American Infidelity is the name of a speech that was delivered in the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

Joshua Giddings Joshua Reed Giddings (October 6, 1795 – May 27, 1864) was an American attorney, politician and a prominent opponent of slavery. He represented Northeast Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1838 to 1859. He was at first a member ...

in February 1858. This speech was one of many congressional speeches intended to arouse passion about the immorality of slavery. It also reflects the rising Republican radical movement of the time, which was at the forefront of the

anti-slavery movement Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

. In this speech, Giddings said that religion and slavery are incompatible. Slavery is like murder, because to deny a human his freedom is to deny him his life. Giddings consequently alleged that all opponents of the Republican Party were infidels.

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

was so supportive of this speech that he wrote an appreciatory letter to Congressman Giddings before reprinting the entire speech in his newspaper, the Liberator. Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.

References

{{Reflist 1858 speeches 1858 in American politics February 1858 events