James Buchanan, John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore, 1856 The 1856 presidential election was held with the shadow of a civil war hanging over the country. The politicians realized that the situation was getting bad, and they were desperately looking for solutions to the slavery issue. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan for president. Buchanan was an old party hack who had a most impressive resume of past positions that he had held. He had been a congressman, senator, secretary of state and the ambassador to Great Britain and Russia. With a list of offices like that, one might have assumed that he was an ideal presidential choice, but he had not shown any flair for leadership in any of those positions. He was more of a political operative, who got along well with other members of his party and was always around to grab a government job. John C. Fremont was the first presidential nominee for the brand new Republican Party. The Republicans had risen mostly from the ashes of the Whig Party in 1854 which had been torn apart by the slavery issue. Anti-slavery Democrats, mostly from the North, had also joined the Republicans. Fremont was a noted explorer who was known as "The Path Finder." Unfortunately he had repeatedly demonstrated a lack of judgement, especially when he took foolhardy actions like setting out on a exploration of the western mountains just before winter. He almost got his party as well as himself killed when they ran out of food and almost froze to death. He was firmly against slavery, but later events would prove that his political and administrative skills were not up to dealing with the problems of the day. During the Civil War Lincoln twice relieved him from his military posts because of failures in the field, corruption and insubordination. Millard Fillmore was a former president. He had been sworn into office after Zachary Taylor died in July 1850. The Compromise of 1850 was Fillmore's signature piece of legislation. It had attempted to paper over the problems with slavery, but a key part of the Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, had caused great dissention in the North. That law required northern state officials to return runaway slaves to their masters, which became a source of great controversy. Whig Party delegates decided to pass over Fillmore at their 1852 nominating convention in favor of General Winfield Scott. Fillmore was the candidate of the American or "Know Nothing" Party. The Know Nothings were a xenophobic organization that opposed the immigration of foreigners to The United States. They proposed that any immigrant would have to reside in The United States for 21 years before they could become a U.S. citizen. The Know Nothings got their nick name because party members were instructed to answer anyone who asked them about their organization to respond that they "knew nothing." Some have said that Fillmore did not approve of the Know Nothing platform, but he accepted the party nomination nonetheless because it was only way he could return to the Whitehouse. Buchanan won the 1856 presidential with all of the electoral votes from the slave holding states plus California, New Jersey and his home state, Pennsylvania. Freemont won the rest of the free states. Fillmore only managed to win Maryland, which was a slave state. Buchanan would become the worst president in history according to most historians. He started by supporting the horrendous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision which declared that African-Americans were not citizens and had no right to bring suit in the court system. In addition Dred Scott allowed slaveholders to take their slaves to any state they desired, even if slavery was illegal in that jurisdiction. Buchanan ended his presidency as the country was on the brink of the Civil War. By the time he was leaving office on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded from the Union. He thought that their secession was illegal, but he couldn't think of anything to do about it. On the day he left office, Buchanan told to his successor, Abraham Lincoln, “If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.” Some have said that the U.S. might have been better off if Fremont had won the 1856 presidential election, but I do not agree. Had Fremont been elected he would have pushed for the abolition of slavery. That would have almost certainly have started the Civil War in 1857 with Fremont as president. Given his poor service record during the Civil War it is doubtful that he could have rallied the Union forces the way Lincoln did. Therefore as awful as the Civil War was, the outcome would have probably been worse with Fremont as president.
