Origins of the American Civil War
In almost every northern state, organizers attempted to have a Republican Party or an anti-Nebraska fusion movement on ballots in 1854. In areas where the radical Republicans controlled the new organization, the comprehensive radical program became the party policy. Just as they helped organize the Republican Party in the summer of 1854, the radicals played an important role in the national organization of the party in 1856. Republican conventions in New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois adopted radical platforms. These radical platforms in such states as Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, and Vermont usually called for the divorce of the government from slavery, the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Laws, and no more slave states, as did platforms in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Massachusetts when radical influence was high.
Jacob M. Howard
Convinced after the 1852 election that the Whig Party was no longer a viable organization for abolitionists, he helped draw up the platform of the first Republican Party convention, held in Jackson, Michigan in 1854. According to several sources, it was Howard who chose the name "Republican" for the new party. Howard was the first Republican nominee for Michigan Attorney General. He was elected and served from 1855 to 1861.