David of "St. Elsewhere"

Usage examples of birney.

The Birneys were anti-slavery planters of the type of Washington and Jefferson.

While Benjamin Lundy, at the age of twenty-seven, was engaged in organizing anti-slavery societies north of the Ohio River, Birney at the age of twenty-four was influential as a member of the Kentucky Legislature in the prevention of the passing of a joint resolution calling upon Ohio and Indiana to make laws providing for the return of fugitive slaves.

Though not a member of the Constitutional Convention preparatory to the admission of this Territory into the Union, Birney used his influence to secure provisions in the constitution favorable to gradual emancipation.

The condition called for more drastic measures, and Birney decided to forsake entirely the colonization society and cast in his lot with the abolitionists.

Another editor was installed when Birney, who became secretary of the Anti slavery Society in 1837, transferred his residence to New York City.

As soon as Birney became the accepted leader in the national society, there was friction between his followers and those of Garrison.

When Lundy and Birney discovered these plans, their desire to husband and extend the direct political influence of abolitionists was greatly stimulated.

Both Lundy and Birney in their missions to promote emancipation through the process of colonization believed that they had unearthed a plan on the part of Southern leaders to acquire territory from Mexico for the purpose of extending slavery.

Had the vote for Birney, who was again the candidate of the Liberty party, been cast for Clay electors, Clay would have been chosen President.

It was just fourteen years before this election that Birney made a visit to Clay to induce him to accept the leadership of an organized movement to abolish slavery in Kentucky.

Three years later, when Birney returned to Kentucky to do himself what Henry Clay had refused to do, he became convinced that the reaction which had taken place in favor of slavery was largely due to Clay's influence.

The vote at the ensuing election was more than fourfold that given to Birney in 1844.

As we know, Birney had given expression to a similar conviction of the impossibility of maintaining both liberty and slavery in this country, but Lincoln spoke at a time when the whole country had been aroused upon the great question.

Ten years later Birney Jarvis, a San Francisco Chronicle police reporter and former Hell's Angel, described the moment of truth in an article:* * For Male Magazine One hot summer day in 1954, a swarthily handsome devil, sporting a pointed beard and a derby, broadslid his Harley-Davidson to a screeching halt at a motorcycle hangout in San Francisco.

The Hell's Angels Scandals -- Black Boots, Booze, and Highway Broads by Birney Jarvis.