1856 in the United States

1856 in the United States included some significant events that pushed the nation closer towards civil war.

Federal government

 * President: Franklin Pierce (D-New Hampshire)
 * Vice President: vacant
 * Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
 * Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nathaniel P. Banks (American-Massachusetts)
 * Congress: 34th

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! Governors and lieutenant governors

Governors
• Governor of Alabama: John A. Winston (Democratic)

• Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic)

• Governor of California: John Bigler (Democratic) (until January 9), J. Neely Johnson (Know Nothing) (starting January 9)

• Governor of Connecticut: William T. Minor (Know Nothing)

• Governor of Delaware: Peter F. Causey (Know Nothing)

• Governor of Florida: James E. Broome (Democratic)

• Governor of Georgia: Herschel V. Johnson (Democratic)

• Governor of Illinois:Joel Aldrich Matteson (Democratic)

• Governor of Indiana: Joseph A. Wright (Democratic)

• Governor of Iowa: James W. Grimes (Whig)

• Governor of Kentucky: Charles S. Morehead (Know Nothing)

• Governor of Louisiana: Paul Octave Hébert (Democratic) (until January 22), Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic) (starting January 22)

• Governor of Maine: Anson Morrill (Republican) (until January 2), Samuel Wells (Democratic) (starting January 2)

• Governor of Maryland: Thomas W. Ligon (Democratic)

• Governor of Massachusetts: Henry Gardner (Know Nothing)

• Governor of Michigan: Kinsley S. Bingham (Republican)

• Governor of Mississippi: John J. McRae (Democratic)

• Governor of Missouri: Sterling Price (Democratic)

• Governor of New Hampshire: Ralph Metcalf (Know Nothing)

• Governor of New Jersey: Rodman M. Price (Democratic)

• Governor of New York: Myron H. Clark (Whig) (until end of December 31)

• Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Bragg (Democratic)

• Governor of Ohio: William Medill (Democratic) (until January 14), Salmon P. Chase (Republican) (starting January 14)

• Governor of Pennsylvania: James Pollock (Whig)

• Governor of Rhode Island: William W. Hoppin (Whig)

• Governor of South Carolina: James Hopkins Adams (Democratic) (until December 9), Robert Francis Withers Allston (Democratic) (starting December 9)

• Governor of Tennessee: Andrew Johnson (Democratic)

• Governor of Texas: Elisha M. Pease (Unionist)

• Governor of Vermont: Stephen Royce (Whig)/(Republican) (until October 10), Ryland Fletcher (Republican) (starting October 10)

• Governor of Virginia: Joseph Johnson (Democratic) (until January 1), Henry A. Wise (Democratic) (starting January 1)

• Governor of Wisconsin:

• * until March 21: William A. Barstow (Democratic)

• * March 21-March 25: Arthur MacArthur, Sr. (Democratic)

• * starting March 25: Coles Bashford (Republican)

Lieutenant governors
• Lieutenant Governor of California: Samuel Purdy (Democratic) (until January 9), Robert M. Anderson (Know Nothing) (starting January 9)

• Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: William Field (Free Soil) (until month and day unknown), Albert Day (Free Soil) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Gustavus Koerner (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Ashbel P. Willard (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James Greene Hardy (Know Nothing) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana:

• * until January 22: Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic)

• * January 22-month and day unknown: Charles Homer Mouton (Democratic)

• * starting month and day unknown: William F. Griffin (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Simon Brown (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Henry W. Benchley (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: George Coe (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: vacant

• Lieutenant Governor of New York: Henry Jarvis Raymond (Whig) (until end of December 31)

• Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: James Myers (Democratic) (until January 14), Thomas H. Ford (Democratic) (starting January 14)

• Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Anderson C. Rose (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Nicholas Brown III (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Richard de Treville (Democratic) (until December 9), Gabriel Cannon (Democratic) (starting December 9)

• Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Hardin Richard Runnels (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Ryland Fletcher (Republican) (until October 10), James M. Slade (Republican) (starting October 10)

• Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Shelton Leake (Democratic) (until January 1), Elisha W. McComas (political party unknown) (starting January 1)

• Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: James T. Lewis (Republican) (until January 7), Arthur MacArthur, Sr. (Democratic) (starting January 7)
 * }

January–March

 * January 24 – U.S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion.
 * January 26 – Puget Sound War/Yakima War: Battle of Seattle – Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after an all day battle with settlers.
 * February – The Tintic War breaks out in Utah.
 * February 1 – Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
 * February 2 – Dallas, Texas is incorporated as a city.
 * February 12 – American clipper ships Driver and Ocean Queen leave Liverpool and London respectively; both will be lost without trace in the Atlantic, perhaps due to ice, killing 374 and 123 respectively.
 * February 18 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
 * March 6 – Maryland Agricultural College (present-day University of Maryland, College Park) is chartered.
 * March 9 – National Fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
 * April 10 – The Theta Chi fraternity is founded at Norwich University.

April–June

 * May 16 – The Vigilance Committee is founded in San Francisco, California. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on August 18.
 * May 21 – Bleeding Kansas: Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces (the "Sacking of Lawrence").
 * May 22 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate, for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner is unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered; Brooks becomes a hero across the South.
 * May 24 – Pottawatomie Massacre: A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 pro-slavery supporters in Franklin County, Kansas.
 * June 2 – Bleeding Kansas – Battle of Black Jack: Anti-slavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat pro-slavery forces.
 * June 6 – At the Democratic National Convention, President Franklin Pierce is denied re-nomination for the November presidential election.
 * June 9 – 500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.

July–September

 * July 17 – The Great Train Wreck of 1856: Two trains collide near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killing at least 59 and injuring at least 100.
 * August 10 – 1856 Last Island hurricane: A hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving at least 200 dead. The whole island is broken up into smaller islands by the storm.
 * August 21 – The Charter Oak fell to the ground during a storm
 * August 23 – Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
 * August 30
 * Bleeding Kansas – Battle of Osawatomie: Pro-slavery forces defeat anti-slavery forces.
 * Chickasaw Constitution signed; establishes new Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory.
 * September 1 – Seton Hall University is founded by Archdiocese of Newark Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.

October–December

 * November 4 – U.S. presidential election, 1856: Democrat James Buchanan defeats 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 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.
 * November 21 – Niagara University is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.

Ongoing

 * Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
 * Third Seminole War (1855–1858)

Births

 * January 7 – Charles Harold Davis, landscape painter (died 1933)
 * January 8 – Elizabeth Taylor, painter and traveler (died 1932)
 * January 9 – Lizette Woodworth Reese, poet (died 1935)
 * January 12 – John Singer Sargent, painter (born in Tuscany; died 1925 in the United Kingdom)
 * February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, railroad magnate (died 1938)
 * March 20 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, inventor and efficiency expert (died 1915)
 * April 5 – Booker T. Washington, educator (died 1915)
 * April 23 – Granville T. Woods, African American inventor (died 1910)
 * March 8 – Colin Campbell Cooper, impressionist painter (died 1937)
 * May 6 – Robert Peary, Arctic explorer (died 1920)
 * May 15 – L. Frank Baum, children's writer (The Wizard of Oz) (died 1919)
 * May 26 – George Templeton Strong, composer (died 1948 in Switzerland)
 * July 9/10 – Nikola Tesla inventor, genius (died in 1947 in New York, United States)
 * July 11 – Georgiana Drew, stage actress (died 1893)
 * July 24 – Franklin Ware Mann, inventor (died 1916)
 * July 25 – Charles Major, novelist and lawyer (died 1913)
 * August 15 – Charles E. Townsend, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1911 to 1923 (died 1924)
 * September 3 –Louis Sullivan, architect, "father of skyscrapers" (died 1924)
 * September 5
 * William B. McKinley, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1921 to 1926 (died 1926)
 * Thomas E. Watson, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1921 to 1922 (died 1922)
 * September 9 – Richard R. Kenney, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1897 to 1901 (died 1931)
 * October 7 – Moses Fleetwood Walker, baseball pitcher and Black nationalist (died 1924)
 * October 10 – George McClellan, U.S. Representative from New York (died 1927)
 * October 28 – Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, portrait and genre painter (died 1942)
 * October 30 – Charles Leroux, balloonist and parachutist (died 1889)
 * November 6 – Jefferson David Chalfant, trompe-l'œil painter (died 1931)
 * November 13 – Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (died 1941)
 * November 14 – Madeleine Lemoyne Ellicott, suffragette (died 1945)
 * November 16 – Carrie Babcock Sherman, wife of James S. Sherman, Second Lady of the United States (died 1931)
 * November 17 – Thomas Taggart, U.S. Senator from Indiana in 1916 (died 1929)
 * November 21 – William Emerson Ritter, biologist (died 1944)
 * November 22 – Heber J. Grant, seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1945)
 * December 22 – Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1917 to 1923 (died 1937)
 * December 23 – James Buchanan Duke, tobacco and electric power industrialist (born 1925)
 * December 28
 * Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 (died 1924)
 * Sarah Platt-Decker, née Chase, suffragist (died 1912)

Deaths

 * January 1 – John M. Berrien, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1841 to 1852 (born 1781)
 * January 16 –Thaddeus William Harris, naturalist (born 1795)
 * April 19 – Thomas Rogers, railroad locomotive builder (born 1792)
 * April 20 – Robert L. Stevens, president of Camden and Amboy Railroad (born 1787)
 * April 26 – George Troup, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1816 to 1818 and 1829 to 1833 (born 1780)
 * May 5 – William Crosby Dawson, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1849 to 1855 (born 1798)
 * May 31 – John Milton Niles, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1835 to 1839 and 1843 to 1849 (born 1787)
 * July 9
 * Alfred Cuthbert, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1835 to 1843 (born 1785)
 * James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (born 1813)
 * September 7 – Almon W. Babbitt, Mormon pioneer and first secretary/treasurer of Utah Territory (born 1812)
 * October 19 – William Sprague III, politician from Rhode Island (born 1799)
 * November 9 – John M. Clayton, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1829 to 1836, 1845 to 1849 and 1853 to 1856 (born 1796)