The Beginning of the Republican Party

“to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot so well do, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere.”    ABRAHAM LINCOLN

On February 28, 1854, Major Alvan E. Bovay, a prominent Whig, held a meeting of Whigs, Free Soilers, and Democrats in the Congregational Church in Ripon, Wisconsin. These individuals held one belief in common--slavery was unconstitutional and should not be encouraged. They adopted a resolution at their meeting stating that a new party, to be named the Republican Party, would be formed if the bill passed.

The name “Republican” had been used before as a party designation. In 1792, Thomas Jefferson organized a party which combined anti-Federalists and other groups opposed to centralization of government, a basic tenet of the Federalist Party of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. Jefferson originally referred to his party in official documents as “Republican” which was later changed to the “Democratic-Republican” Party. Today’s Democrats claim Jefferson and his party to be their foundation.

In 1828 and 1832, “Republican” was used by another group. Jefferson’s organization had evolved into the Democrat Party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson; those who opposed the Democrats were labeled the “National Republicans”.

Major Bovay had been consulting New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, about the formation of the new party and its name for two years. In June, 1854, Greeley favorably mentioned the name “Republican” in an editorial.

After the Kansas-Nebraska Bill passed the Senate, Major Bovay called a second meeting which was held on March 20th in the schoolhouse at Ripon, Wisconsin. Fifty-three of the town’s eligible voters attended and appointed a committee of five to form the new party. The local Whig and Free Soil organizations were dissolved.

The Ripon schoolhouse was the scene of many other meetings that year, and Republican groups organized in Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and other northern states. In Washington, 30 Congressmen under the leadership of Representative Israel Washburn, Jr. of Maine, agreed upon the necessity for a new party and decided it should be call “Republican”.

The first Republican convention was held “under the oaks” in Jackson, Michigan, on July 6, 1854. The crowd was so large it overflowed the town’s largest hall and had to adjourn to a grove or oaks near the county race course. Once again, Republicans went on record against slavery . . .
 

“RESOLVED, That, . . . in view of the imminent danger that Kansas and Nebraska will be grasped by Slavery, and a thousand miles of slave soil will be thus interposed between the free States of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific, we will act cordially and faithfully in unison to avert and repeal this gigantic wrong and shame.

“RESOLVED, That in view of the necessity of battling for the first principles of Republican government, and against the schemes of an aristocracy, the most revolting and oppressive with which the earth was ever cursed or man debased, we will cooperate and be known as ‘Republicans’ until the contest be terminated.”

Credit for choosing the name “Republican” was claimed by Joseph Warren, editor of the Detroit Tribune, Jacob M. Howard, Chairman of the Resolutions Committee, and Horace Greeley.

Either under the label of “Republican” or “anti-Nebraska,” the Party made great progress that fall. The next year saw eleven Republican United States Senators who, with the help of the anti-Nebraskans, were able to control and organize the House. State tickets were elected in Michigan and Wisconsin.

In February, 1856, Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts was elected Speaker of the 34th Congress, and shortly afterwards the Republican Party was organized on a national basis. Delegates from the different states met on the 22nd and 23rd of February and appointed a National Executive Committee which was authorized to call a national nominating convention for the following June in Philadelphia.

--Republican Party of Waukesha, 1/6/04--

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