Free-Soil party

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An American political party organized in 1848 on a platform that opposed the admission of any new slave states into the Union. It was organized primarily by the abolitionist Liberty Party, the Whigs, and the Barnburners, a faction of the New York Democrats. Free-Soil candidates were Martin Van Buren for president and Charles Francis Adams for vice-president. In addition to opposing the extension of slavery, the platform backed a homestead law and a tariff for revenue. The party slogan was “free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.” Though carrying no states, the party did elect two U.S. senators and fourteen representatives. It was absorbed into the newly formed Republican party in 1854.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

This third party took shape in the aftermath of the August 1846 through March 1847 congressional debate over the Wilmot Proviso. When the House member David Wilmot of Pennsylvania and other dissident northern Democrats attempted to amend an appropriation bill by introducing language forever banning slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War, they reintroduced the slavery issue into national party politics. While President James K. Polk fumed and the South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun demanded southern rights in the future territories, Whigs and Democrats struggled to hold the northern and southern wings of their parties together. In 1848, after both major parties refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso, the antiextensionists, led by opportunistic Barn-burner Democrats in New York and Ohio Liberty Party men, called for a national convention to unite proponents of the proviso: Northern Democrats, unhappy with Polk's patronage assignments and his opposition to internal improvements; Liberty Party members willing to forsake abolitionism; New York Democrats loyal to Martin Van Buren, who sought revenge for his defeat at the 1844 Democratic National Convention; and Conscience Whigs, who feared the consequences of acquiring new territory from Mexico, formed an unlikely coalition.

When representatives of these groups convened on 9 and 10 August 1848 at Buffalo, New York, the New York Barnburners secured the nomination of Van Buren for president but permitted others, notably Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, to write a platform that both demanded "No more Slave States and no more Slave Territory" and announced the new party's slogan, "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men." Although the Free Soil Party failed to carry a single state in the presidential election of 1848, it did garner 291,263 votes nationally and elected several congressmen. By 1851 Chase, John P. Hale of New Hampshire, and Charles Sumner of Massachusetts all spoke for the new party in the U.S. Senate. The party's fortunes declined precipitously, however. The New York Barnburners quickly rejoined their state Democratic Party, and Free Soilers in several other northern states soon found themselves coopted by the regular Democrats or Whigs. In 1852 the Free Soilers nominated Hale for president, but their lack of strong state and local organizations, together with a national sense that the Compromise of 1850 had settled the slavery issue, contributed to the party's lackluster performance in that year's elections.

Assailed as fanatics on the subject of slavery by some critics, Free Soilers were not embraced by northern blacks or by Liberty men suspicious of their reluctance to endorse the abolition of slavery. Few Free Soilers favored racial equality. Indeed their vision for free territories generally encompassed only white males, not free blacks. By 1853, however, party rhetoric emphasizing the need to contain slavery and to check the dangerous slave power had exerted a powerful influence on the northern electorate. When in January 1854 the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced his bill to organize the Kansas and Nebraska Territories on the principle of popular sovereignty, protests began almost immediately in northern legislatures. After Douglas's bill passed in May 1854, the antiextension position long championed by the Free Soil Party became the cornerstone of the emerging Republican Party. Former Free Soil leaders such as Chase and Sumner became Republicans. The Republican Party platforms of 1856 and 1860 closely reflected Free Soil positions not only on slavery but also regarding support for internal improvements and for homesteads for white settlers.

Bibliography

Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Sewell, Richard H. Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837–1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

Smith, Theodore Clarke. The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest. 1897. Reprint Arno Press, 1969.

—Julienne L. Wood

Another short-lived political party, the Free-Soil Party was in existence for only about four years, from 1848 to 1852. Formed to oppose the extension of slavery into the territories, the Free-Soil Party was a melding of abolitionists from the Democratic Party, the Whig Party, the Liberty Party, and a group known as the Barnburners, a radical antislavery arm of the New York Democrats. The party held its first convention in 1848. Free-Soilers nominated a ticket of former U.S. president Martin Van Buren and former Massachusetts state senator Charles Francis Adams (son of former U.S. president John Quincy Adams). Although Van Buren did not win any electoral votes, he received some popular support: his support in New York took enough votes from Democrat Lewis Cass to help Whig Zachary Taylor carry the state. The Free-Soilers had some representation in Congress (two senators, fourteen representatives), but ultimately it was unable to compete with the stronger, pro-abolition Republican Party. Its members eventually joined the Republicans.

"Free Soil" redirects here. For the township in Michigan, see Free Soil Township, Michigan.

Free Soil Party
Founded	1848 (1848)
Dissolved	1854 (1854)
Preceded by	Liberty Party, Whig Party, Democratic Party
Succeeded by	Republican Party
Ideology	Anti-slavery expansion
International affiliation	None
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

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 drew its greatest strength from New York State. The party leadership consisted of former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. 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. They opposed slavery in the new territories and worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed blacks in states such as Ohio.

The party membership was largely absorbed by the Republican Party in 1854.

Contents 1 Positions 2 History 3 Legacy 4 Presidential candidates 5 Other Noted Free Soilers 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Positions

In this 1850 political cartoon, the artist attacks abolitionist, Free Soil, and other sectionalist interests of 1850 as dangers to the Union.

Free Soil candidates ran on the platform that declared: "...we inscribe on our banner, 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,' 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's main support came from areas of upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and Ohio, although other northern states also had representatives. The Free Soil Party contended that slavery undermined the dignity of labor and inhibited social mobility, and was therefore fundamentally un-Democratic. Viewing slavery as an economically inefficient, obsolete institution, Free Soilers believed that slavery should be contained, and that if contained it would ultimately disappear.^{[citation needed]}

History

Van Buren / Adams campaign banner

In 1847 the New York State Democratic convention did not endorse the Wilmot Proviso, an act that would have banned slavery in any conquered territory of the Mexican War. Almost half the members, known as Barnburners, walked out after denouncing the national platform. Lewis Cass, the Democratic Party's 1848 presidential nominee supported popular sovereignty for determining the status of slavery in the U.S. territories. This stance repulsed the New York State democrats and encouraged them to join the anti-slavery Whigs to form the Free Soil Party which was formalized in the summer of 1848 at conventions in Utica and Buffalo, New York. There the Free Soilers nominated former Democratic President Martin Van Buren for president with Charles Francis Adams for vice president at Lafayette Square then known as Court House Park.^[1] The main party leaders were Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and John P. Hale of New Hampshire. The Free Soil candidates won 10% of the popular vote, but no electoral votes, in part because their nomination of Van Buren discouraged many anti-slavery Whigs from supporting the Free Soil Party.

The party downplayed abolitionism and avoided the moral problems implicit in slavery. Members emphasized instead the threat slavery would pose to free white labor and northern businessmen in the new western territories. Although William Lloyd Garrison derided the party as "white manism", the approach appealed to many moderate opponents of slavery. The 1848 platform pledged to promote internal improvements, work for a homestead law, pay public debt, and support moderate tarriffs for revenue only.

The Compromise of 1850 temporarily neutralized the issue of slavery and undercut the party's no-compromise position. Most Barnburners returned to the Democratic party, and the Free Soil Party became dominated by ardent anti-slavery leaders.

The party ran John P. Hale in the 1852 presidential election, but its share of the popular vote shrank to less than 5%. After enormous outrage over the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the remains of the Free Soil Party helped form the Republican party.^[2]

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 but 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^{[citation needed]}. The party's most important legacy was as a route for anti-slavery Democrats to join the new Republican coalition.

In Ottawa, Illinois, in August 1854, an alliance was brokered between the Free Soil Party and the Whigs (in part based on the efforts of local newspaper publisher Jonathan F. Linton) that gave rise to the Republican Party.^[3]

Presidential candidates

Year	Presidential candidate	Vice Presidential candidates	Won/Lost
1848	Martin Van Buren	Charles Francis Adams	Lost
1852	John P. Hale	George W. Julian	Lost

Other Noted Free Soilers

• Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Party's vice presidential candidate in 1848
• Salmon P. Chase, U.S. Senator from Ohio
• 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
• Joshua Reed Giddings, congressman from Ohio
• Henry Wilson
• George W. Julian
• Horace Mann

See also

• Second Party System
• Origins of the American Civil War
• Appeal of the Independent Democrats

References

1. ^ "Old Court House". History of Buffalo. Chuck LaChiusa. http://lucky.phpwebhosting.com/~ah/h/lafsq/courthse/index.html. Retrieved 2008-03-08. 
2. ^ Mayfield, John; Rehearsal for Republicanism: Free Soil and the Politics of Anti-Slavery; Port Washington. NY; Kennikat, 1980
3. ^ Taylor, William Alexander. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS http://www.heritagepursuit.com/Franklin/Franklin%20Vol%20II%20Bio%2006%20P100.htm 1909.

Further reading

• 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)
•  "Free Soil Party". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

External links

• Free Soil Banner - Indianapolis Marion County Public Library

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