The 1856 presidential race was the most Violent peacetime Election in American history.
For the first.
Fremont, offered a ray of hope: a major party dedicated to limiting the spread of slavery.
But amid all the violence, the campaign of the new Republican Party, headed by famed explorer John C.
War between proslavery and antislavery settlers raged in Kansas; a congressman shot an Irish immigrant at a Washington hotel; and another congressman beat a US senator senseless on the floor of the Senate.
The 1856 presidential race was the most Violent peacetime Election in American history