Free Soil Party
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The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. It was a third party that largely appealed to, and had leadership of former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party; its membership was largely absorbed by the Republican Party in 1854. Its main purpose was opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. The free soilers were against the expansion of slavery but not the idea of slavery; their goal was to gain the land to the west, and keep the land free of both blacks and slaves.
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[edit] Positions
Free Soil candidates ran on the platform that declared: "...we inscribe on our banner, 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Man,' and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions."
The party also called for a homestead act and a tariff for revenue only. The Free Soil Party attracted mainly abolitionists from the North and other free states. Its main support came from areas of upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and Ohio, although other states also had representatives.
The Free Soil Party viewed slavery as economically inefficient. The party believed that slavery undermines the dignity of labor, and inhibited social mobility, thus slavery was obsolete and fundamentally un-Democratic. The Free Soil Party believed that slavery should be contained, to prevent the spread of slavery. Slavery, according to the party, would therefore dissolve on its own.
[edit] First convention
In 1848, the first party convention was held in Buffalo, New York, where the party nominated former Democratic President Martin Van Buren with Charles Francis Adams as vice president. The main party leaders were Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and John P. Hale of New Hampshire. They won no electoral votes. The nomination of Van Buren had the adverse effect of discouraging many anti-slavery Whigs from joining the Free Soil Party.
[edit] Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 undercut the party's no-compromise position, and its vote fell off sharply.
[edit] Legacy
The Free Soil Party was a notable third party. More successful than most, it sent two Senators and fourteen Representatives to the thirty-first Congress. Its presidential nominee in 1848, Martin Van Buren, received 291,616 votes against Zachary Taylor of the Whigs and Lewis Cass of the Democrats; Van Buren received no electoral votes. The Party's "spoiler" effect in 1848 may have put Zachary Taylor into office in a narrowly-contested election.
The strength of the party, however, was its representation in Congress. The sixteen elected officials' influence far exceeded its numbers. The party's most important legacy was as a route for anti-slavery Democrats to join the new Republican coalition.
[edit] Presidential candidates
| Year | Presidential candidate | Vice Presidential candidate | Won/Lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1848 | Martin Van Buren | Charles Francis Adams | Lost |
| 1852 | John P. Hale | George W. Julian | Lost |
[edit] Famous Free Soilers
- Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Party's vice presidential candidate in 1848
- Salmon P. Chase
- Charles Sumner, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
- David C. Broderick, U.S. Senator from California
- Oren B. Cheney, legislator from Maine, founder of Bates College
- William Cullen Bryant
- Walt Whitman
- Abraham Lincoln
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Frederick J. Blue; Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics 1987
- Frederick J. Blue. The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848-54 (1973)
- Martin Duberman; Charles Francis Adams, 1807-1886 1968.
- Foner, Eric (1995 edition; originally published 1970). Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195094972.
- T. C. Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest (New York, 1897)
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