An American antislavery editor and a founder of the Republican party, Gamaliel Bailey (1807-1859) helped make the antislavery movement a major force in national politics in the mid-19th century.

Gamaliel Bailey was born on Dec. 3, 1807, in Mount Holly, N.J., the son of a Methodist minister. He was raised in Philadelphia, Pa., and graduated in 1827 from Jefferson Medical College. Restless and ill, Bailey shipped out on a trading vessel, which took him to China. He returned home expecting to practice medicine, but instead became the editor of Mutual Rights and Methodist Baptist in Baltimore, Md. When the paper failed, he joined an expedition to Oregon but was stranded in St. Louis, Mo. He walked east to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he settled.

In 1834 the great debate over slavery that took place at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati persuaded Bailey of the virtues of abolitionism. He became secretary of the...