Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-05-25
Republicans to
Deliberate Near
Scene Party's Birth

Scene Party'S Birth
Chicago, ILL.,, May 2i.-ln assembling
at Chicago in June the Republican ma
tional convention will be sitting in the
section where the Republican party was
first named and within 20 miles OF
where the first recorded Republican
meeting was held Sc years ago. The ap-
proach of the convention recalls TINS
early history, though with the passing
of the years and the development of new
issues the first steps of the party nave
passed from common view.
1T will probably not be possible to
trace to the earliest date the first posi-
tive meeting which led to the formation
of the new party" writes Francis Cur
It's, in his history of the Republican
party. 1T is quite likely that there
was no considerable gathering of men,
nor discussion of plans and policies, I'M
til Mr.. A. L. Bovay, a Wing of Ripon,
Wis, together with Mr.. Bowen, a
democrat. and a Mr.. Baker, Free
Soiler, issued call for a public meeting
to consider the now alarming situation
The great issue of the hour was the
eAlCHSIoH VI oioNSiS' VI liiS POiis'~NA
situation prefacing the formation of the
Republican party, Mr.. Curtis says,
NO political party was able to elect
enough members of Congress to overrule
the united will of the stockholders, and
until the anti-Slavery sentiment of the
North should be so welded together, and
it's opponents should be so united in one
party as to be able to send to Washing
ton enough men to outvote the represen
tatives of the Slave Power, there was
no hope that its advance could be
checked"
Reference was made to the Ripon
meeting by Henry Wilson, when vice
president of the United States, in his
book, Rise and Fall of the, Slave
Power published in 1874. One
of the earliest. if not the earliest, of the
movements, he said, that contemplate
ed definite action and the formation of
a new party was made in Ripon, Fond
du Lac County, Wis, in the early
months of 1854, in consequence of very
thorough canvas, conference, and gen.
eral comparison of views inaugurated
by A. +. Bovay, a prominent member of
the Wing party, among the Wings, Free
Sellers, and Democrats of that town.
A call was issued for a public meeting
to consider the grave issues which were
assuming an aspect of such alarming
proportions"
The meeting thus called, wrote Charles
NJ. Harvey in the Chautauquan, Sep
tember.. 1897, was held in the Congre-
gational church at Ripon, February q,
1854. resolution was adopted in the
meeting that if the bill then pending
in the Senate to throw open to slavery
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska
should pass the old party Organization
in Ripon should be cast off, and a new
party. to be called the Republican.
formed on the sole issue of opposition to
slavery extension.
The bill passed the Senate in which
body it originated, on March 3, 1854, and
on March 20, the second meeting, par
ticipated in by men of all parties, was
held, this time in a schoolhouse, at
which Bovay was the leading spirit.
by a vote of the assemblage, the
town committees of the Wing and Free
Soil parties were dissolved, and a COM
mittee Of five. three Wings, one DEM
ocrat and one Free-Soiler, was chosen
TO begin the task Of forming a new
party.
AT these two meetings was started
the earliest systematic work begun any
where in the country to bring about the
coalition of the enemies of slavery ex-
tension, who were eventually fused into
a homogeneous and aggressive party,
adopting the name Republican
Mr.. Harvey quoted a letter Bovay
later wrote to him about this meeting,
in which he said:
Il went from house to house and from
shop to shop and halted men on the
streets to get their names for the meet
ing of March 20, 1854. At that time there
were not more than hundred voters in
Ripon, and by vast deal of earnest
talking l obtained SIS of them . We
went into little meeting, Wings, Free
Sellers, and Democrats. We came out
of it Republicans and we were the first
Republicans in the Union. had one
great advantage in this work. / was an
intimate friend of Horace Greeley's and
he would always listen to me on politi-
cal matters. :. He did not always as
sent to my propositions, but in the end
he did to most of them. and he did to
this one after a good deal of nagging.
1t was not one letter that l wrote to
him, but many. before he displayed the
Republican flag in the Tribune's Col
Mr.. Harvey, in his article quoted in
Mr.. Curtis book, concludes:
1T is not claimed here that Bovav is
the creator of the Republican party. |
The spirit was active in 1854, in every
village and city in the free states, which |
would have created that party even if
Bovay and Greeley had never been born. |
Bovay, however, was the first person |
who set out in a resolute, persistent, |
and practical way to form the party; |
he was the first to suggest the name, |
and Greeley, through his paper, which |
had the largest circulation> and ifflu- |
ence of any journal in the country at |
that time, gave his valuable aid in maxi |
ing the party project and name known
TO the country"
The first national Republican, conyen-
ton was held in Philadelphia two years
later.