Alvan E. Bovay

Alvan E. Bovay (* 1818 in New York; † January 13, 1903 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American lawyer, teacher and politician. He was one of the founders of the Republican Party of the United States.

Life

Alvan E. Bovay attended Norwich University, where he also received his military training. After graduating, he taught mathematics and linguistics at various universities, including at the Military Academy of Bristol, Pennsylvania. After his marriage he moved with his wife to New York City, where he also worked as a lawyer in addition to his teaching activities. Some years later they moved to the newly founded settlement in Ripon Wisconsin, where he opened a law firm and participated in the founding of Ripon College.

Since 1852, he pursued the idea to found a new party that was to turn against, among others slavery and especially against its further spread to the west and north, as the opponents of slavery in the two major parties, Democratic Party and the Whigs, only a small flow formed. He went to New York to discuss his idea with Horace Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune newspaper. Thus, the plan to establish a party was born with the name Republican Party.

Following the adoption of the Kansas - Nebraska Act, which had moved since 1820 essentially unchanged compromise line between abolitionists and proponents clearly in favor of the latter, the Republican Party of the United States on March 20, 1854 Schoolhouse of Ripon as a " party against the spread of slavery "was founded. Bovay, Greeley, and a two-digit number of other people ( the exact number varies indication ) of several large and small parties were present. Greeley's newspaper immediately began to publicize the new party. 1856 the first national congress was held in Pittsburgh and determined with John C. Frémont, the first presidential candidate.

Alvan E. Bovay was later deputy in the Wisconsin State Assembly and served during the Civil War as a major. In 1874, he left the Republican Party because he regarded the abolition of slavery and the political renewal in the southern states than fulfilled their task. He now advocated for the prohibition and was the first chairman of the local Prohibition Party.