Editing Wide Awakes (section)

==Overview==
In February 1860, [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[Cassius Marcellus Clay (politician)|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 (United States)|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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Grinspan |first=Jon |date=2024-06-07 |title=The 19th-Century Club You've Never Heard of That Changed the World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/opinion/civil-war-wide-awakes-free-speech.html |access-date=2024-06-26 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In early March 1860, [[Abraham Lincoln]] spoke in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], against the spread of [[slavery in the United States|slavery]] and for the right of workers to [[Strike action|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.<ref name="Courant">{{cite web | title=The Wide Awakes| publisher=Hartford Courant Connecticut Historical Society| date=April 1, 2017| url=http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-wide-awake-hs-1950-530-0dt1-jpg-20141114-photo.html}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Audacious">{{cite book | title=Lincoln for President: An Unlikely Candidate, An Audacious Strategy, and the Victory No One Saw Coming| last=Chadwick| first=Bruce| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2PQqZzyw4uAC&q=Wide+Awake+Parade&pg=PA149| pages=147–149| publisher=Sourcebooks| location=Naperville, Illinois| date=2009| isbn=9781402247569| access-date=April 1, 2017}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{cite web | title=The Wide-Awake Parade| work=The New York Times| date=October 3, 1860| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1860/10/03/archives/the-wideawake-parade.html| access-date=April 1, 2017}}</ref> 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:

<blockquote>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.<ref>Kenneth Stampp, ''Indiana Politics During the Civil War'' (1949), p.&nbsp;45.</ref></blockquote>

By the middle of the 1860 campaign, Republicans bragged that they had Wide Awake chapters in every county of every northern ([[Slave states and free states|free]]) state.<ref name="Audacious" /> On the day of Lincoln's election as president, Wide Awakes had grown to 500,000 members. The group remained active for several decades.<ref name="Courant" />