Free Soil Party
Template:Infobox Historical American Political Party
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 discriminating against freed blacks in states such as Ohio.
The party membership was largely absorbed by the Republican Party in 1854.
Positions
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 argued that slavery should be contained, and that if contained it would ultimately disappear.[citation needed]
History
In 1847 the New York State Democratic convention did not endorse the Wilmot Proviso, an act that would have banned slavery in any territory won in 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 coventions 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 no electoral votes, in part because the nomination of Van Buren discouraged many anti-slavery Whigs from joining 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 aqnd northern businessmen in the new western territories.
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 undercut the party's no-compromise position, and its vote fell off.
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.[2]
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
References
- ^ "Old Court House". History of Buffalo. Chuck LaChiusa. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
- ^ 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.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - T. C. Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest (New York, 1897)
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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