nother political
party. Once more the two rivals were running for the same office.

Several thousands of Abraham Lincoln's admirers called themselves "Wide
Awakes." There were Wide Awake Clubs in near every Northern town. Night
after night they marched in parades, carrying flaming torches and
colored lanterns. And as they marched, they sang:

"Hurrah! for our cause--of all causes the best!
Hurrah! for Old Abe, Honest Abe of the West."

No one enjoyed the campaign excitement more than did Willie and Tad
Lincoln. They did their marching around the parlor carpet, singing
another song:

"Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness,
Out of the wilderness, out of the wilderness,
Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness,
Down in Illinois."

People everywhere were talking about Old Abe, and he received a great
deal of mail. Some of the letters came from Pigeon Creek. Nat Grigsby,
his old schoolmate, wrote that his Indiana friends were thinking of him.
Dave Turnham wrote. It was in Dave's book that Abe had first read the
Declaration of Independence. A package arrived from Josiah Crawford who
had given him his _Life of Washington_. The package contained a piece of
white oak wood. It was part of a rail that Abe had split when he was
sixteen years old. Josiah thought that he might like to have it made
into a cane.

Hundreds of other letters came from people he had never seen. One from
New York state made him smile.

"I am a little girl only eleven years old," the letter read, "but want
you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you
won't think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are.... I
have got four brothers and part of them will vote for you anyway and if
you will let your whiskers grow I will try to get the rest of them to
vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so
thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands
to vote for you and then you would be President...."

The letter was signed "Grace Bedell." In less than two weeks she
received an answer. Abraham Lincoln, who loved children, took her
advice. By election day on November 6, 1860, he had started to grow a
beard.

He spent the evening of election day in the telegraph office. Report
after report came in from different parts of the country. He was
gaining. He was winning. After a while he knew--his friends knew--all
Springfield knew--that Abraham Lincoln was