Party platform · 1856

Republican Party Platform of 1856

Presented at the party’s first national convention in Philadelphia, which nominated John C. Frémont for president, the platform declared it both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories “those twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery.” It condemned the violence and fraud in Kansas and called for its immediate admission as a free state, supported federal aid for a Pacific railroad and river and harbor improvements, and opposed legislation impairing liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens.

Why it matters

Frémont lost to James Buchanan, but the platform defined the new party’s founding purpose — halting the spread of slavery — and previewed the national development program Republicans would enact during the Civil War.

Read the full text at presidency.ucsb.edu

Official GOP Position1856 Republican Platform

What the Republican Party says, sourced directly to party platforms and official party documents. It records the party’s position and is not an independent conclusion.

Subjects

elections party platforms slavery party founding

From the library

Related Documents

PM·DOC·1860·022Official GOP Position1860 Republican Platform

Party platform · May 17, 1860

Republican Party Platform of 1860

Adopted at the Chicago convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln, the platform declared that the normal condition of all U.S. territory is freedom, denied that Congress, a territorial legislature or any individuals could give slavery legal existence in a territory, and denounced threats of disunion, while affirming each state’s right to control its own domestic institutions. It also called for tariffs that would encourage American industry, a homestead law, a Pacific railroad and river and harbor improvements, and opposed any change to naturalization laws that would abridge the rights of immigrants.

Held by The American Presidency Project (UCSB)Open archive

PM·DOC·1854·017Primary Source

Legislation · May 30, 1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Sponsored by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and signed by President Franklin Pierce, the act organized the Kansas and Nebraska territories and left the question of slavery there to their settlers under the principle of “popular sovereignty.” It declared the Missouri Compromise’s prohibition of slavery north of 36°30′ “inoperative and void.”

Held by National ArchivesOpen archive

PM·DOC·1858·020Primary Source

Speech · June 16, 1858

“House Divided” Speech

Speaking to the Illinois Republican State Convention in Springfield, which had named him its choice for the U.S. Senate, Lincoln warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and that the government could not endure permanently half slave and half free. He argued that the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision pointed toward making slavery lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South.

Held by National Park Service (Lincoln Home National Historic Site)Open archive