In the weeks leading up to the Election of 1860, young Pennsylvanians who supported Abraham Lincoln in the presidential contest turned themselves into “Wide Awakes.” This political movement, a paramilitary political club, saw tens of thousands of young men taking the streets to march for the “Rail-Splitter” from Illinois.

“Wide Awake” referred to the idea that its members were awake, or aware, of the threat that slavery and disunion presented to the bitterly divided country. They supported Abraham Lincoln, a candidate who opposed the expansion of slavery into the nation’s western territories and expressed his moral opposition to the practice of keeping 4 million people in bondage.

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Read more about the Wide Awakes in Northeastern Pennsylvania

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As part of their culture, Wide Awakes branded just about everything with the title of their movement, including poetry. This poem appeared in the Pittston Gazette newspaper less than a week before the November 1860 election. It was set to the tune of “Yankee Doodle.”

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[For the Pittston Gazette.]

WIDE AWAKE!
Air: “Yankee Doodle.”

Come freemen, rally ‘round our shrine,
Our country’s good requires us,
Though party foes our form oppose,
All honest men admire us.

Chorus:—Our gallant band with torch in hand,
Whose uniforms are glittering,
‘Tis our intent, next President
Shall be the old Rail Splitter.

Let’s place Abe Lincoln in the Chair,
For we are of opinion,
Were such like men in power again,
No danger of Disunion.

Chorus:—Then, Wide Awakes, your torches wave,
Stand firm by one another,
Send Ten Cent Jim to home again,
And Steve to hunt his Mother.

God bless you, noble Wide Awakes,
Your foes, we sore deplore them;
They yet will pray, and bless the day
Our light did shine before them.

Chorus:—Sure, Pine street Rowdies ne’er can check,
Our manly course, pursuing,
It has been said of such before,
They know not what they’re doing.

Three hearty cheers for Honest Abe,
For after his election,
We know he will exert his skill,
For Tariff and Protection.

Chorus:—Our gallant band, with torch in hand,
Whose uniforms do glitter,
A modern Washington we’ve found,
In Abe, the old Rail Splitter.

SAWNEY.

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The poem/song referred to Pine Street Rowdies, likely referring to political opponents in the largely Irish working class neighborhood on Pine Street near the tracks of the Pennsylvania Coal Company’s gravity railroad in Pittston.

Voters in Pittston the following week gave Abraham Lincoln the majority in the borough.

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