What was free soil party

The Free Soil Party nominated Martin Van Buren as its presidential candidate, even though Van Buren had supported the Gag Rule that had quashed consideration of abolitionist petitions while he was President. In the following letter, Gerrit Smith discusses Van Buren's nomination. In the election of , Van Buren polled , votes, enough to split the Democratic vote and throw the election to the Whig candidate Zachary Taylor. Document: I hardly need say, that I am deeply interested in the present movement against the extension of slavery; and that I infinitely prefer the election of the candidates, who are identified with it, to the election of the Whig and Democratic candidates.

Van Buren and Mr. Adams are antislavery candidates. Southern Democratic forces managed to engineer the nomination of proslavery James K. Polk , denying the nod to former president Martin Van Buren , who was moderately antislavery.

The Whigs nominated Henry Clay , who changed his stand on supporting the annexation of Texas during the campaign. James G. Ohio voters elected a handful of Free Soilers to the Ohio legislature. The legislature was nearly evenly divided between Democrats and Whigs. The Free Soilers had much greater power than their numbers suggested as both the Democrats and the Whigs needed the Free Soilers to enact legislation.

The Free Soilers used their influence to convince the Democrats in the legislature to overturn most of Ohio's black laws in They also succeeded in having a Free Soiler named Salmon P. Chase, elected to the United States Senate. Toggle navigation. Van Buren received , votes. The party held its convention in Buffalo, New York, in August and adopted the slogan, "Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men. The Free Soilers had a mixed reception. Many people saw them as a cynical group of Van Buren loyalists who had no real desire to abolish slavery but merely to take votes away from the major parties.

Hostilities even among different state Free Soil organizations kept the party from building enough strength to win the presidency, although the Free Soilers did make their presence known. The Free Soil party did respectably in Congress, electing 13 representatives and two senators.

To those who had strong feelings about slavery, the Compromise of solved no problems, and the Free Soilers nominated John Parker Hale, an abolitionist from New Hampshire, as their candidate for president in