Nineteen-year-old Pearl Street Church alum, Sidney Gladwin struggles to introduce the Wide Awakes to his new, heavily-Democratic town, New York City. Gladwin partners up with a 29-year-old Irish immigrant mechanic friend named Francis Lambert who teaches the Connecticut farm boy how to cut deals with Ward Bosses for parade permits, how to grease wheels with police for protection against the racist gangs (and firefighters) who are constantly attacking them. The newspaper stories about the Wide Awakes in the CT Governor’s race help Gladwin and Lambert make the case that their club has the potential to deliver votes. With that promise, they win a foothold in New York City’s political machine for the first Wide Awake chapters in the nativist Democratic town.
the kids who started the civil war – a true story