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To: jeffersondem
If there are any insights from the 1856 convention proceedings on how the Republicans figured to get three fourths of the several states to peaceably agree to an abolition amendment - I'd like to learn more about that business model. It would have solved a lot of problems.

As I suggested earlier, you should read the text. It's 80-something pages, but only takes a couple of hours if you skip past all the procedural stuff.

I can contribute two observations from the proceedings though. First, some of the speakers during the convention saw the end of slavery as Providential. Second, one or two of the speakers said that Douglas and the Democrats had already initiated a civil war. In no case did anyone outline a plan for ending slavery. But there was a consistent view that slavery must end.

It seems that you now acknowledge that the Republican Party was formed to end slavery. Is that correct?

73 posted on 05/30/2022 1:03:17 PM PDT by cockroach_magoo
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To: cockroach_magoo
“It seems that you now acknowledge that the Republican Party was formed to end slavery. Is that correct?”

We may never know the purpose of the founding Republican Party members. Their founding party platform said the purpose was to stop the expansion of slavery. But there may have been a lot of smokey, backroom deals that could not stand the light of day.

My guess, the purpose of the party at its founding was to support the economic and political best self-interest of the founders.

For the purpose of this post, let's stipulate you are correct: the Republican Party was formed to abolish slavery.

I marvel that just a few short years later members of the Republican Party - with the first Republican Party president's tacit approval - were voting to adopt the Corwin amendment which would have enshrined slavery into the United States Constitution forever.

It doesn't add up.

74 posted on 05/30/2022 6:28:09 PM PDT by jeffersondem
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