Republican Party

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY is the only third party in American history to become a major party. It dominated politics in the United States from 1860 to 1932, and in the early 2000s, it seemed on the threshold of becoming the dominant party again. The party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin, on February 28, 1854, the outgrowth of a series of meetings held in the North in opposition to the concept of letting popular referenda in Nebraska and Kansas decide the slavery question there. The Republicans believed the question of slavery needed a definite answer from the national government, and that slavery should be prohibited throughout the United States. (Strangely enough, the same bill led to the fracture of the Democratic Party, because those from the South believed it gave too much power to the territorialists to settle the slavery question.) The party formally adopted its name on July 6 of that year, in Jackson, Michigan.

The party's first presidential candidate, John Charles Fremont, “the Pathfinder,” in 1856 managed to win all of New England, New York, and four midwestern states. This displaced the Whig Party, which had won in that region previously. The Democratic Party fractured over the slavery question in 1860, and this allowed the new party and its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to win. Before Lincoln had even taken office, several Southern states voted to secede from the United States. The party was thus established on clear North-South lines, and these dominated for 104 years.

From Lincoln until Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, only two Democrats were elected: Grover Cleveland to nonconsecutive terms in 1884 and 1892, and Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. During the era that Republicans dominated, the Republican Party was the more progressive of the two. It was Republicans who freed the slaves and saved the Union, took a hard line with [Page 842]the states on Reconstruction, and instituted the Progressive-era reforms. The Republicans lost in 1912 due to a fracture within the party, when former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt returned to challenge the incumbent, Republican William H. Taft, by running under the banner of the “Bull Moose” Progressive Party. The progressivism of the Republicans waned with the venality of Warren G. Harding and the passivity of Calvin Coolidge. Although more progressive than either of his predecessors, Herbert Hoover was an ineffective president and his failure to end the Great Depression early led to his ouster in 1932. This led the Republicans into the wilderness for 20 years, during which time they were reduced to a rump of upper-class business people and others who were discontented with Democratic rule.

The Republicans nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower on the second ballot in 1952. This was the last presidential nomination to take more than one ballot. Eisenhower was very popular throughout his tenure, and he had no trouble defeating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson II twice, but Ike did not attract large numbers of Americans to the Republican Party permanently. The 1960 election between Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy was very close in terms of the popular vote. Many Republicans believe that the Democratic machine in Chicago, Illinois, had stolen the election for Kennedy. A preliminary recount revealed that the machine had indeed tampered with the election for Cook County state's attorney, but there were only a handful of questionable votes taken from Nixon. Nixon decided not to pursue a recount.

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