The Republican Party  "Birth of an Antislavery Party"  February 1854

As the 1850's progressed, the nation's politicians increasingly were becoming divided more along geographical lines than party lines. The two major U.S. political parties were the Democratic party and the Whig party, both of which had Southern and Northern factions. The issues of slavery and the expansion of slavery into new territories and states were causing the national parties to crumble and break into many splinter groups. Politicians who supported the party line would find themselves not being re-elected; those who split with party policy were losing their influence in the party. New parties such as the People's party, the American "Know-Nothing" party, the Free-Soil party, and others were springing up around the country in an effort to unite disillusioned Whigs and Democrats.

It was in February 1854, at a political rally in Ripon, Wis., that the label "Republican" was first decided upon by a small group supporting an antislavery position. The Republican party rapidly absorbed other splinter parties under the platform of the nonexpansion of slavery, a strong central government, high tariffs, federally funded internal improvements, and other measures repugnant to Southerners. The area of the country from which the Republican party drew its support was the most densely populated and industrializes; it had most of the railroads and controlled much of the country's commerce. The Republicans were capable of making an immediate impact in national elections.

In the presidential election of 1856, the Republican party, labeled "Black Republicans" for their stand against slavery, nominated the western explorer John C. Fremont. He received less than 1 percent of the Southern vote; however, he carried 11 Northern states outright. For the first time a purely Northern major political party had positioned itself squarely against the Southern slave power.

Fascinating Fact:  Abraham Lincoln, a former Whig, joined the Republican party in 1856. In 1858, he lost the race for U.S. Senate to Stephen A. Douglass, author of the Nebraska-Kansas Act.


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