Wayne County, Indiana - Chapter 13: George W. Julian, 1912

ANCESTRY - EARLY STRUGGLES - STUDIES LAW - ENTERS POLITICS AND BEGINS HIS CAREER AS A STATESMAN - SERVICES IN CONGRESS - POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS - PUBLIC LAND POLICY - -PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS.

The success or failure of a nation is due to the character of its men. In studying the history of the United States one can see that its rapid progress is due to certain men who have been willing to give their time and thought to its betterment. Among these men, George W. Julian ranks high, and one cannot fail to notice the part he played in establishing the great principles of justice and freedom upon which the nation is founded. He will long be remembered for the effective work he did in Congress during the reconstruction period, as well as the active part he took in the struggle against slavery and his connection with the reorganization of the Republican party. He seemed to live ahead of the times and then did much in preparing the citizens and directing their thoughts on the approaching problems.

George W. Julian's paternal ancestors were of French extraction and were the first ones of that name to come to America, where they settled on the eastern shore of Maryland near the close of the Eighteenth century. On account of continued Indian troubles the family soon after fled to North Carolina. George W. Julian's father and mother left North Carolina near the beginning of the Nineteenth century and were among the very earliest settlers of the Indiana Territory. They settled near Centerville, the county seat of Wayne county, where George W. was born, May 5, 1817. His father was very prominent among the pioneers of Indiana, and in 1822 became a member of the State legislature.

When George W. was six years old his father died, leaving his mother with six children, almost destitute. As many great men have done, he developed his courage, character, and strength, in the severe struggle for existence that foltowed. The family tried to get their support from a barren farm, a sugar grove being its only source of revenue. The mother wove cloth for the neighbors, while George W. and his brothers would weave straw hats. George was very ambitious, however, and would not let his poverty discourage him. He attended the common public schogls in winter and applied himself well. After working hard all day at school, and in the fields, he was accustomed to split a quantity of kindlings, and in place of oil or candle pursue his studies until late by their light. His interest in books was nourished, and devouring all the knowledge he could grasp in school and from the books, which he was able to borrow in the neighborhood, he soon equaled the teachers. This diligence and indomitable perseverance in the line of mental improvement, as well as his determination to succeed, developed in him very young the habit of self-reliance and close observation. When George W. Julian was eighteen years old he began to teach school, and doubtless was far more efficient than the average teacher. Although self-distrust was an almost insurmountable obstacle for him he showed his stréngth and nerve at many times. A story is told of an attempt made by some of the big boys of his school, re-enforced by some men at work on the Cumberland Road, near by, to compel him to treat on Christmas day, according to the custom of that locality. Julian, remembering the tendency to riotous conduct and also on account of his financial difficulties, refused to do it, and had the nerve and strength to stand for his own convictions against that crowd.

During the three years he taught he was continually studying, by himself, rhetoric, languages, logic, natural philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, and surveying. In the summer, when his short term of school was over, he engaged in surveying, and at one time was employed as rodman. In 1839 he started West, seeking work as a surveyor, but was unsuccessful and returned to Centerville to continue the study of law, which he had begun the year before while teaching school in Western Illinois. He studied under John S. Newman, of Centerville, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. In his practice self-distrust seemed an almost insurmountable obstacle. He became a public speaker only by most vigorous training and persistent self-conquest. The assurance of a successful lawyer was lacking, and in his autobiography he says: "Sometimes in my despair I felt that I must break the chains which bound me, but I was powerless to do so, and no word of encourage: ment from any quarter cheered me." His mother did all that was in her power to help him and encourage him.

Centerville was not an easy town for the study of law. In this little town there was collected some of the best talent of the State, political and professional men of eminence, as Nimrod H. Johnson, John Newman, Charles H. Test, Joshua H. Mellett, James Raridan, and others who have had prominent places among the influential men of Indiana. A sort of aristocracy had arisen among these men which was hard for a young and inexperienced lawyer to break into. -Thus, because of this, George W. Julian, Oliver P. Morton, Will McCullough, and a few others, organized a debating society held in the second story of an old seminary building, these sessions usually being held in the dark so the debators might speak and gesticulate with free will. This secret society grew-in importance, and they took in new law students until they had an enrollment of sixteen. Their rooms were fitted up and a library was bought. In this society all the great men, such as Caesar, Demosthenes, Cicero, and others, were claimed as members. Their meetings were carried on with great formality, and each evening some profound question was argued, as well as questions of the day, such as, the Monroe Doctrine, the Wilmot Proviso, and other phases of the vital slave question, which resulted in the conversion of many of its members to the Republican party. George W. Julian cast his first Presidential ballot for General Harrison, in 1840. He knew nothing of party politics and was influenced by his early associations and, as he says, in his "Political Recollections": "In the matter of attending mass-meetings, singing Whig songs and drinking hard cider, I played a considerable part in the memorable campaign of that year." He also supported the Whig candidate because he regarded him as a poor man and thought he would be a better man to administer to the poor people in their poverty and hard times than Van Buren, who was an aristocrat and had high ambitions to gain all control in his hands by overthrowing the liberties of the people. This first campaign disappointed Julian. He always took things very seriously, and of the nature of the campaign he says, in his "Political Recollections": "It was a grand national frolic, in which the imprisoned mirth and fun of the people found such jubilant and uproarious expression that anything like calmness of judgment and real seriousness of purpose was out of the question in the Whig camp."

In 1844 his political convictions were more advanced and matured. From the beginning he upheld Clay, although he did not agree on all his methods and was greatly grieved and disappointed over what was known as the "Alabama Letter," in which he made known some of his views: on slavery. At this time Julian stated, for the first time, his thoughts on many of the public questions which were worked out later, as repudiating the public lands as a source of revenue, and on the subject of protection. On the subject of slavery he was very much alive. Being of Quaker training and aroused by the anti-slavery papers against the usurpation that would lead to the extension of slavery and war, he thought it his duty to resist the election of Polk. And thus he made his first venture as a stump speaker, and was very much disappointed that his efforts did not aid in the election of the Whig candidate.

He began his career as a statesman the next year in the State legislature of Indiana. He was a representative of the Whig party, but never hesitated to act independently of the party principles when they clashed with his own convictions. Because of his independence along this line he received much censure from his constituents when he supported the "Butler Bill," a bill which provided that one-half the State debt be cancelled and the State saved from repudiation. His advocacy of this important measure probably lost for him the re-election but won for him his seat in United States legislature, because so many Democrats voted for him. He also distinguished himself in this State legislature by his earnest support of the abolition of capital punishment. He was a member of the committee to which the bill was referred, and through his persistence in bringing the bill before the house with favorable reports, finally succeeded in getting it passed, with its amendments; and on the motion of Julian it was named "An act relative to the punishment of treason and murder in the first degree." Failing to be re-nominated, he returned to Centerville and took up his law practice. After the Presidential election of 1844 he resolved never to vote for another slaveholder, and when Taylor, a slaveholder, was nominated on the Whig ticket, he lost interest in politics and decided to devote all his attention to his profession. His sympathy was with the new national party, the Fsee Soil or Liberty party, which was gaining in strength and which had nominated Van Buren as their candidate. He defended this Abolitionist party and claimed the treatment given them as unjust. They had been very much misrepresented and misunderstood, and their only offense was the espousal of the truth in advance of the multitude, which slowly and finally followed their example. He desired to avoid strife with the Whigs, who were among his best friends and clients, but his conscience would not permit that he remain quiet and not exert his influence against the evils of slavery. He saw clearly that the system of slavery was degrading throughout, in its character and its consequences. He was essentially a reformer and, being independent, broke fearlessly with his party, when he could not follow them. Julian was ahead of his time, and especially in his opinions on slavery. He saw, in 1844, what it took many men ten years longer to see, and for this reason was criticised and considered radical by many of his old Whig friends. When he was invited to become a delegate to the Free Soil convention in Buffalo, on Aug. 9, 1848, he accepted the nomination, and from that time became an active and ardent worker in the Abolition party.

This convention was historic and marked an epoch in party politics and the anti-slavery movement. Its leaders were men of character and ability and from various factions. It was a tedious process to harmonize all the different elements which had drifted into the party, the disappointed Clay Whigs, the Liberty party, the "Conscience Whigs," the "Land Reformers" of New York, and also the advocates of "cheap postage for the people." Martin Van Buren seemed to be the candidate for nomination for President. Julian felt he could not support Mr. Van Buren under any circumstances after the last campaign, but the growing spirit of political fraternity modified his views. He saw that the leaders of all factions would have to yield to one man in order to unite on the one great and 'vital issue. All divisions finally gave way and Van Buren was nominated by acclamation.

The new national party was now launched and Julian hurried home to take up the fight. He gained much criticism for his move and in his "Political Recollections" describes his treatment by his Whig friends: "Words were neither minced nor modified, but made the vehicles of political wrath and explosives of personal malice. The charge of 'Abolitionism' was flung at me everywhere, and it is impossible now to realize the odium then attaching to that term by the general opinion. I was branded as the 'apostle of disunion' and 'the orator of free-dirt.' I was threatened with mob violence by my own neighbors and treated as if slavery had been an established institution of the State - while these same Whigs, as if utterly unconscious of the irony of their professions, uniformly resolved in their convention that 'the Whig party is the only true Free Soil party.'" These taunts and jeers made no impression on Julian, and he sallied forth on the work of the campaign, riding a huge white horse, "fully sixteen hands high and rather thin in flesh." He spoke two and three times a day, usually in barns, crossroads, saw mills, or any other place where a few or many people were liable to hear him. His Whig neighbors declared his audience consisted of "eleven men, three boys, and a negro," which Julian said was not far from true in many places. But he "considered principle more important than audience" and continued his work, proclaiming antislavery truths. He describes his feelings in his "Political Recollections': "I was so perfectly swallowed up in my work and dominated by the singleness of my purpose that I took no thought of any thing else; and the vigor of my invective, in dealing with the scurrilous attacks of my assailants, was very keenly realized and, I believe, universally acknowledged. With the truth on my side, I was delighted to find myself perfectly able, single-handed, to fight and battle against the advantages of superior talent and the trained leadership of men of established reputation on the stump." Although he was not successful in electing Van Buren, the results of this contest were remarkable in aiding and preparing the way for the great work of the succeeding years.

Julian's next move was towards the United States Congress. Although he had acquired many enemies by his recent acts during the Presidential campaign, he announced his intention to run for Congress. The parties at that time were so confused that every one seemed to be a party of his own. The contest was bitter, beyond all precedent; but after a hard fight and by the union of Free Soilers, Democrats, and Independent Whigs, he was elected by a small majority. In this Congress, after having been delayed in arriving by a serious illness, he hastened to joim the Free Soil representatives, whose political troubles and fortunes were similar to his own. The "immortal nine," as they were often called, were soon together. This group was composed of Julian and eight other anti-slavery men, such as David Wilmot, then famous as the author of the "Proviso," and Joshua Giddings, who, as Julian says, "was as familiar with the slavery question, in all its aspects, as he was with the alphabet." During this Congress the slavery question received daily attention. The great issue was the Congressional prohibition of slavery in the Territories, known as the "Wilmot Proviso," for which Julian worked with tireless efforts. In the same spirit he fought against the Fugitive Slave Bill, which converted the North into slave hunting ground for the South; also the Texas Boundary Bill, popular sovereignty on the slave question in the Territories, and the organization of the House in the interest of slavery. During the first months of this session his spare moments were devoted to the preparation of a speech on the slavery question. His constituents expected it, as well as the members of Congress. He says, in his "Political Recollections," "It was my darling purpose and I resolved to do my best on it." He worked over the various phases of the subject and examined the question from the Southern as well as the Northern standpoint. On May 14, after anxiously waiting for the floor for many days, he delivered this speech and received much candid commendation in the newspapers and from various men for his views. He says, in his "Political Recollections": "I was flattered beyond measure and found my self-esteem germinating into new life under these fertilizing dews."

In this Thirty-first Congress he began the fight for the Homestead Policy, which he continued during his later years in Congress. The Swamp Land Act and the Act granting land bounties to the soldiers of the Mexican war, which opened the way for the monopoly of the public land by specialty, he earnestly opposed, and saw the evils and disadvantages which were not seen by others until the laws were applied. The Homestead Bill of the present time was initiated in that Thirty-first Congress, although it did not become a law for eleven years. Julian, at that time, delivered a speech,! advocating his Homestead Policy, which was. not enthusiastically received, his thoughts being too advanced for the time. However, it did become of value in his next Congress. Things looked bad in Indiana at this time. Slavery seemed to be -holding its own and the colored people were receiving no aid whatever. In compliance with the wishes of his anti-slavery friends and the wish to help in the cause of the day, he stood for re-election in 1851. The Whigs had completely changed their basis, standing for the compromise acts and the Fugitive Slave Law, which took away many of his votes. Also, the feeling that newspaper men were his enemies had influenced the people against him, which accomplished his defeat. Julian then turned his attention to the approaching Presidential election. He realized they must try for a final settlement of the slavery question. The Whig party in their platform joined the Democrats in their ideas on slavery. Julian, although the case appeared most degrading, looked upon it as an omen of success. The real enthusiasm of the campaign was in the Free Soil party, as the Whigs were disheartened and the Democratic forces were not working in harmony.

of Julian received honorable recognition in his nomination for Vice- President. He then "took the stump," and, with Cassius M. Clay, canvassed Lewis, Bracken, and Mason counties, in Kentucky. Their first meeting, near Maysville, was a success, having a sympathetic and orderly audience. In Maysville, the next day, although finding some opposition to their speaking in the court house, they finally gained the consent and spoke to a fine audience, even in some instances winning applause. At their next appointment, in Brookville, they met that rough and rabble element which formed the background of slavery. Although there was no audience, Julian and Clay both spoke and considered themselves lucky to get off without being mobbed. This closed their work in Kentucky and Julian returned across the line. During this campaign, he also delivered a speech in Cincinnati on the "Strength and Weakness of the Slave Power," which had an exceptional character as a political speech. He arraigned both Whigs and Democrats as allies of slavery and discussed the relation of church and slavery and the morality of political action. Hale only succeeded in getting one-twentieth of the votes. This was rather discouraging to Julian, but he saw the immense odds against which they had to work and was. somewhat encouraged at the pitiful annihilation of the Whigs. Now there was more chance of placing party against party, which to Julian seemed to be the only way to win.

During the next year or two Julian was actively engaged in forming a new party. From the remains of the Whig party, the Know-Nothing party, and the Free Soil party, they had hopes of building up a strong Republican party. The Know-Nothing party had become very popular about that time, but Julian opposed it with all his might. His speech on that subject, which was published in the "National Era," is reckoned by many as the ablest argument against that strange political fanaticism. He was the only political leader in the West to oppose them. Many of his old Free Soil brethren went over to the new party, and he says, in his "Political Recollection": "At one time I think I had less than a dozen political friends in the State, and I could see in the glad smiles which lighted up the faces of my old-time enemies that they considered me beyond resurrection." But Julian was a fighting man and was in his element in the midst of a political fight. He never gave up and firmly hoped that in the end the truth would be vindicated, although he did not dream that in less than twenty years he would be the recognized leader of his enemies. He had no sympathy with the new party, the Know-Nothings. After much work, however, the fragments of the anti-slavery parties were united enough to make an attempt to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President for the campaign of 1856. At the National convention which met in Pittsburgh, Feb. 22, Julian was elected chairman and had the honor of reporting the plan of action through which the new party took life.

In this never-to-be-forgotten campaign both parties reached "white-heat." Julian says concerning it, in his "Political Recollections": "To me the memory of this first great national struggle for liberty is a delight, as the part I played in it was a real jubilee of the heart. I was welcomed by the Republican masses everywhere, and the fact was gratifying to me as it proved mortifying to the party chiefs who a little before had found such comfort in the assurance that henceforth they were rid of me." Although Julian's party was defeated he was not discouraged, because he did not hope for success at first. The Republican movement had made great gains and could not go backwards, and great things were predicted for its future. In 1860, Julian's honest, daring, and unrelenting character, commended to him the respect and confidence of the people, and by a signal trumph over every conceivable form and combination of personal and political jealousy, he was nominated, by vote, to Congress, with an overwhelming majority. He remained in Congress for the ten succeeding years, and these years were some of the most trying in the history of the Nation. During those years of war and reconstruction the tasks of Congress were unequaled in their importance and could not have been discharged so satisfactorily had it not been for men like Julian. He was appointed on the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which pleased him very much, because it gave him an opportunity to learn something of its internal policies and movements. He was active on this committee and did not hestitate to criticise President Lincoln and the Generals for their delay in acting. This committee was deemed by many as useless and a bother, but after the war, in its first report, which consisted of eight huge volumes, any fairminded man could not deny that the policy it originated finally saved the country.

During his entire term in Congress he was a member of the Committee on Public Lands and for eight years was chairman. This aided him in perfecting and carrying through Congress one of his pet policies, the Homestead Law. He believed in free men, free soil, and free homes for free men. He had acquired a better knowledge of public land systems, probably, than any other man, and addressed himself with his usual energy to the improvement of the land question. The bill, as introduced by Julian, was much mutilated: in its passage and was shorn of the carefully guarded provisions to prevent the public lands from passing into the hands of speculators, and to preserve them entirely for the American citizens. His policy provided for the disposal of the public lands in small allotments to actual settlers, and he believed in the theory that one industrious settler is more useful to the country and more to be encouraged than any number of adventurers. He also opposed mammoth grants of land being sold to railroad companies who, keeping the land unsettled, wait for an advance in price to enrich themselves. Later, Julian brought forth a proposition to extend the Homestead Law of 1862 to the forfeited and confiscated land of Confederates. This was a very radical plan, proposing to deal with these lands as public lands and parcel them out into small homesteads among the poor of the South, both black and white. This subject was a large one and caused unlimited discussions, but he was successful in getting it passed. Julian deserves much gratitude from the people for his unwearied exertions to warn people against land monopoly, to check wastefulness in the disposal of the public domain, and to secure the distribution of it into small farms.

All during his career he supported all measures against slavery, and not only jealously sustained the government in all its grand measures of radicalism, such as the confiscation of Confederate property, but he took an advanced position on,all these questions. All his speeches breathe the spirit of freedom and the firm belief in his own convictions. He took a very decided stand on the question of negro suffrage, and, although many of his anti-slavery friends did not follow him in this, he felt sure he could revolutionize the general opinion, and made a fight for it for four months. He declared their fitness for the ballot was a subordinate question; it was a question of national honor and welfare. To leave the ballot in the hands of ex-Confederates and withhold it from those helpless millions would be, for them, worse than slavery. The bill providing for negro suffrage in the District of Columbia was among the first important measures of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and Julian became very hopeful over its passage. Later, in December, 1868, he submitted a proposed amendment to the Constitution, declaring all citizens of the United States notwithstanding their color, race, or sex, should have suffrage. He had been a supporter of woman's suffrage since 1847, when his attention had been called

Stated the substance of all that has since been said respecting the logic of woman's right to the ballot, and Julian says, "Finding myself unable to answer it, I accepted it."

The rich mineral lands of the United States also received a share of his attention. He objected to their being reserved from sale and deprecated the system of leaving them or the policy of abandoning them to settlers without law, but advocated selling these mineral lands as any other lands, in order to help raise the enormous war debt, in which the country was swamped at that time. The Government had had no policy whatever in dealing with the great depositories of wealth and had been gaining no revenue, except for a trifling amount on the bullion. Julian placed a bill before the House providing for the survey and sale of these lands in fee, thinking it the best and only method of promoting security of titles, permanent settlements, and thorough development. AIthough the bill fully protected all in their right of exploration and discovery 'and carefully guarded against any interference with vested raghts, it was bitterly opposed by some who thought that it -eontemplated a sweeping confiscation of all their claims. There was much discussion concerning this bill and it was finally lost. But to Julian is due the awakening of interest and the beginning of the reform if! legislation concerning the rich mineral lands; and although at the time his bill was defeated, the reforms which he advocated have been partially carried out since.

Julian did valuable work as a member of the Committee on Public Lands in opposing the policy of Military Land Bounties. It was proposed, as was done at the close of the Mexican war, that soldiers of the Civil war be awarded a land bounty for their service. Julian saw the consequences of this policy before and prepared a report denouncing the scheme. He saw that it would be in direct opposition to the purpose of the Homestead Bill, which he had labored so hard to have passed. The report showed that more than one-third of the public domain would be necessary to supply land bounties and that it would cover nearly all that was fit for agriculture; that speculation was bound to follow and would mean the overthrow of the Homestead policy. This report was accompanied by a bill providing a bounty in money. This satisfied the appeals of the soldiers and, although it failed to be passed, it was the means by which Julian saved the public domain from ruin. Julian was a friend of the working people and did all he could to better their condition. The interest of labor and the resumption of specie payments were earnestly plead by him. He introduced a bill providing for an eight-hour working day in the navy yards. This was the beginning of the eight-hour agitation.

Although he was not a believer in Free Trade, he thought the tariff system of his time was simply legalized robbery of the people, and especially of the laboring poor. He thought the tariff question would become as great a problem as the slavery question, and a reform in it was paramount in importance. Of all the schemes of reform, he considered the co-operation or profit-sharing scheme the best. It takes the poor into friendly partnership and makes their cause and that of the capitalist one. On the question of temperance he also had decided opinions. He believed that legislative moves to destroy the saloon never would help, but the uplifting of the masses, the removal of poverty and want, and the multiplication of well-ordered Christian homes would be the only solution. After ten years of faithful and effective work in Congress, in the campaign of 1870, the forces against him were so well managed that he was defeated. For several campaigns prior to this he was at variance with some of the political leaders in Indiana, on account of his radical views on the subject of right and toward the Homestead Bill. These men had tried various methods to defeat him, which they finally did by gerrymandering the State.

Soon after this Julian changed his position and became a Liberal Republican and later drifted into the Democratic party. Some of his enemies have said that he changed politics when he was beaten, but many who were against him have abandoned these views. During his last session in Congress he had acquired an intense contempt for President Grant, which he was not able to overcome, and had fully made up his mind never under any circumstances to support him again. Julian was a staunch believer and earnest advocate of Civil Service reform, and he would not fall down in his convictions to support a man like Grant, who employed the whole power and patronage of his high office to secure re-election, by throwing out of office honest and efficient men to put men in office in order to pay them off for political favors in worldly gifts. Julian hated to withdraw from his party, but he never acted contrary to his own convictions, and he felt as if he could not again stand by Grant, who seemed to be the inevitable candidate for the Presidency. He says, in his "Political Recollections": "If it had been morally possible, I would have supported him gladly. If I had consented to my own selfish ambition, I would have chosen a different course, since I knew by painful experience the cost of party desertion. I made it with many keen regrets, for the history of the party had been honorable and glorious and I had shared in its achievements." He said the Republican party never was a real party with one creed, but a bunch of men, with various creeds, joined together for one end. After the war the party continued to exist and the leaders treated it as a perpetual institution, "outside of which no good exists and in which all good originates." The practical results of this party idolatry make up one of the worst chapters in the history of party corruption and misrule. The Republican party had become simply a political machine, and "had been driven to the lowest depths by its long-indulged greed for power" and "the devilish infatuation that its good behavior during the war could justify its career of lawlessness and crime." The management of the Civil Service, which they had so strongly advocated, was an utter mockery of political decency. Julian thought the last card had been played and that the party was bound to fall.

He then attended the Liberal Republican convention, where he was delighted to meet many of his old Free Soil friends in this party whose chief aim was to rebuke the scandals of President Grant. During the campaign which followed Julian made many speeches and presented the issues from the Liberal standpoint. The treatment which was tendered him on these occasions was not even equaled by the campaign of 1856. The Liberals were considered as rebels and treated as such, eggs and even firearms being much in evidence at the meetings. But Julian was not unprepared for it and met the attacks with argument and invectives. He was charged with "changing sides, but Julian contended that he had not changed sides," but the "sides had changed," and it was now a question of an entirely different nature, that of denouncing "knaves and trades which used the Republican party as the instrument of wholesale schemes of jobbery and pelf."

After this campaign of 1872 he withdrew from political activity. He again changed his politics after the Liberal party died out and remained a Democrat the remainder of his life. Although not taking a decided stand as a Democrat, like most all Abolitionists he acted with that party against the white slavery of government. His last public office was surveyor-general of New Mexico, which he occupied from 1885 to 1889, and did much valuable service in exposing the Spanish land grant fraud. After leaving New Mexico he returned to his home, "Village Nector," in Irvington, where he remained until his death, July 8, 1899, due to a stroke of paralysis. In his private life Julian had the universal reputation of being most exemplary. His private character was beyond reproach. At the time it was said that probably no man had truer and more devoted friends and admirers or more relentless foes. He was eminently western in his character; frank and fearless; prompt and decided; loyal in his attachments, but ready to thrust at friends or foes, if they placed themselves in a position to impede the progress of Truth and Freedom. No man was ever more inflexible in purpose or more positive. He possessed, however, a kindness of heart, strong social qualities, and the faculty of making good friends. He was a laborious student and, although without the graces of oratory, he was an impressive and effective speaker. He had a very extensive library at his home in Irvington and took a great delight in literature during his later life. After his active political life he wrote many articles for magazines on current topics, and two books, one, "The Life of Joshua Giddings," and the other his own "Political Recollections." His speeches all breathe the spirit of freedom and have the merit of useful thought, methodical argument, and a remarkably clear and forcible diction. Grace Greenwood says of his speech on Public Lands: "This was a strong, fearless, and eloquent expression of a liberty-loving and philanthropic spirit. It seems vivid with the strength of a great purpose, vivid with a vital truth, a moral life, and blood beating through it warm and generous."

As a politician he was determined, vindictive, intensely radical, and appeared to contemporaries absolutely lacking in political sagacity. Yet his judgment on the conditions and the needs of the times was almost unerring. In campaigns he was tireless in his efforts, profound in his arguments, and possessed the soul of a reformer. .Some writer said, in the Indianapolis Journal, of Saturday, July 8, 1899: "Julian had no sympathy for conservatism, was a born radical, and had inherited an aversion to wrong in all its forms through the long line. of Quaker ancestors." He loved a life of activity and fretted under enforced idleness. He dreaded the loss of his faculties, being a 'lover of all beauties and phenomena of nature. His courage was remarkable, as was shown in his various campaigns, and especially in the campaign of 1856, on his trip through the wild country of Kentucky, and also at Terre Haute, where, after hearing Robinson, the Free Soil candidate, had been mobbed, fearlessly made an engagement to speak.

He was a great admirer of certain men, such as John Quincy Adams, Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, and Henry Clay. But no man ever had more bitter enemies, among whom was Oliver P.

Morton. Although from the same town, both members of the "Dark Lyceum," and always more or less connected, there was no friendship whatever between them. They disagreed on all political questions, and partly from this and also jealousy, their enmity was bitter. He was not a friend to Sol Meredith, another Wayne county statesman, and a great disturbance arose when Julian made the charge against Meredith that he was removed from command of the Western District of Kentucky on account of sympathy with traitors and the failure to protect Union men. Julian says of him: "He is incapable of a noble action and utterly devoid of honorable principles." There was no half-way feeling by Julian. In this, as in everything else, his convictions were firm - he either liked or hated intensely. Finally, George W. Julian was a great statesman and should receive due credit. Although he had many enemies, on account of his stern and vindictive manner, these forceful characteristics brought him many rewards in Congress. One writer said of him, in the Indianapolis Sentinel of July 8, 1899: "Ifa discriminating history of the past half century were written, Julian would probably be the most foremost statesman Indiana has produced - as a statesman measured by measures and laws he succeeded in getting passed which have had untold success." Thus his value to his country must not be forgotten, and the honor and fame which he achieved unaided should give the men of to-day courage.