![]() Thus it was natural for a Democrat like Alexander Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederate States of America, to explain that the Confederacy’s foundations laid “…upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition” (see James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me ). They opposed these liberal ideas Republicans were coming up with, and of course Democrats in some states were willing to declare independence to continue enslaving black people (wouldn’t it be interesting if people who today love the Confederacy and fly the stars and bars actually thought they were honoring a liberal empire?). The Democratic Party was the party of the South, the slave-owners, the conservatives. Language like this hints at Lincoln’s friendships with Marxists exiled from Europe (see Nichols) and his positive interactions with Karl Marx. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration… A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. ![]() Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is prior to and independent of capital. So it was natural for Lincoln, the first Republican president, to work to terminate slavery, or say things like this in his 1861 State of the Union address: The Republican Party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws… the rights of citizens hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad.įree stuff? Trying to improve the condition of blacks and immigrants? Massive government spending on programs for the common good? Rejecting free trade? Liberal wages? Not the usual rhetoric of most Republican politicians today. It supported duties (taxes) on imports from foreign nations to protect Northern industry, partly because this “secures to the workingmen liberal wages.” Impressively, the Republicans even took a stand for immigrants, writing: territories be halted and called the recent resumption of the African slave trade “a crime against humanity and a burning shame to our country.” It supported the government funding the “railroad to the Pacific Ocean” in “the interests of the whole country” (admittedly, primarily the interests of big business, Northern industry). It demanded the expansion of slavery in U.S. The Platform called for the passage of the Homestead Act, which gave government land to Western settlers for free or very little cost. While the Republican Party Platform of 1860 does contain language familiar to modern Republicans, such as a condemnation of the “reckless extravagance which pervades every department of the Federal Government” and the need to “return to rigid accountability,” as well as the “preservation of our…Constitution the Rights of States,” it set the stage for a (somewhat) liberal Republican party. (See The “S” Word: A Brief History of an American Tradition…Socialism, John Nichols.) It was founded as an anti-slavery party, a response to political setbacks in the abolition struggle. In fact, the Republican Party was founded by Alvan Bovay and other socialists in the former utopian community of Ripon, Wisconsin in March 1854. Originally, the Republicans were the Northerners, some of them abolitionists, progressives, liberals, radicals. And many liberals likewise don’t know their history, and cannot provide much-needed historical knowledge. Many conservatives either forget (or wish to ignore) that Republicans used to be somewhat liberal, Democrats more conservative. Or, conversely, that Democrats were the ones to break away from the Union to preserve slavery, and later create and protect brutal Jim Crow laws, partly through supporting the Klan. ![]() Thus many leap at the chance to point out, for example, that President Lincoln, the Great Emancipator of black slaves, was a Republican, and that Republicans pushed through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to offer freedom and equality to blacks. Many conservatives seem very concerned with repairing the modern Republican image. In the course of everyday political conversation, there can arise counterintuitive historical facts concerning the actions and ideas of Republicans and Democrats in American history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |