Republican Party Dbq

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The Republican Party's founding in 1854 marked a turning point in the history of American politics as it opened up a whole new political lane, at first just a home for all who opposed the Democratic repeal of the Missouri Compromise but it would grow into a party of emancipators. This original belief indicates that this party was not an abolitionist. In the early days of the party, William Lloyd Garrison stated, “The Republican Party has only a geographical aversion to slavery. It is a complexional party only for white men, not for all men, white or black.” (Stanley). They were a party formed out of necessity, based around the original beliefs of the nation of life, liberty, and property, and a party hoping to develop the nation's economy (Republican …show more content…
After the Dredd Scott decision in 1857, Republican editor Horace Greely stated, it was “entitled to just so much moral weight as would be the judgment of a majority of those congregated in any Washington bar-room.” (Richardson). This demonstrates the extent to which this government branch, as well as the government as a whole, which was designed to ensure equal treatment before the law, was influenced by the agenda of a select few affluent individuals with racial biases. As the party organization grew and expanded, they had early electoral success, but to show themselves as the true antithesis of the Democratic party they needed an ideological leader, a charismatic man to help push them down the path of equality among men and they found this with Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln pulled from a blend of abolitionist talking points mixed with sophisticated language to connect to more conservative Northerners, allowing his popularity to skyrocket in the late 1850s. In 1859, at the Wisconsin Agricultural Fair, Lincoln gave a speech where he spoke of farmers, not the rich men being the true bedrock of society displaying the early economic beliefs of the