Florida Statistics & Ohio Strife/The rival dates claiming the Republican Founding

[Guest guest]

Thanks Dark*Star for the earlier date and comment on its significance. Your

chosen date may be right but there's certainly a short-list of candidates

claiming the title, see the attached piece herebelow on New York's rival claim.

 

My unscientific choice of July 6, 1854 was based on the first time formal

adoption in convention of the party name as well as the national scope of one of

the resolutions of that day's convention, which stipulated naming the " national

party " and calling for a national convention. As the attached statement

herebelow indicates, pursuant to the July 6th resolution a first meeting of the

Republican National Committee was convened on February 22nd, 1856 in Pittsburg,

PA which led to scheduling the first National Convention on June 17th, 1856 @

Philadelphia, PA when John Freemont was nominated for the Presidency.

 

 

 

 

 

BIRTH OF G.O.P. TO BE CELEBRATED

 

Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Organization of

 

Party to be Held at Friendship Next Thursday.

 

Seventy-five years ago, the 16th of May, 1854, the Republican Party was

born in Friendship, Allegany county, New York. A celebration will be held in

Friendship Thursday afternoon of next week the 16th, commemorating that historic

event. State and county Republican Committees are giving their support and the

citizens of Friendship, irrespective of their political affiliations, are

working hard to make it a memorable occasion. The local Chamber of Commerce is

sponsoring the celebration.

 

It is Friendship’s claim that the first actual organization of the party

and the adoption of the name “Republican” was in Friendship on May 16, 1854.

The Friendship Convention, as it has since been called, was the result of two

years of effort by A. N. Cole, “Father of the Republican Party,” editor of the

Genesee Valley Free Press, the “Pioneer Republican Journal of America.” Mr.

Cole presided over the convention and proposed the name “Republican” which had

been suggested to him by Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune.

 

Friendship claims have been disputed by several other places but the

contest appears to have been given up by all except two, Ripon, Wisconsin and

Jackson, Michigan. Both of these places have announced celebrations for this

summer. Ripon in June and Jackson in July. Ripon bases its claim on the fact

that as early as February in 1854, a meeting was held in that town at which it

appears that a new party was discussed. But it has not been clearly established

that a party was actually organized and named there until much later in the

year. At least, that is Friendship’s contention.

 

Jackson’s claim is based on the fact that a convention was held there in

July at which candidates were nominated, this, they contend, constituted the

actual birth of the party. The national party organization has not attempted to

pass judgment upon any of the rival claims.

 

The Friendship convention was held in the Baptist church, a building

which is still standing and is now known as the G. A. R. Hall. It will be the

center around which the celebration next week will be held. The ceremonies will

begin about 2 o’clock.

 

------

 

G. O. P. HONORS CRADLE OF PARTY

 

Little Church Claiming to Have Been Scene of

 

Meeting 75 Years Ago Gets Much Homage.

 

Friendship, N. Y. – The seventy-fifth anniversary of New York’s part in the

founding of the Republican Party has just been celebrated here with exercises

attended by several thousand persons, including prominent members of the

national and state organizations.

 

The small Baptist church now the Grand Army of the Republic hall - in which

a group of prominent members of the community, headed by A. N. Cole, met on May

16, 1854 to discuss the political situation, was not large enough to accommodate

the gathering and the ceremonies were held in the auditorium of the Friendship

High School.

 

It was just about dusk on that May evening 75 years ago when Mr. Cole,

editor of the Genesee Valley Free Press and a friend Horace Greeley, arrived at

the meeting place to find it unlighted and vacant. Disappointed, he was about

to return home when a few of the men who had been invited to the meeting

arrived.

 

The meeting was held; the Republican Party organized, and a committee

appointed to arrange for a nominating convention. The committee comprised of

Mr. Cole, Charles M. Allen, Robert Shaw, E. B. Benjamin and Joseph D. Shuart.

 

 

 

Horace Greeley’s Letter

 

Mr. Cole was an ardent Free Soiler, but he entertained vigorous views about

the formation of a new part. Following the repeal of the Missouri compromise,

Mr. Cole’s newspaper advocated the function of all anti-Nebraska elements, and

expressed most pronounced views. He has frequently been known as “the father of

the Republican Party,” and always asserted that he was instrumental in naming

it.

 

“Horace Greeley named the party in a letter to myself in 1854, some time in

the month of April,” he said in a letter to a New York editor 30 years later.

“Call it Republican, no prefix, no suffix, but plain Republican.” Mr. Greeley

was reported to have written Mr. Cole in the letter.

 

While the Friendship meeting marked the inception of the Republican Party

in New York State, its claim to having been the national birthplace of the party

is disputed by towns in several other states. Chief among these are Ripon,

Wis., and Jackson, Mich. In Ripon there is a small schoolhouse bearing a plaque

which sets forth that the Republican Party was first organized there at a

meeting on March 20, 1854.

 

The meeting at Jackson was held in July, and seems to have been the

inspiration for the first national convention. Pursuant to a resolution adopted

there, a call was sent out from Washington for a meeting of a general committee

to be held at Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856. The committee summoned the first

national convention, which met at Philadelphia on June 17, 1856, and nominated

John C. Fremont for president and William L. Dayton for vice president.

 

 

 

Historical Floats

 

The Friendship ceremonies started with a parade which included floats of

Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley, Mr. Cole and the Republican elephant.

 

Following a program of patriotic music and an address of welcome by E. A.

Mapes, master of ceremonies; Assemblyman H. E. V. Porter (R.) of Jamestown,

presented documentary evidence of the founding of the party. Harry E. Hull of

Washington, Commissioner - General of Immigration, made the chief address. He

described the early aims and purposes of the party, which was later headed by

Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and brought about the abolition of slavery.

 

President Hoover was honorary chairman of the ceremonies.

 

 

 

to: INTERESTING STORIES

 

Dark Star <pansophia wrote:

 

For the GOP there is also the earlier:

 

Feb 28, 1854

8 pm LMT

Ripon, Wisc.

 

The Moon and Horizon of which could be said to seize upon John

Kerry's (8:03 am) MC-Neptune in a stranglehold this year.

It's SSR angular Saturn squares the same points.

 

Dark*Star

_____

 

JOHN TWB wrote:

 

> and the Republicans on July 6, 1854 @ Jackson, Michigan, a Thursday

mid-afternoon, at which the national party's stile was there first adopted as

well .....

 

 

 

 

" How can Pluto be in Sagittarius when it's so close to Antares? " -----

 

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