The "Wide Awakes" young exuberant supporters pushed Abraham Lincoln into power

[Odin2005]

3. By what I've read the early Republicans were a very diverse group.

A mix of industrialists, abolitionists, radical left-libertarians (think "moderate anarchist" types), and Northern farmers wanting cheap land out west. the only thing that united them was opposition to the spread of slavery and wanting to break the political power of the planter aristocrats.

The industrialists opposed the Southern Democrats' anti-tariff, anti-immigrant, and anti-public works views, which were hurting industrialization.

The abolitionists, obviously, wanted slavery abolished and many wanted to make the slaves full citizens.

The farmers were angry at the Southern politicians blocking what became the Homestead Act and also wanted the West for themselves and not the planters.

The radicals were the "intellectual voice" of the abolitionists and the farmers.