The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 77

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082

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ORIGIN OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

The Republican party of the United States originated, both as to organization and name in the town of Ripon, in this county. "One of the earliest, if not the earliest, of the move- ments," says Henry Wilson, " that contemplated definite action and the formation of a new party, was made in Ripon, Fond du Lac Co., Wis., in the early months of 1854. In consequence of a very thorough canvass, conference and general comparison of views, inaugurated by A. E. Bovay [Alvan E. Bovay ], a prominent member of the Whig party, among the Whigs, Free- Soilers and Democrats of that township, a call was issued * for a public meeting to consider the grave issues which were assuming an aspect of such alarming importance. The meeting was held on the last [day] of February, in the Congregational Church. It was largely attended by persons of both sexes from the town and surrounding country. solely for the discussion of principles and comparison of views. * It was a meeting

* The burden and drift of the speeches were the hopeless subserviency of the national parties to the behests of the slaveholders, the necessity of abandoning them, and the proposed policy of constructing a party from the materials thus set at liberty, with such as could be persuaded to leave the Democratic party for a similar purpose. A resolution was adopted that, if the Nebraska bill, then pending, should pass, they would ' throw old party organizations to the winds, and organize a new party on the sole issue of the non-extension of slavery.'"

" A second meeting was held," continues Mr. Wilson, "on the 20th of March, for the pur- pose of organization and for the adoption of such preliminary measures as the inauguration of the new party required. By formal vote, the town committees of the Whig and Free- Soil parties were dissolved, and a committee of five, consisting of three Whigs, one Free-Soiler and one Democrat, was chosen. 'The work done on that evening,' says Mr. Bovay, 'was fully accepted by the Whig and Free-Soil parties of all this section immediately, and very soon-, that is to say, in a few months-by these parties throughout the entire State.' A State Convention was held in July, by which the organization of the party was perfected for the State, a majority of the delegation was secured for the next Congress ; and a Free-Soiler, Charles Durkee, was elected to the Senate of the United States. At the meeting of the 20th of March, Mr. Bovay, though stating his belief that the party should and probably would take the name of . Republi- can,' advised against such a christening at that time, and by that small local body of men. He, however, wrote to the editor of the New York Tribune, suggesting the name, giving his reasons therefor, and requesting him, if his views corresponded with his own, to call the attention of his readers to it in the columns of his paper. Thus early did the men of that frontier town inaugurate a movement which was destined to sweep and control the nation, and which did sweep the country, and change entirely the policy of the government."

Careful investigations in the city of Ripon more than confirm the opinion of the late Vice President of the United States-Mr. Wilson. Facts have been sought from original sources- from living witnesses-from documentary evidence-all bearing upon this interesting and impor- tant movement, and all prove beyond question that Alvan E. Bovay first suggested the form- ation and name of the political party of the United States known as the Republican party ; that

* Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, by Henry Wilson, Vol. II, pp. 409, 410.

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several of his neighbors whose names are hereafter given powerfully aided him in its first organ- ization in Ripon-cordially co-operating with him in the inauguration of the new party.

Says Maj. Bovay :

" I had been a Whig, but the Whig party was then dead. Its defunct condition was not generally realized, but it was dead nevertheless. It had been routed horse, foot and artillery in the fall of 1852. That battle was its Waterloo. No party could outlive such a terrible slaughter of its innocents as that was.

" True, up to the spring of 1854, it still held on to its organization. But it was a mere shell ; a skeleton army, nothing more.

" The leaders could not marshal their troops; could not anywhere bring their forces into line ; in short, the party was dead, though not dissolved. Moreover, the country no longer took any interest in the old Whig issues. The slavery question dominated everything else. Nobody talked or thought any longer about protection to American industry. It was slavery in the States, slavery in the Territories, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the refrain was ever slavery, and nothing else. There was one great, overshadowing, pro-slavery party-the Democratic ; there must also be one great anti-slavery party to antagonize it. The logic of history demanded it. Such a party had become inevitable. The Whig party was not this party, and could not be. It had outstayed its time and its usefulness ; it was an anachronism. It had become an obstruction, an impediment, a nuisance. But how to get the organization out of the way-that was a rather formidable question. It stood there a great, useless, lifeless thing, awaiting some possible political earthquake, which would be violent enough to shake it to pieces. And the earthquake came.

" The triumph of slavery had been so complete in the slaughter of 1852, that its cohorts thought themselves strong enough to do anything, so they laid their hands on the oldest and most sacred of the compromises. The shock was tremendous. Instantly the whole North was in a flame of indignation and rage. The hour had struck. This was the tempest that was to sweep from our sight not only the Whig organization, but also all those little fragments of parties, Free Soil and the like-that had grown out of the slavery agitation in years that were past. The time had come for all liberty-loving Whigs to dismantle their house. As for me, I did not propose to wait for the passage of the Nebraska Bill. It was fore-ordained to pass ; then why wait ? I felt "in my bones," as old Candace said, that the righteous rage of the time ought to be turned to some permanent account, and not permitted to effervesce in useless foam. I set to work in the most systematic way that I could contrive, to dissolve the Whig party, and to organ- ize the Republican party right here, fully convinced that others would do the like elsewhere, and, that in a few months we should have a great, irresistible Northern party, organized on the single issue of the ' non-extension of slavery.

" This is the point at which the late Vice President takes notice of our movement. His history is very brief, but substantially correct. Jehdiah Bowen was my chief helper ; a mer- chant of high standing, a man of intelligence, position and influence, his assistance was of the utmost importance. One part of the work was specially difficult. All the people, except the most hardened Democrats, responded to my appeals with the utmost avidity, up to a certain limit. They said, ' Oh, yes, oh, yes; we are with you in denouncing this thing. It is a great outrage ; it is a swindle ; we will protest ; we will resolve ; we will sign all the remonstrances you can think of.'

" But-and just here came the pinch-a good many of the old Whigs begged hard for the Whig party. ' Spare the party ; spare the party. Let all the outside elements come to us ; our party is good enough ; we will fight the Democracy on this ground; we will triumph.' The good souls; they had to be told squarely that the ' Whig party must go ;' that the very heart and core of our movement was that to which they could not agree. To let the Whig party stay was to insure permanent power to the Democratic party. To retreat from the formation of the new party was to surrender to the slave power. They came to the meetings, and were respect- fully heard, but the large majority had made up their minds. The hour was late, the candles

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burned low ; it was a cold, windy night at the vernal equinox. In the end, all but two or three gave in, and we formed our organization.

"I remember every word and act, as if the time was but yesterday. The election of that first Republican Committee-A. E. Bovay, Jehdiah Bowen, Amos Loper, Jacob Woodruff and Abraham Thomas-was a solemn act. Every man present fully believed that he was helping to make a permanent piece of history. And he was. Yes ; that point ought to be clearly under- stood. This was no blind, unconscious movement, of which the human family make so many. We did not build better than we knew, as some have supposed ; we built precisely as we knew : and there stands the edifice. Look at it. It will bear examination. It was no fragmentary movement. It contemplated the combination of all shades of anti-slavery sentiment in the country in one grand organization to resist the encroachments of slavery, under the name Republican.

" The name was as well settled in my mind as the organization, and I took what seemed to me the most effectual course to secure its general adoption. Republican ; the common weal ; an old and cherished name in our own political history, and the name which is owned, as theirs, by all liberal men and liberal organizations throughout the world. The adoption of this name was as much inevitable as was the nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In both of these cases, a wise choice meant success, and an unwise one meant defeat; no more, no less. That I was advocating this name for the great party which I saw looming in the near future above the horizon, as far back as the autumn of 1852, there is abundant evidence.

" Were Horace Greeley living, I could readily convince any one that I was contemplating this identical state of things in the political world, name, organization and all, as early even as May, 1852; but, as Mr. Greeley's testimony is not now attainable, and as I have but one living witness to this latter fact (which witness I do not choose to call), I must rest upon the autumn of 1852.

"And, perhaps, the autumn will do as well as the spring. That gives Ripon a precedence of nearly two years (or, to be exact, nineteen months) in the matter of the name; for it was not until June, 1854, that the name, ' Republican,' was adopted formally, and that was by the State Convention of Michigan."

" I take pleasure in referring to one of our oldest and most prominent citizens, Judge E. L. Runals, who took no part in the movement, but was cognizant of it all. This is his testimony :

· RIPON, December 16, 1879.

' Dear Sir : I remember well a conversation I had with you in the fall of 1852, not more than two or three weeks, I should think, after the election of Franklin Pierce to the Presidency, in relation to the political affairs of the country. You, in substance, said that the Whig party, to which you belonged, could not survive such an overwhelm- ing defeat as it had just suffered; that it could never rally again ; that it would have to abandon its organization and its name; that the country had ceased to care for the old Whig issues ; that slavery had become the all-absorbing question ; that on some phase of this question a new party would probably soon be formed at the North, which would combine Whigs, Free-Soilers, and all the outside elements against the Democracy, which was the great pillar and support of slavery ; that the selection of a name would be an object of the first importance to this new party : and that, in your opinion, it should be called the ' Republican' party. You also gave your reasons at considerable length for so thinking.

' You said that as this was the name by which the party of Jefferson had been called from its foundation up to Jackson's time, it would possess a charm, by reason of these old associations, for all Americans, and that it would be attractive to men of foreign birth by reason of its general use amongst the liberals of Europe-and much more to the same effect. Having known you in politics as a Whig, I was rather surprised at these predictions as coming from you, and it is probably owing to this fact that they made so firm an impression on my mind.

' Yours very truly,

' To MAJ. A. E. BOVAY, Ripon, Wis.

. E. L. RUNALS.'

On the 25th day of January, 1854, Jehdiah Bowen, then (as now) a citizen of Ripon-a Democrat with Free-Soil proclivitics-caused to be published in the Ripon Herald, a Demo- cratic paper, the following communication :

"MR. EDITOR :- Nothing indicates more clearly the truth of these words of Jefferson's- ' Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty'-than the course pursued in Congress by the com- mittee to which was referred the call from Nebraska for a Territorial Government.

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

" It is well known that the Territory is intended to be bounded on the south, at farthest, by the old Missouri Compromise line of 36° and 30' north latitude. It is a portion of that vast territory ceded to the United States by its treaty with France, by which the present State of Louisiana was secured to us. It is a portion of that territory which, by the Act known as the Missouri Compromise, was to be forever free from the introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crimes.

" Mark, then, the appropriateness of Jefferson's maxim, when we find that Senator Doug- las, as head of the above-mentioned Committee, reported a bill for a Territorial Government, in which is a clause prospectively annulling that clause of the Missouri Compromise act, men- tioned above, relating to slavery in that Territory. Douglas' bill provides that should any por- tion of the Territory, upon application to Congress for admission into the Union as a State, [have permitted involuntary servitude, it] shall not be rejected by reason of the establishment of slavery therein, by virtue of its constitution.

" One might think from the wailings and threats of the Southern press and politicians, and the echoes by their servile friends at the North, that peace was all that they demand for their pecu- liar institution : but it is not so ; not satisfied with the trinmph obtained over the North by the passage of the most odious law that encumbers the statute-books of any Christian nation, they now demand that they shall not only enjoy in peace their favorite slavery at home, and its fur- ther security under the Fugitive Slave Law, but that the whole country shall submit to the extension of slavery into territory, which, by right and solemn compact, has been consecrated to liberty.

" What do our great men do in view of this demand? Do they not indignantly frown upon such barefaced impudence ? Surely one might expect to learn, that at least the Representatives of States free from the incubus of slavery would protest against so glaring a wrong to our honor and to humanity. But what do we see? One of the highest in our national councils-the chief leader of the 'Young Democracy '-one who aspires to the chief magistracy of this great nation, bending, cringing, lieking the dust at the very feet of this Moloch !- groveling in the mire before it, to gather the withered laurels cast away from the nation's brow by reason of this insatiate monster. Is there no shame left. that a man pretending to represent a free State should thus so degrade his constituents and humanity itself ? 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.' It cannot be otherwise than that these men, pandering to the worst sins of a people to obtain an ephemeral fame, are delnded by their own depravity to their own rnin ; God forbid that it be the nation ! Can it be supposed that the cry of- Down with agitation and agitators !' will avail in the face of so gross an offense as is here offered to a people awaken- ing to the inconsistencies and oppression of slavery ?

" So long as Senator Douglas, or any other man, shall defend what, by compact and right, pertains to the Slave States, as snch, we would not refuse to him his just meed of honor; but when he stoops so low as to bend the knee to slavery and to discard the approbation of free men, let no lover of his country's honor fail to point the finger of scorn at him, and indignantly blot his name from the list of our country's friends."

This communication was published over the signature " X," but Mr. Bowen was not at all disposed to deny its paternity, notwithstanding his affiliation with the Democratic party : he was not averse to being classed among Anti-Nebraska Democrats. The editor of the Ripon Herald in his issue of February 1, in commenting upon Bowen's article, said : " We inserted in our last a communication over the signature of 'X,' upon the subject of Senator Douglas' Nebraska bill, passing severe strictures upon the Senate [Senator] and his bill. We should then have said that we were not prepared to indorse the grounds taken by ' X.' For ourselves, we will say that we measure much of our political creed by the doctrine of State rights."

What took place after the publication of Mr. Bowen's article is best related in his own words :

"A few days (perhaps a week) after the appearance of the article containing some strictures upon the course of Senator Douglas, in the Ripon Herald of January 25, 1854, I

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

was called upon by A. E. Bovay, who requested an interview, if I could spare the time, to talk over the subject of that article and what ought to be done in furtherance of its purposes.

"As Mr. Bovay had widely differed with me on some of the political questions that had been under discussion during the three years of our acquaintance, he expressed some surprise and gratification at the publication of the sentiment contained in the article by me, and yet, as I then thought, not without some doubt as to my earnestness. However, he soon became con- vinced on that point. We talked for some time upon the probabilities of the future, in view of the excitement caused by the advocacy by Senator Douglas of the Kansas and Nebraska act, for there seemed to be no adequate power to oppose his measures successfully, the Whig party being as much divided in Congress as the Democrats. We argued that the only hope of defeat- ing the extension of slavery, lay in the outspoken sentiment of the people, irrespective of exist- ing parties. Then came the proposition of Mr. Bovay, to endeavor to crystallize public feeling by calling a meeting to discuss the question of organizing a new party. I hesitated; my faith was not strong that we could effect the object. I represented the sparseness of our population ; we were in a small rural village, remote even from the county seat, and upon no great line of travel ; could we make ourselves heard by the public at large ? To this, Mr. Bovay replied, that there would be no question about it. The conclusion was that we should try it. Then followed the question of method of proceeding and the name by which to call the party-which Mr. Bovay suggested. Some estimates were attempted to be made as to what would be the relative proportion of the two parties who would give in their adherence to the new party. We agreed in the main, as to the classes of men that we had hopes of. We went to the house of Amos Loper, living some three miles north of the village, laid the matter before him in all its bearings, Mr. Bovay taking the lead in the conversation. Mr. Loper was not long in making up his mind. and we agreed to make a call for a meeting, to be held at the Congregational Church, on the last day of February.

"I cannot recall the exact language used by either of us. The subject occupied all our thoughts. We looked upon the movement as of considerable importance in a personal point of view, touching our relations with the citizens; for, to make a move and fail, would probably bring obloquy, and I was not prepared financially to court such a state of things; but, conclud- ing that we were in the line of duty, it was undertaken in a hopeful and cheerful spirit. We were afterward astonished at the progress made, and watched with intense interest the spread of the movement through all the Northern States."

The " call" spoken of by Mr. Bowen was drawn up and printed in the Ripon Herald on the 20th of February.

The Moderator of the meeting was William Dunham ; W. N. Martin was Secretary. The burden and drift of the speeches were, as Mr. Wilson truthfully says, "the hopeless subserv- iency of the national parties to the behests of the slaveholders, the necessity of abandoning them, and the proposed policy of constructing a party from the materials thus set at liberty. The following preamble and resolutions were freely discussed and unanimously adopted :

WHEREAS, The Senate of the United States is entertaining, and from present indications is likely to pass, bills organizing governments for the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which is embodied a clause repealing the Missouri Compromise act, and so admit into these Territories the slave system with all its evils; and, whereas, we deem that compact irrepealable as the Constitution itself: Therefore

Resolved, That of all outrages hitherto perpetrated or attempted upon the North and freedom by the slave- holders and their natural allies, not one compares in bold and impudent audacity, treachery and meanness with this, the Nebraska bill, as to the sum of all its other villanies it adds the repudiation of a solemn compact held as sacred as the Constitution itself for the period of thirty-four years ;

Resolved, That the Northern man who can aid and abet in the commission of so stupendous a crime, is none too good to become an accomplice in renewing the African slave trade, the service which, doubtless, will next be required of him by his Southern masters, should the Nebraska treason succeed ;

Resolved, That the attempt to overthrow the Missouri Compromise, whether successful or not, admonishes the North to adopt the maxim for all time to come, "No more compromise with slavery ;"

Resolved, That the passage of this bill (if pass it should) will be the call to arms of a great Northern party, such an one as the country has not hitherto seen, composed of Whigs, Democrats and Free-Soilers ; every man with a heart in him united under the single banner cry of " Repeal! Repeal !"

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HISTORY OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

Resolved, That the small but compact phalanx of true men, who oppose the mad scheme upon the broadest principle of humanity, as well as their unflinching efforts to uphold public faith, deserve not only our applause, but our profound esteem ;

Resolved, That the heroic attitude of Gen. Houston, amidst a host of degenerate men in the United States Sen- ate, is worthy of honor and applause.

Then and there was born the Republican party of the United States ; the time was the evening of the last day of February, 1854, the place, the frame Congregational Church, which is still standing in the city of Ripon.

On the 18th of March the following eall was printed in the Ripon Herald :

The Nebraska Bill .- A bill expressly intended to extend and strengthen the institution of slavery has passed the Senate by a very large majority, many Northern Senators voting for it, and many more sitting in their seats and not voting at all. It is evidently destined to pass the House and become a law unless its progress is arrested by the general uprising of the North against it.

Therefore we, the undersigned, believing this community to be nearly or quite unanimous in opposition to the nefarious scheme, would call a public meeting of citizens of all parties to be held at the schoolhouse in Ripon, on Monday evening. March 20, at 6:30 o'clock. to resolve, to petition, and to organize against it. Signed, J. Bowen, A. Loper, T. L. Reynolds, A. E. Bovay, and fifty others.

The fifty-four citizens-Whigs, Democrats and Free-Soilers-who signed the call, under- stood perfectly that, in so doing, they were pledging themselves to join the new party. It will be remembered that Mr. Wilson says of the meeting which followed, that "by formal vote, the town committees of the Whig and Free-Soil parties were dissolved, and a committee of five, consisting of three Whigs, one Free-Soiler and one Democrat, was chosen." A. E. Bovay, J. Bowen, Amos Loper, Abram Thomas and Jacob Woodruff constituted the committee. Then and there the Republican party of the United States was christened, and these men were its godfathers. "The actors in this remote little eddy of politics," afterward wrote Mr. Bovay, " thought at the time that they were making a bit of history by that solitary tallow candle, in the little white schoolhouse on the prairie; and whether ever recognized and published or not, they think so still."

OLD SETTLERS' CLUB OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY.

On the evening of the 12th of October, 1874, a meeting was held at the Patty House, in the city of Fond du Lac, temporary officers were appointed, and steps were taken for a perma- nent organization of the Old Settlers' Club of Fond du Lac County. On the 22d of June, 1875, at a meeting called for that purpose-there being present ahout sixty of the earliest settlers, with many of their ladies-a permanent organization was perfected by the Club, having for its object. as expressed in the preamble to their constitution, to perpetuate the history of the early settlers of the county of Fond du Lac, by collecting and preserving personal reminiscences thereof, and with a view to a renewed acquaintance with their fellow-pioneers. The date of eligibility was fixed at 1850. All who were present and eligible subscribed to the constitution and became members. Their wives were deelared by the by-laws to be honorary members. At the same time, steps were taken looking to a social pienie gathering, early in September following. At that meeting there were present three-Edward Beeson, Charles Olmsted and William Stewart-who settled in the county prior to 1840. There were nineteen in attendance who came between 1840 and 1845: L. F. Stowe, A. C. Whiting, William Galland, Thomas Worthing, Gilbert M. Lee, C. E. Woolridge, Peter V. Sang, David Lyons, Chauncey Griswold. C. P. Phelps, Joseph Stowe, D. D. Trelevan, Charles Clark. G. W. Carter, Elihu Colman, C. N. Kendall, J. Carter, Chas. Olmsted, J. C. Wedge, J. A. Watrous and Dr. Don A. Raymond.

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The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 77

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1082

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082