Presidential Election of 1856

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

The 1852 election garnered a huge victory for the Democratic Party, with Franklin Pierce in the White House and a 2:1 majority in the Congress. The deaths of well-known leaders Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and the lopsided defeat of General Winfield Scott, severely hampered the Whigs' ability to foment an effective opposition to the Democrats. Furthermore, the Compromise of 1850, which allowed the admission of California as a free state and provided for federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law, appeared to settle the slavery issue.

Stephen Douglas (Illinois) introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in January of 1854. The legislation divided the Nebraska Territory in two, to Kansas and Nebraska. Each territory could enter the Union as either free or slave based on popular sovereignty. The act also specifically repealed the 36°30' north latitude component of the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery in all areas north of this line and allowed for slavery all areas south. The last component re-agitated the slavery question because anti-slavery forces believed that it refocused the goal of the bill from westward development to the expansion of slavery. The prospect of opening up new lands to slavery undercut the finality of the slavery question. Moreover, the act helped appease pro-slavery groups, who felt betrayed by the Compromise of 1850 because the northern states refused to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law.

The Democrats experienced a three-way schism: anti-Nebraska, or Independent Democrats; southern and pro-slavery factions who maintained a semblance of support in the north; and northern Democrats looking to mend the rift. The Independent Democrats issued an appeal to the nation asserting that the act was a blatant attempt to spread slavery. The Whigs split between a traditional party faction consisting of northeastern commercial interests and almost all the southern Whigs, known as Silver Greys, and a northern anti-slavery faction, known as Conscience Whigs or Woolly Heads.

The American Party complicated matters even further. This party grew out of the increasing nativist anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment predominant in northern industrial areas. Although the “American Party” moniker was officially adopted in 1853, the party was informally referred to as the “Know-Nothings” due to their reputation for secrecy. The Silver Grey Whigs, led by Millard Fillmore, attempted to gain control of the Know-Nothings and shift its goals from a nativist anti-Catholic [Page 582]organization to an anti-Democratic, pro-Union one. Conscience Whigs, and a coalition of anti-slavery, anti-Nebraska, religious fanatics, pro-temperance, and disgruntled members of the Democrats and Know-Nothings helped to form the Republican Party in 1854.

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