History of the Republican Party -- Christopher Cox

Ran into a tasty bit of speechmaking at Countertop Chronicles and started digging. Christopher Cox (R-CA) is the House Policy Chairman and he recently announced the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. His description is worth noting: bq. In 1854, anti-slavery activists organized themselves into a new political party, the Republican Party, which would eventually become the mightiest force for individual liberty in the history of the world. Within just a few years, Republicans would control both Houses of Congress, a majority of U.S. state governorships and legislatures, and the White House. bq. The history of our party is as remarkable as it is untold. And it is under-appreciated for that reason. The Republican Policy Committee in the House of Representatives has produced the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar to put some of the many important Republican achievements in advancing civil rights before today�s students, families, and citizens from all walks of life who wish to be better informed about our national heritage. bq. The Republican Party became the most effective political organization in the history of the world in advancing the cause of freedom by staying true to its founding principles. The mission that President Lincoln described for our party, �to lift the artificial weights from all shoulders and clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all,� remains our central focus today. bq. We started our party with the express intent of protecting the American people from the Democrats� pro-slavery policies that expressly made people inferior to the state. Today, the animating spirit of the Republican Party is exactly the same as it was then: free people, free minds, free markets, free expression, and unlimited individual opportunity. bq. Leading the organized opposition to these ideas 150 years ago, just as today, was the Democratic Party. Then, just as now, their hallmarks were politically correct speech; a preference for government control over individual initiative (and of course slavery was the most extreme form of government control over the individual); and an insistence on seeing people as members of groups rather than as individuals. bq. Republicans will continue to work to spread what is now truly the American message of freedom, equality, and limited government as the best hope for our country and our world. The United States of America, as Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, is the only country on Earth to be based not on race or nationality, but on an ideal. Republicans, for our entire 150-year history, have been carrying forward that ideal: the vision of our Founding Fathers for a republican form of government in which the individual is master and the government is servant. The calendar is available for download here (caution -- over 100MB in size)