There was, therefore, a clear field for a party having fully defined views to express on a topic of commanding interest.The cleavage in the Democratic party already begun by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso was farther promoted by a factional division of New York Democrats.Martin Van Buren became the leader of the liberal faction, the "Barnburners," who nominated him for President at a convention at Utica.The spirit of independence now seized disaffected Whigs and Democrats everywhere in the North and Northwest.Men of anti-slavery proclivities held nonpartizan meetings and conventions.The movement finally culminated in the famous Buffalo convention which gave birth to the Freesoil party.The delegates of all political persuasions united on the one principle of opposition to slavery.They adopted a ringing platform closing with the words: "Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men,' and under it will fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions." They accepted Van Buren as their candidate.The vote at the ensuing election was more than fourfold that given to Birney in 1844.The Van Buren supporters held the balance of power between Whigs and Democrats in twelve States.Taylor was elected by the vote of New York, which except for the division in the party would have gone to Cass.There was no longer any doubt of the fact that a political force had arisen which could no longer be ignored by the ruling parties.One of the parties must either support the new issue or give place to a party which would do so.
A political party for the defense of liberty was the fulfillment of the aspirations of all earnest anti-slavery men and of all abolitionists not of the radical Garrisonian persuasion.The national anti-slavery societies were for the most part limited in their operations to the Atlantic seaboard.The West organized local and state associations with little reference to the national association.When the disruption occurred between Garrison and his opponents in 1840, the Western abolitionists continued their former methods of local organization.They recognized no divisions in their ranks and continued to work in harmony with all who in any way opposed the institution of slavery.The political party was their first really effective national organization.Through party committees, caucuses, and conventions, they became a part of the forces that controlled the nation.The older local clubs and associations were either displaced by the party or became mere adjuncts to the party.
The lines for political action were now clearly defined.In the States emancipation should be accomplished by state action.With a few individual exceptions the leaders conceded that Congress had no power to abolish slavery in the States.Upon the general Government they urged the duty of abolishing both slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia and in all areas under direct federal control.They further urged upon the Government the strict enforcement of the laws prohibiting the foreign slave-trade and the enactment of laws forbidding the interstate slave-trade.The constitutionality of these main lines of action has been generally conceded.
Abolitionists were pioneers in the formulation of political platforms.The declaration of principles drawn up by Garrison in 1833 and adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society was of the nature of a political platform.The duty of voting in furtherance of the policy of emancipation was inculcated.No platform was adopted for the first political campaign, that of 1840; but four years later there was an elaborate party platform of twenty-one resolutions.Many things had happened in the eleven years intervening since the declaration of principles of the American Anti-Slavery Society.In the earlier platform the freedom of the slave appears as the primary object.That of the Liberty party assumes the broad principle of human brotherhood as the foundation for a democracy or a republic.It denies that the party is organized merely to free the slave.Slaveholding as the grossest form of despotism must indeed be attacked first, but the aim of the party is to carry the principle of equal rights into all social relations.It is not a sectional party nor a party organized for a single purpose."It is not a new party, nor a third party, but it is the party of 1776, reviving the principles of that memorable era, and striving to carry them into practical application." The spirit of '76 rings, indeed, throughout the document, which declares that it was understood at the time of the Declaration and the Constitution that the existence of slavery was in derogation of the principles of American liberty.
The implied faith of the Nation and the States was pledged to remove this stain upon the national character.Some States had nobly fulfilled that pledge; others shamelessly had neglected to do so.
These principles are reasserted in succeeding platforms.The later opponents of slavery in their principles and policies thus allied themselves with the founders of the republic.They claimed the right to continue to repeat the words of Washington and Jefferson and those of the members of the Virginia Legislature of 1832.No new doctrines were required.It was enough simply to reaffirm the fundamental principles of democracy.
The names attached to the party are significant.It was at first popularly styled the Abolition party, then officially in turn the Liberty party, the Freesoil party, and finally the Republican party.Republican was the name first applied to the Democratic party--the party of Jefferson.The term Democrat was gradually substituted under the leadership of Jackson before 1830.Some of the men who participated in the organization of the later Republican party had themselves been Republicans in the party of Jefferson.They not only accepted the name which Jefferson gave to his party, but they adopted the principles which Jefferson proclaimed on the subject of slavery, free soil, and human rights in general.This was the final stage in the identification of the later anti-slavery crusade with the earlier contest for liberty.
