The Republicans were a major political force from the time they organized. They took 33% of the popular vote right off the back.
The Whigs went defunct after 1852. The other party in the 1856 election was the American party (Neo Know Nothings) - Miillard Fillmore's anti-Immigration/Irish/Catholic group of America-first bigots (predecessor to FRs little Neo -Know Nothing boder wedgie/anti Muslim mob) who took Maryland for 8 votes.
The 1860 was a multi party Republican-Two Democrat-Constitutional Union election where Lincoln won 59% of the electoral votes and about 39% of the popular vote. So the Whigs had nothing to do with Lincoln.
The LP has usefulness as an object of ridicule. That's about it.
You may be right about the Whigs... I apologize. I should have picked a more reliable source of information before posting...
By the way, the source I used was the GOP website...
http://www.gop.com/About/GOPHistory/Default.aspx
"In 1856, the Republicans became a national party when John C. Fremont was nominated for President under the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont." Even though they were considered a "third party" because the Democrats and Whigs represented the two-party system at the time, Fremont received 33% of the vote. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to win the White House."