Following a series of speeches in Utah and Montana, and a gathering of Republicans at the Florence Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, former president Abraham Lincoln leads a group of left-wing Republicans into the new Socialist Party; this action leads to the sharp decline of the Republican Party, allowing the Socialists to eventually become the primary opposition to the Democrats. As a result of that, the Republicans would fade into a minor third party representing only the Midwest (which is booming in the late 19th and early 20th centuries). Meanwhile, The Democrats were driven to the right by Benjamin Butler, who led the right-wing Republicans to merge with the party and caused a majority of the party to adopt a hard line foreign policy and the gearing of American society to nationalism and revanchism.