when notified by Codding of his appointment on the state central committee, declined to recognize the right of the convention to use his name in that connection.

The attempt has been made in some quarters to depreciate the importance of this convention by minimizing the numbers in attendance and representing that it was "called and managed by extremists." While it is true that such men as Owen Lovejoy and Ichabod Codding-known as uncompromising antislavery men were leading spirits in the convention, the conservative character of the platform adopted is a conclusive answer to the charge of fanaticism. This went no farther than a distinct declaration of opposition to extension of slavery into free territory, which became the essence of Republicanism two years later. When, on the proposition to place the name of Mr. Lincoln on the list of members of the state central committee, the question was raised whether he was in sympathy with the views maintained by the convention, I have a distinct recollection that Owen Lovejoy, in emphatic terms, vouched for his fidelity to the principles enunciated in our platform. And, while Mr. Lincoln then cherished the hope that his beloved Whig party would finally range itself in opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the principles of the Nebraska bill, he and Lovejoy were found contending for the same principle before the convention in this city in 1856, and, in the presidential chair, he had no more zealous champion and loyal supporter than the brother of the Alton martyr.

The Chicago Daily Democrat, edited by the late John Wentworth, in its issue of November 2, 1860, four days before the election of Lincoln to the presidency, after giving the history of this convention substantially as I have given it here, says:

"Such was the birth of the Republican party in Illinois. Such were the men who set the ball in motion which is now rolling forward with irresistible force. Almost without exception they are men who loved liberty for itself and not for office. They were the founders, and they have been the pioneers and fighting men of the party. They have fought its battles, won its victories and have brought it to the threshold of a great triumph."

Although the convention of 1854 failed of its object, so far as perfecting the new party organization was concerned, the platform there adopted not only enunciated the principles accepted by the party two years later, but played a curious and interesting part in the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. This grew out of the production by Senator Douglas before the audience at the first debate held at Ottawa on August 21, of that year, of a series of extremely radical resolutions, which he said had been adopted at the Springfield meeting, of which he represented that Mr. Lincoln had been a member, and of which he became a representative by virtue of his appointment to a membership on the state central committee. As to the last it has already been shown that Mr. Douglas was in error, as he also was in regard to the genuineness of the resolutions themselves. These had, in fact, been adopted by a local convention in the northern part of the state,—in Aurora, I think,— but, whether innocently or intentionally, I will not presume to say,--had been incorrectly published by the State Register, a few days after the Springfield convention of October 4 and 5, 1854, as the platform adopted there. At the next debate, which occurred at Freeport, a week later, Mr. Lincoln was in a position not only to vindicate himself from responsibility for the Springfield meeting, but to expose Mr. Douglas' blunder. Douglas excused himself on the ground that the resolutions had been used in debate by Thomas L. Harris, then a member of congress from the Springfield district, as those adopted at the Springfield meeting, and that he had been assured by the editor of the Register that this was correct. That Mr. Douglas was unconsciously led into an error by the misrepresentation of his own organ there is no doubt, but its effect was to produce a recoil from his argument at Ottawa, which caused him no little chagrin and mortification at the time, and from which he did not fully escape during the remainder of the debates.

I reiterate what I said at the beginning of this digression, that I do not allude to this incident in any spirit of partisanship, but simply as a part of the history of the times we are commemorating today.

Pres. Davis:

The Germans and the German Press.

After the suppression of the Revolution of 1848, large numbers of the liberty loving Germans came to this country. On the formation of the Republican party the most of them came into its ranks, because they considered it the only party of liberty.

Our speaker tonight is a native of Germany, an eminent lawyer, an author of legal works, and a German poet, who will address us on "The Germans and the German Press."

I have the pleasure of introducing Hon. William Vocke.

WILLIAM VOCKE,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

The last week of the month of May, 1854, marks a most momentous epoch in the political history of our country. After weeks of unparalleled excitement reflected in the debates of.congress, as well as in all other agencies of public utterance throughout the country, the federal house of representatives, on the 22d day of said month, passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill by which the time-honored Missouri Compromise between the free states of the north and the southern slave states was repealed. Three days later the senate concurred in the measure; on the 30th of May it received the signature of the president, whereby it became a law, and thus all the territories lying north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude were exposed to the inroads of the southern slave power. To the better element of the northern people, recognizing as they did that slavery was a frightful blot upon the civilization of the nineteenth century, it was hardly conceivable that the grandchildren. of the patriots of the War of Independence could so far forget themselves as to tear down the last bulwark which the wisdom of their freedom-loving fathers had

William Vocke was born at Minden, Germany, 1839: emigrated to United States in 1856, and came to Chicago; studied law, captain in 24th Ill. Vols.; 1870, elected representative to General Assembly; attorney for the German consulate at Chicago; a leading lawyer of Chicago and of high literary taste; member of the Republican National Convention of 1872.

established against the curse, and while all the political organizations of the country, the Democrats, Whigs, FreeSoilers and Know-Nothings, were alike thrown into a state of disintegration, everywhere the germs sprang up for the formation of a new party which should, upon strictly constitutional grounds, distinctly mark the limits of the slavepower.

Two months before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill a number of Whigs, Free-Soilers and Democrats met on several days in an humble school house of the modest little town of Ripon, Wisconsin, to discuss the formation of a new party, and on the 30th of March, 1854, it was suggested that it be called the "Republican party" and a resolution was carried that its object should be to secure the confinement of slavery within its present limits. It does not seem to be definitely established, whether or not to this obscure spot in the then far west belongs the glory of having given the first impetus to the organization that brought about the memorable events to which our nation owes its deliverance from the relic of cruelest barbarism.

The day after the adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska bill about thirty members of the federal house of representatives met in conference to take the formation of the new party in hand, because there was no longer any hope that the old ones could successfully oppose the encroachments of the slave-power. Here too the name "Republican party" was proposed for the new organization. From that moment the agitation proceeded throughout the northern states until the organization received definite shape at a convention of delegates from various northern states held on Washington's birthday in 1856 at Pittsburg, where it was resolved to call a national convention for the nomination of candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency. This convention was held on the 17th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, at Philadelphia. Meanwhile the people were thoroughly aroused, permanent organizations were formed everywhere, nominating conventions were held in all the states throughout