"Wide Awake"
clubs of young men, wearing caps and capes of glazed oilcloth to
protect their clothing from the dripping oil of their torches,
gathered in torchlight processions miles in length. Fence rails,
supposed to have been made by Lincoln in his youth, were set up
in party headquarters and trimmed with flowers and lighted
tapers. Lincoln was called the "Rail-splitter Candidate," and
this telling name, added to the equally telling "Honest Old Abe,"
by which he had long been known in Illinois, furnished country
and city campaign orators with a powerful appeal to the sympathy
and trust of the working-people of the United States. Men and
women read in newspaper and pamphlet biographies the story of his
humble beginnings: how he had risen by simple, earnest work and
native genius, first to fame and leadership in his own State, and
then to fame and leadership in the nation; and these titles
quickly grew to be much more than mere party nicknames--to stand
for a faith and trust destined to play no small part in the
history of the next few years.
After the nominations were made Douglas went on a tour of
speech-making through the South. Lincoln, on the contrary, stayed
quietly at home in Springfield. His personal habits and
surroundings varied little during the whole of this campaign
summer. Naturally he gave up active law practice, leaving his
office in charge of his partner, William H.
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