An 1856 Half Dime Recalls a Turbulent Year in U.S. History

I found this little article in my archives and thought that you might enjoy it. One of great things about coins is that they have dates, unlike many other antiques. Sometimes it’s fun to look at what happened during a give year, in this case 1856.

Last month a member of the PCGS message board posed a question as to how often we look at our entire collections. I was at the bank taking some stuff back from the previous night's club meeting and working those pesky little slab protectors on my PCGS coins. (I have a lot of trouble getting them to fit on PCGS slabs, but if I stretch them on an NGC slab and then slip them on the PCGS slab, they go on a lot easier.) During this process I ran into a type coin that I had not looked at for a while, 1856 half dime in NGC MS-64.




As date and as a type coin, this piece does not amount to much. It is a common date and along with the 1858 half dime is probably the prime candidate for the "Stars Obverse" half dime in a type set. The coin is quite obtainable in any business strike condition desired from Good to MS-64. The finest graded example is an MS-66+. In Proof "Coin Facts" estimates that there are 38 survivors in PR-60 or better. Any seriously interested collector who is willing or able to spend the money can find one. Still it got me to thinking about what historical events that occurred in 1856, and as it turns out it was quite a lot.

In the areas of science and transportation the first railroad bridge was built across the Mississippi River between Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. It was a major technological achievement for its day. In addition the Western Union Telegraph Company was formed to take advantage of the growing system of telegraph wires that are spreading across the country. On the energy front, the whaling ship E.L.B. Jenney returned to New Bedford, Massachusetts with 2,500 barrels of sperm whale oil.


Stephen Douglas was still running as "The champion of popular sovereignty" in 1860. He would ride that issue into political obscurity.

The real news however was in politics where the nation was inching closer to the Civil War. The issue of "Bleeding Kansas" was making headlines as pro and anti slavery men poured into the area to make their voices and sometimes their weapons heard. An anti-slavery territorial government in Topeka, Kansas petitioned the Federal Government to become a state. The Republicans in Congress supported their petition, but in the Senate, Stephen Douglas, who had started the trouble with his Kansas - Nebraska Act and his "Popular Sovereignty" campaign, led the charge to block that legislation.



This small political medalet was issued at the time of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner's death in 1874. It is fairly common.

In May anti-slavery firebrand senator, Charles Sumner, delivered a fiery speech in the Senate against the senators who supported the South's "peculiar institution." The next day South Carolina representative, Preston Brooks, beat Sumner senseless with a cane on the Senate floor. People in the North were appalled while southerners sent Brooks hundreds of canes to show their support.


This piece was issued after abolitionist, John Brown, was hanged in December 1859.

At almost the same time a group of pro-slavery men attacked Lawrence, Kansas, which was the center of the anti-slavery movement in the territory, killing one man. In retaliation, anti-slavery radical John Brown killed five proslavery men in a night massacre in Pottawotamie Creek, Kansas. More would be heard from Brown three years later.



This 1856 Millard Filmore campaign token is beat-up but it's quite rare. It is one of the few pieces that expressed the goals of the American or "Know Nothing" Party who gave him their presidential nominaiton. Filmore used this nomination to try to get back into the White House. He had become president after Zachary Taylor died in office. Like most politicians before the Civil War, he thought that finding a way to save the Union would earn him high office and a place in history.

In the more organized political arena the political landscape is shifting at earthquake proportions. In February the anti-immigrant "Know-Nothing Party" (a.k.a. the American Party) nominated former president, Millard Fillmore, for president. The party drafted an anti-immigrant platform and condemned the "Black Republicans" as a threat to Union.



The Democrats refused to nominate sitting president, Franklin Pierce, for a second term at their 1856 convention. After losing the nomination, "handsome Frank" said, "Well, I guess there's nothing left to do than get drunk." Frank had a drinking problem.



James Buchanan won the 1856 Democratic presidential nomination bringing with him a great resume of past positions held, but very little else.

In June the Democrats rejected the sitting president, Franklin Pierce, for re-nomination despite the fact that he was a declared candidate. This virtually unprecedented action showed the deep dissatisfaction that many Democrats had with Pierce despite his general support for the pro-slavery factions within the party. They also rejected Stephen Douglas and choose instead to nominate political warhorse, James Buchanan. Buchanan bought an impressive resume to the campaign. He had served in House and the Senate, had been secretary of state, and had served as the ambassador to Great Brittan and Russia. One of his campaign tokens declared that "The CRISIS demands his election." Most modern historians would this slogan ludicrous because today "Old Buck" is now rated as perhaps the worst president of all time.


John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate, was know as "The great pathfinder" because of his exploration of the far western states. He is shown here on this handsome medal with the U.S. capital in the background.

That same month the recently formed Republican Party held its first national convention. John C. Fremont won the presidential nomination. A little known former Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, is considered for the vice president nomination, but that choice was ultimately awarded to New Jersey Senator, William L. Dayton.

In September the Whig Party, then in its death throes, met barely two months before the election. They also nominated Fremont for president although their endorsement would be of little consequence. By 1860 the party would be nothing but a fringe group under a different name, the Constitutional Union Party.



The election results divided the country along regional lines. Buchanan won the election with the electoral votes of 14 slave states and 4 free states. Fremont carried 11 free states, and Fillmore won only in Maryland, which is a pro-slavery border state.

At the beginning of his presidency Buchanan believed that the Supreme Court's disastrous Drew Scott decision would settle the slavery issue. He went so far as the lobby one Supreme Court justice for his vote and obtained the decision of the case before the Court announced it officially thereby defying the separation of powers between the three branches of government It will be the first of many missteps that he will make over the next four years that would mark his term in office as the worst in American history.



James Buchanan promised to unite the country and solve the slavery question, but his results were quite the opposite. This medal was issued to celebrate what he thought would be his greatest achievement. On the day of Lincoln's inauguration, he told the in-coming president, "If you are as glad to be coming into this office as I am to be leaving it, you are indeed a very happy man."

 

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That is a great article, I have friends & family who live in both Moline & Davenport, wonder if they know that about the railroad. Those medals are fantastic, especially love the Charles Sumner and John Freemont.

 

Here is another 1856 Filmore medal. Although he may mouthed a few words to please his anti-immigrant backers, the Union was his real issue. When he was president, the Compromise of 1850 was his biggest piece of legislation.

 

Great write up! Well illustrated. thanks!

 

There was a lot going on in 1856 other than politics and slavery. Native Americans were being extirpated throughout the West, the Puget Sound war and Rogue River war were going on, and "In 1856, Native people throughout Northern California and Southwest Oregon, including the Takelma, were removed from their ancestral lands and were relocated to the Coast Reservation, a distance of approximately 265 miles. They made this forced journey on foot, traveling for 33 days under the "escort" of 106 military personnel. Many Indians died on their way to the reservation."