# 1856 United States presidential election in California

Elections in California :
Federal government
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1852
1856
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1849
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1974
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5th sp
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32nd sp
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2005
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48th sp
2006
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2007
36th sp
2008
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2009
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32nd sp
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2011
36th sp
2012
2014
2016
2017
34th sp
2018
2020
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2022
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2024
16th
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30th
45th
47th
vte :
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vte :
State propositions
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1911
4
7
8
1960–1969
1964
14
1970–1979
1978
6
8
13
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1982
8
1986
64
65
1988
98
99
1990–1999
1994
187
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196
209
215
218
1998
6
10
227
2000–2009
2000
21
22
36
39
2003
53
54
2004
1A
55
56
57
58
59
60
60A
61
62
63
64
65
66
69
71
2005
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
2006
81
82
83
85
87
89
90
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91
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93
94, 95, 96, and 97
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2
3
4
5
6
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8
9
10
11
12
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13
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15
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17
19
20
21
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23
24
25
26
27
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29
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32
34
37
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39
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1
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41
42
45
46
47
48
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50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
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68
69
70
71
72
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
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2020
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
2022
1
26
27
28
29
30
31
2024
1
2
3
4
5
6
32
33
34
35
36
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vte :
vte :
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.
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 and Marin Counties voted Democratic until Wilson in 1912. California's electoral votes would not be again carried by the Democratic Party until 1880.

## Results
### Results by county

| County | James Buchanan Democratic | James Buchanan Democratic | Millard Fillmore American | Millard Fillmore American | John C. Frémont Republican | John C. Frémont Republican | Scattering Write-in | Scattering Write-in | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | Total votes cast |
| Alameda | 729 | 43.78% | 213 | 12.79% | 723 | 43.42% | 0 | 0.00% | 6 | 0.36% | 1,665 |
| Amador | 1,784 | 44.58% | 1,557 | 38.91% | 657 | 16.42% | 4 | 0.10% | 227 | 5.67% | 4,002 |
| Butte | 2,501 | 50.56% | 1,702 | 34.40% | 744 | 15.04% | 0 | 0.00% | 799 | 16.15% | 4,947 |
| Calaveras | 2,615 | 50.49% | 1,515 | 29.25% | 561 | 10.83% | 488 | 9.42% | 1,100 | 21.24% | 5,179 |
| Colusa | 289 | 47.22% | 305 | 49.84% | 18 | 2.94% | 0 | 0.00% | -16 | -2.61% | 612 |
| Contra Costa | 457 | 48.62% | 293 | 31.17% | 190 | 20.21% | 0 | 0.00% | 164 | 17.45% | 940 |
| El Dorado | 4,048 | 48.20% | 2,959 | 35.23% | 1,391 | 16.56% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,089 | 12.97% | 8,398 |
| Fresno | 218 | 63.56% | 124 | 36.15% | 1 | 0.29% | 0 | 0.00% | 94 | 27.41% | 343 |
| Humboldt | 204 | 40.96% | 191 | 38.35% | 103 | 20.68% | 0 | 0.00% | 13 | 2.61% | 498 |
| Los Angeles | 722 | 52.36% | 135 | 9.79% | 522 | 37.85% | 0 | 0.00% | 200 | 14.50% | 1,379 |
| Marin | 350 | 60.03% | 82 | 14.07% | 151 | 25.90% | 0 | 0.00% | 199 | 34.13% | 583 |
| Mariposa | 1,255 | 57.28% | 771 | 35.19% | 165 | 7.53% | 0 | 0.00% | 484 | 22.09% | 2,191 |
| Merced | 249 | 64.34% | 124 | 32.04% | 14 | 3.62% | 0 | 0.00% | 125 | 32.30% | 387 |
| Monterey | 266 | 40.67% | 169 | 25.84% | 219 | 33.49% | 0 | 0.00% | 47 | 7.19% | 654 |
| Napa | 444 | 47.13% | 340 | 36.09% | 158 | 16.77% | 0 | 0.00% | 104 | 11.04% | 942 |
| Nevada | 3,498 | 48.58% | 2,240 | 31.11% | 1,462 | 20.31% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,258 | 17.47% | 7,200 |
| Placer | 2,807 | 47.62% | 2,096 | 35.56% | 992 | 16.83% | 0 | 0.00% | 711 | 12.06% | 5,895 |
| Plumas | 1,124 | 50.95% | 865 | 39.21% | 217 | 9.84% | 0 | 0.00% | 259 | 11.74% | 2,206 |
| Sacramento | 3,437 | 44.23% | 3,387 | 43.59% | 939 | 12.08% | 7 | 0.09% | 50 | 0.64% | 7,770 |
| San Bernardino | 314 | 75.85% | 7 | 1.69% | 93 | 22.46% | 0 | 0.00% | 221 | 53.38% | 414 |
| San Diego | 172 | 75.44% | 38 | 16.67% | 18 | 7.89% | 0 | 0.00% | 134 | 58.77% | 228 |
| San Francisco | 5,334 | 44.33% | 1,601 | 13.31% | 5,097 | 42.36% | 0 | 0.00% | 237 | 1.97% | 12,032 |
| San Joaquin | 1,288 | 44.80% | 1,040 | 36.17% | 547 | 19.03% | 0 | 0.00% | 248 | 8.63% | 2,875 |
| San Luis Obispo | 83 | 40.49% | 15 | 7.32% | 107 | 52.20% | 0 | 0.00% | -24 | -11.71% | 205 |
| San Mateo | 282 | 44.55% | 113 | 17.85% | 238 | 37.60% | 0 | 0.00% | 44 | 6.95% | 633 |
| Santa Barbara | 175 | 47.55% | 10 | 2.72% | 183 | 49.73% | 0 | 0.00% | -8 | -2.17% | 368 |
| Santa Clara | 576 | 27.97% | 674 | 32.73% | 809 | 39.29% | 0 | 0.00% | -135 | -6.56% | 2,059 |
| Santa Cruz | 320 | 39.80% | 288 | 35.82% | 196 | 24.38% | 0 | 0.00% | 32 | 3.98% | 804 |
| Shasta | 1,537 | 55.11% | 1,083 | 38.83% | 169 | 6.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 454 | 16.28% | 2,789 |
| Sierra | 2,504 | 46.37% | 2,203 | 40.80% | 693 | 12.83% | 0 | 0.00% | 301 | 5.57% | 5,400 |
| Siskiyou | 2,072 | 47.90% | 1,790 | 41.38% | 464 | 10.73% | 0 | 0.00% | 282 | 6.52% | 4,326 |
| Solano | 799 | 49.20% | 634 | 39.04% | 190 | 11.70% | 1 | 0.06% | 165 | 10.16% | 1,624 |
| Sonoma | 1,519 | 63.32% | 498 | 20.76% | 382 | 15.92% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,021 | 42.56% | 2,399 |
| Stanislaus | 436 | 63.46% | 228 | 33.19% | 21 | 3.06% | 2 | 0.29% | 208 | 30.28% | 687 |
| Sutter | 491 | 52.80% | 347 | 37.31% | 92 | 9.89% | 0 | 0.00% | 144 | 15.48% | 930 |
| Tehama | 436 | 55.05% | 312 | 39.39% | 44 | 5.56% | 0 | 0.00% | 124 | 15.66% | 792 |
| Trinity | 1,011 | 48.58% | 882 | 42.38% | 188 | 9.03% | 0 | 0.00% | 129 | 6.20% | 2,081 |
| Tulare | 248 | 60.49% | 139 | 33.90% | 23 | 5.61% | 0 | 0.00% | 109 | 26.59% | 410 |
| Tuolumne | 2,935 | 48.06% | 2,113 | 34.60% | 1,059 | 17.34% | 0 | 0.00% | 822 | 13.46% | 6,107 |
| Yolo | 553 | 43.68% | 583 | 46.05% | 130 | 10.27% | 0 | 0.00% | -30 | -2.37% | 1,266 |
| Yuba | 2,451 | 47.23% | 2,087 | 40.21% | 652 | 12.56% | 0 | 0.00% | 364 | 7.01% | 5,190 |
| Total | 52,534 | 48.02% | 35,733 | 32.67% | 20,622 | 18.85% | 502 | 0.46% | 16,801 | 15.36% | 109,391 |

#### Counties that flipped from Whig to Democratic

* Klamath
* Sacramento
* Marin
* San Diego
* Sutter

#### Counties that flipped from Democratic to Know Nothing

* Colusa

#### Counties that flipped from Whig to Know Nothing

* Yolo

#### Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Santa Barbara

#### Counties that flipped from Whig to Republican

* San Luis Obispo
* Santa Clara