The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-04-07
REPUBLICAN PARTY,s BIRTH.
The Part Played in 1t by the Late
Joseph Medill.
From the Times-Herald.

FROM the Iimes-Heralu.
How Mr.. Medill came to found the
Republican party when ne was but 80
years of age is a story but little known
To the outside world
Shortly after General Scott's defeat
and before Senator Douglas Kansas
Nebraska bill had set the abolitionists
wild Mr.. Medill sat down and wrote
letters to the leaders OF the disrruntled
and disorganized Whig party, asking
them II they would assist In the for
nation of a new Republican party on
the ruins of the old Whig organization.
First of all he wrote to Horace Greedy.
with whom he had for some years had
considerable intimacy. He had been
correspondent of the New York Tri-
bune; had visited Mr.. Greedy in New
York Ut was on the occasion of one of
these visits, over forty years, that
young westorner who had been intro
duced by 1.-The chief" to Mr.. Dana), and
when Mr.. Greely in his lecturing tour
had visited the Western Reserve it was
Mr.. Medill who had entertained him.
Mr.. Greelys reply to Mr.. Medill would
be a precious document, but for the
unhappy circumstance that it was de-
stroyed by the great fire in ISL which
gether with about thousand letters
from prominent men, including Lin
coin and others. In its place Mr. Medill
had only such a. version as his tena
cious memory could supply, but that is
worthy Of reproduction. Mr.. Greedy
wrote:
Go ahead with your proposed Re
publican party, my friend, and God
bless YOU I hope you will have the
best of luck. The time has indeed
| come to bury our beloved party; 1t is
dead. We have many fool friends who
Insist it is only in comatose state and
will recover, but I tell them it is dead.
still | dare not yet in New York an
nounce the demise of the party and
call for the reorganization of new
one. But do you go ahead on the West
| ern Reserve and commence the work.
| like the name for it (Republican). |
was opposed to ]. Watson Webb when
| he changed the name Democratic Re
| publican to Whig; but at that time
| he had the public ear. If YOU can get
| the name Republican started in the
west it will grow in the east. l fully
| agree to the name and the new christ
| ening"
Some of the other replies were in
| teresting. J. Watson Webb clung to
| the name of Wing. 1T was" he said
"a good enough standard 1t was the
standard under which the best battles
| for liberty had been won among Eng
llish-speaking people. And especially he
| saw no reason for assuming the name
| under which imperial Rome fell"
| Thurlow Weed curtly made answer
that in his opinion the time had not
Yet come for the reor'Sanization of the
| Whig party. The party had survived
defeat before and would survive again.
He scolded me-" Mr.. Medill put it,,
for running away, and said the old
| Whig guard cf New York had no in
tention of changing standards" Will
liam H. Steward answered briefly: Go
ahead and try it. The name is a good
| one"
| Various replies came from Mr.. Med
ilpS other correspondents. Some of
them We're editors in Pennsylvania and
others in the midwestern states Nearly
all were desirous of the proposed
change, but none of them had the cour-
age to take part in the initiative. A
few repudiated the idea altogether
| Thus. the editor of the Columbus Jour
nal declared the movement was pre-
| mature and would kill his paper out
right, the sentiment of the Wings in
his part of Ohio being wholly opposed
to such Western Reserve radicalism.''
John Depeere, editor of the Indianapo-
lis Journal, afterward public printer
under Lincoln and an intimate friend
of the president, answered that the
Wings in his state were so blue he did
not dare mention such a scheme but
he would talk with Mr.. Medll about il
later on.
Meanwhile, in his Cleveland paper
Mr.. Medill kept hammering for a new
party organization. He brought mat
ters so rapidly to focus that one
night in March, 1854, he was able to
call to a meeting in Cleveland twenty
Whig. Free Soil ana Democratic lead
ers to whom he could safely propose
the instant organization of a new party
Salmon p. Chase was one of these
twenty men. Mr.. Medill, as socn as
the meeting was opened, proposed that
the new party be formed and that it
be given the name of the Republican
party To this name Mr.. Chase was
opposed. He asked that the name be
Free Democracy Finally, at midnight
a vote was taken on the party name
and two-thirds present voted for the
title of National Republican party
Then the platform was drafted. II
was:
mo more slave states. No more
slave territory. Resistance to proslav-
cry aggression. Slavery is sectional
Liberty is national"
The platform was written in par,
by Mr.. Medill and in part by Rufus
Spalding. The last two causes were
by John G. Vaughan. This work was
all done in the editorial room of Mr.
Medill in the Cleveland Leaders Of,
| flee,