Lincoln became President soon after the Republican Party was formed. Wasn't he their second nominee? He was totally opposed to any kind of autonomy or states rights for the south. An interesting thing that came up in some research someone did yesterday is that he's the one who signed the purchase of Nevada's territory, and the fine print is what gave the feds permission to change the conditions of ownership; to replace state authority with federal authority.
So, yeah, I'm beginning to wonder just what the original Republican Party stood for.