Cynthia Macon, age 14, of Fargo, N.D., for her question:
WHEN DID THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ORIGINATE?
The Republican Party has greatly influenced the nation's history and politics. It won 14 of the 18 presidential elections from 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected, to 1932. But from 1932 through 1980, the Republicans won only five of the 12 presidential elections.
Origin of the Republican Party dates back to the strong antislavery opposition to the Kansas Nebraska Bill of 1854. As passed by Congress in May, 1854, the bill permitted slavery in the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska if the people there voted for it.
On Feb. 28, 1854, a leading Whig named Alvan Bovay held a meeting in Ripon, Wisc. The meeting passed a resolution declaring a new party: The Republican Party.
The new party had chiefly sectional appeal. Few Southern voters supported it because they wanted to expand slavery, not restrict it. Many Northern supporters feared the extreme antislavery views of some of the leaders.
John C. Fremont, a dashing young explorer and soldier, was the Republican Party's first presidential candidate. But James Buchanan won the election by winning 19 states to 11.
In 1860 the Republican Party chose Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate. Lincoln easily won the election, even though he received only about 40 percent of the popular vote. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas and Southern Democrats nominated John Hreckinridge.
Lincoln won re election in 1864.
Ulysses Grant, the great Union war hero, won the presidency for the Republican Party in 1868 and he was re elected in 1872. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes followed in 1876.
In 1880, Republican James Garfield won the presidency but he was assassinated in 1881 after less than four months in office. Vice President Chester Arthur, a Stalwart, succeeded him.
The Republicans were back with victory in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison had a four year term between two victories by Democrat Grower Cleveland.
Members of the Republican Party then took the following election victories: William McKinley in 1896 with re election in 1900, Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, William Howard Taft in 1908, Warren Handing in 1920, Calvin Coolidge in 1924 and Herbert Hoover in 1928.
Soon after Hoover took office in 1929, the worst stock market crash in the nation's history occurred. The Great Depression followed. Hoover tried to stop the depression but could not do so, and he lost badly in 1932 to the Democratic candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hoover's defeat reduced the Republican Party to a hard core of business leaders, Midwestern farmers and conservative workers.
The Republican Party was the minority party from 1933 to 1953.
Dwight D. Eisenhower easily won the 1952 election for the Republicans, and then he won re election in 1956.
Rounding out the Republican Party Presidents: Richard Nixon with election victories in 1968 and 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980.