Wandering through our local public library a few weeks ago I came across a big gray book with a very big title: The New York Times The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008. The pages of the book display selected front pages from the newspaper; the book includes three DVDs which include all the front pages.
The paper was first published on September 18, 1851. It was called New-York Daily Times. You could buy a copy for one cent.
By October 4, 1860 the paper had changed its name to The New-York Times. and the price had already doubled to two cents. The entire front page was devoted to the upcoming presidential election, specifically a procession of Wide-Awakes the evening before. According to the newspaper there were “Twelve Thousand Torchmen in Procession.”
As I’ve mentioned, I am not a historian and I never remember learning about the Wide-Awakes. Wikipedia has a good description of the movement. This public domain engraving is from the Wikipedia entry:
Wide-Awakes Torch Procession ca. 1860
The main point I got after browsing through the article is that there were vocal supporters of all the presidential candidates that expressed their opinions in response to the demonstration. Also, there was a state-by-state tally of marchers. The total was 12,200 and they came from several states. The 1860 election definitely aroused people’s passions.
As always I’d appreciate any comments.
