Background
James Birney was born on June 7, 1817, at Danville, Kentucky, United States, the eldest son of James G. Birney.
James Birney was born on June 7, 1817, at Danville, Kentucky, United States, the eldest son of James G. Birney.
Birney's academic education was obtained at Centre College, Danville, and at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, from which latter institution he graduated in 1836. Later he studied law at Yale for two years.
In 1837-1838 Birney taught in the Grammar School of Miami University; then he began to practise law at Cincinnati. He became a trustee of the Saginaw Bay Company, and in 1857 removed to Lower Saginaw (now Bay City), Michigan, where he made his home until his death. In 1859 he was elected to the state Senate as a Republican, and successfully opposed the transfer to the state school fund of the proceeds of the sales of swamp lands given to the state by the federal government in aid of the construction of roads.
From January 1 to April 3, 1861, he was lieutenant-governor, resigning that office to accept an appointment as judge of the eighteenth judicial circuit to fill a vacancy. Although his standing as a lawyer was high, he appears to have been somewhat wanting in judicial temperament, and at the end of four years, notwithstanding that he had been nominated to succeed himself, he failed of election. In the state constitutional convention of 1867, of which he was a member, he was made chairman of a select committee on procedure, and of a committee which reported the provisions for the executive department.
In 1871 Birney established the Bay City Chronicle, changing the paper from a weekly to a daily in 1873. In 1876 he was a commissioner from Michigan to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. Toward the end of that year he was appointed by President Grant minister resident at The Hague, a post which he retained until 1882, when he resigned. At the time of his death he was president of the Bay City board of education.
James Birney was a member of the Republican party, from which he was elected to the Michigan Senate in 1858. He also was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Michigan in 1872.
Birney married, June 1, 1841, Amanda S. , daughter of John and Sophia Moulton of New Haven, Connecticut, and cousin of Commodore Isaac Hull.