The future of the institution of slavery was a dominant issue in the 1852 presidential election. Economic and political forces in the slave states, with sympathizers in the north, were
John P. Hale, U.S. senator from New Hampshire, was the first person in that body who had run as an anti-slavery candidate. From December 1847 until early March 1849, Hale
WHILE SERVING in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1844, John P. Hale of Dover broke with the Democratic Party by supporting the elimination of the “gag rule.” This 1836
John P. Hale’s strong anti-abolitionist stance of the 1830s gave way, over time, to a softening of the heart that led him to become an ardent anti-slavery campaigner.