Politics and Public Service by Third Parties

[old Grump]

All those who have heard of the Free Soil Party raise your right hand. The rest of you relax, don't feel guilty because you were all victims of the public school system. This third party elected 14 House members and 2 Senators and their miniscule influence was responsible for abolition and several other reforms needed and embraced by the then new Republican party. Apparently our Great Great grandfathers had the courage of their convictions to vote for people they could agree with and tolerate in office and not the same old political hacks pushed by the papers and back room cigar brigade. They were not a majority but they made the majority pay attention.


In the Election of 1848 (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h343.html), Van Buren was passed over again by the Democrats, so he and antislavery forces from the Democratic (such as the Barnburners), Whig and Liberty parties formed the Free-Soil Party. At a convention in Buffalo, New York (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2142.html)on August 9, 1848, more than 10,000 men from all the northern states and thee border states met in a huge tent in a city park. The resulting Free Soil Party was built on a coalition of four elements: the previous Liberty Party, Free-Soil Democrats, Barnburners, and Conscience Whigs. The convention adopted a platform that called for:


Opposition to the extension of slavery into the territories
Support for national internal improvement programs
Support for moderate tariffs (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h394.html) designed for revenue only
Support for the enactment of a homestead law.


http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h139.html

[stinker]

:thumbup:


All those who have heard of the Free Soil Party raise your right hand.

And just for the record i was a preferred chewtoy of the public school system too.
It's amazing what you begin to learn once you've heard the pop.

[old Grump]

:thumbup:



And just for the record i was a preferred chewtoy of the public school system too.
It's amazing what you begin to learn once you've heard the pop.That's one.
I bet you learned after you got out of school unless you were lucky and had one whiz bang super great civics teacher.

[stinker]

That's one.
I bet you learned after you got out of school unless you were lucky and had one whiz bang super great civics teacher.

Count in years the time gap between leaving school and pulling the wire out of the back of my head.
The most important question you can ask, is are you asking the right questions.
Took me a while to figure that simple but oh so important thing out.
God bless the internet and it's search engines.
Except google, they suck.