LAWLESSNESS AND BIOTING IN NEW YORK. 317

mer. On the 16th of June, as our crack regiment, the Seventh,
was on the march down Broadway, to take the steamer at 4 P.M.
for an excursion to Boston, orders were given to halt opposite the City Hall, and then to take forcible possession of that
edifice. The Mayor, Fernando Wood, suddenly found himself
a prisoner; the City Hall was garrisoned by the National
Guard. There were at that time two sets of police, each
claiming to be the lawful guardians of our public peace. Between them occurred desperate collisions, while the citizens,
wild with excitement, found their safety due, for the nonce,
to bayonets and field-pieces. On the 4th day of July following there was bloody work in the Five Points. The rioting
continued during Sunday, the 5th, and the city was again preserved from mob violence by the Seventh Regiment, which,
together with the Eighth and Seventy-first, repressed the fury
of the rabble, marching through the dangerous districts, closing up shops, scattering crowds, and arresting ringleaders.
Those were exciting days for us, who could not leave the city,
and were kept in continual suspense, passing from one crisis
to another. All tragedies, however, have their dash of comedy; and, looking back to those times, I recall a certain odd
character, by name Stephen H. Branch, who flitted constantly
before the public eye, acting the part of a clown or jester,
though, no doubt, with serious intent. He was a man of good
education and some abilities, and had a command of language
which made me often regard him as a kind of combination of
Carlyle and. Ruskin in the state of lunacy, if such a thing can
be imagined. Take, for example, his proclamation proposing
himself as a candidate for the office in which Fernando Wood
had so distinguished himself; it is one of innumerable squibs
emanating from the same eccentric genius. We used to read
them with eagerness for their delicious absurdity, and I remember the General's delight at the awful threat of assuming
"doubtful powers:"
"I have been far out beyond the remotest bounds of civilized beings, and have scaled bolder cliffs and higher peaks