White House Hanukkah Party the Frontier". For two centuries after the time of the story about George Washington and Hanukkah, Christmas was the only winter religious holiday officially recognized by the White House. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began lighting an official White House Christmas Tree, and also delivered the first formal presidential message for the holiday. In 1927, his proclamation included the statement that, "Christmas is not a time or a season, but a state of mind". Focusing on the holiday's message, he continued, would guarantee that "there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending
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