WI: Fremont Wins?

I think this has possibly been done to death but I was thinking of this simple question. What if, Fremont manages to pull it off and actually win the 1856 Presidential Election? The south threatened to secede so how would things play out in history had the man from California actually managed to defeat Buchanan? :)
 
I was reading in my history book how A) Fremont wasn't in the best of health & mental stamina following the election, & B) a Southern secession would've been accepted much more peacefully than four years later. So likely not good.
 
Why would the south even succeed? Unlike 1860 even if, by some level of ASB, the Republicans take the White House in 1856 there's essentially no way for them also to take the House and Senate that year. The radicals have their man in the Presidency, but he's a neutered threat that can't do anything.

Everyone says Lincoln getting the Presidency was the cause of the Civil War, but that's only half the story. The real issue is that the Republicans had taken the House in '58 and the Senate also went their way in '60. But back in '56, its still a Democratic Congress.
 
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Why would the south even succeed? Unlike 1860 even if, by some level of ASB, the Republicans take the White House in 1856 there's essentially no way for them also to take the House and Senate that year. The radicals have their man in the Presidency, but he's a neutered threat that can't do anything.

Everyone says Lincoln getting the Presidency was the cause of the Civil War, but that's only half the story. The real issue is that the Republicans had taken the House in '58 and the Senate also went their way in '60. But back in '56, its still a Democratic Congress.

IDK go ask them. History says they would have, and in fact, they did threaten to.....

However, the north did not want a war at the time and to be honest, they would have likely let the south go....
 
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