LITERARY NOTICES. 



tant in the development of American 

 education. The society will find a wel- 

 come among the general body of scien- 

 tific men, and its proceedings, while per- 

 haps not very widely read, will undoubt- 

 edly constitute a worthy contribution to 

 American scholarship. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Life of Joshua R. Giddings. By 

 George W. Julian. Chicago: A. C. 

 McClurg & Co. Pp. 473. Price, $2.50. 



Hardly anything can strike the student 

 of history more impressively than the realiz- 

 ing sense which he gains on reading the story 

 of one of the old heroes of the antislavery 

 controversy, such as Mr. Giddings was, of 

 the utter unlikeness of the conditions of the 

 present time in this country and the ques- 

 tions with which it is now occupied, to those 

 which prevailed before the war, within the 

 active memory of men still in the vigor of 

 life. The review furnishes an astounding 

 revelation of the extent to which we have 

 made history within a generation, and of the 

 completeness of the overthrow that has over- 

 taken a force that was once autocratic in its 

 dominance. Mr. Giddings entered the na- 

 tional House of Representatives in Decem- 

 ber, 1838, and served there continuously till 

 March 4, 1859. When his service began, the 

 " twenty -first (or ' gag ') rule," which forbade 

 the dis3ussion of slavery in the House, and 

 under which the hearing of petitions against 

 it was refused, had been in force two years, 

 and John Quincy Adams was beginning the 

 war against it which he pursued to ultimate 

 victory. Mr. Giddings's attention had only 

 been directed to the national importance of 

 the slavery question in the previous year, 

 and he and Mr. Wade, his law partner, after- 

 ward famous in the Senate, had joined in the 

 formation of an antislavery society of four 

 members. In the House of Representatives, 

 John Quincy Adams and William Slade, of 

 Vermont, were the two members whose 

 views on slavery were in harmony with his. 

 After their retirement, Mr. Giddings for a 

 time stood alone. He early perceived the 

 shape which the question was destined to as- 

 sume, and made it his mission, as Mr. Julian 

 remarks, " to watch the encroachments of 



slavery upon the rights of the people of the 

 free States, and to hold the slave masters 

 strictly to their own avowed principle, that 

 the existence and continuance of slavery de- 

 pended solely on the authority of the States 

 in which it existed. Wherever he saw this 

 principle violated, he felt it to be his duty to 

 lift up his voice in its defense." Recogniz- 

 ing the constitutional guarantees, while he 

 construed them with the utmost strictness, 

 he never suggested interference within the 

 sphere of State jurisdiction. He began his 

 " defense," during his first session, with an 

 attack on the slave trade in the District of 

 Columbia. The direct consideration of the 

 subject being forbidden, a bill making an 

 appropriation for building a bridge across the 

 Potomac, and sundry memorials against anti- 

 slavery petitions, furnished the occasion for 

 his argument ; and no opportunity was 

 neglected afterward to press the forbidden 

 sentiments upon the attention of the legisla- 

 tors. He was " cut " in society ; attempts 

 were made to engage him in quarrels ; he 

 was threatened with bodily violence; and he 

 bore all bravely and with dignity. A reso- 

 lution of censure was passed against him 

 without his being given an opportunity to 

 define his position. He resigned at once, went 

 back to his constituents, and was triumph- 

 antly re-elected, to return with a new commis- 

 sion to deliver his message more earnestly 

 and bravely than before. At last he missed 

 a renomination — not too soon, Mr. Julian 

 thinks, as he surveys the record in the light 

 of history — and was succeeded by another, 

 with principles like his own. The dominat- 

 ing fact in his life was moral earnestness, 

 which was the master key to his character, 

 inspired and invigorated all his faculties, and 

 assured him the confidence of his constituents. 

 In Mr. Julian, his son-in-law, and a Congress- 

 man who also participated for many years 

 in the antislavery controversy, he has found 

 a most competent and appreciative biog- 

 rapher. Experience since the w ( ar has shown 

 that our country is threatened by other 

 evils, hardly less aggressive and arrogant 

 than the one which Mr. Giddings fought ; 

 but resistance against them, under all dis- 

 couragements, can not be more hopeless than 

 his contention seemed during most of the 

 time he was making it. The final triumph 

 of the cause he advocated, over apparently 



