Which policies of the first Republicans would be acceptable to today's Republicans?

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 divided the country between the pro-slavery, agrarian South and anti-slavery, industrial North.  In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act stated settlers would decide if their new state would be free or slave. Northern leaders such as Horace Greeley, Salmon Chase and Charles Sumner did not want to watch a flood of pro-slavery settlers claim new territories.  From this primary issue, a new political party arose ... the Republican Party.

The Republican dislike of slavery came from the belief in a country wherein every man was free to make himself a good life by his own efforts. 

The Republicans were the party of free working white men; they opposed the spread of slavery because they feared competition from unpaid labor in the new Western lands. They were no particular friends of the blacks, slave or free. They were purely a sectional party -- the Northeast for the most part.

Issues put forward by the Republicans included:

• Repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act — the Republican opposition to the extension of slavery was based more on economic concerns than moral ones
• Support of the central route for the construction of the transcontinental railroad
• Support of a Homestead Acts, which would ease the process for settlers to own western lands
• Support of high protective tariffs and liberal immigration laws — both were attractive to Northern manufacturers.
• Supported, in its early years, liberal capitalism as opposed to monopoly capitalism.

liberal capitalism - the greatest possible number of economic decisions are made by individuals and not by collective institutions or organizations
monopoly capitalism - a capitalist system typified by trade monopolies in the hands of a few people.

Sources:
ushistory.org
historytoday.com 
u-s-history.com

The early Republicans ...
Help settlers own the western lands
High tariffs to protect U.S. manuafacturers & worker's jobs
Liberal immigration laws to provide labor to Northern manufacturers
Capitalism with economic decisions made by individuals and not by collective institutions or organizations
No particular friends of blacks

Today's Republicans ...
Let business drill, mine, harvest the western lands at low cost
High tariffs to protect U.S. manuafacturers
Tight immigration laws to reduce potential liberal voters
Capitalism with decisions made by a plutocracy
No particular friends of blacks, Latinos, Muslims, Mideastern peoples, refugees, poor, homeless, mentally ill

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