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.
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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. senat... SEE MORE