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The Republican Party was organized in 1854-56 for opposing the extension of slavery. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States 1861-65 during the Civil War, being advised by fellow Republican and former slave Frederick Douglass, issued the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863 freeing all slaves in those states fighting the union, and he pressed for the 13th Amendment to the Constitution barring slavery forever. The Democratic Party of the USA, the oldest existing in the world, was started in 1832 to aid in the reelection of the 7th president, Andrew Jackson. President Andrew Jackson is well known for enforcing the Indian Removal Act which he signed into law May 28, 1830. Native American Indians were forced to leave their lands and possessions in the states of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. They were relocated to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Roughly 4,000 died along the "Trail of Tears." Norman Mattoon Thomas in speech 1944: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party, The Democrat Party has adopted our platform." A Layman's Definition of a Communist: "A Socialist with a Gun"