FORMATION OF INDIANA’S REPUBLICAN PARTY 1854-1860

•Indiana Whigs had been united on • Many democrats, especially in the southern states, supported the a platform of internal improve- extension of slavery into the western territories (as proposed by the ments since the 1830s. By the 1850s, however, Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854). Some members of the Indiana they were Democratic Party who opposed the extension of slavery, joined the divided over People’s Party that year or as the party the slavery WHIG became the Republican Party. question. Most DEMOCRATIC • In 1854 Oliver P. Morton left the COLFAX Whigs became Republicans. Democratic Party as he opposed •Schulyer Colfax, a former Whig the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He first joined became a Republican around 1854. the Know Nothings in 1854. By 1856 he joined the Republican MORTON He was elected Vice President of the Party and became Governor of Indiana, 1860 U.S. in 1868.

•During the 1850s, Indiana’s Free Soil Party opposed the extension of slavery. •Some KNOW NOTHING members, such as Congressman George W. TEMPERANCE Julian, were abolitionists, demanding the PEOPLE’S • The Know Nothing or emancipation of African Americans and American Party was a secret even advocating for equal rights. Temperance Party members opposed order with a complex sale of liquor. position on slavery. Some •Opposition to the Democratic administra- were against slavery extension tion and especially the extension of FREE SOIL as they feared African American slavery united various disparate political competition for jobs (some of these groups into a new party –called the members were former Whigs). The Republican Party nationally, but called the People’s Party in Indiana. In 1854, the party vehemently opposed immigration. young Indiana party was more conserva- Some Indiana Know-Nothings who tive than the national Republican Party. joined the Republican Party in oppostion The People’s Party resisted adopting the to the Democratic support of slavery JULIAN name “Republican” because of its associa- extension, later left the party because tion with the eastern abolition movement Indiana Republicans accepted Catholics that many Hoosiers saw as too radical. LANE and immigrants. • Henry S. Lane was essential in organizing the People’s Party in Indiana. •Abraham Lincoln had been a life-long Lane’s influence over the older Whigs brought most into Whig until the repeal of the Missouri the People’s Party, while abolitionists joined Compromise by because of the anti-Kansas-Nebraska Act the Kansas platform. Lane also helped to convince Nebraska Act. He many Democrats and Know-Nothings re-entered politics who were opposed to slavery as a Republican, extension to join the People’s Party. REPUBLICAN largely to oppose In 1856, Lane chaired the People’s Party slavery extension. Convention in Indianapolis and the He was nominated Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. as the Republican candidate for Between 1856 and 1860, the Indiana People’s Party president in 1860, laregely due to the LINCOLN platform conformed to the national Republican platform and also efforts of Henry Lane. became known as the Republican Party.