The election of 1856 was the first election in which the Republican Party fielded a candidate, John C. Fremont, known as "the Pathfinder" because of his explorations in the West. Composed heavily of former "Conscience Whigs," anti-Nebraska Democrats and old Free Soil party members, the party adopted a motto of "free speech, free soil, free labor, free men, Fremont." They criticized repeal of the Missouri Compromise and opposed extension of slavery into the territories.
The Democratic candidate, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, was nominated in part because he had been out of the country during the Kansas-Nebraska episode and thus had not taken a position on it. Republicans labeled Buchanan a "doughface"—a northerner with Southern principles like Franklin Pierce, and Buchanan in turn portrayed the Republican Party as a sectional party opposed to many of the positions taken by Southerners. The Democrats supported the Kansas-Nebraska act and affirmed the 1850 Compromise. Their vice presidential candidate was John C. Breckenridge.
The American Party, whose primary position was that of anti-immigration, nominated former President Millard Fillmore, who won a significant percentage of the vote.
James Buchanan won the election, and national harmony was temporarily maintained. Southern attacks on Fremont were vicious, even though Fremont had been born in Savannah. Southern firebrands threatened secession if Fremont were elected. The young Republican Party showed surprising strength, however, carrying many states in the North, which looked promising for its future. With the addition of as few as two more states in the North, they saw themselves possible victors in 1860. Although Buchanan was sympathetic to Southern causes, as the country drifted further towards disunion, he became more of a Unionist himself.
World History
