Josiah
Bushnell Grinnell: Abolitionist
By Kenneth L. Lyftogt
Lecturer in the Dept. of History at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls
The19th century newspaper editor
Horace Greeley is famed for having given the advice "Go west young man,
go west." The recipient of those words was a young Congregational minister
named Josiah B. Grinnell.
Grinnell had started his ministry
as a street preacher in Washington D. C. and New York, City. His public oratory
was much influenced by the growing abolitionist movement. He saw the fight against
slavery as God's fight and he came to devote much of his life to the cause.
He brought his fight to Iowa when, in 1853, he helped found the community that
still bears his name.
Grinnell was a leading force in establishing
the town's first Congregational Church and served as its first minister. He,
later, helped create Grinnell's Iowa College and served the institution in many
positions over the years. He also was instrumental in turning the town into
an important link on the Underground Railroad, the secret escape route used
by slaves escaping from the South.
In March 1859 John Brown, the militant
abolitionist leader, knocked on Josiah Grinnell's door. Brown had been using
Iowa as his jump off point into the battles with pro slavery forces in "Bleeding
Kansas" and was on the run. Grinnell greeted Brown as an ally, gave him
and his party shelter and even invited him to address his congregation. There
was a good deal of criticism of Grinnell for his support of Brown but he never
apologized for, or regretted, his actions.
Grinnell was a principle organizer
of Iowa's new Republican Party and was a delegate to the Republican national
convention of 1860 where he supported William Seward, the strongest anti-slavery
candidate, but was eventually persuaded to vote for the more moderate free-soiler,
Abraham Lincoln.
Grinnell was elected, in 1862, to
Congress, where he quickly earned a reputation as a Republican radical who repeatedly
urged President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and would accept
no compromise with the rebel states, especially on the issue of slavery.
Union victory in the Civil War brought
a new challenge to the nation, that of the question of equality for the former
slaves. Democrats in Congress resisted efforts by Grinnell and the Republican
radicals to advance the cause of "Negro equality." Grinnell was passionate
on the subject and often engaged in spirited debates on the floor of Congress.
In one argument Grinnell became so angry and insulting toward his opponents
that he offended a fellow congressman, a Kentucky "War Democrat" and
former Union soldier. The congressman was so enraged that a day later he and
a group of friends attacked Grinnell on the steps of the capital building. The
assault was not intimidating, Grinnell continued to argue his position.
Grinnell left Congress in 1866, he returned to Iowa, his town, and his college. He remained active in Republican politics and until his death in 1891 and always took great pride in his fight against slavery and the battles in defense of the rights of African-Americans.