<Ul> <Li> Politics of the United States </Li> <Li> Political parties </Li> <Li> Elections </Li> </Ul> <Li> Politics of the United States </Li> <P> The Free Soil Party was a short - lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections . A single - issue party, its main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil constituted a morally and economically superior system to slavery . It also sometimes worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans in states such as Ohio . </P> <P> The party originated in New York after the state Democratic convention refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso, a proposed law that would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican--American War . A faction of New York Democrats known as the Barnburners objected to slavery in the territories and opposed the 1848 Democratic nominee, Lewis Cass . The Barnburners and other anti-slavery Democrats joined with some anti-slavery Whigs and the Liberty Party to form the Free Soil Party . Salmon P. Chase, John P. Hale, and other party leaders organized the 1848 Free Soil Convention, which nominated a ticket consisting of former President Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams Sr. In the 1848 presidential election, Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote and Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeated Cass . </P>

What major idea did the free soil party support