"TO RESTORE THE UNION AS CHAMPION OF LIBERTY"

REPUBLICAN PARTY FOUNDED IN WISCONSIN

Ripon, Wisconsin (JFK+50) On March 20, 1854, the Republican Party was founded here in Ripon.  The party was organized by former Whigs and Free Soilers who aimed to establish a party in opposition to the spread of slavery into the western territories.

The leaders of the movement included Horace Greeley, Salmon Chase and Charles Sumner.  In recommending the name 'Republican,' Mr. Greeley wrote...

"We think some simple name like Republican (will) more fitly designate those...united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty."

SOURCES

"Republican Party founded, March 20," This Day in History, www.history.com

"The Origins of the Republican Party," ushistory.org/ 

 

 

Little White Schoolhouse

Ripon, Wisconsin

Photo by Royalbroil (2012)

www.wikimedia.org/

"THE NAME REPUBLICAN DESIGNATES THOSE WHO RESTORED THE UNION TO ITS TRUE MISSION OF CHAMPION OF LIBERTY"

GRAND OLD PARTY FOUNDED IN WISCONSIN

Ripon, Wisconsin (JFK+50) On March 20, 1854, the Republican Party was founded in a schoolhouse here in Ripon.

The leaders of the new political party, including former Whigs and Free-soilers, met in opposition to the recently enacted Kansas-Nebraska Act which nullified the Missouri Compromise by making slavery legal north of the compromise line by popular vote.

The Grand Old Party, or GOP, as it would later be known, nominated John C. Fremont as their first Presidential candidate in 1856.  The party convention that year was held in Philadelphia.

The name Republican was suggested by newspaper editor Horace Greeley who wrote...

"We think some simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly designate those who...united restored the Union to its true mission of champion...of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery."

The first resolution drafted in the 1856 Republican Platform stated...

"Resolved...That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution are essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States must and shall be preserved."

John C. Fremont won 11 of 16 Northern states but went down to defeat to the Democrat, James Buchanan.   Four years later Abraham Lincoln of Illinois would be nominated by the Republican Party and be elected as the 16th President of the United States.
 

Birthplace of the Republican Party

Ripon, Wisconsin

Photo by Royalbroil (2012)

REPUBLICAN PARTY'S FOUNDER OWNED SLAVES...REALLY?

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1894

GOP FOUNDED 162 YEARS AGO TODAY

Ripon, Wisconsin (JFK+50) One hundred and sixty-two years ago today, March 20, 1854, the Republican Party, later known as the Grand Old Party, or GOP, was founded here in Ripon.   The party's main issue was opposition to the spread of slavery in the western territories.

Today, most Americans are aware that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were the co-founders of the Democratic Party, originally called the Democratic-Republican Party, but does anyone know who founded the Republican Party?

According to Pennsylvania journalist and politician Alexander K. McClure, that man was Francis Preston Blair*, or at the very least was "more nearly the founder...than any other man."

Mr. Blair had been a Jacksonian Democrat who published a pro-Jackson newspaper, the forerunner of the Congressional Record, known as the Congressional Globe.  In 1848, Blair supported the Free Soil Party despite the fact that his own house servants were slaves.  

Apparently, like Thomas Jefferson, the fact that he thought slavery to be evil did not deter Francis Preston Blair from having slaves of his own.  It is true, however, that in 1862 he did offer freedom to those slaves although only one took him up on the offer.

In July 1854, Francis Preston Blair was chosen president of the Republican National Convention which was held in Pittsburgh. John C. Fremont, the party's first presidential nominee, won 11 of 16 Northern states but lost to Democrat James Buchanan.  In 1860, Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and the rest is history.

*Francis Preston Blair, Sr. (1791-1876) was born in Abington, VA.  His father became Attorney General of Kentucky.  FPB graduated from Transylvania University in 1811 & was admitted to the bar in 1817.

Blair became editor of the Congressional Globe & member of President Andrew Jackson's informal "kitchen" cabinet.  In 1836, he acquired the Blair House on Pennsylvania Ave across from the White House.

During Reconstruction, FPB sided with President Andrew Johnson & opposed the radicals of his party.  

SOURCE

"Racism and the founding of the GOP: Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War and the real history of the Republican Party," by Paul D. Escott, September 13, 2014, www.salon.com/

Francis Preston Blair, Sr.

Brady-Handy Photographic Collection

Library of Congress Image

Birthplace of the Republican Party

Ripon, Wisconsin

Photo by User:Laharl (2004)