statement to the effect of Bovay naming the party was made in 1900, to which Col. Hurlbut responded by stating that he and Sherman Booth issued the call for a mass convention to establish a new political party without knowledge or reference to the meeting in Ripon. He further clarified his assessment of the meeting in Ripon: Two years later Hurlbut further defines the differences between the small inconspicuous meeting in Ripon, and the people's mass convention in Madison: Without Colonel Hurbut's call to this "more important place", the Republican Party would not have been born and christened in Wisconsin the summer of 1854. He wrote out the notice for a July convention, which was printed for four weeks in Sherman Booth's Milwaukee Free Democrat paper and other newspapers in the state. Three thousand delegates voted on the capital building steps in Madison on Hurlbut's proposed name of "Republican". Before this convention these delegates had been Whigs, Free Soil Party, Conservative Democrats, and members of the American Party. This event made the state Capital Square the birthplace of the party. Because the name "Republican" had been in common usage among anti-slavery and abolitionist groups throughout the North, one cannot attribute that word to any one person. There were likely many small groups, like the aforementioned ones in Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and New Hampshire, who favored the name. These isolated groups were influencing and directing, and may have called themselves "Republican", but did not name the party. As pointed out by Colonel Hurlbut, the Ripon meeting consisted of Abolitionists, and the Republican Party platform he helped develop in Madison was not pro-abolition, but anti-slavery and anti-slavery expansion. It took more than disconnected local small groups with a common name and idea, but a notable person's issue of a statewide call for a convention, followed by hard work and presenting the name "Republican" to the people. This was the effort of Hurlbut, and the fruit of his effort was the platform and naming of the Republican Party on July 13, 1854, in Madison, Wisconsin. Death Hurlbut died on November 28, 1905, at his home in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. He had been in poor health. References External links 1817 births 1905 deaths People from Newtown, Connecticut People from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin Military personnel from Michigan People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War Pennsylvania Free Soilers Wisconsin Liberal Republicans Wisconsin Reformers (19th century) 19th-century American