Originally posted at The Festering Swamp on January 17, 2008
With this entry, I conclude my series of old Festering Swamp blog posts, for I have no others left except for a Thanksgiving Day post by Dana from last year. With Dana's permission, I'll post it again this coming Thanksgiving. As the first paragraph indicates, I originally wrote this in response to the commonly-held belief that the Republican Party has not been at the forefront of the historical expansion of political rights in this country. This was the very last entry I posted at The Festering Swamp, for I resigned as a contributor eight days later. – Mike LaRoche
In the comments to my previous entry, Luke Y. Thompson raised a valid point, writing: "I really must've missed the part in history when Republicans were behind the initial great strides in women's rights and worker's rights. Please fill me in." With this entry, I will attempt to do so.
To understand the long-standing Republican commitment to civil rights, it is best to begin with the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. In April 1866, Congressional Republicans (against the strong opposition of President Andrew Johnson, a Unionist Democrat), introduced the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment entailed the following:
- All native-born or naturalized persons in America were officially made American citizens, and states were prohibited from depriving citizens of their life, liberty, or property without the due process of law.
- States were compelled to extend voting rights to blacks, for the amendment stipulated that state representation in Congress could be reduced if some citizens were unjustly barred from voting.
Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment in June 1866, and it was forwarded to the states for ratification. Johnson fought hard against the ratification of this amendment throughout the summer and fall of 1866, but his efforts were futile as state after state outside the South approved it (all of the Southern states, except Tennessee, voted it down).
In February 1869, the Republican Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was subsequently ratified by the requisite number of states. This Amendment guaranteed voting rights to all citizens regardless of their race, color, or former slave status.
During Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, more measures were taken by Congress to protect blacks against harassment. One significant piece of legislation, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, made it a felony to interfere with voting rights and authorized the use of the army for the law's enforcement. A similarly strong law passed was the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which broadly outlawed public racial discrimination.
More than a dozen years after Reconstruction ended, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) tried to push his Force Bill through Congress, which would have restored voting rights to African-Americans throughout the South. At the time, Southern state governments (under the control of Redeemer Democrats) were busy enacting legislation to marginalize blacks politically and socially. Cabot's bill failed largely because of Democratic opposition and continuing strife over the passage of the unpopular McKinley Tariff Act.
It should also be remembered that the Republican Party's commitment to civil rights was alive and well during the twentieth century, for it was President Dwight D. Eisenhower who used federal troops to force the state of Arkansas to admit black students to Little Rock's Central High School. And as Dmac mentioned in my previous entry's comments, Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL) was instrumental in pushing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. On the matter of Sen. Barry Goldwater's (R-AZ) stance against the legislation, Goldwater's position was rooted in concerns over provisions in the bill that granted federal agencies excessive power in enforcing the legislation – a very valid worry in retrospect.
Regarding women's rights, Republican support for female suffrage was evident as early as the 1860s, when the very Republican territory of Wyoming became the first to allow women to vote (h/t to Eric Blair for the Wikipedia link):
"In 1869, Wyoming extended much suffrage to women, at least partially in an attempt to garner enough votes to be admitted as a state. In addition to being the first U.S. state to extend suffrage to women, Wyoming was also the home of many other firsts for U.S. women in politics. For the first time, women served on a jury in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870). Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870) and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). Wyoming became the first state in the Union to elect a female governor, Nellie Taylor Ross, who was elected in 1924 and took office in January 1925."
The first woman elected to Congress was also a Republican: Rep. Jeanette Rankin (R-MT) of Missoula, who also holds the dubious distinction of being the only member of Congress to vote against America's entry into both World War I and World War II.
Also, it was a Republican Congress that in 1919 passed the 19th Amendment, granting women nationwide the right to vote. This was done over the loud objections of then-President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat.
On the subject of worker's rights, it was President Benjamin Harrison, a Republican, who in 1890 signed the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed pools and trusts, stating that there could be no more collusion among businesses to restrict competition. Specifically, the law stated that there could be no "conspiracy in restraint of trade."
Another Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, took even more aggressive action. In 1901, Roosevelt declared that "the absolutely vital question" facing the country was "whether or not the government has the power to control the trusts." Evidence of this change of focus on the trusts came when the federal government, at Roosevelt's direction, filed an antitrust suit against the Northern Securities Company after an exhaustive investigation had turned up evidence of illegalities.
Corporate leaders such as J.P. Morgan were shocked, but Roosevelt was adamant that government be used as an instrument to control business. In response to the indignation expressed by many business leaders, one newspaper editor wryly stated: "Wall Street is paralyzed at the thought that a President of the United States would sink so low as to try to enforce the law."
Another sign of the change in business and labor policy under Roosevelt was apparent with his handling of an anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania in 1902. In this case Roosevelt chose to have the government mediate in this dispute between labor and management: commonplace now, but unprecedented then.
In May of 1902, nearly 50,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike to demand higher wages, shorter hours, and recognition of their union, known as the United Mine Workers (UMW). The strike dragged on through the summer and fall, but with winter approaching and with the price of coal reaching all-time highs, President Roosevelt called representatives from both sides to meet in October 1902. Management at first refused to speak with the union leaders at the meeting, insulting the President. In response, Roosevelt threatened to seize the mines and operate them with federal troops – a threat that quickly brought management around. With J.P. Morgan's encouragement, the mine owners agreed to arbitration and in the end the miners won a reduction in work hours and a wage increase. Management received a concession in that they did not have to recognize the UMW.
Ultimately, Roosevelt was steadfast in his belief that the government should act independently of big business, and he characterized his actions during the anthracite coal strike specifically as an attempt to give both labor and management a "square deal."
Although I titled this entry "The Secret History of the Republican Party," there really is nothing secret about what I have discussed. The facts are easily available but have been consistently ignored (if not distorted) for years by many so-called professional educators across the country – due to either ideological bias or just plain ignorance. Oftentimes in the pursuit of historical truth, the most critical step is to unlearn what you have previously learned.