Partisanship in the Antislavery Press during the 1844 Run of an Abolition Candidate for President

Abstract

Historians label the 1844 presidential election as pivotal, heightening political and sectional tensions. Abolitionist third-party candidate James Birney was a viable alternative for antislavery voters in a campaign that featured two slaveholders. This study of antislavery newspapers during that campaign concludes that although the antislavery press claimed to be singularly focused on abolition, its editors were distracted by the election and mirrored the partisan press of that era in their treatment of the various candidates. Furthermore, Liberty Party editors and their Garrisonian counterparts addressed each other with the same level of disdain that they directed at the Whigs and Democrats.

Notes

John F. Bibby and L. Sandy Maisel, Two Parties—Or More? The American Party System (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998); Richard P. McCormick, The Second American Party System (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966).

Worthington Chauncey Ford, “The Campaign of 1844,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 20, no. 1 (October 1909): 106–126. See also Reinhard O. Johnson, The Liberty Party, 1840–1848: Antislavery Third Party Politics in the United States (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 2009), 16; George Rawlings Poage, Henry Clay and the Whig Party (1936; reprint ed., Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1965); Charles M. Wiltse, The New Nation, 1800–1845 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1961).

Gregory A. Borchard, “The New York Tribune and the 1844 Election,” Journalism History 33, no. 1 (Spring 2007): 51–59; John D. Hicks, “The Third Party Tradition in American Politics,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 20, no. 1 (June 1933): 3–28; Sheldon H. Harris, “John Louis O’Sullivan and the Election of 1844 in New York,” New York History 41, no. 3 (July 1960): 278–298. For an alternative view, see Vernon L. Volpe, “The Liberty Party and Polk's Election, 1844,” Historian 53, no. 4 (Summer 1991): 691–710.

Frank Luther Mott, “The Party Press: Later Period, 1833–1860,” in American Journalism: A History, 1690–1960 (New York: Macmillan, 1962), 215–326; William E. Huntzicker, The Popular Press, 1833–1865 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999).

Mott, American Journalism, 181.

Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth-Century America (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 97; Huntzicker, The Popular Press, 36; Si Sheppard, “Press, Party and Patronage, 1824–1860,” in The Partisan Press: A History of Media Bias in the United States (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 71–139.

Sheppard, “Press, Party and Patronage”; Culver Smith, The Press, Politics, and Patronage: The American Government's Use of Newspapers, 1789–1875 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977).

Huntzicker, The Popular Press; Mott, “The Penny Press of the 1830s,” in American Journalism, 228–252; Susan Thompson, The Penny Press: The Origins of Modern News Media, 1833–1861 (Northport, AL: Vision Press, 2004).

Huntzicker, “Specialized Publications,” in The Popular Press, 52–71.

Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth-Century America, 97.

Huntzicker, “The Persistence of Partisan Journalism,” in The Popular Press, 35–51; David T. Z. Mindich, “Nonpartisanship: Three Shades of Political Journalism,” chap. 2 in Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 40–63; Thompson, The Penny Press, 141–142.

Huntzicker, “Specialized Publications”; Paul Goodman, “Moral Purpose and Republican Politics in Antebellum America, 1830–1860,” Maryland Historian 20, no. 2 (December 1989): 5–39.

Jeff Rutenbeck, “Partisan Press Coverage of Anti-Abolitionist Violence: A Study of Early Nineteenth-Century ‘Viewsflow,’” Journal of Communication Inquiry 19, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 130.

Ford Risley, Abolition and the Press: The Moral Struggle against Slavery (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2008), 188. See also Bob Ostertag, “The Nineteenth Century: Abolitionists and Woman Suffragists,” in People's Movements, People's Press: The Journalism of Social Justice Movements (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 23–71.

Former president Martin Van Buren had been considered the front-runner, even securing presidential nods from twelve state caucuses on January 8. When secret negotiations by President John Tyler to annex Texas came to light, Van Buren issued a statement opposing annexation because of its slavery implications. Factions displeased with Van Buren's statement blocked his nomination at the controversy-laden Democratic National Convention in Baltimore on May 27–29 and caucused for the nomination of Polk, who had been considered the primary candidate for vice president. John S. D. Eisenhower, “The Election of James K. Polk, 1844,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 53, no. 2 (June 1994): 74–87; Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game: The Origins of American Presidential Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 179; Charles Sellers, “Election of 1844,” in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968, vol. 1, ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger and Fred L. Israel (New York: Chelsea House, 1971); Leslie H. Southwick, comp., “Election of 1844,” Presidential Also-Rans and Running Mates, 1788–1980 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1984); G. Scott Thomas, The Pursuit of the White House: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics and History (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987), 23–24, 34.

Ford, “The Campaign of 1844”; Thomas G. Mitchell, Antislavery Politics in Antebellum and Civil War America (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), 27; Southwick, “Election of 1844,” 166; Thomas, The Pursuit of the White House, 23, 35.

Borchard, “The New York Tribune and the 1844 Election”; Thomas B. Jones, “Henry Clay and Continental Expansion, 1820–1844,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 73, no. 3 (July 1975): 241–262; Alan M. Kraut and Phyllis F. Field, “Politics versus Principles: The Partisan Response to ‘Bible Politics’ in New York State,” Civil War History 25, no. 2 (June 1979): 102–103; Thomas, The Pursuit of the White House, 24; David Zarefsky, “Henry Clay and the Election of 1844: The Limits of a Rhetoric of Compromise,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 6, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 79–96. Although he does not mention Birney at all, Don Seitz also notes that Clay's hedging on the Texas question cost voters in both the North and the South; see “Henry Clay (1777–1852),” 88–90.

Borchard, “The New York Tribune and the 1844 Election”; Harris, “John Louis O’Sullivan and the Election of 1844 in New York.”

Though all sources agree on the electoral votes, no two sources give the same popular vote totals. See Borchard, “The New York Tribune and the 1844 Election”; Kraut and Field, “Politics versus Principles,” 102; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 21; McCormick, The Presidential Game, 181; Sellers, “Election of 1844,” 861; Southwick, “Election of 1844,” 166; Thomas, The Pursuit of the White House, 24, 35; Glyndon G. Van Deusen, The Jacksonian Era, 1828–1848 (New York: Harper, 1959), 188–189; Zerefsky, “Henry Clay and the Election of 1844.”

William Birney, James G. Birney and His Times: The Genesis of the Republican Party with Some Account of Abolition Movements in the South before 1828 (New York: D. Appleton, 1890), 7, 15–24; Betty Fladeland, James Gillespie Birney: Slaveowner to Abolitionist (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1955), 5–8; D. Laurence Rogers, Apostles of Equality: The Birneys, the Republicans, and the Civil War (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011), 15–18.

Birney, James G. Birney and His Times, 32–34; Fladeland, James Gillespie Birney, 15–17; Rogers, Apostles of Equality, 26–27, 35.

Birney, James G. Birney and His Times, 40; Fladeland, James Gillespie Birney, 20; Rogers, Apostles of Equality, 52–53.

Birney, “Agent of the Colonization Society,” in James G. Birney and His Times, 111–130. See also Fladeland, James Gillespie Birney, 51–64; Rogers, “The Colonization Debacle,” in Apostles of Equality, 73–80.

Birney, James G. Birney and His Times; Dwight Lowell Dumond, “The Cincinnati-Danville Axis, 1832–1836,” in Antislavery Origins of the Civil War in the United States (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966); Ronald K. Huch, “James Gillespie Birney and His New England Friends,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 67, no. 4 (1969): 350–359; Robert Paul Lamb, “James G. Birney and the Road to Abolitionism,” Alabama Review 47, no. 2 (1994): 83–134; Wallace B. Turner, “Abolitionism in Kentucky,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 69, no. 4 (1971): 319–338.

Fladeland, James Gillespie Birney, 155–160; Rogers, Apostles of Equality, 114–116. As an AASS agent, Birney started the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society and the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 5.

Robert S. Hochreiter, “The Pennsylvania Freeman, 1836–1854” (Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1980), 25; John R. McKivigan, Abolitionism and American Politics and Government (New York: Garland, 1999), vii–viii; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 1. Historians note that abolition in the United States got its start before the nation's founding; most leaders in the American Revolution expressed their hostility to slavery, and some held offices in emancipationist organizations. Following the Revolution, the Quakers were among the earliest and most vigorous opponents of slavery in the country, but their doctrine was one of gradual emancipation and often of returning freed slaves to colonies in Africa. The antislavery movement referred to in this article differed from earlier movements in those and other regards. Herbert Aptheker, Abolitionism: A Revolutionary Movement (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989), 1; Louis S. Gerteis, Morality and Utility in American Antislavery Reform (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), xi. For a detailed history of early abolition in America, see Dwight L. Dumond, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961), and Thomas E. Drake, Quakers and Slavery in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950).

Ira V. Brown, “An Antislavery Agent: C. C. Burleigh in Pennsylvania, 1836–1837,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 105, no. 1 (January 1981): 69–70; Dumond, Antislavery, 180–182; Gerteis, Morality and Utility, 19; Hochreiter, “The Pennsylvania Freeman,” iii, 26–32, 49–50; James Brewer Stewart, Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), 7–9.

Brown, “An Antislavery Agent,” 70–71; Hochreiter, “The Pennsylvania Freeman,” 31–32; Mitchell, Antislavery Politcs, 11–12; Stewart, Abolitionist Politics, 14.

Brown, “An Antislavery Agent,” 69–70; McKivigan, Abolitionism and American Politics and Government, viii.

Stewart, Abolitionist Politics, 9; Dumond, Antislavery, 180.

Robert A. Fanuzzi, “‘The Organ of an Individual’: William Lloyd Garrison and the Liberator,” Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies 23 (1998): 107–127.

The Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society financially rescued an independent antislavery newspaper called the National Enquirer, founded by prominent abolitionist Benjamin Lundy, and renamed it the Pennsylvania Freeman. By the time of the 1844 election, American Anti-Slavery Society agents and Garrisonian adherents Charles C. Burleigh and James Miller McKim were its editors. Brown, “An Antislavery Agent”; Ira V. Brown, “Miller McKim and Pennsylvania Abolitionism,” Pennsylvania History 30, no. 1 (January 1963): 55–72; William Cohen, “James Miller McKim: Pennsylvania Abolitionist” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1968); Hochreiter, “The Pennsylvania Freeman.”

Hugh H. Davis, “The Failure of Political Abolitionism,” in McKivigan, Abolitionism and American Politics and Government, 1–2; Hochreiter, “The Pennsylvania Freeman,” 81, 90.

Aileen S. Kraditor, Means and Ends in American Abolitionism: Garrison and His Critics on Strategies and Tactics, 1834–1850 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1967); Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 12; James B. Stewart, “The Aims and Impact of Garrisonian Abolitionism, 1840–1860,”Civil War History 15, no. 3 (September 1969): 197–209.

Kraditor, Means and Ends, 123; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 12; Stewart, “The Aims and Impact of Garrisonian Abolitionism,” 198.

Kraditor, Means and Ends; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 15–16.

Because the Tappans’ debt and the impending split had caused them to sell off most of the AASS assets, Garrison was left with nothing but the name of the organization; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 17.

For more on Garrison's relationship with the Standard's editors, see Lawrence J. Friedman, “Garrisonian Abolitionism and the Boston Clique: A Psychosocial Inquiry,” Psychohistory Review 7, no. 2 (1978): 6–19, and Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, “The Boston Bluestocking: Maria Weston Chapman,” in Bound with Them in Chains: A Biographical History of the Antislavery Movement (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972), 28–59.

Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 14; Stewart, Abolitionist Politics, 17. Some referred to the party's 1840 presidential ticket as the “Liberty ticket,” but the party did not officially become known as the Liberty Party until 1841. It generally was referred to as the Abolition Party, although some called it the Human Rights Party, the Freeman's Party, or the People's Party. Johnson, The Liberty Party, 16; Richard H. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837–1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 72.

Birney garnered 0.3 percent of the popular vote (7,100 votes) against Whig William Henry Harrison and Democrat Martin Van Buren; his best showing was in Massachusetts, the only state in which he polled more than 1 percent. Green, Third-Party Matters, 10–11; Johnson, The Liberty Party, 16–21; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 16–18; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 74–79.

Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” in McKivigan, Abolitionism and American Politics and Government, 12–32; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 19, 21.

Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 28. Henry Stanton was the husband of famous suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was Gerrit Smith's cousin.

Hugh Davis, Joshua Leavitt: Evangelical Abolitionist (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990), 161–163.

The other group was in the Western Reserve region of Ohio, in the northeast portion of the state. Kraditor, Means and Ends, 141–177; Mitchell, Antislavery Politics, 18, 23, 28; Vernon L. Volpe, Forlorn Hope of Freedom: The Liberty Party in the Old Northwest, 1838–1848 (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1990).

In the Philanthropist, Birney took an evangelical approach to antislavery and encouraged calm discussion. Nonetheless, the citizens of Cincinnati called his newspaper an “attempt to browbeat public opinion” in Ohio and insult the slaveholders of neighboring Kentucky. Failing at peaceful attempts to drive him out, angry rioters destroyed his newspaper operation twice within the month of July 1836. The attacks spurred outcry among editors in the North who bemoaned the attacks on free speech while drawing applause from Southern editors who labeled Birney a fanatic. Birney, James G. Birney and His Times, 220–255; Fladeland, James Gillespie Birney, 129–142; Cathy Rogers Franklin, “James Gillespie Birney, the Revival Spirit, and ‘The Philanthropist,’” American Journalism 17, no. 2 (April 2000): 31–51; Rutenbeck, “Partisan Press Coverage of Anti-Abolitionist Violence,” 126–141; James Brewer Stewart, “Peaceful Hopes and Violent Experiences: The Evolution of Reforming and Radical Abolitionism, 1831–1837,” Civil War History 17, no. 4 (December 1971): 293–309.

Stanley Harrold, Gamaliel Bailey and Antislavery Union (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1986), 43–45.

Douglas A. Gamble, “Garrisonian Abolitionists in the West: Some Suggestions for Study,” Civil War History 23, no. 1 (March 1977): 52–68; Stanley C. Harrold, “Forging an Antislavery Instrument: Gamaliel Bailey and the Foundation of the Ohio Liberty Party,” Old Northwest 2, no. 4 (1976): 371–387.

See, for example, Brown, “An Antislavery Agent”; Brown, “Miller McKim”; Cohen, “James Miller McKim”; Davis, Joshua Leavitt; Harrold, Gamaliel Bailey; Harrold, “Forging an Antislavery Instrument”; Pease and Pease, “The Boston Bluestocking.”

See, for example, Fanuzzi, “The Organ of an Individual”; David Paul Nord, “Tocqueville, Garrison, and the Perfection of Journalism,” Journalism History 13, no. 2 (Summer 1986): 56–63; Augusta Rohrbach, “‘Truth Stronger and Stranger Than Fiction’: Reexamining William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator,” American Literature 73, no. 4 (December 2001): 727–755; John L. Thomas, The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison: A Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1963).

Little has been written about the Liberty Press or its editor, Methodist minister Wesley Bailey. For some discussion of Bailey, see Douglas M. Strong, Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and the Religious Tensions of American Democracy (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002), 99–100. Strong indicates that the Liberty Press was the successor to the Friend of Man, which had been the official organ of the New York Anti-Slavery Society; Perfectionist Politics, 214.

G., “Clay and Texas,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 26, 1844, 2–3.

“Another Letter from Cassius M. Clay,” Liberator, August 23, 1844, 3.

“The Combat Thickens,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, August 2, 1844, 2; “Be Not Deceived,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, August 9, 1844, 3; “Mr. Clay's Pro-Slavery Position,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, August 23, 1844, 1; “J. R. Giddings,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 16, 1844, 2; “Mr. Sullivant,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 23, 1844, 2; “Why Vote the Whig Ticket?,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 30, 1844, 2.

“Our Course,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, September 11, 1844, 2.

“A Question Answered,” Pennsylvania Freeman, August 1, 1844, 2; “Henry Clay,” Pennsylvania Freeman, September 5, 1844, 2; “Our Cause,” Pennsylvania Freeman, October 10, 1844, 3; “Vermont,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 7, 1844, 3; “Mr. Clay's Latest,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, September 25, 1844, 3.

W., “Three Reasons Why Abolitionists Should Vote for Henry Clay,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 7, 1844, 3.

G., “Whig Anti-Slavery,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 29, 1844, 3; G., “Clay and Texas,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 26, 1844, 2–3.

G., “Clay and Texas,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 26, 1844, 2–3. See also G., “Mr. Child's Letter,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 5, 1844, 3; “Mr. Clay's Letters,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 10, 1844, 3.

“The Cloven Foot Revealed,” Liberator, September 6, 1844, 2. See also “Another Letter from Cassius M. Clay,” Liberator, August 23, 1844, 3.

“Henry Clay,” Pennsylvania Freeman, September 5, 1844, 2; “The Presidential Candidates,” Pennsylvania Freeman, October 24, 1844, 2–3.

“James S. Gibbons’ ‘Appeal,’” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 17, 1844, 3.

“Highly Important from Ashland!—Henry Clay ‘Personally No Objection to the Annexation of Texas’—Whig ‘Anti-Slavery’ Laid upon the Shelf as Useless for the Campaign!,” Liberty Press, August 6, 1844, 2; “Objections to Voting for Birney,” Liberty Press, August 6, 1844, 2–3; “Texas,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, September 11, 1844, 3; “Position of Mexico,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, September 25, 1844, 3; Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 9, 1844, 3; Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 6, 1844, 3.

“Mr. Bancroft's Letter of Acceptance,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 28, 1844, 3 (emphasis in original).

“The Presidential Candidates,” Pennsylvania Freeman, October 24, 1844, 2–3.

“Texas and the Two Parties,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, August 9, 1844, 1; “Mr. Sullivant,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 23, 1844, 2; “Texas,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 23, 1844, 2; “Annexation,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 23, 1844, 2; “It Is Not Too Late to Save the Country,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, September 4, 1844, 3; “Potatoes,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, September 25, 1844, 3.

Q., “George Bradburn's Letter,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 29, 1844, 3; Q., “Recent Publications,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 12, 1844, 3. To distance the political abolitionists from the cause of liberty, the editors of the Standard generally referred to the Liberty Party simply as the “Third Party.” The Liberator went a step further and often referred to the Liberty Party as the “Anti-Liberty Party.”

“George Bradburn,” Liberator, September 6, 1844, 2.

“The Presidential Candidates,” Pennsylvania Freeman, October 24, 1844, 2–3 (emphasis in original).

“Cassius M. Clay,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 10, 1844, 3; “A Question Answered,” Pennsylvania Freeman, August 1, 1844, 2; “Anti-Slavery in Maine,” Liberator, August 23, 1844, 2; “Mr. Bradburn's Letter,” The Liberator, September 6, 1844, 2; G., “The Election,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 31, 1844, 3.

“Address of the Executive Committee of the Eastern Pa. A. S. Society, to the Abolitionists of Eastern Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Freeman, October 10, 1844, 2.

G., “The Election,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 31, 1844, 3.

G., “The Election,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 31, 1844, 3; “Trip to Philadelphia,” Liberator, August 23, 1844, 2–3; G., “Meeting at Norristown,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 8, 1844, 3.

“A Politician's Recipe to Make the Union Immortal,” The Liberator, September 20, 1844, 3. See also Q., “Recent Publications,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 12, 1844, 2–3.

“Trip to Philadelphia,” Liberator, August 23, 1844, 2–3; G., “Easter Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 22, 1844, 3; “The Annual Meeting,” Pennsylvania Freeman, August 22, 1844, 2.

“The Liberty Herald,” Pennsylvania Freeman, September 26, 1844, 2; “The Liberty Herald,” Pennsylvania Freeman, October 24, 1844, 3; B., “Liberty Herald,” Pennsylvania Freeman, November 7, 1844, 2–3.

“How Shall I Vote?,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, August 2, 1844, 1.

“Duplicity—The Two Parties—The True Party,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 2, 1844, 1; “Duplicity—Unity,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 16, 1844, 2; “The Presidential Election,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 23, 1844, 1; “Unity of Liberty Men,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, November 13, 1844, 2.

“Objections to Voting for Birney,” Liberty Press, August 6, 1844, 2–3; “What Would the Liberty Party Do if in Power?,” The Liberty Press, August 13, 1844, 2 (emphasis in original).

“It Is Not Too Late to Save the Country,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, September 4, 1844, 3; “We Must Have Faith and Be Faithful,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 16, 1844, 3; see also “Ohio,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 7, 1844, 3; F., “Medway Convention,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 28, 1844, 3.

Q., “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 19, 1844, 2–3.

Q., “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 19, 1844, 2–3; Q., “The True Test,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 8, 1844, 2–3; Q., “Mr. Leavitt and the American Anti-Slavery Society,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 24, 1844, 3.

Q., “The True Test,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 8, 1844, 2–3; Q., “Mr. Leavitt and Mr. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 17, 1844, 3; Q., “Mr. Leavitt and the American Anti-Slavery Society,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 24, 1844, 3; Q., “More Marvels Yet!,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 7, 1844, 2; Q., “Mr. John Jay and the Emancipator,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 3, 1844, 3.

Q., “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 19, 1844, 2–3; Q., “Mr. Leavitt and Mr. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 17, 1844, 3; “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 17, 1844, 3 (emphasis in original).

Q., “Mr. Leavitt and Mr. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 17, 1844, 3; “Is Birney Mercenary?,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 14, 1844, 3; Q., “Recent Publications,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, September 12, 1844, 3; “Spirit of the Anti-Liberty Party,” Liberator, October 4, 1844, 3; “A Slaveholding Witness,” Liberator, November 8, 1844, 3.

“Is Birney Mercenary?,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 14, 1844, 3; Joshua Leavitt, “To Samuel Williston, Esq.,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 30, 1844, 2; “Spirit of the Anti-Liberty Party,” Liberator, October 4, 1844, 3; “A Slaveholding Witness,” Liberator, November 8, 1844, 3.

G., “The Democratic Party,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, August 1, 1844, 3; “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 10, 1844, 3.

“The Emancipator and Morning Chronicle,” Liberator, August 23, 1844, 2; “Polk and Texas Ally,” Liberator, September 6, 1844, 2.

“Our Course,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, September 11, 1844, 2.

“Mr. Birney's Nomination at Saginaw,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 1; “The Key to the Plot,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 2; “Mr. Birney and the Boston Atlas,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 2; “Birney's Position as a Candidate,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 3.

G., “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 24, 1844, 3; Q., “Price of a Third-Party Candidate,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 31, 1844, 3 (emphasis in original).

G., “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 24, 1844, 3; Q., “Price of a Third-Party Candidate,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 31, 1844, 3; Q., “The Age of Miracles Not Past,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 7, 1844, 2; “Mr. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 7, 1844, 3; “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 14, 1844, 3.

“James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 17, 1844, 3; G., “James G. Birney,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 24, 1844, 3; Q., “Price of a Third-Party Candidate,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 31, 1844, 3; Q., “The Age of Miracles Not Past,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 7, 1844, 2; “Birney Meeting at the Tremont Temple,” Liberator, October 25, 1844, 2; “A Slaveholding Witness,” Liberator, November 8, 1844, 3 (emphasis in original).

“The Last Roorback!,” Liberty Press, November 9, 1844, 2.

“Mr. Birney and His Accusers,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 30, 1844, 1; “Mr. Birney's Real Position—The Deception Exposed!,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, November 6, 1844, 1; “Another Evidence,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, November 20, 1844, 1; and “Letter from Mr. Birney,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, November 13, 1844, 1.

“The Forgery Exposed!,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 6, 1844, 3; “Stories! Stories!! Stories!!!,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 6, 1844, 3.

“Mr. Birney's Nomination at Saginaw,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 1; “We Must Have Faith and Be Faithful,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 16, 1844, 3; “The Key to the Plot,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 2; “Mr. Birney and the Boston Atlas,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 2; “Another Letter from Mr. Birney,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 2; “Mr. Birney and the Democrats of Saginaw,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 3; “Birney's Position as a Candidate,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 3.

“Mr. Birney and the Boston Atlas,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 23, 1844, 2; “Is Birney Mercenary?,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, August 14, 1844, 3; Joshua Leavitt, “To Samuel Williston, Esq.,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, October 30, 1844, 2 (emphasis in original).

“Mr. Birney and His Accusers,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, October 30, 1844, 1.

“The Last Roorback!,” Liberty Press, November 9, 1844, 2.

“The Garrisonians,” Liberty Press, reprinted in National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 21, 1844, 2; “The Liberator,” Liberty Press, reprinted in National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 7, 1844, 1 (contains a paragraph reprinted from the Cincinnati Herald; emphasis in original).

“The Election,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 13, 1844, 3; Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 20, 1844, 3.

Liberty Press, November 16, 1844, 2; “The Enquirer,” Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist, November 13, 1844, 2.

“The Election,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 13, 1844, 3; “The Future,” Emancipator and Weekly Chronicle, November 13, 1844, 3.

See Mitchell, Antislavery Politics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erika Pribanic-Smith

Erika Pribanic-Smith is assistant professor in the Department of Communication at University of Texas-Arlington, Box 19107, Arlington, TX 76019-0107, [email protected]