Produced by Polyvios J. Simopoulos
[Transcriber's note:
In Memoriam
Michael S. Hart (1947-2011),
Inventor of the e-Book
and
Founder of Project Gutenberg
]
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A History of the Republican Party
by George Washington Platt
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[Frontispiece: Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley.]
A History
OF THE
Republican Party
BY
GEO. W. PLATT
-----------------------------------
"And summon from the shadowy Past,
The forms that once have been."
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C. J. KREHBIEL & CO.,
CINCINNATI, O.
1904
Copyright, 1904,
by GEO. W. PLATT.
All rights reserved.
Inscribed
to the Memory of
the three Martyred Republican Presidents
LINCOLN, GARFIELD, McKINLEY.
PREFACE.
Early in February, 1900, the writer delivered an address before the
Stamina Republican League of Cincinnati on "The Origin and Rise of the
Republican Party." The interest in the subject shown by the audience and
the many words of approbation led to a deeper consideration of the
history of the Party, and the address was repeated on a more elaborate
plan before many other organizations in Cincinnati and vicinity.
It soon became apparent that the great majority of every audience had
very vague recollections of the tragic events which led to the
organization of the Party, and of its early history, owing perhaps to
the fact that they belonged to a generation that had followed the
enactment of those events. It was also clear that those who had lived in
the momentous decade before the Civil War were deeply interested and
stirred by a new recital of the history of that period, and thus it was
suggested that a History of the Republican Party might prove of interest
and value.
Like the place of Homer's birth that of the Republican Party is in
dispute, but it is believed that the facts herein narrated are supported
by the weight of evidence.
It is hoped that this work does not display so much partisanship as to
make it uninteresting to members of other political parties in the
United States.
GEO. W. PLATT.
Cincinnati, February, 1904.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE
I. Formative Causes .......................................... 5
II. Ancient and Modern Slavery ................................ 11
III. Beginning of Slavery in the United States ................. 22
IV. The Early Federal Government .............................. 28
V. The Missouri Compromise ................................... 42
VI. The Abolitionists ......................................... 51
VII. Compromise of 1850 ........................................ 59
VIII. Birth of the Republican Party ............................. 70
IX. First Republican National Convention ...................... 86
X. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates ............................... 101
XI. Lincoln ................................................... 112
XII. Reconstruction and the National Debt ...................... 135
XIII. Grant ..................................................... 148
XIV. Hayes ..................................................... 170
XV. Garfield and Arthur ....................................... 185
XVI. Blaine .................................................... 201
XVII. Harrison .................................................. 213
XVIII. Cleveland's Second Term ................................... 230
XIX. McKinley .................................................. 244
XX. Roosevelt ................................................. 285
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1. Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley ...................... Frontispiece
2. White House ........................................... facing 28
3. Capitol ............................................... " 44
4. Alvan E. Bovay ........................................ " 76
5. Schoolhouse at Ripon, Wis ............................. " 84
6. John C. Fremont ....................................... " 92
7. Wm. H. Seward ......................................... " 100
8. Lincoln's First Inauguration .......................... " 124
9. _New York Herald_, April 15, 1865 ..................... " 132
10. Andrew Johnson ........................................ " 140
11. Ulysses S. Grant ...................................... " 148
12. Rutherford B. Hayes ................................... " 180
13. Chester A. Arthur ..................................... " 196
14. James G. Blaine ....................................... " 204
15. Benjamin Harrison ..................................... " 213
16. John Sherman .......................................... " 220
17. Inauguration of Wm. McKinley, March, 1897, ............ " 244
18. Thos. B. Reed ......................................... " 252
19. Second Inauguration of McKinley ....................... " 260
20. Marcus A. Hanna ....................................... " 276
21. Theodore Roosevelt .................................... " 285
A HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
CHAPTER I.
FORMATIVE CAUSES.
"_Resolved_, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power
over the territories of the United States for their government, and that
in the exercise of this power it is both the right and duty of Congress
to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy
and slavery."
_Republican National Platform_, 1856.
Near the beginning of Mr. Conway's small volume entitled "Barons of the
Potomack and Rappahannock" occurs the sententious remark that "a true
history of tobacco would be the history of English and American
Liberty." With whatever truth there is in such sweeping statements it
may also be said that "a history of Slavery in this country would be the
history of the Republican Party." This is distinctly so, at least to the
close of the Civil War, for we are to notice that while the party
originated in a desire to oppose the extension of slavery, the cause of
its origin disappeared in less than ten years after the birth of the
organization. But the results of that cause remained for many years, and
justified the assertion in the Republican platform of 1860 that "a
history of the nation during the last four years has fully established
the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the
Republican Party, and that the causes which called it into existence are
permanent in their nature." From its primary position as an opponent of
slavery extension, the new party became the champion of abolition, and
in the chaos brought on by the Civil War, and in the Reconstruction
period which followed, it was kept in power, notwithstanding the
disappearance of its direct formative cause, and the justification for
its continued existence was found in the urgent necessity of the hour.
Gradually but firmly it became a strong State and National Party,
solving the many vexed problems which followed the great conflict,
restoring public credit, reducing the enormous war debt; and when the
slavery question and its direct consequences had been eliminated from
national politics, taking up new political ideas and economic policies,
for the welfare of the entire country, until now, after half a century
of existence, during which time it has written some of the brightest
pages of American history, the Republican Party stands out as one of the
greatest and most consistent of political parties in all the world's
history.
Taking the popular vote as a criterion of permanent growth, the vote for
the Republican presidential candidates, beginning with 1,341,264 for
Fremont in 1856, reached the maximum of 7,208,244 for McKinley in 1900,
and only once (in 1892) during this entire period did the popular vote
for the Republican presidential candidate fail to show an increase over
the vote of the preceding election.
The events of the momentous decade before the Civil War (during which
period the Republican Party was firmly established), the election of Mr.
Lincoln, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the story of the national
development along commercial and financial lines since that period,
present the most interesting and vivid chapters of American history.
Throughout its history of fifty years, covering the period just
mentioned, the Republican Party has a remarkable record for solid and
consistent action, resulting universally in national prosperity and
honor, and on the three occasions since its formation (1856, 1884 and
1892), when the voters turned away to listen to the teachings of
Democracy, the invariable result has been national disaster and
humiliation and a retarding of progress.
The Republican Party was organized in the early months of 1854, and the
direct formative causes leading to its establishment were the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise and the efforts on the part of the South, under
the leadership of that ambitious politician, Stephen A. Douglas (with
his specious doctrines of non-intervention on the part of the
Government, and popular sovereignty), to force slavery into the
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which, by the Compromise of 1820,
should have been forever dedicated to freedom. By these efforts it was
seen that the South was attempting to make slavery a national instead of
a sectional institution, and the situation early in 1854 (after the long
series of triumphs of the Slave Power) seemed almost hopeless as far as
concerned political opposition to these radical measures was concerned.
At this time, and, indeed, for many years past, the Democratic Party was
firm and united in its support of slavery, and the course of the Whig
Party, intimidated by its southern members, and fearful of civil strife,
had been one of subserviency to the exacting demands of slavery. The
Whig Party had proven itself totally incapable of meeting the great
question of the hour, and after the election of 1852 was on the verge of
absolute dissolution.
The astonishing repeal of the Missouri Compromise early in 1854, coming,
as it did, in a time of comparative peace on the slavery question,
obliterated old party lines in the North completely, and left
disorganized groups of anti-Nebraska Whigs, anti-Nebraska Democrats,
Free-soilers, Abolitionists, and Know-Nothings, all of whom represented
every extreme of the northern views of slavery. But underneath these
views was the belief that slavery was a great moral wrong, and that its
extension, at least, should be opposed, and from these seemingly
discordant elements it became, in fact, an easy matter to organize, in a
short time, a strong opposition party to the new aggression of the slave
interests.
The Republican Party was at first one of defense only; it was a
combination of the existing political elements opposed to slavery, and
its first stand was conservative, not to abolish slavery, but to firmly
oppose its extension. The Party at first had no intention of interfering
with slavery in the States in which it then existed, but the idea of
allowing slavery, with its manifest evils, to be extended into other
States and Territories at the will of the South was not to be silently
borne. The early views of the party, up to the Civil War, were well
expressed by Mr. Lincoln in his last great public utterance before his
election as President in November, 1860 (The Cooper Union Speech,
February, 1860): "Wrong, as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to
let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity
arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our
votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national territories
and to overrun us here in these free States?"
It will be of interest, before taking up the history of the immediate
casual events which made necessary this new political party, to consider
the early history of that great institution, slavery, which, from the
very beginning of American history to the close of the Civil War, and
indeed for many years after, was the chief disturbing element in the
country; to consider how this institution established itself in other
countries, how it insidiously began its growth in the Jamestown colony,
and how it gained in strength and political power, until, at the opening
of the Revolution it owned half a million slaves, and after Independence
had been gained, forced recognition in the Constitutional Convention and
there domineered the North into the first of a series of humiliating
compromises on the slave question. And from that time on, with
increasing force, pressed its obnoxious doctrines upon the press, the
pulpit, platforms and political parties of the country, until, after
many years of bitter contention, it was met in 1854 by the organization
of a determined opposition political party, which, after one failure,
brought about its political overthrow, an event followed by a last
tremendous struggle for the mastery, in which slavery was wiped out
forever in the life-blood of those who upheld and those who opposed it.