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CLUB HISTORY If you have any additional information about HRC's activities
from years past, please email HRC at gop@hcs.harvard.edu.
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The Harvard Republican Club, the oldest college Republican club in
the nation,
was established in 1888 to counter the recently formed Harvard Tariff
Reform
Association. Espousing the free trade rhetoric of Democratic presidential
candidate Grover Cleveland, the tariff reform association projected the
deceptive impression that free traders dominated Harvard. This misleading
image piqued Republicans, who retained a plurality of support among Harvard
students. To proclaim Harvard’s true political disposition, 817
students
formed the Harvard Republican Club. The members, who included 3 Harvard
Law
Review editors, the managing editor of the Harvard Crimson, the president
of
the Harvard Art Club, and the treasurer of the Hasty Pudding, characterized
themselves as “faithful students, with a special interest in economic
and
historic subjects.” They resolved to constitute a “formidable
phalanx” and
warned their free trade adversaries to “gird yourselves with the
strongest
armor that your stronghold afford you!”
From the outset, the Harvard Republican Club received the backing
of prominent
figures in the Republican establishment. Theodore Roosevelt, Class of
1880,
lauded the club for “keeping Harvard where she belongs.” Congressman
Henry
Cabot Lodge, Senator George Hoar, and Governors George Robinson and John
Long
publicly avowed their support of the Harvard Republican Club at its first
general meeting. The meeting, held on November 2, 1888 at the Tremont
Temple
in Boston, was declared by the Boston newspapers to be one of the largest
political gatherings in Massachusetts history, with over 4,500 people
in
attendance. The club maintained a conspicuous public presence. It celebrated the
election
of Benjamin Harrison to the presidency in 1888 by donning caps and gowns
and
proceeding through Harvard Square. When the club repeated this ritual
in 1900
on behalf of William McKinley and his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt,
one
participant was Theodore Roosevelt’s distant cousin and Harvard
Republican Club
member, Franklin Roosevelt. Refashioned as the Harvard Young Republican Club and dubbed the “West
Point of
Republican Politics” by 1948 president William Rusher, later publisher
of the
National Review, the club carried on its mission to communicate that “There
are
some Republicans at Harvard.” This objective became all the more
imperative
when John Kennedy’s election to the presidency and his appointment
of numerous
Harvard graduates to cabinet posts buttressed the image of a liberal
university. To challenge the depiction of Harvard as a Democratic stronghold,
1962 club president Peter Wallison led a delegation of members to Washington,
where they spoke at a press conference hosted by GOP Senator Kenneth
Keating. The fateful 1964 primary struggle between Nelson Rockefeller and Barry
Goldwater
engendered a fierce divide in the club. As both camps tapped supporters,
membership swelled to a record 400. Though the club splintered into two
separate groups, the Harvard Republican Club and the Harvard Radcliffe
Republican Association, in the 1980s, it reunited in 1998 and now boasts
a
membership of over 800.
- Keith MacLeod, HRC Historian ('03-'04) For a more extensive history of the Harvard Republican Club, click
here.
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