RESOLUTIONS.

1. Resolved, That the Republican party is pre-eminently the party of the Union and the Constitution; of law and of order; and may justly claim to be the true National and Democratic party, because it is opposed, in its principles, sentiments and aims, to Sectionalism, Secession and Disunion, is equally desirous of the welfare of every part of the country; and, disregarding the aristocratic and hereditary distinctions of birth and color, maintains the right of all men to freedom and equality before the law.

2. Resolved, That the Republicans of Massachusetts, in co-operation with the friends of freedom in other States, are pledged to make the question of Freedom paramount to all other political questions, and to labor for the accomplishment of the following purposes :

To bring the administration of the general government back to the National principle of Liberty.

To repeal the Fugitive Slave bill.

To restore prohibition of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska.

To prohibit slavery in all the territories.

To resist the acquisition of Cuba or any other territory unless slavery therein shall be prohibited.

To refuse admission into the Union of any more slave states.

To abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.

To protect the constitutional rights of citizens going to other states, and to sustain all other constitutional measures of opposition to slavery.

3. Resolved, That Massachusetts has the constitutional right, and it is her imperative duty, to enact laws which shall protect the liberty of her citizens by securing to them the right of habeas corpus and the trial by jury in all cases involving the question of personal freedom, and which shall effectually restrain and punish the atrocious crime of kidnapping freemen into slavery.

4. Resolved, That the recent prostitution of the municipal government of Boston to the service of slavery, and the temporary establishment of a military rule in the streets of that city, in violation of the laws and of private right, under the immediate eye of the governor and commander-in-chief of the militia of the Commonwealth, deserves the sternest rebuke of the people, and calls for prompt action on the part of the legislature.

5. Resolved, That the effort to preserve Freedom in Kansas and Nebraska by settling those territories with freemen, claims and receives our warmest sympathy and most hearty co-operation.

6. Resolved, That the prohibition by law of the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, is the right and duty of the people.

7. Resolved, That the Republican party of Massachusetts will not support any man for office, who will not carry out the principles of these resolutions.

8. Resolved, That in Henry Wilson and Increase Sumner, we offer to the people of the Commonwealth, candidates for the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor, of high ability, of tried integrity and of eminent public services, who fitly represent the free sentiments of Massachusetts.

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The seventh resolution was proposed by a delegate, after the others, as reported by the committee, had been adopted. Rev. Dexter S. King of Boston, opposed its adoption, as a ridiculous superfluity, it was simply declaring that we were men of common sense and common honesty. The question being taken, the resolution was rejected by a decided preponderance of noes, but its friends "doubted," and, Amasa Walker coming forward to say that though the resolution was altogether unnecessary and immaterial, still, having been proposed, it would look bad to reject it, the resolution was again put to vote, and now carried.

In New Hampshire there were many efforts to combine the Free-Soilers, Whigs, and anti-Nebraska Democrats, which, however, were unsuccessful, although a legislature was elected which sent John P. Hale to the Senate in 1855 to fill Mr. Atherton's unexpired term, and James Bell for the full term.

To turn again to the West, as has been noted, a State convention was held at Columbus, Ohio, on the 13th of July, 1854. The call was addressed to those who advocated the "breaking the chains now forging to bind the nation to the car of American Slavery." While the name "Republican" was not adopted until the following year, the movement was such as to result in sending a solid anti-Nebraska delegation to Con gress. On the same day Henry Lane, Henry L. Ellsworth, and Schuyler Colfax addressed a convention in Indiana, which was the beginning of the movement in that State, and which resulted in fall elections favorable to the anti-Slavery party, and brought about the Republican organization of the following year.

At Madison, Wisconsin, on the same date, in response to a call made on July 9th which had invited "all men opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the extension of the slave power to take part," the convention adopted the following as one of its resolutions:

Resolved, That we accept the issue forced upon us by the slave power, and in defense of Freedom will co-operate and be known as Republicans.

CHAPTER VII.

FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (Continued)—ANNIVERSARIES-DEATH OF THE "KNOW-NOTHING" PARTY.

THE

HE movement for a formation of the Republican party in New York State was both early and late. The writer has taken considerable pains to investigate thoroughly the claims of A. N. Cole of Allegany County to the title of the "Father of the Republican Party," which he assumed and which was generally conferred upon him by the press of the Empire State during the latter part of his life and at his death.

In 1852 Mr. Cole, assisted by General James S. Wadsworth, established the Genesee Valley Free Press. Mr. Cole had been an ardent Free-Soiler, and enjoyed the confidence of Horace Greeley, and the acquaintance of such men as Charles Sumner, Joshua R. Giddings, Gerrit Smith, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, John P. Hale, John Van Buren, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Thurlow Weed, Henry J. Raymond, and others, while he met all the prominent men of the times from President John Quincy Adams to President Garfield. He was a most earnest and zealous man, and a profuse letter-writer. There was hardly a prominent man who lived immediately before and after the Civil War, who did not get one or more of Cole's very interesting letters, and who did not reply more or less at length.

It was natural that Mr. Cole should very early become an opponent of Slavery, and that he should possess, with thousands of others, thoughts and views tending toward a new party. As the most prominent man of his county, and as the

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editor of a paper which had expressed most pronounced views concerning the subject of the day, he called a meeting, or, as he termed it, a convention, to meet at Friendship, New York, on May 16, 1854. About a month previously he had written to his friend Greeley, and told him of his forthcoming convention, asking Greeley in his letter, "What name shall we give the new party?" To this question Mr. Greeley replied, "Call it Republican, no prefix, no suffix, but plain Republican. Neither this letter nor an exact copy of it can be found. was undoubtedly burned with files of papers containing a reprint of it at a fire which occurred in Mr. Cole's offices in 1857. The author has, however, satisfied himself beyond doubt of the existence of such a letter. Various accounts of the Friendship meeting have been handed down, some in a serious, others in a sarcastic and facetious vein. The following facts have been given to the author by Mr. A. P. Cole, the son of A. N. Cole:

It

On the day named Mr. Cole went to Friendship, reaching there about dusk, and, finding the hall dark, was on the point of going home when he met a few of the men invited, and they held a meeting, organized, adopted the name Republican, and appointed a committee to call a nominating convention later. The committee consisted of the following: A. N. Cole, Charles M. Allen, Robert Snow, E. B. Benjamin, and Joseph D. Shuart. This committee issued a call for a nominating convention to be held at Angelica, October 15, 1854, where it was held in the Court House, and county officers were nominated and afterwards elected. Mr. Cole's paper at once advocated the fusion of all anti-Nebraska elements, and published what he called the Republican platform and nominations of the Republican party. Bearing further upon the organization of the party in the State we reproduce the following letter copied in every detail from the original:

HON. A. N. COLE, Wellsville.

MY LONG TIME, DEAR FRIEND:

CANANDAIGUA, August 12th, 1884.

Your note of the 9th instant, and a copy of the Genesee Valley Free Press of the same date, were both received by me yesterday.

You request me to give my recollections about the origin, and organization of the Republican party; and to corroborate your statement in relation thereto, published in the paper you send me, so far as I am able.

It affords me pleasure to comply with your request; and to vindicate "the truth of history," for the benefit of the present generation of our citizens; many of whom can have but little appreciation of the stirring times, politically, you and I passed through in those early days of the party. The organization of the Republican party in this State, was effected in 1854. It was made up of the old Whigs, in large part; Temperance men, or Prohibitionists; Free Soil Democrats; and the "Anti-Nebraska" party. The nominating State Conventions in this State of each of those parties were held as follows: The Whig party, September 20, 1854, at Syracuse; the Free Democratic, September 25th/54; the Anti-Nebraska party, September 26th, and the Temperance, or Prohibition State Convention, September 27th/54. The last three at Auburn. At each of these four State Conventions, I received the nomination for Governor; each of which I formally accepted; as the platforms of principles expressed, and passed by the several Conventions, taken altogether, were in accordance with my political principles. Those nominations, and my acceptance constituted, in effect, the formation, and beginning, of the Republican party in this State; although not then designated as such, I believe, by any of them, except the Free Democratic. There has been no Whig State Convention or party, in this State, since that time. The Republican name may have been, and probably was, used in local, town, or county, conventions, previous to that time; but not by any State, or National Conventions.

My recollection coincides with your statement, that the name for the new party, "Republican, no prefix! no suffix; but plain Republican," was suggested by Horace Greeley. The name began to be used in the papers very soon; whether in the New York Tribune first, I do not remember. But The Evening Chronicle, a temperance, and Anti-Slavery newspaper, published at Poughkeepsie, dated Oct. 3, 1854, six days after my nomination, published "the Republican Platform," upon which (in connection with the Temperance platform), I stood, and was elected. I send you a slip from that paper containing the platform, and editorial comments upon the nomination, etc.