[Ads-l] Antedating of "Republican Party"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The Republican Party that is now so charmingly attempting to gain control of our country was originally a very different kind of party.  It was founded to oppose the spread of slavery.  The Oxford English Dictionary's first use for the term "Republican Party" is dated Aug. 18, 1854.  Below are some earlier examples of or approaches to the term.  I excluded usages that referred to earlier American political parties or referred to "a republican party" or "the republican party" more generically.

1854 Vermont Watchman & State Journal 7 Apr. 2/1 (America's Historical Newspapers) [reprinting article from Middlebury Register, 29 Mar. 1854]

An inevitable result now appears to be, the _formation of a great REPUBLICAN PARTY OF THE NORTH_.

1854 Columbian Register (New Haven, Conn.) 13 May 2/4 (America's Historical Newspapers) [quoting Philadelphia National Argus]

All that now remains to be done is to close the ranks of the Republican party, and nobly vindicate the devotion of the Democracy to the principles of self-government by passng the Nebraska bill whenever it is reached.

1854 St. Albans (Vt.) Messenger 18 May 2/6 (America's Historical Newspapers) [quoting Middlebury Register]

We have seen the first victories of the Northern Republican party in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

1854 Evening Journal (Albany, N.Y.) 19 June 2/7 (American's Historical Newspapers)

A writer in the Portland Advertiser, coinciding in the opinion that a new party should be formed, proposes the name of the Republican Party.

1854 Boston Herald 14 July 2/4 (America's Historical Newspapers)

At the Union Convention [in Montpelier, Vermont] ... Among the resolutions adopted was one christening the new party the "Republican Party."

Fred Shapiro






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