Free Soil Election of 1848

The 1848 presidential election, known as the Free Soil election, marked a turning point in American politics, as the antislavery sentiment emerged as a significant political force on a national scale. In this comprehensive history, Joseph G. Rayback documents the campaign and the election through an analysis of contemporary letters and newspaper accounts.

The Free Soil movement played a crucial role in the election. Efforts to secure Free Soil candidates and platforms at the national conventions proved ineffective, and the nominations of Zachary Taylor and Lewis Cass further alienated the various antislavery groups. Faced with this setback, the Free-Soilers formed a massive coalition that met in Buffalo and formally created the Free Soil party, nominating their own candidate, ex-President Martin Van Buren.

The Whigs and the Democrats, compelled by the new party to take a position on the controversial slavery question, employed different tactics to address it. In the North, they claimed to support Free Soil, while in the South, they sought to distance themselves from it.

Rayback concludes that the Free Soil election was one of the most significant in American history, marking the end of the Jacksonian Era and a turning point in national politics. Although Zachary Taylor was elected president, Van Buren's candidacy on the Free Soil ticket garnered around ten percent of the popular vote, depriving the Whigs and the Democrats of support. This election was the first in which a third party made substantial inroads on the major party loyalties, and it indicated the electorate's desire for a moderate solution to the problem of slavery extension, a solution that was later attempted by the Thirty-first Congress with its Compromise of 1850.

The 1848 presidential election, with its complex dynamics and lasting impact, remains a critical event in the history of American politics and the ongoing struggle over the issue of slavery.

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