Turbulence And The Growth Of Freedom
by Robert Rohlfing (10/30/11)
“A house divided against itself cannot stand” ~ Abraham Lincoln - The early 1800’s were years of divide and years of progress. In congress the issue over slavery became so heated that the Democrats enacted a “Gag” rule in response to John Quincy Adams petitioning the Congress to abolish slavery repeatedly. In the North the abolition movement continued to gain strength and support, while in the South the division over the issue started to tear at the very fabric of the Union. The Democrat party was the leading party during this time period with the Whig Party being in the minority.
Leading into the mid 1800’s, the Democrats in Congress went on a binge of passing pro slavery bills, in response to this the people who supported the Whig party decided that it was ineffective and weak and formed a new party known now as the Republican party. What many people are unaware of is that it was a Democrat who was instrumental in forming this new party, his name was Charles Sumner and he was a big proponent of anti slavery and a champion of civil rights. He was so passionate about anti slavery that he gave a two day long speech on the floor of the US Senate in 1856. This so angered a member of the House of Representatives a Democrat named Preston Brooks, that during the speech he came over to the Senate and nearly beat Sumner to death with his cane. None of Sumner’s fellow Senators came to his aid, as a matter of fact the Democrats who witnessed this occurring laughed in response, because they were appalled that Sumner would take a stand so bold on the slavery issue. Despite his injuries that took almost three years to recover from, Sumner returned to the Senate and picked up right where he left off from. The beating of Charles Sumner became the indecent that helped cement the birth of the Republican party.
If you want to know how a split in a party can lead to the opposing party winning the presidency you have to look no farther than the presidential race that led to the election of Lincoln. To understand this we have to remember that the Democrats held a majority in both houses of congress and the presidency from around 1820, until the key election years of 1856, 1858, and 1860 when the balance of power turned upside down and the Republicans gained power in all three houses and making the Democrat party the minority. Many of the Democrats from southern states resented this shift in power and started forming ideas that they should break away and form a slave holding nation. The more “moderates” in the Democrat party from the north still wanted to keep the nation united and were spit with their southern members on the issue of slavery. They decided that a “moderate” candidate would appeal to both factions in the party and ran Stephen Douglas who was squishy on the slavery issue. Lincoln knew that Douglas was pro-slavery and was determined to call him out on the issue as Douglas was attempting to appeal to both abolitionists in the north and supporters of slavery in the south.
Prior to running for president Lincoln and Douglas met up in a race for Senate that Douglas eventually won, but in doing so Lincoln was able to expose Douglas for his pro-slavery stance during the now famous series of debates the two had. On August 27, 1858 Douglass is quoted as saying, “Those of you who believe that the negro is your equal and ought to be on an equality with you socially, politically and legally, have a right to entertain those opinions, and of course will vote for Mr. Lincoln.” Even though Douglas attempted to be the so called moderate in the party, the clear divisions were already cemented and the Democrat electorate split their vote between Douglas and John Breckinridge helping to pave the way for Lincoln to become president.
As we are all well aware the house did not stand and it did divide. The election of Lincoln inevitable led to the creation of the Confederate States and the Civil War. Today however history seems to be whitewashed in the Republicans role in the promotion of civil rights and the end of slavery. One only needs to listen to the rhetoric that is espoused from today’s Democrats and from the Left in general to see examples of this. Our children today are taught in school that yes Lincoln helped end slavery, but after that it was the Republicans that are somehow now demonetized as racists and bigots. This in of itself is the farthest from the truth, and the truth needs to be told to our children. Especially our African American children.
You would think today that it was the Democrats that ushered in the first civil rights bills, correct? Well you would be wrong if you were under that assumption! The Democrats did not usher in any civil rights legislation until the 20th century and they needed to have the Republicans to get it passed even then as the Democrats who once again held majorities could not get it done since those deep held hatreds still abounded even then. Let’s go back and look at who not only introduced but passed the first civil rights legislation in this country.
In 1862 with the Republicans fully in the driver’s seat, they got down to work to dismantling the institution of slavery. In 1862 the republicans abolished slavery in Washington D.C that later led to Lincolns ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ of 1863, that declared that all slaves as of January 1st of that year were free. In 1864 the Republican platform called for a Constitutional Amendment to end slavery in the United States completely. Other civil rights legislation was also introduced by the Republicans and passed, these included the equal pay for all soldiers and the repeal of the fugitive slave law that the Democrats put in place. Republicans in congress introduced the 13th Amendment and got it passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865.This is not to say that it was not passed without divisions as the final vote count broke down like this; 118 Republican and 19 Democrats were in favor of this amendment, while 82 democrats and 0 Republicans voted against it.
Even with the passage of the 13th Amendment the Democrats weren’t interested in abiding by the new law, instead they instituted a new form of slavery that has been referred to as the Black Codes , these new laws tried to restrain the new found freedom of Blacks in the south and in essence replaced slavery with institutional tyranny. Once again it was the Republicans that came up with a way around this new found Master-Slave Relationship and Introduced the14th Amendment. Again it was the Democrats that in both the House and the Senate had 0 votes for its passage, while it was the Republicans with a 94% of a yes vote that got it passed. Even with the 13th and 14th Amendments being passed the violence and intimidation continued against the Blacks by Democrats. The KKK was formed from members of its party in the north and south of this country, and former Confederate soldiers. Lynching’s of both Black and White Republicans occurred in the following years. The 15th Amendment that gave the right to vote for African Americans fueled these flames even more. Once again it took the Republicans to have African Americans the right to vote in this country, all 56 Democrats from both the north and south voted against this amendment to the Constitution.
It is an outright travesty that the truth about history has been so whitewashed from what is taught to our children today! As I mentioned earlier, the common rhetoric today is that the Democrat party is the party that ushered in civil rights and have been the champion for African Americans in this country when the truth of the matter proves false time and again.
Robert Rohlfing
http://thedrumbeatofliberty.com/
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