=416. Origin of the Republican Party.=—It was during the excitement that followed the assault on Sumner that politicians prepared for the coming Presidential election of 1856. The overwhelming defeat of the Whigs at the election in 1852 seemed at the time to give the Democrats a long lease of power. In reality, they soon found themselves confronted by political foes more determined than the Whigs. The old Whig party had been shattered by differences on the question of slavery. Evidently there was call for a new party on the great questions now at issue, and the Republican party was the result. At a political meeting held at Ripon, Wisconsin, in May, 1854, it was resolved that another party should be formed and that it should be called “Republican.” It is generally admitted that the first formal adoption of the name, which was probably due to a suggestion of Horace Greeley, and the publication of an elaborate platform were the work of a convention held at Jackson, Michigan, on the 6th of July following. The new party designation was immediately adopted by state conventions in Maine, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. So extremely vigorous was the organization of the Republicans, that, in the fall of 1854, they elected enough members to control the House of Representatives and chose as Speaker, Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. The first National Convention of the party was held at Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856; but it was not until June 17, at Philadelphia, that a platform was adopted and candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency were chosen. The platform declared that “the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.” Upon the stand thus taken, the Republicans soon secured political supremacy in the North and West. [Illustration: JOHN C. FRÉMONT.]