Over the course of the first two days of rioting, two camps emerged within the political leadership of the city and state. Tammany Hall and state Democrats tended to view the riots as viable working-class political protests. Republican businessmen, merchants, journalists, and politicians--all targets of the rioters over the first two days--tended to see the events as nothing less than a full-scale insurrection that required a swift federal response. Politicians of all perspectives also understood that very real tensions--between social and economic classes; between the races; and between the city and the nation--had been revealed in the riot's first two days and needed to be addressed. But the immediate concern of all leaders, regardless of their political identity or persuasion, was to end the violence.

Governor Horatio Seymour, a Democrat, arrived in the city late on Tuesday morning. After meeting briefly with Mayor Opdyke and General John Wool, Commander of the Department of the East (a federal position), Seymour proceeded to City Hall where he made a controversial speech to the rioters. Seymour--who was flanked on the steps by Tammany Hall leaders William Tweed, A. Oakey Hall, and Charles G. Cornell--was subsequently accused by Republicans of addressing the crowd as "my friends," although it is not clear if he actually used that exact phrase.

Such political squabbles aside, New York's leaders continued to debate short and long-term solutions. At noon Mayor Opdyke wired Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, to send federal troops. But the mayor refused to declare martial law, which would force him to turn over control of the city to the federal government. He and other leading Republicans were committed to working with Democrats to develop a local solution to the protests. Tammany Democrats, meanwhile, began on Tuesday to draft an ordinance to pay $2.5 million to cover the $300 draft exemption fees for every New York City conscript. A political dilemma slowly emerged. Should the draft be enforced in New York, the local credibility of the Democratic party would be severely damaged; but should the federal draft law not be enforced throughout the city, then the credibility of the Lincoln Administration in other parts of the country would be severely undercut.