Standing on the stump.

pigrace

Oh, it is history night.  For lack of a better idea.  Blame it on recent sleep deprivation, and an overdose of politics on TV.

So here we go.  Guess what happened on this day?   Well…. in 1854…. the Republican Party  was formally organized at Ripon, Wisconsin.

Most people don’t know the origins of the Republican Party, up there in the Badger State of Wisconsin.

It all started…. when some former members of the Whig Party wanted to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories.

Now…  to backtrack.  The folks in  the Whig Party got their group established in 1834 to oppose the “tyranny” of President Andrew Jackson.  Old Andy.

But the Whigs weren’t so capable of coping with the national crisis over slavery.

A few more events led to the Whigs coming undone.  They, as a party….disintegrated.  They weren’t necessarily Bad Whigs…  just too broke to pay.  Get it.  Whigs.  To pay.  Toupee.  (Sorry).

To get back to it…. in 1854, the anti-slavery Whigs started meeting… and talking….. about coming up with a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party.

The Republicans rapidly gained supporters in the North, and in 1856 their first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states.

The next guy up was Lincoln, and the rest, as they say… is history.

I like to think about history… and about the people involved. I wonder what they were like.  How they worked.  How they spoke.  How they conducted themselves in general.

I mean, to oppose slavery and the oppression of others is a pretty formidable beginning.   Pretty noble.

They could have just built a big wall, or opposed anyone who was different than they were.  But instead, they saw an injustice against humanity, and acted in a cohesive, caring, and responsible manner.

I wonder what those guys would say today about the current Republican Party?  About the antics?  The dialogue.  I simply wonder….

You know…. when people say… “those were the good old days?”   I think I understand… in this particular example.

 

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“In the end you should always do the right thing even if it’s hard.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations