Republican Rants

Republican History

The new party was created in 1854 as an act of defiance against what activists denounced as the Slave Power — the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The party founders adopted the name "Republican," echoing 1776, to indicate it was the carrier of "republican" values regarding civic virtue, and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.

Besides opposition to slavery, the new party put forward a vision of modernization — emphasizing higher education, banking, railroads, industry and cities, while promising free homesteads to farmers. The Republicans absorbed the previous traditions of its members, most of whom had been Whigs, and some of whom had been Democrats or members of the Free Soil Party and Know Nothing Party. The party did well in Congressional elections and by 1858 controlled all major northern states.