They were “Wide Awakes” – scores of torchbearers marching through sleepy hamlets to herald the emancipation of a people from the bonds of slavery into God-given liberty. These despised and decried champions of human freedom and defenders of American Union proudly called themselves “Republicans.”

Through the ensuing decades of political triumphs, falters and defeats, we Republicans never forgot our honorable heritage – until today. Amidst the stormy present, some of our compatriots suffer from an apocalyptic intimation that America’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom and self-government is over. They are wrong.