Greater New England

To the left is a map which shows the 1856 election results for president by county. In the blue are counties where John C. Fremont, the Republican, received a majority of the votes. The more intense the blue, the higher the proportion. You can see here the rough outlines of “Greater New England.” Most of New York supported Fremont, excluding the regions around the Hudson valley. Only the northern and western fringe of Pennsylvania supported the Republicans in 1856, and these are counties settled by Yankees. In Ohio Republican strength is strongest in the northeast, which was settled from New England and once claimed by Connecticut. The northern portion of Illinois, most of Iowa, and Wisconsin and Michigan, are part of the Yankee domains as well. 1860 is less representative of the cultural landscape of the Yankees because this was the election when much of the Mid-Atlantic, and in particular Pennsylvania, turned away from its historical ties to the South and created a “Solid North” bloc which would go on to dominate politics for nearly 100 years. 1856 still shows the Yankee lands as a minority faction, culturally powerful and influential, but politically impotent, as they had been since the fall of the Federalist party.