My great-great grandfather was among the earliest menbers of the modern Republican party. He came from Germany after the revolution of 1848 to escape the repression that followed. Family lore has it that he was a medical student at the Heidelberg and had shot a police officer, necessitating hasty immigration to Sheboygan County in Wisconsin where he built himself a cabin in the middle of 80 acres of land. He was known as a "Latin Farmer", or, in the words of one of my great-great aunts, he sat on the porch and read Latin while my great-great grandmother literally pulled the plow.
Great-great Grandpa was a son of the enlightenment and was (gasp) a Freethinker. For this reason alone, he would be aghast at the efforts currently underway by Republicans to make this country a theocracy. More below the fold....
The Party's slogan in 1856 was "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont" (John C. Fremont was their nominee for president)( www.midlandgop.org/history.htm). How repugnant this current administrations' efforts to curtail free speech, labor unions, and constitutional freedoms (under the guise of the "Patriot" Act) would be to those early Republicans!
These early mid-western Republicans were philosophically influenced by Carl Shurz another German emigree who had edited a revolutionary paper and had to flee Germany in 1852. He settled in Wisconsin 3 years after his arrival here. It is thought that Lincoln's opposition to slavery was grounded in Shurz' philosophy. Slavery was anathema to him.
On this Fourth of July I would like to offer this definition of "True Americanism" by Carl Shurz.
....."What is the rule of honor to be observed by a power so strongly and so advantageously situated as this Republic is? Of course I do not expect it meekly to pocket real insults if they should be offered to it. But, surely, it should not, as our boyish jingoes wish it to do, swagger among the nations of the world, with a chip on it's shoulder, shaking its fist in everybody's face. Of course, it should not tamely submit to real encroachments upon its rights. But, surely, it should not, whenever its own notions of right or interest collide with the notions of others, fall into hysterics and act as if it really feared for its own security and its very independence. As a true gentlemen, conscious of his strength and his dignity, it should be slow to take offense. In its dealings with other nations it should have scrupulous regard, not only for their rights, but also for their respect. With all its latent resources for war, it should be the great peace power of the world. It should never forget what a proud privilege and what an inestimable blessing it is not to need and not to have big armies or navies to support. It should seek to influence mankind, not by heavy artillery, but by good example and wise counsel. It should see its highest glory, not in battles won, but in wars prevented. It should be so invariably just and fair, so trusworthy, so good tempered, so conciliatory, that other nations would instinctively turn to it as their mutual friend and the natural adjuster of their differences, thus making it the greatest preserver of the world's peace.
This is not a mere idealistic fancy. It is the natural position of this great republic among the nations of the earth. It is the noblest vocation, and it will be a glorious day for the United States when the good sense of the American people see in this their "manifest destiny". It all rests upon peace. Is this not peace with honor? There has been of late, much loose speech about "Americanism". Is not this good Americanism? It is surely today the Americanism of those people who love their country most. And I fervently hope that it will be and ever remain the Americanism of our children and our children's children."
(From an address delivered in New York City at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, Jan.2, 1896). www.library.wisc.edu/text/WIReader1027.html
Oh Grandpa, oh Carl! How your once honorable party has devolved.