1856 Whig National Convention
The 1856 Whig National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held from September 17 to September 18, in Baltimore, Maryland. Attended by a rump group of Whigs who had not yet left the declining party, the 1856 convention was the last presidential nominating convention held by the Whig Party. The convention nominated a ticket consisting of former president Millard Fillmore and former ambassador Andrew J. Donelson; both had previously been nominated by the 1856 American National Convention. The Whig ticket finished third in the 1856 presidential election behind the winning Democratic ticket of James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge and the runner-up Republican ticket of John C. Frémont and William L. Dayton.
1856 Whig National Convention
Image: Fillmore
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party that existed in the United States during the mid-19th century. Alongside the slightly larger Democratic Party, it was one of the two major parties in the United States between the late 1830s and the early 1850s as part of the Second Party System. Four presidents were affiliated with the Whig Party for at least part of their terms. Other prominent members of the Whig Party include Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, William Seward, John J. Crittenden, and John Quincy Adams. The Whig base of support was centered among entrepreneurs, professionals, planters, social reformers, devout Protestants, and the emerging urban middle class. It had much less backing from poor farmers and unskilled workers.
Henry Clay, a founder of the Whig Party in the 1830s and its 1844 presidential nominee
Daniel Webster, a leading Whig from New England
William Henry Harrison, a two-time presidential candidate who became the first Whig president in 1841 but died just one month into office
Zachary Taylor served in the Mexican–American War and later won the 1848 presidential election as the Whig nominee.