Independent Anti-Slavery National Ticket, 1839/40 |
 |  |
| Presidential Nominee | Vice Presidential Nominee |
James G. Birney KY
(Declined to run) | Francis J. Lemoyne PA
(Declined to run) |
Early history of the anti-slavery movement
At the beginning of the American Revolution, the existence of human bondage was an accepted part of life. Slavery was legally accepted in all 13 colonies, though opposition existed. The first organized group to speak out against slavery were the Quakers, who began in 1776 to remove slaveowners from membership. Vermont was the first to abolish slavery (1777), though the extent to which it existed there at that time is unclear. Massachusetts and New Hampshire followed suit in 1780 and 1783. Pennsylvania passed a law for the gradual extinction of slavery in 1780; the act did not affect those born into slavery before a particular day, and a handful of the last remaining slaves from the earlier time were alive when the Civil War broke out in 1861. When New Jersey passed its gradual emancipation act in 1804, the Mason-Dixon line became the division between the Slave States and the Free States.
The anti-slavery movement began to gain momentum before William L. Garrison's Liberator appeared in 1831. The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery forever from the Northwest Territory and from states created from it. After Kentucky became a state, its legislature debated ending slavery; Henry Clay argued in favor of the proposal, which narrowly lost. The first anti-slavery magazine was published by Quakers in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, beginning in 1815. Virginians began the colonization movement in 1816, best represented by the American Colonization Society, which worked to resettle freed slaves in Liberia and Haiti. North Carolinians were the most active in the Manumission Society, which intended to purchase slaves and allow them to settle as freed people where they already lived.
Two events in 1831 were the first steps towards a polarization of American society over slavery. The first event was the publication of Garrison's Liberator, the first issue of which appeared on New Year's Day. Garrison had stated in 1829 that northern states ought to demand the gradual emancipation of slavery or accept guilt from its continuance. His magazine, though published regularly, was not overly successful through much of the year until the second event of note, the Nat Turner Slave Revolt in the fall of 1831. A group of slaves attempted to gain their freedom, but the movement ended in a massacre of dozens of slaves - including many innocent ones - and established a mindset in the white community that slaves had to be "kept in their place" in order to prevent future revolts. Southern leaders came to believe that slavery had to be justified or else abandoned, and they chose the former.
During the second Jackson and the Van Buren administrations, anti-slavery forces began to gain steam. Virginia narrowly decided against ending slavery in its constitutional convention in 1835. The U.S. House voted in 1836 not to take official notice of the increasing flood of anti-slavery petitions, instituting the "gag rule."
The single event that precipitated the creation of a specifically anti-slavery political party was a minor political ploy by Henry Clay. In early 1839, he presented a petition by residents of Washington DC asking that slavery not be abolished there. "I prefer the liberty of my own country to that of any other people, and the liberty of my own race to that of any other race," he said in summarizing his position. During the debate on this petition, Clay issued his famous statement that he had rather be right than be president, though even at the time the degree to which he believed that was questioned. In any case, anti-slavery leaders decided that it was time to hold politicians responsible for their votes supporting slavery. A group of them called a convention to organize an anti-slavery political party. An anti-slavery convention held in Cleveland in 10/1839 was unable to agree to establish a political party. Myron Holley, who organized the convention and then presided, re-directed his energy to a national convention.
The Independent Anti-Slavery National Convention
The first national anti-slavery political convention assembled in Warsaw NY on 11/13-15/1839. It was attended by 500 delegates from 5 states. The convention did not create a name for the political party, and the name "Liberty Party" had not been created yet. The convention nomianted James G. Birney for President and Francis J. LeMoyne for VP. [Niles' Weekly Register, 12/14/1839]
The efforts of the convention came to naught. Birney, who had attended the Cleveland convention, was willing to run but wanted an organization behind him. LeMoyne was afraid that a vice presidential run might undermine the anti-slavery projects he was involved with. Both men therefore declined to run.
Anti-slavery leaders then called a convention to meet at Albany in 1840 at which the Liberty Party was born.
Liberty Party National Convention (1840)
Popular vote of 1840
Electoral Vote of 1840
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