Ohio History Journal

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THE LIBERTY PARTY LEADERS OF OHIO: EXPONENTS

THE LIBERTY PARTY LEADERS OF OHIO: EXPONENTS

OF ANTISLAVERY COALITION

by JOSEPH G. RAYBACK

Assistant Professor of American History, The Pennsylvania State College

If there is one aspect of American history that has received

the attention that is its due, it is the role of the abolitionist in the

antislavery movement. The main outlines of the part played by that

small, semifanatical body of men and women have long been re-

vealed; the eternal history of the group has long been recorded.

There is one aspect of the subject, however, which still needs more

attention: the role played by the leaders of the Ohio wing of the

Liberty party in their effort to broaden the appeal of the whole

political abolitionist movement. It has long been accepted that

Salmon P. Chase had an important share in persuading his party

to merge itself with the Free Soil movement in 1847-48, but very

little is known of his earlier efforts to bring about much the same

result, and still less is known of the early work of other Ohio lead-

ers to achieve similar ends. Yet the chieftains of Ohio's Liberty

party were laboring with that purpose in mind from the very in-

ception of the party; indeed, it may be said that these men were

thinking of a political organization based upon the broadest anti-

slavery grounds even before the Liberty party was conceived!

Exactly when the Liberty party was created will always be a

controversial subject. But there can be no doubt that the resolu-

tions adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society's annual con-

vention, held at Albany, New York, on July 31, 1839, were a long

step in that direction. The convention was called to discuss "the

questions which relate to the proper exercise of the suffrage by

citizens of the free States,"1 a vague way of stating an issue which

was being assiduously urged upon the society by Myron W. Holley

and T. C. Torry, and by the organ of the society, the Boston Eman-

cipator: should abolitionists set up a separate political party with

 

1 Emancipator (Boston), August 8, 1839.

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