1863 New York City mayoral election

The 1863 New York City mayoral election took place on December 1st, 1863, to elect the 78th Mayor of New York City.

C. Godfrey Gunther, a fur merchant and former candidate for mayor in 1861, beat fellow Democrat Francis I. A. Boole and Union candidate Orison Blunt.^[1]

After his assistance in both suppressing the July 1863 New York City draft riots and enacting conscription throughout the city, Republican Mayor George Opdyke's re-election prospects were effectively dead. So damaged was his political reputation that he wasn't even re-nominated.^[2]

The Republicans and Unionists, now at a serious political disadvantage, nominated Orison Blunt, a gun-maker and member of the Board of Aldermen.

Tammany Hall meanwhile nominated Francis I. A. Boole, a War Democrat and rather corrupt city official notable for heading the street cleaning department. Mozart Hall decided to back his nomination, however he received little if any support from them, with its founder former Mayor Fernando Wood having refused to speak at the meeting called to ratify his nomination.

With the machine-Democrats nominating such a weak candidate and at a time where popularity for the Civil War was at an all-time low, rebels from both parties, as well as former Wood supporters (mostly European minorities) split to form a temporary coalition of working class Irish and Germans. After strong backing from the city's German newspapers, C. Godfrey Gunther, a German himself and a Copperhead Democrat, emerged as a third-party candidate.^[3]

• C. Godfrey Gunther, fur merchant and Tammany Hall candidate for mayor in 1861.
• Francis I. A. Boole, City Inspector and member of the Board of Aldermen from the 11th ward (Lower East Side area).
• Orison Blunt, gun-maker, member of the Board of Aldermen from the 15th ward (Greenwich Village area), and independent candidate for New York's 6th congressional district in 1862.

The result was widely considered an upset for Boole. Ward results showed that in the 17th, 18th, and 21st wards (the Midtown area), where the Draft Riots had concentrated, there was a huge loss of support for Tammany Hall, likely due to Boole's simpathy for the Union and support of Black suffrage.^[5]

In the aftermath, Boole soon lost favor with the public and was legislated out of office. Reportedly after that he then became insane and ill-minded, being transferred to the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, then the Lunatic Asylum at Utica, where he would remain until his death in September 1869.^[6][7]