It was the upstart Freesoil party that seized a bunch of seats in congress and helped lead abolitionist democrats and whigs to the new 4th party republicans.
Republicans were not a fourth party. After the Whigs split up they became the new first party, with our old friends the Democrats filling out the third iteration of the Two Party System that’s as old as the Republic and still around.
By my count we’ve had about three new ideogical iterations since then, without the names changing.
“It was the upstart Freesoil party that seized a bunch of seats in congress and helped lead abolitionist democrats and whigs to the new 4th party republicans.”
Indeed, and we need an abolitionist president today, for the exact same reasons. Why vote Whig?