This Day in Republican History 1/31/06

January 31, 1865 13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. House with unanimous Republican support, intense Democrat opposition Just one of the first in a long line of Republican victories to bring equaltiy to all in the face of extreme Democratic opposition. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”

From the final Emancipation Proclamation

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free —honorable alike in what we give and what we receive.”

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

“The Republican Party, on the contrary [to the Democrats], holds that this government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil… . [Republicans] will oppose in all its length and breadth the modern Democratic idea that slavery is as good as freedom.”

Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States

“The first Republican I knew was my father and he is still the Republican I most admire. He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I.

“I joined for different reasons. I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group. I found a party that puts family first. I found a party that has love of liberty at its core. And I found a party that believes that peace begins with strength.”

“It’s that expression of the individual and a willingness to put the educational opportunities before me that led to who I am. Who you are is who you are as an individual.”

Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State