Past Campaigns: The 1856 Democratic Party Race
For the month of June, I want to take a look back at some of the more interesting presidential campaigns of the past. By this point in the 2016 presidential campaign, we're almost certain who the candidates will be for each of the major campaigns, and in less than a week, all of the states will have held their primaries and caucuses (with the exception of the Democrats in the District of Columbia, who hold theirs on June 14th). Barring some sort of phenomenal occurrence, it is expected that Donald Trump will win the Republican Party's nomination for President and, to a lesser degree of certainty, but almost certainly, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party's candidate for President.
There was a time when the fight for a party's nomination wasn't decided until at the convention, sometime taking days to decide. The 1924 Democratic Convention took 105 ballots to nominate a candidate. In 1856 the Democrats took a lot less time, comparatively, with 17 ballots needed to select their candidate over two days of voting. It was an interesting time for the nation politically. The Democrats were the dominant party at the time, as the Whig Party had disintegrated over the issue of slavery. The Democrats were facing a similar split.
This was the first election in which the Republican Party had any real sort of presence in an election. On June 19, 1855, a small gathering of individuals who were opposed to slavery met in Washington, D.C. The group formed an organization that called themselves the "Republican Association of Washington, District of Columbia". They passed a simple four plank platform. One of the planks provided that "there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, in any of the Territories of the United States." This led to the formation of a number of state organizations with similar goals, and the Republican Party soon came into being. On January 17, 1856 representatives of Republican Party organizations in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wisconsin — all Northern states in which slavery was prohibited agreed to hold a convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1856 in order to form a national organization and to call a formal, properly delegated national convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President for the upcoming November 1856 election. They elected a governing National Executive Committee and passed various resolutions calling for the repeal of laws enabling slaveholding in free territories and for the protection of anti-slavery supporters in Kansas.
The 22-member Republican National Committee met again on March 27, 1856 at Willard's Hotel in Washington, DC and issued a call for a formal presidential nominating convention. This was held beginning on June 17, 1856 in Philadelphia. At the convention, former general and California Senator John C. Fremont was nominated as the party's first presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, the Democrats were still the governing party and Franklin Pierce was the incumbent President. But Pierce's renomination faced some considerable obstacles. The Democratic Party had suffered devastating losses in the 1854–1855 midterm elections. The party was divided along sectional lines over the issue of slavery in new territories and whether or not those territories would be admitted to the union as free states or as slave states. The Kansas–Nebraska Act, passed in 1854, had led to violence in those territories between pro and anti slavery groups, and Kansas came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas" because of the violence that occurred there during its campaign for statehood. Two notable Democratic politicians, President Pierce and Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, were seen as being at the center of the controversies.
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, entered the race, seeking to run in opposition to President Pierce. Both men had lost support among northerners, and the party looked for a candidate who could meet two criteria: (1) someone who was not associated with the Kansas Nebraska Act and the violence within that territory, and (2) someone who could appeal to both northern and southern voters. The Pennsylvania delegation proposed that its favorite son, former Secretary of State James Buchanan, met both of those requirements. He was well-regarded as a statesman both among many northern Democrats, as well as those in the south. For the past three years, from August 23, 1853 to March 15, 1856, he had been out of the country, serving as Minister (Ambassador) to the United Kingdom, and therefore he was removed from the Kansas-Nebraska controversy.
In those days candidates did not campaign openly, and their work to solicit votes was done behind the scenes by surrogates. President Pierce still hoped to win his party's nomination, but in reality, he had slim hope of doing so. His popularity had suffered because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and at that time, the Democrats required the successful candidate to win at least 2/3 of the ballots to win the nomination. Pierce certainly did not have that level of support.
The Democratic Convention of 1856 began at noon on Monday, June 2, by the National Committee chair Robert McLane. The first day of the convention was spent on routine business such as the appointment of committees on credentials, organization, and resolutions (the committee that would write the party's platform, something that was a big deal in those days). On the second day John Elliot Ward of Georgia was made the convention's president and the credentials committee settled disputes over delegates. The next day the party adopted the platform. It wasn't until the fourth day, June 5, when nominations for President began. Four men were nominated, all of whom would serve as the Democratic party's candidate at one time or another: James Buchanan of Pennsylvania (nominated in 1856), President Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire (1852), Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois (1860), and Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan (1848).
On the first ballot, Buchanan led with 135½ votes. Pierce had 122½, Douglas 33, and Cass 5. Fourteen ballots were held in total that day, with the order always the same, though Pierce's totals fell, while Senator Douglas gained some votes.
The next day, on June 6, Pierce's name was withdrawn, and two more ballots were taken without achieving the two-thirds majority required for a nomination. Before the seventeenth ballot, William A. Richardson, who had nominated Douglas, withdrew the Senator's candidacy and Buchanan won the nomination unanimously on the seventeenth ballot.
When it came time to choose a vice presidential candidate, eleven names were placed in nomination. The convention chose former Representative John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky on the second ballot, even though he had withdrawn his name when nominated.
Buchanan went on to win the presidency, in part because former President Millard Fillmore ran as a candidate for the American Party (often referred to as the "Know Nothing Party"). In the election campaign the Democratic platform supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty (the right of a state to decide by popular vote whether it would be admitted as a slave state or a free state). The party supported the pro-slavery territorial legislature elected in Kansas and opposed the free-state elements within Kansas. The Democrats also supported the plan to annex Cuba. The Democratic campaign warned voters that a Republican victory would lead to the secession of numerous southern states.
The campaign had different results in the free states and the slave states. In the free states, 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 really no contest. 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 elected President. He would be remembered as one of the worst presidents in history, perhaps the worst, because of his inaction when a number of southern states sought to secede from the Union. For someone considered to have a vast amount of experience in government that qualified him to be president moreso than almost any other president, Buchanan turned out to be a huge disappointment.
There was a time when the fight for a party's nomination wasn't decided until at the convention, sometime taking days to decide. The 1924 Democratic Convention took 105 ballots to nominate a candidate. In 1856 the Democrats took a lot less time, comparatively, with 17 ballots needed to select their candidate over two days of voting. It was an interesting time for the nation politically. The Democrats were the dominant party at the time, as the Whig Party had disintegrated over the issue of slavery. The Democrats were facing a similar split.
This was the first election in which the Republican Party had any real sort of presence in an election. On June 19, 1855, a small gathering of individuals who were opposed to slavery met in Washington, D.C. The group formed an organization that called themselves the "Republican Association of Washington, District of Columbia". They passed a simple four plank platform. One of the planks provided that "there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, in any of the Territories of the United States." This led to the formation of a number of state organizations with similar goals, and the Republican Party soon came into being. On January 17, 1856 representatives of Republican Party organizations in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wisconsin — all Northern states in which slavery was prohibited agreed to hold a convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1856 in order to form a national organization and to call a formal, properly delegated national convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President for the upcoming November 1856 election. They elected a governing National Executive Committee and passed various resolutions calling for the repeal of laws enabling slaveholding in free territories and for the protection of anti-slavery supporters in Kansas.
The 22-member Republican National Committee met again on March 27, 1856 at Willard's Hotel in Washington, DC and issued a call for a formal presidential nominating convention. This was held beginning on June 17, 1856 in Philadelphia. At the convention, former general and California Senator John C. Fremont was nominated as the party's first presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, the Democrats were still the governing party and Franklin Pierce was the incumbent President. But Pierce's renomination faced some considerable obstacles. The Democratic Party had suffered devastating losses in the 1854–1855 midterm elections. The party was divided along sectional lines over the issue of slavery in new territories and whether or not those territories would be admitted to the union as free states or as slave states. The Kansas–Nebraska Act, passed in 1854, had led to violence in those territories between pro and anti slavery groups, and Kansas came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas" because of the violence that occurred there during its campaign for statehood. Two notable Democratic politicians, President Pierce and Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, were seen as being at the center of the controversies.
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, entered the race, seeking to run in opposition to President Pierce. Both men had lost support among northerners, and the party looked for a candidate who could meet two criteria: (1) someone who was not associated with the Kansas Nebraska Act and the violence within that territory, and (2) someone who could appeal to both northern and southern voters. The Pennsylvania delegation proposed that its favorite son, former Secretary of State James Buchanan, met both of those requirements. He was well-regarded as a statesman both among many northern Democrats, as well as those in the south. For the past three years, from August 23, 1853 to March 15, 1856, he had been out of the country, serving as Minister (Ambassador) to the United Kingdom, and therefore he was removed from the Kansas-Nebraska controversy.
In those days candidates did not campaign openly, and their work to solicit votes was done behind the scenes by surrogates. President Pierce still hoped to win his party's nomination, but in reality, he had slim hope of doing so. His popularity had suffered because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and at that time, the Democrats required the successful candidate to win at least 2/3 of the ballots to win the nomination. Pierce certainly did not have that level of support.
The Democratic Convention of 1856 began at noon on Monday, June 2, by the National Committee chair Robert McLane. The first day of the convention was spent on routine business such as the appointment of committees on credentials, organization, and resolutions (the committee that would write the party's platform, something that was a big deal in those days). On the second day John Elliot Ward of Georgia was made the convention's president and the credentials committee settled disputes over delegates. The next day the party adopted the platform. It wasn't until the fourth day, June 5, when nominations for President began. Four men were nominated, all of whom would serve as the Democratic party's candidate at one time or another: James Buchanan of Pennsylvania (nominated in 1856), President Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire (1852), Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois (1860), and Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan (1848).
On the first ballot, Buchanan led with 135½ votes. Pierce had 122½, Douglas 33, and Cass 5. Fourteen ballots were held in total that day, with the order always the same, though Pierce's totals fell, while Senator Douglas gained some votes.
The next day, on June 6, Pierce's name was withdrawn, and two more ballots were taken without achieving the two-thirds majority required for a nomination. Before the seventeenth ballot, William A. Richardson, who had nominated Douglas, withdrew the Senator's candidacy and Buchanan won the nomination unanimously on the seventeenth ballot.
When it came time to choose a vice presidential candidate, eleven names were placed in nomination. The convention chose former Representative John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky on the second ballot, even though he had withdrawn his name when nominated.
Buchanan went on to win the presidency, in part because former President Millard Fillmore ran as a candidate for the American Party (often referred to as the "Know Nothing Party"). In the election campaign the Democratic platform supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty (the right of a state to decide by popular vote whether it would be admitted as a slave state or a free state). The party supported the pro-slavery territorial legislature elected in Kansas and opposed the free-state elements within Kansas. The Democrats also supported the plan to annex Cuba. The Democratic campaign warned voters that a Republican victory would lead to the secession of numerous southern states.
The campaign had different results in the free states and the slave states. In the free states, 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 really no contest. 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 elected President. He would be remembered as one of the worst presidents in history, perhaps the worst, because of his inaction when a number of southern states sought to secede from the Union. For someone considered to have a vast amount of experience in government that qualified him to be president moreso than almost any other president, Buchanan turned out to be a huge disappointment.