Lincoln Lincoln. A Republican?

[WJC]

When I first got interested in the Civil War it kind of surprised me that Lincoln with his early life of relative poverty was a Republican politician, a party I associate with privilege and the rich. Or was it different in his time?

Any answer I can give you will deal- like your thread and original post- with modern politics and thus be off limits here. Suffice it to say, you need to do your own research, learn history and not rely on political propaganda....

 

[Deleted User CS]

I'd like to recommend the Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, by Michael Holt, published about 20 years ago. There may be a more recent book on the Whigs, but I don't think it could be much better than this one. It's a fascinating subject. The demise of the Whig party had a lot to do with how the new and surviving political parties stood in relation to slavery and war. That's a major part of this VERY thorough book. This book is really readable in spite of its length and if you have any interest in the politics of the immediate pre-war decade you'll find it worthwhile.

SharonS. This book by Holt is absolutely fantastic. In order to properly understand antebellum politics I highly recommend this book. Incidently, I see Holt just recently published a new book on the Election of 1860. David.

 

[AndyHall]

As I see it the basic issue then as now, is the fact that the rules promote a two party system, with very big parties.
As a result each party cover a very wide part of the political spectrum...
(Where in comparison we, here in Denmark currently got 9 parties in Parliament... and even back in the late 19th century we had 3 - one for the workers, one for the farmers and one for the nobility/rich/officers)

And that makes it a bit harder to track what they mean and why.

I have long thought that a parliamentary system has some real advantages over the two-party system here in the United States. Parliamentary systems tend to avoid extreme political positions in government because the parties have to form coalitions to govern at all, and you can also have parties that focus on one particular issue, rather than trying to appeal to a very wide part of the electorate.

 

[SharonS]

SharonS. This book by Holt is absolutely fantastic. In order to properly understand antebellum politics I highly recommend this book. Incidently, I see Holt just recently published a new book on the Election of 1860. David.

Thanks. I'll look for that one too.

 

[alexjack]

Thank you all for your answers.

 

[infomanpa]

Republicans were the party of internal improvements, railroads, The Homestead Act, tariffs . . etc. all big government initiatives.

and @Jimklag ....I see you finally got a great profile pic.

 

[Canadian]

Lincoln was a Whig most of his life, then became a Republican as the Whig party died out. Some, like William Seward, thought the 1860 nomination should have gone to someone who had been a Republican since the party's founding - himself, for instance. Then in 1864 he ran for reelection under the National Union Party, a new coalition aimed at attracting unionist Democrats.