The Democrats held their Convention in Cincinnati on June 3d, before the Republican Convention was held, and nominated James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for President, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President. President Pierce and Senator Douglas were both candidates for the presidential nomination, but were withdrawn on the fifteenth and sixteenth ballots because the South had already selected a candidate. Mr. Buchanan had been absent as Minister to England during the turmoil over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In addition, he came from a Northern State, and was therefore doubly attractive as a candidate; for the South, with its 112 electoral votes, needed 37 more votes to elect their candidate, and Pennsylvania, with 27 votes, was looked on as the pivotal State.
The Democratic Platform, as usual, denounced the Abolitionists, and repeated its hollow promise of 1852, that the party would resist all attempts at renewing the agitation of the slavery question. It denounced the Republican Party as "sectional, and subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation," and it contained the following remarkable and artfully worded plank:
"Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with other States." The ambiguous part of this plank was the insertion of the right of the inhabitants to form a Constitution with or without domestic slavery. Mr. Douglas and the other Democratic speakers argued in the North that this meant that the people of the Territory had the right to decide for or against slavery, but the South looked upon it as fully protecting slavery in any Territory until a Constitution could be formed. In the North and South the plank obtained votes for the party, but the votes were cast in the respective sections on diametrically opposed grounds.
The political situation in this campaign was somewhat complicated at first by the presentation of so many candidates, for, in addition to the candidates already named, the Abolitionists presented a ticket, as did also a number of Americans, who seceded from the second convention of that party, but the situation gradually resolved itself into a contest between Buchanan, Fremont and Fillmore. No electoral tickets were presented for Fremont in the slave States, and the fact that Fillmore could not carry any of the free States weakened him in the South, and it was seen that Buchanan would receive the solid electoral vote of the South, and that the contest would therefore be between Buchanan and Fremont for the Northern electoral votes.
The struggle in Kansas was inseparably connected with the campaign of 1856. That struggle was virtually the opening of the Civil War, and while the North and South fought out the issue with bullets in Kansas, in the other States of the two sections the contest was no less bitter, although the means were less destructive. Before either of the great political conventions were held, Lawrence, Kansas, was captured and sacked by the Pro-Slavery Party, and on the following day (May 22d) Charles Sumner was struck down in the Senate by Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, because of his speech, "The Crime against Kansas." These events picture the feeling between the North and South which existed during this campaign. The South had probably already felt that if they went into the campaign solely on their cause they would be defeated, hence the nomination of a Northern Democrat from a necessary State, and the artful construction of their platform. The enthusiasm of the Republicans was probably more for their cause than for the candidate. The Democrats in the North evaded the issue of slavery as much as possible, and denounced the candidacy of Fremont as sectional, and that his success would mean the dissolution of the Union, a weighty argument with thousands of voters, especially those who were attached to the South by financial and commercial bonds. The speeches of the Southern leaders and the press of the South abounded in threats of disunion in the event of Fremont's election. The Republicans, unhampered by a southern wing and advocating the restriction of a great moral wrong, went into the campaign with the earnestness and enthusiasm of a religious crusade. They carried on a clean campaign of education, and tons of political literature were scattered broadcast over the country.
The young men of the North were especially attracted to the Republican Cause, and it was recognized that their vote would be a great aid; and the influence of the women of the country was distinctly with the new party. The clergy, the religious press and most of the eminent professors and educated men of the North also lent their potent forces to the new party.
The issues presented in the campaign of 1856, like those of 1860, were the most remarkable in our political history, and a canvass attended by such circumstances and so portentous in results could not but be exciting in the highest degree, and the bitterness of the situation grew in intensity as the days of the fall elections approached. All eyes now turned with anxiety on the few State elections which were to be held in the North prior to the presidential election in November, because they would unquestionably foreshadow the final result. Iowa came first, and, in August, went Republican, and was joined in September by Maine and Vermont, both overwhelmingly Republican. These successes were to the highest gratification of the members of the new party, and now came the final test, the October elections in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio. The first of these States, with its twenty-seven electoral votes, was the most important. Thousands of dollars were poured into the campaign funds of the State by both sides, the Democratic Committee having the greater amount to spend and having the better organization. Several hundred speakers, representing both sides, traversed the State in all directions. The Democrats used the disunion argument with great effect, and added to it the campaign cry of "Buck, Breck and Free Kansas," and on October 14th Pennsylvania went Democratic by a very narrow majority. Ohio, as was expected, went Republican, but Indiana was lost, and the result of the presidential issue was thus practically known before the election, on November 4th. Fremont received the electoral votes of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, one hundred and fourteen in all. Buchanan received the vote of all the slave States and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois and California, a total of one hundred and seventy-four votes; the eight votes of Maryland going to Fillmore, the only State won by the Know-Nothings. The popular vote gave Buchanan 1,838,169; Fremont 1,341,264; Fillmore 874,534. The popular vote of South Carolina is not included, as the electors in that State were chosen by her Legislature.
When the first wave of bitter disappointment passed away, the Republicans saw the enormous headway that had been made and they immediately began to prepare for the national contest four years hence. The Democrats had lost ten States which they carried in 1852, and their electoral vote of 254 in 1852 had shrunken to 174. The South elected Buchanan, and he became the tool of the Slave Power, and, as subsequent events developed, it was fortunate that the Republicans were not successful in the campaign.
[Illustration: William H. Seward.]