Political Life Case A

“Who are these Wide Awakes?!”

February 1860 marked the kick-off of the Hartford, Connecticut Republican gubernatorial race. Abolitionist, Cassius Clay, was the speaker that was escorted by five exuberant, politically minded Talcott and Post Textile clerks wearing homemade black oil cloth capes, martial hats, and carrying stolen torches on curtain rod sticks. They protected him from violent Democrats, taking him to Allyn House. After that night, Edgar S. Yergason, Charles Fairbanks, Charles Hart, J. Allen and Daniel Francis met, and formed the Wide Awakes. Henry Hitchcock, Henry Sperry, and Julius Rathbun joined, completing the leadership of the original 36 members.

Many members were tired of slavery and the elitist political system that allowed it. Wide Awakes turned Lincoln’s run for the presidency into a people’s campaign. Sperry used the new electric telegraph to spread the word, inviting young people to form their own Wide Awake groups across the nation.

Wide Awake Marching Pictorial

This cartoon, in the Wide Awake 1860 newspaper, features young people marching Honest Abe to Washington D.C., all the way to the White House. Marching in formation is a common activity for the club, no matter the rally, anywhere members appeared.

Wide Awake Membership Certificate

Henry T. Sperry’s membership certificate shows his status as one of the Hartford, Connecticut original 36, in March 1860. It also lays out the club’s slogan “Free Speech, Free Soil, and Free Men.” This belief is why the group supported the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln.

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