isn’t a third party how the Republicans started? Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, then Democrats and Whigs. It’s only since mid 1850’s that the two main parties were Democrat and Republican.
True. The Republican party was starting at the same time as the Whig party was dissolving. Many early Republicans had been Whigs. If I recall correctly, by the time of Lincoln’s election in 1860, the Whigs were completely gone.