Guest Author - Linda Sue Grimes

The party was in its infancy at the time that John C. Frémont ran and was considered a “third party.” Even so, Frémont managed to receive a third of the electoral vote.

Formal Organization
The Republican Party began its formal organization on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan. After passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, disagreement arose regarding the expansion of slavery into the western territories. The following groups voiced opposition to that expansion and other issues and began to fill the ranks of the newly forming party:

1. Northern Whigs united in their opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and were leaderless following the deaths of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, both in 1852.
2. The Free-Soil Party, which had played a spoiler role in several presidential elections, but now was bereft of effective leadership
3. The Know-Nothing movement, whose roots lay in the fear of immigrants in general and Roman Catholics in particular
4. Northern Democrats who deserted their Southern cousins over the slavery issue.

The name “Republican” was adopted at the July 6, 1854, meeting; they felt themselves to be heirs to the legacy of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican party. In the 1854 congressional election, the new party won 44 seats in the House of Representatives, several Senate seats, and several state congressional seats. So the new party was successful even at its beginning.
Issues that further united the party were: (1) Repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act; (2) Support of a central route for the transcontinental railroad; (3) Support of the Homestead Act, and (4) Support of high protective tariffs and liberal immigration laws.

Abraham Lincoln, First Republican President
The first Republican candidate to win election was Abraham Lincoln in 1860. His election was repugnant to the South, and by the time of his inauguration in March 1861, seven states had seceded from the Union. Although his inaugural address tried to placate, it had no effect on the South. On April 12, 1861, South Carolina, the state that led the secession fired on Ft. Sumter, which had symbolized federal authority, and the Civil War began. Despite contrary advice from his cabinet, Lincoln signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery.

Later the Republican Party was responsible for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing equal protection under the law, and Fifteenth Amendment, securing voting rights for African-Americans.

First Major Party to Favor the Vote for Women
In 1896, Republicans were the first major party to favor women’s suffrage. When the Nineteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution, 26 of the 36 state legislatures that ratified that amendment were under control of the Republican party. The first woman elected to the House of Representative was Republican Jeanette Rankin from Montana in 1917.

Most of the presidents of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century have been Republicans. Although the Democrats, including Franklin Roosevelt, dominated politics during the 1930s and 1940s, from 1952 to 1992—for 28 of those 40 years—the Republicans held the White House: Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush. Reagan and Bush can claim the distinction of winning the Cold War, giving the United States the position of the world’s only superpower. And with the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States was instrumental in bringing freedom from oppressive Communism to millions of people.

References:
Formation of the Republican Party
The Republican Party - GOP History