The Republican Party first appeared on the U.S. Presidential ballot in which of these years: 1826, 1856, or 1860?

The political landscape of the 1850s was a powder keg, with the expansion of slavery as the central, explosive issue. In response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, a new coalition of anti-slavery activists, former Whigs, and Free Soilers came together to form the Republican Party. Their first opportunity to contest the presidency came just two years later, in the election of 1856, when they nominated the famed explorer John C. Frémont as their standard-bearer.

Running on the powerful slogan "Free Soil, Free