Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Future Hopes—Farm Life—Norwegian Pioneers—The Condition of the Immigrant at the Beginning of the Fifties—Religious Meetings—The Growth of the Settlement—Vasa Township Organized—A Lutheran Church Established—My Wedding—Speculation—The Crisis of 1857—Study of Law in Red Wing—I am admitted to the Bar and elected County Auditor—Politics in 1860—War is Imminent
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ss Story of an Emigrant.
102
During the presidential election of 1860 the political
excitement ran very high in the whole country. The Southern
states had assumed a threatening position, and expressed
their intention to secede from the Union if Lincoln was
elected president. Throughout the whole country political
clubs were organized. The Democrats formed companies
which they called "Little Giants," which was the nickname
given to Stephen A. Douglas, their candidate for president.
The Republicans also organized companies which thev
called "Wide Awakes." I was chosen leader of the
Republican company in Red Wing. Political meetings were verv
frequent during the last few weeks before election, and among
the most prominent features of those meetings were
processions and parades of the companies, which were uniformed,
and carried banners and torches. During the campaign C.
C. Andrews and the late Stephen Miller, respective candidates
for presidential electors on the Democratic and Republican
tickets, held meetings together and jointly debated the
important questions of the day, taking of course opposite
sides, but within a year both were found as officers in the
Union army, gallantly fighting for the same cause.
About this time a company of militia organized in Red
W’ing, and I was one of the lieutenants, and took active part
in its drill and maneuvers. Although none of the men who
took part in these movements could foresee or suspect the
approach of the awful struggle which was to plunge the
country into a deluge of fire and blood, still they all seemed
to have a presentiment that critical times were near at
hand, and that it was the duty of all true citizens to make
ready for them. It is a significant fact that fifty-four men
out of our little company of only sixty, within two years
became officers or soldiers in the volunteer army of the
United States. Although the Scandinavian emigrants had
been in the state only a few years, they still seemed to take
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