James G. Birney And His Times; The Genesis Of The Republican Party With Some Account Of Abolition Movements In The South Before 1828 The Genesis of the Republican Party With Some Account of Abolition Movements in the South Before 1828

JAMES G. BIRNEY AND HIS TIMES TEIE GENESIS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WITH SOJIE ACCOUKT OF ABOLITIOX JIOVEJIEXTS IN THE SOUTH BEFORE - 1823 - IVTLLIAM BIREEY EX-BBEVCT MAJOR-GENERAL, UNITED STATES VOLUNTCEC8 The abolition of sl very i n the United States was neither an accident nor a miracle it was a result of erolution. KEW YORK D. A P P L E T O X AND C 0 X P A 4 X Y - 1890 - PREFACE - SLAVER a Y gi tation in the United States may be considered in two great periods. The first begins with the judicial abolition of slarery in BIassachusetts in 1783, and the anti-slavery Ordinance of 1757 for the gorernment of the Territory northwest of the Ohio River, and ends with the abolition of slavery in Kew York on the 4th of July, 1827. In its course the number of free States increased from one to tmelre, and the number of freedmen nearly three hundred fold. It may be called the abolition ern. It was a part of the larger movement which began in 1794 wit11 the abolition of slavery in the French IYest Indies, extinguished it in numerous European coloilies . and sereral South American republics, and ended with its abolition in Mexico in 1829, and in the British West Indies in l833 by act of Parliament. The second period begins with the accession of General Jackson to the presidency in 1829, and ends with the abolition of slarery in the War of the Rebellion. I11 the first period freedom was the assailant of sla ery, seeking to extinguish it by moral and religious influences. I11 the second, the slare-power was the assailant, seeking to orerthrow the freedom of speech, of t, he press, and of the mails, the right of trial by jury, the right of petition, and every other bulwark of civil liberty to extendslnrery orer the Territories of the United States and gain undis puted political snpremacy in the nation. Plt EFACH. It was J x 1 s r G. 131 I SEY w ho first called abolitionists almy from obsolete iss lcst o the true onc. In the summer of 1835 he ahancloned his Soutllern home and reinoved to Ohio, declaring tllat the slavery of the blaclts lrad ceased to be the questioil before the conntrg, ancl that the liberties of all i2mcriean citizens ant1 the safety of the 1-elmblic were in danger. I nring the folloning ten years llc v s recogilized by the opponents of tlle slave-power as their leader. In 1840, ancl again in 1844, he w is in lcle their candidate for the p1-esiclellcy by unanimons ilatio lal col- entions. KO other name seems to ha-e bcerl thougllt of in connectiou with the nominatiol-1. IIis corili il ailniircr, ex-Representatire G eorge V. J uli tn, of Iildi ula, writes of him alld his c - o i l i e r s Abolitionism, as n worliing force in our politics, 113d to llnre n beginning, and no man who cherishes the lnemory of t l e old Free-Soil party, and of the larger one to d i c it h g ave birth, villw ithhold the meed of his praise from tlle heroic little band of sappers and miners 1r. 110 blazed the way for the armies wl icl were to follo va, nd whose voices, thougl b ut faintly heard in the wllirlwind of 1840, were made distinctly audible in 1844. . . . Their political creed was substantially that of the Free-Soilers of 1845 ancl the I epublicans of 1856 and ISGO. They were anything but politicfil fanntics, ancl history will record thnt tllcir sole offcnse was the espousal of tile trutli in a 1vance of the nliltitucle, wliicll slo vlya nd fin llly followeci in their footsteps.Jamcs G. Birney was respected eycn 11 7 the cncmics of his cause. IIc was uni crsally rcgnrrled as i t l l o i t fear and witllout stain...