<P> The Free Soil Party was a short - lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections as well as in some state elections . A single - issue party , its main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the Western territories , arguing that free men on free soil constituted a morally and economically superior system to slavery . It also sometimes worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans in states such as Ohio . </P>
<P> The Free Soil Party was a short - lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections as well as in some state elections . A single - issue party , its main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the Western territories , arguing that free men on free soil constituted a morally and economically superior system to slavery . It also sometimes worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans in states such as Ohio . </P>
which describes what free soilers wanted for western lands
which describes what free soilers wanted for western lands
to oppose the expansion of slavery into the Western territories
to oppose the expansion of slavery into the Western territories