Lincolns Pathfinder, John Bicknell
Lincolns Pathfinder, John Bicknell
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Lincoln's Pathfinder
John C. Fremont and the Violent Election of 1856

Author: John Bicknell

Narrator: Bob Souer

Unabridged: 10 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/01/2017

Synopsis

The 1856 presidential race was the most violent peacetime election in American history. War between proslavery and antislavery settlers raged in Kansas; a congressman shot an Irish immigrant at a Washington hotel; and another congressman beat a U.S. senator senseless on the floor of the Senate. But amid all the violence, the campaign of the new Republican Party, headed by famed explorer John C. Frémont, offered a ray of hope: a major party dedicated to limiting the spread of slavery. For the first time, women and African Americans actively engaged in a presidential contest, and the candidate's wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, played a central role in both planning and executing strategy, and was a public face of the campaign. Even enslaved blacks in the South took hope from Frémont's crusade.

The 1856 campaign was also run against the backdrop of a country on the move, with settlers continuing to spread westward facing unimagined horrors, a terrible natural disaster that took hundreds of lives in the South, and one of the most famous Supreme Court cases in history, which set the stage for the Civil War. Frémont lost, but his strong showing in the North proved that a sectional party could win a national election, blazing the trail for Abraham Lincoln's victory four years later.

About John Bicknell

John Bicknell is the author of America 1844: Religious Fervor, Westward Expansion, and the Presidential Election That Transformed the Nation. He has written and edited for watchdog.org, Congressional Quarterly, and Roll Call, and was senior editor of the 2016 Almanac of American Politics. He lives in Virginia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jean on June 26, 2017

The first presidential election to feature a Republican candidate was in 1856. General John C. Fremont was the first Republican candidate for president of the newly created Republican Party. His opponents were James Buchanan of the Democratic party and Millard Fillmore of the American Party, also kn......more

Goodreads review by Florence on April 08, 2018

1856, a presidential election year in the United States, was turbulent. Stirrings of war were being felt. The nation which had been divided on the question of slavery all the way back to the beginning of the republic, was now utterly consumed by the issue. Political parties were rapidly evolving. Th......more

Goodreads review by Linda on August 03, 2017

John Bicknell's book "Lincoln's Pathfinder: John C. Frémont and the Violent Election of 1856" covered the election just prior to Lincoln's election. It is a well written history of the political and social climate of the United States of America that lead up to the Civil War. John C. Fremont was the......more

Goodreads review by John on May 15, 2017

An extremely readable account of an important moment in American history. The 1856 election set the stage for the ascension of Abraham Lincoln four years later, and Bicknell covers this crucial period in great detail and entertaining style. Frequently tragic, occasionally comical, the book explains......more

Goodreads review by Tim on November 12, 2021

The title of this book, as one can see from its Goodreads page, is "Lincoln's Pathfinder: John C Fremont and the Violent Election of 1856." Thus, an erudite reader would expect to open its pages and find the story of Fremont. This reader would be mistaken. Oh, Fremont shows up in the book. But the ti......more

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