[1] Protestants objected, as did newspaper editorials in the Herald and Times, a petition signed by Wall Street businessmen, and a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's.

[1] The pressure generated by these concerns among the city's elite, on top of pressure from good-government reformers against Tweed's regime in general, caused Tammany to reverse course and allow the march;[1] Tammany needed to show that it could control the immigrant Irish population which formed a major part of its electoral power.

[1] The riot caused the deaths of over 60 civilians – mostly Ulster Scots Protestant and Irish Catholic laborers – and three Guardsmen.

Eighth Avenue was devastated, with one reporter from the New York Herald describing the street as "smeared and slippery with human blood and brains while the land beneath was covered two inches deep with clotted gore, pieces of brain, and the half digested contents of a human stomach and intestines.

[1] The following day, on July 13, 20,000 mourners paid their respects to the dead outside the morgue at Bellevue Hospital, and funeral processions made their way to Calvary Cemetery in Queens by way of ferries.

Governor Hoffman was hanged in effigy by Irish Catholics in Brooklyn, and the events began to be referred to as the "Slaughter on Eighth Avenue.

"[1] Despite their attempt to protect their political power by allowing the parade to go forward, Tammany Hall did not benefit from the outcome, instead coming under increased criticism from newspapers and the city's elite.

One of the reasons many in the upper and middle classes had grudingly acquiesced in Tammany's hold on power was its presumed ability to maintain political stability.