The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-10-01
Frederic Has Us LettJ
PRESIDENTIAL


Washington. D. c.. Sept. ~,
With bleeding Kansas" ~ the L.
sue, the Republican party made
its first appearance in the arena Of
national politics In 1856, with CO..
onel John c. Fremont - its can
didate.
II Franklin Pierce and his fol-
lowers had been content to ress
upon the Compromise Of 1850 as
the final settlement of the slavery
question in politics, the inevitable
clash OF the Civil war might have
been postponed for q long time.
But the Democrats had won such
a great victory. and the opposition
was so utterly demoralized, that
the Pierce administration imagined
1t could do anything with impunity.
Indulging in that mistaken BELIEF,
Pierce brought about the repeal Of
the Missouri Compromise Then.
with the doctrine that slavery must
be permitted in territories, the
believers in the peculiar institu-
ton" sought to extend it to the
territories Of Kansas and Nebraska
Both of these territories we're north
OF the 'thirty-six thirty" line of
the Missouri Compromise and Its
repeal opened up the whole ques-
| ton.
The Republican party was born
big. 1t stirred up one of the hot
test campaigns the country has
ever known before 1t was actually
IN existence as national body. 1t
owned much Of its power in its
first campaign to Horace Greeley
and the New York Tribune. The
Tribune was the Republican bible.
1t Numbered against abuses which
we're exciting the whole country
yet it could coo as softly as the
dove il political experience de-
manded. 1t even went 90 far as
to bid for southern support for
Fremont and talked OF avoiding the
danger Of solid south" pleading
the while for a solid north"
i Slavery the Real Issue.
!! No campaign up TO that time had
had SO many issues. OF course
slavery was the only real issue
but as yet no one person Of any
prominence in actual politics had
dared to oppose slavery in the
state where it existed. It was only
against the extension of slavery
that the Free Sellers. the liberal
Wings. the anti-Nebraska Demo.
Gratis and the Republicans were
fighting. But the southerners real.
lied that Republican success would
mean an ultimate attack upon the
states rights of which they were
lsuch ardent defenders.
The Republican party held its
! first convention at Pittsburgh on
Washington's birthday and formed
an organization. 1t called a NOM
mating convention to meet at Phil
adelphia on Bunker's Hill day. That
convention met and nominated
John C. Fremont for president and
William L. Dayton for vice presi-
dent. The Democrats held their
convention in Cincinnati, the first
national convention ever held west
of the Alleghanies. The race for
the nomination was spirited, the
candidates being James Buchanan,
who was chosen on the 18th ballot
Franklin Pierce, Stephen A. DorH
las and Lewis Cass. John G.
Breckenridge of Kentucky was
: nominated for vice president.
The Wing party was broken up
but its remnants went into the
; Nativist movement and worked
with the new American" or Know
nothing" party. The Know-Noth-
ings nominated Willard Fillmore
for president and Andrew Jackson
Donelson Of Tennessee for vice
president. The Wings went through
the form of holding q national con.
vention and endorsed the Fillmore
ticket. Thus ended the talk OF the
Wings, created into a political or
ganization by anti-Masonry, expir'
ing as an adjunct Of anti-Catholi'
cism.
Free States. Free Kansas, Free
Speech, Free Men and Fremont!
That was the Republican battle
cry. Buck and Brock" was a.
much as the Democratic campaign
poets could find for their slogan
But it was not q campaign Of laud
alton. The Republicans denounced
: and defied and damned the doing'
of the Democrats. The Democrats
in turn, occupied conservative
Iground and defended their actions
under the Constitution. The Fill
; more ticket was refuge for thos'
who didn't want to take sides II
a most unpleasant argument.
The Kansas Massacre.
/ After the Lawrence. Kan, mas
sacre, Horace Greeley declare,
that president Pierce. the captail
, of the Border Ruffians, will go t
' Cincinnati to seek denomination
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