BIRNEY, TAMEs GILLEsmE (1792-1857). An American reformer, leader of the conservative Abolitionists during the anti-slavery struggle. Ile was born in Danville, Ky.. studied at Tran sylvania University, and graduated at Princeton in 1810. He then studied law under Alexander J. Dallas in Philadelphia, began practice in Dan ville in 1814, and was elected to the State Legis lature two years later. In ISIS lie removed to a plantation in the vicinity of Huntsville. Ala., and in the following year served in the Alabama Legislature. He resumed his law practice in Huntsville in 1823, was elected prosecuting at torney there, and soon became the most success ful practitioner in northern Alabama, but turned his attention more and more to the study of the slavery question, and in 1832-3:3 acted as agent of the Colonization Society (q.v.) fur the dis trict embracing Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi. Louisiana, and Arkansas. In November, 1833, he returned to Danville, Ky., where he freed his own slaves, and devoted himself with zeal and energy to the cause of gradual emancipation, though lie soon became a convert to inunediat• ism. He organized the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society in 1835, and in the same year planned an paper; but, as he was unable to find a publisher in Kentucky, lie removed to Cineiu nati, where, on January 1, 1836, lie issued the first number of The Philanthropist. During the next few years his press was several times destroyed by mobs, and he himself was repeated• ly threatened with personal violence and death; lint in spite of opposition his paper rapidly at tained a wide circulation and exerted a power ful influence among those who, like himself. be lieved in abolition, but opposed the radicalism of Garrison and his followers. (See GAuulsoN, WI ILIA u LLOYD.) Both as an editor and as a speaker, though firm and unflinching in his ad vo•acy of what lie believed to be right, he up held the Constitution, opposed all violence and fanatieism, and was uniformly courteous, toler ant, and fair. lie spent much of his time in
making speeches throughout the North. espe cially before the legislatures of the various States, and in 1837 was elected secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this capacity he conducted the correspondence of the Society, employed its lecturers. and prepared its reports; and, in addition, he continued to make frequent addresses before legislatures and large public assemblies. He soon came to he regarded every where as the leader of the 'Constitutional' Aboli tionists; that is, of the Abolitionists who op posed all revolutionary measures, fought against secession, and endeavored to effect their desired reforms through the ordinary machinery of gov ernment: and both in 1540 and in 1544 he was the unanimous candidate of the Liberty Party (q.v.) for the Presidency, receiving 7069 votes in the first election and 62,263 in the second. He was disabled by a fall from his horse in 1545, and passed the last twelve years of his life in retirement as an invalid, first in Bay City. Mich., and afterwards in Eagleswood, N. J. Besides nu merous brief articles for the press, his chief writ ings were his Letter on f`olonization (1834) ; American Churches the Bulwarks of Ameriran Slarery (1S40) ; Speeches in England (1S40) ; and Examination of the Decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Case of Strader et al. rs. Graham (1850). Consult the excellent biography by his son. William Birney, James G. Birney and His Times (New York. 1890).