New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1848-02-26
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JOSHUA R GIDDINos o. on

temporaneous applause. The ignorance, the pre-
iudices. the mistaken interests Of mankind are ar
rayed against him. and depress bis Efforts at re-
formation Whosoever advances in front Of his Sge
is most generally, shot at from behind.
This melancholy truth so patent from the an
nails OF world. has rarely received stronger con
frmation than from the Congressional career Of
Mr.. GrDDNGs
He has been branded as malignant ianatic,-ss
one DESTROYS Of uproo,ing by blind and tempes,u
Gus violence institutions which time has tolerated Il
not sanctioned. of being willing and eager to give
/ habitations 70 the flames, and the innocent the
aged and the helpless 10 the murderous knife, in
criminal qualification Of q morbid and sullen feroe
/ ty No epithe, that the most inventive fury could
supply to blast character conduct or intention. has
/ been withheld from him. He has been denounced
as social bandit stigmAtzed as in all but courage
and opportunity an assassin,-ss one to be placed
/ beyond the pale and all protection OF the law.
/ And all this because he has promulgated prin-
ciple, not aggressive but defer sve,-operatve Ger
tainy but operative only for good-and which
while it INJURIES neither State nor individual, in
clu1es all Freedom within its beneficial influence.
II is the right Of free States or free countries TO
be independent Of the institution Of Slavery, wheth
er as regards aid or sympathy.
For the enuncistion of this truth, he has encoun.
tered malice, hatred and all unohsritsbeness From
review of his life let US see if he deserve the
/ treatment he has received.
The psternsl ancestors OF Mr.. GlDDIs6s emigrs'
ted from Engls and some fifty years subsequent to
the landing Of the earliest Pilgrims, and settled
in Gloucester, Massachusetts,. His grestgrsnd-
father removed to Lynn, in the State OF Connect.
cut about the year 1875, and there his father war
born. In 1883 his grandfather, with his family
changed his residence 10 Hartland in the same
State.
From the latter place. in liza, his father moved
with his family to Bradford County in the stlts r.
Pennsylvania.
His mothers maiden name was Penn, adss-elt-
ant from the family Of John Penn who settled at
Marthas Vineyard about the year 1885.
Mr.. GDDINGs was born in the year 1925 o. e ice
then called "Tioga Point ind now Athens. in
Bradford County. He is consequently at This time
ffytwo years old. His parents were not p.eased
with their residence, the country being rough, IN
cultivated unsettled and left it while he vas but
SIX weeks old and went to Canandaig1s IN the
County Of Ontario and State Of NewYork-s FER.
tile though new country. The family here also tar.
red no great time it seems to have been nomadic
ia its habits for after some few years sojoarn his
father commenced anew his travels and migrated
with els children and focks 10 Ashtabua County In
thv State Of Ohio then but an unreclaimed wilder
ness. During his earlier childhood in Canandsigus'
Mr. GIDDISGs attended District school-not os
such schools are constituted now-but imperfect NJ
character and infrequent in term. The school mas
ter often possessed no other qualification tor his
Office than the want Of capacity for any other
and rather obstrueted than aided the Development
Of the nascent intellect. The absolute rudiments of
all education-tha command Of the alphabet and OF
the power TO make uncertain scrawls-was the sole
acquisition Mr. GIDDISGs extorted from his early
tutor. The wilderness OF Ashtabula County, I'M
broken save by the sparse settlements Of few
hardy pioneers afforded no opportunities OF public
instruction. There were no schools there for many
years after the incoming of the Giddings family.
Family or self instruction was all that could be
commanded. The schoolmaster might have been
on his travels but neither the love Of gain nor the
desire to impsrt instruction, curiosity ever in.
duced him to compete with the wolf or the savage
the control Of Ashtabula County.
But if the means Cf mental education were
sadly deficient OF physical there was generous
abundance. Primeval forests shaded the land, and
demanded for their ex extinction sturdy and otre-
peated strokes of the AK Ii was a labor and i'm
mense fatigue 70 prepare the soil for cultivation.
The tolls Of the day repaired the whole night for re-
covery-there was not much time either for recrea-
ton or domestic instruction.
In tie severest and ever unremitting physical
labor. the youth Of Mr. GIpDIsGs was passed. He
had muscular powers beyond his years and they
were tasked TO the utmost. He excelled other
lads in strength and equslly, in the labor he per
formed and in the hardships he endured Il has
been said Of him by contemporary, that he
accomplished more work and suffered greater hard
ships between the age OF ten and twesty than
any other young man bred up on the frontiers AT
this day we know not what frontier life was d q
suffering, the exposures the moral and physical
calamities Of preceding generation have consti-
tuted the prosperity and intellectual advantages OF
the present.
During the whole period from the tenth b the
twentieth year Of his life, Mr.. GIDDISGs attended
school bat four weeks--many Of our public men
before that latter age have been educated al our
most celebrated Universities who in useful and
practical knowledge, in sound common sense, and
in the adaptation OF means to ends are far behind
this sre of the forest. 1t is the fscuty OF obser.
walton and the force Of impressions that makes the
difference.
The hardships OF Mr.. GDDrSGss early life would
constitute the ground work Of a romance. Tie
making of sugar from the mapletree was his sole
interlude between the telling Of timber and digging
the soil lie frequently slept in the woods du'ins
his engagement therein with no pillow for his held
but the turf he piled up covering bat the canopy
Of the heaven. above him. For weeks together
it sometimes happened that be saw no hsbiistion
nor countenance Of mAn nor had to eat ave
what the forests or the streams afforded. BIS ad'
ventures with the wild beasts, which al .aa. sme
maintained an almost equal contest with Msn for
possession and occupancy of the forest, written
out would undoubtedly afford a rich AID varied
story and the shifts, sometimes ludicroUs some
times perilous, 70 which he was obliged 10 resort
for food or shelter