The Republican Party, sometimes called the GOP (“Grand Old Party”), is one of the two major political parties in the United States along with its contemporary rival, the Democratic Party. Founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the GOP enjoyed night dominance after the end of the American Civil War. While the Democratic Party regained footing as major opposition with the elections of Woodrow Wilson and William Gibbs McAdoo, they are still a substantial force in American politics.
while GOP factions have undergone a number of changes in its 82 years of existence, the GOP has remained a staunchly constitutionalist and parliamentarian party. Today the party are generally identified with business-friendly reformist capitalism and dovish foreign policy. Despite their general liberalism, their commitment to healing racial inequality in the United States is often muted.
Herbert Hoover, a Republican, is current President of the United States.
History[]
Foundation and Civil War[]
The modern Republican Party emerged from the collapse of the old Whig Party, which had been the main rival of the Democratic Party since 1828. The Whigs had been increasingly divided into pro and anti-slavery camps in the leadup to the 1852 election, where anti-slavery Whig Winfield Scott was defeated by pro-slavery Democrat Franklin Pierce. The enaction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise and sanctioned slavery in the Western territories, led a coalition of former Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and ex-Free Soilers to form the Republican Party in 1854.
The Republican Party enjoyed strong support from New England Yankees, including throughout upstate New York and much of the upper Midwest. Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbytyrians, and Scandinavian Lutherans lent their support to the Republicans as well, and they were popular throughout the North with businessmen, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, and professionals. John C. Frémont became the first Republican nominee for President in 1856 with the slogan "Free Soil, Free Labor, Frémont and Victory!", which although unsuccessful demonstrated a strong base of support.
In 1860, the Republican Party nominated former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln, an articulate and moderate politician, for president in an extremely contentious election that saw their Democratic rivals split along regional lines. Lincoln secured a majority in both the popular and electoral votes despite not being on the ballot in many Southern states, leading to the secession of eleven Southern states (seven before Lincoln’s inauguration, four after) and the onset of the American Civil War.
Over the course of the Civil War, the Republican Party passed major legislation in Congress to promote rapid modernization, including a national banking system, high tariffs, and the first temporary income tax (subsequently ruled constitutional in Springer v. United States), as well as many excise taxes, paper money issued without backing ("greenbacks"), a substantial national debt, homestead laws, railroads, and aid to education and agriculture. The Republicans denounced the Peace Democrats as disloyal "Copperheads" and won enough support from War Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862. In 1864 they formed a coalition with many War Democrats as the National Union Party, with the joint ticket of President Lincoln and Democrat Andrew Johnson easily winning reelection.
Reconstruction and Gilded Age[]
Union victory in the Civil War heralded an era of Republican dominance in national politics, as the party took credit for preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, and enfranchising the freedmen. Republicans in the South won the support of newly enfranchised African Americans, although the party structure continued to be controlled by local whites and opportunistic Northerners, dubbed “scalawags” and “carpetbaggers”. The 1868 election of Ulysses S. Grant combined with Radical Republican control of Congress began a period of Radical Reconstruction in the South.
The Republican dominance in the South began to fall apart in Grant’s second term after the depression of 1873 and numerous corruption scandals energized Democratic voters to recapture control of Southern state legislatures. Reconstruction officially came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded by a special electoral commission to Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, who promised through the Compromise of 1877 to withdraw federal troops from the last three southern states still under military occupation. The Southern United States quickly fell back under Democratic dominance, with the Republican Party becoming a permanent minority in the region.
The Republican Party split into three factions during the late 1870s: “Stalwarts” led by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling who supported the spoils system of political patronage, “Half-Breeds” led by Maine Senator James G. Blaine who advocated reforms to the civil service system, and “Mugwumps” who opposed the system altogether. After failing to block the nomination of Senator Blaine at the 1884 National Convention, many Mugwumps defected to the Democratic Party and helped to elect reformer Grover Cleveland.
As the Northern post-war economy boomed, the Republicans took credit for the prosperous economy and promoted policies to continue the rapid growth. The GOP supported big business generally, the gold standard, high tariffs and generous pensions for Union veterans. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers.
Progressive Era and Ideological Split[]
The critical election of 1896 marked a turn away from the issues of the previous century and towards the current one, namely regulation of the economy, labor, politics, and immigration. The Republicans nominated Ohio governor William McKinley for president, who campaigned on a promise that high tariffs would end the hardship caused by the Panic of 1893 and argued that the prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups. McKinley defeated his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan by an electoral vote of 271-176 in one of the highest turnout elections in American history.
Although Republicans had generally been viewed as the party of big business, the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 led to the ascent of his Vice President Theodoore Roosevelt, a dynamic personality and ardent progressive. Roosevelt brought forward antitrust suits that broke up both the Northern Securities Company and Standard Oil, as well as railroad legislation and pure food laws. Roosevelt’s successor, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, easily defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 Presidential Election.
Tensions between progressives and conservatives within the Republican Party began to surface during the Taft administration, especially over the issue of tariffs. Taft’s vocal support for the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act in 1909 caused the party to fracture along regional lines, allowing Democrats to win back control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1894. Roosevelt, who had previously ruled out the possibility of running for a third term, decided in 1912 to run for the Republican nomination. Twelve politically liberal states held primary elections for the first time which Roosevelt overwhelmingly won, even defeating Taft in his home state of Ohio. Thirty-six more conservative states instead picked their delegates by state conventions, of which Taft had substantial support. After being defeated by Taft on the first ballot at the 1912 Republican National Convention, Roosevelt announced the formation of a new party dedicated “to the service of all the people”, the Progressive Party. Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson took advantage of the Republican split, winning forty states and 435 electoral votes. The ideological split led many progressives to permanently leave the Republican Party, cementing its status as a pro-business party.
Present[]
The Republican Party continued in opposition throughout the Wilson and McAdoo administrations, until the 1925 British Revolution and subsequent collapse of the New York Stock Exchange heralded the onset of the Great Depression. The party nominated humanitarian Herbert Hoover in the 1928 Presidential Elections, which saw the Republicans easily defeat Democratic nominee Al Smith. The revival of Republican fortunes proved ephemeral, however, as Hoover’s continued inaction in the face of mounting economic turmoil significantly reduced both his and the party’s popularity. The 1932 Presidential Election saw the somewhat recovered Democrats and ascendent Socialists peel off a number of states from the incumbent Republicans, leading to no candidate receiving a majority of electoral votes. The election therefore proceeded to the House of Representatives where, in a controversial decision that has had a lasting impact on American politics, the House voted to return Hoover to the presidency.
To counter the threat posed by radicals from the Socialist Party of America (SPA) and the rising America First Party (AFP), several high-ranking Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives have proposed a coalition ticket under Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson to prevent either party from taking power. Failing this, Kansas Governor Alf Landon is expected to become the party's nominee for the 1936 Presidential Election.
Platform[]
The GOP supports lower taxes, laissez-faire capitalism, a strong national defense, deregulation, avoiding foreign conflict, and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was strongly committed to protectionism and tariffs at its founding but grew more supportive of free trade in the 20th century.