The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-17
A NOTABLE CONVENTION
REV. DIR. LEVY RECALLS REPUB-
LICAN GATHERING OF 1855.
Venerable Minister Opened that Con-
vention with Prayer, as He Will
that of This Year.
Philadelphia Record.

ton promises TO be Rev. Dr. Edgar NJ.
Levy, who is to inaugurate the proceedings
with prayer. and who has been selected
for this position because he filed similar
position in the Republican party's first
convention, that Of 1856. AT that time DIR.
Levy was one of two clergymen in Phila-
delphia who were in full sympathy with
the ideas OF the Republican party and had
the necessary moral and physical courage
to say so. The other clergyman was DR..
Rood distinguished Presbyterian divine.
In discussing his appointment yesterday
at his residence, No. 1913 Barring street.
DR.. Levy said: 81 see by the dispatches
from Washington, published this morning.
that have been selected by the executive
committee of the Republican national COM
mittee to offer the prayer at the opening of
the coming convention. have not been so
notified by Chairman Hanna or Colonel
Dick. but. assuming that the Washington
dispatches are correct, I shall probably re-
ceive an official notification within day
or two. will undoubtedly accept the post,
and will esteem IL an honor to be of service
to the party have been a member of since
the day of its BIRTH"
DR.. Levy was born at St Mary's, Ca on
Nov. %, 1922. and was brought to Phila-
delphia when an infant by his parents,
along with his brother, the late Capt. John
p Levy, of the Neafie & Levy Shipbuilding
Company. Upon being ordained ne was
called to the Epiphany Baptist Church,
Thirty-sixth and Chestnut streets, and
after serving there for fourteen years &C
cepted a call from the Berean Baptist
Church, now part of the new Tabernacle
tieth. with which congregations he served
a total of sixteen years. Ten years of his
church life were spent with the South
Baptist Church, of Newark NJ J. Since
his retirement from active service in the
church he has worshipped at the New
Tabernacle Church. His formal retirement
followed the celebration of the fiftieth an
niversary of his ordination.
Though nearly eighty years old DR.. Levy
is strong and active and keeps himself in
close touch with passing events without be-
ing in any sense a politician active to
any degree in politics, he has never shirlxed
his responsibilities as a citizen or failed
in his duties as Republican. His kindly
eyes fairly glistened last evening with en-
thuSiaSm as he recalled the stirring scenes
In old Musical Fund Hall on June 17-1S
1856, when the first national delegates of
the party assembled to nominate candi-
STORY OF 1856 RECALLED.
ut was in 1856 in that very convention
that slavery received its first mortal blow"
he said as he took up the chronological
recital of the events leading up to the NOM
ination of Fremont and Dayton. 1.-The coun-
try was then in it's darkest days, and the
facts brought out in the campaign that
ended in the November following that con-
dent. The Republican party then and there
organized into a national body. came out
boldly for principles that any patriot could
support, but which were withal extremely
moderate considering the men and the
times.
THE 'spellbinders' who went out from
that convention were no ordinary stump
speakers. they were the flower of the Ma
ton. Many and many time they spoke at
the peril of their lives, but they aroused the
people, and the fact that their nominees,
Fremont and Dayton, polled 2,l5O,00O votes
against 100000 for Buchanan and S75, coo
for Willard Fillmore shows how well their
campaign of education and humanity was
conducted.
mo man who attended that convention
in Musical Fund Hall could forget an Incl
dent of it. Henry S. Lane of Indiana, pre-
sided over the turbulent body and used an
ordinary carpenters mallet for gavel
He called upon me to ask the Almighty
God to watch over this convention and
guide it in its labors'
"An instant before I raised my hand in
prayer 1 doubt if a rifle shot could have
been heard in the hall, but before / had
uttered word every tongue was silent.
and no prayer of mine was ever received
with more reverence.
SOME NOTABLE DELEGATES.
There were over 1000 duly accredited
delegates in attendance. Thurlow Weed.
Horace Greeley, Simon Cameron and
Charles Sumner were the leading spirits on
the ground, but Abraham Lincoln and Will
| liam H. Seward were potent factors in the
shaping up of the work. I think Weed,
Greeley and Seward drafted the resolutions
that were accepted as the first platform of
the Republican party. l recall two para
graphs which read: We deny the author
| ity of Congress, of a territorial legislature,
| of any individual or association of individ-
uals to give legal existence to slavery in
any Territory of the United States. while
| the present Constitution shall be main
tained; and, The Constitution confers
| Territories of the United States for their
government, and that, in that exercise OF
! this power. 1t is both the right and the
| duty of Congress to prohibit in the Terri
| tories those twin relics Of barbariSm-po-
| lygamy and slavery
s.It is a singular coincidence that the cam
OludteS 10 De nominated next HOHlu Will NC
called upon to reafirm a portion of this
/ very platform, in far as il refers to the
| government of the Philippines.
1.-The active candidates for the presiden-
| tial nomination before the convention of
| 1856 were Colonel Fremont, Speaker Banks
/ and Judge Mclean. The logical candidate
| was William II. Seward but, acting upon
| the advice of Thurlow Weed, Mr.. Seward
| declined the nomination, anticipating an
undisputed nomination four years later
| There was quite contest for the vice
presidency. The most conspicuous candi-
| dates were William l.. Dayton, Abraham
| Lincoln. Charles Sumner, General Banks
/ and David Wilmont 1t is fortunate that
| would have suffered defeat. and nobody
| can imagine what would have followed
| the election of somebody else four years
4 later.
1.-The call for the convention was ad-
dressed to the people of the United States.
| without regard TO past political differences
| or divisions. who were opposed to the re-
| peal of the Missouri compromise, to the
| administration Of President Pierce, to the
| extension of slavery into free territory
/ and in favor OF the admission of Kansas as
| free State. A state of civil war then
i existed in Kansas, and the seeds of re-
| bellion were being sown in the South. Free
/ mont was defeated and Buchanan elected
| / am satisfied that there would never have
/ been civil war in this country had Free
mont been elected in 1856"
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