OHIO
Archaeological and Historical
PUBLICATIONS
JOSHUA REED
GIDDINGS
A CHAMPION OF
POLITICAL FREEDOM.
BY BYRON R. LONG.
There never was a time perhaps when
there was less need
for furnishing material for readers than
just now. The world-
war has been productive of thot and
action such as has enlisted
thousands of good writers who are
keeping record of incidents
and are setting down impressions which
are moving the souls
of men as profoundly as any that human
life has experienced.
The excuse for this wrting differs
little from that given for
any of similar nature. Namely, that men
are apt to forget the
causes which lie beneath the structure
of national life and the
circumstances that have led to the
struggle waged in defence
of and in perpetuation of that life.
Furthermore, there has been
no more fitting time to recall the
incidents of seventy-five years
ago that led up to the conflict which
resulted in the abolition of
slavery as the chief feature of the
achievement of a nation in a
generation.
The recollection of events of that time
bring before the
mind's-eye the actors on the stage in
those wonderful, decisive
days. The question of human slavery was
the burning question
with Americans and it received attention
from many angles of
vision. Strong men withstood one another
in the arena of debate
for and against this evil that struck at
the vitals, both of the en-
slaved and the enslavers.
1.