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Show THE BULLETIN r Birney's Liberty Party, Formed in 1840, Was Twice Defeated but It Raised an Issue That Triumphed Twenty Years Later By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) hundred years ago United States was in its most conPresidential uproarious test. It has come down in history as the "Log Cabin-Har- d Cider" campaign of 1840, in which emotion almost completely replaced reason, issues were totally ignored and a tired old man, who was little fitted for the office of President, was swept into the White House on a tide of slogans and songs. When it ended, the country learned that the "singing Whigs" roaring out to the tune of The Little Pig's Tail," this career. song: ONE What has caused this great commotio- n-motion-motion Our country through? is the ball on For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. And with them we'll beat little Van. man. Van, Van, is a used-u- p It were true prophets. For President Martin Van Buren, as the seeking on Democratic candidate, was indeed a "used-u- p man." He had captured only 60 electoral votes to 234 for Gen. William Henry Harrison, "Old Tippecanoe." Almost forgotten in the midst of all this hurly-burlbecause he had failed to win a single electoral vote and had mustered only y, 7,059 popular votes (compared to Harrison's 1,275,017 and Van Bur-en- 's 1,128,702), was another can- didate for President. Yet he was a significant figure in American history because he stood for a principle which would provide the most important issue in American politics during the next two decades, result eventually in the greatest civil war in history and be one of the cornerstones in the foundation of a new political party which would rule this country for 56 of the next 72 years. His y name was James Gillespie and he was the candidate of the Liberty party, organized on April 1, 1840. Birney was born at Danville, Ky., on February 4, 1702, the son of one of the richest men in the Bluegrass state. At the age of 11 he was sent to Transylvania college at Lexington and after finishing there studied at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton university, where he was graduated in 1810. After studying law for three years under Alexander J. Dallas, he was admitted to the bar and returned to his home in Kentucky to practice. In 1814 he became a member of the town council and two years later, although he was barely the constitutional age for membership, was elected to the lower house of the Kentucky assembly. Birney's people were slaveholders but disapproved of the insti tution of slavery and were Bir-ne- willing to emancipate their Negroes if Kentucky could be made a free state. Therefore it was only nat- ural that the young legislator, early in his term in of-fi-ce should Martin Van Buren lead the movement to prevent the gover nor of Kentucky from entering into correspondence with the governors of neighboring states to make an arrangement for the capture and return of runaway slaves. Moves to Alabama. Evidently Birney's action made him unpopular with the voters in his district for he did not run for the legislature again but moved to Huntsville, Ala., in 1818 and had a prominent part in shaping the constitution under which Alabama came into the Union. He was a member of the state's first legislature but wrecked his political career in 1819 by opposing the legislature's indorsement of Andrew Jackson for President. Having run into debt, Birney was forced to return to the practice of law and was soon elected by the legislature as solicitor of the Fifth Alabama district. He next disposed of his plantation and slaves to a friend who, he was confident, would treat them kindly. By devoting all of his time and energy to his law practice he was soon prosperous again. While serving as attorney for the Cherokee Indians who occupied the northeastern part of Alabama, he began the first of the humanitarian enterprises which were to characterize his whole He helped the Chero-kee- s adopt a more civilized way of life and paid the expenses of many of the Indian girls who entered the Huntsville Female seminary to get an education. To aid the movement to colonize emancipated slaves in Africa Birney raised funds for the American Colonization society and he also used his influence to secure the passage of an act by the Alabama legislature forbidding the importation of slaves into that state. In 1830 Birney organized a colonization society in Huntsville and acted as its treasurer for several years. Meanwhile he was busy with plans for uniting in one party all men, both Northern and Southern, who were in favor of preventing the extension of slavery. Finding that there was little support for such an idea in the South, he decided to move to a free state but his appointment as agent of the American Colonization society kept him in Huntsville for nearly two years longer. Then he resigned and bought a farm adjoining his father's near Danville, Ky., declaring that fc&Ji, r. mat state was the best in the John P naIe Union for taking a stand against slavery. In December, 1832, he helped promote a convention in Lexington to form a society for the gradual emancipation of the slaves. But he learned to his sorrow that his old Kentucky friends we turning against him and only nine persons attended his convention. Undiscouraged by this fact, Birney next organized a society to attempt the emancipation of the children of slaves when they reached the age of 21. lie Becomes aa Abolitionist. Birney's efforts to extend the membership of this society resulted in his making a thorough study of the whole problem of slavery and he reached the conclusion that its immediate abolition would be less harmful to the slave states than the gradual emancipation which he had formerly favored. To set aa example, he gave free papers to his six former slaves who had remained with him and worked for wages. He also resigned his connection with the colonization society and became an abolitionist. During the next few years Birney devoted his time to the cause and traveled about the country making speeches for it. In 1835 he made the principal address at the meeting of the American society and laid down the rules for the abolitionists to observe in carrying on their work. Next he announced his intention of returning to Danville and establishing an abolitionist newspaper, the Philanthropist. But when he arrived in his native state, he found himself regarded as a renegade and the persecutions of his neighbors and officials forced him to move to Cincinnati where he promised to keep up his agitation against slavery until it was destroyed. of Cincinnati The mayor warned him that the city authorities could not promise to protect him if he persisted in his intention of publishing an paper in a city just across the river from the slave state of Kentucky. Despite this warning, Birney issued the first number of the Philanthropist and immediately discovered that the mayor's warning had not been an idle men one. For the started a campaign of persecu tion against him until finally a mob formed to destroy his property and tar and feather him. In stead of fleeing, Birney boldly faced the mob and made such a stirring pica for the principle of freedom of the press and free dom of speech that the mob out-and-o- ut anti-slave- Anti-Slaver- y anti-slave- pro-slave- ry ry ry ry ry Taylor, the Whig, thereby stimulating the anti- - slavery forces throughout the country to renewed activity. In Free . WHO'S IATTERN NEWS lllllllilllAlailAa: 5 can be definite proof that, be it ever so simple, everything you wear this spring has to be very feminine and pretty. This is a particularly easy dress to make. Try it, if you haven't done much sewing, and have been wistfully. wishing you could. You CAN, with these easy patterns. Detailed sew chart included. Barbara Bell Pattern No. 1909-is designed for sizes 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 40. Corresponding bust measurements 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, and 40. Size 14 (32) requires 3 material withyards of out nap; 1 yards braid. Send WEEK 1852 the Soil party was again in the race with Sen. John P. Hale of New Hamp- shire as its John C. didate. He had Fremont quit the party over the slavery issue. Although the Free Soilers' vote dropped from 291,000 to 157,000 the issue which they had kept alive would not down. The "irrepressible conflict" with slavery was on. Four years later, by welding together men Free all of the Soilers, Old Line Whigs and Know Nothings into a new party, the Republican, the victory which Birney had foreseen was nearly in sight For Gen. John C Fremont the Republican candidate, polled more than 1,000,000 votes and began sounding the death knell of slavery. Birney did not live to see the final note sounded. He died near Perth Amboy, N. J., on November 25, 1857. Three years and three weeks later the Republican party triumphed over the divided Democratic party and sent its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to Washington. In a little more than a month after he took the oath of office the guns in Charleston harbor heralded the opening of a conflict in whose fires slavery in the United States was destroyed forever. can- anti-slave- ry By LEMUEL F. PARTON (Consolidated Features JLAAAA EPARTM ENT y anti-slave- anti-slave- Mr THIS was dissuaded from its purpose. In 1837 Birney moved to New York to become secretary of the National society and as such was its guiding genius. Within two years he had organized 644 auxiliary societies in addition to the 1,009 which had been in existence when he became secretary of the national society. In one year he issued more than 725,000 copies of the society's publications, all spreading the gospel of abolition. As a part of his work Birney visited every state legislature in the North to secure the passage of resolutions against the extension of slavery or to gain the right of trial by jury for those charged with breaking the slavery laws. In 1839 John Quincy Adams, who was then serving in congress, declared in favor of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and Birney. seeing in this measure an entering wedge for a national abolition law actively campaigned for the election of congressmen pledged to vote for the Adams proposal. A New Party Is Formed. As the presidential campaign of 1840 approached and it became evident that neither the Whigs nor the Democrats would take any decisive stand on the slavery question, Birney decided that the time had come to put an presidential candidate in the field. Accordingly he called for a convention to be held in Albany, N. Y., in April, 1840. Delegates from six states met there and their unanimous choice for the nominee of the new Liberty party was Birney. As mentioned earlier in this article, he ran a poor third in the race with Harrison and Van Buren, polling only 7,059 popular votes and failing to get a single one in the electoral college. Despite the poor showing made by this party in the "Log Cabin-Har- d Cider" campaign which sent Harrison to the White House, Birney was not discouraged. He kept the party alive and four years later he was again its nominee for President. This time he polled 62,300 popular votes (nearly nine times the number he had received in 1840) but again failed to get a single electoral vote. As a matter of fact he would probably have received more than 100,000 votes had it not been for the "Garland Forgery," a faked document purporting to be Birney's formal withdrawal from the race and his advice to the voters to support Henry Clay. After this campaign, which resulted in the election of James K. Polk, Birney withdrew from further national political ac tivity. But the seed which he had sown had fallen on fertile ground. In the campaign of 1848 the banner which Birney had first lifted was carried on by the Free MarSoil party with tin Van Buren as the candidate for President and Charles Fran cis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, for vice president Campaigning on a platform which called for "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men" this ticket, even though it received only 291,000 votes, was sufficient to defeat Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate, and elect Gen. Zachary Anti-Slaver- , I WNU Service.) B YORK. When young "Red" NEW played guard on the University of Oklahoma football team, In 1015, he was scaled down to a mere 260 36-in- Game or Politic pounds, but ft Another Story 1 n p i t e of m,n" For Football Star order to: aged to root through the line like a snowshovel. Sometimes he wouldn't stop when the whistle blew and they had a hard time to keep him inside the state lines. Today, as Gov. Leon C Phillips of Oklahoma, he weighs in at 290 and is even more abandoned in his rootin' tootin' guard play. He orders out Jhe National Guard to repulse the invasion of the federals, trying to build a $20,000,000 dam on the Grand river in his state. SEWING CIRCLE PATTERN DEPT. New Mostfomery Ave. San FraacUcs Calif. Enclose IS cents in coins for Size Pattern No. lit high-power- Name Address Half-Tim- e This, one of his many scrimmages, is part of his waxing battle for state rights against what he considers the illegal encroachment of the federal government He is an apostate New Dealer, having defeated the similarly belligerent "Alfalfa Bill" Murray on the issue of New Deal adherence in the 1938 24-ho- ur Democratic primary. Now he has switched teams. With a big cigar protruding from his lips at a cocky angle, biting it to shreds when he gets steamed up, he says the New Deal is a social service outfit and social workers are "sorority sisters." Like the "Fiery HpHIS charming little frock has and Snuffy" of the Oklahoma cowsuch a beguilingly flattering boy song, he's "rarin' to go and he figure-lin-e, and it looks so crisply sends word to the war department tailored, that you can appropriatethat he won't let any Invader set ly make it up in spun rayon or foot on Oklahoma soiL" thin wool for runabout, as well as He started to be a preacher, but in gingham or percale for Its piquant simplicity switched to the law. Born 50 years ago In Grant county, Missouri, along looks especially attractive in gay the covered wagon trail, he was prints and high shades, punctuattaken to Oklahoma at the age of ed by buttons and braid. Full two and grew up in the Cheyenne over the bosom, He with a tiny waist finished by a and Arapaho Indian country. is just attended Epworth univerlty one sash bow, pattern 1909-year, studying, presumably mili- about as new and becoming as it tant Christianity, and then entered the law school of the University of were seen with Mr. X Oklahoma. His fame as "Red" onNina You of the storm. His wife the night g the Phillips, knows everything. See page 19 of football player, gave him a the May True Story Magazine, now fast running start in politics, and he on sale. Adv. soon landed in the state legislature. He made his campaign for the govEat In Dreams ernorship on an economy platform, Yet eat in dreams the custard sweeping the state. The citizens of the day. Pope. still know him as "Red," and the "Yea Red!" yell of his college days serves for his political campaigns. round-the-hous- John Don't listen to her. Tragedy is sure to result Read "A Girl and My Husband" in May True Story Magazine and be warned. It's on sale now. Adv. Sorrows of Others He who for others' sorrows care no jot, the name of "man" that man deserve th not Saadi. e. You can DUST and never RAISE high-shoulder- B bone-crushin- g, WI Kings Natives of Dahomey in Africa have a new idea of kingship. They consider the job so impor-- . tant that the king must be on duty every hour of the day. But since no human being could stand a job they have two kings-o- ne for the night and one for the day. man-eatin- Use a dust. on your dustdoth O-Ce- dar Mother, here'itTIP: Use genuttu Polish on your DUSTCLOTH. Tbtn, itpkkt up the dust. You deu't mitt cloud; you dtn't chsst Just rnnJ from chairs to table to piano and back to chairs again. Instead, pick it up and dust dustltssty; add a dash of O --Cedar Polish to your doth. Ask foe MOPS, WAX, DUSTERS, CLEANHS AND FIT AND MOTH SPRAT I knew Death Valley and his dog "Goldbug," and Goldfield, Rhyolite Windy Gap, there was a story that the dog had All Scotty Caah made a great Ia 'Loaned' to Him niss over a around By Chicago Man A DIFFERENCE IN CORN FLAKES! ""? Casey's hotel, and a theory that this stranger must have been Scotty'a mysterious backer. The visitor, however, was just passing through and was never identified, and Scotty, even In moments of abandon In Tex Rickard's place, continued to insist that he had a "chimney," or "blow-out- " of gold nuggets, samples of which he carried in his overalls pocket It was not until years later that the man who financed the Death Valley Scotty saga. Just for his own amusement it would seem, was A. M. Johnson, the head of a big insurance firm in Chicago. As Scotty and his backer round out 40 years of a beautiful friendship, Scotty informs the federal tax collectors that he has $100,000 in gold certificates buried somewhere in the Panamint mountains, and that the source of his mysterious wealth has unfailingly been Mr. Johnson. From the same source came the $3,000,000 Spanish castle which Scotty built in the heart of Death valley several years ago, according to his previous admissions. The unique partnership opened with a $2,500 grubstake. He not only wrote a check, but followed Scotty to Death valley. The first mine didn't pan out but Mr. John- IS THERE Kellogg' s have been America's favorite for 34 years W X MADE bY KEUOGCS IN BATTLE y Til Lsm "Rv CREEK . SWITCH TO SOMETHING YOUXL LIKE! Cmpr. IMO by Kdba In SALT THE son was having fun. They fought bandits, got clubby with the Piute Indians and rooted around in old prospect holes.' Thereafter came Scotty's famous train ride and the deepening mystery of his treasure cache. They kept their secret until along about 1930. The pooch. "Gold-bug- " and Scotty's extraordinarily intelligent white mule both died of old age. But the original partner- ship still goes on. Mr. Johnson, now 68 years old, a cut somewhat on the same lines as Henry Ford, but with an Achilles' Heel of Romance. He was born and grew up in a small town in Ohio, went to Cornell university, did a jolt of railroading in Arkansas and engaged in mining lead and zinc near Joplin, Mo. In Chicago he augmented an inherited fortune in the Insurance business. He belongs to a string of good clubs in Chicago, is a sagacious and conservative citizen, and. from all accounts, has bankrolled Scotty just for the fun of it. LAKE CITY HOTEL Choice of thcDiscriminatingTravcler 400 ROOMS 400 BATHS Rates: $2.00 to $4.00 $200,000.00 ramodslirtg and refurnishing program has mode available the fin sat hotel accommodation in thai Our Wast AT OUR SAME POPULAR PRICES. CAFETERIA DINING ROOM MIS. J. H. WATERS, BUFFET PtmJoW Monogan J. HOIMAN WATERSondW. ROSS SUTTON DINE DANCE MIRROR ROOM EVERY SATURDAY EVENING |