History of the GOP
More commonly called the Republican Party, the Grand Old Party (GOP) began in the 1850s as part of the anti-slavery movement. The Republican Party is one of the two parties that make up the present-day bipartisan political system in the United States. Currently considered the more conservative of the two main parties, originally the GOP was a party of liberal activists.
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Catalysts
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According to the Oregon Republican Party website, the GOP began early in the 1850s. Anti-slavery activists and those believing government should grant Western lands free of charge to settlers, joined political forces. The original slogan of the party was "free soil, free labor, free speech, free men," reports the GOP. Critics, however, claimed that the GOP was not anti-slavery because of morality, but rather opposed extending slavery to new territories for economic and political reasons.
Birth of the GOP
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Ripon, Wisconsin, a small town northwest of Milwaukee, was the first informal meeting place of the Republican Party. The first official meeting was July 6, 1854 in Jackson Michigan. More than 10,000 people turned up for a meeting "Under the Oaks." The GOP adopted its platform and nominated candidates for office in Michigan.
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Advancement
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In 1854, the Republicans took Michigan, but the short-lived American (or "Know-Nothing") Party dominated the elections. The Republicans controlled the majority in the Michigan House of Representatives by 1855. The party's first nomination convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, opened June 17, 1856, creating the Republican Party as a unified political power.
Power
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In 1856, the Republicans nominated John C. Fremont for president with the slogan "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont." Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president in 1860. The GOP held the White House for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Accomplishments
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During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves. Republican-controlled Congresses passed the 13th and 14th amendments that outlawed slavery and secured voting rights for African-Americans.
Republicans favored women's suffrage. Its 1916 platform declared "The Republican party...favors the extension of the suffrage to women, but recognizes the right of each state to settle this question for itself." The 19th Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote resulted from 26 of the 36 legislatures that ratified the amendment were Republican-controlled.
Name and Mascot
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The party chose the name "Republican" because it reminded people of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. History credits newspaper magnate Horace Greeley with the party's name when he printed it in a New York paper in June 1854. Although commonly thought to mean Grand Old Party, the original meaning of GOP (in 1875) was "Gallant Old Party." The party adopted the elephant mascot in 1874 after its appearance in a political cartoon by Thomas Nast.
Beliefs
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The GOP website states the party's founding beliefs were "Abolition. Free speech. Women's suffrage" as were "reducing the size of government, streamlining bureaucracy and returning power to individual states." Republicans profess "a core belief in the primacy of individuals," and the party "has been at the forefront of the fight for individuals' rights in opposition to a large, intrusive government."
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References
- Photo Credit Lincoln Memorial image by dwight9592 from Fotolia.com
