1856 United States presidential election in California

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1856 United States presidential election in California
First Bear Flag of California (1846).svg
  1852 November 4, 1856 1860  
  James Buchanan (cropped).jpg Fillmore (cropped).jpg John Charles Fremont crop.jpg
Nominee James Buchanan Millard Fillmore John C. Frémont
Party Democratic Know Nothing Republican
Home state Pennsylvania New York California
Running mate John C. Breckinridge Andrew J. Donelson William L. Dayton
Electoral vote400
Popular vote52,53435,73320,622
Percentage48.02%32.67%18.85%

California Presidential Election Results 1856.svg
County Results

President before election

Franklin Pierce
Democratic

Elected President

James Buchanan
Democratic

The 1856 United States presidential election in California took place on November 4, 1856, as part of the 1856 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. California voted for the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State James Buchanan, over the American Party nominee, former Whig President Millard Fillmore, and the Republican nominee, former U.S. Senator and Military Governor of California John C. Frémont.

Contents

None of the three candidates took to the stump. The Republican Party opposed the extension of slavery into the territories — in fact, its slogan was "Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Frémont and victory!" The Republicans thus crusaded against the Slave Power, warning it was destroying republican values. Democrats counter-crusaded by warning that a Republican victory would bring a civil war.

The Republican platform opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise through the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which enacted the policy of popular sovereignty, allowing settlers to decide whether a new state would enter the Union as free or slave. The Republicans also accused the Pierce administration of allowing a fraudulent territorial government to be imposed upon the citizens of the Kansas Territory, thus engendering the violence that had raged in Bleeding Kansas. They advocated the immediate admittance of Kansas as a free state. Along with opposing the spread of slavery into the continental territories of the United States, the party also opposed the Ostend Manifesto, which advocated the annexation of Cuba from Spain. In sum, the campaign's true focus was against the system of slavery, which they felt was destroying the Republican values that the Union had been founded upon.

The Democratic platform supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty. The party supported the pro-slavery territorial legislature elected in Kansas, opposed the free-state elements within Kansas, and castigated the Topeka Constitution as an illegal document written during an illegal convention. The Democrats also supported the plan to annex Cuba, advocated in the Ostend Manifesto, which Buchanan helped devise while serving as minister to Britain. The most influential aspect of the Democratic campaign was a warning that a Republican victory would lead to the secession of numerous southern states.

This would prove the last occasion the Democratic Party carried Alameda County until Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, the last in which the Democrats carried Santa Cruz County and Placer County until Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and the last when Napa, Solano [lower-alpha 1] and Marin Counties voted Democratic until Wilson in 1912. [1] California's electoral votes would not be again carried by the Democratic Party until 1880.

Results

General Election Results [2] [lower-alpha 2]
PartyPledged toElectorVotes
Democratic Party James BuchananA. C. Bradford52,534
Democratic Party James BuchananGeorge Freanor52,532
Democratic Party James BuchananP. Della Torre52,525
Democratic Party James BuchananAugustin Olivera52,516
American Party Millard FillmoreBalie Peyton35,733
American Party Millard FillmoreR. N. Wood35,727
American Party Millard FillmoreO. C. Hall35,694
American Party Millard FillmoreJ. S. Pitzer35,688
Republican Party John C. FrémontAlexander Bell20,622
Republican Party John C. FrémontF. P. Tracy20,613
Republican Party John C. FrémontLewis G. Gunn20,612
Republican Party John C. FrémontC. N. Ormsby20,595
Write-in Scattering502
Votes cast [lower-alpha 3] 91,387

Results by county

CountyJames Buchanan
Democratic
Millard Fillmore
American
John C. Frémont
Republican
Scattering
Write-in
MarginTotal votes cast [lower-alpha 4]
# %# %# %# %# %
Alameda 72943.78%21312.79%72343.42%00.00%6 [lower-alpha 5] 0.36%1,665
Amador 1,78444.58%1,55738.91%65716.42%40.10%2275.67%4,002
Butte 2,50150.56%1,70234.40%74415.04%00.00%79916.15%4,947
Calaveras 2,61550.49%1,51529.25%56110.83%4889.42%1,10021.24%5,179
Colusa [lower-alpha 6] 28947.22%30549.84%182.94%00.00%-16-2.61%612
Contra Costa 45748.62%29331.17%19020.21%00.00%16417.45%940
El Dorado 4,04848.20%2,95935.23%1,39116.56%00.00%1,08912.97%8,398
Fresno 21863.56%12436.15%10.29%00.00%9427.41%343
Humboldt 20440.96%19138.35%10320.68%00.00%132.61%498
Los Angeles 72252.36%1359.79%52237.85%00.00%200 [lower-alpha 5] 14.50%1,379
Marin [lower-alpha 6] 35060.03%8214.07%15125.90%00.00%199 [lower-alpha 5] 34.13%583
Mariposa 1,25557.28%77135.19%1657.53%00.00%48422.09%2,191
Merced 24964.34%12432.04%143.62%00.00%12532.30%387
Monterey 26640.67%16925.84%21933.49%00.00%47 [lower-alpha 5] 7.19%654
Napa 44447.13%34036.09%15816.77%00.00%10411.04%942
Nevada 3,49848.58%2,24031.11%1,46220.31%00.00%1,25817.47%7,200
Placer 2,80747.62%2,09635.56%99216.83%00.00%71112.06%5,895
Plumas [lower-alpha 6] 1,12450.95%86539.21%2179.84%00.00%25911.74%2,206
Sacramento 3,43744.23%3,38743.59%93912.08%70.09%500.64%7,770
San Bernardino [lower-alpha 6] 31475.85%71.69%9322.46%00.00%221 [lower-alpha 5] 53.38%414
San Diego 17275.44%3816.67%187.89%00.00%13458.77%228
San Francisco 5,33444.33%1,60113.31%5,09742.36%00.00%237 [lower-alpha 5] 1.97%12,032
San Joaquin 1,28844.80%1,04036.17%54719.03%00.00%2488.63%2,875
San Luis Obispo [lower-alpha 6] 8340.49%157.32%10752.20%00.00%-24-11.71%205
San Mateo 28244.55%11317.85%23837.60%00.00%44 [lower-alpha 5] 6.95%633
Santa Barbara 17547.55%102.72%18349.73%00.00%-8-2.17%368
Santa Clara 57627.97%67432.73%80939.29%00.00%-135 [lower-alpha 7] -6.56%2,059
Santa Cruz 32039.80%28835.82%19624.38%00.00%323.98%804
Shasta 1,53755.11%1,08338.83%1696.06%00.00%45416.28%2,789
Sierra 2,50446.37%2,20340.80%69312.83%00.00%3015.57%5,400
Siskiyou [lower-alpha 6] 2,07247.90%1,79041.38%46410.73%00.00%2826.52%4,326
Solano 79949.20%63439.04%19011.70%10.06%16510.16%1,624
Sonoma [lower-alpha 8] 1,51963.32%49820.76%38215.92%00.00%1,02142.56%2,399
Stanislaus 43663.46%22833.19%213.06%20.29%20830.28%687
Sutter 49152.80%34737.31%929.89%00.00%14415.48%930
Tehama 43655.05%31239.39%445.56%00.00%12415.66%792
Trinity 1,01148.58%88242.38%1889.03%00.00%1296.20%2,081
Tulare [lower-alpha 6] 24860.49%13933.90%235.61%00.00%10926.59%410
Tuolumne 2,93548.06%2,11334.60%1,05917.34%00.00%82213.46%6,107
Yolo [lower-alpha 6] 55343.68%58346.05%13010.27%00.00%-30-2.37%1,266
Yuba 2,45147.23%2,08740.21%65212.56%00.00%3647.01%5,190
Total52,534 [lower-alpha 9] 48.02%35,733 [lower-alpha 10] 32.67%20,62218.85%5020.46%16,80115.36%109,391

Counties that flipped from Whig to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Know Nothing

Counties that flipped from Whig to Know Nothing

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Counties that flipped from Whig to Republican

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References

  1. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 153-155 ISBN   0786422173
  2. Original Manuscript Returns, California State Archives

Notes

  1. "Southern Democrat" John Breckinridge did carry Solano County in 1860
  2. These are the totals listed on the microfilmed state canvass at the State Archives. Based on newspaper reporting in early December 1856, it seems that the returns from nine counties failed to arrive in time and were not counted in the original certification by the Secretary of State. The totals on the canvass at the Archives includes these counties, except for Klamath.
  3. Based on totals for highest elector on each ticket
  4. Based on highest elector on each ticket
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Margin over Frémont
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 This county's return arrived late
  7. Margin over Fillmore
  8. Includes Mendocino County
  9. The county figures add up to 52,533
  10. The county figures add up to 35,753