Ripon College - Crimson Yearbook (Ripon, WI)

Page 14 text:

A ve fi , Q, ' A B!RTHP,L,Di'QE' s e s A or glee H . A g g ., T REPUBLKCAN ,PARTY ln thus 5Chi90l,wHo55es,e,.s 5 New 20'hf854iWa5 5 i hew . 'fhefxrit A ' -n ws fo ' asf. ffl may andgssii1,iveey le sc ut loose f!'50B'h, 1 and Qfwsscafed QRNGW g , . 1- KN'- :A 2-2 : I A12VfQ-Q: a-4:f -ifif V '2 '1 S2'4i - i A'Q,. A , , gems, , f Q ,, a j The two score and thirteen men adopted the resolution and the committees pref ' ' ll d' lved. A viously appointed by the Free Soil Democratic and Whig parties were a isso new committee which was perhaps the first Republican committee of its kind in histor , was appointed to function in the capacity of an organization committee. It Y consisted of Amos Loper, A. Thomas, J. Woodruff and Bowen. called the first lt is because of these events that Alan Earle Bovay may be justly man to give the Republican party its name. Mr. Bovay helped raise a regiment of Ripon volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil war. He became its major. There is no other day on record as early as March 20, 185 4, where a Republican h t meeting was held, so Ripon can be justly referred to as the birthplace of t e par y. In june of 1854, several months later, a similar meeting was held in Jackson, Mich. In Pittsburgh, in 1856, a Republican party meeting was held to which state delegates were sent, but the Ripon meeting was first expression of this antifslavery movement and to be truly called the Birthplace of the Republican party. ' Ten' E l 1 1 li i Q el! X

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The little .S'C1l00lll0ll.S'8D in fwlzielz tlze first Republican meeting was lzeld March 20, 1854 read in practically every home in the United States and had the largest and widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, the editorial suggested by Bovay made brighter the antifslavery flame which had long before been kindled in the North. The very fact that the New York editor accepted his suggestion must have given satisfaction to Bovay and must have stimulated ,him to action, for during' the latter part of February, the same month Greeley printed the editorial advocating a new party name, Bovay called a meeting of antifslavery men. This first rally was held in 'the Congregational church at Ripon. A handful of men of the same opinion as Bovay attended the first meeting. Several weeks later on March 20, 185 4, a mass meeting was held and it was at this time the name Republican was adopted. Of the three or four score eligible voters living in the vicinity of Ripon, Bovay and his handful of sympathizers were able to secure the presence of iiftyfthree in the Little Schoolhousef' Democrats, Free Soilers and Whigs were all assembled in the little building. It was at this time that Alan Bovay, the lawyer from New York, offered his resolution in opposition to slavery, and it was on this day of March 20, 1854, that Alan Bovay's suggestion was made to the extent that a new party be organized to be called Republican References: New York Herald-Tribune . April 28, 1929. The New Americanized En- cyclopedia Britanican vol. 14, page 2535. Nine

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