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The Free Soil Party, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, [3] was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was focused on opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories of the United States .
At the 1848 presidential election, the Barnburners left the Democratic Party, refusing to support presidential nominee Lewis Cass. They joined with other anti-slavery groups, predominantly the abolitionist Liberty Party and some anti-slavery Conscience Whigs from New England and the Midwest, to form the Free Soil Party. This group nominated ...
The Buffalo Free Soil convention opened on August 9 with approximately 20,000 Democrats, Whigs, and Liberty men in attendance. Many of the Whigs hoped for the nomination of Supreme Court Justice John McLean, who had been available as a candidate for the Whig and Anti-Masonic parties in past elections. Most Liberty men still supported Hale; but ...
The Free Soil Democrats nomination of Van Buren made the victory of Taylor nearly certain in New York. On election day, enough Democratic votes were drawn away by Van Buren to give the Whig ticket all but two Democratic counties, thus enabling it to carry hitherto impregnable parts of upper New York state .
The Free Soil Party attracted Democrats and some Whigs and had considerable support in the Northeast. Former Democratic President Van Buren ran as the Free Soil nominee in 1848 and finished second ahead of Cass in the anti-slavery states of Vermont and Massachusetts and in his home state of New York.
Nathaniel Banks, a member of the American Party and the Free Soil Party, won election as Speaker of the House after a protracted battle, defeating Democrat William Aiken. [4] In the Senate, Democrats retained a strong majority, while the Opposition replaced the Whigs as the second largest party in the chamber. [5]
Democrats divided among four major candidates at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. On the 49th ballot, dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce won nomination by consensus compromise. The Free Soil Party, a third party opposed to the extension of slavery in the United States and into the territories, nominated New Hampshire Senator John P. Hale.
The Whigs lost their House majority as Democrats, whose support had driven the war, gained a House plurality. Among minor parties, the Free Soil Party won nine Northern seats, while the American or "Know Nothing" Party retained one. Following the discovery of gold in January 1848, California boomed, creating immediate pressure for statehood.