12. Abraham Lincoln was the second presidential nominee of the Republican Party, and the first to win the presidency. Who was the Grand Old - or Young - Party's first nominee, in 1856?
From Quiz My Esteemed Predecessor?
Answer:
John C. Fremont
"The Pathfinder," John Charles Fremont was a controversial military officer and explorer. Fremont served briefly as one of the first two Senators from the newly-admitted state of California in 1850-51. He was married to the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a Democrat. A staunch abolitionist, Fremont joined the new Republican Party, running for President in 1856 under the slogan, "Free Soil, Free Men and Fremont!" (His father-in-law voted Democratic.) Early in the Civil War, Fremont angered the Republican establishment by attempting to emancipate slaves in Missouri. His rift with Republican moderates led to a brief attempt to wrest the nomination from Lincoln in 1864. After the War, his political and financial standing declined rapidly and he faded from public view until his death in 1890.