[Diana in Wisconsin]

"The gathering laid the foundation for what became the Republican Party. Six years later, the party elected Abraham Lincoln as president."

Let's get back to this kind of ACTION from our GOP, shall we? MAGA! On, Wisconsin!

[DiogenesLamp]

The Little White Schoolhouse, about 60 miles northeast of Madison, commemorates a meeting held March 20, 1854, when opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act gathered to organize against the expansion of slavery.

An example where people were misled into believing something so that other people could gain from their misunderstanding.

Same tactic liberals used with Black Lives Matter, which painted the illusion that black lives were under assault and black men were being murdered in the street.

And let us be clear about this. The 1850 Republicans were the liberal, tax and spend, "social change" activists of that era.

Slavery could not expand, the "Free Soil Party" was headquartered in New York State, not Kansas, where the actual land in question was.

Why could slavery not "expand"? Because you couldn't grow cotton in any of the territories (until 1915, when large scale irrigation systems were just starting to be built.)

You couldn't grow tobacco, you couldn't grow sugar, you couldn't grow indigo. You can grow a little bit of cotton in the Southwestern most portion of Kansas, at least you can do it in modern times, but back then? Not likely.

There was nothing really for slaves to do in Kansas, or Colorado, or New Mexico. I suppose they could do a little mining, if the whites would allow them, which is not likely. I guess they could grow wheat and maybe corn, but as expensive as slaves were, it is unlikely any businessman would employ them doing that instead of cultivating and harvesting cotton, or one of the other cash crops.

But the entire country was stampeded into believing that the "territories" was under a dire threat of slavery "expanding" into them.

Because that suited the political needs of the people who were making a lot of money from controlling the government.

They stirred up the activists because that's how liberals do things.

[reg45]

The Democratic Party (originally called the Democratic-Republican Party) was founded in a slave owner’s mansion.

[Merrick]

This is an age-old debate, but with all due respect the Republican Party was founded in Michigan. Lincoln attended the first major convention there and coined the term ‘Michigander’ to describe what he thought a large noisy group of Michiganders sound like.

[MayflowerMadam]

Our family reunions are held here in Friendship, NY, do own the road from the family homestead:

“Friendship is historically recognized for hosting one of the very first local Republican Party caucuses in 1854. Nearby Angelica held the first county-wide Republican Convention later that same year.” (AI)

It’s comforting to be in spaces with ghosts of great patriots from the past.