U.S. presidential election, 1856

The U.S. presidential election of 1856 was waged almost entirely on the issue of slavery, pitted as a struggle between democracy and aristocracy, and focusing specifically on Kansas. The newly formed Republican Party condemned the Kansas-Nebraska Act and expansion of slavery, while Democrats took more of a laissez-faire approach to slavery expansion, taking the official position that it was a state-by-state decision. A third party, the new-minted American Party or "Know-Nothings", ignored the slavery issue (in favor of anti-immigration policies) and paid for it, getting under a quarter of the vote.

See also

• History of the United States (1849-1865)
• Origins of the American Civil War