GRAND OLD PARTY FOUNDED IN WISCONSIN
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, including former Whigs and Free-soilers, met in opposition to the recently enacted Kansas-Nebraska Act which nullified the Missouri Compromise by making slavery legal north of the compromise line by popular vote.
The Grand Old Party, or GOP, as it would later be known, nominated John C. Fremont as their first Presidential candidate in 1856. The party convention that year was held in Philadelphia.
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 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."
John C. Fremont won 11 of 16 Northern states but went down to defeat to the Democrat, James Buchanan. Four years later Abraham Lincoln of Illinois would be nominated by the Republican Party and be elected as the 16th President of the United States.
Birthplace of the Republican Party
Ripon, Wisconsin
Photo by Royalbroil (2012)
