On the socialist origins of the Republican Party

[Cassius]

I don't think you can really say that the GOP had a 'socialist' wing at the time, as socialism wasn't really very prominent in the public discourse of the day. I'd argue that the Republicans and the Democrats basically represented two competing strands of liberalism back in the mid 19th century; many Democrats stood for a kind of classical liberal vision, embracing immigrants, free trade and smaller government, whilst the Republicans (in some cases) were for a kind of 'moralistic' liberalism, focused upon societal improvement and development (as was the case with the advocacy by many Republicans of abolitionism, temperance, education and the like, which chimes to a certain extent with similar values advanced by some British Liberals). However, whilst those were two broad currents, it would be foolish to argue that they were dominant in either party; after all, neither was really created to advance a coherent ideology. So you had a number of southern Democrats (like John C. Calhoun) who represented a conservative, almost reactionary ideology, one which rejected a number of the principles advocated by both the above groups (but especially the latter, due to their diametrically opposed viewpoints on what the central government was supposed to be for), and, on the other hand, a number of Republicans and Democrats who espoused a rather radical (if not neccessarily socialist) ideology; men like William Jennings Bryan were a case in point.