What is Free Soil Party?
[[File:Politicalcartoon1850.jpg|thumb|left |300px|In this 1850 political cartoon, the artist attacks abolitionist, Free Soil, and other such interests of 1850 as dangers to the Union.]] The '''Free Soil Party''' was, for a short duration, a [[political party]] in the [[United States]]. It was active in the 1848 and 1852 president elections, and in some state elections. It got lots of its strength from [[New York City|New York]]. Most of the important party members were former anti-slavery members of the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. Its main purpose was stopping [[slavery]] from spreading into the [[western United States|western lands]], arguing that free men on free soil had a morally and [[economy|economically]] better system than slavery. Also, many workers feared that slave labor would take away work for white workers. The party membership was largely taken over by the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] in 1854. == Further reading == *Frederick J. Blue; ''Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics'' 1987 *Frederick J. Blue. ''The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848-54'' (1973) *Martin Duberman; ''Charles Francis Adams, 1807-1886'' 1968. *{{cite book | last = Foner | first = Eric | authorlink = Eric Foner | title = Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War| publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1995| location =New York | pages = | url =https://archive.org/details/freesoilfreelabo01fone| doi = | id = | isbn = 0195094972 }} *T. C. Smith, ''Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest'' (New York, 1897) *{{Wikisource1911Enc Citation}} == Other websites == *{{Cite web |url=http://digitallibrary.imcpl.org/fsb.php |title=The Free Soil Banner |work=digitallibrary.imcpl.org |accessdate=6 April 2010 |archive-date=16 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091116142931/http://digitallibrary.imcpl.org/fsb.php |url-status=dead }} [[Catego