Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-02
BIRTHDAY OF A PARTY
F1Fr1rr1 kFn1vrnsAnY OF RE
PUBLICAN ORGANIZATION.
Facts About the Convention at
jackson, Mich, July 8.

From the Portland Oregonian
President Roosevelt has been invited to
visit Jackson, Mich. July 6, the date of
| the semi-centennial anniversary of the re-
! publican convention which at jackson fifty
years ago nominated the first state election
| ticket known under the name of republican
The question about the first state conven-
| ton of the republican party has been re-
| rently raised in the New York Tribune by
| William Barnes of Albany, who holds it
happened at Saratoga. n. Y, on August 16,
| 1854. But Francis Curtis OF Springfield,
/ Mass, writes the Springfield Republican
| that the primacy belongs to the state con-
| Vention held at Jackson. Mich. July &, 1854,
| when the platform adopted had this plank:
Resolved, That in view of the necessity OF
| battling for the first principles of republic
can government and against the schemes or
| an aristocracy the most revolving and OPP
| pressive with which the earth was cursed
or man debased. we Will cooperate and be
| known as republicans until the contest be
/ terminated
| by several weeks, and the latter did not
| contain the word republican, in Its plat
| form. and Myron H. Clark, its successful
1 nominee for governor. was not known as
| republican in 1854 The New York Evening
Post points out that while Michigan was
| first with her mass state convention. Wis
consin was the first to suggest the name
What was to be the first republican conven-
| lion of Wisconsin was planned to assemble
in June. 1854. but it was deferred until July
| Ii. the anniversary OF the ordinance of 1877.
| which dedicated the Northwest territory to
| freedom. So Michigan was first with her
mass state convention, but the wisconsin
| idea of the name was obtained from let
! ter written by Horace Greeley, in which he
| said that he had been advised that Wis
| consn would adopt the name republican
nra Iprfy tfy,r hot toy1I
anticipate her sister state on the 9Th The
| name was first suggested to Greeley by
| Avian +. Bovay of Ripon, Wis. as early as
| 1852, when he predicted the overwhelming
defeat Of Gen. Scott and the disappearance
| of the whig party to make room for a new
| party. which would rally the scattered anti
| slavery elements.
| The Wisconsin Meeting.
| In February. 1854. meeting was hela.at
| RipOn. Wis. to consider the organization
| of the new party, and another in March.
| Early i'll June the news Of the Kansas
| Nebraska bill reached Ripon. and Bovay
| wrote Greeley again. urging him to call It
| republican" and on June "a, 1854, APP
| peared Greeiey's Endorsement of the new
| name. In our Judgment the republican
party sprang ofuil armed into formidable
| political life because Stephen A. Douglas
| proposed the repeal of the Missouri COM
promise of 1920 in his Kansas Nebraska
| bill Abraham Lincoln said Il was losing
/ interest in politics when the repeal of the
| Missouri compromise aroused me again..
:, Lincoln was a natural leader of the con-
| sentative anti-slavery masses of the north,
and as it took-the Kansas and Nebraska
| bill to arouse him out of state of political
apathy. if Is safe TO say that from Douglas
! da tes theobirth 5of the republican party OF
1854. Without such a radical measure as
| the repeai1of 9the Missouri compromise of
1926 it isEnot likely any new party would
have arisen The old wing party could
Ia f,nxy
become the conservative anti-slaverys party.
When Lincoln in 1855 was asked where he
stood he-answered that when he was
representative In Congress ne voted for the
| Wimot pHevissz forty times, ard that Il
now do fillmore than oppose the extension
OF slavesyS';i .Aer.
The WffYnot aproyiso was introduced in
Congress BY David 'Wiffnot. of Penusyl-
vanilla August s, 1896. as an amendment to
the so-qalled tive million bill. 1t de-
! clared it ito be an express and fundamental
| condition to the acquisition of any territory
from Mexico that nenher slavery nor invol-
untary servitude should exist therein. Be-
! sides Lincoln, such conservative wings as
! Webster, and Robert c. Winthrop voted
for it, and such democrats as Hannibal
Hamlins of Maine and A. G. Thurman of
Ohio. The desire to resist the further
| extension of slavery a great social and
economic danger was strongly felt by both
! Webster and Clay, both anti-slavery men,
framed the comprehensive measure OF 1850
! and went TO their graves In 1872 fondly
trusting that the evil day of civil war ana
disunion had been put off for at least an
other generation. Had Douglas stayed his
vandai hand, 70, is quite possible that the
day of civilswar and disunien would have
been delayed. for q good many years; so
from This 4Huirit of view Stephen A. Doug
| las forced 1hes republican party into Or
ganizatien; and agitation and was the real
Gays eompfemise measure of 1880 might
have averted q at least postponed ,iea t tos
| southern men had never dreamed of. de-
handing the repeal of the Missouri COM
The Liberty Party.
The republican party took its platform
from the old liberty party" of 1S4O-44,
which under the lead OF James G. Birney
was not an abolition party, but party
1 opposing by constitutional resistance the
further extension of slave territory. Doug
las forced into life and labor the great
| party which made mis- election as PRESIDENT
| impossible and that of his great rival,
Lincoln sure. 1t was the iconoclastic
hand of Douglas that drew Lincoln out of
his political retirement. The new party
gathered its recruits from the Seward
| wings from tie Hannibal Hainlin demo-
Gratis from the Salmon p. Chase free soil
ers 1t was defeated in the tional cleo
ton in 1856, but 1t was strong enough TO
| elect Lincoln President in 1860; yet 1t is
quite possible, had 1t not been for the civil
| war, that the republican party would have
been. defeated by the democracy in 1854.
The moment civil war began the republican
| party was sure to be sustained by every
loyal whig or loyal democrat until its close.
and long after its close the republican party
lived on it's war capital and the demo-
/ cratic disposition to play with fireworks.
finance and cheap money with reputation
and illimitable greenbacks for twenty years
after the restoration of the Union The
capacity of the democratic party invari-
ably to do the wrong thing at just the
right time has helped the republican party
| to maintain a. vigorous life. despite its
many serious mistakes in polcy-and action.