III.

THE FIRST REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

A Quick Response to a Rousing Call-The Great Convention "Under the Oaks" at Jackson-An Immense Gathering of Strong and Representative Men-A Series of Patriotic and Stirring Resolu tions-Business Transacted by Democratic Methods-A Body Harmonious in Purpose and Results-The Most Noted Gathering Ever Held in the State-Men Who Afterwards Became Prominent in National Affairs-How the Party Received Its Name-The Last of Michigan Whig Conventions-Course of the Prohibitionists— The Democratic Nominations-The New Party Conducts a Short and Winning Campaign.

The gathering which was to take its place in history as the first Republican Convention in the country, was called to order at Bronson's Hall, Jackson. Judge Levi Baxter, of Hillsdale, was made temporary Chairman, and a Committee of two from each Congressional District was appointed to select permanent officers of the Convention. The crowd and the enthusiasm were much greater than the most sanguine had anticipated, and the hall was not large enough to contain either. It would hold about 600 and there were between 4,000 and 5,000 who wanted to get in. Adjournment was had to an oak grove on the edge of the then small city, at a point that now covers the corner of Washington and First streets. It was this beautiful grove that was for long afterwards celebrated as the birthplace of the Republican party, and participation in the Convention "Under the Oaks," was a token of honor to those attending it, especially to those, who, twenty-six years later, were delegates to a Republican State Nominating Convention in the same city. The attendance of men from other parts of the State was large, and as the procession took its course to the grove, it drew after it half the people of the town. As stated in a contemporaneous report: "The scene at the grove was most animating. The excellent brass band of Jackson was present,

and greatly enlivened the occasion by its music. A high enthusiasm pervaded the entire assembly, and there was every prospect of the harmony and good feeling that have so abundantly prevailed."

As this was not delegate Convention there was no occasion for a Committee on Credentials. As it was the first of its kind, there were no rules and no precedents to govern its order of business or course of action. It contained some incongruous elements, and it was so large as to be unwieldy, yet so great was the desire of its mem bers for a genuine concert of action, that it reached conclusions in

harmony and transact

ed its business in order.

The first occasion for any concession to the desire for harmony came in the Committee on Permanent Organization. Some of the Free Soil members of the Committee desired that Isaac P. Christiancy, their last candidate for Governor, should be permanent Chairman. But it was argued that the temporary Chairman was a Free Soiler, that sentiment against dropping old party names and adopting a new one was stronger among the Whigs than among Free Soilers, and that every appearance of crowding the latter party to the front should be avoided. The choice, therefore, fell upon David S. Walbridge, of Kalamazoo, a zealous Whig, whose selection, it was thought, would have some influence in inducing reluctant Whigs to acquiesce in the union. Twelve VicePresidents were chosen, taken impartially from the different parties. Of the seven Secretaries, three, J. F. Conover, A. B. Turner and G. A. Fitch, were among the editors who had aided in the movement.

DAVID S. WALBRIDGE.

The next action was the appointment of a Committee on Resolu

tions, and in accordance with the thoroughly democratic character of the meeting this Committee was named by the electors of the several Congressional Districts, four from each District, making sixteen in all. It included a number of strong men of very positive views, and it was deemed quite certain that if they could agree upon a platform the Convention would accept it. They adjourned to the edge of the oak opening, at what is now the corner of Second and Franklin streets, and here half a dozen different platforms came out of the pockets of members of the Committee. One by Austin Blair was fiercely radical. One set was forwarded by Horace Greeley, from New York. Others were by Isaac P. Christiancy, Jabez Fox and Jacob M. Howard, the latter of whom was Chairman of the Committee. His resolutions had been very carefully prepared, after consultation with leading members of both parties. They were accepted by the Committee, with some modifications suggested by the platforms drawn by Mr. Christiancy and Mr. Fox. They were considered by Mr. Blair to be too tame, and in the Convention, he made a minority report covering his own resolutions. This was, however, tabled, and Mr. Howard's report was almost unanimously adopted. It was as follows:

The freemen of Michigan assembled in convention in pursuance of a spontaneous call, emanating from various parts of the State, to consider upon the measures which duty demands of us, as citizens of a free state to take, in reference to the late Acts of Congress on the subject of slavery and its anticipated further extension, do

RESOLVE, That the institution of slavery, except in punishment of crime, is a great moral, social and political evil; that it was so regarded by the fathers of the Republic, the founders and best friends of the Union, by the heroes and sages of the Revolution who contemplated and intended its gradual and peaceful extinction as an element hostile to the liberties for which they toiled; that its history in the United States, the experience of men best acquainted with its workings, the dispassionate confession of those who are interested in it; its tendency to relax the vigor of industry and enterprise inherited in the white man; the very surface of the earth where it subsists; the vices and immoralities which are its natural growth; the stringent police, often wanting in humanity and speaking to the sentiments of every generous heart, which it demands; the danger it has already wrought and the future danger which it portends to the security of the Union and our Constitutional liberties—all incontestably prove it to be such evil. Surely that institution is not to be strengthened and encouraged against which Washington, the calmest and wisest of our Nation, bore unequivocal testimony; as to which Jefferson, filled with a love of liberty, exclaimed: "Can the liberties of a Nation be ever

thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are the GIFT OF GOD? that they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; that, considering numbers, nature and national means, only a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference. The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest.” And as to which another eminent patriot in Virginia, on the close of the Revolution, also exclaimed: "Had we turned our eyes inwardly when we supplicated the Father of Mercies to aid the injured and oppressed, when we invoked the Author of Righteousness to attest the purity of our motives and the justice of our cause, and implored the God of battles to aid our exertion in its defense, should we not have stood more selfconvicted than the contrite publican?" We believe these sentiments to be as true now as they were then.

RESOLVED, That slavery is a violation of the rights of man as man; that the law of nature, which is the law of liberty, gives to no man rights superior to those of another; that God and Nature have secured to each individual the inalienable right of equality, any violation of which must be the result of superior force; and that slavery, therefore, is a perpetual war upon its victims; that whether we regard the institution as first originating in captures made in war, or the subjection of the debtor as the slave of his creditor, or the forcible seizure and sale of children by their parents or subjects by their king, and whether it be viewed in this country as a "necessary evil” or otherwise, we find it to be, like imprisonment for debt, but a relic of barbarism as well as an element of weakness in the midst of the State, inviting the attack of external enemies, and a ceaseless cause of internal apprehension and alarm. Such are the lessons taught us, not only by the histories of other commonwealths, but by that of our own beloved country.

RESOLVED, That the history of the formation of the Constitution, and particularly the enactment of the Ordinance of July 13, 1787, prohibiting slavery north of the Ohio, abundantly shows it to have been the purpose of our fathers not to promote, but to prevent the spread of slavery. And, we, reverencing their memories and cherishing free republican faith as our highest inheritance, which we vow, at whatever expense, to defend, thus publicly proclaim our determination to oppose, by all the powerful and honorable means in our power, now and henceforth, all attempts, direct or indirect, to extend slavery in this country, or to permit it to extend into any region or locality in which it does not now exist by positive law, or to admit new slave states into the Union.

RESOLVED, That the Constitution of the United States gives to Congress full and complete power for the municipal government of

the territories thereof, a power which from its nature cannot be either alienated or abdicated without yielding up to the Territory an absolute political independence, which involves an absurdity; that the exercise of this power necessarily looks to the formation of states to be admitted into the Union; and on the question whether they shall be admitted as free or slave states, Congress has a right to adopt such prudential and preventative measures as the principles of liberty and the interests of the whole country require; that this question is one of the gravest importance to the free states, inasmuch as the Constitution itself creates an equality in the apportionment of Representatives, greatly to the detriment of the free and to the advantage of the slave states. This question, so vital to the interests of the free states (but which we are told by certain political doctors of modern times, is to be treated with utter indifference), is one which we hold it our right to discuss; which we hold it the duty of Congress in every every instance to determine in unequivocal language, and in a manner to prevent the spread of slavery and the increase of such unequal representation. In short, we claim that the North is a party to the new bargain, and is entitled to have a voice and influence in settling its terms. And in view of the ambitious designs of the slave power, we regard the man or the party who would forego this right, as untrue to the honor and interest of the North and unworthy of its support.

RESOLVED, That the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," contained in the recent Act of Congress for the creation of the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, thus admitting slavery into a region till then sealed against it by law, equal in extent to the thirteen old states, is an act unprecedented in the history of the country, and one which must engage the earnest and serious attention of every Northern man. And as Northern freemen, independent of all former party ties, we here hold this measure up to the public execration for the following reasons:

That it is a plain departure from the policy of the fathers of the Republic in regard to slavery, and a wanton and dangerous frustration of their purposes and their hopes.

That it actually admits and was intended to admit slavery into said Territories, and thus (to use the words applied by Judge Tucker of Virginia to the fathers of that commonwealth), "sows the seeds of an evil which like a leprosy hath descended upon their posterity with accumulated rancor, visiting the sins of the fathers upon succeeding generations." That it was sprung upon the country stealthily and by surprise, without necessity, without petition and without previous discussion, thus violating the cardinal principle of Republican government, which requires all legislation to accord with the opinions and sentiments of the people.

That on the part of the South it is an open and undisguised breach of faith, as contracted between the North and South in the