Senator Sumner

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Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811- March 11, 1874), a Radical Republican leader, He was beaten badly by Preston Brooks, a South Carolina Representative, in 1856. Sumner had mocked Stephen Douglas and Andrew Butler in a speech he made opposing slavery.

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The Reconstruction Era

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House Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania (April 4,1792-August 11,1868), was a leader of the Radical Republicans who opposed President Abraham Lincoln's lenient treatment of ex-Confederates. Stevens was the most aggressive abolitionist. His funeral in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was attended by twenty thousand people, half of whom were freedmen. The epithet on his tombstone was his own writing. "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude,  but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before his Creator."

We all took part in America's Revolutions

We don't get much from our history classes in schools like we should. I am fascinated by the history of black patriots. There were so many, yet we only learned about one in high school, Crispus Attucks, the first man to die in the struggle for our nations independence. A black man. But there were so many more than him. Immediately after the Civil War, former slaves began educating themselves. By 1875, there were almost two dozen black senators and representatives in Congress and hundreds at the state level in the southern states. The reason we have not heard of them, I believe, is because they were all republican. The KuKluxKlan's primary function was to prevent the black and white republican voters from electing black republicans to their state legislatures. Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White, by David Barton, is available in paperback and DVD. I urge you to get it and read or watch it several times. Black Americans have so much to be proud of and so many reasons to love this country.

Remember the Republic?

A great book for anyone who wants to learn about the origin of our party. The party of free market capitalism is synonymous with the abolition movement. Back to Basics for the Republican Party by Michael Zak. I highly recommend this book.

And God said "Let there be a Republic"

Democrats and Republicans believe that America is a democracy. Not true. America is more than that. America is a republic. When you stand up to say the pledge of allegiance to the flag, do you say "and to the democracy for which it stands"? No. Why is that? Because the framers of the constitution drafted a document that would permit democracy only with rules written into the articles and the first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights) that would 'constitute' a form of government known as a Republic.
The Bill of Rights, and the amendments that followed, are limitations on what the government has the authority to do.
The Republican Party of today was born in 1854 from the abolitionist movement. When the Democratic Party attempted to expand slavery into the new territories that were entering the United States, the outrage over 'The Kansas-Nebraska Act' sparked a grass roots movement devoted to republican values.
Shortly after the Civil War, the Republican Party in Congress passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
The fundamental values of republicanism today are the same as they were then, but they are sadly misunderstood by republicans themselves, and despised by many democrats who wish to push the limits beyond the rule of law. Democrats want the rule of the majority without regard for the law. This is naturally predictable because that's what the difference between a republic and a simple democracy is.
This blog is intended to clear up the myths and misinformation about the republic and the republican party. A true republican should understand the history of the party as it relates to the present, and understand that there is no shame in being republican. We have no history of racism, slavery, segregation or eugenics that our opponents on the other side of the aisle try to label us with simply because we have a majority in the south.
When fifty-one percent of the people exploits the other forty-nine percent by a simple majority vote, we call it democracy.
When rules forbid the exploitation and tyranny of democracy, we call it a republic.