The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, March 4, 1929, Page 10

SI Fi Serre 280805 SrAse weet S. SES BIAS Ses THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE MONDAY, MARCH. 4, 1929 Editor's Note: This is the first of two articles on the contentions of two Michigan and Wisconsin cities over “the birthplace of the ublican party.” Lage xk * By RODNEY DUTCHER (NEA Service Writer) Washington, March 4—To decide whether the Republican party was born in Ripon, Wis., or Jackson, Mich., one must first define the way in which a political party is actually born. The reason Jackson and Ripon are still arguing the question on the eve of a 75th anniversary celebration of the birth is that a party isn't always born as a person is born. It may be born in several places, simultaneously or progressively. Few authorities have undertaken arbitrarily to hand all the honors either to Ripon or Jackson. Dr. Edward Stanwood, in his widely con- sulted history of the presidency, merely says: “The Republican party originated in the west. A mass meeting at Rip- on, Wis., early in 1854, followed soon afterward by a mass state convention at Jackson, Mich.; and state conven- tions in July in Vermont, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, brought the new party into being, with its present Name, and with opposition to the ex- tension of slavery as the one issue that united its members. «ek * Prof. William Starr Myers, the most recent historian of the party, makes @ graceful bow to Ripon and then says that “the next great step in the final organization of a new party, and the step usually accepted by histori- cal judgment as being the actual be- ginning of the Republican organiza- tion, was taken when a state conven- tion was held, a little over three months after the Ripon meeting, at Jackson, Mich., on July 6, 1854.” - Myers draws largely from Henry Wilson's The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power and The Republican Party, by Francis Curtis. The Kansas-Nebraska bill, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, Split the Whig and Democratic par- Yes wide open and furnished the big push for the new organization. The amalgamation of the anti-slavery element was a “synchronous rising in many places.” “Republican” was re- adopted from that of Thomas Jef- ferson’s old party, which had been aiscarded in favor of “Democratic” in Jackson's time. Like all good Democrats, many Republicans to this day trace their political ancestry back to Jefferson. * * Organization of the new party came from @ movement of many persons outside of politics, who had no poli- tical jobs to lose. Anti-Nebraska conventions were held, however, and often were called jointly by regular committees of the old Whig, Dem- ocratic and Free Soil parties. News- papers joined in the movement, which was especially strong in the North- west. Myers says: “Probably the meeting which Harry Blaine stepped gingerly over the threshold of the Hathaway living room, feeling exactly like a foolhardy tourist who insists upon peering over the crater of a volcano scheduled to erupt at any moment. After greeting Faith rather absent- mindedly and reassuring her about Tony’s condition—for Faith has been the only one who sensed that the girl had almost fainted—the reporter took & seat on the big couch near Crystal's wheel chair and surveyed the appar- ently harmless scene with a frown of concentration. ‘There was George Pruitt, talking to Crystal again. “I've been telling Faith that I want to paint you, Crystal,” he heard George Pruitt say eagerly, urgently. “You've made my fingers itch for a brush tor the first time in months. “You want to paint a portrait of me?” Crystal answered. “Why?” Before George Pruitt could answer Harry Blaine saw that he was not the only shameless eavesdropper of what should have been a private in- Serview. Cherry aa {especially deserves the credit for leading the way in the organization of a new party was that held at Ripon, Fond du Lac county, Wis.; and Mr. Alvan E. Bovay, a_ prominent member of the Whig party who lived in that town, was the prime mover in calling the convention, and also in the use of the name Republican for the new party.” Ripon is a small town. It has a Population of only about 4,000 today. Bovay was a lawyer who had come to Ripon from New York in 1850. In 1852 he was visiting his old friend Horace Greeley in New York and re- marked that there must be a new party which would demand exclusion of slavery from the territories. When Greeley asked him what he would call this party Bovay replied “Re- publican.” In 1854 he wrote the famous editor urging him to advocate mass meet- ings of Kansas-Nebraska bill oppon- ents everywhere to band together under that name, saying: “It is the only one that will serve all purposes, present and future—the only one that will live and last.” Greeley a few months later suggested the name in @ Tribune editorial. ** * Bovay and two other Riponians, one a Democrat and the other a Free Soiler, issued a call for a public meet- ing to consider the situation which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was still Pending in Congress. At a meeting in the Ripon Con- Sregational church on Feb. 28, 1854, @ resolution was passed demanding the formation of a new “Republican” party based solely on the issue of op- Position to extenston of slavery, in case the legislation should pass. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed by the Senate March 3 and Ripon had a second meeting March 20. “I went from house to house and {from shop to shop and halted men to get their names for the meeting,” Bovay wrote long afterward. “At that time there were not more than a hundred voters in Ripon and by a vast deal of earnest talking I obtained 53 of them. We went into the little meeting, held in a _ schoolhouse, Whigs, Free Soilers and Democrats. We came out of it Republicans and we were the first Republicans in the Union.” * * * The meeting voted to dissolve the Whig and Free Soil local committees and appointed a committee of three Whigs, one Democrat and a Free Soiler to “begin the task of forming @ new party.” Whether or not these events can now be called the actual birth of the Republican party, Myers agrees with Charles M. Harvey that “at these two meetings was started the carliest systematic work begun anywhere in the country to bring about the coali- tion of the enemies of slavery exten- sion, who were eventually fused into a homogeneous and aggressive party, adopting the name Republican.” The basis for Jackson's claim to being the G. O. P.'s birthplace will be described in a subsequent article. Sweet of him, isn't it? Faith was so flattered—"” Harry Blaine was caught fast in the paralysis that gripped the whole room, for Cherry's high voice had penetrated to every ear. The death- like silence held for a full minute and was broken by the swish of Faith's long taffeta skirt as she brushed past the couch on her way to her sister. So this was the eruption which Tony Tarver had Blaine thought, the blood pounding hotly in his cheeks. Rather a minor. eruption, but beastly—absolutely beastly. Was the little red-headed devil so insanely vain of her beauty that she could not endure that the slightest tribute should be paid to any other woman?” Bedtime, Crystal dear,” Faith was saying, her shame-flushed face bent over the girl in the wheel chair. “I am tired,” Crystal acknowledged faintly. Then, “Thank you, George,” she added noncommittally, as Faith began to wheel her away. Cherry appeared to be entirely un- aware of the fiendishness of her be- havior. Lifting her beautiful and ing | apparently innocent little face to Alan Beardsley, she commanded eagerly: -|“Come! You really must see the por- trait that George painted of Faith. As a Madonna, with MY baby in her arms, It’s in the sun parlor. As she passed her husband, Nils Jonson, dragging Alan Beardsley by the hand, Cherry laughed—a shrill, excited sound—that made Harr Blaine’s scalp prickle with forebod- ing. The little fool! HE fie 4 ir tani hl ik | eR NEXT: A cat shows her claws. (Copyright, 1929, NEA Service, Inc.) and singing. .. , “Well, we roll them bones the whole day long while the are out of sight.” in the cool hay, with a cubeb in in age. fe ae i fy tn Fge i i if i ii AND WHEN source. ar THE REAR Of MACK WHEN IY PULLS OUT WITH THIS HITCHED ON= WITN_A COUPLE OF BOILERS — TIN CANS - FLAT IRONS — OLD SHOR SS AND WHAT MAN BULL, THINK YOU'RE LOOKING INTO THE SHOW WINDOW OF “THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOPS THE TIE THAT BINDS = THE BELL — THE oe 6 WEY'R IN ANP AY ue RIGHT TRACK: WELL - THIS WILL BE THE CABOOSE — ‘HIS ISN'Y EXACTLY SHE WEDDING LICENSE WA MAKING OUT — Freckles and His Friends Say Yes, Freckles, Say Yes NNELL, FRECKLES-2 ANUST BE ON WY WAY BEFORE LONG AND IAN ONLY SORRY TAAT Z CANT SPEND MORE TIME HERE~.Do | ODOLT~ I MOST TELL FRECKLES ABOUT You WANTING 7 TAKE HIM WIT You TO TNE HANIAIIAN ISLANDS «ITLL BE A BIG SURPRISE WELL, HOW WOULD You UKE To GO \WITA ANE To THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS ? WHERE YouD FIND SUMMER INSTEAD OF ALL Tus Be COLD WEATIER— how : \NOULD ae TUAT PART IS ALREADY TAKEN CARE OF =iT's UP TO YOU NOW WETHER You FE} WANT To GO ALONG oR STAY AT KONE JUST ONE LITTLE WorD WILL SETTLE IT— YES OR Nowe WANs 21D LIKE To, OnLy GO AFTER HIM { DONT LET HIM GET AWAY I! CU JUST JOIN “TH Team Maysece — WASN'T 1 @ RECRUIT IN THE ARMY big soccere i bgt alk " fet TX (TS Me FER TM’ SUNNY SOUTH! od Y BX GOSH, I'M’ SINKED IM “THIS BURG- as FAST AS (GET A JoB,\ Lose (T! WHaTs TH USE OF STicKIN” AROUND HERE? © GEE wui2! LooKIT THis —RecRuITs TO HAVE BIG CHANCE WITH CLEVE— LANO INDIANS” —WHaT @ EINE CHANCE FER met ALL ABOARD FoR. * NEW ORLEANS !!. _ S¥ foretold, Harry |- Le WAIL 6 111 SSS SSSSSSMNH SSSSSsss SS & SS ous ice OPAL 208 ,SHES OVER AT TRE TEA ROOM, HELPING BOOTS OUT SNAY TWO LIL’ “TH TROURLE 1S, WHEN) 1M HERE waiow EXES LOOKIN’ None ne Ea