Not just another Party, not just another date:

Friday- June 17, 2011

Not just another Party, not just another date:

On this date, in 1775, American Troops displayed their mettle in the Battle of Bunker Hill during the siege of Boston, inflicting casualties on nearly half of the British troops dispatched to secure Breed’s Hill, where most of the fighting occurred. The British lost 1,150 men, the colonists lost 441 patriots.

On this date, in 1856, the Republican Party opened its first National Convention in Philadelphia. Ominous talk of pending civil war was rampant, and there was a real feeling of national crisis when Republicans gathered to choose their first presidential candidate at Philadelphia's Musical Fund Hall in mid June.
Violent civil conflict in "bleeding Kansas" was polarizing the nation. In fact, it was the appeasement of slave interests through the Kansas-Nebraska and Fugitive Slave acts that gave birth to the party.
The new Republican Party was born in 1854 at a meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin. Abolitionists and those opposed to extension of slavery gathered to protest the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened territory to slavery that had been forbidden by the old Missouri Compromise of 1820.
The new party was an umbrella that took in members of the rapidly disintegrating Whig Party, abolitionists, Free-Soilers and anti-slavery Democrats.
The convention's presiding officer Col. Henry Lane of Indiana declared, "We have assembled at the most important crisis in our post-revolutionary history."
Most people think that Abraham Lincoln was the first nominee, he wasn’t. John C. Freemont of California became the Party’s Nominee. He was defeated by the Democratic Party candidate James Buchanan.
I wanted to bring these two dates into focus because in 1775 we were fighting a revolution; a revolution which created a nation and at the end produced a Constitution that defined the liberties and freedoms that were guaranteed by law. It also spelled out what government couldn’t do.
After the Revolution the struggle over the question of Slavery grew. Our Revolution was fought over liberties and freedom except for when the topic of slavery was mentioned. Our revolution was fought to give American’s freedom. The election of 1856 with the birth of the Republican Party would bring into focus the eventual freedom of the slaves that consequently made every American free from bondage and slavery. In the next decade the country would be in Civil War over the question of States Rights and Slavery itself. The Democratic Party then opposed freedom and as current day would dictate they still do it just comes in a different form.
Have you ever wondered how one date in history could affect another date years later?

This is an important question to consider, because at the moment we all became free citizens, forces in our government on the left, started working to enact legislation that would compel all Americans to pay taxes on their income. It would compel all Americans to, at some point; give other freedoms of choice up, because some other group thought they had a monopoly over other forms of behavior. The left would grow government and the right would reduce the size and the reach of government. The government, through legislation, would limit certain powers of the States. It would put limits on the individual and an individuals business through regulation and restrain the citizenry from perusing court action against the government when it comes to defining rights, liberties and freedoms.

The liberals would use the court system to decide moral questions such as abortion through convoluted arguments that ignored the social impact that abortion would have on the society. The liberal would use the court system to decide whether the government could regulate the activity and inactivity of the products you purchase. The government would use healthcare legislation as an issue to gain control over you’re most personal decisions that you normally would keep between you, your doctor and your God.

My point today is to illustrate the importance of these two dates. One was fought for liberty and freedom and the other continued the battle for liberty and freedom.

The struggle never ends. It only gets more refined as the years move on. The struggle today is over the question as to, do we restore what our forefathers began or do we move towards what they warned us against? With each election and each new candidate that enters the ring it becomes more important to be aware of the issues, their motives, their intent and the words they use.

In 1775, the words were simple and clearly understood. In 1856, the words were a bit more convoluted. In 2012, the words will be scientifically engineered to make you think you are hearing what you want to hear. When I say not just another party, not just another date, we must be aware of everything that happened in between that led up to today.

When I consider the political maneuvers that have occurred in American politics I think about what Jefferson wrote: "The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful maneuvers, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But times and truth dissipated the delusion, and opened their eyes." -- Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lomax, 1799.


Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: For two weeks I have written: Once in a blue moon, Once in a while, Once every now and then and, the most obvious, Once in a lifetime did the words of liberty and freedom make some men answer the call of the forefathers. We must continue down the road they paved as early as 1775 and as late as 1856 the words used then made some still want to answer that call. Today, the spirit is still alive it just needs to be recognized and it needs to be acted on. As Col. Henry Lane of Indiana declared, "We have assembled at the most important crisis in our post-revolutionary history.” These words remain true today!