Sunday, August 31, 2014

What were the goals of the 1860 Republican party platform?

The goals of the 1860 Republican Party were based primarily on the "Slavery Issue" and States Rights. Republican presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, had been an opponent of slavery since his days as an Illinois State Representative and a member of the Whig Party in 1834. Lincoln continued his opposition to slavery as a U.S. Senate candidate under the newly formed Republican Party in 1858. That election set the stage for his nomination to the U.S. Presidency in 1860 where he campaigned against a divided Democratic Party leaving Stephen Douglas as Lincoln's challenger.
Lincoln's main campaign goal was to keep the nationalist Northern Union and the Republican Party unified and not splintered like the Democratic Party composed of Northern and Southern state factions. With this strategy, the Republicans could then focus on introducing legislation in the next Congress that would end slavery in all states.
The official Republican Party Platform of 1860 consisted of 17 declarations, such as preserving the Union, keeping the Western Territories free of slavery, and eliminating slavery itself -- as well as the oppressive Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The platform also called for protective tariffs, internal improvements, freedom of immigration into the U.S. with eventual rights of citizenship, enactment of the Homestead Act, and construction of a Pacific Railroad across the nation -- all vital goals to a prosperous expanding United States.


By 1860 the biggest issue ion America was slavery. U.S. Representative from Illinois Abraham Lincoln won the Republican Party's nomination at its second convention and defeated Democratic Party challenger Stephen Douglas. The platform emphasized equality, abolition of slavery and preserving the Union.
Republicans for Lincoln opposed expansion of slavery in western territories while favoring civil rights for African American slaves. The party supported the admission of Kansas as a new "free state." Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861. Another main component of the platform was the Homestead Act, which allowed individuals to acquire free land from the government in exchange for cultivating it.
The platform contained 17 clauses, each one dealing with issues of the time period leading up to the Civil War. The opening clauses established the need for a new party to counter the Democratic Party, in which states threatened to secede from the Union. The platform further criticized the corruption of the current Democratic administration, headed by President James Buchanan. Republicans also called for the expansion of the railroad system to reach the Pacific Coast.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm0716/

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1860

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