The largest march in New York City’s history
Sidney Gladwin’s Wide Awake chapter in New York returns Sperry’s favor of the Hartford Gala invitation by inviting all of the Connecticut Wide Awakes to New York City’s super-rally. Sperry’s GOTV plan calls for a weekend of coordinated super-rallies in all the major cities of the North. Overwhelming the Democratic stronghold of New York City is key to Lincoln winning the state, so Wide Awake companies from as far as Maine travel to New York City. One-thousand Wide Awakes from Connecticut board a chartered steamship down the Long Island Sound. Several marching bands practice on the deck. In New York they find the largest mass gathering in the history of the City. By October, thanks to the work of immigrant community organizers like Francis Lambert, there are dozens of Wide Awake companies in Manhattan alone. The mass of paraders stretches for 5 miles, swelling with 20,000 people. The revelry lasts deep into the early morning. Simultaneous super-rallies in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Chicago completely capture every newspaper’s front page with mere days to go before the vote.