Today in History: The Republican Party Is Born

On this day (March 20) in 1854 the Republican Party was organized in the United States in opposition to the Democratic Party. Early Republicans were drawn from anti-slavery advocates, modernizers, ex-Whigs (who had pushed westward expansion during the 1840s but collapsed over the slavery issue), and ex free soilers (a single issue party opposed to the expansion of slavery into the western territories). Their original slogan--free labor, free land, and free men--summed up their early focus on ending the corrupt economic system then dominating the southern economy and southern politics. They successfully burst out onto the national stage with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860.