Against backdrops of massive rallies, endless red balloons, and more elephants than you can count, it is increasingly important to reflect on the origins of the Republican Party and what those earliest ideals mean in a complicated modern world. Though billed as the Grand Old Party, Republicans comprise the second oldest American political party still in mainstream power. Founded in 1854 as a reaction to the expansion of slavery in newly settled western territories, the very impetus for Republicanism rested on liberty. Just six years after its inception, Republicans sent their first President to Pennsylvania Avenue in Abraham Lincoln, making the party's initial White House foray dramatic, to say the least. Almost immediately after his election, tensions became insurmountable and our nascent country, less than one hundred years old, was launched into the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil.
Though initially concerning the preservation of the Union, the Civil War quickly became a referendum on slavery, with President Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. After the war's conclusion in 1865, a Republican congressional majority passed the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery in these United States for good. Ten years later, a Republican majority congress passed the most comprehensive civil rights bill to date in 1875, then signed into law by Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. Though it was struck down in 1883 by the Supreme Court, the 1875 Civil Rights Act formed the basis for later, more successful legislation aimed at equality for all Americans.
Just seven years following the 13th Amendment, another historic Republican accomplishment was underway in the writing and passage of the 19th Amendment. Though ultimately adopted in 1920, the legislation was drafted in 1872 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony, both Republicans, and introduced in the House by Senator Aaron Sargent, a Republican from California. Reintroduced to Congress in 1919 by Republican James Mann, lawmakers eventually passed the legislation with a basic split on party lines. When it went through in the Senate, 82% of Republicans voted for passage, with just 42% of Democrats joining their colleagues. So central were Republicans to early, seminal legislation in the United States that after the election of Abraham Lincoln, the party held the White House for 72 years, until the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
The first 80 years of the Republican Party are ripe with examples of Republicans taking leadership on, and blows to their defense of, equality for different races as well as for women. As it continued into the most recent century, the Grand Old Party found its bedrock in limited government, preserving individual rights, and protecting American families. Moving into a future perhaps as unknown as circumstances during our nation's founding, revisiting our fundamental principles as a party is crucial. With an eye toward the past, Republicans can spearhead a brighter future as we have done repeatedly throughout American history.
Does anything from the history of the early Republican Party surprise you? How do you feel this history is represented today?
Hilary Gunn is a Connecticut native with a degree in Criminal Justice from the George Washington University. She works for a nonprofit and has previously collaborated with the CT GOP as an activist, political campaign manager and field director, and social media organizer. She is currently serving in her fourth term of municipal office and has previously acted as a delegate on the Republican Town Committee.
Original source can be found here.
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