One who was for excluding slavery from the “Territories” of the U.S.
1848. The Free Soil party turned out to be the feeblest faction that ever undertook to bear arms in a Presidential contest; they were not able to give the candidate of their choice a single electoral vote.—Mr. Foote of Mississippi in the U.S. Senate, Dec. 13: Cong. Globe, p. 36.
1849. We do not charge him with Abolitionism, or Free-Soilism, but with duplicity.—Mr. Kaufman of Texas in the House of Repr., Dec. 13: id., p. 24.
1849. Palfrey, Adams, Sumner, young Dana, all and several Free-soilers.—Longfellow, ‘Life’ (1891), ii. 162. (N.E.D.)
1855. Mr. Evans has said repeatedly that he would rather be called a Locofoco than a free-soiler.—Olympia (W.T.) Pioneer, July 13.
1884. One party claimed the right to exclude slavery entirely from the Territories. These were the Free-Soilers. Another was for extending the Missouri Compromise line, 36° 30′, to the Pacific Ocean, as the dividing-line between free-soil and slavery. Another party claimed that the people of the Territory should settle this question for themselves. (This was Stephen A. Douglas’s theory, and was called “Squatter Sovereignty.”) Still another party claimed that the people could only determine this question when they came to be a State.—Shields, ‘Life of Prentiss,’ p. 410.
