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The Wide Awakes was a paramilitary campaign organization affiliated with the Republican Party during the United States presidential election of 1860. Similar organizations affiliated with the Democratic Party were called the "Douglas Invincibles", "Young Hickories", "Earthquakes", and even "Chloroformers" (in reference to the "Wide Awakes"). Southern organizations were called the "Minute Men". In the mid-1850s, an entirely separate group called the "Wide Awakes" existed in New York City. This was a political club loosely associated with the Know Nothing movement.〔Carleton Beals; ''Brass-Knuckle Crusade: The Great Know-Nothing Conspiracy, 1820-1860'' 1960. Deals with the "Wide Awakes" sponsored by the Know Nothing party, which were different from the group discussed here.〕 ==Overview == In 1856, across the North, the new Republican party organized young men's marching clubs called "Rocky Mountain Clubs", "Wide Awakes", "Freedom Clubs", and "Bear Clubs." The term "Wide Awakes" became popular in the 1860 campaign. 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, as one historian reports, 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.〔Kenneth Stampp, ''Indiana Politics During the Civil War'' (1949) p 45〕 In 1860, the New York ''Herald'' estimated that there were over 400,000 drilled and uniformed Wide-awakes nationwide.〔The New York ''Herald'' (Sept. 19, 1860)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wide Awakes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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