This was the origin of the Republican party.
After 1848, Mr.Hoar did not relax his efforts to bring about a union of all parties in the North, in opposition to further encroachments of the slave power.

In accomplishing this end, his age, the regard in which he was held by all classes of people, his known disinterestedness and independence, fitted him to exert a large influence.

The Free Soil movement had led to the formation of a party in Massachusetts, small in numbers, but zealous, active, in earnest, containing many able leaders, eloquent orators, and vigorous writers.

They had sent Charles Allen to the lower House of Congress, and Sumner and Rantoul to the Senate.

But they had apparently made little impression on the national strength of either of the old parties.
In 1854, the passage of the measure known as the Kansas- Nebraska Bill afforded a new opportunity.