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^
