The Party Of Freedom

The first meeting of the Republican Party was on March 20th 1854 in a small school house in Ripon, Wisconsin.


Founded by anti - slavery activists, the Republican Party’s first county convention took place in Ripon, Wisconsin March 20th 1854 in a local school house. They grew out of a mixture of former Whigs and Free Soil Democrats. Their motivation was to stop slavery from expanding into new opened western territories. The party nominated their first presidential ticket in 1856 with Colonel John C Fremont for president and William Dayton as vice president. The slogan of the party was “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont!” The young Republican Party next nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1860, an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery.