James G. Birney
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James Gillespie Birney (February 4, 1792 - November 25, 1857) was an American presidential candidate for the Liberty Party in the 1840 and 1844 elections. He received 7069 votes in the 1840 election and 62,273 votes in 1844.
He was born in Danville, Kentucky. After he graduated from Princeton in 1810, he studied law under Alexander J. Dallas in Philadelphia, then began practice in Danville in 1814, and was elected to the State Legislature two years later. In 1818, he moved to the vicinity of Huntsville, Alabama, where he developed the opinion that slavery should be brought to an end. While living in Alabama, he acted as agent for The National Colonization Society of America in 1832-33. In 1833, Mr. Birney returned to Danville, Kentucky where he freed his own slaves.
Mr. Birney organized the Kentucky Antislavery Society in 1835. Unable to find a publisher for an antislavery paper at Danville, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where he published the first issue of The Philanthropist on January 1, 1836. Hostile mobs destroyed his press several times over the next few years; and, he was repeatedly threatened.
Mr. Birney opposed all violence and supported the Constitution. He was elected secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1837. He gave many speeches before large assemblages of people, and became widely known as the leader of the Abolitionists who opposed all revolutionary measures. In 1845, he was disabled by a fall from his horse and spent the last twelve years of his life as an invalid.
His sons, William Birney (1819-1907) and David Bell Birney (1825-64) served as generals in the Union Army during the Civil War.