| Joshua Reed Giddings | |
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| Photograph by Mathew Brady's studio (1855-1864) | |
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Joshua Reed Giddings (October 6, 1795 – May 27, 1864) was an American statesman and a prominent opponent of slavery. He represented Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1838-59. He was at first a member of the Whig Party and was later a Republican.
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He was born at Tioga Point, now Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on 6 October 1795. In 1806 his parents, Joshua Giddings and Elizabeth Pease, moved the family to Ashtabula County, Ohio, then sparsely settled and almost a wilderness. Here they settled on Ohio's Western Reserve, where Giddings lived for most of the rest of his life. It was perhaps here that Giddings had his first stirrings of passion for antislavery, as the Reserve was widely famous for its radicalism.
Giddings worked on his father's farm and, although he received no systematic education, devoted much time to study and reading. For several years after 1814 he was a schoolteacher. In February 1821 he was admitted to the bar in Ohio and soon built up a large practice, particularly in criminal cases. From 1831 to 1837 he was in partnership with Benjamin Wade, a future U.S. Senator. The Panic of 1837, in which Giddings lost a great deal of money, caused him to cease practicing law, but indirectly led to his decision to run for federal office.
Giddings served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1826-1827.[1] From December 1838 until March 1859 he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing first Ohio's 16th district until 1843 and then Ohio's 20th district until 1859. Giddings ran first as a Whig, then as a Free-soiler, next as a candidate of the Opposition Party, and finally as a Republican.
Emphasizing that slavery was a state institution, with which the Federal government had no authority to interfere, he contended that slavery could only exist by a specific state enactment. For that reason, he contended that slavery in the District of Columbia and in the Territories was unlawful and should be abolished; that the coastwise slave trade in vessels flying the national flag, like the international slave trade, should be rigidly suppressed; and that Congress had no power to pass any act that in any way could be construed as a recognition of slavery as a national institution.
His attitude in the Creole Case attracted particular attention, particularly since it was so closely associated with struggles by antislavery Congressmen to repeal the notorious gag rule barring antislavery petitions. Former President John Quincy Adams led this campaign in the House of Representatives.
In 1841 some slaves revolted who were being carried in the brig Creole from Richmond and Hampton Roads, Virginia, to New Orleans. They wounded the captain and killed one of the white overseers in the process, gained possession of the vessel, and soon after entered the British port of Nassau. According to British law, the slaves were to be set free. The British arrested the minority who had taken an active part in the revolt on a charge of murder, and liberated the remaining slaves. The United States government attempted to recover the slaves; Daniel Webster, then secretary of state, asserted that as they were on an American ship, they were under the jurisdiction of the U.S., and by US law they were property.
On March 21, 1842, before the case was settled, Giddings introduced a series of resolutions in the House of Representatives. He asserted that in resuming their natural rights of personal liberty, the slaves violated no law of the U.S. He contended the US should not try to recover them, as it should not take the part of the state. For offering these resolutions, Giddings was attacked by numerous critics. The House formally censured him. He resigned, appealing to his constituents, who immediately reelected him by a large majority. Gidding's return to Congress with the tremendous support of his district was a good sign that antislavery voices were not to be stifled, and that sectional disputes could not be prevented. As further proof that antislavery voices were being heard, the House repealed its "gag rule" three years later.
Giddings' daughter Lura Maria, an active Garrisonian, convinced her father to attend the Garrisonian meetings, rallying his antislavery notions even further. Influenced by the Garrisonians, in the 1850s Giddings identified with perfectionism, spiritualism, and religious radicalism. He claimed that his antislavery sentiments were based on a higher natural law, rather than merely on the Constitution. Taking this new view very seriously, Giddings called the caning of Senator Sumner a crime "against the most vital principles of the Constitution, against the Government itself, against the sovereignty of Massachusetts, against the people of the United States, against Christianity and civilization." Many of these views were reflected in his famous "American Infidelity" speech of 1854.
Giddings often used violent language, and did not hesitate to encourage bloodshed. He talked about the justice of a slave insurrection and the duty of Northerners to fully support such an insurrection. Giddings took a stand against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and advised runaways to shoot at their potential captors.
Giddings led the Congressional opposition by free state politicians to any further expansion of slavery, and condemned the annexation of Texas (1846), the Mexican War (1846-8), the 1850 Compromises, and the Kansas Nebraska Act(1854). Following the war with Mexico, Giddings cast the only ballot against a resolution of thanks to US General Zachary Taylor.
His hatred of slavery led Giddings to abandon his initial allegiance to the Whig party for the Free-Soil party (1848), and in 1854-5, he became one of the leading founders of the Republican party. Giddings campaigned for John C. Fremont and Abraham Lincoln, even though Giddings and Lincoln disagreed over extremism in the pursuit of antislavery. Throughout his life, Giddings was active in the Underground Railroad and was widely known (and condemned by some) for his egalitarian racial beliefs and actions.
In 1859 he was not renominated, and he retired from Congress after a continuous service of more than twenty years. From 1861 until his death at Montreal on the 27th of May 1864, he was U.S. consul general in Canada.
Giddings published a series of political essays signed Pacificus beginning in (1843). These were followed by Speeches in Congress (1853); The Exiles of Florida (1858); and a History of the Rebellion: Its Authors and Causes (1864).
Joshua R. Giddings and his friend and colleague, Benjamin F. Wade were both elected to Congress and spent their careers as outspoken opponents of slavery. Wade was elected president of the Senate during the Johnson administration and, as such, would have become president of the United States had one more senator voted for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Elisha Whittlesey |
United States Representative 16th District from Ohio 1838-1843 |
Succeeded by James Mathews (Ohio) |
| Preceded by New District |
United States Representative 20th District from Ohio 1843-1859 |
Succeeded by John Hutchins |
| Ohio House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by Robert Harper |
Representative from Ashtabula County 1826-1827 |
Succeeded by Lemuel Lee |