Republicans (United States)

“ As the Republicans obtained control of the states they altered the state constitutions so as to cut out all the arrangements that favoured property or class interests, and reduced political power to the dead level of manhood suffrage. ”

“ They know also, that this State government of theirs, with all its ramifications—whether as to its Executive, its Legislative, its Judicial, and other officials, either elective or appointed—is a Republican form of government, in the American sense—in the sense contemplated by the Fathers, when they incorporated into the revered Constitution of our Country the vital words: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of government." ”

“ A majority of the American people agree with me on this approach – including a majority of Republicans. We just need Republicans in Congress to catch up with their own party and the rest of the country. ”

“ On the one hand we are Republicans on principle, in that we demand a government in the interest of all and of no favored order, by the highest available capacity, without reference to birth, or wealth, or class. ”

“ These are, so far as I know, the leading ideas of the Republican party. I appeal to your candor if they do not commend themselves to the judgment of reasonable men. Is this the party which you would combine and conspire against, and to defeat which you would unite hostile elements? Is it to defeat these ideas that you would risk scenes of violence in the House, or the subversion of the constitution by the Senate of the United States? ”

“ The Republican party won its first great victory on the inherent weakness of the Democratic party on the question of Human Rights and the right of the Federal Government to protect itself from the assumption, the aggression, the attempted usurpation, of the States, and it has maintained its supremacy for so long a time as to lead to the supposition that it will rule until such time as it shall fall to pieces of itself because of internal decay and exterior cancers. ”

“ A new party, the Republican, came into being, as it were, in a day. The pro-slavery Whigs went to the Democrats, the anti-slavery Whigs became Republicans. Those who were neither one nor the other lingered on as the mere shadow of a party until the civil war broke out. A large accession from the Democratic ranks made the Republicans so strong that in their first presidential campaign they were almost successful, and in their second they achieved a decisive victory. ”

“ And he shows that the one dominant fact in this contest is that the more closely the Republicans adhere to their essential policy, the worse must be the demoralizing effect, and, per contra, the more faithful the Democratic party is to its avowed principles, the more wholesome and beneficent must be its influence on the country. ”

“ This convention will declare the platform of the People’s Party, and consider the nomination of candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, who shall be the best possible exponents of political and industrial reform. The Republican party, in destroying slavery, accomplished its entire mission. In denying that ‘citizen’? means political equality, it has been false to its own definition of Republican Government ; and in fostering land, railroad, and money monopolies, it is building up a commercial feudalism dangerous to the liberty of the people. ”

“ The great Republican party that carried the country safely through the late war against the rebellion, emancipated the slave, saved the Union, reconstructed the government of the Southern States, enfranchised the freedmen, raised the national credit, improved the currency, decreased the national debt, and did more for the honor, prosperity, and glory of the American people than was ever done before in the same length of time by any party in any country under similar circumstances, has been defeated, humiliated, and driven from place and power. ”

“ Every party imagines itself the right party, and welcomes him joyfully to its bosom. Republicans love him, Independents worship him, while Democrats would endure even the Fifteenth Amendment for his sake. ”

“ We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. ”

“ After the new parties were well under way, the Democrats in most of the States, being in a hopeless minority, made common cause with them in the hope of thus compassing the defeat of their hereditary rivals, the old-line Republicans. ”

“ The Republican party have been blamed because their theory and practice alike tend toward a consolidation of power, and a strengthening of the hands of the government at Washington. It is in this that lies their chief claim to support. ”

“ And I venture to predict, that the time is not very far when those will be looked upon as the truest Republicans who did not hesitate to expose themselves to suspicion and vituperation and obloquy in order to relieve the Republican cause of this most intolerable burden—for the Republican party will be once more the party of independent men. ”

“ The Republican party has gained its strength by quick and faithful response to the demands of the people for the freedom and equality of all men; for a united nation, assuring the rights of all citizens; for the elevation of labor; for an honest currency; for purity in legislation; and for integrity and accountability in all departments of the Government. And it accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and reform. ”

“ The Democrats and Republicans will both try to catch you. Don’t let them catch you napping. Don’t become just fodder for political cannon. Form your programme and make all the parties adopt it. Begin in your home towns, begin at once. ”

“ It is probable that the men having the matter in hand will produce a sensible plan. They will have the sympathy and support of a constantly growing number of Republicans. The Republican party cannot afford to let this movement pass to the credit of the Democrats. If the Republicans in Congress are wise they will take it out of the hands of their opponents and carry it on themselves. If they do not do so in Congress, the Administration will have to do it alone, and to this end you will want at least one man in your official family who believes in it and understands it. ”

“ The Republicans in Congress, and throughout the country, dissented from the President’s views, and thought the confederate states should be held in a territorial condition till Congress was satisfied that the rights of the freedmen were safe. The Democrats supported the President. At first, the provisional government and the general tenor of the President’s policy were favored by the Republicans ”

“ But these were the expiring days of the old Democratic organization, which, under the amalgamating process of the compromise measures, became shattered and mixed, especially in the Southern States, with former Whigs, and was to a great extent thereafter sectionalized. The different opposing political elements united against it and organized and established the Republican party, which triumphed in the election of Lincoln in 1860. The administration which followed and was inaugurated in 1861 differed in essential particulars from either of the preceding political organizations. ”

“ A nucleus has been established around which all shades of Republican opinion can rally with the good hope of destroying the despotism that has virtually ostracized the best Republicans of the State from influential participation in national politics. ”

“ If we fail, if we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans, or between the House and the Senate, or between the South and North, or between the Congress and the administration, then history will rightfully judge us harshly. ”

“ The Republican party comes before the business men of this country —with all its evidences of reviving prosperity everywhere—and asks whether they will resign all these great affairs to the solid south, headed by Wade Hampton and the Ku-Klux Klan, and a little segment of these northern states, calling themselves the Democratic party. ”

“ The Democrats, although they have been victorious, are discouraged and depressed and full of dread of what may happen; the Republicans, though beaten, are full of the sense of power, full of assurance in consequence of the first results gained, and full of confidence for the future. ”

“ But, faithful to the true Republican faith, there is not one among them who, for his personal advancement, would deprive any other human being of his rights.
Republicans, you are not exempt from the laws which govern political life. When a party once falls under the control of politicians who care more for spoils and plunder than for their plighted faith and the common good, or who are too narrow-minded to progress with the requirements of the new order of things, then it is time that such a party should pass through a process of purification. ”

“ To this only those Republicans will object who desire to continue the existing abuses of party government and who find us as a stumbling-block in their way. But the friends of reform in the Republican party will welcome us as their friends and natural allies, as we shall be glad to consider them ”

“ They will scatter and lose their power in the party to a great extent. Then the liberal and vigorous element of the Republican party, who alone can save its future usefulness, will have a chance to assume control of the organization and shape its future policy. ”

“ The majority of the Republican members of Congress obstinately maintained their alienation from the Republican President; an enormous popular defection from Republicanism had taken place in its natural strongholds; and Republican domination had only been saved by the aid of States in which Republican majorities had been attainable actually because a large proportion of the population was so disaffected as either to have enlisted in the Confederate service, or to have refrained from voting at elections held under Union auspices. ”

“ Such a man—if there is one—is not, and never was, a true Republican. He may have voted the Republican ticket now and then, and called himself a Republican; but he has never had, he has not now, the real grace of true Republicanism in his heart. More than this, he is not even a true American. The genuine American respects the decisions of majorities, and bows in humble submission to the majesty of law. He loves the flag of his country, not because it is red, white, and blue, but because it is the symbol of the people’s government, of social order, of the Constitution and laws of the land. ”

“ The Republican party is largely made up of those who live by their wits, and who aspire in politics to advantages over the rest of mankind, similar to those which their daily lives are devoted to securing in private business. ”