Free Soil Party was a political group organized in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1848. The party opposed the extension of slavery into the territories and the admission of new slave states to the Union. Many members of the party had once belonged to the Liberty Party (see Liberty Party ). The Free Soil Party was joined and strengthened by a discontented faction of the Democratic Party in New York that was known as the Barnburners.
Martin Van Buren became the Free Soilers’ candidate for President in 1848. Their campaign slogan was “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.” The party did not carry any state, but it polled over 291,000 votes. Thirteen Free Soil candidates were elected to the House of Representatives. A coalition of the Free Soil and Democratic parties elected Salmon P. Chase to the Senate in 1848, and Charles Sumner in 1851.
The Free Soil Party lost the support of the Barnburners before the presidential election of 1852. This loss cut the party strength far below what it had been in the preceding election, but the Free Soil candidate for the presidency, John P. Hale, still polled 156,000 votes. Before the election of 1856, the remnants of the Free Soil Party had joined forces with the newly formed Republican Party.
