The Parties in American Presidential Elections, 1789–2020

Chapter 3 The Emergence of the Republican Party and the Late Nineteenth Century Democratic and Republican Parties, 1854 – 1893

“We went in Whigs, Free Soilers, and Democrats. We came out Republicans,” Alan E. Bovay said, looking back on the Wisconsin winter of 1854 when he and his neighbors made history in the small schoolhouse in their town of Ripon. The southeast Wisconsin town to this day is long remembered as a claimant for the location of the first local meeting of the Republican Party. Abolitionist Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and former Free Soilers met on Monday evening, March 20, 1854 in their town’s schoolhouse to discuss the issues of the day, and in so doing, they made history as they walked out into the cold of the Winter night, ...