July 4, 1860

As the 1860 election campaign started the nation celebrated the eighty-fourth anniversary of Independence Day with cannon salutes at sunrise, midday and evening, church bells, parades, military drills, speeches, prayers, toasts, music and fireworks. In Richmond, Virginia the First Regiments, accompanied by Smith’s Band and Drum Corps, assembled at seven in the morning for a drill and parade and was dismissed at ten o’clock “thus avoiding all unnecessary exposure to the scorching rays of the noonday sun.” Fireworks and firearms caused at least 53 injuries in New York City.

Taos, in the New Mexico Territory, held its first major celebration of Independence Day. In the afternoon several hundred Indians from the Taos Pueblo “went through many of their quaint and fantastic dances in honor of our national jubilee.” The Fourth of July in Augusta, Georgia, involved a custom of unknown origin in which children in oversized clothing, referred to as the Fantastics, sang and played in the streets, asking for treats and playing tricks. In North Elba, New York, the Fourth was observed at John Brown’s grave by family members and others with readings of the Declaration of Independence and the Sermon on the Mount. In Boston the occasion featured an oration by Edward Everett.

In the featured race at the regatta in Providence, Rhode Island, the shell from Yale beat out the one from Brown. The Staunton Spectator of Staunton, Virginia, described the local Independence Day celebrations and observed that

In these days of disunion sentiment it is gratifying to witness a continued reverence for the day that gave birth to our great nation. It has often been asked, to which section would the glorious 4th of July belong, in the event of dissolution? We trust it may never become a practical question.