White House Christmas tree the White House of President William McKinley received letters urging the president to forgo participation in the "Christmas tree habit". The letter writers, which the "Chicago Daily Tribune" noted had taken up the "forestry fad", referred to "arboreal infanticide", according to the "Tribune". Those opposed to a tree in the White House that year also termed Christmas trees "un-American" because it was a historically German tradition. At least one tree was displayed in the White House that year, in the kitchen department, for the maids. The Nixon administration's choice of tree topper, the atomic symbol of peace rather than a
Presidency of Franklin Pierce over the expansion of slavery in the American West. In the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Whig Party was destroyed and the Democratic Party was severely weakened. With the destruction of the Whigs, two new major parties emerged in the nativist American Party and the anti-slavery Republican Party. Pierce actively sought renomination at the 1856 Democratic National Convention, but he was defeated by James Buchanan, who had served as Pierce's ambassador to Britain. Buchanan went on to win the 1856 presidential election, defeating the nominees of the American Party and the Republican Party. Pierce is viewed by presidential historians