313 



RKPUHUCAX PARTY. 



slave Spates or new slave Territorial, or the nationali- 

 sation ot slavery or extradition of slaves. It denounced 

 the Fugitive Slave law and demanded its repeal. It 

 alleged further that no permanent settlement of the 

 slavery question oould be had except iu the practical 

 recognition of the truth that slavery wag lectiunaj and 

 freedom national. As an bdepeodoBt parly, it re- 

 fused to coalesce with others, but declared its oUtet 

 to be to defeat both Democrat* and Whip*, which it 

 aid were hopelesdy corrupt Its motto was "Free 

 Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, ami Five Men." 



The Kansas-Nebraska controversy made a rupture 

 in tin- old Whig party that could not be healed, and 

 the Republican pa_rty, then in its incipii-ney. w;us aug- 

 mented by the anti-slavery Whig element.-;. This iiliift 

 was precipitated by the act of May :.'">. IS.V1. which 

 provided a territorial government for Nebraska, which 

 then included what is now Kansas. The struggle for 

 Kansas was the throes of the birth of the Republican 

 party. 



The first national convention of the Republican party 

 was held at Philadelphia, June 18, 1850. It was com- 

 posed of delegates selected under a call addressed to 

 the people ot the United States, without regard to 

 their former political creeds or opinions. It invited 

 all those opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Com- 

 promise, to extending slavery into free territory, and 

 In favor of admitting Kansas as a free State. It was 

 intended to consolidate the opposition to the Demo- 

 cratic party. The personnel of the party was composed 

 of Wnigs with anti-slavery opinions, Abolitionists, 

 Native Americans, and Independent Democrats in 

 hort, of all elements opposed to the pro-slavery De- 

 mocracy. It proposed, to harmonize these elements 

 in a common cause, to settle the question of the exten- 

 sion of slaver}' by an appeal to the ballot-box. 



In the platform on which the campaign was con- 

 ducted appeared the following resolution: "That we 

 deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legis- 

 lature, of any individual or association of individuals 

 to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of 

 the United States, while the present constitution shall 

 be maintained." This resolution announced the issue 

 which called the new party into existence. The plat- 

 form embodied the first principles of Ameriou liberty ; 

 it maintained the doctrines cnunciat^l in the 1 it-dura- 

 tion of Independence ; the prescrvainn of the Federal 

 Constitution ; the preservation of the rights of the 

 Slates ; and the Union of the States. It unsigned the 

 administration of 1're.s. Pierce for its efforts to thrust 

 slavery on the people of Kansas, and demanded the 

 immediate admission of Kansas as a free State. It 

 called for the extinction of polygamy, then rampant in 

 Utah. It advocated aiding the construction of the 

 Pacific railroad; favored liberal appropriations for 

 improvement of our rivers and harlmrs; and declared 

 in favor of restoring the national policies of Washing- 

 ton and Jefferson. With this creed, the Republican 

 party started out on its mission. 



The convention nominated John 0. Fremont for 

 Pn-sident, and William Ij. Dayton tor Vice- President. 

 In November, 1856, more than 4.000,000 votes were 

 cast, being an increase of about 30 per cent over the 

 previous presidential election. The result showed a 

 surprising strength for the new party. Although 

 James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, was 

 elected, having received 174 electoral votes against 114 

 votes for Fremont, and 8 votes for Fillmorc, he was in 

 a minority of 377,608 on the popular vote Fremont 

 received I. :1 1,234 votes, and Fillmore, S74.. r .:(4 votes. 

 It is highly probable that without a third party in the 

 contest the Republicans would have elected their can- 

 didate. 



The elections in 1856 drew party linos more tightly, 

 and incited both political element* to renewed exertions 

 for supremacy. Buchanan's election was a present 

 trinmph for the South, but a dompariwin of the vote 

 that of four years previous gave his party un- 



I engines! and the Republicans hope for the future. f,,r 

 while the Democrats had a plurality of fit) in the 

 (oral college, the popular vote was against them. In 

 I.v'i2 they had a popular majority of about 5U,000, 



land had 212 votes in the electoral college. This 

 change in public sentiment gave the Republicans pres- 

 tige in their defeat, made them more aggressive, and 

 guined them new acquisitions. This is shown by the 

 address issued Nov. 27, 1856, congratulating the Re- 

 publicans on their work in the past and urging them 

 to renewed efforts in the future. The address pointed 

 to the fact that in 1852 the Democratic party carried 

 all the States, except four, on the popular vote, while 

 in 1856 thcy_ lost eleven States, containing half the 

 population of the Union, and that the Republican can 

 diuate received nearly three times as many electoral 

 votes as the Whig party had in 1S52. ami that a 

 already controlled fourteen of the State irovenimeiits. 

 As the issues still remained, it was evident that the 

 Republican party would be a formidable antagonist in 

 1860. 



A continuous chain of events favored the new polit- 

 ical organization, among which the celebrated Dred 

 Scott case (q. v.) stands prominent The decision in 

 this case not only intensified the feeling throughout 

 the North amongst those already connected with the 

 Republican party, but it also udded to its numbers 

 many Democrats who had anti-slavery convictions. 

 This decision denied that which uaany in the non-slave- 

 holding States claimed, and which they intended, if 

 possible, to secure the right of Congress, and of the 

 people of a Territory, to control the extension of 

 slavery. It ordained slavery as an irreversible condi- 

 tion ; it made slavery national and freedom sectional. 

 What tended to increase popular feeling was the state- 

 ment that the final decision of the court was the 

 opposite of its original opinion. [Justice Benjamin 

 R. Curtis tendered his resignation to the President 

 because the court first decided the case upon one 



I ground and afterwards agreed to reopen it and decide 



' it on another, which he considered subversive of law. 

 This action destroyed his confidence in that body, and 

 he refused to continue on the bench under those circum- 

 stances. ] 



This famous decision, which was given only two days 

 after Pros. Buchanan entered on office, and which was 

 intended to quench the Kansas struggle, only added 

 fuel to the flame. As a result, war and bloodshed 

 marked the attempts of the two parties to control the 

 incipient State. The election for membersof the Legis- 

 lature was attended with fraud and violence. The 

 Free State adherents held a convention at Topeka to 

 frame a State constitution, but Congress after a fierce 

 struggle refused to admit it as a State. Popular feel- 

 ing ran high all over the country. The result of the 

 long congressional struggle was simply this : "That 

 Congress was neither to legislate slavery into 

 any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom ; 

 but to leave the people tharepf perfectly free to form 

 and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 

 way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 

 States, and it was specially prescribed that when the 

 Territory of Kansas shall DC admitted as a State, it 

 shall be admitted into the Union with or without 

 slavery as the constitution adopted should prescribe at 

 the time of admission." 



What is known as the Lecompton Constitution was 

 subsequently submitted to (Congress by Pros. Bu- 

 ehanan in 1X5S, with a message saying : " Slavery ex- 

 ists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the 

 United Slates;" and he urged that body to admit it as 

 a State under tint Constitution. At a special elec- 

 tion the people of Kansas decided by a majority of 

 10,000 votes not to accept admission under that Consti- 

 tution. It remained a Territory until ISfil. v.-lien it was 

 admitted by a Republican Congress under its " free " 

 constitution adopted in ISM). 

 Those evcuUi witll others intimately related to them 



