Historic Free-Soil Party Photographs, Papers on Display at Hingham Library

The Hingham Public Library is now displaying the Bayard Pope Collection of Free-Soil Party Reunion papers.

The collection was made possible by a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

"The Free-Soil Party was a short-lived but influential national political party formed by disillusioned members of the Whig Party, and was active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections," the library writes. 

"Its members were opposed to the spread of slavery into the western territories, vowing that no land won from Mexico in the Mexican War would be allowed to join the Union as "slave states." Its members were largely absorbed into the emerging Republican Party in 1854."

Go to hinghampubliclibrary.omeka.net to see the collection, and visit the Hingham Library website for more information on an 1877 reunion of the party that took place in Hingham.