United States Presidential Election of 1856
James Buchanan defeated John C. Fremont 174 to 114 in the Republican Party's first campaign.
Overview
The Democrats turned to Buchanan, untainted by the Kansas bloodshed, while the new Republican Party, born of fury at Kansas-Nebraska, ran western hero Fremont on free soil, and the American or Know-Nothing Party's Millard Fillmore split nativist votes. Buchanan won 174 to 114 plus 8 for Fillmore, holding the South and enough of the North. Fremont's eleven states proved a new sectional party could contend, while Buchanan's support of Dred Scott and Kansas's slave constitution destroyed his presidency and set the course to 1860.
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