THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF TEXAS

 

 

Eighty years after the Declaration of Independence was written, the Republican Party was founded and delegates adopted the First Republican Platform.  The first of its nine planks supported the maintenance of the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution.

 

The second plank supported the self-evident truths, that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Again, these words formed the first planks of the platform adopted by Republicans in 1860, the year Republicans placed Abraham Lincoln into nomination for President.  In that platform are found these words by Congressman E. G. Spaulding, “The Republican Party was organized upon the platform of liberty and independence, to maintain the union of the States and the rights of the states; freedom of speech and of the press: the equal rights of all persons to impartial protection at home and abroad and in the enjoyment of religious freedom, and of all American citizens, whether native or naturalized, to the free exercise to vote, and the requiring no test for office except honesty, capacity, and devotion to American institutions.”

 

Now 144 years after the founding of our Party, we delegates will pass a platform that flows from the same principles that brought Republicans together in 1856 – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

In fact, we are a Party of whose principles have remained so consistent over the past 144 years that with only minor changes we could easily adopt that founding platform of 1856 as our own platform in the year 2000.

 

Isn’t it wonderful to know as Republicans we are part of a political party that has consistently maintained the same principals for 144 years?  Aren’t you glad to be a Republican?

 

The Democrat Party’s list of accomplishments is built upon government providing for the people by encroaching on their freedom and their liberty.

 

Republican accomplishments have been built upon the principles of equality, freedom, and justice.

 

Republicans were responsible for:

 

•           The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery;

•           The 14th Amendment, giving equal protection under the law;

•           The Civil Rights Act of 1886;

•           The 15th Amendment, giving voting rights to African-Americans.

 

Republicans were the first:

 

•           To support the right of women to vote;

•           To elect an African-American to Congress;

•           To elect a woman to Congress;

•           To appoint a Jewish member to the Cabinet.

 

In Texas, our Republican Party was founded on the same self-evident truths of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The first Republican State Convention was convened on July 4, 1867.  Of 170 delegates, 150 were African American, and 20 were white.

 

Texas Democrats, seeing the growth of the Republican Party in our state, passed the poll tax in 1905.  This slashed the number of Republican voters in the state because many poor blacks and poor whites could not afford to pay.  Using the power of majority to manipulate the laws to the Democrat Party’s advantage is a familiar story, isn’t it?

 

Speech given by state chairman Susan Weddington at the Republican Party of Texas, 2000 state convention in Houston, Texas.