page_title: History of the Republican Party (United States)
section_title: Roosevelt
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Republican Party (United States) / Progressive Era: 1896–1932 / Roosevelt
caption_attribution_description: English: US editorial cartoon 1901. President Teddy Roosevelt watches GOP team pull apart on tariff issue.
context_page_description: The Republican Party, also referred to as the "GOP", is one of the world's oldest extant political parties. It is the second-oldest existing political party in the United States; its chief rival, the Democratic Party, is the earliest.
  The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into American territories. The early Republican Party consisted of northern evangelical Protestants, businessmen, professionals, factory workers, prosperous farmers and, former black slaves and some white Southerners, especially in mountain areas. It had few Catholic supporters. The GOP was pro-business, and it supported banks, the gold standard, railroads and, high tariffs. The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy the Confederate States of America. At its inception, the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States. In the Northern United States by 1858, it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state.
context_section_description: Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, had the most dynamic personality of the era. Roosevelt had to contend with men like Senator Mark Hanna, whom he outmaneuvered to gain control of the convention in 1904 that renominated him and he won after promising to continue McKinley's policies. More difficult to handle was conservative House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon.
  Roosevelt achieved modest legislative gains in terms of railroad legislation and pure food laws. He was more successful in Court, bringing antitrust suits that broke up the Northern Securities Company trust and Standard Oil. Roosevelt moved to the left in his last two years in office, but was unable to pass major Square Deal proposals. He did succeed in naming his successor Secretary of War William Howard Taft who easily defeated Bryan again in the 1908 presidential election.
  By 1907, Roosevelt identified himself with the left-center of the Republican Party. He explained his balancing act:
  Again and again in my public career I have had to make head against mob spirit, against the tendency of poor, ignorant and turbulent people who feel a rancorous jealousy and hatred of those who are better off. But during the last few years it has been the wealthy corruptionists of enormous fortune, and of enormous influence through their agents of the press, pulpit, colleges and public life, with whom I've had to wage bitter war."
caption: President Theodore Roosevelt watches the party team pull apart on tariff issue
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