“And In This Corner...”
Russ Otten, RPSC Chair
Special RPSC Caucus to Add Board Positions & Hear State of the Party
November 20, 2022
Fellow RPSC Members and Patriots, you are invited to a very special caucus/meeting on Monday, November 28, 2022, at 6:30PM, at the HQ (1122 Indiana Avenue in Sheboygan).
First, there will be a members-only vote on a motion to add 2 new positions to the RPSC Board. Currently, there are 7 positions. The new positions will be for Electronic Communications Chair and Events Chair. (See attached for rationale and motion with a full list of Board positions.) The motion will need a 2/3 majority of all attending RPSC members.
RPSC Board Positions Proposed for 2023
Russ Otten's State of the Party Address
SPEAK OUT!
The Flag Flies Over Fort Sumter
Art DeJong
Recently my wife and “got away” from election madness to visit one the 13 colonies where American freedom all began, Charleston, South Carolina. It was here too where the cannons that routed the British fleet in the Revolutionary War later leveled federal Fort Sumter, igniting our civil war that ultimately created a “more perfect union,” one that included all races and classes of Americans.
HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
Founding of the Republican Party
On July 6, 1854, just after the anniversary of the nation, an anti-slavery state convention was held in Jackson, Michigan. The hot day forced the large crowd outside to a nearby oak grove. At this “Under the Oaks Convention” the first statewide candidates were selected for what would become the Republican Party.
Birthplace of the Republican Party
United by desire to abolish slavery, it was in Jackson that the Platform of the Under the Oaks Convention read: “…we will cooperate and be known as REPUBLICANS…” Prior to July, smaller groups had gathered in intimate settings like the schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. However, the meeting in Jackson would be the first ever mass gathering of the Republican Party. The name “Republican” was chosen, alluding to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party and conveying a commitment to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Party of Freedom
Though popularized in a Thomas Nast cartoon, the GOP’s elephant symbol originated during the 1860 campaign, as a symbol of Republican strength. Republicans envisioned “free soil, free speech, free labor.” Under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln, the GOP became the Party of the Union as well.
The Republican Party called for the abolition of slavery.
President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, but it was the entire Republican Party who freed the slaves. The 1864 Republican National Convention called for the abolition of slavery, and Congressional Republicans passed the 13th Amendment unanimously, with only a few Democrat votes. The early women’s rights movement was solidly Republican, as it was a continuation of abolitionism. They were careful not to be overly partisan, but as did Susan B. Anthony, most suffragists favored the GOP. The 19th Amendment was written by a Republican senator and garnered greater support from Republicans than from Democrats.