| Show 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 NE hundred years ago 0 ONE the united states was engaged in its most uproarious presidential contest it has come down in hi history as the log cabin hard 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 pigs tall tail this song what has caused this great com motion motion motion our country through it Is the ball a rolling on for tippecanoe and tyler too and with them well beat little van va van van is a used up man were true prophets for president martin van buren seeking reelection election re as the democratic candidate was indeed a used up man he had captured only 60 electoral votes to for gen william henry harrison old tippecanoe almost forgotten in the midst of all this hurly burly because he had failed to win a single electoral vote and had mustered only popular votes compared to harrisons and van burens was another candidate 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 58 56 of the next 72 years his name was james gillespie birney and he was the candidate of the liberty party organized on april 1 1840 birney was born at danville ky X on february 4 1792 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 odallas JD J dallas allas he was admitted to the bar and returned to his horne home in kentucky to practice in 1814 he became a member of the town council counch and two years later although he was barely the constitutional age for membership was elected to the lower house ot of the kentucky assembly birneys birness Bir people were ers but disapproved of the institution of slavery and were willing to emancipate their negroes if kentucky could be made a free state therefore it was wa 9 only natural that the young legislator early in his term in office should marun martin lead ea the ie move buren ment to P vent the governor 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 birneys birness Bir action made him unpopular with the voters in Ws 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 states first legislature but wrecked his political career in 1819 by opposing the legislatures indorsement endorsement indor of andrew jackson for president having run into debt birney was forced to return to the tice 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 J 1 career he helped the cherokees 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 tor for the american colonization society and he a also iso 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 0 niza tion society in 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 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 A american m e r I 1 c a n colonization society cie ty kept him in huntsville for nearly two years longer then he resigned and bought a farm adjoining his fathers near danville ky declaring that that state was john p hale the best in the union for taking a stand against slavery in december 1832 he helped promote a convention in m lexington to form a society for the gradual emancipation of the slaves but he learned to his sorrow that his old kentucky friends were turning against him and only nine persons attended his convention undiscouraged by this fact birney next organized a society to attempt the eman emancipation cipa of the children of slaves when they reached the age of 21 he becomes an abolitionist bu Bir efforts to extend the membership of this society resulted in his making a thorough study tu d y of t the he whole problem ot of 1 slavery l v ery 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 an 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 out and out abolitionist during the next few years birney devoted his time to the antislavery cause and traveled about the country Irn making aking speeches tor for it in 1835 he made the principal address at the meeting of the american antislavery anti slavery society and laid down the rules for the a abolitionists to observe in carrying on their work next he announced his intention of returning to danville and establishing an abolitionist newspaper the philanthropist lanthrop 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 the mayor of cincinnati warned him that the city authorities could not promise to protect him if he persisted in his intention of publishing an antislavery anti slavery 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 mayors warning had not been an idle one for the pro slavery men started a campaign of persecution against him until finally a mob formed to destroy his property and tar and feather him instead of fleeing birney boldly faced the mob and made such a stirring plea tor for the principle of freedom of the press and freedom of speech that the mob was dissuaded from its purpose in 1837 birney moved to new york to become secretary of the national antislavery anti slavery society and as such was its guiding genius within two years he had organized auxiliary societies in addition to the 1009 which had been in existence when he became secretary of the national society in one year he issued more than copies of the socie tys I 1 publications all spreading the te 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 ot bofto to gain the right of trial by jury for those charged with breaking the slavery laws in 1839 ex president 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 antislavery 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 popular votes and failing to jet get a single one in the electoral college despite the poor showing made by this party in the log cabin hard 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 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 votes had it not been for the garland forgery a faked document purporting to be birneys birness Bir formal withdrawal from the race and his advice to the antislavery anti slavery voters to support henry clay after this ca campaign which resulted in the election of 0 james K X polk birney withdrew from further national political activity 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 soil party with ex president martin van buren as the candidate for Pies president ident and charles francis adams son of ex president 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 votes was sufficient to defeat lewis cass the democratic candidate I 1 and elect gen zachary taylor the whig thereby stimulating the antislavery anti slavery forces throughout the country to renewed activity in 1852 the free soil party was again in the race with sen john P halle hale of new ha hamp M p shire as its can john C didace he had fremont quit the party over the slavery issue although the free sellers vote dropped from to the issue which they had kept alive would not down the irrepressible conflict with slavery was on four years later by welding together all of the antislavery anti slavery men free boilers Soi lers 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 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 |
