Republican Party

a political party of the United States. It was formed in 1854 amid the excitement connected with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It was composed chiefly of Northern Whigs, but it drew in the Free Soilers, Abolitionists, and Know-Nothings as well. Republican state conventions were held in this year in Michigan, Maine, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The name was suggested by Horace Greeley. In the Congress which met in 1855 there were fifteen Republican senators and 108 Republican representatives. Nathaniel P. Banks, a Republican representative from Massachusetts, was chosen speaker of the House. In 1856 a call was issued for a national convention to nominate a candidate for the presidency. It was addressed to "the people of the United States without regard to past political differences or divisions who were opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administration, to the extension of slavery into the territories, in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free state and of restoring the action of the Federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson." The convention met at Pittsburg and nominated John C. Fremont for president. He carried eleven states and received 114 electoral votes to 174 for the Democratic candidate, James Buchanan. In 1860 a second Republican national convention met at Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for president and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for vice-president. At the ensuing election, these candidates received 180 electoral votes. The candidates of the three other parties received 123. With the exception of two terms of Grover Cleveland, the Republicans have held the presidency from Lincoln to Taft. The party went into power in full control both of the Senate and of the House. During this period the party has lost the house three times, in 1875, 1883, and 1891. It has lost the Senate twice, in 1881 and in 1893. As the dominant political power it has shaped national events for half a century. The management of the Civil War, emancipation, reconstruction, the resumption of specie payments, and the inauguration of civil service reform were achieved by the Republicans. The party also claims credit for the Homestead Act and consequent rapid settlement of the newer portions of the country. It has been the party of high protective tariff, consequently the party to which the manufacturers and moneyed interests of the country have adhered. As the party in power is naturally the party of corruption, it has been connected with various public scandals, as the Credit Mobilier, etc. See Democratic Party; Know-Nothing Party; Abolitionists; Free Soilers; Tilden; Presidents; Fremont; Emancipation Proclamation; Civil Service; Irrigation