The Birth of the Republican Party

Julia Krebs-Moberg

Katelyn Johnson

Birth of Republican Party

• Northern Whigs, Antislavery Democrats, and Free-

Soilers join together due to rising differences

between other parties

• They form the new Republican party

• Republicans oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act and

want to keep slavery out of the territories and hoped

to resurrect Missouri compromise.

Birth of Republican Party

• In February 1854, at a school house in Ripon, Wisconsin, a meeting was held to form a new political party

• July 6, Republican party was formally organized in Jackson, Michigan

• Horace Greeley was a founder. He had a great ability to draw support from diverse groups

Adds to North/South Tensions

• Republicans opposed slavery in the territories, and wanted to resurrect the Missouri compromise unlike most southerners

• Decided to run against Democrats in the election of 1856 on a platform of issues that the Democratic party caused

• For example the fraudulent territorial election in Kansas

Primary Source

For further research…

• Go to ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm

Sources• Great republican reform party. (1856). [Web]. Retrieved

from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/1856-Republican-party-Fremont-isms-caricature.jpg

• 1856 national republican banner. (1856). [Web]. Retrieved from http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/gal/slide56.jpg

• The orgins of the republican party. (1995, July). Retrieved from ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm

• Danzer, Gerald A. et. Al. (2003). The americans. Chicago, Illinois: McDougal Littell.