THE CONSTITUTION, RIGHTS & UNION OF THE STATES MUST BE PRESERVED

REPUBLICAN PARTY FOUNDED 

Ripon, Wisconsin (JFK+50) On March 20, 1854, the Republican Party was founded in a schoolhouse here in Ripon.  The leaders of the new political party, a coalition of anti-slavery Whigs and Free Soil Democrats, met in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which nullified the Missouri Compromise by making slavery legal north of the compromise line by popular vote.

The name Republican was suggested by newspaper editor Horace Greeley who wrote..."We think some simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly designate those who...united restored the Union to its true mission of champion...of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery."

The Grand Old Party's strongest supporters were located in New England, upper New York and the upper midwest.  The first resolution drafted in the 1856 Republican Platform stated...

"Resolved...That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution are essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States must and shall be preserved."

Birthplace of the Republican Party

Ripon, Wisconsin

Photo by Royalbroil (2012)