Jack of Harts

Texas achieved independence long after the First Republican Party rose and fell in the 1790s and 1820s. And the Second Republican Party, commonly known as the National Republicans, fell in 1834, shortly before Texas gained its independence. So when Texas joined the Union in the 1840s, and incorporated themselves into America’s larger economy and political structure throughout the 1850s, there was no major Republican Party. Texas was officially a Slave State, with most of their slaves in the oldest colonies of Central and North Eastern Texas. With that rich power base to operate from, the Pro-Slavery Democrats held impressive political power in Texas. Therefore it was the Third Republican Party, founded in 1854, that was a threat to the established Texas power structure of the time. The Republicans promoted stopping the expansion of Slavery into the American Territories, and held the less public mission of helping slaves escape from Slave States. So when the Republicans surprised everyone by winning both Houses of Congress and the Presidency in 1860, the Democrats in control of Texas did not react well.