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Laying the Groundwork for the Ultimate Backroom Deal
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing territories and new states to decide for themselves whether to be free or slave, began the final phase of disintegration of the old political order, and the Whig and Democratic Parties of the time. In 1856, the new-fangled Republican Party fielded its first candidate for President of the United States. A little known fact is that one of the people discussed at the 1856 Republican convention for the vice-presidential position was a gangly, rather ugly prairie lawyer from Illinois. You’all can easily guess his name.