Bloomington Convention
The Bloomington Convention was a meeting held in Bloomington, Illinois, on May 29, 1856, establishing the Illinois Republican Party. It was an attempt to unite Anti-Nebraska members of the Opposition Party into a single party. The convention adopted a party platform and nominated a ticket led by William Henry Bissell for Governor of Illinois. Bissell would be elected later that year, making him one of the first governors elected as a Republican.
Background
By 1850, the Democratic Party had emerged as the leading political party in the United States. An uncertain stance on slavery led to the demise of the main Democratic competitor, the Whig Party. The slavery debate was briefly quelled by the Compromise of 1850, which settled several questions about the legality of slavery in new territories. However, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, proposed four years later, reignited tensions. The act would create two new territories and determined that slavery status there would be determined by a popular vote of residents.[1]
After its ratification, Douglas spoke in the state capital of
On January 15, 1856, the chairman of the nine existing state
Convention
The first official Republican convention in Illinois was held on May 29, 1856, in
Resolved, That foregoing all former differences of opinions upon other questions, we pledge ourselves to unite in opposition to the present administration and to the party which upholds and supports it and to use all honorable and constitutional means to wrest the Government from the unworthy hands which now control it and to bring it back in its administration to the principles and practices of Washington, Jefferson and their great and good compatriots of the Revolution.
Resolved, That foregoing all former differences of opinions upon other questions, we pledge ourselves to unite in opposition to the present administration of the Government; that under the Constitution Congress possesses the power to prohibit slavery in the Territories ; and that, whilst we will maintain all constitutional rights of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the principles of freedom as expressed in our Declaration of Independence and our national constitution, and the purity and perpetuity of our Government require that that power shall be exerted to prevent the extension of slavery into territory heretofore free.
Resolved, That the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was unwise and injurious; an open and aggravated violation of the plighted faith of the States, and that the attempt of the present administration to force slavery into Kansas against the known wishes of the legal voters of that Territory is an arbitrary and tyrannous violation of the rights of the people to govern themselves, and that we will strive by all constitutional means to secure to Kansas and Nebraska the legal guaranty against slavery of which they were deprived at the cost of the violation of the plighted faith of the nation.
Resolved, That we are devoted to the Union and will, to the last extremity, defend it against the efforts now being made by the dis-unionists of this administration to compass its dissolution, and that we will support the Constitution of the United States, in all its provisions regarding it, as the sacred bond of our Union and the only safeguard for the preservation of the rights of ourselves and our posterity.
Resolved, That we are in favor of the immediate admission of Kansas as a member of this Confederacy under the constitution adopted by the people of said Territory.
Resolved, That the spirit of our institutions as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees the liberty of conscience as well as political freedom, and that we will proscribe no one by legislation or otherwise on account of religious opinions, or in consequence of place of birth.
Lincoln delivered the closing address. The speech was purportedly so captivating that no reporter made a record of it.[1] The address has become known as Lincoln's Lost Speech. The delegates to the convention were:
- 1st District: Sheldon M. Church
- 2nd District: William B. Ogden, declined and replaced by John Evans
- 3rd District: G. D. A. Parks
- 4th District: Thomas J. Pickett
- 5th District: Edward A. Dudley
- 6th District: William H. Herndon
- 7th District: Richard J. Oglesby, declined and replaced by J. C. Pugh
- 8th District: Joseph Gillespie
- 9th District: David L. Phillips
- At-large: Ira C. Wilkinson
Aftermath
The Democrats had nominated Richardson for governor at their convention earlier that month. The remnants of the Whig party declined to run a candidate. The