Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-06-14

prominent IN the coalition We're John
p. Hale of New Hampshire, Salmon
P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Charles
Francis Adams. David Wilmot and
Preston King. From the ruins Of the
Wing party came men like Abraham
Lincoln, William FL. Seward. Horace
Greeley, Samuel Pitt Fessenden. Thad-
deus Stevens. John Sherman, Thomas
Corwin Of Ohio, William Lewis Day
ton Of New Jersey, Jacob Collamer Of
Vermont, Richard Yates Of Illinois and
Andrew Gregg Curtin of Pennsylvania.
OF the Know Nothings. former Wings
or Democrats who drifted into the new
organization, were Henry Wilson, Ma
thaniel p. Banks, Arson Burlingame
and Schuyler Colfax. To the Repub-
hcan standard from time to time also
rallied the original abolitionists-Jos h-
ia r. Giddings, Elijah P. Lovejoy,
William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell
Phillips, while the Democratic party
lost to its new opponent such men as
Hannibal Hamlin, Simon Cameron. Ly-
man Trumbull, Montgomery Blair,
William Cullen Bryant. Gideon Welles,
Oliver P. Morton of Indiana and Fran
els Preston Blair, Jr.
RepubHcanism's First Year.
In the first year Of its existence the
Republican party gained popular ma
jorities in fifteen Of the thirty.one
states, elected eleven United States
senators and obtained plurality in the
house of representatives. These sue
cesses were mainly achieved In the
west.
In December, 1856, the state commit
tees of Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsyl-
vania, Vermont and Michigan issued a
call for convention in Pittsburg Feb.
%, 1856, to perfect national organiza-
ton. A national committee was select
ed and call was issued for national
convention to meet in Philadelphia,
June IL, 1856. When this convention
met, with Francis P. Blair in the chair,
1t was found to be free state body
with the exception Of delegations from
Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky.
The platform adopted opposed tie re-
peal Of the Missouri compromise. the
extension of slavery to free territory
and the refusal to admit Kansas as a
free state: 1t declared that the power
Of congress over the national territory
was sovereign and should be exerted
to prohibit those twin relics of barba-
rism, slavery and polygamy."
Fremont the First Nominee.
On the flrst ballot for president John
@. Fremont received 359 votes, John
Mclean Of Ohio 1915, Charles Sumner
and William H. Seward l. William
L. Dayton Of Ohio was nominated for
vice president on the second ballot.
Fremont was nominated In the hope
that the party, in presenting a candi.
date free from nntagonisms on tho
slavery question, might attract votes
from all sides. The nomination of
Dayton was recognition of the Wing
element. The Democrats nominated
James Buchanan and John G. Breck-
inridge, while Willard Fillmore made
| the campaign as Know Nothing can
dldate. Buchanan and Breckenridge
were elected by narrow margin; the
votes of Pennsylvania and Illinois
! would have elected Fremont and Day
ton. In the following congressional
elections the new party lost ground. In
/ the congress of 1S5T-59 there were but
81 Republicans out of 237 members
! but in the development of the organiza.
I ton the doubtful members Of the coali-
/ ton had been shaken off and the
! party was becoming fairly compact
Before the next elections the Know
Nothing party had gone to pieces. most
of its members becoming Republicans
4 Besides these re-enforcelnents, the
bred Scott decision and the Lecompton
bill brought the Republicans many re-
cruits from the ranks Of the Democ
racy.
The Dved Scott Case.
The bred Scott decision, one of the
most vital ever rendered by the SUI
preme court Of the United States, de
clared the act Of 1850. the Missouri
compromise. unconstitutional and plac
tically set up the theory that negro
was not human being The decision
was given in the case of negro by
! whose name the decision is known
Scott, having married in 1896. while or
free soil, u slave, also the property OF
DR.. Emerson. determined to take steps
to legally establish lis freedom. He
brought suit in the supreme court OF
Missouri, which held that his slavery
had reattached to him upon his return
to state In which slavery was per
mittcd and that, being slave, he coult
have no standing in court. Scott tool
his case to the United States Circuit
court, which decided against him oil
the main questions. though holdin,
that he was citizen Of Missouri ant
as such had standing in court. Til,
matter was then appealed to the su
preme court OF the United States, which
declared that the circuit court hat
erred in entertaining the suit. mas
much as Scott. not being citizen. pos
sessed none of the rights of citizen
and necessarily could have no standin,
In the courts Of the land.