Birth of the Republican Party

Missouri Territory formerly Louisiana

When debating the entrance of the state of Maine and Missouri to the Union in 1820, The House of Representatives hit upon a solution that would indirectly be one of the the catalysts for the Civil War. Congress called it "the Missouri Compromise of 1820". It was an amendment that divided the country at the 36° 30' parallel between the pro-slavery (below the line), and anti-slavery (above the line) forces. 

Missouri was to be admitted to the Union without slavery in their constitution but a Senate bill was passed and in the compromise, Missouri was admitted to the Union with slavery, hence the designation of the Missouri Compromise. The the  36° 30' was still considered the line of demarcation between the North and the South.  It created an uneasy peace that lasted until the passage in 1854 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 

Kansas and Nebraska settlers would be allowed to decide if their territories would be free or be able to keep slaves. Both pro and anti-slavery forces rushed to settle in the new territories which led to bloodshed between the opposing forces. Kansas for a time had two state Legislatures, one pro-slavery and one anti slavery. President Franklin Pierce, sent in Federal troops to stop the violence and  support  anti-slavery settlers and to dissolve the pro-slavery legislature. 

John Brown, Abolitionist

Another election was held and again pro-slavery supporters won. They were charged with election fraud. It took John Brown and his anti-slavery raiders to push out pro-slavery settlers which led to the Kansas territory being deemed "bleeding Kansas". John Brown, considered a hero by many but was executed for Treason and insurrection on December 2, 1859. The anti-slavery settlers finally out numbered the pro-slavery settlers and on January 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state, eight weeks after the start of the Civil War.

 

So how was the Republican party formed? Northern leaders S. P. Chase, Charles Sumner, J. R. Giddiugs, Edward Wade, Gerritt Smith and Alexander De Witt in January 1854, released the "Appeal of Independent Democrats" a warning of imminent danger to the Union from pro-slavery forces. The Appeal was originally published in the Cincinnati Gazette and widely reprinted by other newspapers throughout the country.

It sparked spontaneous demonstrations across the Northern Territories and States. In 1854, the first Republican Party meeting took place in Ripon, Wisconsin. The message spread like wildfire! On June 6, 1854 more than 10,000 people turned out for a mass meeting known as "Under the Oaks" in Morgan's Forty, an oak grove, near Jackson, Michigan that is considered the birthplace of the Republican Party. The first organizing convention held on February 22, 1856 in Pittsburgh. The Republican Party held its first nominating convention on June 17, 1856, which announced the official formation, the birth, of the Republican Party.