Republican Party

The name of Republicans was, in the earlier history of the Union, taken by the party formed by Jefferson, as distinguishing them from their Federalist opponents, stigmatized as monarch i-; ists. But this party has been treated in an article under the name of Democrats, by which they were also known. In 1854 the name was reyived, to be applied to a new party, at first characterized primarily by opposition to the extension of slavery to the territories. The compromise of 1850 had resulted in the disruption and decay of the Whig party. There was a brief interval before parties could be re-formed upon the basis of the slavery question purely. The pa age of the ' Kansas-Nebraska Act by the Democrats in 1854 caused a general coalition of Northern Free-Soilers, Whigs, Democrats, Know-Nothings and Abolitionists, united in opposition to that measure and the consequent repeal of the Mi ouri Compromise. At first known as ‘‘ Anti-Nebraska Men,” the coalitionists took in that same year the name of Republicans, They at once won a plurality of Congre , and in 1856 held their first national convention at Philadelphia, which nominated Frémont and Dayton. Defeated then, in 1859 they again controlled the House. In 3860 Democratic divisions enabled them to elect Lincoln. For the next fourteen years the party, reinforced for a time by ‘‘ War Democrats,’ wap supreme. It controlled the National Government, enlarged its powers by broad construction of the Constitution, carried on the war, abolished slavery, reconstructed the governments of the seceding States and controlled them, maintained the protective system and refunded the debt. It carried the election of Lincoln in 1864 and of Grant in 1868 and 1872. The Liberal Republican schism of 1872 indicated a reaction from the radical policy followed in regard to reconstruction, and was followed by extensive defeats in the ‘tidal wave’’ of 1874, due partly to official corruption in high places, Yet the party managed, though barely, to carry the election of Hayes in 3876, and elected Gar- Vol. VI.—11 a field in 1880. In 1884 the nomination of Blaine caused the “ bolt” of the ‘‘mugwumps,’’ and the election of a Democratic President. The party then became, more distinctly than in the years just preceding, the party of high protection. In 1888 it elected Harrison. Defeated in 1892, it was again succe ful in State elections in 1893. Its strength has always lain in the North. In addition to the principles already mentioned, it has of late advocated a more stirring foreign policy than that of the Democrats, and larger expenditures for pensions and other national objects. 164