A History of the Republican Party

The author traces the party's rise from mid-19th-century opposition to slavery's extension and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, through the Civil War and Reconstruction, into its later evolution as a national organization shaped by debates over abolition, fiscal and economic policy, tariffs, and public credit. Chapters examine formative causes, the history and politics of slavery in the United States, key compromises and controversies, the party's founding and early conventions, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Reconstruction, and successive presidencies — including Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Blaine, Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley and Roosevelt — concluding with institutional development and policy directions into the early 20th century.