The contest was one of great activity, with much more bitterness exhibited by the Democratic factions toward each other than either displayed toward the Republicans. Douglas took the stump and spoke as far South as New Orleans, throughout the West, in various places in New York and other Eastern States. His speeches were the ablest and most aggressive ever delivered in a national contest. Lincoln, Breckenridge, and Bell took no prominent individual part in the battle. One of the peculiar features of the campaign of 1860 was the development of a war spirit in the North that was quickened by the organization known as “The Wide-Awakes.” They were Republican organizations uniformed by caps and capes, and each one carrying a lantern in night processions. Many of them drilled as military companies, for the threat of war came up with almost every echo from the South. The young men of the North, and especially the young men just from our colleges, entered largely and very enthusiastically into the Lincoln ranks, and in no previous Presidential battle was there such able and general discussion of public questions on the hustings. The slavery question had presented a new phase to the people of the North. It was not a mere battle against slavery, although that appealed very strongly to the convictions of most of the Republicans, but the South had, by the deliverances of its leading men, made the issue directly against the mastery of the free labor of the North. It was denounced by some of the ablest Southern leaders as unworthy of respect or recognition, holding that labor was menial, and that the North was made up very largely of “small-fisted farmers” and “greasy mechanics,” and Senator Chestnut, of South Carolina, who delivered the most honest and one of the ablest speeches on the labor question, compared the slave labor of the South most favorably with the “mud-sills of the North.” This attitude of the South logically brought the most intelligent labor classes of all conditions into the support of the Republican ticket to vindicate their own manhood and independence. The following table presents the popular and electoral vote: