In 1854, Congress voted on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill to let states decide to allow slavery or not. The Whig Party was so against slavery that it fell apart after this bill was passed in Congress. However, by February former Whig Party members came back together in a few of the Midwestern states to talk about making a new party. The meeting held at Ripon, Wisconsin, on March 20, 1954, was the first (or founding) meeting of the Republican Party.
The Republicans wanted to end slavery in all U.S. territories, so they quickly got supporters from the anti-slavery Northern states. On this day, June 19, 1856, the first national convention of the Republican Party ended, and that year their first presidential candidate, John Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states. By 1860, most of Southern states were saying that they would leave the Union if a Republican became president. On November 6, 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln became president over a divided Democratic Party and hugely divided nation. In a little over a year, 6 Southern states left the Union. Then the Civil War began and brought a final end to slavery along with the lives of President Abraham Lincoln and countless others.
