One Of Many Parties

The Liberty Party a minor United State political party held its first national convention April 1st 1840.


The Liberty Party was an early advocate of the abolitionist movement. It broke away from the American Anti-Slavery Society, under the belief that the United States Constitution was an anti-slavery document. Party members where abolitionists who tried to work with politics to get people to support their goals. The Liberty Party’s first gathering was November 1839 in Warsaw, New York, its first national convention was held on April 1st 1840.

The Parties nomination for President in 1840 and 1844 was James G Birney of Kentucky, a former slave owner. Birney didn’t get many votes in 1840, but in 1844 he received 62,103 votes. At their convention in Syracuse, New York in 1847 they endorsed John P Hale of New Hampshire. In August 1848 there was a meeting held in Buffalo, New York, where members from the Liberty Party, and some un-happy New York Democrats joined to form the Free Soil Party.

A member of the Liberty Party, who latter become a politically prominent Republican was Salmon P Chase. Besides Chase the Liberty Party produced 8 United States Senators, 18 Representatives, 2 Supreme Court Justices, and 5 Governors.

Seamann, Lawyer, Antislavery Activist

A writer, lawyer and antislavery activist Richard Henry Dana was born August 1st 1815.

Richard Henry Dana was born in Cambridge Massachusetts August 1st 1815. In 1835 he left Harvard before graduating in hopes that a voyage at sea would help his failing eye sight. After two year as a seaman on “the Pilgrim” in the Pacific, he returned to MA and completed his education. Dana became a member of the American Bar and an expert on maritime law. A life long advocate of civil rights, he was an antislavery activist. In 1848 he was one of the founders of the Free-Soil Party. Dana opposed the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. He served as a United States Attorney during the Civil War, and was successful in arguing that US Government could legally run a blockade of Confederate port in front of the Supreme Court. He was part of counsel at the trail of Jefferson Davis following the war.

Dana died in Rome January 6th 1882.