Wide Awakes

The Wide Awakes were a youth organization and later a paramilitary organization cultivated by the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election in the United States. Using popular social events, an ethos of competitive fraternity, and even promotional comic books, the organization introduced many to political participation and proclaimed itself as the newfound voice of younger voters. The structured militant Wide Awakes appealed to a generation which had been profoundly shaken by the partisan instability in the 1850s, and offered young northerners a much-needed political identity.

A Wide Awakes parade in Lower Manhattan, one of a series of political rallies held in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, and Boston during the first week of October 1860.

Overview

In February 1860, abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay spoke in Hartford, Connecticut. As five textile clerks led a torch-lit march through town after the speech, they successfully fought off an attack by Democratic Party members. Adopting the uniform of black capes that such torchbearers wore to protect themselves from dripping oil onto their clothing, local Republicans were spurred by the incident to form the Wide Awakes.

In early March 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke in Hartford, Connecticut, against the spread of slavery and for the right of workers to strike. Five store clerks that belonged to the Wide Awakes decided to join a parade for Lincoln, who delighted in the torchlight escort back to his hotel provided for him after his speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the Lincoln campaign made plans to develop Wide Awakes throughout the country and to use them to spearhead large voter registration drives, since they knew that new and young voters tended to embrace similarly new and young parties.

Members of the Wide Awakes were described by The New York Times as "young men of character and energy, earnest in their Republican convictions and enthusiastic in prosecuting the canvass on which we have entered." In Chicago, on October 3, 1860, 10,000 Wide Awakes marched in a three-mile procession. The story on that rally occupied eight columns of the Chicago Tribune. In Indiana, one historian reported:

1860 was the most colorful in the memory of the Hoosier electorate. “Speeches, day and night, torch-light processions, and all kinds of noise and confusion are the go, with all parties,” commented the “independent” Indianapolis Locomotive. Congressman Julian too was impressed by the “contrivance and spectacular display” which prevailed in the current canvass. Each party took unusual pains to mobilize its followers in disciplined political clubs, but the most remarkable of these were the Lincoln “Rail Maulers” and “Wide Awakes,” whose organizations extended throughout the state. Clad in gaudy uniforms the members of these quasi-military bands participated in all Republican demonstrations. The “Wide Awakes” in particular were well drilled and served as political police in escorting party speakers and in preserving order at public meetings. Party emulation made every political rally the occasion for carefully arranged parades through banner-bedecked streets, torchlight processions, elaborate floats and transparencies, blaring bands, and fireworks.

By the middle of the 1860 campaign, Republicans bragged that they had Wide Awake chapters in every county of every northern (free) state. On the day of Lincoln's election as president, Wide Awakes had grown to 500,000 members. The group remained active for several decades.

Rituals

Wide Awakes banner, on display at the Old Capitol building, Springfield, Illinois

Uniform and tactics

The Wide Awakes were a marching club. Their uniform was a full robe or cape and a military style hat, both made of black, shiny fabric. They carried a torch six feet in length to which a large flaming pivoting whale-oil container was mounted. Some carried rail-splitter axes strapped to their backs. The axes and split rails symbolized Abraham Lincoln, "the rail splitter."

They marched without speaking, eyes fixed straight ahead. Their only sound was the rhythm of a marching drum and the noise of their boots striking the ground in unison. Their marches were at night, lit by torches, in outdoor public places in cities in the American northeast. The gatherings of the Wide Awakes were very different from all previous American political rallies, which featured boisterous daytime parades, songs, and brass bands.

A Boston Wide Awake rally in October 1860 was one of the last before Lincoln was elected and the Civil War began. In this rally, Wide Awakes lit their torches all at the same moment, synchronized by the sound of a single gunshot. They marched in a zig-zag pattern imitating a split-rail fence. They held banners with anti-slavery messages, such as The Pilgrims Did Not Found an Empire for Slavery. The rally included both black and white people. A company of 200 Black men, the West Boston Wide Awakes, held a banner reading God Never Made a Tyrant or a Slave.

Chapter organization

Little is known about the national organization of the Wide Awakes, if indeed any formal governing body existed at all. The clubs seem to have been organized by city into local chapters. Surviving minutes of the Waupun, Wisconsin, chapter restrict membership to males 18 and older. The member had to "furnish himself with the style of uniform adopted by this Club." The chapter had a military-style officer system consisting of a captain and the 1st to 4th lieutenants.

The Captain shall have command of the Club at all times; in his absence the Lieutenants shall have command in the order of their rank. Every member of this club shall attend all the meetings whether regular or special; and when on duty or in attendance at the meetings, shall obey the officers in command, and shall at all times perform such duties as shall be required of him by the officers in command.

Social dimensions

Whatever their names, marching clubs of both parties often had bands and fancy uniforms. The social dimensions have been described:

The young men and boys who joined the Wide-Awakes, Invincibles, and other marching clubs were sold inexpensive uniforms and taught impressive march maneuvers. In Marion the Wide-Awake uniform consisted of an oil cloth cape and cap and a red sash, which along with a lamp or torch cost $1.33. Their “worm fence march” can be imagined, as can a nice connection to Lincoln as rail splitter—a connection that does remind us of the log-cabin and hard cider symbolism of earlier days [of 1840]. The more important connection to be made, however, is to the “militia fever” of the 1850s. Many Americans north and south delighted in military uniforms and titles, musters and parades, and the formal balls their companies sponsored during the winter social season. Their younger brothers no doubt delighted in aping them, so far as $1.33 would allow, while their parents were provided with a means by which youthful rowdyism was, for a time, channeled into a military form of discipline. The regular campaign clubs, meanwhile, were given a different attraction. One of the first items of business, once the club was organized, was to invite “the ladies” to meetings. Many members were single young men, and the campaign occurred during a relatively slow social season following the picnics, steamboat excursions, and other outings of the summer, and preceding the balls sponsored by militia companies, fire companies, and fraternal lodges during the winter. Campaign clubs helped to extend and connect the social seasons for single young men and women, and gave both an occasion for high-spirited travel. “Coming home there was fun,” wrote the Democratic editor of a Dubuque Republican club excursion to a rally in Galena. “There were frequent ‘three cheers for Miss Nancy Rogers.’ ... Captain Pat Conger was the best looking man on the ground and we can only say that it is a pity he is not a Democrat.”

Mission statement

Typical Wide Awakes chapters also adopted an unofficial mission statement. The following example comes from the Chicago chapter:

1. To act as a political police.
2. To do escort duty to all prominent Republican speakers who visit our place to address our citizens.
3. To attend all public meetings in a body and see that order is kept and that the speaker and meeting is not disturbed.
4. To attend the polls and see that justice is done to every legal voter.
5. To conduct themselves in such a manner as to induce all Republicans to join them.
6. To be a body joined together in large numbers to work for the good of the Republican Ticket.

Membership certificate

A membership certificate for the Wide-Awake Club: “Free speech, free soil, free men. This is to certify that... is a member of the... Wide-Awake Club.”

This particular membership certificate of the Wide Awakes has a central vignette showing crowds and troops before the US Capitol. Some of the troops march in long parade lines, others fire cannons into the air toward the Capitol. Crowds line the Capitol steps, flanking a lone figure, probably Abraham Lincoln, who ascends toward the building's entrance. The certificate is framed by an American flag draped over a rail fence, with olive branches at the top. In the upper corners are oval medallions of Lincoln (left) and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin (right). Rail-splitter's mallets appear in the corners. A vigilant eye peers from a halo of clouds at the center. On either side stand uniformed members of the society, wearing their characteristic short capes and visored caps. One holds a staff and a lantern (left), and the other holds a burning torch. Below, an eagle on a shield holds a streamer “E Pluribus Unum,” arrows, and olive branch. Broken shackles lie before him. In the left distance, the sun rises over a mountainous landscape and a locomotive chugs across the plains. On the right is a more industrial scene: an Eastern city with its harbor full of boats. In the foreground a man hammers a wedge into a wooden rail.

Stone's Prairie Riot

In August 1860, a political rally was scheduled to be held at Stone's Prairie in Adams County, Illinois, near the modern village of Plainville. This area, in the far west of Illinois, was familiar to two of the presidential candidates. Although the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was known in the area, his Democratic opponent, Stephen Douglas, had practiced law nearby. In addition to local animosity, Adams County was close to the border with Missouri, a slave state.

The rally was organized by the Republicans. When it was initially announced, there was an invitation to Democratic speakers. Although the invitation was later withdrawn, that fact was not widely disseminated, which resulted in confusion as to whether it was to be a Republican rally or a debate between Republican and Democratic supporters.

During the 1860 campaign, it was a common practice for settlements to raise poles, as much as 150 feet (46 meters) high. The political parties hung flags and effigies of the candidates they opposed from the poles.

On the way to the rally, the Quincy Wide Awakes passed through Payson, the residents of which had erected a pole with an offensive effigy of Lincoln astride a rail. The Wide Awakes, however, carried a banner with an equally offensive depiction of a drunken Douglas falling over a pile of rails. An early confrontation was avoided, with the Wide Awakes proceeding to Stone's Creek.

The August 25, 1860 rally involved around 7000 participants. Democrats appeared expecting to hear their candidates in a debate. They were instead treated to a podium of Republicans, whom they heckled. The Wide Awakes defended the speakers, and a general melee resulted, involving several hundred men.

After the rally, the Wide Awakes returned through Payson, where they found a hundred Democrats guarding their pole. Although Wide Awakes avoided confrontation, shots were fired at them while they left town. The Wide Awakes' flag was pierced by shots, and several were reported to have been injured.

Southern reaction

In 1860, Texas Senator Louis Wigfall alleged that Wide Awakes were behind a wave of arson and vandalism, opposing "one–half million of men uniformed and drilled, and the purpose of their organization to sweep the country in which I live with fire and sword." The Wide Awakes represented the region's minority of slave and land owners’ greatest fear: an oppressive force bent on marching down, liberating the slaves, stealing their land, and pushing aside their way of life. Their outfits and equipment only further incited that fear with beliefs that "they parade at midnight, carry rails to break open our doors, torches to fire our dwellings, and beneath their long black capes, the knife to cut our throats."

On October 25, 1858, Senator Seward of New York stated to an excited crowd that "a revolution has begun" and alluded to Wide Awakes as "forces with which to recover back again all the fields... and to confound and overthrow, by one decisive blow, the betrayers of the constitution and freedom forever." To the South, the Wide Awakes and the North would be content only when the South was fully dominated.

The South recognized the need for their own Wide Awakes and thus started a movement to create "a counteracting organization in the South," dubbed the "Minutemen," after the American Revolution militia of the same name. It would no longer entertain the "abhorrence of the rapine, murder, insurrection, pollution and incendiarism which have been plotted by the deluded and vicious of the North, against the chastity, law and prosperity of innocent and unoffending citizens of the South." The Minutemen were expected "to form an armed body of men... whose duty is to arm, equip and drill, and be ready for any emergency that may arise in the present perilous position of Southern States." The fear of the Wide Awakes resulted in Minutemen companies forming all over the South. Like their enemy, they too held torch rallies and wore their own uniforms, complete with an official badge of "a blue rosette... to be worn upon the side of the hat."

In Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, opponents of the Wide Awakes formed the National Volunteers, which were involved in the Baltimore riot of 1861 that produced the first deaths of the American Civil War. In this April 1861 incident, Copperhead anti-war Democrats mobilized the National Volunteers to attack the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania state militias as they passed through the city en route to Washington, D.C..

Wartime activities

After Lincoln called out all the militia in April 1861, the Republican Wide Awakes, the Democratic "Douglas Invincibles," and other parade groups volunteered en masse for the Union army. In 1864, reports of political rallies noted the "Northwestern Wide Awakes, the Great Western Light Guard Band, and the 24th Illinois Infantry" at a Chicago meeting. On November 5, the Chicago Union Campaign Committee, the name of Lincoln's party that year, declared:

"On Tuesday next the destiny of the American Republic is to be settled. We appeal to Union men. We appeal to merchants to close their stores, manufacturers to permit their clerks and laborers to go to the polls, the Board of Trade to close, the Union Leagues and Wide Awakes to come out. The rebellion must be put down."

Defense of St. Louis

In early 1861, the Wide Awakes chapter in St. Louis became involved in paramilitary operations at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Aided by Francis Preston Blair Jr. and Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon, the St. Louis Wide Awakes smuggled armaments into the city and trained secretly in a warehouse. The purpose was to prepare them for defense of the federal St. Louis Arsenal, which Confederate supporters wanted to seize. Lyon employed his political connections through Blair to obtain an appointment as commanding officer over the arsenal. Once he had received his promotion, he promptly moved the St. Louis Wide Awakes into the arsenal under the cover of night.

Lyon's Wide Awakes, newly mustered into the Union Army, were used on May 10, 1861, to arrest a division of the Missouri State Militia near St. Louis in what would become known as the Camp Jackson Affair. As the captured militia men were marched toward the arsenal, a riot later that day erupted in which scores of civilians were shot or killed. That event marked the effective beginning of the Civil War in Missouri.

See also

• History of the United States Republican Party
• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• Woke (slang)

Further reading

• Barrow, Elizabeth C. (2005). Push on the Column!: A Study of the Wide Awakes during the 1860 Presidential Election (MA). East Carolina University.
• Boller Jr., Paul F. (2004). Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
• Franson, Melissa (2021). "Wide Awakes, Half Asleeps, Little Giants, and Bell Ringers: Political Partisanship in the Catskills of New York during the Elections of 1860 and 1862". New York History. 102 (1): 149–171. doi:10.1353/nyh.2021.0003. S2CID 242756359.
• Goodheart, Adam (2011). 1861: The Civil War Awakening. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Grinspan, Jon (2024). Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Kinsley, Philip (1943). The Chicago Tribune: Its First Hundred Years, Volume I: 1847 1865. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Klement, Frank L. (1989). Dark Lanterns: Secret Political Societies, Conspiracies, and Treason Trials in the Civil War. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press.
• Rinhart, Floyd (1996). "The Prairies A-Blaze': Iowa Wide Awakes Carry Torches for Lincoln". Iowa Heritage Illustrated. 77 (1): 43–48. doi:10.17077/1088-5943.1249.
• Spillman, Jane Shadel (1995). "Glass Lantern, Research Shed Light on 1860 Political Group". Journal of Glass Studies. 37: 140–145.
• Taylor, Paul (2018). "The Most Complete Political Machine Ever Known": The North's Union Leagues in the American Civil War. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press.

External links

• The Wide Awakes by Louis T. Wigfall, December 6, 1860 [1]
• The Wide Awakes Lincoln/Net [2]
• Abraham Lincoln, a History Volume 2 John Hay and John Nicolay [3]
• Struggle for St. Louis by Anthony Mondachello [4]
• Circular regarding uniform and the organization of the club Library of Congress
• The Wide Awake quick step. 1860 Library of Congress