Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (1940), a book which itself is an example of a left/progressive treatment of American history of that time, wrote about an important event that obviously included some antiwar, pro-slavery, Copperhead sentiment, the antidraft riot of 1863 in New York City:
Even in the summer of 1863, when the North was in the full flush of victory, many of its own people were doing their best to defeat its cause. Copperheadism was on the increase. Disaffected areas were rife with opposition to the Northern war policy; treason became commonplace. Recruiting had fallen off so badly that men had to be offered large bounties for enlistment. Even this did not help. Men had to be drafted into the army, and the resistance to this measure became so great that in New York City it flared out into open violence only ten days after Gettysburg.("Copperhead" was a polemical term, and how much the categories of Copperhead, Peace Democrats, and Southern sympathizers overlapped would also be a separate discussion.)
An attack was made on an office where names were being drawn for the draft. The building was burned, and police and soldiers were assaulted. The mob then surged through the city for four days terrorizing the populace, burning a Negro orphan asylum and running down and killing Negroes wherever they could be found. Nearly one thousand people were killed or wounded, and property damage ran into several millions of dollars. [my emphasis]
That event is known as the Draft Riot of 1863. The current Britannica article on it relates:
[The] Draft Riot of 1863, [was a] major four-day eruption of violence in New York City resulting from deep worker discontent with the inequities of conscription during the U.S. Civil War. Although labouring people in general supported the Northern war effort, they had no voice in Republican policy and occasionally deserted from the army or refused reenlistment. Because of their low wages, often less than $500 a year, they were particularly antagonized by the federal provision allowing more affluent draftees to buy their way out of the Federal Army for $300. Minor riots occurred in several cities, and when the drawing of names began in New York on July 11, 1863, mobs (mostly of foreign-born, especially Irish, workers) surged onto the streets, assaulting residents, defying police, attacking draft headquarters, and burning buildings. Property damage eventually totaled $1,500,000. [my emphasis]Of course, $1.5 million in 1863 dollars converted into 2020 dollars would be much larger. (I'm not going to attempt the conversion here!)
The account quoted above shows how various political currents fed into the New York draft riot, which as we see quickly became an anti-black race riot. One factor is that military conscription is always unpopular, even when there is broad public support for a military conflict. There was definitely a class factor, because wealthy people could simply pay not to be drafted, an option not available for the vast majority of conscripts.
Plain old white racist hatred was obviously an important factor, apparently by far the most important in this case.
Nativism/anti-nativism was involved, as well. As was partisan and religious tribalism. And it would not be surprising if there weren't some organized Copperhead effort encouraging this, though how much is unclear.
When the Republican Party was formed in 1854, it attracted not only antislavery voters of various kinds but also attracted nativist voters who were also opposed to the Catholicism supported by most Irish immigrants. And the Pope at the time was particularly opposed to the antislavery movement in the US, regarding it as what was then known as "red republicanism". Irish immigrants tended to support the Democratic Party. So anti-immigrant, anti-slavery, and anti-Catholic sentiments could all figure into opposition to the Democratic Party at that time.
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