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Republican Party Founded on this Day in 1854
History Channel.com ^ | 3/10/2005

Posted on 03/20/2005 5:31:26 AM PST by kellynla

In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the "tyranny" of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery.

With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, the Whigs disintegrated. By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party.

The Republicans rapidly gained supporters in the North, and in 1856 their first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states. By 1860, the majority of the Southern slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans won the presidency. In November 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president over a divided Democratic Party, and six weeks later South Carolina formally seceded from the Union. Within six more weeks, five other Southern states had followed South Carolina's lead, and in April 1861 the Civil War began when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay.

The Civil War firmly identified the Republican Party as the party of the victorious North, and after the war the Republican-dominated Congress forced a "Radical Reconstruction" policy on the South, which saw the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution and the granting of equal rights to all Southern citizens. By 1876, the Republican Party had lost control of the South, but it continued to dominate the presidency until the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: anniversary; gop; gophistory; happybirthday; republicanparty; rnc
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To: kellynla
Good post. Republicans should remember their honorable heritage. 19th century Republicans may not have been right about everything, but it would be wrong to forget their undoubted virtues and achievements.

Some people want to believe that if the Republicans made mistakes or fell short it vindicates the decidedly proslavery or prosegregation Democrats, but that's hardly fair or true, rather it's an indication of how hard it is to get everything "right" in politics.

Efforts to advance the cause of liberty or justice shouldn't simply be dismissed if they don't satisfy our own presumed standards. We respect the founders for going as far as they did in the right direction, in spite of their shortfalls, and the same is true of subsequent generations.

61 posted on 03/20/2005 10:41:59 AM PST by x
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To: kellynla
Now that you mention it that guy does resemble Newt. lol.

Just picture those guys in an TV debate. The 5 o'clock shadow would look good, in relation to some of those schlubs back in 1860.

62 posted on 03/20/2005 11:53:54 AM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is never free!)
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To: x

I have serious problems with the present day GOP.

Runaway pork barrel spending(waste, fraud & abuse), deficits(balance the budget), taxes(income taxes and the IRS should be eliminated) and illegal immigration(secure the borders, fine employers who hire illegals and deport illegals) just to name a few.

I always looked forward to the day that the GOP had control of Congress and the White House with great expectations...only to be verrrrrry disappointed!


63 posted on 03/20/2005 11:58:02 AM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: M. Espinola
definitely not an attractive bunch! LOL
of course who would have been elected had there been television two hundred years ago...
it sure nixed Nixon first time around...
64 posted on 03/20/2005 12:03:20 PM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: kellynla

God bless the GOP! The abolitionist party of Lincoln!


65 posted on 03/20/2005 12:06:52 PM PST by mowkeka
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To: kellynla
Some additional GOP graphics.


66 posted on 03/20/2005 12:44:11 PM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is never free!)
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To: kellynla

Thanks for posting that information about the history of the Republican Party. I wrote it!

For more information, see http://www.republicanbasics.com and http://www.lincolnreaganfoundation.org

Cheers,

Mike


67 posted on 03/20/2005 1:24:32 PM PST by Grand Old Partisan
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To: Grand Old Partisan

Thanks for the links.


68 posted on 03/20/2005 1:34:49 PM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: Willie Green

Being that you are from the old high tariff wing of the party, I was wondering if we can have your perspective on how the GOP has evolved.


69 posted on 03/20/2005 1:43:24 PM PST by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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To: kellynla
I teach in an inner city high school. I'm printing this out and will hand it out to my classes on American Government and my Sociology classes next week when we're back from Spring Break. I can't wait to see the reactions!
70 posted on 03/20/2005 1:44:20 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: ExSoldier

"I'm printing this out and will hand it out to my classes on American Government and my Sociology classes next week when we're back from Spring Break. I can't wait to see the reactions!"

Excellent!

Which pieces are you printing out and what kind of reactions do you expect to get?


"I teach in an inner city high school."
Thank you for your service.

You're a better person than I.
My sister, God bless her soul, was a teacher.

I wouldn't last five minutes in a classroom teaching. LOL


71 posted on 03/20/2005 3:01:42 PM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: Clemenza
Being that you are from the old high tariff wing of the party, I was wondering if we can have your perspective on how the GOP has evolved.

Click here.

72 posted on 03/20/2005 3:41:04 PM PST by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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To: kellynla
True, there are problems with the party and with American politics in general now. Politicians only do the minimum to get reelected, and money talks in government louder than the public interest.

Probably we shouldn't trust parties as much as people do. Parties are more like committees organized to achieve specific purposes than churches that lay claim to the whole truth and only way to salvation. It's enough for now that one is better than the other, and it's up to us to take the next step to get them to deal with the important questions.

The more things change, though, the more they stay the same. When we see how hard it is to get things done now, and how easy it is to for parties and governments to get derailed by those who want power or favors, we can understand how hard it was for America to address slavery and other divisive questions in the past.

73 posted on 03/20/2005 4:25:15 PM PST by x
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To: kellynla

Good things do happen, Happy Bday GOP. Aside from that, after reading the article I had a sense that History may soon repeat itself, in that the demorats seem to be doing all they can to divide America.


74 posted on 03/20/2005 4:32:20 PM PST by SeaBiscuit (God Bless all who defend America and the rest can go to hell.)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
That's because they knew that with the homosexual and racist Lincoln in the White House the tariffs would now start coming fast and furious.

ROTFLMAO

75 posted on 03/20/2005 5:01:26 PM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Edmund Burke
Slavery would have died out by 1890 without the loss of 600,00 lives.

And you base that claim on what?

76 posted on 03/20/2005 5:04:07 PM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: kellynla

Seems like it was a lot better back then.


77 posted on 03/20/2005 5:05:31 PM PST by k2blader (It is neither compassionate nor conservative to support the expansion of socialism.)
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To: kellynla
Which pieces are you printing out and what kind of reactions do you expect to get?

Just the main body of the article (not the FR post responses) and I expect them to be quite amazed but not surprised. They know by now how badly they've been lied to by the public school AGENDA run on them by teachers, parents, clergy you name it all in the name of party entitlements.

I had one kid who told her mom she was going to vote Republican and the parent said if she did not only would she be thrown out of the home, she'd be totally cut off from family forever. So my student just agreed with mom, apologized and voted her conscience anyway. At least that's what she told ME. Heck, I don't know if it was the truth, but I know she was pretty angry at the family.

78 posted on 03/20/2005 5:31:13 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: ExSoldier

well let us know what kind of responses you get.
should be verrrrrry interesting. LOL


79 posted on 03/20/2005 6:21:08 PM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: Edmund Burke
Slavery would have died out by 1890 without the loss of 600,00 lives

The most idiotic thing I have EVER heard . You do realize interracial marriages are STILL banned by the Alabama constitution ! What makes you think that the southern leaders would suddenly have become civilized on their own ? BTW the slavery amendment was only ratified by Mississippi in 1995 ! Abraham Lincoln RIP.
80 posted on 03/20/2005 8:31:36 PM PST by newfarm4000n (God Bless America and God Bless Freedom)
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