1856 Election (Or Not...)

[SPC]

So 1856 did not go as anticipated, leaving Buchanan as President. The most noteworthy accomplishments of the Buchanan president were the purchase of additional land in Mexico for the construction of a southern railroad, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act sponsored by Stephen Douglas, which would have expedited the admission of Kansas and Nebraska into the Union for the purpose of railroad construction, with the caveat that the states will get to vote on their slavery status, overruling the Missouri Compromise. This pleased the South but produced violence between abolitionists and border ruffians in Kansas. Douglas obtained the Democratic nomination, and as no Supreme Court rulings have given the South reason to distrust Douglas yet, the party remains united. The Republicans, feeling that their narrow loss could have been averted with a more moderate candidate, selects obscure former Congressman Abraham Lincoln for the nomination. John Bell is running on a platform of reconciliation, in order to avert the looming sectional crisis.

[Mr. Smith]

Lincoln.

[SPC]

Late in the campaign, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case Dred Scott v Sandford, which in a 5-4 ruling affirmed the citizenship of Dred Scott and effectively made any slaves transported to territory north of 36^o30' free, including in Kansas and Nebraska territories. As an implausible consequence of the decision, the North and the South each cast virtually 100% of their ballots for Lincoln and Bell, respectively. Seven of the Southern states seceded in response during the lame duck period.

[ElectionsGuy]

Lincoln/Hamlin