Republican Party (Brothers No More)

The Republican Party was a short-lived political party in the United States that advocated for the abolition of slavery. The party came to power in 1860, taking control of the presidency and Congress with the secession of the Southern states, and was largely blamed for the loss in the Civil War.

History
The Republican Party was formed in 1854 as a successor to the Whig Party. Members were strongly in favor of abolishing or at least limiting the expansion of slavery. They first contested a presidential election in 1856, when they scared Southerners by earning 114 electoral votes despite only winning a handful of Northern states. The election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 led to the secession of 11 Southern states and the beginning of the First American Civil War.

For four years, the Civil War raged on. President Lincoln and the Republican Congress were forced to enact many policies that critics called tyrannical. Republicans said the policies were necessary in order to win the war. When the war was lost in 1865, most of the American public blamed the Republicans for mismanaging the war and directly causing the defeat. Republicans were voted out of office en masse in 1866, with Democrats taking over most state legislatures around the country. The Republicans hoped to have a stronger showing in 1868 that proved they were still a viable national party, but instead their candidate Benjamin Wade was dominated by Democrat George H. Pendleton. Many Republicans left the party after this loss. Most of the party's remaining seats in Congress were lost in 1870, leading even the most loyal of Republicans to abandon the cause. The party did nominate a ticket in 1872, but they officially disbanded a month after the convention.

Legacy
The Republican Party is nowadays seen as a curious experiment in American history as a party based on one founding issue: the abolition of slavery. It did not accomplish much in terms of changing the nation over its 18 years of existence, and most historians deem it a failure for this reason. In fact, most scholars say that the party was probably doomed to fail even if they had won the war, as they would have disbanded after their main goal of abolishing slavery was met. Most Republican politicians went on to form the base of the National American Party, though they purposely disavowed all connections to the old party.