34th United States Congress - Major Events

Major Events

• March 30, 1855: Elections were held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourians crossed the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body.
• July 2, 1855: The Kansas territorial legislature convened in Pawnee and began enacting proslavery laws.
• November 21, 1855: Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence began with events leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces.
• December 3, 1855 – February 2, 1856: The election for Speaker of the House was "the longest and most contentious Speaker election in its history," due to "Sectional conflict over slavery and a rising anti-immigrant mood in the nation contributed to a poisoned and deteriorating political climate." More than 21 members vied for the post. The election took 133 ballots and two months with Nathaniel P. Banks winning over William Aiken, Jr. by103 to 100. "Banks, a member of both the nativist American (or 'Know-Nothing') Party and the Free Soil Party, served a term as Speaker before Democrats won control of the chamber in the 35th Congress."
• January 24, 1856: President Franklin Pierce declared the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion.
• January 26, 1856: First Battle of Seattle (1856): Marines from the USS Decatur drove off American Indian attackers after an all day battle with settlers.
• February, 1856: Tintic War broke out in Utah
• February 18, 1856: The American Party (Know-Nothings) nominated their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
• May 21, 1856: Lawrence, Kansas captured and burned by pro-slavery forces (the "Sacking of Lawrence").
• May 22, 1856: Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the Senate, for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner was unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered; Brooks became a hero across the South.
• May 24, 1856: Pottawatomie Massacre
• June 2, 1856: Battle of Black Jack
• August 30, 1856: Battle of Osawatomie
• November 4, 1856: U.S. presidential election, 1856: Democrat James Buchanan defeated former President Millard Fillmore, representing a coalition of "Know-Nothings" and Whigs, and John C. Frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, to become the 15th President of the United States.
• November 17, 1856: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army established Fort Buchanan to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.
• January 9, 1857: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 struck near Parkfield, California (see Fort Tejon earthquake).