William H. Seward
The Republican Party had been founded in 1854, in reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Its anti-slavery stance was attractive to Seward, but he needed the Whig structure in New York to get re-elected. In September 1855, the New York Whig and Republican parties held simultaneous conventions that quickly merged into one. Seward was the most prominent figure to join the new party, and was spoken of as a possible presidential candidate in 1856. Weed, however, did not feel that the new party was strong enough on a national level to secure the presidency, and advised Seward to wait until 1860. When Seward's name was mentioned at the 1856 Republican National Convention, a huge ovation broke out. In the 1856 presidential election, the Democratic candidate, former Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan, defeated the Republican, former California senator John C. Frémont, and the Know Nothing candidate, former president Fillmore.
Edwin Hurlbut
From Hurlbut's arrival in Wisconsin in 1850, he is known for the following:Colonel Hurlbut was raised and active as a Jeffersonian Democrat, but just prior to the founding of the Republican Party in Madison, Wisconsin. in 1854, he wrote the platform for the American Party, which held that all political parties should be held by Americans born in this nation, make slavery a local issue, stand for prohibition, and rule it a state issue to make rivers and harbors navigable.