THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN; The Great Parade of the Wide-Awakes on Wednesday; Thirty Thousand Torches in Procession (10/1/1860)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 10/1/1860

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The grand national demonstration of all the "Wide-Awakes," or delegations from all, to take place in this City next Wednesday night, bids fair to be quite as brilliant a spectacle as its warmest friends have predicted. Positive assurances have been received by the Committee that has charge of the affair that the largest number that has been named will participate in the parade; and making every allowance for the possible detention of some, it is estimated that full 30,000 men will be in the ranks on the occasion of the display. There has been considerable difficulty in procuring enough uniforms for all who have ordered them. The enameled cloth in which they are fashioned is for the most part manufactured in New-Jersey and New-England, and the mills have been unable to supply the sudden demand for it. Hundreds of women and many a man in this City have been engaged for weeks past in making caps and capes for Wide-Awakes in various parts of the country, and they are still stitching away for dear life. Although the orders come in so thick and fast that the tailor and his assistants are hardly able to fulfill them, yet enough of the equipments have been manufactured to insure the computed size of the procession if there are men enough to fill all the uniforms that are in being.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Presidential Campaign: The Great Parade of the Wide-Awakes – 2-3
Editorial: The North and South – 3-4
Editorial: Mortality and the Streets – 4
Editorial: The Chinese Rebellion and the Allies – 4
Spanish Preparations Against Mexico – 4
More Transatlantic Steamers – 4-5
The Office-Holders Deserting the Administration – 5
The Office of Recorder – 5
The Woman’s Library – 5
Movements of the Prince – 5-6
General City News – 6
Murder in Twelfth-street – 6
Base Ball: Excelsior vs. Empire – 6

[Red Badger]

Get Woke, go Broke?.........................

[Pearls Before Swine]

Torches... and pitchforks?

[skr]

So the Woke Movement is cultural appropriation of the Wide-Awake Movement but with opposing goals.

[brianr10]

People were very wordy back then, weren’t they?

[M Kehoe]

+1

5.56mm

[BroJoeK]

"So the Woke Movement is cultural appropriation of the Wide-Awake Movement but with opposing goals."

Right, but if "woke" means Antifa & BLM, then there's no remote comparison:

"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.”[4]
In Chicago on October 3, 1860, 10,000 Wide Awakes marched in a three-mile procession.
The story of this rally occupied eight columns of the Chicago Tribune."

In Indiana:

"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.[5]"

So Wide Awakes were as disciplined as the Tea Party, as enthusiastic as a Trump rally.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

In Chicago on October 3, 1860, 10,000 Wide Awakes marched in a three-mile procession. The story of this rally occupied eight columns of the Chicago Tribune."

I didn't know about the Chicago parade. The NY Times only gave the NYC parade 6 1/3 columns. (I captured it all for our Oct. 4 Post.)

The illustration you posted is from the Oct. 13 issue of Harper's Weekly. Like you, I have a sneak preview just for our group. You will see it with George Strong's diary entry for Oct. 5. He will watch the parade from a perch on Broadway.

[BroJoeK]

You'll be delighted to learn that physicists have now decided time travel is possible -- see this thread.
So there are no paradoxes involved with jumping forward & backward in time!

(I added my own contribution to serious scientific enquiry in post #82 of that thread.)

;-)

[M Kehoe]

Thanks for the additional information.

5.56mm