Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/325

 BIRNEY.

BIRNEY.

and for this purpose visited the north, extending his visit to Massachusetts. He returned to Ken- tucky in 1833, hoping to effect a system of gradual emancipation in that state, and so possibly influ- ence Virginia and Tennessee as to maintain the balance of power in the free states. Pubhc senti- ment, influenced by Henry Clay, had changed during Mr. Birney's absence from Kentucky, and he found few supporters. He freed his own slaves in 1834, and in the following year established the anti-slavery society of Kentucky; in the same year he took an active part at the meeting of the American anti-slavery society, and a year later made pubUc announcement of his determination to establish an anti-slavery journal to be issued weekly at Danville, Ky. He could not find a printer or publisher courageous enough to brave public opinion, and he established himself and family at Cincinnati, and there issued the Phil- anthropist, which soon obtained a respectable circulation in spite of the opposition it en- countered, the types and machines being sevei-al times broken and scattered by mobs. The cour- age of its proprietor and editor, his temperate, candid, and logical utterances, carried this pilot- boat of abolition through the perilous waters of that stormy time. Mr. Birney gave much of his personal attention to the work of propagating abolitionist principles, and to this end made a tour of the free states, everywhere seeking to awaken the people, his able coadjutor, Dr. Gama- liel Bailey, remaining in charge of ,the Philan- thropist. In 1837 the American anti-slavery society, realizing liis efforts in behalf of its cause, elected him as its secretary, which necessitated his removal to New York. His inflvience at the anti -slavery conventions was conservative and temperate. In 1839 he freed from bondage twenty- one slaves of his deceased father's estate, paying to his co-heir twenty thousand dollars in requital for her interest in the human "property." In 1840 he visited England as one of the vice-presi- dents of the world's convention, and in May was nominated as the abolition candidate for the presi- dency by the Liberty party, and received about seven thousand votes. In 1843 he was again nominated, and in 1844 received 63,300 votes. His vote in 1844 would have been much larger, had it not been for the circulation of the "Gar- land forgery," which gave Ohio to his opponent, Henry Clay. In 1844 he removed to Lower Sagi- naw, now Bay City, Mich. An unfortunate acci- dent in 1842, resulting in paralysis, caused his withdrawal from public life, but he still continued to use his pen for the cause he had so much at heart. His writings included: "Ten Letters on Slavery and Colonization" (1833-'33) ; "Six Es- says on Slavery and Colonization" (1833); "Let- ter on Colonization" (1834); "Letters to the

Presbyterian Church" (1834); "Addresses and Speeches " (1835) ; " Vindication of the Abolition- ists" (1835); "Letter to Colonel Stone" (1836); "Address to Slaveholders" (1836); "Argument on Fugitive Slave Case" (1837); "Letter to F. H. Elmore" (1838); "Report on the duty of Political Action" (1839); "PoUtical ObUgations of Abolitionists" (1839); "American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slaveiy " (1840) ; " Speeches in England "(1840) ; " Examination of the Decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Case of Strader et al v. Graham" (1850), besides magazine and newspaper contributions. Four of his sons and one grandson served as soldiers throughout the civil war, in the Federal army. He died at Eaglewood, N. J., Nov. 25, 1857. BIRNEY, William, aboHtionist, was born near Huntsville, Ala., May 28, 1819, the second son of James G. Birney. He was educated at Centre and Yale colleges and was admitted to the Ohio bar, practising law at Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York city, and in Florida. At the age of eighteen he was an anti- slavery lec- turer. He passed five years in Eu- rope, begin- ning with 1847, in the prosecution of advanced studies in law, languages and ' history, sup- porting him- self m e a n- while by writing for the New York and London joiu-nals, and for the Enghsh magazines. In 1848 he was a successful candidate at a govern- ment competitive examination, for one of the new professorships of English literature in the University of France and performed its duties for one year in the Lycde at Bourges. He then resigned and went to Berlin to pursue his studies. In the French revolution of February, 1848, being in Paris and a member of a students' pohtical society there, formed to promote Republican ideas, he commanded at a barricade in the Rue St. Jacques, and was one of the first to enter the Tuil- leries after the flight of Louis PhiHppe. Having returned to this country he raised, at the out- break of the civil war, a volunteer company in New Jersey, was elected its captain, and rose through all the grades to the rank of brevet major-general. For the last two years of the war he commanded a division which was grad- ually increased to sixteen regiments. In 1863,

' 'w^Wix^.^ 6ii^