Learn about the Republican party in the U.S., when and by whom it was founded, its platform throughout its history, and changes in policy and loyalties.
Updated: 11/21/2023
The Republican Party | History, Formation & Platform
Table of Contents
- Why and When was the Republican Party Formed?
- Who Founded the Republican Party?
- Republican Party Platform
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the Democratic-Republican Party founded?
The Democratic-Republican Party was founded in 1792. It's founders were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Democratic-Republicans believed that state governments should be stronger than the national government and that the economy should be based on agriculture. Although the Republican Party named itself "Republican" in tribute to the Jefferson and Madison, the Republican Party and the Democratic-Republican Party are not the same.
What is the basic Republican Party platform?
The Republican Party was founded on a platform that promoted preservation of the Constitution and the Union and opposed slavery in the western territories. The modern Republican Party supports limited government interference in economic and social affairs, conservative family values, a strong military, restrictions on immigration, and protection of American interests at home and abroad.
Table of Contents
- Why and When was the Republican Party Formed?
- Who Founded the Republican Party?
- Republican Party Platform
- Lesson Summary
The Republican Party was formed in 1854 when anti-slavery members of the declining Whig party met in Ripon, Wisconsin. These men were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would allow residents of western territories to decide through a popular vote whether or not to permit slavery.
Similarly, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed in May of 1854, over 10,000 men gathered in Jackson, Michigan to endorse this new party. They called it the Republican Party as a nod to the values of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party.
As the country experienced social and economic shifts and weathered two World Wars and the Cold War, the Republican Party, its platform, and its membership has also shifted. Yet, its enduring core values and beliefs have helped the Republican Party build a strong base of voters that have sustained it over the decades.
Slavery in the Western Territories
As the United States grew, so too grew the need for more land for Americans to own, farm, and mine for natural resources. Eager to make their fortune in lands acquired by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, several hundred thousand people migrated west between 1810-1850. However, these migrants brought with them the ways of life that dominated their region of origin.
Because of its milder climate, the Southeast's economy was built on its production of cash crops such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton. Although a very small percentage of Southerners owned the massive plantations that are associated with slavery, a little under half of all Southerners owned some slaves. Southerners moving west wanted to recreate the social and economic conditions of their homeland, and access to slave labor was a big part of that.
The climate of the Northeast and the advent of the Industrial Revolution saw the northern states pivoting away from small farms that focused on food production and small crafts shops to mass production of goods in factories and an economy that was boosted by exports. While they generally overworked and underpaid their workforce, factory owners and exporters still depended on wage laborers to stay in business.
While the Abolitionist movement was growing steadily and opposed slavery on moral grounds, most Northerners who opposed slavery in the Western territories did so because they feared competing with Southerners and their ''free'' labor source over land and resources in the West.
Thus, the conflict between Northerners and Southerners over the issue of slavery expanding into the western territories was not so much a moral conflict as it was a competition of social, economic, and political ideals and ambitions.
Uneasy Compromises between Northerners and Southerners
Tensions over the question of slavery in the western territories were held at bay largely thanks to Senator Henry Clay from Kentucky. A member of the Whig party, Clay earned the nickname ''The Great Compromiser'' for his ability to come up with solutions that both sides could agree with.
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Clay brokered the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The issue at the center of the Missouri Compromise was the balance of power between southern, or slave, states and northern, or free, states in the Senate. When Missouri Territory applied to become a state in 1817, there were 11 free states and 11 slave states. That meant that no one region would dominate votes in the Senate. If Missouri were admitted to the United States as a state that allowed slavery, the interests of slave states would dominate in the Senate.
Then, in 1819, Maine applied for statehood. Maine wished to enter the Union as a free state. So, a compromise was reached: Maine would enter the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. This would keep the number of slave and free states in the Senate even.
To prevent similar conflicts, Congress also agreed to ban slavery north of latitude 36°30' in the Louisiana Territory. This compromise held the nation together until the United States gained more than 500,000 square miles of new territory at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and until the territory of California asked to be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1849.
Henry Clay again crafted a compromise that would placate both slave and free states. According to the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state. But slave states were pleased that slavery, although not the slave trade, was permitted in Washington, D.C., a new Fugitive Slave Act required that all runaway slaves captured in free states or territories be returned to their owners, and that some of the land acquired at the end of the Mexican-American War would be permitted to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. This practice of allowing the people of the territories to decide was called popular sovereignty. The people of the new Utah and New Mexico territories would likely choose to allow slavery.
Unfortunately, Clay died in 1852 and was not on hand when Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed a bill to create a government in Nebraska Territory so that a transcontinental railroad would make transporting the goods that northern states produced faster and more profitable. However, because Nebraska territory was above the 36°30' line, Nebraska Territory would have to prohibit slavery according to the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Slave states did not support a new free territory, so Douglas proposed splitting Nebraska territory into two new territories: Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory. Douglas also proposed repealing the Missouri Compromise in favor of popular sovereignty. The people of Kansas and Nebraska territory would decide whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.
Douglas's proposal, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was passed by Congress in May 1854. Nebraska chose to be a free territory. The vote was too close in Kansas. This led to both pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers flooding into Kansas, each group trying to gain a majority so that the issue of slavery in that territory would be decided in their favor. Violence erupted between the two groups, leading this period of time to be known as ''Bleeding Kansas''.
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As the Kansas-Nebraska Act was being debated in Congress, attorney Alvan Bovay of Ripon, Wisconsin called a meeting of local Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and Free Soilers. At that meeting, attendees resolved to create a new political party if the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed. When it did indeed pass, Bovay's group created the Republican Party.
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Previously, on a trip to New York in 1852, Bovay had befriended journalist Horace Greeley. Greeley frequently published editorials in his New York Tribune against compromise on the issue of slavery in the West, popular sovereignty, and the Fugitive Slave Act. Greeley was happy to promote the Republican Party in his newspaper.
A meeting also took place in Jackson, Michigan. Over 10,000 men outraged by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act met and decided it was time for a new political party. The new Republican Party was growing and gaining traction.
After the birth of the Republican Party, its first convention took place in 1856 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, the party adopted its first platform, with opposition to popular sovereignty and the westward expansion of slavery as two of its major planks. Delegates to the convention also nominated the party's first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, an army hero and a former U.S. Senator.
Although Fremont lost the election of 1856 to James Buchanan, his candidacy launched the new Republican Party onto the national stage. The Republican Party received further attention when a young lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate as a Republican against Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas. Although Lincoln lost the election, his debates with Douglas, known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, brought attention to the Republican platform.
In 1860, Lincoln won the Republican Party's presidential nomination. He ran against two Democrats: Douglas, who represented northern Democrats, and John C. Breckinridge, who represented southern Democrats. With the Democratic vote split, Lincoln won the election.
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The Republican Party's platform has changed over time.
Civil War Era: The first Republican Party Platform focused on the preservation of the Union, opposed the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories, highlighted the violence happening in Kansas, and demanded that Kansas immediately be admitted into the Union as a free state.
Reconstruction Era: The period after the Civil War is known as the Reconstruction Era. During this time, the Republican Party supported civil and voting rights for black men, hoping to secure their votes. Republicans also supported legislation that favored big business.
Progressive Era and Great Depression: During the Progressive Era, activists and workers fought for safer working conditions, better wages, and more regulation of business practices. Republicans opposed most regulations, thinking they would halt the economic boom of the 1920s. Working class and African American voters and blamed the Republican Party's laissez-faire attitude toward government regulation of business when the stock market crashed in 1929. These voters switched to the Democratic party. The Republican Party had to make changes to bring working class votes back to their side.
World War I, the Interwar Era, and World War II: During this time, the Republican Party supported a tariff, or tax on imports, that protected American industry and labor. The Republican Party also supported limited government spending and limited government regulation of business. The party also endorsed regulation of immigration.
The Cold War: During the Cold War, the Republican Party made strong opposition to communism central to its platform. The party also supported a free economy and equal rights for men and women as well as civil rights for all.
The Reagan Era and the 1990s: The Reagan Era saw a Republican Party that rejected high federal income tax and excessive government regulation of business. The Republican Party also believed that the federal government should play a limited role in solving social problems and in funding social programs. The Party also continued to emphasize national security and to embrace conservative family values.
Post 9/11: After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Republican Party platform included the following planks: winning the War on Terror, building an innovative and competitive economy, and strengthening communities and traditional families.
Present Day: The last Republican Party platform was adopted in 2016. The key planks in the 2016 platform were: rebuilding the economy and creating jobs, lowering taxes, reducing the federal debt, protecting conservative family values and personal liberties, deregulating agriculture and energy industries, and fortifying the US/Mexico border against illegal immigration.
As the country has changed, so has the Republican Party changed. However, there is some continuity over time, including:
- Support for the interests of business and agriculture, including limited government regulation
- Limited taxation of businesses and individuals
- Federal fiscal responsibility, including limited spending on social welfare programs
- Preservation of the Constitution and of American interests at home and abroad
These priorities and values are what have built the base of the Republican Party and have continued to win votes for Republican candidates in local, state, and national elections.
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The Republican Party was formed at a time when the Whig Party and the Democratic Party were at odds with each other and with members of their own parties about the expansion of slavery into western territories. Members of the Whig Party argued with each other about slavery as did Northern and Southern Democrats. Many Southerners wanted to expand slavery into the western territories while Northerners did not. The Republican Party elected its first president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. The platform of the original Republican party included:
- No slavery should be allowed in the western territories
- The Constitutional rights of Kansas residents were being violated by the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act's inclusion of popular sovereignty, the practice of voting on whether slavery would be permitted in a territory
- Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a free state
- The Constitution and the Union must be preserved
Although the platform of the Republican Party has changed with the times, certain core elements, such as a belief in limited government interference in economic and social affairs, have appealed to voters and have ensured the survival of the party over time.
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Video Transcript
Slavery in the Territories
In the 1850s, Americans were looking west, seeking more land and more opportunities in new territories, which would eventually become new states. Southerners were especially intrigued by the thousands of acres of potential farmland in the West. Crops, like cotton and tobacco, had depleted the soil in their native South, and they eagerly turned toward the seemingly unlimited territory of the West to satisfy their need for more land. Of course, because they required people to work in this potentially fruitful land, they would have to bring their slaves west with them. Some Southerners even dreamed of an empire of cotton and slavery in that wonderful land of the West.
Northerners, however, had their own idea. Although many of them were not necessarily opposed to slavery in principle, they didn't want the institution to spread into their Western territories. They dreamed of a place where small farmers could settle, work the land, build up their farms and chase the elusive American dream. An empire of cotton and slavery definitely did not mesh with their ideas of free soil and free labor (despite the fact that the dreams only really applied to white men).
Uneasy Compromises
Over the years, Southerners and Northerners had agreed to a few uneasy compromises to cope with the issue of slavery in the West and to maintain a balance of power between the free states and the slave states. The 1820 Missouri Compromise, for instance, allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state. It also decreed that no slavery would be allowed in the territories north of Missouri's Southern border.
The rather shaky compromise managed to hold until 1850 when tempers flared again as California sought admission to the Union as a free state. In return for a free California, Northerners agreed to allow some Southern territories to vote on whether or not to allow slavery in their regions, a practice called popular sovereignty. The Compromise of 1850 also included the Fugitive Slave Act, which required citizens to help capture escaped slaves and return them to their masters.
By 1854, another crisis loomed as two new states, Kansas and Nebraska, prepared to enter the Union. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed some residents of these states to use popular sovereignty in direct violation of the Missouri Compromise. Kansas soon erupted in violence as pro-slavery groups clashed with free-soil supporters.
Political Parties in Upheaval
The issue of slavery in the West and the tried-but-failed compromises led to political upheaval. In the early 1850s, two major political parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, fought for control. Northern and Southern Democrats, however, continually argued about slavery, and the Whig party was disintegrating from within as anti-slavery-conscious Whigs clashed with pro-slavery cotton Whigs. The time was ripe for a brand new party, one that could stand united and strong.
The Republicans
On May 20th, 1854, a group of politically-minded former Whigs met in Ripon, Wisconsin, to discuss the possibility of forming a new political party that would focus on preventing the spread of slavery in the Western territories. The idea took off, and on June 6th, 1854, over 10,000 people gathered in Jackson, Michigan, to bring the new party to life. The Republican Party, so named by abolitionist newspaperman Horace Greeley, made its first strides in the 1854 election as it won Michigan and did well in a few other states. By 1855, a Republican had been elected Speaker of the House.
In February of 1856, the Republicans met in Pittsburgh to firmly establish their party organization. That June, they finalized their platform and nominated John C. Fremont as their presidential candidate. Fremont actually won 11 of the 16 Northern states in the 1856 election. The Republicans were quickly becoming a vigorous political force.
The Platform
The Republican Party united around its political platform, which contained the following major planks:
- The Union and the Constitution must be preserved.
- No slavery shall be allowed in the territories.
- The Constitutional rights of Kansas residents were being violated and must be protected.
- Kansas should be admitted as a free state.
The 1860 Election
The Republicans were very enthusiastic as they prepared for the 1860 presidential election. They had continued to gain power, and they were ready to present a strong candidate, take control of the country's highest office, and stop the spread of slavery.
In early 1860, a group of Republicans met in Decatur, Illinois, for a state convention. They gathered in a wigwam, which symbolized the grassroots, independent nature of their party. Their goal was to choose a delegate for the Republican national convention, and they selected railroad lawyer Abraham Lincoln. The wigwam was so packed with people that Lincoln could not make his way to the front to accept his nomination. The next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back and being passed hand-to-hand over the top of the crowd.
Lincoln proved to be just the man the Republicans needed. His fellow party members nominated him as their presidential candidate at the national convention on May 18th, 1860, and that fall, Lincoln won the election, becoming the first Republican president. With his victory, however, came a new crisis as Southern states, fed up with their Northern counterparts and disgusted by the thought of a Republican president, prepared to secede from the Union and defend slavery with their lives.
Lesson Summary
As Americans looked toward the West in the first half of the 1800s, Southerners and Northerners sharply disagreed about whether slavery should expand into the Western territories. They forged several uneasy compromises, including the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, none of which solved the disagreement.
The Democrats and Whigs were sharply divided over the slavery issue, and their power struggles cleared the way for the rise of a new political party, the Republican Party, which was formed in 1854 and stood united in their determination to prevent the spread of slavery into the territories and preserve the Union. The Republicans made important political strides early on and, only six years after their establishment, won the 1860 presidential election. Republican Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president, but the stage was set for the new crisis of Southern secession.
Learning Outcomes
When you've gone through the lesson, you could be able to:
- Examine the ways in which the issue of slavery led to a split of political parties before the Civil War
- Detail the compromises that were made in an effort to mitigate the slavery issue
- Explain how the Republican Party was formed and identify its platform at its formation
- Recall the outcome of the 1860 presidential election
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The Republican Party | History, Formation & Platform
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