Republican Party Formation

In 1854 the Republican Party impeded any chance of preserving the Union, for Lincoln stated “In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed” (Lincoln, “House Divided”). The formation of the party happened as the issues of slavery was becoming a bigger issue. Their views and campaign of abolishing slavery made the issue even worse than it was due to the fact that it influenced people to take action against it. Therefore, the formation of the Republican Party was the sole reason for why the Civil War took place. It has since made compromise hard to accomplish and friction between the two parties intensify. The Republican Party was created in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. “The Kansas-Nebraska Act …show more content…
Lincoln said that “the result would be slavery or no slavery” (Lincoln, “House Divided”). This was a wakeup call for both the South and North for the next president could be the determination of the progression of slavery. The realization that the answer had to be one or the other made each side more violent to get the outcome that they wanted. Douglas’ continuous use of ad hominem was affective when he stated that “Lincoln was pro-slave equality” (The Rise of the Republican Party). This made the South ever so anger for they did not already agree on the idea of ending slavery so let alone the citizenship of African Americans. These also made some of the Northerns doubt their choice because although they did not like slavery they did not want the slaves to become an equal. However, Lincoln’s quick wit and manner of speech responded to these claims that satisfied the people more than Douglas’s overused claims. This resulted in the growing reputation of Lincoln. Therefore putting the Republican Party in the spotlight enabling them to call the shots, causing some panic in the …show more content…
“Lincoln’s election outraged many southerners” (Smith). They reject the idea of sucumming to a president that was in accordance with republican ideology. Their ideology happening to be the abolishment of slavery. They lost the power to accumulate the number of slave states because the North preferred an equal amount of slave states to Free states. The south also thought that this was going to influence Lincoln’s decisions over the issue, which many were right to believe for his “growing opposition led him to introduce a law that gradually ended slavery” (Smith). Even though, it gained little support the south viewed this as a preview as to what was going to come in the future if they did not surrender to the north. For putting Lincoln, in charge the blame for the start of the war laid on the Republican Party for they imposed conditions that could not be fulfilled. The south felt threatened and thought “the only way to save slavery was to secede” (Dickinson). The South cornered the Union to respond to a greater conflict on top of slavery. However, the South did not receive the answer in which they had hoped for. They got war instead of the liberty to keep human