Presidential election of the United States of 1856 | James Buchanan vs John C. Frémont, Millard Fillmore, campaigns and results

American presidential election of 1856American presidential election held on November 4, 1856, in which Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican John C. Frémont with 174 electoral votes at Frémont 114. Whig and former president MILLARD FILLMOREwho ran on the Know-rien ticket, acquired Only 8 electoral votes.

At a glance: the election of 1856

Slavery and popular sovereignty

The period leading to the presidential election of 1856 saw the political factions which led the policies of the country in the midst of a massive realignment. THE Whigsupset by a series of defeats and conflicts of internal Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act, sponsored by the Democratic senator, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinoisestablished popular sovereignty as the means by which the territory of Nebraska would decide to penetrate the opportunity to penetrate as a slave or a free state, thus reviving tensions on slavery which had been ostensibly rested by the Compromise of 1850 (which had allowed the population sovereignty To decide the question of Utah and New Mexico and created California as a free state). The new law said that the first provision of the 1850 legislation canceled the Missouri compromise of 1820which had established the northern limit beyond which slavery was not allowed. The inhabitants of the North were indignant and the mid-term election of 1854 saw the eviction of many Democrats in the Congress. After the upheaval, the former Democrats and Whigs who had designed the purge gravity at one of the two new parties: The Know-Nothe, an anti-immigration party formed in 1849 which aimed to reduce the political influence of a recent wave of German and Irish Catholic immigrants, and the recently established republican party, which opposed German.

Campaign and results

This busy climate – exacerbated by Kansas bleedingA series of violent episodes that broke out after the allegations of electoral fraud in the new state – has rejected the remaining Democrats to reject the holder Franklin Pierce As a candidate, fearing that the association with the controversial law alienated voters. Although Pierce was combined with Douglas in order to block the appointment of James Buchanan, who had been chosen because of his distance from the controversies of the time, finally Douglas referred On their agreement and withdrew from the race, allowing Buchanan to take the appointment. John C. Breckinridgeformer American senator and representative of Kentucky With links with Douglas, received vice-presidential appointment. The Republicans rallied around John C. Frémont, an American senator from California, with William L. Dayton, former American senator of New Jersey like his running mate. Former President Millard Fillmore was the candidate for knowledge, with Andrew J. Donelson de Tennessee like his running mate; The Whigs united behind Fillmore rather than offering their own candidate.

During the campaign, the Know-Nothe adopted a more moderate platform which minimized the opposition of the party to immigration and recommended a rapprochement between the two sides of the problem of slavery. The Republicans maintained a vehement Anti-slavery stance, a position that collected the votes of most of the northern states. Democrats, however, citing the possible dissolution of the Union should feelings Randi White House.

For the results of previous elections, see American presidential election of 1852. For the results of the following election, see Presidential election of the United States of 1860.

Richard Pallardy

Results of elections of 1856

The results of the American presidential election of 1856 are provided in the table.