Republican Party (United States)
Founded in 1854, the GOP originally subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States. The party was usually dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran as a third-party presidential candidate. Roosevelt called for many social reforms, some of which were later championed by New Deal Democrats in the 1930s. He lost the 1912 election, and when most of his supporters returned to the GOP, they were at odds with the party's new conservative economic stance; many left for the Democratic Party, and an ideological shift to the right occurred in the Republican Party. Later in the 20th century, the liberal Republican element was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 and continued during the Reagan Era.
Free Soil Party
The party originated in New York after the state Democratic convention refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso, a proposed law that would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. A faction of New York Democrats known as the Barnburners objected to slavery in the territories and opposed the 1848 Democratic nominee Lewis Cass. The Barnburners and other anti-slavery Democrats joined with some anti-slavery Whigs and the Liberty Party to form the Free Soil Party. Salmon P. Chase, John P. Hale and other party leaders organized the 1848 Free Soil Convention, which nominated a ticket consisting of former President Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams Sr. In the 1848 presidential election, Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote and Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeated Cass.