Free-soilers

Free-soilers, a political party in the United States, the outcome of the Wilmot (q.v.) proviso, founded in 1848 to oppose the extension of slavery to the territories. At Buffalo in that year they nominated Martin Van Buren for president and Charles Francis Adams for vice-president, who secured a popular vote of 291,000, but no electoral votes. In 1852 their candidates polled only 156,000 votes; but in the period of political agitation that followed the free-soil principles assumed great prominence, and were adopted by the Republicans, in whose party, on its organisation in 1856, the Free-soilers were absorbed.