James M. Birney

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James M. Birney, 1883

James M. Birney (born June 17, 1817 in Danville , Kentucky , † May 8, 1888 in Bay City , Bay County , Michigan ) was an American politician from Michigan.

Career

James M. Birney, eldest son of Agatha (McDowell) and James G. Birney , US presidential candidate from 1840 and 1844 , was born in Danville in 1817. He spent his early years in Alabama and Kentucky. He attended Center College in Danville and graduated from Miami University in Oxford , Ohio in 1826 . He was then employed as a professor of Greek and Latin for the next two years. He then studied law at Yale College in New Haven , Connecticut . While in New Haven, he married Amanda Moulton, the stepdaughter of Nathaniel Bacon, Esquire of New Haven.

After graduating, Birney settled in Cincinnati , where he practiced as a lawyer until 1856. When his father fell ill, he moved to Saginaw Valley, Michigan , where he took care of his father's business, having made huge investments in what is now Bay City . Birney moved there with his family in the summer of 1857. One of Birney's most significant early acts in civil service was the passage in the Michigan Legislature in 1857, changing the name from "Lower Saginaw" to Bad City. In 1856 Birney received an award for publishing the first city newspaper, the Bay City Press , which had only existed for a few weeks.

Birney was nominated as a Republican candidate for the Michigan Senate in 1858 . At the time, the Senate District was firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party . Accordingly, it was seen as a major achievement when Birney garnered all but five of the district's votes within Bay County . He served a single term in the Senate, where he represented the Saginaw District. During this time he was the chairman of the Committee on Public Instruction and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

In 1860, he was the State Republican Convention as a candidate for the post of Deputy Governor of Austin Blair as candidates for the gubernatorial nomination. Birney was elected to the office with a majority of over 20,000 votes. During his tenure as lieutenant governor, a vacancy occurred in the Michigan 10th District Court, so the governor offered him the post. Birney resigned as lieutenant governor on April 3, 1861, accepted the appointment as judge, and held the post for the next four years. He lost the next judge election, so that Jabez G. Sutherland succeeded him.

After serving as a judge, he founded the Bay City Chronicle as a weekly Republican newspaper in 1871 and began publishing the Morning Chronicle in June 1873 . He was also a delegate for Michigan at the Republican National Convention in 1872 .

In 1872, Governor Henry P. Baldwin Birney nominated US President Ulysses S. Grant as Centennial Commissioner for Michigan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence in 1876. However, he was unable to hold this post because he was appointed US envoy to the Netherlands on December 17, 1875 . He left for The Hague in 1876 and served there until 1882.

Birney died on May 8, 1888 in Bay City and was then buried in the Pine Ridge Cemetery there. He had five children with his wife, Amanda: James G. Birney, Arthur Moulton Birney, Sophia Hull (Blackwell), Alice (Mrs. Frank Blackwell) and one child who died in childhood. The eldest, James G., was a captain in the 7th Michigan Volunteer Regiment and died serving in the regular US Army .

swell

personal data
SURNAME Birney, James M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Danville , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1888
Place of death Bay City , Bay County , Michigan