Neglected roots

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | Friday, May 14, 2004 | Editorial

[Graybeard58]

The periodic squabble over where the Republican Party began is mildly amusing. The national committee says the first official gathering of Republicans took place on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Mich., about 80 miles from Detroit.

Don't be so cheesy, says Ripon, Wis., which according to lore and a 2004 congressional resolution hosted the first gathering of Republicans on March 8, 1854.

In a pig's eye, say the folks of Crawfordsville, Iowa, who claim their hamlet hosted a group of abolitionists on Feb. 23, 1854, who debated a campaign platform and nominated candidates who ran under the Republican banner in 1854.

Dream on, say the party faithful in Exeter, N.H., who claim the party began at the meeting of the Amos Tuck Society at a hotel there on Oct. 12, 1853.

The national committee will stage the sesquicentennial in Jackson on Independence Day weekend, but short of the second coming of Abraham Lincoln, it's unlikely the question of where the party was born will ever be settled. But the anniversary should move the party faithful to consider how far the party has strayed from its roots.

Whether it began in Toledo or Timbuktu, for more than 100 years, it stood for limited government, free enterprise and personal responsibility. But the Grand Old Party won't get much older if it keeps foisting RINOs like Arlen Specter, John McCain, Michael Bloomberg and Nancy Johnson on the American public, keeps spending money like liberal Democrats and keeps adding on to the gigantic federal government built by Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Unless it diverts and reverts, the question will cease to be about where the party was born, but where it died.

[Graybeard58]

Interesting point of view.

[Pelham]

Whether it began in Toledo or Timbuktu, for more than 100 years, it stood for limited government, free enterprise and personal responsibility.

Limited government? Hardly. The GOP was formed from the wreckage of the Whig Party, and it promoted a strong, centralized government, high tariffs, and big government programs that culminated in the scandal ridden Grant Administration.