Civil war - social
During the civil war, Abraham Lincoln put in place a new system that angered many people. The draft. When the volunteer soldier numbers had run low (from dying and injuries) and the war was still going hard this system was designed to, for lack of a better word, force people into the army. However, it was made at least a little fair, and people were chosen completely at random to join the army. Just because you were chosen however did not mean you had to fight. You could A) Pay $300 to skip that round of the draft B) Find or bribe somebody to take your place C) flee. Out of the 750,000 men drafted only 46,000 actually saw battle. The rest used one of these options to avoid the war. Because paying it off was the easiest option, but cost a good chunk of money, the civil war was often known as a "Rich man's war and a poor man's fight." The war draft caused anger and riots among the people, including the riots of New York where the people ran the streets killing, burning, and looting until the police were finally able to regain control.