James Coolidge Carter (October 14, 1827 – February 14, 1905) was a New York City lawyer, a partner in the firm that eventually became Carter Ledyard & Milburn , which he helped found in 1854.
94-584: The Mugwumps were Republican political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They were never formally organized. They famously switched parties from the Republican Party by supporting Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the 1884 United States presidential election . They switched because they rejected the long history of corruption associated with Republican candidate James G. Blaine . In
188-550: A close election, the Mugwumps claimed they made the difference in New York state and swung the election to Cleveland. The jocular word "mugwump", noted as early as 1832, is from Algonquian mugquomp , "important person, kingpin" (from mugumquomp , "war leader"), implying that Mugwumps were "sanctimonious", or "holier-than-thou", in holding themselves aloof from party politics. After the election, "mugwump" survived for more than
282-739: A common outlook. Mugwumps tended to come from old Protestant families of New York and New England and often from inherited wealth. They belonged to or identified with the emerging business and professional elite and were often members of the most exclusive clubs. Yet they felt threatened by the rise of machine politics , one aspect of which was the spoils system ; and by the rising power of both immigrants and of multi-millionaires in American society. They excelled as authors and essayists, yet their writings indicated their social position and class loyalties. In politics, they tended to be ineffectual and unsuccessful, unable and unwilling to operate effectively in
376-530: A decade as an epithet for a party bolter in American politics. Many Mugwumps became Democrats or remained independents, and most continued to support reform well into the 20th century. During the Third Party System , party loyalty was in high regard, and independents were rare. Theodore Roosevelt stunned his upper-class New York City friends by supporting Blaine in 1884; by rejecting the Mugwumps, he kept alive his Republican Party leadership, clearing
470-511: A few days, he died at 7 East 88th Street (a Beaux-Arts townhouse built in 1903 by architects James R. Turner and William G. Killian), his residence in New York City on February 14, 1905. In New York, his funeral was held at All Souls' Church on Fourth Avenue and 22nd Street . Another funeral was conducted by the Rev. Prof. Francis Greenwood Peabody of Harvard and was held at
564-484: A hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to "Black Republicans." ... But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be
658-523: A high minded civic morality. Dictionaries report that "mugguomp" is an Algonquian word meaning "person of importance" or "war leader". The Indianapolis Sentinel pinned the moniker on the Independents in 1872, but it was Charles Anderson Dana , the colorful newspaperman and editor of the now-defunct New York Sun , who revived it in March 1884, after which it achieved far wider currency. Dana made
752-498: A huge national debt , homestead laws , railroads and aid to education and agriculture . The Republicans denounced the peace-oriented Democrats as disloyal Copperheads and won enough War Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862. In 1864, they formed a coalition with many War Democrats as the National Union Party . Lincoln chose Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate and was easily re-elected. During
846-577: A major issue between the wet Democrats and the dry GOP. The election of William McKinley in 1896 marked a resurgence of Republican dominance and was a realigning election . The GOP now had a decisive advantage nationwide and in the industrial states; the Democrats were left with the Solid South and mixed opportunities elsewhere. The large cities had Republican or Democratic machines. With fewer competitive states, turnout fell steadily. Blacks in
940-418: A murderer!" New England Yankees, who dominated that region and much of upstate New York and the upper Midwest , were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and, during the war, many Methodists and Scandinavian Lutherans . The Quakers were a small, tight-knit group that was heavily Republican. By contrast,
1034-573: A new income tax, a national banking system, paper money ("Greenbacks") and enough taxes and loans to pay for the war. Many conservative Democrats became War Democrats who had a deep belief in American nationalism and supported the war. When Lincoln added the abolition of slavery as a war goal, the Peace Democrats were energized and carried numerous state races, especially in Connecticut, Indiana and Illinois. Democrat Horatio Seymour
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#17327726108931128-560: A political environment where patronage was the norm. In his 1998 work, historian David Tucker attempts to rehabilitate the Mugwumps. According to Tucker, the Mugwumps embodied the liberalism of the 19th century and their rejection by 20th-century historians, who embraced the government intervention of the New Deal and the Great Society , is not surprising. To Tucker, their eloquent writings speak for themselves and are testament to
1222-605: A presidential election. The final nail in the Whig coffin was the Kansas–Nebraska Act , passed by Democrats in 1854. It was also the spark that began the Republican Party, which would take in both Whigs and Free Soilers and create an anti-slavery party that the Whigs had always resisted becoming. The Act opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states , thus implicitly repealing
1316-433: A reformer, won two states. Through the primaries, Senator La Follette won a total of 36 delegates; President Taft won 48 delegates; and Roosevelt won 278 delegates. However 36 more conservative states did not hold primaries, but instead selected delegates via state conventions. For years Roosevelt had tried to attract Southern white Democrats to the Republican Party, and he tried to win delegates there in 1912. However Taft had
1410-462: A role but it was less important at first. The Know-Nothing party embodied the social forces at work, but its weak leadership was unable to solidify its organization, and the Republicans picked it apart. Nativism was so powerful that the Republicans could not avoid it, but they did minimize it and turn voter wrath against the threat that slave owners would buy up the good farm lands wherever slavery
1504-491: A strong anti- Soviet Union foreign policy. Reagan's influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century. In 2016, businessman and media personality Donald Trump became the party's nominee for president, won the presidency, and shifted the party further to the right. Since Trump's nomination in 2016, the party is seen to be split between the Trumpist faction, which ranges from far-right nationalists to populists , and
1598-547: A third term, but he was outmaneuvered by Taft and lost the nomination. The 1912 Republican National Convention turned a personal feud into an ideological split in the GOP. Politically liberal states for the first time were holding Republican primaries . Roosevelt overwhelmingly won the primaries—winning 9 out of 12 states (8 by landslide margins). Taft won only the state of Massachusetts (by a small margin); he even lost his home state of Ohio to Roosevelt. Senator Robert M. La Follette ,
1692-486: A third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms . After 1912, many Roosevelt supporters left the Republican Party, and the party underwent an ideological shift to the right. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression (1929–1940); under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1964. After
1786-556: The Chicago Civic Federation , and the Municipal Voters' League. They opposed corruption, government subsidies, high taxes, and public enterprise. However they also wanted government to solve the problems of the rapidly growing metropolis. This was only possible if the voters were better informed. The newspapers adopted Mugwumpery as a way of building support for municipal reform among working-class voters in
1880-830: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , and the Southern strategy , the party's core base shifted with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic. White voters increasingly identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade ,
1974-600: The Civil War also of former black slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in the Solid South , and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting block. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system ,
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#17327726108932068-577: The Stalwarts , led by Roscoe Conkling of New York . Blaine was from the reform wing of his own party, but the Mugwumps rejected his candidacy. This division among Republicans may have contributed to the victory in 1884 of Grover Cleveland , the first President elected from the Democratic party since the Civil War. In the period from 1874 to 1894, presidential elections were closely contested at
2162-944: The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution —which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; it was ratified in December 1865. In 1865, the Confederacy surrendered, ending the Civil War. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 ; following his death, Andrew Johnson took office as President of the United States. During the post-Civil War Reconstruction era , there were major disagreements on
2256-537: The U.S. House of Representatives before 1935 and all of the African Americans who served in the Senate before 1979, were Republicans. Frederick Douglass after the Civil War and Booker T. Washington in the early 20th century were prominent Republican spokesmen. Social pressure eventually forced most Scalawags to join the conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and, starting in
2350-685: The anti-Trump faction , which consists of center-right conservatives, moderate centrists , as well as some traditional conservatives . Since the 1990s, the party's support has chiefly come from the South, the Great Plains , the Mountain States , and rural areas in the North. As of 2016, it supports free market economics , cultural conservatism , and originalism in constitutional jurisprudence . There have been 19 Republican presidents,
2444-414: The economy . McKinley relied heavily on industry officials and the middle classes for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business. This emphasis on business was in part reversed by Theodore Roosevelt, the presidential successor after McKinley's assassination in 1901, who engaged in trust-busting . Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, had the most dynamic personality of
2538-694: The gold standard , railroads , and high tariffs . The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States at its inception, it was very successful in the Northern United States , where by 1858 it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state. With
2632-405: The severe economic depression 1893–1897 and the violent coal and railroad strikes of 1894. From 1860 to 1912, the Republicans took advantage of the association of the Democrats with "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion". Rum stood for the liquor interests and the tavernkeepers, in contrast to the GOP, which had a strong dry element. "Romanism" meant Roman Catholics , especially Irish Americans, who ran
2726-545: The 1870s, formed the "tan" half of the "Black and Tan" Republican Party , a minority in every Southern state after 1877. This divided the party into two factions: the lily-white faction , which was practically all-white; and the biracial black-and-tan faction. In several Southern states, the "Lily Whites", who sought to recruit white Democrats to the Republican Party, attempted to purge the Black and Tan faction or at least to reduce its influence. Among such "Lily White" leaders in
2820-512: The 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to Grover Cleveland (in 1884 and 1892 ). Religious lines were sharply drawn. Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Scandinavian Lutherans and other pietists in the North were tightly linked to the GOP. In sharp contrast, liturgical groups , especially the Catholics, Episcopalians and German Lutherans, looked to
2914-458: The 1890s goo-goo , a corruption of "good government", was used in a similar derogatory manner. Whereas "mugwump" has become an obscure and almost forgotten political moniker, "goo-goo" was revived, especially in Chicago , by the political columns of Mike Royko . History of the Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party , also known as the GOP (Grand Old Party), is one of
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3008-492: The Democratic Party for protection from pietistic moralism, especially prohibition. Both parties cut across the class structure, with the Democrats more bottom-heavy. Cultural issues, especially prohibition and foreign language schools became important because of the sharp religious divisions in the electorate. In the North, about 50% of the voters were pietistic Protestants (Methodists, Scandinavian Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Disciples of Christ ) who believed
3102-612: The Democratic Party in every big city and whom the Republicans denounced for political corruption. "Rebellion" stood for the Democrats of the Confederacy , who tried to break the Union in 1861; and the Democrats in the North, called " Copperheads ", who sympathized with them. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were Democrats and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During
3196-456: The Democrats, who had nominated reformer Grover Cleveland . Young Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge , leading reformers, refused to bolt—an action that preserved their leadership role in the GOP. As the Northern post-war economy boomed with industry, railroads, mines and fast-growing cities as well as prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to keep
3290-412: The Democrats. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were mostly Democrats and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s, elections were remarkably close. The Democrats usually lost, but won in 1884 and 1892 . In the 1894 Congressional elections , the GOP scored the biggest landslide in its history as Democrats were blamed for
3384-425: The Democrats. They won control of the House and formed " Redeemer " coalitions which recaptured control of each southern state, in some cases using threats and violence. Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded by a special electoral commission to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes , who promised through the unofficial Compromise of 1877 to withdraw federal troops from control of
3478-602: The Irish Catholics. James C. Carter (1827–1905) was a leading New York lawyer and an influential legal theorist among fellow Mugwumps. Carter distrusted politicians and elected officials. Instead he put his trust in disinterested experts, especially judges. He equated common law with custom, and his condemnation of legislation inconsistent with custom, reflected his Mugwumpism. He tried to synthesize traditional thinking with modernity. For example, Carter clung to support for active government intervention he learned from
3572-632: The National Civic League. In 1875, Governor Samuel J. Tilden appointed him a member of the commission to devise a form of municipal administration for cities in the state of New York, and in 1888, Governor David B. Hill appointed him a member of the Constitutional Commission. In 1892, he was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as counsel, with Edward J. Phelps and Judge Henry Williams Blodgett , to present
3666-668: The Pendleton Act (1883), municipal reform with the New Charter of Baltimore (1895), the training of professional social workers, and efforts to solve labor unrest. Raymond Cunningham, argues that his reformism shows that the Mugwumps movement could attract affirmative and optimistic experts, rather than just suspicious or cautious patricians. In Chicago, the Mugwump reformers worked through the Citizens' Association of Chicago,
3760-491: The Progressive Era, North Carolina journalist William Garrott Brown tried to convince upscale white southerners of the wisdom of a strong early white Republican Party. He warned that a one party solid South system would negate democracy, encourage corruption, because the lack of prestige of the national level. Roosevelt was following his advice. However, in 1912, incumbent president Taft needed black Republican support in
3854-482: The Republican Party (it lost the presidency only in 1884 and 1892). Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting the factions of his party to fight for the Union in the Civil War. However, he usually fought the Radical Republicans who demanded harsher measures. Led by Senator William P. Fessenden and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens , Congress took the lead in economic policy, bringing in high tariffs,
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3948-434: The Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals . The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term President Ronald Reagan , who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. His conservative policies called for reduced social government spending and regulation , increased military spending, lower taxes , and
4042-622: The Senate . With the election of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868, the Radicals had control of Congress and the party attempted to build a solid Republican base in the South using the votes of Freedmen, Scalawags and Carpetbaggers , supported directly by United States Army detachments. Republicans all across the South formed local clubs called Union Leagues that effectively mobilized the voters, discussed issues, and when necessary, fought off Ku Klux Klan (KKK) attacks. Thousands died on both sides. Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in
4136-491: The South lost the vote in general elections, but still had a voice in the Republican National Convention. New immigrants were pouring in from Eastern and Southern Europe. The Progressive Era (or " Fourth Party System ") was dominated by Republican presidents, with the sole exception of Democrat Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). The Republican Party had a progressive element, which supported unions and
4230-590: The South to defeat Roosevelt at the 1912 Republican national convention. Brown's campaign came to nothing, and he finally supported Woodrow Wilson in 1912. James C. Carter Carter was born on October 14, 1827, in Lancaster, Massachusetts . He was the youngest of eight children born to Maj. Solomon Carter. He prepared for college at Derby Academy in Hingham . He graduated from Harvard College in 1850 and Harvard Law School in 1853. While at Harvard, he
4324-725: The South, the Fourteenth Amendment and equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen. Most of all he was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. The party had become so large that factionalism was inevitable; it was hastened by Grant's tolerance of high levels of corruption typified by the Whiskey Ring . In 1869, the Republican-controlled legislature in Wyoming Territory and its Republican governor John Allen Campbell made it
4418-499: The South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856–1860 as a divisive force that threatened civil war. The Republican Party absorbed many of the previous traditions of its members, who had come from an array of political factions, including Working Men , Locofoco Democrats , Free Soil Democrats, Free Soil Whigs, anti-slavery Know Nothings , Conscience Whigs , and Temperance Reformers of both parties. Many Democrats who joined were rewarded with governorships, or seats in
4512-404: The U.S. Senate, or House of Representatives. During the presidential campaign in 1860, at a time of escalating tension between the North and South, Abraham Lincoln addressed the harsh treatment of Republicans in the South in his famous Cooper Union speech : [W]hen you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant
4606-408: The antebellum Whigs, but he more and more embrace antigovernment positions typical of antebellum Jacksonians. He tried to synthesize traditional faith in timeless, objective moral principles with a more modern vision of evolving customary norms. Given growing problems of industrial urban society he saw the need for positive government but wanted judges to rule not politicians. Carter was the leader of
4700-463: The antebellum Whigs, but he more and more embraced antigovernment positions typical of antebellum Jacksonians. He tried to synthesize traditional faith in timeless, objective moral principles with a more modern vision of evolving customary norms. Given growing problems of industrial urban society he saw the need for positive government but wanted judges to rule not politicians. A new class of experts needed new modes of training, and those were provided by
4794-424: The best properties. It vigorously argued that free market labor was superior to slavery and was the very foundation of civic virtue and true republicanism ; this was the "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" ideology. Without using the term " containment ", the Republican Party in the mid-1850s proposed a system of containing slavery. Historian James Oakes explains the strategy: The federal government would surround
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#17327726108934888-449: The civil service . Upscale reformers who opposed the spoils system altogether were called " Mugwumps ". In 1884, Mugwumps rejected James G. Blaine as corrupt and helped elect Democrat Grover Cleveland , though most returned to the party by 1888. In the run-up to the 1884 Republican National Convention , Mugwumps organized their forces in the swing states, especially New York and Massachusetts. After failing to block Blaine, many bolted to
4982-870: The claims of the United States before the Bering Sea tribunal . He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1895 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1896. Carter was an influential legal theorist among fellow Mugwumps . He deeply distrusted politicians and most elected officials. Instead he put his trust in disinterested experts, especially judges. He equated common law with custom, and his condemnation of legislation inconsistent with custom, reflected his Mugwumpism. He tried to synthesize traditional thinking with modernity. For example, Carter clung to support for active government intervention he learned from
5076-503: The early 20th century, Arkansas ' Wallace Townsend was the party's gubernatorial nominee in 1916 and 1920 and its veteran national GOP committeeman. The factionalism flared up in 1928 and 1952. The final victory of its opponent the lily-white faction came in 1964. The party split into factions in the late 1870s. The Stalwarts , followers of Senator Roscoe Conkling , defended the spoils system . The Half-Breeds , who followed Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, pushed for reform of
5170-477: The editor of the Civil Service Record . They took credit for passing the state's 1884 civil service law, which was a stronger version of the federal Pendleton Act of 1883. Both laws were enacted to limit the effect of political patronage, thus disrupting the spoils system. The goals were improved morality and increased efficiency. The 1884 law was also designed to contain the rising political power of
5264-532: The election of its first president, Abraham Lincoln , in 1860, the party's success in guiding the Union to victory in the Civil War, and the party's role in the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. In 1912, former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as
5358-464: The era. Roosevelt had to contend with men like Senator Mark Hanna , whom he outmaneuvered to gain control of the convention in 1904 that renominated him and he won after promising to continue McKinley's policies. More difficult to handle was conservative House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon , who blocked most of Roosevelt's legislative goals in 1906–1908. Roosevelt achieved modest legislative gains in terms of railroad legislation and pure food laws . He
5452-594: The example of Mark Hanna, were active in the National Civic Federation , which promoted urban reforms and sought to avoid wasteful strikes. Protectionism was the ideological cement holding the Republican coalition together. High tariffs were used by Republicans to promise higher sales to business, higher wages to industrial workers, and higher demand for their crops to farmers. Progressive insurgents said it promoted monopoly. Democrats said it
5546-620: The fast growth going. The Democratic Party was largely controlled by pro-business Bourbon Democrats until 1896. The GOP supported big business generally, the gold standard , high tariffs and generous pensions for Union veterans. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers. The high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt
5640-419: The first jurisdiction to grant voting rights to women . In 1875, California swore in the first Hispanic governor, Republican Romualdo Pacheco . Many of the founders of the GOP joined the liberal movement , as did many powerful newspaper editors. They nominated Horace Greeley for president, who also gained the Democratic nomination, but the ticket was defeated in a landslide. The depression of 1873 energized
5734-431: The government should be used to reduce social sins, such as drinking. Liturgical churches ( Roman Catholics , German Lutherans , and Episcopalians ) comprised over a quarter of the vote and wanted the government to stay out of the morality business. Prohibition debates and referendums heated up politics in most states over a period of decade as national prohibition was finally passed in 1919 (repealed in 1933), serving as
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#17327726108935828-446: The last three southern states. The region then became the Solid South , giving overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the Democrats through 1964. Back in the late 19th century, when Senate Republicans pushed hard for civil rights, the GOP had a reputation for supporting minorities such as black people. Black people generally identified with the GOP until the 1930s. Every African American who served in
5922-645: The lead in forming state Republican Party tickets; apart from St. Louis and a few areas adjacent to free states, there were no efforts to organize the Party in the southern states. On September 20, 1854 a "People's Convention" was held in Aurora, IL at the First Congregational Church to discuss slavery. L.D. Brady was elected chairman of that first Republican convention. It was a representative gathering of 208 delegates who had been selected for
6016-508: The left-center of the Republican Party. He explained his balancing act: Disagreements on tariffs were pulling the party apart. Roosevelt tried to postpone the issue, but Taft had to meet it head on in 1909 with the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act . Eastern conservatives led by Nelson W. Aldrich wanted high tariffs on manufactured goods (especially woolens), while Midwesterners called for low tariffs. Aldrich outmaneuvered them by lowering
6110-567: The liturgical churches ( Roman Catholic , Episcopal and German Lutheran ) largely rejected the moralism of the Republican Party; most of their adherents voted Democratic. William Gienapp argues that the great realignment of the 1850s began before the Whig party collapse, and was caused not by politicians but by voters at the local level. The central forces were ethno-cultural, involving tensions between pietistic Protestants versus liturgical Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians regarding Catholicism, prohibition, and nativism. Anti-slavery did play
6204-455: The most from any one political party. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. An ascendant anti-slavery wing clashed with a traditionalist and increasingly pro-slavery Southern wing. These divisions came to a head in the 1852 election , where Whig candidate Winfield Scott
6298-579: The national level, but the states themselves were mostly dominated by a single party, with Democrats prevailing in the South and the Republicans in the Northeast. Although the defection of the Mugwumps may have helped Cleveland win in New York , one of the few closely contested states, historians attribute Cleveland's victory nationwide to the rising power of urban immigrant voters. In Massachusetts, Mugwumps were led by Richard Henry Dana III , (1851–1931),
6392-558: The new American graduate schools, built along German models. A leading organizer was the German-trained scholar Herbert Baxter Adams (1850–1901), head of the history and political science department at the Johns Hopkins University 1882–1901. He promoted mugwump reform at Hopkins and nationally. Under his direction, the faculty and advanced students worked for numerous reforms, including civil service reform in
6486-563: The party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections, even defeating McKinley himself. Foreign affairs seldom became partisan issues (except for the annexation of Hawaii , which Republicans favored and Democrats opposed). Much more salient were cultural issues. The GOP supported the pietistic Protestants (especially the Methodists , Congregationalists , Presbyterians , and Scandinavian Lutherans) who demanded prohibition . That angered wet Republicans, especially German Americans , who broke ranks in 1890–1892, handing power to
6580-518: The prohibition on slavery in territory north of 36° 30′ latitude that had been part of the Missouri Compromise . This change was viewed by anti-slavery Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by the slave-owning South. Opponents of the Act were intensely motivated and began forming a new party. The Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soilers such as Salmon P. Chase . The first anti-Nebraska local meeting where "Republican"
6674-403: The purpose of forming an anti-slavery party. The name "Republican" was adopted at this convention together with a platform that formed the basis of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The new Republican Party envisioned modernizing the United States, emphasizing expanded banking, more railroads and factories, and giving free western land to farmers ("free soil") as opposed to letting slave owners buy up
6768-593: The repeal of laws enabling slaveholding in free territories and "resistance by Constitutional means of Slavery in any Territory", defense of anti-slavery individuals in Kansas who were coming under physical attack, and a call to "resist and overthrow the present National Administration" of Franklin Pierce , "as it is identified with the progress of the Slave power to national supremacy". Its first national nominating convention
6862-434: The resistance to the codification movement led by David Dudley Field II . It is because of Carter's vigorous opposition to Field that the state of New York repeatedly refused to enact Field's civil code. As a result of Carter's efforts, large portions of contract and tort law remain mostly uncodified in New York and a majority of U.S. states, and exist in those states only in the form of case law . After an illness of
6956-522: The south with free states, free territories, and free waters, building what they called a 'cordon of freedom' around slavery, hemming it in until the system's own internal weaknesses forced the slave states one by one to abandon slavery. The Republican Party launched its first national organizing convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1856. This gathering elected a governing National Executive Committee and passed resolutions calling for
7050-475: The support of black Republicans in the South, and defeated Roosevelt there. Roosevelt led many (but not most) of his delegates to bolt out of the convention and created a new party (the Progressive , or "Bull Moose" ticket), in the election of 1912 . Few party leaders followed him except Hiram Johnson of California. Roosevelt had the support of many notable women reformers, including Jane Addams. During
7144-507: The tariff on farm products, which outraged the farmers. The great battle over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 ripped the Republicans apart and set up the realignment in favor of the Democrats. Insurgent Midwesterners led by George Norris revolted against the conservatives led by Speaker Cannon. The Democrats won control of the House in 1910 as the GOP rift between insurgents and conservatives widened. In 1912, Roosevelt broke with Taft, rejected Robert M. La Follette , and tried for
7238-486: The term plural and derided them as amateurs and public moralists. During the 1884 campaign, they were often portrayed as "fence-sitters", with part of their body on the side of the Democrats and the other on the side of the Republicans. Their "mug" on one side of the fence, and their "wump" (comic mispronunciation of "rump") on the other. Angry Republicans like Roscoe Conkling sometimes hinted they were homosexual, calling them "man milliners". The epithet "goody-goody" from
7332-546: The treatment of ex-Confederates and of former slaves, or freedmen . Johnson broke with the Radical Republicans and formed a loose alliance with moderate Republicans and Democrats. A showdown came in the Congressional elections of 1866 , in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over the veto. Johnson was impeached by the House , but acquitted by
7426-468: The two decades after the 1871 fire. The key leader was Joseph Medill , owner and editor of the Chicago Tribune. Several historians of the 1950s through 1970s portrayed the Mugwumps as members of an insecure elite, one that felt threatened by changes in American society. These historians often focused on the social background and status of their subjects and the narratives they have written share
7520-530: The two major political parties in the United States . It is the second-oldest extant political party in the United States after its main political rival, the Democratic Party . In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act . The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after
7614-460: The war, upper-middle-class men in major cities formed Union Leagues to promote and help finance the war effort. Following the 1864 elections, Radical Republicans Led by Charles Sumner in the Senate and Thaddeus Stevens in the House set the agenda by demanding more aggressive action against slavery and more vengeance toward the Confederates. Under Republican congressional leadership,
7708-518: The way for his own political aspirations. New England and the Northeast had been a stronghold of the Republican Party since the Civil War era, but the Mugwumps considered Blaine to be an untrustworthy and fraudulent candidate. Their idealism and reform sensibilities led them to oppose the corruption in the politics of the Gilded Age . Political patronage , also known as the spoils system ,
7802-975: The women's suffrage movement. McKinley was the first President to promote pluralism , arguing that prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups. The new Jewish element of the party favored socialism. In 1898, the first Jewish U.S. Senator elected from outside of the former Confederacy was Republican Joseph Simon of Oregon . Progressive leaders included President Theodore Roosevelt , Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. , Senator Hiram Johnson in California, Senator George W. Norris in Nebraska, Senator Bronson M. Cutting in New Mexico, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin in Montana and Senator William Borah in Idaho. The first important reform mayor
7896-422: Was Hazen S. Pingree of Detroit (1890–1897), who was elected Governor of Michigan in 1896. In New York City , the Republicans joined nonpartisan reformers to battle Tammany Hall and elected Seth Low (1902–1903). Golden Rule Jones was first elected mayor of Toledo as a Republican in 1897, but was reelected as an independent when his party refused to renominate him. Many Republican civic leaders, following
7990-599: Was a member of the Institute of 1777 the Hasty Pudding Club , Alpha Delta Phi , and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Carter entered the law office of Edward Kent, son of Chancellor James Kent , in New York, and in 1853 was admitted to the bar, starting a prominent law practice which later became known as Carter Ledyard & Milburn . He was one of the founders and the first president of
8084-459: Was a tax on the little man. It had greatest support in the Northeast, and greatest opposition in the South and West. The Midwest was the battle ground. McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Panic of 1893 . He denounced William Jennings Bryan , the Democratic nominee, as a dangerous radical whose plans for "Free Silver" at 16–1 (or Bimetallism ) would bankrupt
8178-465: Was allowed. The realignment was powerful because it forced voters to switch parties, as typified by the rise and fall of the Know-Nothings, the rise of the Republican Party, and the splits in the Democratic Party. The election of Lincoln as president in 1860 opened a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial North and agricultural Midwest. The Third Party System was dominated by
8272-498: Was elected Governor of New York and immediately became a likely presidential candidate. Most of the state Republican parties accepted the antislavery goal except Kentucky . During the Civil War , the party passed major legislation in Congress to promote rapid modernization , including a national banking system , high tariffs , the first income tax , many excise taxes , paper money issued without backing (" greenbacks "),
8366-581: Was held in June 1856 in Philadelphia . John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856 behind the slogan "Free soil, free silver, free men, Frémont and victory!" Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in
8460-570: Was more successful in Court, bringing antitrust suits that broke up the Northern Securities Company trust and Standard Oil . Roosevelt moved to the left in his last two years in office, but was unable to pass major Square Deal proposals. He did succeed in naming his successor, Secretary of War William Howard Taft , who easily defeated Bryan again in the 1908 presidential election . By 1907, Roosevelt identified himself with
8554-658: Was slow. Political affiliation continued to be the basis for appointment to many positions. In the early 1880s, the issue of political patronage split the Republican Party down the middle for several consecutive sessions of Congress . The party was divided into two warring factions, each with creative names. The side that held the upper hand in numbers and popular support were the Half-Breeds , led by Senator James Blaine of Maine . The Half-Breeds supported civil service reform and often blocked legislation and political appointments put forth by their main congressional opponents,
8648-426: Was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse on March 20, 1854. The first statewide convention that formed a platform and nominated candidates under the Republican name was held near Jackson, Michigan , on July 6, 1854. At that convention, the party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. The Midwest took
8742-611: Was the issue that angered many reform-minded Republicans, leading them to reject Blaine's candidacy. In the spoils system, the winning candidate would dole out government positions to those who had supported his political party prior to the election. Although the Pendleton Act of 1883 established the United States Civil Service Commission and made competency and merit the base qualifications for government positions, its effective implementation
8836-527: Was trounced by Franklin Pierce . Southern Whigs, who had supported the prior Whig president Zachary Taylor , had been burned by Taylor and were unwilling to support another Whig. Taylor, who despite being a slaveowner, had proved notably anti-slave after campaigning neutrally on the issue. With the loss of Southern Whig support, and the loss of votes in the North to the Free Soil Party , Whigs seemed doomed. So they were, as they would never again contest
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