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REPUBLICAN PARTY
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REPUBLICAN PARTY . Of the three important See also:American parties which have called themselves Republican,' this See also:article deals only with that one which was organized during the years 1854 to 1856 and has been in See also:control of the See also:government of the See also:United States during the larger portion of the See also:half See also:century since the presidential See also:election of 186o Origin and See also:Character.—Sectionalism, the See also:movement which tended to break the See also:Union into two See also:separate republics, one based on See also:free labour, the other on that of slaves, had gained before the See also:middle of the 19th century such headway as to compel a reconstruction of the party See also:system. The beginning of this reconstruction was heralded by the rise of the See also:Liberty party (q.v.), in 1840, its completion by the disruption in 186o of the Democratic party along sectional lines, and the election of See also:Abraham See also:Lincoln by a sectional See also:vote. The event which determined the date of the See also:birth of the Republican party was the See also:repeal by the See also:Kansas-See also:Nebraska See also:Bill of 1854 of that See also:provision of the See also:Compromise of 1820 which excluded See also:slavery from See also:national territory N. of the See also:geographical See also:line 36' 30' and theformal substitution in that bill of " squatter "for national See also:sovereignty, in deciding the question of slavery in the Territories. The enactment of this bill introduced a new and highly See also:critical See also:stage in the relations between See also:North and See also:South. Down to 185o the See also:differences of the two sections over slavery had always been arranged by mutual concessions. In 1854 this expedient was set aside. Without giving anything in return, See also:Douglas and his supporters took from the free-labour See also:section an invaluable barrier against the See also:extension of slavery: and through the See also:doctrine of " squatter sovereignty " denied to See also:Congress the See also:power to erect such barriers in the future. But this only hastened a crisis that could not have been greatly delayed. See also:Calhoun had already discerned the true source and deadly nature of the growing sectional estrangement, and Lincoln was soon to utter the prophetic words: " This government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free." The immediate result of the agitation over the repeal was to convince a large number—which soon became a See also:majority—of the best citizens of the North, irrespective of party, that the restriction of slavery was essential to the well-being both of the North and of the Union as a whole. In See also:order to give effect to this conviction it was necessary to See also:form a new party. The agitation which prepared the way for its rise began in Congress during the debates on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and spread thence throughout the North. The See also:West was more quickly responsive than the See also:East. But everywhere large elements of the existing parties came together and agreed to unite in resisting the extension of slavery. Before the discussion of the repeal in Congress had reached its later stages, a See also:mass See also:meeting of Whigs, Democrats and Free Soilers at See also:Ripon, See also:Wisconsin, resolved that if the Kansas-Nebraska Bill should pass: " They would throw old party organizations to the winds and organize a new party on the See also:sole issue of the non-extension of slavery." The name Republican was formally adopted at a See also:state See also:convention of the new party held at See also:Jackson, See also:Michigan, on the 6th of See also:July 1854, and by other Western state conventions on the 13th of the same See also:month.
The See also:great majority of the new party had been either Whigs or Democrats. In two See also:cardinal points they were agreed, namely, opposition to slavery and belief in the national, as opposed to the federative, nature of the Union. In other points there was at the beginning much disagreement. For-
' The party organized by See also: On the other See also:hand, the decision of the Supreme See also:Court in the See also:case of Dred See also:Scott, which the Re-publicans refused to accept as See also:good law, and the See also:raid of See also: These events forced upon the Republican party a See also:change of policy. Hitherto its efforts had been directed chiefly to excluding slavery from the Territories. Now the first duty was to See also:save the Union from disruption. In order to do this it was necessary to unite the North, and to bring to the support of the Union a large proportion of those border slave states, See also:Delaware, See also:Maryland, See also:Virginia, See also:Kentucky, See also:Tennessee and See also:Missouri, in which there was considerable Union sentiment. Hence the party laid aside completely the earlier issue of slavery restriction and accepted as the sole issue of the See also:hour the See also:maintenance of the Union. Indeed, in order to secure more easily the co-operation of loyal Democrats, it even gave up its own name for a See also:time and called itself the Union party. During the See also:early period of the war the President checked all efforts on the See also:part of zealous subordinates, See also:civil and military, to make the war for the Union even incidentally a war upon slavery. In his efforts to unionize the border states Mr Lincoln in March 1862 urged that Congress should co-operate with any state in providing for a voluntary, See also:gradual and compensated emancipation. Congress acceded, but not one of the border states would undertake emancipation. Many of the Republican leaders rejected the border state policy of the President and urged a more See also:radical course towards slavery. In replying to Horace Greeley, who voiced the discontent in a public See also:letter, to which he gave the See also:title, The See also:Prayer of Twenty Millions of People, Mr Lincoln in See also:August 1862 wrote: " My See also:paramount See also:object is to save the Union and not either to save or destroy slavery." But as See also:evidence accumulated that slavery was a strong military support of the Confederacy the policy of destroying slavery as a means of saving the Union See also:grew in favour. To this policy Mr Lincoln on the 22nd of See also:September 1862 committed himself, the Republican party and the cause of the Union. The first response was distinctly unfavourable. The immediate effect was " to unite the South and See also:divide the North." A considerable See also:element of the Democratic party became disloyal, while the party as a whole opposed all See also:measures looking to the destruction of slavery. The autumn elections greatly reduced the Republican majority in Congress. But the new policy steadily gained ground until the Republican party in its third national convention, which met on the 7th of See also:June 1864, resolved: " that as slavery was the cause and now constitutes the strength of this See also:rebellion, See also:justice and national safety demand its utter and See also:complete extirpation from the See also:soil of the See also:republic." In the following See also:year slavery was finally abolished by the Thirteenth See also:Amendment. On the Republican party, since it had an effective majority in each See also:house of Congress, rests the responsibility for the legislation of the war period. The theory of loose construction of the Constitution was accepted. Throughout the Civil War, Congress, proceeding upon this theory, made prompt provision for the prosecution of the war. It passed Legal See also:Tender Acts; it established a system of national See also:banks; greatly raised the tariff rates; and in order to hasten the See also:settlement of the Far West and to make that section an integral part of the Union, it passed a Homestead Act and an act providing for a railway to the Pacific. For a time, while disloyalty was most rife in the North, there was a See also:sharp curtailment of the rights of the individual See also:citizen through the suspension, initiated by the President and approved by Congress, of the See also:writ of Habeas Corpus. Most of the acts, which their opponents held to be violations of the Constitution, were in See also:general acts of question-able utility. The results of the war, which came to a close early in 1865, vindicated in a See also:signal way the principles, policies and leadership of the Republican party. It had saved the Union; it had established the national character of the Union so firmly as to bring to an end the doctrine of the right of See also:secession; and it had destroyed slavery. The party had been singularly fortunate in its founders and leaders. Of these three were pre-eminent: Horace Greeley, See also: The See also:strain of a prolonged and exhausting war, the upheaval of emancipation, and the utter collapse of the Confederate government, had thrown the elements of social, economic and civil See also:life in the South into almost hopeless disorder. To restore these to normal relations and working was but part of the task; the other and more important part was to apply those methods of reconstruction which would tend to make one nation out of hitherto discordant sections. In his third annual message, Dec. 8th, 1863, Lincoln brought forward the so-called presidential See also:plan of reconstruction. This was rejected on the ground that reconstruction was a Congressional rather than an executive See also:function; and on the 4th of July 1864 Congress passed a bill making Congress instead of the president the See also:chief See also:agent in the See also:work of reconstruction. President See also: The tendency thus established would be strengthened to a dangerous degree, it was thought, if the President were to take the leading part in reconstructing as well as in saving the Union. There now took See also:place within the party a change of great importance. Hitherto the conservatives, represented by such leaders as Lincoln and Seward, had always won in struggles with the radical elements; but now the See also:tide changed, and the radicals who were more narrowly national and more strongly See also:partisan gained control, and ruled the party to the end of the period. This revolution within the Republican party between the years 1865 and 1867 was fostered by a marked recrudescence of sectional feeling in the North, and by the character of the successor of President Lincoln and of the party leaders in Congress. President Johnson while eminently patriotic and courageous, was tactless and imprudent to the last degree. Mr Sumner, the See also:leader of the Senate, was not conciliatory in manner, and while incapable of revengeful feeling seemed more considerate of the freedman than of the See also:Southern See also: As the quarrel See also:developed Congress ignored the recommendations of the President, repassed by the requisite majority and without due consideration of his objections each measure that he vetoed, took from him the power to remove subordinates which had been exercised by his predecessors, deprived him of his constitutional rights as See also:commander-in-chief of the See also:army, and finally in 1868 undertook to drive him from office by See also:impeachment.
In 1867 Congress, under the control of the radical wing of the Republican party, set aside nearly all reconstructive work that had been accomplished previously and put into See also:execution a plan of its own, under which the Southern States were reconstructed anew and admitted to See also:representation in Congress between the years 1867 and 1870. Inevitable consequences of the Congressional plan of reconstruction were: first, the erection of state governments that were inefficient, corrupt, ruinously wasteful and shamefully oppressive; second, the extreme demoralization of the freedmen suddenly transformed from slaves into rulers of their former masters; third, the demoralization, in many cases also extreme, of the great See also:body of the Southern whites by the expedients to which they resorted in order to See also:escape from the See also:rule of the freedman, led by the " See also:Carpet Bagger " his See also:Northern, and the " Scalawag " his Southern, white ally; See also:fourth, the See also:alienation of the white and coloured races in the South,--an alienation which was to each a source of immeasurable evils; fifth, the speedy overthrow on the withdrawal of military support of the governments set up under the Congressional plan, and the creation of a South " solid " in resentful opposition to the North and the Republican party. And See also:sixth, as the out-come of all these results, an unfortunate delay in reuniting North and South. The Republican party suffered during this period a moral decline, seen in the frequent efforts to gain party advantage by kindling anew the earlier sectional animosities, a growing arrogance, the increasing weight of the partisan and spoilsman in party management, and the widespread corruption that came to See also:light in the " scandals " of the second administration of General See also: The reconstruction policy of the party had alienated many Northern supporters and had made the South solidly Democratic. The prevalence of the spoils system and the scandals of the second administration of General Grant had hurt the prestige of the party as a See also:guardian of public morals and of the national See also:honour. What gave the Republicans a fighting See also:chance were: its See also:record down to the close of the Civil War; its proven aptitude for the tasks of government; and the growth among the people of a more vital national feeling which turned instinctively to the party that had saved the nation. Despite these substantialadvantages over their Democratic rivals the Republicans lost the presidential elections of 1884 and 1892, and the entire Democratic party—some Republicans agreeing—has always held that a just decision of the contested election of 1876 would have seated See also:Samuel J. See also:Tilden, the Democratic candidate, instead of Mr Hayes. In the Senate the Republicans were in a majority during fourteen years. In the House, whose members are chosen by popular vote, these figures were reversed, the Democrats having control during fourteen years. In each of five successive presidential elections, those of 1876, 1880, 1884, 1888 and 1892, the Democratic popular vote was larger than the Republican. Marked features of the party situation were the apparent similarity for a time of the principles of the two great parties, the influence on their policy exerted by the stronger See also:minor parties, and the rise of the Mugwumps (not strictly a party), who claimed the right to vote for the best candidate independently of party and were in the See also:main of Republican origin. Of the issues of the period one, the reform of the civil service, was served by both of the great parties with imperfect fidelity. Each of the Republican presidents, Hayes, See also:Garfield, See also:Arthur and See also:Harrison gave it efficient and steadfast support; and so did See also:Cleveland, the Democratic president, although under stronger pressure from party See also:hunger. The same was true in the case of the more important questions of See also:foreign policy and, to a degree in its early stage, of the question of See also:silver coinage. It was not so with the treatment of the South. President Hayes withdrew the national troops from S. Carolina and See also:Louisiana and thus brought to an end Federal military interference with state governments. For this course a considerable section of the Republican party gave him thereafter a support which was half-hearted and inconstant. Further disaffection resulted from efforts to reform the civil service of New See also:York which brought the President into conflict with the powerful Republican party See also:machine in that state). The high character of the President and his See also:firm, wise and upright course raised the reputation of the party. His See also:veto of the Silver Bill and the resumption of specie payments tended to the same result. The failure in 1889 of the third See also:term movement for General Grant worked for the See also:health of the party. The struggle of President Garfield with New York spoilsmen and his assassination by a disappointed office-seeker, gave a fresh impetus to the movement for the reform of the civil service. President Arthur maintained the high See also:standard established by Presidents Hayes and Garfield. In the election of 1884 the old parties were competitors for the confidence of the conservative and reforming elements of the See also:country. Mr See also:Blaine, the Republican candidate, who in brilliancy, popularity, patriotism, and disappointing personal fortunes recalled the Whig leader, Henry See also:Clay, lost the election by a narrow margin because, while meeting the requirements of the conservatives, he had lost in a measure the confidence of the reformers. In the election of 1888 Mr Cleveland, by making tariff reform the issue, turned the manufacturing interests to the support of Mr Harrison, the candidate of the Republicans, who thereby won the election. Mr Harrison, while not personally popular, maintained the best traditions of his Republican predecessors. The highly protective McKinley tariff, framed in obedience to the people's See also:mandate in 1888, proved somewhat disappointing, and in the election of 1892, Mr Cleveland, as the See also:champion of See also:lower tariff rates, was successful for the second time. Mr Cleveland, at the beginning of his second term, secured the repeal of the act for the See also:purchase of silver, and thus strengthened himself with the conservatives of both parties. Democratic defection in the Senate nullified largely the downward revision of the tariff urged by the President and supported by the House. The election of 1896 marked the close of the period of party In the course of this conflict, which continued to disturb the See also:harmony of the Republican party until the See also:death of President Garfield, the term " Stalwarts " was used to designate the supporters of Senator See also:Conkling, who was in control of the Republican machine in New York state, and the term " Half-Breeds " to designate the supporters of the administration, readjustment. The leading issue was the free coinage of silver under conditions which would have made the monetary standard silver instead of See also:gold, and would have lowered its value. The Democratic convention repudiated Mr Cleveland, accepted free coinage, and nominated W. J. See also:Bryan. The Republicans, at the cost of a formidable party defection, endorsed the gold standard and a highly protective tariff, and nominated William McKinley, whose record and character made him an exceptionally strong candidate. In doing this the Democratic organization became the party of radicalism, the Republican, the party of conservatism. The committal of the Republican party to the maintenance of the gold standard far more than its continued support of high See also:protection, established its position in the reconstructed party system. In doing this it allied its fortunes with those of all the See also:property-holding classes of the country, while retaining in a high degree the confidence of the wage-earners. Period 1897-191o.-During this period there was first a rapid recovery from economic depression, and then ten years of almost unexampled prosperity, followed by two years of moderate depression. But the period is chiefly memorable for the war of 1898 with Spain; for the oversea territorial expansion that followed; for the rise of the so-called policy of imperialism; for the See also:assumption of a far more prominent See also:international role; for wide-reaching measures of See also:internal reform; and, lastly, for the establishment of the policy of conserving the natural resources of the nation. Throughout this period the Republican party had undis- puted control of the national government. One of the earliest acts in the administration of Mr McKinley was the enactment in 1897 of the highly protective Dingley Tariff. The provision for See also:Reciprocity proved at first of little use. But the need of foreign markets for the rapidly growing output of manufactured products, the rising demand that the interests of the See also:home consumer, as well as those of the producer, should be considered, and the conviction that high protection fostered monopolies, brought about a change of sentiment in the party. Mr McKinley, in his last speech, made at the See also:Buffalo Exposition on the 5th of September 1901, gave See also:voice to this change: " The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our See also:trade and See also:commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial See also:wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent See also:reprisals. Reciprocity See also:treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times. Measures of See also:retaliation are not." These views gained headway against the strenuous opposition of the "stand-patters,"I until revision of the tariff down-ward was demanded in the platform of 1908, and achieved to a moderate degree in the Tariff Act of 1909. The party has also fulfilled its promise to establish the gold monetary standard on a firm basis. During the .war with Spain and in meeting the new problems of colonial See also:empire, the Republican party has again justified its reputation for efficiency. Not less noteworthy has been the policy of the party initiated and urged by President See also:Theodore See also:Roosevelt and developed by President W. H. See also:Taft for the regulation of See also:railways and all corporations and See also:trusts engaged in interstate business. The latest important event in the history of the Republican party is the rise of the " Insurgents," a See also:group of senators and congressmen whose professed aims are to resist centralization in both party and national government, to lessen the influence of the See also:money power over public policy, to regulate tariff schedules largely in the interest of the consumer, and in brief to emphasize anew the subordination of party and government to the will and service of the people. 1 Those members of the Republican party who would maintain as far as possible the high protective duties of the Dingley Tariff. Years of Congress (2 vols., See also:Norwich, See also:Conn., 1884-1886); Horace Greeley, The American Conflict (2 vols., See also:Hartford, 1864-66); J. G. See also:Nicolay and John See also:Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History (to vols., New York, 1890); J. T. See also:Morse, Life of Lincoln (2 vols., See also:Boston, 1893) ; F. See also:Bancroft, Life of W. H. Seward (New York, 1900) ; H. E, Von Holst, Political and Constitutional History of the United States (See also:Chicago, 1899) ; and E. Stanwood, History of the Presidency (Boston, 1898). (A. D. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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