The Republican Party was born of the anti-slavery movement. Opponents of the Kansas Nebraska Act emerged in 1854 as the first republicans. With the nomination of John C. Fremont for president in 1856, these republicans organized as an official national party. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln was elected and the Republicans firmly established themselves as a major political party. The name “Republican” was chosen because it alluded to equality and brought to mind Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. In 1861, the Civil War erupted, lasting 4 grueling years. During the war, Lincoln, against the advice of his cabinet, signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves. The Republicans of the day worked to pass the 13th Amendment which outlawed slaver; the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection under the law; and the 15th Amendment, which helped secure voting rights for African Americans. In 1896, the Republican Party was the first major political party to support women’s suffrage. When the 19th Amendment was finally added to the Constitution, 26 of the 36 state legislatures that had to vote to ratify it were under Republican control. The first woman elected to Congress was a Republican, Jeanette Rankin, from Montana in 1917.

 

Michael Curtis – At Large Member