The Cotton Deals

[JMadonna]

In a nutshell - Lincoln needed cotton to keep England out of the war. Licenses and permits were granted for certain shippers from NY to keep the trade going. This led to bribes, kickbacks etc to those who were granted the licenses and hard feelings among those who weren't. Since politically speaking NYC was always a Democratic Party town, Lincoln's actions were not popular.
The graft that ran Mayor Fernando Wood's Mozart Hall organization came primarily from the ships that ran the cotton trade. Wood became one of the main sponsors of the Copperhead movement.