The Liberty Party
© Courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library and the Bentley Historical Library
In 1840, Former members of the American Anti-Slavery Society formed the Liberty Party in an
effort to bring political power to the abolitionist cause and to get abolitionists into public
office. The party did not get much voter support and competition from national third party
organizations made it difficult for the Liberty Party to advance their cause. After three failed
attempts to elect a member of the party in the 1840, 1844 and 1848 elections, the Liberty
Party became politically insignificant.
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In the late 1830s, the abolitionist movement in the United States was beginning to fracture
into different camps. In 1839, Elizur Wright led a movement in Massachusetts to break
from Garrison’s Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. The following year, after abolitionists
met at the annual national convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS), a
dissenting minority decided to break away from the national organization when
participants elected Abby Kelley to the business committee. Members frustrated with the
appointment of a woman to the post joined with leaders like Wright, Joshua Levitt, and
Henry B. Stanton to create the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Although
historians disagree over the nature of the split, it is clear that Liberty Party participants
cited both the role of women in the American Anti-Slavery Society and Garrison’s heavyhanded control of the organization as a reason to form a new organization (Johnson 8-9).
The creation of the Liberty Party emerged out of the debates that led to the split in the
American Anti-Slavery Society. State and local third party advocates formed numerous
political organizations in the late 1830s in an effort to run independents for governor as
organizations like the Human Rights Party, the People’s Party, and the Freemen’s Party
began to crop up after the split in the AAS. Third party supporters maintained that neither
the Democrats nor the Whigs were going to place abolition front-and-center on the national
stage.
The Liberty Party was conceived as a forum for direct political action and protest against
the status quo and in response to third parties failures during the 1840 presidential
election. Without a national party, candidates in the states lacked institutional support to
advance their cause. Moreover, AAS supporters had considerable influence on the local
antislavery presses, which tended to support the formal party structure. But third party
organizers faced an uphill battle against the Garrisonians in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania, where the antislavery paper the Pennsylvania Freeman encouraged readers
to support mainstream politicians who responded favorably to the abolitionist cause
(Johnson 17-18). In Michigan, where the Whig party dominated the Michigan Anti-Slavery
Society, members of the executive committee of the society attempted to end support for
the Michigan Freeman newspaper when its editor Samuel B. Treadwell supported third
party candidates (Johnson 19).
Dismal results in the 1840 presidential election forced third party advocates to form the
Liberty Party in 1841 during a convention in Albany. Supporters were encouraged to
nominate state delegates who would in turn gather at a national Liberty Party convention
in May of 1841 that would promote antislavery and temperance (Johnson 21). The party
nominated former slave owner and abolitionist James Birney for president in 1841 and
again in 1844, where he led his campaign from Michigan. Birney received 3,638 votes in
1844—6.5% of all votes.
Michigan voter support for the Liberty Party was comparatively small, but party members
were influential in state’s antislavery movement because of they created their own
newspaper. The Ann Arbor-based Signal of Liberty advocated the Liberty Party as an
alternative to the Whigs. In contrast to other state party members who maintained that the
party should only be focused on abolition, Michigan antislavery activists like Theodore
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Foster and Guy Beckley (a Methodist minister) viewed the movement as part of a broader
campaign against sinful practices, especially adultery and drinking. In turn, their paper
provided a forum for like-minded supporters to debate how best to advance these issues in
formal politics. In 1843, Beckley and Foster worked closely with Birney to promote a new
national agenda for the Liberty Party that advocated smaller federal spending, a reduced
military, and limited government influence on such issues as workers rights and trade
(Johnson 170). Although the party gained some influence in state politics, it also drew fire
from the former editor of the Michigan Freeman Seymour B. Treadwell and famed orator
Henry Bibb, both of whom opposed the expanded platform (Johnson 172).
Dissent within Michigan’s Liberty Party led to its demise. Following another dismal election
in 1848, Beckley began to use the Signal of Liberty to encourage Liberty Party members to
vote for candidates that would be most likely to win and support their antislavery agenda
regardless of party affiliation. Birney opposed the effort and maintained that party
supporters should only back “Liberty men.” The dispute came at a time when support for
the Liberty Party was already beginning to wane. Beckley was eventually forced to close
the paper as subscribers found increased support from antislavery Whigs and the new Free
Soil Party in the state. After Beckley died in 1847, Erastus Hussey began printing the
Michigan Liberty Press, which supported the Hale-King ticket. Yet by the time the 1848
election arrived, Hussey’s put his support behind Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis
Adams, candidates for the Free Soil Party (Johnson 176-177).
Historians have disputed whether the Liberty Party had a significant impact on the
abolitionist and antislavery movement. In Michigan, however, party participants were
some of the most active abolitionists in the state and its organizational structure helped
keep the debate about abolition’s place in local politics alive.
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Works Cited & Further Reading
Bretz, Julian P. “The Economic Background of the Liberty Party.” The American Historical
Review 34, no. 2 (1929): 250-264.
Johnson, Reinhard O. The Liberty Party, 1840-1848: Antislavery Third-Party Politics in the
United States. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2009.
Morrow, R. L. “The Liberty Party in Vermont.” The New England Quarterly 2, no. 2 (1929):
234-248.
Sewell, Richard H. “John P. Hale and the Liberty Party, 1847-1848.” The New England
Quarterly 37, no. 2 (1964): 200-223.
Volpe, Vernon L. Forlorn Hope of Freedom: The Liberty Party in the Old Northwest, 18381848. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1990.
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