In early 1840, abolitionists founded the Liberty Party as a
political outlet for their antislavery beliefs. A mere eight years
later, bolstered by the increasing slavery debate and growing
sectional conflict, the party had grown to challenge the two
mainstream political factions in many areas. In The Liberty Party,
1840--1848, Reinhard O. Johnson provides the first comprehensive
history of this short-lived but important third party, detailing
how it helped to bring the antislavery movement to the forefront of
American politics and became the central institutional vehicle in
the fight against the "peculiar institution."
As the major instrument of antislavery sentiment, the Liberty
organization was more than a political party and included not only
eligible voters but also disfranchised African Americans and women.
Most party members held evangelical beliefs, and as Johnson
relates, an intense religiosity permeated most of the group's
activities. At least eight U.S. senators, eighteen members of the
House of Representatives, five state governors, and two justices of
the Supreme Court were among the many Liberty Party members with
distinguished careers in the public and private sectors. Though
most early Liberty supporters came from the Whig Party, an
increasing number of former Democrats joined the party as it
matured.
Johnson discusses the Liberty Party's founding and its national
growth through the presidential election of 1844; its struggles to
define itself amid serious internal disagreements over philosophy,
strategy, and tactics in the ensuing years; and the reasons behind
its decline and merger into the Free Soil coalition in 1848. Since
most Liberty Party activities occurred at the state level, Johnson
treats the history of each state party in considerable detail,
demonstrating how the party developed differently state by state
and illustrating how these differences blended with the national
view of the party.
Informative appendices include statewide results for all
presidential and gubernatorial elections between 1840 and 1848, the
Liberty Party's 1844 platform, and short biographies of every
Liberty member mentioned in the main text of the book. Epic in
scope and encyclopedic in detail, The Liberty Party, 1840--1848
will serve as an invaluable reference for anyone interested in
nineteenth-century American politics.
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