The Contenders
Beginning of paper
For the presidential election of 1856, the Democrats nominated James
Buchanan and John Breckenridge, the newly formed Republican party nominated
John Fremont and William Drayton, the American [or Know-Nothing] party
nominated former president Millard Fillmore and Andrew Donelson, and the
Abolition ....
Middle of paper
.... assumed Cuba would be a slave state.
He was one of several northerners supported over the years by southern
Democrats for being amenable to slaveholders' interests, a situation
originating with Martin van Buren.
Buchanan's two major rivals for the nomination, Franklin Pierce and
Stephen Douglas, were both politically tainted by the bloodshed in Kansas.
Buchanan was untainted, since he had been abroad during most of the
controversy. Even so, he did not secure the nomination until the se ....
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Word count: 1604
Page count: 6 (approximately 250 words per page)
