Excerpt from History of the Republican Party in Illinois, 1854-1912: With a Review of the Aggressions of the Slave-Power The continuous ascendancy of the Republican party in Illinois has few parallels in the histories of the several states. In 1856 William H. Bissell was elected governor of the commonwealth as a Republican. In the fifty-six years that have elapsed, with the exception of two years, from 1893 to 1895, the party has been in control of the legislature or executive department of the state government; and during nearly all of that period the party has had the governor and both branches of the general assembly. The story of the Republican party in Illinois is therefore the political history of the state from the days of Fremont and Dayton. In 1854 Senator Douglas, of Illinois, led the movement for the repeal of the Missouri compromise, one of the landmarks of freedom which had been held sacred and inviolate. The Republican party was the organized protest of the national conscience against this act of sacrilege. In 1858 Illinois was the battle-ground of giants, and the gaze of the nation was intently fixed upon Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. The contest was primarily for a seat in the United States senate, but it was essentially a struggle between two civilizations; between the old order of things that was about to pass away, and a new dispensation of liberty. These facts give special interest and value to the history of the great awakening in Illinois. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.