Republican Party

The Founding of the Party

As the slavery controversy intensified during the 1840s and 1850s, a number of antislavery political parties appeared, in large part because of the failure of the two major parties of the day, the Democrats and the Whigs, to respond to the developing crisis. Among the parties that appeared during this time were the Liberty Party (1840–48), the Free Soil Party (1848–55), the Anti-Nebraska Party (1854), the Opposition Party (1854–58), and the Constitutional Union Party (1860). Opponents of slavery and supporters of the notion that the federal government should offer free land in the west to settlers formed the Republican Party in the early 1850s.

The first county convention of the Republican Party was held in Ripon, Wisconsin, on March 20, 1854 (the moderate Republican group, the Ripon Society, takes its name from the site of the first party meeting). The first statewide Republican convention took place on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan. The convention adopted a platform that opposed the expansion of slavery into the west and nominated a slate of statewide candidates, including Kinsley S. Bingham, who would be elected governor that year. Alvan E. Bovay, who organized the Wisconsin meeting, chose the name Republican because it was reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's “Republican” party of the early republic.

The new party drew supporters from antislavery elements of the Whig (who were known as the Conscience Whigs) and Democratic Parties, and would eventually attract many former Free Soilers, Anti-Nebraska Party members, and members of the Opposition Party. It attracted both abolitionists, who wished to eliminate slavery (who became known as the radical wing of the party); and anti-expansionists (known as the conservative wing), who opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories (made possible by the Kansas-Nebraska Act), but were unwilling to outlaw slavery in the states where it was already in place.

By 1856, the Republicans had become a national party, with its base primarily in the northeast and mid-west. [Page 713]The party also had organizations in Delaware, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia. Their first national convention was held in Pittsburgh in February 1856. The party's first nominating convention was held at Philadelphia's Musical Hall Fund in June, 1856, where the new party nominated John C. Fremont, the “pathfinder” and former Democrat who had conquered California during the Mexican War, for president. William Lewis Dayton of New Jersey, a former Whig, was selected as his running mate. The party slogan was “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont.” The party platform opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories. Fremont received 33 percent of the popular vote, and carried New England, New York, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. However, Fremont had no support in the south, and Democrat James Buchanan won the election.

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