Low-paid workers in new york responded to the union draft of 1863 by

Answer: staging a riot in New York City

Explanation: The New York City draft riots which occurred between July 13 - July 16 1863 were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of white working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War.

In 1863, it became necessary for the federal government to enroll and draft men into the Army. The Conscription Act declared that men between the ages of 20 and 45 were eligible for duty and that Aliens who had filed their declaration of intention to become citizens were also eligible. The draft was mandatory with only a few exemptions.

Initially intended to express anger at the draft (mainly because wealthier men could hire substitutes;, mostly black free men, and be spared from the draft), the protests turned into a race riot, with white rioters, predominantly Irish immigrants, attacking black people throughout the city.