A History of the Republican Party

by George Washington Platt

This does not include the popular vote of South Carolina, where the electors were chosen by the Legislature.

[Illustration: Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861.]

The Slave Power lost no time in carrying into effect its threats of disunion. South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, and by the end of the year had seized the United States arsenals and other government property in the State, but Fort Sumter was not molested. By February, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had also withdrawn. Virginia did not secede until April 17th. On February 4th a Confederate Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama, and on February 9th Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, became President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, became Vice-President of the Confederate States of America.

The breaking up of the Union did not go on without some attempts at compromising the situation, but all such efforts failed. The House and the Senate appointed special committees, who were either unable to agree or whose conclusions were not adopted. On December 18th the Crittenden Compromise Measures were introduced, and after long debate were rejected March 2, 1861. Dramatic withdrawals from Congress were made by the Southern Senators and Representatives, and this enabled Kansas to be admitted, on January 29, 1861, as a free State.

Far from attempting to stop this breaking up of the Union, Buchanan's Administration did everything it could to aid it. Treason ran free in Washington; the Navy was scattered and rendered unavailable; the Army was demoralized, and thousands of stands of arms and other military equipment were removed from the Northern arsenals and sent South; and President Buchanan, through his Cabinet, announced the remarkable doctrine that any State could strike at the Union, appropriate the arms and property of the Government, and that nothing could be done to stop it. It was not treason for South Carolina to act as she did, but it would be treason to attempt to stop her course.

Such was the situation when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861; seven States were out of the Union, a Southern Confederacy had been established with an organized Government, and its President inaugurated; the Army and Navy were crippled, the Treasury drained, and treason and assassination threatened on all sides. From the east portico of the Capitol, with Senator Douglas standing behind holding Mr. Lincoln's hat, the President delivered his first Inaugural Speech. Calm, clear, wise and firm were the words. It concluded, "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angel of our nature."

The bombardment of Ft. Sumter, which began on the morning of April 12, 1861, was the event that unified both the North and the South, and henceforth the issue was to be decided solely by War. In the North, party lines were forgotten, and the President received promises of hearty support on all sides. On April 15th, the President declared the South to be in a state of rebellion, and called for 75,000 troops to recover the Government forts and property, and also called an extraordinary session of Congress, to meet on July 4th. This history is not directly concerned with the trying and bloody events of the Civil War. The tremendous strain on President Lincoln during this period perhaps will never be fully appreciated by the generations which follow it; it was all a horrible nightmare through which the country safely passed under the guidance of President Lincoln and the Republican Party.

On April 16, 1862, Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia, and on June 19th was forever prohibited in the Territories. On September 22d President Lincoln issued his preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, declaring all slaves forever free in territory which might still be in rebellion on January 1, 1863. This act, and what was believed to be the failure of the Administration in conducting the War, turned thousands of Democrats in the North away from the President, and in the Fall elections of 1862 large Democratic gains were made. Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey and Wisconsin went Democratic; New York elected a Democratic Governor, Horatio Seymour; but New England, the Border States and the Western States not mentioned, stood firm for the President, and the Administration was assured of a good working majority in the House.

Before passing to the presidential campaign of 1864, mention must be made of several great legislative acts of the Republican Party during the first few years of its control of the Government. The Morrill Protective Tariff Bill was made a law on March 2, 1861, and became the foundation of the Republican Tariff Bills of later years; the Legal Tender Act of February 25, 1862, was a great turning point in the financial history of the nation; the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, opened up the western country to actual settlers, and contributed greatly to the development of the West; the Internal Revenue Act of July 1, 1862, and a National Banking system, established by the Act of February 25, 1863, were most important, the latter removing the conflict between the national currency and the currency of the state banks, and marked the beginning of a sound and stable financial system, the importance of which, in the remarkable physical development of the country, cannot be too strongly asserted.

Although throughout 1863 a strong radical element in the Republican Party worked against the renomination of President Lincoln in 1864, on the ground of his alleged timidity in handling the question of the Civil War, this movement gradually dwindled in strength and had almost disappeared with the opening of the presidential year of 1864, when an election was to be held with a war in progress and the country divided. Throughout the winter of 1863 and 1864 Mr. Chase made active efforts to secure the presidential nomination, but the Ohio Legislature demanded Mr. Lincoln's renomination, and Mr. Chase had to withdraw. State Legislatures throughout the North now demanded the renomination of the President, and they were joined in their resolutions by large numbers of clubs and public meetings, and it was apparent to those in the party who were antagonistic to the President that no other candidate would have any chance. But the Copperhead element was still rampant, and the Democrats denounced the President in unmeasured terms, declaring the war to be a failure, and demanding peace.