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George W. Julian
George Washington Julian (May 5, 1817 – July 7, 1899) was a politician, lawyer, and writer from Indiana who served in the United States House of Representatives during the 19th century. A leading opponent of slavery, Julian was the Free Soil Party's candidate for vice president in the 1852 election and was a prominent Radical Republican during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era.
In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him surveyor general of the New Mexico Territory. Julian was the son-in-law of Ohio politician Joshua Reed Giddings and the father of Grace Julian Clarke, a women's suffrage advocate.
George Washington Julian was born on May 5, 1817, near Centerville, in Wayne County, Indiana. His Quaker parents, Isaac and Rebecca Julian, had come to Indiana from North Carolina. Isaac died when George was six years old, leaving Rebecca to raise six children.
Julian received a common school education and especially enjoyed reading. At the age of eighteen Julian began a short-lived career as a schoolteacher, but he became dissatisfied with teaching and switched careers. In 1839 a friend suggested that he become a lawyer. Julian studied in the office Centerville attorney John S. Newman. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1840 and established a law practice in Greenfield, Indiana before moving back to Centerville to become the law partner with his older brother Jacob.
Julian married Anne Elizabeth Finch in May 1845, the same year he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly. The couple had three children (Edward, Louis, and Frederick); two of them (Edward and Louis) died young. Anne died of tuberculosis on November 15, 1860, at the age of thirty-four. Frederick, who became an actor, died in 1911.
On December 31, 1863, Julian married Laura Giddings, the daughter of Joshua Reed Giddings, an abolitionist and a U.S. congressman from Ohio. Julian and his second wife had two children, Grace and Paul. Laura died in 1885. Paul became a civil engineer and died in 1929. Grace Julian Clarke became a clubwoman in Indianapolis as well as a women's suffrage advocate. She was one of the founders of the Woman's Franchise League of Indiana. She retained close ties to her father even after her marriage to Charles B. Clarke, an attorney who served as a U.S. deputy surveyor in the New Mexico Territory and also served in the Indiana Senate. A prolific writer with several published books, she was a newspaper columnist for the Indianapolis Star from 1911 to 1929. Her news articles on the political activities of Hoosier women and their counterparts across the country helped to shape public opinion on women's suffrage and other topics. Grace died in 1938.
Six feet tall and broad shouldered with a bit of a stoop, Julian was impossible to miss. He also proved to be a challenge to his more moderate colleagues because of his unwillingness to compromise. While campaigning for re-election in 1865, Julian engaged in a violent dispute his opponent, Brigadier General Solomon Meredith, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac's famed Iron Brigade. Meredith eventually attacked Julian with a whip at an Indiana train station, lashing him into unconsciousness, which newspapers described as the "Julian and Meredith Difficulty," labeling both men cowards for their involvement.
In 1866 a reporter noticed Julian's "worn, scarred, seamed and earnest face" from the congressional galleries and remarked: "It is not a pleasant countenance to look upon, but rather grim and belligerent, touched perhaps with a little sense of weary sadness, which grows as you observe. Mr. Julian's head, face, and figure, is of the Round-head, Cromwellian type." An 1868 Philadelphia newspaper described a Washington correspondent's observation of Julian at a congressional reception: "Nature was in one of her most generous moods when she formed him," he wrote, "for he towers above the people like a mountain surrounded by hills. He dwells in a higher atmosphere and snuffs a purer air than most Congressmen, and this may account for his always being found in the right place, never doubtful. People know just what George Washington Julian will do in any national crisis."
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George W. Julian
George Washington Julian (May 5, 1817 – July 7, 1899) was a politician, lawyer, and writer from Indiana who served in the United States House of Representatives during the 19th century. A leading opponent of slavery, Julian was the Free Soil Party's candidate for vice president in the 1852 election and was a prominent Radical Republican during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era.
In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him surveyor general of the New Mexico Territory. Julian was the son-in-law of Ohio politician Joshua Reed Giddings and the father of Grace Julian Clarke, a women's suffrage advocate.
George Washington Julian was born on May 5, 1817, near Centerville, in Wayne County, Indiana. His Quaker parents, Isaac and Rebecca Julian, had come to Indiana from North Carolina. Isaac died when George was six years old, leaving Rebecca to raise six children.
Julian received a common school education and especially enjoyed reading. At the age of eighteen Julian began a short-lived career as a schoolteacher, but he became dissatisfied with teaching and switched careers. In 1839 a friend suggested that he become a lawyer. Julian studied in the office Centerville attorney John S. Newman. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1840 and established a law practice in Greenfield, Indiana before moving back to Centerville to become the law partner with his older brother Jacob.
Julian married Anne Elizabeth Finch in May 1845, the same year he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly. The couple had three children (Edward, Louis, and Frederick); two of them (Edward and Louis) died young. Anne died of tuberculosis on November 15, 1860, at the age of thirty-four. Frederick, who became an actor, died in 1911.
On December 31, 1863, Julian married Laura Giddings, the daughter of Joshua Reed Giddings, an abolitionist and a U.S. congressman from Ohio. Julian and his second wife had two children, Grace and Paul. Laura died in 1885. Paul became a civil engineer and died in 1929. Grace Julian Clarke became a clubwoman in Indianapolis as well as a women's suffrage advocate. She was one of the founders of the Woman's Franchise League of Indiana. She retained close ties to her father even after her marriage to Charles B. Clarke, an attorney who served as a U.S. deputy surveyor in the New Mexico Territory and also served in the Indiana Senate. A prolific writer with several published books, she was a newspaper columnist for the Indianapolis Star from 1911 to 1929. Her news articles on the political activities of Hoosier women and their counterparts across the country helped to shape public opinion on women's suffrage and other topics. Grace died in 1938.
Six feet tall and broad shouldered with a bit of a stoop, Julian was impossible to miss. He also proved to be a challenge to his more moderate colleagues because of his unwillingness to compromise. While campaigning for re-election in 1865, Julian engaged in a violent dispute his opponent, Brigadier General Solomon Meredith, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac's famed Iron Brigade. Meredith eventually attacked Julian with a whip at an Indiana train station, lashing him into unconsciousness, which newspapers described as the "Julian and Meredith Difficulty," labeling both men cowards for their involvement.
In 1866 a reporter noticed Julian's "worn, scarred, seamed and earnest face" from the congressional galleries and remarked: "It is not a pleasant countenance to look upon, but rather grim and belligerent, touched perhaps with a little sense of weary sadness, which grows as you observe. Mr. Julian's head, face, and figure, is of the Round-head, Cromwellian type." An 1868 Philadelphia newspaper described a Washington correspondent's observation of Julian at a congressional reception: "Nature was in one of her most generous moods when she formed him," he wrote, "for he towers above the people like a mountain surrounded by hills. He dwells in a higher atmosphere and snuffs a purer air than most Congressmen, and this may account for his always being found in the right place, never doubtful. People know just what George Washington Julian will do in any national crisis."