Civil War: The Republican Party

The Republican Party was established prior to the Civil War. It was originally founded in 1854 by a group of renegade Democrats, Whigs, and political independents who opposed the expansion of Slavery into new U.S. territories and states. Six years after the new party was formed, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln the U.S. presidential election. The early Republican Party was shaped by political conscience and regionalism. Throughout the early and mid-nineteenth century, states in the North and South were bitterly separated over the issues of slavery and state sovereignty. (Legal Dictionary, Republican Party) Originally Republicanism was the ideology of the American Revolution, and as such it became the source of much of what we Americans still

(Enkivillage, History of the Republican Party) In 1860 they became an established political party when their nominee Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. Lincoln’s Presidency throughout the war, including his policies to end slavery for good helped solidify the Republican Party as a major force in American politics. (Enkivillage, History of the Republican Party) The Civil War firmly identified the Republican Party as the party of the victorious North, and after the war the Republican-dominated Congress forced a “Radical Reconstruction” policy on the South, which saw the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution and the granting of equal rights to all Southern citizens. (History.com, Republican Party founding) “In a broad definition a republic is a state is a state or country in which sovereignty is invested in the people. Most commonly such principle beyond the control of the state's citizens is a hereditary principle, and in this sense a republic is the opposite of a