User:Friendship Bill

THE REAL BIRTHPLACE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS FRIENDSHIP, NEW YORK

The article following is exerpted from the Buffalo Express of Sunday, November 1, 1896 and was contained in an article called " A Birthplace of the Republican Party.

"The following extracts from an unpublished letter written by Mr. Ashel N. Cole the year before his death to his friend, Lamonte G Raymond of the Angelica Republican, are interesting. The letter was written from his " Home on the Hillside", under the date of April 7, 1888.

The first meeting was called at Friendship, May 16, 1854, for the organization of the Republican party. A committee was appointed to call a nominating convention. This committee called the first nominating convention at Angelica, NY October 17, 1854. If our party had its birth in Grand Old Allegany, as it did in the way things are counted, I know for absolute certainty that these dates are correct. Now this is history and there is no getting over or around it. The man who gave our party it's name was none other than Horace Greeley. I wrote him in the spring of '54 asking what name to give the party. He answered, " Call it Republican, no prefix, no suffix, but plain Republican." And so I have called it Republican, and pronounced Greeley it's father, and I have always declared that, if we must fix upon the identical father himself, I shall insist upon it that Horace Greeley is the one to be agreed upon. The party was born in Allegany County, NY and I now give this command: Whosoever shall hence or hereafter deny that historical fact, ' shoot him on the spot." (END OF LETTER!)

It was on the afternoon of October 17, 1854, that the now famous convention was held at the old court-house in Angelica, the first delegated Republican convention held in the United States. The convention was the outcome of the meeting in Friendship, Allegany County, on May 16th. At the Friendship meeting a committee composed of Ashel N. Cole, Charles M. Allen, Robert Snow, E.P.Benjamin and Joseph Stuart was appointed and empowered to call a nominating convention at Angelica at a date to be selected by them. Earnest and enthusiatic men from all parts of the county attended the convention. The convention named a full Republican State and County ticket. Myron H. Clark was named for Governor, Henry J Raymond for Lieutenant Governor, Henry Fitzgerald for Canal Commissioner, and Harwood Brown for Prison Commissioner. A full County ticket was named and every candidate was elected.

The central figure of the convention was Asahel N. Cole, who was known all over the country as " The Father of the Republican Party." He was a born Abolitionist and disd in the faith. His life was an eventful one. He was a cultured man and in turn a preacher, editor, author, lawyer, lobbyist, and the originator of "The New Agriculture", a system based on sub-surface irrication. Mr. Cole was born at Freedom, Cattaraugus County, NY and died at his " Home on the Hillside", Wellsville, NY, July 14 1889.

The first Republican newspaper in the United States was launched at Belfast, Allegany Co. in October, 1852, by Mr. Cole. It was called the Free Press and was a neat seven column folio. It is doubtful if a more earnest advocate of Abolition ever came from a printing press. The paper appeared first as a weekly and later on was issued as a daily at Wellsville, NY.

For the first two or three years the Republican Party was only a coalition. It was composed of about three fourths of the northern end of the defunct Whig Party, a fragment of the Democratic party, all of the Freesoilers, nearly or quite all of the Anti-Garrison Abolitionists and a fraction of the Know-Nothings. The time had arrived for a new party and the spirit of Republicanism was stirring the people of Maine as well those of Wisconsin. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill crystallized public sentiment and it quickly found expression.

Men in many states have disputed A.N.Cole's claim to the paternity of the Republican party, before ans since his death. The truth ius that there were many men who were equally responsible for the agitation and the agitation and arguement that served in founding the party, but the men who took practical steps toward organization were few and one of the first was A.N.Cole. He is at least enttled to be called one of the fathers of the Republican Party and that is glory enough!"