As nouns the difference between whigs and republicans

is that whigs is plural of Whig|lang=en while republicans is plural of lang=en.

As proper nouns the difference between whigs and republicans

is that whigs is an 18th- and 19th-century political party in Britain, that was opposed to the Tories, and became the Liberal Party while Republicans is plural of Republican|lang=en.

As a verb whigs

is third-person singular of whig.