Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-11
BORN TO RADICALISM.
Career of One of the Most Remark
able Congressman of War Times.
He WAS REGARDED AS A FANATIC.
Wanted Lincoln to COnfScate the Landed
Estates of the SOuth.
GEORGE W. JULIAN FROM INDIANA
rwR1rTEN FOR THE DISPATCH!

tives during the period of which writ,
would be complete without some notice o
George w. Julian. Julian belonged to
class who have always been regarded op
probriously as fanatics" There is Ger
tain philosophy in fanaticism which has mo-
been generally recognized. Fanaticism ha.
its use and purpose in the world, which in
deed could hardly get along without it. Il
is the fanatic who makes things move. The
only trouble with him is that he is alwav.
in advance of his times. The world rarely
comes up abreast with him, and vet without
him would make little, if any, progress al
al along the line of reform. Fanaticism is
the fuel Of the engine, needed TO put it in
motion, though perhaps not altogether q
safe conductor TO trust with the running OF
the train.
Julian had no sympathy with conservnt-
ism. He was born radical. and had in
herited an aversion to wrong in all its forms
through a long line of Quaker ancestors.
As Burdette says in his humorous biography
Of William Penn, "He was a man OF peace,
and determined to have it if it took a life
time of contention and dispute to get it. !"
This was ,Iulian's fate. Like many others,
he was the creature of heredity and circum-
stance, which he was powerless to control
He was carried forward one the path of life
bv g momentum that he did not create and
was Unable TO resIsa even If he had de-
sired.
A STORMY POLITICAL CAREER.
Julian was born in Centerville, Ind, Nav
B, 1917; received a good common school
education, spent three years in teaching.
studied law and was admitted to the bar in
1910. was member of the Indiana Legis-
lature aud a representative in Congress
from 1S40 TO 1851; was reelected to the
Thirtv-seventh, Thirty-eighth, Thirtv-ninth
and Fortieth Congresses, during which time
he served as a member of the Committee on
the Conduct of the War-a rather strange
assignment for Quaker JuliaE's political
career was an exceptional one. He was one
Of the original Free Soil and Anti-Slavery
lner at a time and in the midst of Influences
that were not only not in sympathy. but
heroely antagonistic 20 his views and it is a
tribute to the remarkable character of the
man that almost single-handed, he was able
to colTert the majority of the people Of his
district to his way of Think 9 and to secuse
their support in his repeated canVasses for
Congress.
Hecarried on the war against slavery at the |
risk Of his life. He had not only to en-
counter the opposition Of his political enc |
mics but also that of members of his own |
party, among whom was Governor Morton, |
sn Acknowledged power in Indiana No |
man was ever more bitterly denounced than !
Julian. The Indianapolis Journal declared /
that he had ''the temper of hedgehog; |
the sdhesiTeHess of a baTnacle: the vindict. |
lveness of e Corsican; the vanity of pes- |
cock; the hypocrisy of Aminadab Sleek, and |
9 H-s.s~ l.. i rTI-.
tainly not a verv iattering picture. Julian |
took it all with unperturbed serenity, and |
seemed rather to enjoy it Nothing sue
ceeds Ike success" And with success
crowning every political contest he could
well afford to laugh at the impotent rage and |
harmless vituperation of his enemies and |
was well repaid for his labors in seeing the |
principles for which he so zealously and he |
roicaliy eontended at last become the settled |
policy OF the whole country, and imbedded |
IN its fundamental law.
HIS PUBLIC LAND LAW
But opposition to slavery was not his |
only hobby, He not only believed in free |
men and frsz soil but also in free homes for |
free men. His attention was early directed |
70 the public land system of the United |
States, of which he acquired a more CON- |
plete knowledge perhaps than any man of |
the Chairmanship of the Committee of Pub |
iic Lands of the House he entered upon a |
cOngenial field Of labor, and addressed him
self with his usual energy and zeal to the |
improvement Of the public land system, and |
espeeialg to the securing of the enactment
of the homestead law, which had, after a
l@ng contest, been enacted in a previous
Congress but had been vetoed by Mr.,
buchanan, because as was believed, it was
distasbeful to his southern friends, and
which finally became a law, by the
of President Lincoln on
May 20, 1862. The Homestead bill as
reported b. Julian's committee was much |
lnutilate4 in its passage through Congress,
and shorn OF carefully guarded provision
passing into the hands of Spectators and |
corpo 'ations, and TO preserve them exclu-
sLvely for homes for American citizens.
7 his nut1latiOn Julian greatly deplored but I
was pOwerless to prevent, and the result he
anticipated and predicted has come about in
the wasteful squandering of empires of land
Dv Co oGress
Julian. as 1 have before indicated. was
radlca.s OF the supreme type. He believed in
cutting down the tree instead OF manurinR
y anc digging about it and trying it a little
He WA W, patient OF Mr.. Lincoln's conserL |
vatisE N dealing with the rebellion, and
thoug ~ 1t required more drastic treatment |
HIS CURE FOR Rebellion.
He favored the condscatfon of the landed
Estates OF rebels as well as the abolition Of
slavery, believing that the former was the
and butsress of the latter. and
reported a bill to confscate such estates
md then survey them in sections and spb-
divisions in accordance with the general
end system, and bring them under the pro. |
vision Of the homes stead law for the benefit ,
n the landler poor of the South. In the
advocacy OF this measure he was partici-
pant In q rather remarkable scene Mal- |
Dry, OF Kentucky, in the course o. some |
eIGarks on the bill, said: "Tne census re- |
ports establish the fact that Sc per cont. of
he oolOred population OF tIe free states
rave white blood in their veins, while only
'ne-ninth OF the slave population show
white blood
census tables as to the fact stated by the
-entleman. 1t may be true, for believe
nulattOs more generally come into the
SottheTn States than those of the darker
olor, and Of course thoir increase will be
nulattOs. The gentleman is not at all re-
ieved, however, by the white blood in the
'eins Of these negroes in the North, for they
AVE emigrated from the South, bringing
With them, perhaps, the blood of the gentle
nan from Kentucky and other distin-
,uiShCd leaders of his party"
The next day, on the report of the debate
pDeSrlng IN the Congressional Globe, Mallory |
ose on question OF personal privilege and
laimed that the allusion to him personally
y Jullani as reported, was not made by
ullan IN his speech, but had been iHterpo-
ated by him in his revision of the reporters
totes PRIOR to thciT being printed, and called
NUMBER of his fellow-Dem ocrats, who
tated uneqgivocally that they had given
7ere quite sure that he had not used the
ToTds.
JULIAN PROVED HIS POINT
Julian replied that he had spoken in de-
ate the exact words complained Of and
allied a number Of his Republican friends to