The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-21
BIRTHDAY OF
 THE G. o. P.

Four men met in a schoolhouse at
 Ripon, Wis, 62 years ago yesterday and launched the Republican party. Other communities have disputed with RipOn the honor of being the birthplace of the party which so long controlled the destinies of the United States, but there is every reason to believe that the four men of RipOn were the charter members of, the Grand Old Party. It is certain that hundreds of thousands of Americans held political views similar to those expressed by the Badger State prota- gcnists of the G. o. F., but the R1pon
 conference was the first to apply the name of Republican to the new political movement
 In it's origin, the Republican party was an amalgamation of little par ties and factions, which, in the course of two decades, had been split from the Democrats and gWhigs by the slav- cry question. These included the ''Know-Nothing' or American party, the Free Soil party, a contingent of Wings which included Abraham Lin Seward, and a body of Dem ocrats numbering among them William Gull len Bryant, Hannibal Hamlin, Simon Cameron and Gideon Wells.
 These factions had little in com mon save a determination to prevent the further extension of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854 crys- taIized this sentfmentMand led the an- ti-slavery forces to put asi6e their differences and unite on the comm on issue. Most of the conferences and conventions for naming a fauslon tic ket agreed on the name tof Republi- can for the new party. In the early days of the republic the name had been used by the followers of Jeffer- son, but it had long since 1apsed waen it was revived in 1854.
 Michigan claims to be the birth / place of the Republic can party because of the fact that it's first state con Vention was held at Jackson on July 6,|1854, the call for the gathering having been signed by 10000 persons. The main plank of the platform, drawn up by Jacob M. Howard, op- posed the extension of slavery. Other state conventions were held soon af- Forwards in Ohio, Wisconsin, Yer mont, Massachusetts, Indiana, Illi- nois and Iowa. Tn the elections of 1854 the new party carried fifteen out of thirty-one states, secured eleven senators and a plurality of the House of Representatives
 The Republican party as a truly national political organization was launched in 1856, and is now sixty yentfon held in Philadelphia in June of that year a. platform was adopted calling for the admission of Kansas as a free state, for a railroad to the Pacific, and declaring against the ex-l tension of slavery into the free terri torities. John c. Fremont, of Ca1ifor- mia, a F'ree-Soiler, was nominated for the presidency, and William l.. Day. ton, an Old Whig, was his running mate. The young party waged a wig orous campaign with the rallying cry of Free soi1 free speech, free men, Although defeated in the ] presidential race, the Republicans elected ninety-two Congressman, and laid the foundation for success in the next election, when Abraham Lincoln was the standard-bearer of the party.
 Since then the Republican party has been there or thereabouts" in all presidential campaigns up to that of four years ago. For a time after the Taft overthrow it seemed as if the Re- publican party was moribund-gored to death by a bull moose-but there is now every indication that in this years campaign the G. O. P. will again assume an importan role.