Another short-lived political party, the Free-Soil Party was in existence for only about four years, from 1848 to 1852. Formed to oppose the extension of slavery into the territories, the Free-Soil Party was a melding of abolitionists from the Democratic Party, the Whig Party, the Liberty Party, and a group known as the Barnburners, a radical antislavery arm of the New York Democrats. The party held its first convention in 1848. Free-Soilers nominated a ticket of former U.S. president Martin Van Buren and former Massachusetts state senator Charles Francis Adams (son of former U.S. president John Quincy Adams).