“Don’t Unchain the Tiger,” an 1863 broadside from a German-language newspaper after the riots, urging readers not to resort to violence.

Translation:

When the traitors of South Carolina met in convention in Charleston and passed their ordinance to abolish the American Union, and to crush out the democratic principles of free government in America, and when they afterwards fired upon Fort Sumter, and I knew that secession meant a terrible war, I said to myself and to them— Don't unchain the Tiger!

But they did it— and for two years we have seen and suffered the con- sequences, written in tears, and blood, and ruin, in our once happy land ; and now, when the rebellion is being nearly crushed, and Jeff. Davis is finding his plans defeated, and Southern traitors in the loyal States are trying to help him by making civil war at home, I say to myself— Don’t unchain the Tiger!

When I hear Working-Men talk about resisting the law, burning houses, killing public officers, and bursting the doors wide open for every kind of crime and disorder, it seems to me they do not think of all the cost and of all the horrors, or of widows and orphans, and their scalding tears, and I say to them, " Brothers ! in the name of God— Don't unchain the Tiger!"

When I see well-dressed demagogues filling the ears of the people with lies, just as the traitors of the South have done, only to get the Working- Men aroused to deeds of crime and violence, while they themselves take good care to keep out of the way, I wish I had the voice of a thunderer, that I might say to them—Don’t unchain the Tiger!

Working-Men ! When any man asks you to break the law, and tries to etir up your passions, while he skulks out of sight, you may set him down as your worst enemy. Spurn him as you would a viper. The patriotic Working-Men of the North cannot afford to spend time in killing each other. Be wise, and above all things,

DON'T UNCHAIN THE TIGER!

A Democratic Workingman.

New York, July 24, 1863.