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800 HISTORICAL ANNOTATION

Pennsylvania, the Free Soil party renamed itself the Free Democratic party, as part of
an effort to retain northern Democrats who had supported its 1848 nomination of
Martin Van Buren, the ex-Democratic president. The Free Democrats' platform also
endorsed traditionally Democratic positions on federal banking practices and the strict
interpretation of the Constitution. The capstone of the party's strategy was its nomina-tion of former Democratic Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire for president.
Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (New York,
2005), 663-64; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 243-46.

216.20 Julius LeMoyne] Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879), a leading politi-
cal abolitionist, was born in Washington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from
Washington College in 1815 and went on to study medicine with his father, John
Julius LeMoyne, and at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Later LeMoyne
became a vocal opponent of the American Colonization Society, and he was the
Liberty party's candidate for vice president in 1840 and for governor of Pennsylvania
in 1841, 1844, and 1847. His house in Washington, Pennsylvania, was a station along
the Underground Railroad. Dumond, Antislavery, 186-87; DAB, 11:163-64.

216.21 Free-Soil party] The Free Soil party, a coalition of political abolitionists,
Whigs, and Democrats, formed in response to the controversy over admitting slavery
to the territories acquired in the war with Mexico. The party also called for federal
funding of internal improvements, which attracted former Whigs; endorsed tariffs for
revenue only and the election of civil officials, which appealed to Democrats; and
opposed the extension of slavery and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., which satis-fied former Liberty party members. In August 1848 the party held its first convention,
adopted the slogan "Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men," and nominated for-mer president Martin Van Buren as its presidential candidate. Frederick J. Blue, The
Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848-1854 (Urbana, Ill., 1973), 70-71, 74-75;
Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party
before the Civil War (1970; New York, 1995), 124-25; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom,
153-58.

216.28-29 It is easy. . .the one adopted] On 9 August 1848, in Buffalo, New York,
some 20,000 people gathered under a massive tent to witness the creation of the Free
Soil party and nominate a presidential candidate. Frederick Douglass and several
other free blacks were present. Every northern state, three slave states (Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia), and British Columbia were represented. The sundry assortment
of egos and politics necessitated that a "Committee of Conference," composed
equally of Whigs, Democrats, and Liberty party men, be delegated to frame an accept-able platform and nominate a candidate. The finalized platform, summed up in the
concluding slogan, "Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men," offered something
for everyone. For the Liberty men, it endorsed the Wilmot Proviso by declaring that
Congress had no power to extend slavery, and should prohibit its extension. For the
Whigs, the platform called for federal funds for internal improvements. For
Democrats, it demanded the election of civil officials and tariff reform. To placate the