ANSWERS: 3
  • They were originally called the "Bloody Shirts", because they fought to the end in the Civil War:)
  • Their original platform was to combat twin pillars of barbarism (which they defined a slavery and mormonism)
  • On this day in 1854, Alvan E. Bovay (1818-1903) called an anti-slavery meeting at the Congregational Church in Ripon, the Wisconsin town where he practiced law. The group voiced outrage at the Kansas-Nebraska Act, soon to clear Congress, which provided that settlers could decide for themselves whether to allow slavery in the new territories. The legislation repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had banned slavery in that region. A similar meeting had taken place a week earlier in Jackson, Mich. Both groups dubbed themselves “Republicans,” evoking the Democratic-Republican label once used by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Bovay called a second meeting on March 20, 1854, to popularize the new Republican Party movement. It quickly achieved success in Wisconsin, securing the governorship in 1856, and remained the dominant party in the state for many years. By 1860, the Republicans were in a strong position. Abraham Lincoln won a four-way presidential contest, setting the stage for the Civil War. The Union victory left the Democrats — who had been aligned with the Confederacy — in shambles. With the election in 1868 of Ulysses Grant, a Civil War hero, the Republicans began a period of dominance that lasted for more than 70 years — only occasionally breached by Democratic victories. Between 1860 and 1932, the Democrats controlled the White House for only 16 years. Since 1856, Republicans have won 23 of the 38 contested presidential elections, including seven of the past 10. In all, 18 of the 28 occupants of the White House since the party’s founding have been Republicans. Since 1964, however, the Grand Old Party, which took credit for ending slavery in the United States, has fared poorly among black voters. Between 1980 and 2006, it has garnered, on average, less than 15 percent of the African-American vote at the polls.

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