American Republican Party (1843)

{{Distinguish|Republican Party (United States)|American Party (1855)}}

{{More citations needed|date=February 2020}}

{{Infobox political party

| name = American Republican Party

| logo = Third District American Republican Watch Association Ribbon (4359241161).jpg

| caption = Third District American Republican Watch Association Ribbon

| colorcode = #005b96

| foundation = {{start date and age|df=yes|1843}}

| ideology = {{plainlist|

• American nationalism
• Anti-Catholicism
• Anti-Irish sentiment
• Anti-German sentiment
• Anti-immigration
• Nativism
• Republicanism
• Right-wing populism

}}

| headquarters = New York City

| position = Far-right

| dissolution = {{end date and age|df=yes|1845}}

| predecessor = Whig Party

| merged = Native American Party

| religion = Protestantism

| colors = {{color box|#B22234|border=darkgray}} Red {{color box|#FFFFFF|border=darkgray}} White {{color box|#3C3B6E|border=darkgray}} Blue
(American flag colors)

| country = the United States

}}

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.{{Cite book|last=LeMay|first=Michael|title=Transforming America: Perspectives on U.S. Immigration|publisher=ABC-CLIO|pages=220}} This convention changed the name to the Native American Party and drafted a legislative program calling for a 21-year period preceding naturalization and other sweeping reforms in the immigration policy of the United States, as well as mandating the use of the Protestant King James Bible in public schools.{{Cite book |last=Kurtz |first=William B. |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780823267552-002/html |title=Excommunicated from the Union |date=2020 |publisher=Fordham University Press |isbn=978-0-8232-6755-2 |location=New York City, New York |page=21 |chapter=The Mexican War and Nativism |doi=10.1515/9780823267552-002|s2cid=243299547 }}{{Cite book |last=Pinheiro |first=John C. |url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199948673.001.0001/acprof-9780199948673 |title=Missionaries of Republicanism: A Religious History of the Mexican-American War |date=2014-04-02 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-994867-3 |pages=32–35 |chapter=The Rise and Influence of Anti-Catholicism, 1834–1844 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199948673.003.0002}}

Despite some initial success of the party, it lost public support following the Philadelphia nativist riots of 1844 during which American Republican Party members were involved in burning down two Catholic churches.

Its founders included Lewis Charles Levin, Samuel Kramer, "General" Peter Sken Smith, James Wallace, and John Gitron.{{cite journal |first=John A. |last=Forman |url=https://sites.americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1960_12_02_00_forman.pdf |title=Lewis Charles Levin: Portrait of an American Demagogue |journal=The American Jewish Archives |volume=12 |issue=2 |date=1960 |pages=150–194}}