John Parker Hale was an American politician and lawyer from New Hampshire. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and in the United States Senate from 1847 to 1853 and again from 1855 to 1865. He began his congressional career as a Democrat, but helped establish the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and eventually joined the Republican Party.
John P. Hale
John P. Hale, photograph by Mathew Brady
The picture of Lucy Hale found on the body of John Wilkes Booth
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