American Republican Party (1843)

Not to be confused with Republican Party (United States).

Not to be confused with American Party (1855).

American Republican Party
Third District American Republican Watch Association Ribbon
Founded	1843 (1843)
Dissolved	1845 (1845)
Preceded by	Whig Party
Merged into	Native American Party
Headquarters	New York City
Ideology	American nationalism Anti-Catholicism Anti-Irish sentiment Anti-German sentiment Anti-immigration Nativism Republicanism Right-wing populism
Religion	Protestantism
Colors	Red   White   Blue (American flag colors)
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

The American Republican Party was a minor anti-Catholic, anti-immigration, and nativist political organization that was launched in New York in June 1843, largely as a protest against immigrant voters and officeholders.

In 1844, the American Republican Party carried municipal elections in New York City and Philadelphia and expanded so rapidly that by July 1845 a national convention was called. This convention changed the name to the Native American Party and drafted a legislative program calling for a twenty-one-year period preceding naturalization and other sweeping reforms in the immigration policy. Failure to force congressional action on these proposals, combined with the growing national interest in the Mexican problem before the Mexican–American War, led to the party's rapid decline.

Its founders included Lewis Charles Levin, Samuel Kramer, "General" Peter Sken Smith, James Wallace, and John Gitron.

See also

• Free Soil Party
• Know Nothing Party
• The Crisis!: An Appeal to Our Countrymen, on the Subject of Foreign Influence in the United States!, a book published by the General Executive Committee of the American Republican Party in 1844 to describe the organization's anti-immigrant message.

Sources

• Adams, James Truslow. Dictionary of American History, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.