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POSITIONS Free Soil candidates ran on the platform that declared: "...we inscribe on our banner, 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Man,' and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions." The party also called for a Homestead Act and a tariff for revenue only. The Free Soil Party attracted mainly Abolitionists from the North and other free states. Its main support came from Yankee-settled areas of upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and northern Ohio, although other states also had representatives. FIRST CONVENTION In 1848 , the first party convention was held in Buffalo, New York , where the party nominated former Democratic President Martin Van Buren with Charles Francis Adams as vice president. The main party leaders were Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and John P. Hale of New Hampshire. They won no electoral votes. The nomination of Van Buren had the adverse effect of discouraging many anti-slavery Whigs from joining the Free Soil Party. COMPROMISE OF 1850 The Compromise Of 1850 undercut the party's no-compromise position, and its vote fell off sharply. LEGACY The Free Soil Party was a notable third party. More successful than most, it sent two Senators and fourteen Representatives to the Thirty-first Congress . Its presidential nominee in 1848 , Martin Van Buren , received 291,616 votes against Zachary Taylor of the Whigs and Lewis Cass of the Democrats; Van Buren received no electoral votes. The Party's " Spoiler " effect in 1848 may have put Zachary Taylor into office in a narrowly-contested election. The strength of the party, however, was its representation in Congress. The sixteen elected officials' influence far exceeded its numbers. The party's most important legacy was as a route for anti-slavery Democrats to join the new Republican coalition. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FAMOUS FREE SOILERS
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