Wide Awakes

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.

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.[1]

  1. ^ Grinspan, Jon (September 2009). ""Young Men for War:" The Wide Awakes and Lincoln's 1860 Presidential Campaign". Journal of American History. 96 (2): 357–378. doi:10.1093/jahist/96.2.357. Retrieved April 1, 2017.