author
George Washington Julian
1817–1899
A fierce antislavery reformer from Indiana, he became one of the best-known Radical Republicans of the Civil War and Reconstruction years. His public life joined politics with a steady push for emancipation, land reform, and woman suffrage.
1 Audiobook
Political Recollections 1840 to 1872
by George Washington Julian
About the author
Raised in Indiana by his Quaker mother after his father died when he was a child, George Washington Julian worked as a teacher, studied law on his own, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He entered politics as an outspoken opponent of slavery and became a leading voice in the Free Soil movement before serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Julian built a national reputation as a reform politician. He served in Congress before the Civil War and again during the 1860s, where he was associated with the Radical Republicans and argued strongly for emancipation, equal rights, and a tougher Reconstruction. He also backed land reform and is closely linked with the era of the Homestead Act.
Later in life, he continued to champion causes that put him ahead of many of his contemporaries, including woman suffrage. Alongside his political career, he wrote about public issues and reform, leaving behind the record of a man remembered less for caution than for conviction.