The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-07-26
FIRST G. o. P. CONVENTION.
Fiftieth Anniversary of Historic Event
Recently Celebrated.

|
The first Republican National con-
vention, the 50th anniversary of
whose meeting is now being .celebrat-
ed in Philadelphia was composed of
565 delegates, every free state being
represented, and of the slave states
Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky.
Times change and memories are
short, so it is surprising to be re-
minded that Philadelphia in 1856 was,
of all the Northern cities, the least
tolerant of anti-slavery theories, and
that owing to the partisan rancor
alike of democrats, know-nothings
and old line whigs,a republican meet
| ing in that city at that period was
never sure of escaping pelting of
unsound eggs. Pennsylvania had been
a democratic state since 1900, and
James Buchanan was candidate in
1856 for the democratic presidential
nomination. The early republicans
were, therefore, playing the role of
missionaries in STAGE and city
which since 1860 have been distin-
guished for their unyielding republic
canism.
| In looking over the list of dele
gates to the first convention, one is
struck by the relative absence of
great party names. Of subsequent
republican candidates for the presi-
dency only one-James G. Blaine
had vote in the first national gath
ering. He had settled in Maine two
years before, and at 26 had become
a factor in Maine politics. Que
future vice-presidential candidate,
then q senator from Massachusetts,
addressed the convention, but had no
seat on the floor. From Massachu-
sets also came Charles F. Francis
Adams and E. R. Hoar; from Maine,
Governor Edward Kent; from New
York, Edwin D. Morgan, chairman
of the first republican national COM
mittee, afterwards governor of that
state; Robert Emmett, chairman of
the convention, and Reuben E. Fen
ton, afterwards governor and United
States senator. Pennsylvania sent
Thaddeus Stevens, then temporarily
lin retirement, but soon to re-enter
the house of representatives and be-
come its most noted parliamentary
leader; David Wilmot, the author of
the Wilmot proviso, and Henry c..
Carey, the protection economist.
Maryland was represented by Francis
P. Blair, Sr. /; Ohio by William Den
nison afterwards governor), Alphon-
so Taft and Joshua R. Gidings; Ill
inois by Owen Lovejoy and John NJ.
Palmer; Michigan by Zachariah Chan
dler and l. P. Christian; Indiana by
Henry S. Lane; Minnesota by Alex
ander Ramsey, and Kansas by S. c..
Pomery. OF these more distinguished
leaders, only Stevens, Blaine and Will
son were destined to loom exception
ally large in the history of the
party.
Not few of these early mission
aries of republicanism were also to
drift away from the organization.
In the New York delegation were
A. Oakley Hall, who was subsequent
ly elected a Tammany mayor of
New York, and John Bigelow, who
became democrat in 1872 and was
intimately associated in 1876 with
Samuel j. Tilden's canvass for the
presidency. Alexander X. Mcclure,
a Pennsylvania delegate who seconded
Fremont's nomination and who takes
part in this weeks celebration at
Philadelphia, followed Governor An
drew G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, in
to the democratic party, and was
for a long time the editor of the
Philadelphia Times, democratic
newspaper. John M. Palmer. who
announced the withdrawal of Abra-
ham Lincoln as candidate for the
presidential nomination. after
serving as major general in the
war and being elected governor as a
republican, became democrat. was
elected United States senator as
such, and finally ran for the presi-
dency in 1896 as the nominee of the
anti free silver democrats.
Colonel Mcclure, in his speech
last Sunday, said Francis P. Blair,
Sr, and Thurlow Weed were the
men who really decided the pres
Iidental nomination in 1856. The de-