1848 - 18601848 - 1860

Election of 1848Election of 1848

Zachary Taylor – Whig

Lewis Cass – Democrat

Martin Van Buren – Free Soil Party

Electoral College Votes 1848Electoral College Votes 1848

President Taylor takes officePresident Taylor takes office

Oct 1849 – voters of CA ratify the state’s constitution banning slavery

Dec 1849 – Taylor encourages Congress to admit CA as a free state

Jan 1850 – Henry Clay submits Compromise of 1850

Feb – Mar 1850 – Taylor meets with Southern leaders threatening to secede

Fillmore sworn in as PresidentFillmore sworn in as President

July 1850 ◦President Taylor dies from gastroenteritis

Aug 1850 – Fillmore affirms his support for the Compromise of 1850

Sept 1850 – Congress passes Fugitive Slave Act ◦Fines and prison for those assisting escaped slaves◦Requires slaves to be returned to owners w/o right

to a jury

Election of 1852Election of 1852

Fillmore did not receive the Whig nomination due to supporting Fugitive Slave Act – nominated Winfield Scott, general of the Mexican War

Democrats nominate Franklin Pierce

Free Soil Party nominates Senator John Hale of NH

Electoral College Vote 1852Electoral College Vote 1852

President Franklin PiercePresident Franklin Pierce

Northern politician with Southern pro-slavery views

Caved under the pressure of pro-slavery forces to sign the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Popular sovereignty creates anarchy in Kansas territory known as “Bleeding Kansas”

Election of 1856Election of 1856

Republican party holds it first national convention nominating John Fremont

Know-Nothings nominate former President Millard Fillmore

First time in history a major party refuses to nominate a sitting president. Democrats nominate James Buchanan

Electoral College Vote 1856Electoral College Vote 1856

President James BuchananPresident James Buchanan

Pro-slavery northerner from PA

Mar 1857 - Buchanan believed that the issue of slavery was settled with the decision of the Dred Scott Case

Oct 1857 – Kansas elects an anti-slavery legislature

Dec 1857 – Lecompton Constitution is illegally drafted in Kansas by a pro-slavery legislature

Buchanan supported Kansas entering the Union as a slave state despite the people of Kansas voting against slavery in the territory

May 1858 – Minnesota is admitted as free state

Aug 1858 House of Representatives has Kansas vote again on the Lecompton Constitution. Kansas is admitted as a Free State the following year

Oct 1858: Lincoln – Douglas debates

Feb 1859 – Oregon admitted as free state

Oct 1859 – Harper’s Ferry

Election of 1860Election of 1860

Lincoln – Republican

Douglas – Northern Democrat

Breckinridge – Southern Democrat

Bell – Constitutional Union Party ◦Former Whigs and Know-Nothings

Electoral College Vote 1860Electoral College Vote 1860