The San Francisco call., 1896-06-19

| slavery and Kinsley S. Bingham was so
aggressive an opponent OF slavery that be
soon found himself outside his party.
So satisfactory was MeClelland to the
| Free-Soilers that they deliberately efused
to put an opposition ticker in the field
when in 1851 he first ran for Governor. At
the State election in 1852 McClelland had
a majority over Zachariah Chandler, the
| Wing candidate for Governor, and Isaac
Z. Christiancy, the Free-Soil Democratic
| candidate The overwhelming defeat OF
the Wings in 1852, however, convinced
| both patriots and politicians throughout
| the country that the times were ripe for a
new party. and in Michigan this feeling
| found expression in 1858 in the organiza-
ton OF a political club in Grand Rapids
one whose most active member, Wilder D.
Foster, was elected Mayor by combina-
ton of Wings and Democrats, call
ing themselves the Free Democratic
party. The new party was fortunate in
! having the energetic support of the Grand
Rapids Eagle, vigorously edited by A. B.
! Turner; ard when, on the 22d of February,
! 1854, State convention of Free Demo-
Gratis nominated full ticket, headed by
Bingham, the Eagle promptly urged the
abandonment of the Wing organization
and the support of the new ticket.
The action of the Free Democrats was
merely tentative, and an agreement was
entered into by the leaders to withdraw
| the ticket whenever it should be found
| that by so doing a fusion of -Soilers,
| Wings and Anti-Slavery Democrats could
be effected. The conferences at which this
decision were reached were held at the
house of DR.. J. A. B. Stone. president of
Kalamazoo College. The Kalamazoo con-
vention of June 81, formally assented to
the withdrawal of the ticket in case the
expected fusion could be accom- plished.
Events at Washington quickly paved the
way for such a com bination. On May 80,
1854 the Missouri compromise was re-
pealed, thereby giving notice to the coun-
| try that the South was determined to push
| slavery into the new territory west of the
Mississippi. 1t was at this most opportune
moment that Joseph Warren, the editor
| and part owner of the Detroit Tribune, an
evening Whig journal, threw the powerful
influence of that newspaper into the cause
OF uniting all the anti-slavery elements OF
the State in new party, which should use
the esta ablished machinery of the Wings,
thus wiping out that party. Che Detroit
Advertiser, the morning Wing organ, vio-
lently opposed this programme, and bit
terly fought the new movement in its every
stage.
Carrying out the plan of action deter
mined upon, call for a mass convention
of the opponents of slavery extension was
circulated throughout the State, and
| within fortnight no fewer than 10000
| signatures were obtained. The conven-
| ton met at Jackson on July 6, 1854 1t
was glorious day. From all parts of the
| State the people came in such numbers
| that no hall could hold them. SO the con-
vention adjourned to beautiful oak grove
| that covered tract of land known as
"Morgans Forty" where platform was
hastily built and draped with the Stars
and Stripes. Among the sturdy oaks,
under the free blue sky, the Republican
party was that day born.
David S. Walbridge, an old-time Whig,
was called upon to preside. A committee
on nominations, made up of eiehty-eight
| men, representing all tie Senatorial dis
| tricts, used the Free Democratic ticket as
| basis, and placing Bingham at the head
| filled in the remainder of the places with
judicious mixture of Wings and Free
Soilers. Thereupon the committee repre-
sentlng the Free Democrats formally with
drew their party ticket and pledged sup
| port to the new one.
| Meantime the vast assemblage of men
| and women were addressed by speakers
called from the crowd, and the compost
tion and spirit of the gathering is well
| illustrated by the brief speech of Zachariah
| Chandler.
There was great applause when Kings
ley S. Bingham's name was mentioned,
for as pioneer farmer he represented the
class of people among whom the new
party was to take strongest root, and he
| was recognized as the most available man
to head the new ticket of the new party.
Among the other speakers was Lewis
Clark. said to have been the "George Har-
ris' of Uncle Toms Cabin" the son of a
Revolutionary soldier and a Kentucky
| coIored girl He told in simple, effective
words how at the death of his father the
family was sold on the auction block, and
his talk was more powerful than any
speech.
More important than the ticket were
the nominations. The committee of twelve
was headed by Jacob M. Howard and
among its members were Austin Blair and
Erastus Hussey OF underground railroad
fame. Withdrawing to grassy knoll on
the edge of an oak-opeIing, the committee
went carefully over the draft of the reso-
lutions already prepared by Mr.. Howard,
making few and unimportant changes.
The resolutions truthfully began, "The
| freemen of Michigan, assembled in con-
vention in pursuance of a spontaneous
call, emanating from various parts of
the State" and went on to stig-
Matte slavery as a great moral,
social and political evil, a relic of barbar-
| ism and an element of weakness. They
pledged resistance to the extension of
| slavery, called for the repeal of the Fugi-
tive Slave Law, and the aboIitionof slavery
in the District of Columbia, and proposed
general convention of free States to adopt
measures to resist slavery's encroach-
ments.
! The most important of the resolutions
historically is the one in which it is re-
solved that I'VE will operate and be known
as Republicans until the contest is ended -