Abraham Lincoln: A Third Party Candidate?

[Rob Wick]

From Bill Moyers:

Abraham Lincoln — who ran as a Republican during the era of Whigs and Democrats — was America’s last third-party candidate to successfully win the presidency.

There is something about this that really bothers me. The Whig Party in America was, for all practical purposes, dead in 1856 (it started the death rattle in 1852), a full four years before Lincoln was elected. Lincoln, for all practical purposes, ceased to be a Whig in 1852. If any party was a third party, it was likely to be Whigs, or the Constitutional Union Party which it became in the north in 1860.

So is Moyers right? Were the Whigs enough of a political force in the 1860s to justify his comment that the Republicans were, in reality, a third party? I don't think so.

Best
Rob