The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of the Republican Party, by George Washington Platt

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Title: A History of the Republican Party

Author: George Washington Platt

Release Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #37737]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ***

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

]

================================= A History of the Republican Party by George Washington Platt =================================

[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."

—————————————————-

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