1856 United States presidential election

1856 United States presidential election

The 1856 United States presidential election was the 18th quadrennial presidential election. Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont, and Know Nothing nominee Millard Fillmore. This was the only time in U.S. history in which a political party denied renomination to the incumbent President and won. It was the last presidential election to be held before the end of the Second World War.

About 1856 United States presidential election in brief

Summary 1856 United States presidential electionThe 1856 United States presidential election was the 18th quadrennial presidential election. Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont, and Know Nothing nominee Millard Fillmore. This was the only time in U.S. history in which a political party denied renomination to the incumbent President and won. Buchanan won a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote, taking all but one slave state and five free states. His popular vote margin of 12. 2% was the greatest margin between 1836 and 1904. The Know Nothings soon collapsed as a national party, as most of its anti-slavery members joined the Republican Party after the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court ruling. 1856 also proved to be the last Democratic presidential victory until 1884, as Republicans emerged as the dominant party during and after the Civil War. The election was primarily waged among three political parties, though other parties had been active in the spring of the year. All three major parties found support in the North, but the Republicans had virtually no backing in the South. The Democratic Party was wounded from its devastating losses in the 1854–1855 midterm elections. The Republican Party was weakened by the defeat of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The Democrats were seen as the pro-Slavery party; the new Republican party, though certainly in favor of national abolition, limited its efforts to the politically more manageable question of the extension of slavery into federal territories.

U. S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas entered the race in opposition to President Franklin Pierce. The Seventh Democratic National Convention was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 2 to 6, 1856. On the first ballot, Buchanan placed first with 135 votes to 5 votes for Pierce, who had been the nominee in 1848. With each succeeding ballot, Pierce’s delegates gained at Pierce’s expense, and Buchanan became the clear winner. The 1856 election was held on Tuesday, November 4, and Pierce was re-elected to a second term as President of the United States. It was the last presidential election to be held before the end of the Second World War, when the U.N. became a fully-fledged democracy. The U.K. became the first country to hold a presidential election in the 21st century, and the first to hold it in the 20th century. The first presidential elections were held in 1856 and 1858, and they were held on November 4 and 19, and in 1858 and 1859, respectively. The elections were also held in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California, and San Francisco, and on November 11 and 20, 1857, and November 21, 1858. The winner was chosen at the 1856 Democratic National convention in San Francisco. The vote was held at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California. The result was known as the “Battle of San Diego”