The Republican Party was officially formed in July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan when a group of men who belonged to various splinter parties met and adopted the name Republican. The name appealed to those who recalled Jeffersonian “republicanism” and generally placed the national interest above sectional interest and above states’ rights. The party’s founders totally opposed slavery.... 

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by Congress in March 1865 to assist for one year in the transition from slavery to freedom in the South. The Bureau was given “the supervision and management of all abandoned lands, and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen, under such rules and regulations as may be presented by the head of the Bureau and... 

The Democratic Party was formed in 1792, when supporters of Thomas Jefferson began using the name Republicans, or Jeffersonian Republicans, to emphasize its anti-aristocratic policies. It adopted its present name during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson in the 1830s. In the 1840s and ’50s, the party was in conflict over extending slavery to the Western territories. Southern Democrats insisted... 

“Jim Crow,” a minstrel character popular during the early 1820s, is the namesake of an American system of discrimination and segregation. The Black Codes of the Reconstruction era and railroad segregation laws foreshadowed the birth of the system of Jim Crow, but the Compromise of 1877 can be considered the political event that allowed Jim Crow to come into full power. ... 

Early in the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was hard pressed by the Radical Republicans — the party’s abolitionist wing — to abolish slavery by proclamation. Lincoln was opposed. He said that his main concern was preserving the union and he subordinated his feelings  Read More →

This is what we’re talking about. This past weekend, I had the privilege of joining Republican Leader John Boehner and nine other members of the House on an “American Energy Tour.” This trip explored the available natural resources that our nation has in Colorado and Alaska to increase domestic energy supply and decrease America’s rising gas costs. ...