The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories of the United States.
Martin Van Buren/Charles Francis Adams campaign banner
James G. Birney was the two-time presidential nominee of the Liberty Party, a forerunner of the Free Soil Party.
The party nominated former President Martin Van Buren for president in the 1848 presidential election
1848 cartoon for Van Buren
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party, also known as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850s.
The Republican Party hosted its first Republican National Convention at Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street in Philadelphia from June 17 to 19, 1856, nominating John C. Frémont as its presidential candidate in the 1856 presidential election.
Charles R. Jennison, an anti-slavery militia leader associated with the Jayhawkers from Kansas and an early Republican politician in the region
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president (1861–1865) and first Republican to hold the office
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president (1869–1877)
