July 6, 1854

By D.J. McGuire | Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 | Politics

One of the most turbulent political years in American history was 1854.

The Democrats, in complete control of Congress and led by President Franklin Pierce, rammed through the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed slavery north of the 36° 30′ line for the first time in over thirty years, destroyed the near-sacrosanct Missouri Compromise of 1821, and infuriated slavery opponents nationwide. As Dixie Whigs crossed over to support the Democrats and expand slavery, Whiggery in the North fell to pieces.

In New England, angry voters followed the lead of Massachusetts – itself mired in political convulsion caused by the supposed defeat of a reform constitution by Irish voters – into the anti-Catholic Know-Nothings (who were smart enough to loudly oppose K-N and slavery). In the “lower North” – that wide swatch from New Jersey to Illinois, the two parties lost voters to each other and various third-party off-shoots (in the latter, anti-slavery Democrats scored an upset in the election for a US Senator when the Whig candidate – Abraham Lincoln – stunned everyone by withdrawing in their favor as the legislature was voting). Only in New York did the Whig Party – which had been placed squarely in the anti-slavery camp by Senator William Henry Seward and his Rovian aid, Thurlow Weed (my fourth-great-grandfather), survive. In fact, 1854 was the party’s best year ever in the Empire State, as the Democrats split into three different factions.

However, history was occurring in upper Midwest (the part of the old Northwest claimed by both Virginia and New York waaaaaaaaaay back when), particularly Michigan, where 156 years ago today, the first Republican state convention was held.

For the details, check out Grand Old Patisan.

The rest, of course, is history: the Republicans scored huge victories in the Michigan and Wisconsin; Salmon Chase scored a shocking victory in 1855 as the Republican nominee for Governor of Ohio; Lincoln moved the Illinois Whigs into the GOP; and finally, my ancestor (Weed) adroitly took his Whig machine and renamed it the Republican Party of New York.

No one knew any of this, however, in the summer of 1854. The Republicans in Michigan were taking what they feared was a last stand against the Slave Power. We would do well to remember their (political) courage today.

Cross-posted to RWL

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