Free Soil Party

Free Soil Party. As sectional tensions over slavery increased following the Mexican War, both the Whig and Democratic parties experienced internal disputes. Antislavery members of both parties expressed disappointment in 1848 when their respective conventions nominated Zachary Taylor and Lewis Cass for the presidency. So‐called “Conscience Whigs” in Massachusetts, led by Charles Francis Adams, the son of ex‐President John Quincy Adams, joined with former Liberty party supporters in calling for a new organization to oppose the growth of slavery. Their call attracted a faction of New York Democrats loyal to former President Martin Van Buren, called Barnburners, who had bolted the party the previous year. At a meeting at Buffalo in August, the Free Soil party was born. The convention nominated Van Buren for president and Adams for vice president.

The party drew its strongest support from antislavery Whigs in the Northeast and Middle West, northern antislavery Democrats, and former Liberty party backers. The party's 1848 platform, written by Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, called for an end to slavery in the District of Columbia and a halt to its extension in the territories. The rest of the party's planks, like its constituency, reflected a wide array of interests, including a high tariff, support for internal improvements, and a free homestead land policy. Although the party won no electoral votes in the subsequent election, its nearly three hundred thousand popular votes more than quadrupled the Liberty party's support in 1844.

After a strong showing in state‐level contests, many Free Soil politicians turned to coalition politics in the following years, joining whichever side would embrace their issues. With some success, coalition Free Soilers gained congressional seats and state offices. When Congress passed the series of measures known as the Compromise of 1850, the Free Soil coalition broke down. Calling itself the Free Soil Democratic Convention, the party at its national meeting in 1852 nominated Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire as its presidential candidate. The party polled poorly in the election, but hoped in vain that the faltering Whig party would offer a fresh influx of members. Outside of Ohio and Wisconsin, the party collapsed.

The passage of the Kansas‐Nebraska Act in 1854 again thrust sectional tensions to the forefront of national politics. In the next two years, the Whig and Democratic parties fragmented, resulting in political realignments along sectional lines. In 1856, former Free Soilers Salmon P. Chase and Charles Sumner joined discouraged Whigs, antislavery Know‐Nothings, and former Liberty party men to form the Republican party.
See also Antebellum Era; Civil War: Causes; Know‐Nothing Party; Political Parties.

Bibliography

Joseph G. Rayback , Free Soil: The Election of 1848, 1970.
John R. Mayfield , Rehearsal for Republicanism: Free Soil and the Politics of Antislavery, 1979.

Eric D. Daniels