Friedrich Sorge

Friedrich Sorge was a German-American living in Chicago during the Second Mexican War. He was a Socialist Party agitator when Abraham Lincoln approached him to propose that his faction of the Republican Party join the Socialists. At first Sorge was reluctant since Lincoln's policy position was more moderate than his own but Lincoln convinced him that democratic reform of society might be possible in the United States. He and Lincoln became the founders of a new, more effective 20th Century Party which was able to contest elections with the Demcratics for all positions including the presidency.