Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
Wisconsin and the Republican Party
By the 1840s, slavery had increasingly become a political issue tied to a number of other political objectives. The Free Soil Party, behind its 1848 candidate Martin Van Buren, broadened the party's appeal to include such goals as free homesteads to settlers, federal aid for internal improvements, and opposition to the extension of slavery into the territories. The many-sided aims of the Free Soil Party proved more popular in Wisconsin than in the nation as a whole, especially the movement against the expansion of slavery.
In 1854, Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois presented the Kansas-Nebraska bill, a... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | German editors seek to foster unity among Republicans, 1858 |
| Alvan Bovay is credited with founding the Republican party (1929) |
| A Wisconsin youth shares a bed with Abraham Lincoln in 1859. |
| Wisconsin delegates at the 1860 Republican convention |
| A participant recalls the Ripon meeting of March 20, 1854 |
| Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk (1830-1893) |
 | The origin of the Republican Party in Ripon, 1914 |
| Ripon celebrates 75 years of the Republican Party |
| A Wisconsin Republican leader repudiates slavery in 1860 |
| What Republicans stood for in 1860. |
 | Republican campaign tickets and other ephemera, 1864-1880 |
 | The infant Republican Party takes shape, 1857-58. |
| Carl Schurz meets with Abraham Lincoln, July 1860 |
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