All Rights Reserved. Site last updated 13 January, 2012 Kansas:
The Prelude to the War for the Union| Chapter X: The Lecompton
Struggle. by Spring, Leverett Wilson |The presidential election
of 1856, which resulted in a Democratic victory, turned chiefly
upon questions brought to the surface by the contest in Kansas.
Into all the national conventions -- American, Whig, Republican,
and Democratic -- the territory thrust its disturbing presence.
The struggle was remarkable in many respects. Never before did a
presidential election turn so largely upon questions of
statesmanship, of ethics and the higher law. A variety of
influences contributed to this temporary lustration of national
politics, but they all radiated from the slavery problem, the
compromise of 1850, the tempest in Kansas, and the phenomenal
currency of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The Democratic campaign dealt
heavily in threat and menace. Southern orators and newspapers
drew lamentable pictures of the woes that would succeed a
Republican triumph. Such a