James G. Birney and His Times; The Genesis of the Republican Party

New York, N.Y.: Bergman Publishers, 1969. First Published in 1890; this edition published in 1969. Hardcover. Very good. xii, 443, [5] pages. Includes Footnotes. Preface, Appendix, and Index. Topics covered in this book include Birney's ancestors; His Father; His Infancy and Youth, 1792-1808; Anti-Slavery Influences in his Youth; Life at Princeton, 1808-1810; Between College and the Bar, 1810-1814; His Life in Kentucky, 1814-1818; Lawyer--Planter--Politician, in Alabama, 1818-1823; Life at Huntsville, Alabama, 1823-1826; Life at Huntsville, 1826-1827; The Political Campaign of 1828; Abolition in the South Before 1828; Long Visit to the Free States, 1830; Abandons Party Politics--Intended Removal to Illinois--Visit of T. D. Weld, 1830-1832; Experience as an Agent of the Colonization Society, 1832-1833; From Colonization, Through Gradual Emancipation, to Immediate Abolition, 1833-1884; Anti-Slavery Work in Kentucky, 1834-1835; A Wider Sphere of Actin, 1835; His is ostracized in Kentucky and goes to Ohio, 1834; The Genesis of the Republican Party, 1835-1836; The Cincinnati Mob of January, 1836, The Editor, 1835, 1837; The Mob at Cincinnati, July, 1836--Pro-Slavery Mobs; Life in Cincinnati, 1836-1837; The No-Government Vagary; The Philosophy of Boston Vagaries; The Schism of the Garrisonians, 1837-1840; "The Small Extreme Wing"; The Liberty--Free Soil--Republican Party; Traits of Character; Twelve Years an Invalid--Conclusion. James G. Birney was an abolitionist, politician, and attorney. He published an abolitionist weekly titled The Philanthropist, and twice was the presidential nominee for the anti-slavery Liberty Party. It was James G. Birney who called abolitionists away from other issues to the true one. William Birney (May 28, 1819 - August 14, 1907) was a professor, Union Army general during the American Civil War, attorney and author. An ardent abolitionist, he was noted for encouraging thousands of free black men to join the Union army. Birney was a son of prominent Southern abolitionist leader James G. Birney and the older brother of Civil War general David B. Birney. James Gillespie Birney (February 4, 1792 - November 18, 1857) pursued a legal career in Danville after graduating from the College of New Jersey and studying under Alexander J. Dallas. He volunteered for the campaigns of Henry Clay and served on the town council. In 1816, he won election to the Kentucky House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. In 1818, he established a cotton plantation in Madison County, Alabama, and he won election to the Alabama House of Representatives the following year. Birney eventually sold the plantation and established a legal practice in Huntsville, Alabama, becoming one of the most successful lawyers in the region. During the 1820s, Birney became increasingly troubled by the issue of slavery. He became a member of the American Colonization Society, which advocated for the migration of African Americans to the continent of Africa. After serving in various roles for the organization, Birney began calling for the immediate abolition of slavery. In 1835, he moved to Cincinnati, founding The Philanthropist the following year. He also became a member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, but resigned from that group due to his opposition to equal rights for women. Birney accepted the Liberty Party's nomination in 1840 and received 0.3% of the popular vote. He accepted the Liberty Party nomination again in 1844 and received 2.3% of the popular vote, finishing behind James K. Polk and Clay. Excerpt: Slavery agitation in the United States may be considered in two great periods. The first begins with the judicial abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783, and the anti-slavery Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Territory northwest of the Ohio River, and ends with the abolition of slavery in New York on the 4th of July, 1827. In its course the number of free States increased from one to twelve, and the number of freedmen nearly three hundred fold. It may be called the abolition era. It was a part of the larger movement which began in 1794 with the abolition of slavery in the French West Indies, extinguished it in numerous European colonies and several South American republics, and ended with its abolition in Mexico in 1829, and in the British West Indies in 1833 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 slavery in the War of the Rebellion. In the first period freedom was the assailant of slavery, seeking to extinguish it by moral and religious influences. In the second, the slave-power was the assailant, seeking to overthrow the freedom of speech, of the press, and of the mails, the right of trial by jury, the right of petition, and every other bulwark of civil liberty to extend slavery over the Territories of the United States and gain undisputed political supremacy in the nation.