1856 United States presidential election

Election of James Buchanan May 2022 February 2023related races 1856 United States elections 1856 United States presidential election United States 1851 presidential no 1852 United States presidential election 1852 November 4, 1856 1860 United States presidential election 1860 296 members of the Electoral College 149 electoral 79.4%http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present United States Election Project CQ Press 9.9 pp James Buchanan Alt Crop.jpg James Buchanan Democratic Party (United States) Pennsylvania John C. Breckinridge 174 19 1,836,072 45.3% John Charles Fremont Oval Crop Edit.png John C. Frémont Republican Party (United States) North American California William L. Dayton 114 11 1,342,345 33.1% Fillmore Alt Crop.jpg Millard Fillmore American Whig Party (United States) New York Andrew Jackson Donelson 8 1 873,053 21.5% 350px Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Buchanan/Breckinridge, Red by Frémont/Dayton, and Lavender by Fillmore/Donelson. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes cast by each state. President Franklin Pierce Democratic Party (United States) James Buchanan Democratic Party (United States) Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 1856. Democratic nominee James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont and Know Nothing/Whig nominee Millard Fillmore. The main issue was the expansion of slavery as facilitated by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. Buchanan defeated President Franklin Pierce at the 1856 Democratic National Convention for the nomination. Pierce had become widely unpopular in the North because of his support for the pro-slavery faction in the ongoing civil war in territorial Kansas, and Buchanan, a former Secretary of State, had avoided the divisive debates over the Kansas–Nebraska Act by being in Europe as the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Slavery was the main issue, and with it the question of the survival of the United States as it then existed. The Democrats were the pro-slavery party. While the new Republican party was hostile to slavery, they limited their efforts to the politically more manageable question of the extension of slavery into federal territories (and its removal from the District of Columbia). The nativist Know Nothings (known formally as the American Party) competed with the Republicans to replace the moribund Whig Party as the primary opposition to the Democrats. They emphasized opposition to Catholic immigrants. The 1856 Republican National Convention nominated a ticket led by Frémont, an explorer and military officer who had served in the Mexican–American War. The Know Nothings, who ignored slavery and instead emphasized anti-immigration and anti-Catholic policies, nominated a ticket led by former Whig President Millard Fillmore. Domestic political turmoil was a major factor in the nominations of both Buchanan and Fillmore, who appealed in part because of their recent time abroad, when they did not have to take a position on the divisive questions related to slavery. The Democrats supported expansionist slave-holding policies generally of varying intensities. Southern Democrats were all in favor of the expansion of slavery. Some wanted to obtain Cuba as slave territory, as espoused by the Ostend Manifesto. Northern Democrats called for "popular sovereignty", which in theory would allow the residents in a territory to decide for themselves the legal status of slavery. In practice, in Kansas Territory, it produced a state-level civil war. Frémont opposed the expansion of slavery. Buchanan called that position "extremist", warning that a Republican victory would lead to disunion, a then constant issue of political debate which had already been long discussed and advocated. The Know Nothings attempted to present themselves as the one party capable of bridging the sectional divides. All three major parties found support in the North, but the Republicans had virtually no backing in the South. 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. Frémont won a majority of electoral votes from free states and finished second in the nationwide popular vote, while Fillmore took 21.5% of the popular vote but only carried Maryland. 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. This election marked the end of the Second Party System and also proved to be the last Democratic presidential victory until Grover Cleveland in 1884, as Republicans emerged as the dominant party during and after the Civil War. Nominations The 1856 presidential election was primarily waged among three political parties, though other parties had been active in the spring of the year. The conventions of these parties are considered below in order of the party's popular vote. Democratic Party nomination Tenure 1856 Democratic National Convention 1856 Democratic Party ticket white James Buchanan white John C. Breckinridgefor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px U.S. Minister to Great Britain(1853–1856) U.S. Representativefor Kentucky's 8th(1851–1855) thumb|212x212px|Franklin Pierce, the incumbent president in 1856, whose term expired on March 4, 1857 after losing renomination Democratic candidates: James Buchanan, Minister to Great Britain and former Secretary of State Franklin Pierce, President of the United States Stephen Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois Lewis Cass, U.S. Senator and 1848 presidential nominee from Michigan thumb|right|220px|Buchanan/Breckinridge campaign poster The Democratic Party was wounded from its devastating losses in the 1854–1855 midterm elections. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, entered the race in opposition to President Franklin Pierce. The Pennsylvania delegation continued to sponsor its favorite son Buchanan. The Seventh Democratic National Convention was held in Smith and Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 2 to 6, 1856. The delegates were deeply divided over slavery. On the first ballot, Buchanan placed first with 135.5 votes to 122.5 for Pierce, 33 for Douglas, and 5 for Senator Lewis Cass, who had been the presidential nominee in 1848. With each succeeding ballot, Buchanan gradually extended his lead, while Douglas began making significant gains at Pierce's expense. By the end of the first day, with 14 ballots having been completed, it was clear that Pierce would not be nominated for a second term, and he withdrew his name from contention. On the 15th ballot, most of Pierce's delegates shifted to Douglas in an attempt to stop Buchanan, but Douglas withdrew when it became clear Buchanan had the support of the majority of those at the convention, also fearing that his continued participation might lead to divisions within the party that could endanger its chances in the general election. For the first time in American history someone who had been elected president was denied re-nomination after seeking it. A host of candidates were nominated for the vice presidency, but a number of them attempted to withdraw themselves from consideration, among them the eventual nominee, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Breckinridge, besides having been selected as an elector, was also supporting former Speaker of the House Linn Boyd for the vice presidential nomination. However, following a draft effort led by the delegation from Vermont, Breckinridge was nominated on the second ballot. Republican Party nomination 1856 Republican National Convention 1856 Republican Party ticket white John C. Frémont white William L. Daytonfor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px U.S. Senator from California(1850–1851) U.S. Senator from New Jersey(1842–1851)center|375px Republican candidates: John C. Frémont, former United States Senator from California John McLean, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court thumb|right|220px|Fremont/Dayton campaign poster The Republican Party was formed in early 1854 to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act. During the midterm elections of 1854–1855, the Republican Party was one of the patchwork of anti-administration parties contesting the election, but they were able to win thirteen seats in the House of Representatives for the 34th Congress. However, the party collaborated with other disaffected groups and gradually absorbed them. In the elections of 1855, the Republican Party won three governorships. The first Republican National Convention was held in the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17 to 19, 1856. The convention approved an anti-slavery platform that called for congressional sovereignty in the territories, an end to polygamy in Mormon settlements, and federal assistance for a transcontinental railroad—a political outcome of the Pacific Railroad Surveys. John C. Frémont, John McLean, William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Charles Sumner all were considered by those at the convention, but the latter three requested that their names be withdrawn. Seward and Chase did not feel that the party was yet sufficiently organized to have a realistic chance of taking the White House and were content to wait until the next election. Sumner was in no fit condition to run after being violently assaulted on the Senate floor a month before the convention. McLean's name was initially withdrawn by his manager Rufus Spalding, but the withdrawal was rescinded at the strong behest of the Pennsylvania delegation led by Thaddeus Stevens.A History of Presidential Elections Eugene H. Roseboom 162 Kentucky was the only southern state to have a delegation at the convention.1979 National Party Conventions, 1831–1976 Congressional Quarterly Frémont was nominated for president overwhelmingly on the formal ballot, and William L. Dayton was nominated for vice president over Abraham Lincoln. American (Know-Nothing) Party nomination 1856 American National Convention 1856 American Party ticket black Millard Fillmore black Andrew Jackson Donelsonfor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px 13thPresident of the United States(1850–1853) 2ndU.S. Envoy to Prussia(1846–1849) American Party candidates: Millard Fillmore, former President of the United States from New York George Law, steamboat entrepreneur from New York thumb|right|170px|1856 Know-Nothing campaign poster The American Party, formerly the Native American Party, was the vehicle of the Know Nothing movement. The American Party absorbed most of the former Whig Party that had not gone to either the Republicans or Democrats in 1854, and by 1855 it had established itself as the chief opposition party to the Democrats. In the 82 races for the House of Representatives in 1854, the American Party ran 76 candidates, 35 of whom won. None of the six independents or Whigs who ran in these races were elected. The party gained control over the state governments of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island in the 1854 and 1855 elections. The party also controlled the Tennessee legislature and received at least 45% of the vote in multiple Southern states, far better than the Whig Party following 1848.McPherson 1988 138-140 The party then succeeded in electing Nathaniel P. Banks as Speaker of the House in the 34th Congress.McPherson 1988 143-144 However, the party started to break apart at sectional lines over slavery. Henry Wilson led Northern delegates out of the party's 1855 national council in Philadelphia in protest of it adopting a plank endorsing the Kansas-Nebraska Act.McPherson 1988 140 70 Northern delegates left the 1856 convention to create the North American Party after a resolution calling for the Kansas-Nebraska Act to be repealed was defeated.McPherson 1988 153-154 The American National Convention was held in National Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 22 to 25, 1856. Following the decision by party leaders in 1855 not to press the slavery issue, the convention had to decide how to deal with the Ohio chapter of the party, which was vocally anti-slavery. The convention closed the Ohio chapter and re-opened it under more moderate leadership. Delegates from New England, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and other Northern states bolted when a resolution that would have required all prospective nominees to be in favor of prohibiting slavery north of the 36'30' parallel was voted down.American Presidential Elections Arthur M. Jr. Schlesinger Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 1020 This removed a greater part of the American Party's support in the North outside of New York, where the conservative faction of the Whig Party remained faithful.A History of Presidential Elections Eugene H. Roseboom 159 While Banks was the early favorite for the party's presidential nomination, he publicly declined the nomination and effectively broke from the Know-Nothings, though he would not formally defect to the Republican Party until after the election. After Banks removed himself from consideration, the only name with much support was former President Millard Fillmore. Historian Allan Nevins says that Fillmore was not a Know-Nothing or a nativist. He was out of the country when the presidential nomination came and had not been consulted about running. Furthermore, Fillmore was neither a member of the party nor had he ever attended an American [Know-Nothing] gathering, nor had he by "spoken or written word [...] indicated a subscription to American tenets".Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing 1852–1857 (1947) 2:467 Fillmore was nominated with 179 votes out of the 234 votes cast. The convention chose Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee for vice president with 181 votes to 30 scattered votes and 24 abstentions. Although the nativist argument of the American Party had considerable success in local and state elections in 1854–55, Fillmore in 1856 concentrated almost entirely on national unity. Historian Tyler Anbinder says, "The American party had dropped nativism from its agenda." Fillmore won 22% of the national popular vote. North American Party nomination North American Party candidates: John C. Frémont, former Senator from California Nathaniel P. Banks. Speaker of the House from Massachusetts John McLean, Associate Justice Robert F. Stockton, former Senator from New Jersey William F. Johnston, Governor of Pennsylvania thumbnail|An anti-slavery map printed during the presidential election campaign of 1856 by the John C. Fremont campaign. The anti-slavery "Americans" from the North formed their own party after the nomination of Fillmore in Philadelphia. This party called for its national convention to be held in New York City, just before the Republican National Convention. Party leaders hoped to nominate a joint ticket with the Republicans to defeat Buchanan. The national convention was held on June 12 to 20, 1856 in New York. As John C. Frémont was the favorite to attain the Republican presidential nomination there was a considerable desire for the North American party to nominate him, but it was feared that in doing so they may possibly injure his chances to actually become the Republican presidential nominee. The delegates voted repeatedly on a nominee for president without a result. Nathaniel P. Banks was nominated for president on the 10th ballot over John C. Frémont and John McLean, with the understanding that he would withdraw from the race and endorse John C. Frémont once he had won the Republican presidential nomination. The delegates, preparing to return home, unanimously nominated Frémont on the 11th ballot shortly after his nomination by the Republican Party in Philadelphia. The chairman of the convention, William F. Johnston, had been nominated to run for vice president, but later withdrew when the North Americans and the Republicans failed to find an acceptable accommodation between him and the Republican vice presidential nominee, William Dayton.American Presidential Elections Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 1022–1023 + Convention vote Presidential ballots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Vice presidential ballot Nathaniel P. Banks 43 48 46 47 46 45 51 50 50 53 0 William F. Johnston 59 John C. Frémont 34 36 37 37 31 29 29 27 28 18 92 Thomas Ford 16 John McLean 19 10 2 29 33 40 41 40 30 24 0 John C. Frémont 12 Robert F. Stockton 14 20 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Scattering 21 William F. Johnston 6 1 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Scattering 5 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 North American Seceders Party nomination North American Seceders Party candidates: John C. Frémont, former senator from California Nathaniel P. Banks. Speaker of the House from Massachusetts John McLean, Associate Justice from Ohio Robert F. Stockton, former Senator from New Jersey William F. Johnston, Governor of Pennsylvania A group of North American delegates called the North American Seceders withdrew from the North American Party's convention and met separately. They objected to the attempt to work with the Republican Party. The Seceders held their own national convention on June 16 and 17, 1856. 19 delegates unanimously nominated Robert F. Stockton for president and Kenneth Rayner for vice president. The Seceders' ticket later withdrew from the contest, with Stockton endorsing Millard Fillmore for the presidency.A History of Presidential Elections Eugene H. Roseboom 160 Whig Party nomination 1856 Whig National Convention The Whig Party was reeling from electoral losses since 1852. Half of its leaders in the South bolted to the Southern Democratic Party. In the North the Whig Party was moribund with most of its anti-slavery members joining the Republican Party. This party remained somewhat alive in states like New York and Pennsylvania by joining the anti-slavery movement. The fifth (and last) Whig National Convention was held in the Hall of the Maryland Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 17 and 18, 1856. There were 150 delegates sent from 26 states. Though the leaders of this party wanted to keep the Whig Party alive, it became irretrievably doomed once these 150 Whig delegates decided unanimously to endorse the American Party's national ticket of Fillmore and Donelson. Radical Abolitionist Party nomination By 1856, very little of the Liberty Party remained. Most of its members joined the Free Soil Party in 1848 and nearly of all what remained of the party joined the Republicans in 1854. What remained of the party ran 1848 candidate Gerrit Smith under the name of the "Radical Abolitionist Party." General election Campaign thumb|400px|Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of blue are for Buchanan (Democratic), shades of red are for Frémont (Republican), and shades of yellow are for Fillmore (Know Nothing/Whig). thumb|upright=.90|Caricature of Democratic Platform thumb|upright=.50|Campaign ribbon None of the three candidates did any public campaigning. The Republican Party opposed the extension of slavery into the territories: in fact, its slogan was "Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Frémont and victory!" The Republicans thus crusaded against the Slave Power, warning it was destroying republican values. Democrats warned that a Republican victory would bring a civil war. The Republican platform opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise through the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which enacted the policy of popular sovereignty, allowing settlers to decide whether a new state would enter the Union as free or slave. The Republicans also accused the Pierce administration of allowing a fraudulent territorial government to be imposed upon the citizens of the Kansas Territory, thus engendering the violence that had raged in Bleeding Kansas. They advocated the immediate admittance of Kansas as a free state. Along with opposing the spread of slavery into the continental territories of the United States, the party also opposed the Ostend Manifesto, which advocated the annexation of Cuba from Spain. In sum, the campaign's true focus was against the system of slavery, which they felt was destroying the republican values that the Union had been founded upon. The Democratic platform supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty. The party supported the pro-slavery territorial legislature elected in Kansas, opposed the free-state elements within Kansas, and castigated the Topeka Constitution as an illegal document written during an illegal convention. The Democrats also supported the plan to annex Cuba, advocated in the Ostend Manifesto, which Buchanan helped devise while serving as minister to Britain. The most influential aspect of the Democratic campaign was a warning that a Republican victory would lead to the secession of numerous southern states. The main Democratic campaign was a counter-crusade against the Republicans. They ridiculed Frémont's military record and warned that his victory would bring civil war. Much of the private rhetoric of the campaign focused on unfounded rumors regarding Frémont—talk of him as president taking charge of a large army that would support slave insurrections, the likelihood of widespread lynchings of slaves, and whispered hope among slaves for freedom and political equality.Douglas R. Egerton, "The Slaves' Election: Frémont, Freedom, and the Slave Conspiracies of 1856." Civil War History 61#1 (2015): 35–63.Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing, 1852–1857 (1947) pp. 496–502 Because Fillmore was considered by many incapable of securing the presidency on the American ticket, Whigs were urged to support Buchanan. Democrats also called on nativists to make common cause with them against the specter of sectionalism even if they had once attacked their political views. Fillmore and the Americans, meanwhile, insisted that they were the only "national party" since the Democrats leaning in favor of the South and the Republicans were fanatically in favor of Northern fanaticism.A History of Presidential Elections Eugene H. Roseboom 166 A minor scandal erupted when the Americans, seeking to turn the national dialogue back in the direction of nativism, put out a false rumor that Frémont was in fact a Roman Catholic. Because of the Republican candidate's French-Canadian ancestry and surname, many voters accepted the allegation at face value. The Democrats ran with it, and the Republicans found themselves unable to counteract the rumor effectively given that while the statements were false, any stern message against those assertions might have crippled their efforts to attain the votes of German Catholics. Attempts were made to refute it through friends and colleagues, but the issue persisted throughout the campaign and might have cost Frémont the support of a number of American Party members. Results 30.6% of the voting age population and 79.4% of eligible voters participated in the election.Abramson Aldrich Rohde 1995 99 The campaign had a different nature in the free states and the slave states. In the free states, there was a three-way campaign, which Frémont won with 45.2% of the vote to 41.5% for Buchanan and 13.3% for Fillmore; Frémont received 114 electoral votes to 62 for Buchanan. In the slave states, however, the contest was for all intents and purposes between Buchanan and Fillmore; Buchanan won 56.1% of the vote to 43.8% for Fillmore and 0.1% for Frémont, receiving 112 electoral votes to 8 for Fillmore. Nationwide, Buchanan won 174 electoral votes, a majority, and was thus elected. Frémont received no votes in ten of the fourteen slave states with a popular vote; he obtained 306 in Delaware, 285 in Maryland, 283 in Virginia, and 314 in Kentucky. Of the 1,713 counties making returns, Buchanan won 1,083 (63.22%), Frémont won 366 (21.37%), and Fillmore won 263 (15.35%). One county (0.06%), in Georgia, was split evenly between Buchanan and Fillmore. This would be the only presidential election where the Know-Nothing Party put up a campaign, as the party began to splinter. After the Supreme Court's controversial Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling in 1857, most of the anti-slavery members of the party joined the Republicans. The pro-slavery wing of the American Party remained strong on the local and state levels in a few Southern states, but, by the 1860 election, they no longer were a serious national political movement. Most of their remaining members either joined or supported the Constitutional Union Party in 1860. This was the last election in which a candidate won without any electoral votes from New England until 2004, and only the second such occurrence after Democrat Andrew Jackson in 1828, and the only time that a Republican swept the region without winning the presidency. It is also the most recent election in which a Democrat was elected to succeed a Democratic president, and is only the second instance of such an occurrence, the first being in 1836. This was the last election in which the Democrats won Pennsylvania until 1936, the last in which the Democrats won Illinois until 1892, the last in which the Democrats won California until 1880, the last in which the Democrats won Indiana and Virginia until 1876 and the last in which the Democrats won Tennessee until 1872. This also started the long Republican trend in Vermont, which would not be broken until 1964, over a century later. The presidential election of 1856 was also the last one in which a former president ran for election to the presidency on a third-party ticket until 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt ran on the Progressive Party ticket. Gasconade County, Missouri, as of the 2024 United States presidential election, has not voted Democratic since, marking the beginning of the longest active voting streak for any party at the county level. File: United States Electoral College 1856.svg (a) James Buchanan John C. Breckinridge Democratic Pennsylvania Kentucky 1,836,072 45.28% 174 John C. Frémont William L. Dayton Republican California New Jersey 1,342,345 33.11% 114 Millard Fillmore Andrew Jackson Donelson American New York Tennessee 873,053 21.53% 8 3,177 0.08% 4,054,647 296 149 Source (Popular Vote): 1856 July 27, 2005 Source (Electoral Vote): 1856 July 31, 2005 (a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote. Popular vote 600px 410px Buchanan Democratic Party (US) 45.28 Frémont Republican Party (US) 33.11 Fillmore American Party (United States) 21.53 Others #777777 0.03 Electoral vote 600px 410px Buchanan Democratic Party (US) 58.78 Frémont Republican Party (US) 38.51 Fillmore American Party (United States) 2.70 Geography of results Cartographic gallery Results by state Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836–1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57. States/districts won by Buchanan/BreckinridgeStates/districts won by Frémont/DaytonStates/districts won by Fillmore/Donelson James BuchananDemocratic John C. FremontRepublican Millard FillmoreAmericanMargin State Total State electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes#% # Alabama 9 0001361846,739 62.08 9 no ballots 0004866928,552 37.92 –18,18724.16 75,291 AL Arkansas 4 21,910 67.12 4 no ballots 10,732 32.88 –11,17834.24 32,642 AR California 4 53,342 48.38 4 20,704 18.78 – 36,195 32.83 –17,14715.55 110,255 CA Connecticut 6 34,997 43.57 – 42,717 53.18 6 2,615 3.26 – −7,720 −9.61 80,329 CT Delaware 3 8,004 54.83 3 310 2.12 – 6,275 42.99 –1,72911.84 14,589 DE Florida 3 6,358 56.81 3 no ballots 4,833 43.19 –1,52513.62 11,191 FL Georgia 10 56,581 57.14 10 no ballots 42,439 42.86 –14,14214.28 99,020 GA Illinois 11 105,528 44.09 11 96,275 40.23 – 37,531 15.68 –9,2533.86 239,334 IL Indiana 13 118,670 50.41 13 94,375 40.09 – 22,386 9.51 –24,29510.32 235,431 IN Iowa 4 37,568 40.70 – 45,073 48.83 4 9,669 10.47 – −7,505 −8.13 92,310 IA Kentucky 12 74,642 52.54 12 no ballots 67,416 47.46 –7,2265.08 142,058 KY Louisiana 6 22,164 51.70 6 no ballots 20,709 48.30 –1,4553.40 42,873 LA Maine 8 39,140 35.68 – 67,279 61.34 8 3,270 2.98 – −28,139 −25.66 109,689 ME Maryland 8 39,123 45.04 – 285 0.33 – 47,452 54.63 8 −8,329 −9.59 86,860 MD Massachusetts 13 39,244 23.08 – 108,172 63.61 13 19,626 11.54 – −68,928 −40.53 170,048 MA Michigan 6 52,139 41.52 – 71,762 57.15 6 1,660 1.32 – −19,623 −15.63 125,561 MI Mississippi 7 35,456 59.44 7 no ballots 24,191 40.56 –11,26518.88 59,647 MS Missouri 9 57,964 54.43 9 no ballots 48,522 45.57 –9,4428.86 106,486 MO New Hampshire 5 31,891 45.71 – 37,473 53.71 5 410 0.59 – −5,582 −8.00 69,774 NH New Jersey 7 46,943 47.23 7 28,338 28.51 – 24,115 24.26 –22,82818.72 99,396 NJ New York 35 195,878 32.84 – 276,004 46.27 35 124,604 20.89 – −80,126 −13.43 596,486 NY North Carolina 10 48,243 56.78 10 no ballots 36,720 43.22 –11,52313.56 84,963 NC Ohio 23 170,874 44.21 – 187,497 48.51 23 28,126 7.28 – −16,623 −4.30 386,497 OH Pennsylvania 27 230,686 50.13 27 147,286 32.01 – 82,189 17.86 –83,40018.12 460,161 PA Rhode Island 4 6,680 33.70 – 11,467 57.85 4 1,675 8.45 – −4,787 −24.15 19,822 RI South Carolina 8 no popular vote 8 no popular vote no popular vote – – – SC Tennessee 12 69,704 52.18 12 no ballots 63,878 47.82 –5,8264.36 133,582 TN Texas 4 31,169 66.59 4 no ballots 15,639 33.41 –15,53033.18 46,808 TX Vermont 5 10,577 20.84 – 39,561 77.96 5 545 1.07 – −28,984 −57.12 50,748 VT Virginia 15 90,083 59.96 15 no ballots 60,150 40.04 –29,93319.92 150,223 VA Wisconsin 5 52,843 44.22 – 66,090 55.30 5 579 0.48 – −13,247 −11.08 119,512 WI TOTALS: 296 1,835,140 45.29 174 1,340,668 33.09 114 872,703 21.54 8494,47212.2 4,051,605 US TO WIN: 149 States that flipped from Whig to Democratic Kentucky Tennessee States that flipped from Democratic to Know-Nothing Maryland States that flipped from Whig to Republican Massachusetts Vermont States that flipped from Democratic to Republican Connecticut Iowa Maine Michigan New Hampshire New York Ohio Rhode Island Wisconsin Close states States where the margin of victory was under 5%: Louisiana 3.40% (1,455 votes) Illinois 3.86% (9,253 votes) Ohio 4.30% (16,623 votes) Tennessee 4.36% (5,826 votes) (tipping point state for Buchanan victory) States where the margin of victory was under 10%: Kentucky 5.08% (7,226 votes) New Hampshire 8.00% (5,582 votes) Iowa 8.13% (7,505 votes) Missouri 8.86% (9,442 votes) Maryland 9.59% (8,329 votes) Connecticut 9.61% (7,720 votes) Congressional certification During the joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, a dispute occurred over Wisconsin's slate. The electors of Wisconsin, delayed by a snowstorm, did not cast their votes for Frémont and Dayton until several days after the appointed time and sent a certificate mentioning this fact. When the votes for the state were opened by acting Vice President James Mason, he counted them over the objections of the leadership of both Houses of Congress.Kesavan Vasan "Is the Electoral Count Act Unconstitutional?" NC Law Review 2001–2002 80 2001–2002 https://macris.substack.com/p/who-counts-the-votes-of-the-presidential December 30, 2020 December 29, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201229205219/https://macris.substack.com/p/who-counts-the-votes-of-the-presidential dead See also Inauguration of James Buchanan Origins of the American Civil War Third Party System 1856–57 United States House of Representatives elections 1856–57 United States Senate elections American election campaigns in the 19th century History of the United States (1849–1865) History of the United States Democratic Party History of the United States Republican Party References 30em Works cited Abramson Paul Aldrich John Rohde David Change and Continuity in the 1992 Elections CQ Press 1995 0871878399 McPherson James James M. McPherson Battle Cry of Freedom Oxford University Press 1988 9780195038637 Further reading Bibliography of Franklin Pierce Ambacher, Bruce. "George M. Dallas, Cuba, and the Election of 1856" Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 97, No. 3 (1973), pp. 318-332 online Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s Anbinder Tyler 1992 Oxford University Press New York 0-19-508922-7 Bicknell, John. Lincoln's Pathfinder (2017) popular history of election from Fremont's perspective. 355 pages Egerton, Douglas R. "The Slaves’ Election: Frémont, Freedom, and the Slave Conspiracies of 1856" Civil War History 61#1 (2015), pp. 35-63 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/567046 Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War https://archive.org/details/freesoilfreelabo01fone Foner Eric Eric Foner 1970 Oxford University Press New York The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 Gienapp William E. 1987 Oxford University Press New York 0-19-504100-3 Gienapp, William E. "Nativism and the Creation of a Republican Majority in the North before the Civil War." Journal of American History 72.3 (1985): 529-559 online The Political Crisis of the 1850s Holt Michael F. 1978 Norton New York 0-393-95370-X 139–181 Howard, Victor B. "Presbyterians, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Election of 1856" Journal of Presbyterian History 49#2 (1971), pp. 133-156 online Ordeal of the Union: vol 2: A House Dividing, 1852–1857 Nevins Allan Allan Nevins 1947 New York The most detailed narrative. Nichols, Roy. "Election of 1856" in Arthur Schlesinger Jr, ed. The Coming to Power: Critical Presidential Elections in American history (1972) pp.91–117 online Pierson Michael D. 2002 'Prairies on Fire': The Organization of the 1856 Mass Republican Rally in Beloit, Wisconsin Civil War History 48 0009-8078 The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 Potter David David M. Potter 1976 Harper & Row New York 0-06-090524-7 Race and Politics: "Bleeding Kansas" and the Coming of the Civil War https://archive.org/details/racepoliticsblee00rawl registration Rawley James A. 1969 Lippincott Philadelphia Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837–1860 Sewell Richard H. 1976 Oxford University Press New York 0-19-501997-0 254–291 registration https://archive.org/details/ballotsforfreedo00sewe/page/254 Primary sources Buchanan and Breckinridge. The Democratic hand-book, compiled by Mich. W. Cluskey ... Recommended by the Democratic national committee (1856) ... Address of Working Men of Pittsburgh to Their Fellow Working Men in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, PA: W.S. Haven, 1856. Chester, Edward W A guide to political platforms (1977) online Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840–1964 (1965) online 1840–1956 External links Presidential Election of 1856: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress 1856 popular vote by counties 1856 state-by-state popular voting results https://web.archive.org/web/20041209092220/http://www.multied.com/elections/1856Pop.html December 9, 2004 Election of 1856 in Counting the Votes https://web.archive.org/web/20171112185719/http://www.countingthevotes.com/1856/ November 12, 2017 Presidential election United States presidential election Category:John C. Breckinridge Category:James Buchanan Category:Millard Fillmore Category:John C. Frémont Category:Presidency of James Buchanan Category:Presidency of Franklin Pierce Category:Utah War