Show A vim ammon 1 V A kev K ik N all i 4 zil V adv ay 4 W r r it a by ELMO SCOTT WATSON UE HE republican party familiarly known os as the G 0 11 because its adherents pointing with pride to its achievements among them the fact that in eighteen presidential elections since it was vaa founded it tins has been victorious thirteen times call it tile the grand old party celebrated its seventy fifth birthday this mouth month and thereby hangs a talo tale of two cities or rather tile the tale of the rivalry of two cities for the lionor honor of oc being known is as the birthplace of the republican party the two cities are hapon wis and jackson midi mich in support of its claim residents of ripon will take you to a little white and show you the tablet beside the door on which you may r read end in this march 20 1854 1954 was held tile the first mass meeting in this country that definitely and positively cut loose from old parties and advocated a new party under tinder the name 1 mean lucan in celebration of that event there was abeid on the campus of illgon gripon coi college coolege lege centering about rubout that historic schoolhouse recently a pageant depleting the growth of the republican party and a celebration cole bration of the diamond jubilee of the party the principal speakers at this event were james W flood secretary of war in president goovers To overs cabinet and walter J kohler icon governor of wisconsin residents of jackson alien in support of their to the honor will take you to a group of oaks standing at second and franklin streets and tell you vint that hero here the republican party was born on july 6 1854 when the name republican was adopted by q i convention of state delegates whether the republican party was born on march 1 20 or tuly july 0 IMI and whether its birthplace was ripon vla or jackson mich Is relatively unimportant compared to the event itself the critical era in our ailsto story ry during which it took place anti and the cant aftermath of that event the republican party was born bom at a time when the dispute over slavery was at its height it grew butof the growing opposition to slavery as no an in Ml especially in the states which had been formed from lie old northwest territory in accordance cor dance with the famous ordinance of 1787 the northwest territory was to have no slavery within its boundaries after the year 1800 the ordinance gave to tile the owners of fugitive slaves the right to recover them even after tile the runaways lind had escaped beyond the ohio hut but as aa a matter of at fact the under grounds railroads which aided escaping slaves to their freedom were active throughout Ws this territory the northern part of tile the territory was once known as michigan and included the present states of michigan wisconsin minnesota and a part of dakota wisconsin became a state in 1818 and from its beginning its as a commonwealth was dominated by ardent foes of slavery two years after wisconsin became a state there came to the town ot of ripon from new york a man who was to give ripon its claim to the lie title of birthplace of lie he republican party ile he was alvan harle earie bovay born in jefferson county new york july 12 1818 and n lawyer by profession bovay soon became a lef leading iding citizen in the little hamlet of ripon and his host best friend was jedediah Jed edlah bowen the principal merchant of the place there were only about a hundred bundred voters in ripon at the urne time but they had a wide choice of parties for it ivaa at a time in american history when the lines which separated the traditional whigs and demo exacts were broking breaking town down and new parties were constantly being formed bovay himself was a whig and an eloquent anti and ardent one ile he was not so partisan Ito however wever but that tha t lie he recognized ills his party was lakel to cru crumble table lit agany any time from the discordant factors within it tho the dispute over slavery was waa becoming more acute ell all the vine time the gloat lenders leaders who had find sought some way of reconciling the differences between the north ond and the lie south over the slavery question were in their graves and the threat of disunion and possible pos civil war was already ill ready looming over alie horizon it seems chilt to in 1852 bovay su that a strong ivery party be formed to be called the republican party parly lie he broached the subject while on a visit to new york elty city to horace gretty Gret Gre cley fy the famous I 1 editor oftie new york erlb une hut nothing came of tile the sug suggestion eastlon qt nt that arl 4 ake to 7 0 1 ye years ars later matters mailers reached a crisis when nhen 23 famous cansas nebraska bill was introduced I 1 into congress cong rs kansas anti nebraska wc burp re la 0 be admitted us HS territories otlea with power va jo ijo us as alky alt asad about slavery de despite thi 11 c binl the of 1820 lind hurt n f laufs alta I 1 or terril otles noril 15 capas MOT of the line SO 36 degrees 30 minutes in its final form the bill 1111 declared tho the missouri compromise inoperative and void because it was inconsistent with the principle of nonintervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories na as recognized by the legislation of 1850 when the kansas s nebraska bill was introduced bovay wrote to greeley as follows your tour paper Is now a power in the land advocate calling together in every schoolhouse and church in the free states nil all the opponents of the kansas no ne bills no matter what their party affiliations urge them to forget previous organizations and to bo be bound together under the name suggested to you at Love joya joys hotel in 1852 1 I mean the name of republican it Is the only one which will serve all purposes past and future the only one that will live and last during february of that year bovay called again and again to foes of slavery to rally under tinder the banner of a now party late in the month lie he gathered together in the congregational church at ripon a group at those who bell believed eved as he did on march 20 a mass meeting wits was called in district schoolhouse 2 a small white frame building of the hundred or so voters in ripon bovay was able to got get fifty three to hla his meeting they wera were a varied lot so far as political null latton was concerned whigs democrats and free sollers boilers to them bovay offered his resolution that a new party to be called republican be organized at once based on the opposition to slavery As a result his suggestion was adopted and the town committees appointed by the free soil and whig parties were dissolved A committee on organization was appointed consisting of three whigs one free soller and one democrat they were bovay hla his friend jedediah Jed Jede edlah dlab bowen amos loper A thomas cad and J woodruff fr considering the slow process which usually represents the evolution of a political party the growth of the republican party was swift under the leadership of stephen Step lien A douglas who wits was ambitious to be the democratic presidential nominee in 1856 1850 the kansas nebraska bill was passed in may 1854 1851 immediately fierce opposition lamed flamed up in the north and during the summer it to burn it Is at this point that the claim of jackson mich blich to being the republican cradle conies canies to the front on july 0 1854 1834 there was held in on an oak grove on the outskirts of jackson it statewide state wide representative mass meeting acting as a state convention assembled in response to a call signed by several thousand citizens of michigan inviting the operation cooperation co of all who were opposed to the extension of slavery the chairman of the committee of resolution jacob 1 M howard wrote and supported a platform of considerable length which was unanimously adopted it denoun denounced ted slavery as n relle relic of barbarism a great moral social and political evil and declared that it was the purpose of the fathers of the republic to prevent the spread of sl claery aery it also asserted that it was now the duty of congress to carry out this purpose by restoring the restriction on slavery laid down in the missouri the delegates also resolved that postponing and suspending all differences in regard to political economy or administrative policy we will ivill operate cooperate co all and be known as rev re publicans public ans until after the contest be determined they also earnestly recommended that there be called a general convention of the free states and such of the slaveholding slave holding states as may desire to bo be represented with a view to the adoption of other more extended and effectual measures la in resistance to the encroachments encroach ments of slavery the name republican was also used later tn in a wisconsin convention contention as well as at state gatherings inthe inalie nast held in new york massachusetts vermont and maine the new party parly gained strength during the next two years as it drew dreir to its standard various elements from other parties the whigs bud bad suffered it a defeat fi in n ika 18 2 which had demoralized them hem and had practically shuttered shattered that party then also there thera had risen tile the american party or the ati ali american party parly commonly known as the know nothings because of the reply they made when asked about details of their organization and supposedly secret ritual this strange body founded on oil racial and religious prejudices had biad succeeded in electing governors in several states and had sent nearly a hundred representatives to tile the house of representatives the know nothings were a conglomeration some goinie of them favored the lie extension oi of slavery very while others opposed there were also the free C to the abolition of slavery by political iVill means the free soil party lil been connected with uc e liberty party which had much yaw the same saine view and also it had taken over a faction tion of the new york democrats called the burn barn burners because their extreme views were compared to the policy of a man who burned down his barn to get rid of the rats the free sollers flung wide their motto free soil free speech free labor and freemen 1 to the growing new party of the republicans came many kinds of political faiths who had the common bond of opposition to slavery all antl anti nebraska or kansas men some had been whigs some democrats others had turned from such short lived organizations as the free sollers sellers and the know nothings an informal convention which might better be called an organizing committee was held in pittsburgh early in 1850 1856 at which the name republican as the title of ana a national party was firmly fixed among those present at this convention were horace greeley and abraham hin lincoln coln the campaign of 1850 the first one in which the republican parti officially participated and incidentally first defeau Js described la in tile the volume builders of 4 the reau republic balc in the yale tale university press pageant of america as follows meeting gf in convention t in n philadelphia in february 1856 1850 the know nothings or the am american alcan party found sectionalism intruding even into their organization indeed utter angry debate most of the antislavery antl slavery delegates withdrew leaving the southern wing in control with a platform that attempted t to divert attention from the slavery queatie question lon by crying up them the foreign purll puril the party went into the campaign with fillmore and donalson Oo nalson its as its candidates the democrats tried hard to present an appearance of harmony since the doctrine of popular sovereignty was to be ba their major plank it was expected that either the little giant 0 or r pierce would be the nominee but the north a BO opposed the proceedings in kansas that the leaber leaders s were passed over by a man less closely connected with recent domestic e vents events As minister to england james buc buchanan h anan had been abroad during the most trying tim times es ills his availability was enhanced because his name was linked with that aggressive foreign policy which had been employed to distract the country from internal troubles acceptable to the south he could be supported also by the conservative serva tive tivo elements of the north the whig party practically defunct contented itself with In dorsing the candidates of the amerlean american party there was thus need fora party which would tand stand foursquare four square against the democrats and the extension of slavery this need was filled by the republican party which had grown with surprising rapidity since 1851 1854 to it had thronged thron ged a miscellany of 0 malcontents a fact of which itu rivals made mad the most in spite of its heterogeneity the party showed remarkable solidarity assembling in philadelphia on the anniversary of dunker bunker hill the delegates passing over aver the more prominent leaders such as aa caaso of ohio and seward of new york selected john C fremont of california a young man little known in politics but with s well advertised record re is an explorer ot of the par west the platform vigorously denounced the and jingoistic activity of recent years the republicans launched a campaign that in vigor and spectacle spec resembled that 0 of 1840 with bleeding kansas as their cry they appealed through the agency of newspaper editors such as aa horace greeley of the new york tribune james gordon bennett of the new york herald henry J 1 raymond of the new york times and gen J watson webb of the courier and enquirer of new york to the northerners dread lest the buchann eera expand their domain of slavery the opposition played upon the widespread dislike tor for th abolitionists as a means of discrediting the republicans public ans the eccentric personalities of the is ie formers their extravagant acts and still more extravagant trava gant words were a heavy burden tor for tha new party to carry As aa the campaign developed it appeared that the republicans were too sectional in their appeal and not sufficiently organized to carry the country cuchanan buchanan gained many adherents who had become alarmed by the apparent radicalism of the fremont followers fillmore took occasion to announce that emonts fremonte Fr election would endanger the union in the south it need hardly be said black republicanism was identified by many wl with t h all the lame in the dictionary I 1 the contest was rather close clone Bub budhanan chanan Ou hanan received electoral votes to tor for pre pret fremont t while fillmore received 8 from maryland the democrats had had ha a close call and the size of 0 Republican tha the ynte we gave the old line leaders cause to worry tor for the future I 1 these leaders had even moro more cause to worry four years later for in 1860 the republican candidate was abraham lincoln and the alie new fida pa part ri was swat swept into power a power which it was des tined to hold uninterruptedly for a quarter of 1 s century tinell grover cleveland a deino democrat crat wat wa elected in IS cleveland was elected li it but ut at the me end of his term of 0 ofte in 1891 marked the beginning of knottier period of ilcin domination until interrupted by woodron Wool ron wilsons Wll Wil sons clec clention tion lit hi 1012 and tile the seventy natt fifel ory ry of the republican palt caiti birth find it tn lu kowm |