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.
Democratic-Republican Party
Taking a leaf from the Jacksonians, the Whigs tended to nominate non-ideological war heroes as their presidential candidates. The Whig party fell apart in the 1850s over the question of whether to allow the expansion of slavery into new territories. The modern Republican Party was formed in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery. Many former Whig party leaders (such as Abraham Lincoln – modern Republican Party supporters still sometimes refer to themselves as "the party of Lincoln") and former Free Soil Party leaders joined the newly formed anti-slavery party. The party sought to combine Jefferson's ideals of liberty and equality with Clay's program of using an active government to modernize the economy.