FREE ESSAY ON REPUBLICAN PARTY

REPUBLICAN PARTY

REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Republican party is one of the two major POLITICAL PARTIES in the United States, the
other being the DEMOCRATIC PARTY party. It is popularly known as the GOP, from its
earlier nickname Grand Old Party. From the time it ran its first PRESIDENTIAL candidate,
John C. Fremont, in 1856, until the inauguration of Republican George BUSH in 1989,
Republican presidents occupied the WHITE HOUSE for 80 years. Traditionally, Republican
strength came primarily from New England and the Midwest. After World War II, however, it
greatly increased in the Sunbelt states and the West. Generally speaking, after World War
I the Republican party became the more conservative of the two major parties, with its
support coming from the upper middle class and from the corporate, financial, and farming
interests. It has taken political stances generally in favor of laissez- faire, free
enterprise, and fiscal responsibility (at least until 1981) and against the welfare
state.
The Founding of the Party
Scholars agree that the origins of the party grew out of the sectional conflicts
regarding the expansion of slavery into the new Western territories. The stimulus for
political realignment was provided by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
That law repealed earlier compromises that had excluded slavery from the territories. The
passage of this act served as the unifying agent for abolitionists and split the
Democrats and the WHIG party. Anti-Nebraska protest meetings spread rapidly through the
country. Two such meetings were held in Ripon, Wis., on Feb. 28 and Mar. 20, 1854, and
were attended by a group of abolitionist FREE SOILERS, Democrats, and Whigs. They decided
to call themselves Republicans--because they professed to be political descendants of
Thomas JEFFERSON's Democratic- Republican party. The name was formally adopted by a state
convention held in Jackson, Mich., on July 6, 1854.
The new party was a success from the beginning. In the 1854 congressional elections 44
Republicans were elected as a part of the anti-Nebraskan majority in the HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, and several Republicans were elected to the SENATE and to various state
houses. In 1856, at the first Republican national convention, Sen. John C. Fremont was
nominated for the presidency but was defeated by Democrat James BUCHANAN. During the
campaign the northern wing of the KNOW-NOTHING PARTY split off and endorsed the
Republican ticket, making the Republicans the principal antislavery party.
Two days after the inauguration of James Buchanan, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred
Scott v. Sandford decision, which increased sectional dissension and was denounced by the
Republicans. At this time the nation was also gripped by economic chaos. Business blamed
tariff reductions, and Republican leaders called for greater tariff protection. The split
in the Democratic party over the issue of slavery continued, and in 1858 the Republicans
won control of the House of Representatives for the first time. One Republican who failed
that year was Abraham LINCOLN, defeated in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat by Stephen A.
Douglas.
Lincoln, the Civil War, and Reconstruction
At the second Republican national convention, in 1860, a hard- fought contest resulted in
the presidential nomination of Abraham Lincoln. The Republican platform specifically
pledged not to extend slavery and called for enactment of free- homestead legislation,
prompt establishment of a daily overland mail service, a transcontinental railroad, and
support of the protective tariff. Lincoln was opposed by three major candidates--Douglas
(Northern Democrat), John Cabell BRECKINRIDGE (Southern Democrat), and John Bell
(Constitutional Union party). Lincoln collected almost half a million votes more than
Douglas, his nearest competitor, but he won the election with only 39.8 percent of the
popular vote.
Shortly thereafter, the Civil War began. Reverses on the battlefield, disaffection over
the draft and taxes, and the failures of army leadership brought Lincoln and the
Republicans into the 1864 election with small hope for victory. Party leaders saw the
need to broaden the base of the party, and accordingly, they adopted the name National
Union party. Andrew JOHNSON of Tennessee, a War Democrat, was nominated as Lincoln's
running mate. Significant military victories intervened before election day and
contributed to Lincoln's overwhelming reelection. After Lincoln's assassination the
Radical Republicans, led by Sen. Charles Sumner and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, fought
President Johnson's moderate Reconstruction policies. Ultimately, relations between
Johnson and CONGRESS deteriorated, culminating in impeachment of the president; he was
acquitted by a single vote.
The Republican Era
The defeat of the South left the Democratic party--closely allied with the
Confederacy--in shambles. The Republicans, on the other hand, were in the ascendancy.
With the election of Ulysses S. GRANT, the Republicans began a period of national
dominance that lasted for more than 70 years and was only occasionally breached by a
Democratic victory. Between 1860 and 1932 the Democrats controlled the White House for
only 16 years. Grant's administration, with its support from the northern industrialists
who had made fortunes in the Civil War, became riddled with scandal and corruption--the
worst in the nation's history. Grant was not personally involved, however, and was
renominated in 1872. A split among the Republicans ensued: the more liberal elements,
opposed to the harshness of the Radical Republicans on the Reconstruction issue and the
scandals of the administration, broke away and took the name Liberal Republican party.
They, along with a faction of the Democratic party, nominated Horace Greeley for
president. Despite this opposition, Grant was reelected by a substantial margin. A
continuation of the scandals along with the panic of 1873 caused the Republicans to lose
control of the Congress in 1874 in one of the greatest turnovers in history. The
Republicans did, however, emerge from that election with a new party symbol, the
elephant, after it first appeared in a newspaper cartoon by Thomas Nast.
In 1876 the Republicans nominated a virtual unknown, Rutherford B. HAYES of Ohio. The
warring factions of the party were reunited as Hayes promised to remove the federal
troops from the South and urged civil service reform. The Democratic candidate, Samuel J.
TILDEN of New York, received the greatest number of popular votes, but widespread charges
of electoral irregularities led to the appointment of a congressional electoral
commission to review the results and decide who should receive disputed votes in four
states. The commission, controlled by Republicans, granted all the votes to Hayes,
thereby giving him the election by an electoral-college margin of 185 to 184.
The Hayes administration was tarnished by the means in which it came to office but was
generally efficient. Hayes ended Reconstruction, reformed the civil service, and espoused
sound money policies. All these actions were unpopular with the old- guard Republicans
led by Roscoe Conkling, and Hayes did not seek a second term. Instead, James A. GARFIELD
was nominated as the Republican candidate in 1880. Chester A. ARTHUR of New York was
nominated for vice-president. After winning a close election, Garfield was assassinated
and Arthur became president. In spite of a past record as a spoilsman, one who placed the
party faithful in government jobs, Arthur astonished many with his success in getting
passed the Pendleton Act, creating a civil service based on the merit system. He was
never able to gain control of his party, however, and was the only president denied
renomination by his party's convention. James G. Blaine of Maine received the nomination
instead and faced Democrat Grover CLEVELAND of New York in the 1884 election. In a
campaign that became infamous as one of the dirtiest in history, Cleveland, aided by the
Mugwups led by Carl Schurz, defeated Blaine by a narrow margin.
Much of Cleveland's presidency was dominated by debate over the protective tariff. In
1888, after Blaine declined to run, the Republicans chose Benjamin HARRISON of Indiana as
their nominee. Campaigning strongly in favor of the protective tariff, Harrison defeated
Cleveland by an electoral vote of 233 to 168, although he received 100,000 fewer popular
votes. For the first time in years the Republicans also captured both houses of Congress.
The Republicans passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, admitted several new states to the
Union, and passed the highly protective McKinley Tariff Act.
In the congressional elections of 1890 the party suffered its worst defeat since 1874.
President Harrison, although not popular within his party, was renominated in 1892 but
lost the election to Grover Cleveland. This defeat was the worst the Republicans had
suffered since the party's birth. A severe depression and the panic of 1893--and a
generally lackluster Cleveland administration--provided hope for the Republicans. The
advent of a surprisingly strong Populist party in 1892 siphoned off votes from the
Republicans in the border states and from the Democrats in the South. Even so, the
Populist thrust was relatively short-lived. By tying themselves too closely to Free
Silver as a major issue the Democrats weakened themselves.
In 1896, William MCKINLEY of Ohio became the Republican candidate after a campaign
orchestrated by Mark Hanna, a Cleveland politician-businessman who feared the rise of
populism and a decline in business prosperity. In what many political historians believe
was the most significant election since 1860, McKinley beat William Jennings BRYAN by a
substantial margin. McKinley received support from the industrial Northeast and the
business community. Bryan received his votes from agricultural areas, the South, the
West, and from the laboring man. These alliances presaged those that were ultimately to
shape the political coalitions of the first half of the 20th century. The Republicans had
committed themselves to conservative economics--a stance that they consistently retained
thereafter.
McKinley's first term was dominated by the 10-week-long Spanish-American War (1898) and
the subsequent acquisition of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the annexation of
Hawaii. These events increasingly thrust the United States into world politics. The only
question regarding the Republican ticket in 1900 was who would replace Vice-President
Garret Hobart who had died the previous year. Governor Theodore ROOSEVELT of New York was
chosen. McKinley again defeated William Jennings Bryan but was assassinated in 1901.
Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as president, inaugurating a remarkable era in American
political history.
Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism
Under Theodore Roosevelt the country saw reforms in economic, political, and social life.
Republicans took the lead in conservation efforts and, to the dismay of some old
stalwarts, began implementing Roosevelt's trust-busting ideas. Roosevelt's overwhelming
reelection in 1904 inaugurated a new era of regulatory legislation and conservation
measures. As he had promised, he chose not to run in 1908 and urged the party to nominate
William Howard TAFT of Ohio.
Taft defeated Bryan, who was running for the third time; Taft's style, however, and his
conservatism alienated the liberals within the Republican party. Those liberals, led by
Robert M. La Follote of Wisconsin, organized (1911) the National Progressive Republican
League as a means of wresting party control from the conservatives. At the Chicago
convention in 1912, Roosevelt challenged Taft for the nomination. Failing to win,
Roosevelt bolted the party and ran as the PROGRESSIVE PARTY candidate. Thus split, the
Republicans decisively lost the presidency to Woodrow WILSON.
In 1916 the Republicans nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, but
Wilson's domestic record, his personal popularity, and his pledge to keep the United
States out of the war in Europe were obstacles too great for Hughes to overcome. Despite
Wilson's promises, the United States was drawn into World War I, and party politics gave
way to bipartisan prosecution of the war. Republicans won control of the House of
Representatives and the Senate in the 1918 elections and, at the end of the war,
prevented the United States from joining the League of Nations by rejecting ratification
of the Versailles Treaty.
The Republican ticket of Warren G. HARDING and Calvin COOLIDGE won the 1920 election by a
landslide. Harding's administration was plagued by scandals, which were inherited by
Coolidge after Harding's death in 1923. In a politically astute move, Coolidge appointed
two special prosecutors to deal with the scandals, one from each party. Nominated in his
own right in 1924, Coolidge was reelected by a large margin. In 1928, Coolidge declined
to run again, and the Republicans turned to Herbert HOOVER of California. Hoover won by
an unprecedented landslide against Alfred E. SMITH. Republicans also won control of both
houses of Congress. Many believed that another era of Republican hegemony was dawning,
but a rapidly escalating worldwide economic depression brought Hoover and his party to
their knees. Although the Hoover administration took steps to stop the decline of the
economy, its remedies were generally thought to be ineffectual and too late. Hoover was
renominated in 1932 in the depths of the Depression of the 1930s, but Franklin D.
ROOSEVELT defeated him in one of the great landslide victories in U.S. history. The
70-year era of Republicanism was at an end. One of Roosevelt's major accomplishments was
wooing the black vote away from the Republicans.
The Republicans in the Minority: 1932-52
The Republicans were unable to find a candidate who could match Roosevelt's popular
appeal. Alf Landon and Wendell L. WILLKIE failed in 1936 and 1940, respectively. Mostly
isolationist before World War II, the Republicans backed the war effort, a stance that
was to lead to support--enunciated by Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg--for bipartisan foreign
policy after the war. The 1944 elections came at a critical time in the midst of World
War II, and New York governor Thomas E. DEWEY became the fourth Republican candidate to
be overwhelmed by Roosevelt. In 1948, Dewey again was the Republican nominee, this time
against Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. TRUMAN. He conducted a lackluster campaign,
lulled into complacency by polls and expert opinions that forecast a landslide Republican
victory. Truman, however, defeated Dewey in a great upset.
The Eisenhower Era
In 1952 the Republican national convention nominated Gen. Dwight D. EISENHOWER to head
its ticket. Although the party was split over the defeat of conservative senator Robert
A. Taft of Ohio for that nomination, its ticket went on to win a landslide victory,
carrying 39 states. Eisenhower's running mate was California senator Richard M. NIXON.
The 1956 ticket of Eisenhower and Nixon won another decisive victory, due in part to
Eisenhower's moderate course in foreign policy, his successful ending of the Korean War,
and his great personal popularity. Democratic control of both houses, however, won in
1954, was continued.
In 1960, Vice-President Nixon won an easy victory for nomination but lost the election to
John F. KENNEDY of Massachusetts by the smallest popular margin in the 20th century--a
difference of only about 113,000 votes out of more than 68 million cast. After a bitter
internal party struggle prior to the 1964 Republican convention, Sen. Barry M. GOLDWATER
of Arizona wrested the presidential nomination and control of the Republican party away
from the Eastern moderates and began an attempt to convert the party into an
ideologically pure conservative party. His landslide defeat by Lyndon B. JOHNSON,
however, left the party organization in shambles.
The Nixon-Ford Years
In 1968, Richard Nixon reappeared to win the party's nomination and selected Maryland
governor Spiro T. AGNEW as his running mate. Nixon went on to win the election over
Democrat Hubert H. HUMPHREY, who was unable to bring his party together after divisions
brought on by U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
President Nixon's first term was marked by many successes, including improved relations
with China, a more cooperative relationship with the USSR, an improved economy, and what
appeared to be significant steps toward peace in Vietnam. In 1972 the Democrats nominated
a prominent antiwar senator, George S. MCGOVERN of South Dakota. Nixon was reelected by
an enormous popular-vote margin, carrying every state except Massachusetts and the
District of Columbia. Even so, the Democrats continued to control both houses of the
Congress. The campaign, however, carried the seeds of the political destruction of
Richard Nixon. A burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
WATERGATE office complex during the campaign led to revelations of widespread civil and
criminal misconduct within the campaign organization, administration, and White House;
IMPEACHMENT hearings were held, and eventually Nixon resigned in 1974. An earlier scandal
involved Vice-President Agnew, who was forced to resign in 1973 after being convicted of
income-tax evasion.
Nixon was succeeded by Vice-President Gerald R. FORD, who had been appointed to the
office after the resignation of Agnew. Ford faced a serious economic situation--high
unemployment, rising inflation, high interest rates, and huge budget deficits. He was
criticized by moderates for doing too little to allay the nation's economic ills and by
conservatives for offering amnesty to Vietnam-era draft evaders and for appointing Nelson
ROCKEFELLER to the vice-presidency. After a difficult primary contest against
conservative Ronald REAGAN of California, Ford lost the election to Democrat Jimmy
CARTER.
The Reagan and Bush Administrations
By 1980 the apparent inability of the Carter administration to control the economic
situation, coupled with a perception of U.S. impotence abroad (exemplified by the Iranian
seizure of U.S. hostages), favored a Republican resurgence. Reagan easily won the party's
presidential nomination (his most liberal opponent, John Anderson, subsequently ran as an
independent) and went on to overwhelm Carter, taking 489 electoral votes (against
Carter's 49) and 51 percent of the popular vote. At the same time, the Republicans won 12
additional seats in the U.S. Senate, taking control of that body for the first time in 25
years.
This Republican resurgence, however, was only partially confirmed in the 1984 elections.
Although in his reelection bid Reagan routed Walter F. MONDALE, taking 59 percent of the
popular vote and a record-breaking 525 electoral votes (to Mondale's 13), the Republicans
lost two SENATE seats, while retaining a majority. Democrats continued to control the
House. The pattern of Republican presidential triumphs and Democratic gains in Congress
continued in 1986, when the Democrats regained a majority in the Senate, and 1988, when
George Bush won the presidency by a large margin.
President Bush's approval rating reached an impressive 89 percent in 1991 after the
international coalition he forged against Iraq achieved victory in the Persian Gulf War.
However, a recession that began in 1990, combined with the electorate's growing concern
with domestic issues in the aftermath of the Cold War and public impatience with gridlock
in the government, counted against him in his reelection bid. Led by Bill CLINTON, the
Democrats in 1992 captured the presidency (with 370 ELECTORAL votes to Bush's 168) and
solid majorities in both houses of Congress. In 1994, having blocked Clinton's
legislative agenda and mounted an aggressive counterattack in that year's mid-term
election campaign, Republicans seized control of both houses of Congress.
Bibliography
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