[reed13k]

This part is incorrect.

“Paine would not return to the United States until nearly a decade later, after Jefferson was elected president and the Republican Party was in ascendancy.”

The Republican Party was formed in the 1850s...no?

[rlmorel]

Right...The Republicans replaced the Whigs, IIRC.

[Vermont Lt]

I think they meant the whigs. Jefferson was a Democrat.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"The Republican Party was formed in the 1850s...no?"

The party of Jefferson and Madison was called the Democrat Republican party.

[Political Junkie Too]

He is referring to the Democrat-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, formed in 1792 and peaked in power from 1801 to 1825 (roughly Jefferson's and Madison's administrations).

-PJ

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm thinking that when the author uses "Republican" in this context and this era, he's talking about the "Democratic Republicans."

Which would correspond to neither of the major parties in Lincoln's time nor in ours.

[piasa]

Yes, you are correct...the Republican Party came much later as a result of the abolitionist movement within the Whigs.

There was a Democratic-Republican Party early on, though:

” The Democratic-Republican Party was the political party organized by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1791-93. It stood in opposition to the Federalist Party and controlled the Presidency and Congress, and most states, from 1801 to 1824, during the First Party System.” — www.definitions.net/definition/democratic-republican%20party

[Reily]

Jefferson’s party which we know today as the Democrat-Republican was often just called the Republican party. (Modern historians call it Democrat-Republican I doubt if they used the hyphenated moniker!) After Jackson it was pretty much the Democrat party, the use of the word Republican as a party label didn’t occur until a coalition of Free Soilers, Northern Whigs, & others picked up the name and formed the Republicans in Ripon Wisconsin roughly 1856.

Party names\labels come and go but its always the Federalist vs non-Federalist argument. How much central government is enough, how much is too much!

[reg45]

Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans later had their name shortened to Democratic, the forerunners of today’s Democrats. The Republican name remained unused until the Republican Party was created as an abolitionist party in 1854.

[CA Conservative]

I think they are referring to the Democratic-Republican Party, which later became the Democrat Party. The other party at the time of Jefferson was the Federalist Party.