Free Soil US Senators

See below for annotated biographies of US Senators who were affiliated with the Free Soil Party. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.

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BRAINERD, Lawrence, 1794-1870, anti-slavery activist, temperance activist, capitalist, statesman.  U.S. Senator, elected 1854, member of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties. 

CHASE, Salmon Portland, 1808-1873, statesman, Governor of Ohio, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1864-1873, abolitionist, member of the Liberty Party, co-founder of the Free Soil Party, and member of the Anti-Slavery Republican Party. 

GILLETTE, Francis, 1807-1879, Connecticut, anti-slavery political leader, activist.  U.S. Senator, Free Soil Party, co-founder of the Republican Party.  Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in the Senate in 1854. 

HALE, John P., 1806-1873, New Hampshire, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  In 1852, he was nominated for President of the United States, representing the Free Soil Party. 

SUMNER, Charles, 1811-1874, statesman, lawyer, writer, editor, educator, reformer, peace advocate, anti-slavery political leader.  U.S. Senatorial candidate on the Free Soil ticket. Opposed the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.  Organizer and co-founder of the Republican party. 

WADE, Edward, 1802-1866, Massachusetts, Ohio, lawyer, prominent abolitionist.  Free Soil party U.S. Congressman from Ohio in the 33rd Congress.  Republican representative in the 34th and 35th Congresses.  Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.   

WILSON, Henry, 1812-1875, abolitionist leader, statesman, U.S. Senator and Vice President of the U.S.  Massachusetts state senator.  Member, Free Soil Party.  Founder of the Republican Party.   Opposed annexation of Texas as a slave state.  Bought and edited Boston Republican newspaper, which represented the anti-slavery Free Soil Party.  Called for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1815.  Introduced bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and the granting of freedom to slaves who joined the Union Army.  



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.