Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On the water, Heidel House Resort operates the popular
Escapade Tours
(643 Illinois
Ave., 920/294-3344, $15). Brunch, cocktail, dinner, and sightseeing excursions are also
offered.
Scenic Drives
Rustic Road 22,
also known as White River Road, ends at Highway D, north of Princeton,
but affords the experience of two original plank bridges and views of mostly DNR-protec-
ted wetlands. From Green Lake, head west along WIS 23 to Princeton, then north on High-
way D.
BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
By the early 1850s, the powers within the contemporary political parties were im-
potent regarding slavery, willfully ignorant or hamstrung by both sides. Antislavery
activists within the Whig Party in Ripon ultimately grew tired enough to call for ac-
tion.In1852,AlvanEarleBovayvisitedHoraceGreeleyinNewYorkCitytodiscuss
matters. The Whigs were waning, but what was next?
Then Senator Stephen Douglass of Illinois provided an opportunity for a minor
revolutionwithhisKansas-NebraskaBill;theproposalwastoextendslaverybeyond
the perimeters of the earlier Missouri Compromise.
Bovay immediately and quietly summoned 53 other voters back to Ripon to de-
vise a battle plan for opposing the slavery proponents. Ripon had long been a nerve
centeroftheabolitionistmovement.Sostrongwasitsopposition,infact,thatthecity
wasthesiteofwhat'sknownas“Booth'sWar,”aguerrillaskirmishbetweenMilwau-
kee abolitionist Sherman Booth, who helped escaped slaves along the Underground
Railroad, and the federal authorities; local citizens helped Booth and frustrated the
authorities for a five-year period.
Bovay hoped to organize the abolitionists into a cohesive force to be called Re-
publicans (“a good name...with charm and prestige,” he said). His oratory was ef-
fective, and the Republican Party was born on March 20, 1854, in the Little White
Schoolhouse in Ripon. Official declaration of its platform came two years later in
Pittsburgh; standing near the podium was Abraham Lincoln, who, four years later,
would become the party's first successful presidential candidate.
