Republican History

History of the Republican Party

The Republican Party was born in the early 1850's by anti-slavery

activists and individuals who believed that government should

grant western lands to settlers free of charge. In 1860, the

Republicans successfully elected their nominee to the

Presidency –Abraham Lincoln.

During his Presidency, the United States was wracked by Civil

War. During that war, and against the advice of his cabinet,

Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the

slaves. The Republicans of their day worked to pass the

Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery, the Fourteenth,

which guaranteed equal protection under the laws, and the

Fifteenth, which helped secure voting rights for African-Americans.

That historic relationship is why the first African-American

Congressmen were Republicans.

In 1896, Republicans were the first major party to argue for

securing women the right to vote. When the 19th Amendment

was finally added to the Constitution, 26 of 36 state legislatures

that had voted to ratify it were under Republican control.

The first woman elected to Congress was a Republican,

Jeanette Rankin from Montana, in 1917.

Presidents during most of the late nineteenth century and the early

part of the twentieth century were Republicans. While the Democrats

and Franklin Roosevelt tended to dominate American politics in the

930's and 40's, for twenty-eight of the forty-four years from 1952 through

2004, the White House has been in Republican hands - under Presidents

like Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush. Under Reagan and

Bush Sr., the United States became the world's only superpower, winning

the Cold War from the old Soviet Union and releasing millions from

Communist oppression. After the attacks on our country and an inherited

recession, President George W. Bush continues to build a safer, stronger,

and better America.