Third Party System: Birth, 1854-1860

The new party was created in 1854 as an act of defiance against what activists denounced as the Slave Power — the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The party founders adopted the name "Republican," echoing 1776, to indicate it was the carrier of "republican" values regarding civic virtue, and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.

Besides opposition to slavery, the new party put forward a vision of modernization — emphasizing higher education, banking, railroads, industry and cities, while promising free homesteads to farmers.