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The Murder of Elijah Lovejoy, Alton,
Illinois in 1837
"He died a martyr on the altar of
American liberty" |
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Offsite Links:
Illinois State Historical Library
Lovejoy Memorial
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Elijah Lovejoy
Warehouse in Alton, Madison County, Illinois
Lovejoy Monument, Alton, IL
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Who Was Elijah Lovejoy?
The New Editor (Elisha Chester) Speaks Out
A Friend's Description of Events
The Alton Tragedy in Detail
Doctrine of Anti-Slavery
Men What is
Meant by Emancipation?
Recounting of the Murder, Following Owen
Lovejoy's Speech
Monument Plans
Shooter Arrested
Constitution of the United States of America -
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified
12/15/1791
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.

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Who was Elijah Lovejoy?
Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9,
1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterian minister,
journalist and newspaper editor who was murdered by a mob in
Alton, Illinois for his abolitionist views. He had a deep
religious upbringing, as his father was a Congregational
minister and his mother a devout Christian. He attended
Waterville College in his home state of Maine, and graduated at
the top of his class, with first class honors. Afterwards, he
traveled to Illinois, and after realizing that the area was
largely unsettled, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1827.
There, Lovejoy worked as an editor of an anti-Jacksonian
newspaper and ran a school. Five years later, influenced by the
Revivalist movement, he decided to become a preacher. He
attended the Princeton Theological Seminary and became an
ordained Presbyterian preacher. Once he returned to St. Louis,
he set up a church and became the editor of a weekly religious
newspaper, the St. Louis Observer. He wrote a number of
editorials, critical of other religions and slavery. In May
1836, he was run out of town by his opponents after he chastised
Judge Luke E. Lawless, who had chosen not to charge individuals
linked to a mob lynching of a free black man.
Lovejoy moved to Alton, Illinois, where he became editor of the
Alton Observer. On three occasions, his printing press was
destroyed by pro-slavery factions who wanted to stop him from
publishing his abolitionist views. On November 7, 1837, a pro
slavery mob approached a warehouse belonging to merchant
Winthrop Gilman that held Lovejoy's fourth printing press.
Lovejoy and his supporters exchanged gunfire with the mob. The
leaders of the mob decided to burn down Gilman's warehouse, so
they got a ladder and set it alongside the building. They
attempted to climb the ladder to set fire to the warehouse's
wooden roof, but Lovejoy and one of his supporters stopped them.
After the mob set up their ladder along the side of the building
for a second time, Lovejoy went outside to intervene, but he was
promptly shot five times with a shotgun, dying on the spot.
Lovejoy was hailed as a martyr by abolitionists across the
country, and he has since been immortalized through the naming
of monuments or buildings in his honor. His brother, Owen,
subsequently entered politics and became the leader of the
Illinois abolitionists. Lovejoy also had a cousin, Nathan A.
Farwell, who served as a U.S. Senator from Maine. (Source:
Wikipedia.com)
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Alton
Observer, Thursday, December 28, 1837/No. 148 Main St.,
Cincinnati/Elisha W. Chester, Editor and Publisher
Is furnished at $3.00 a year, payable in
six months; $3.50 after six months; or $2.50 paid strictly in
advance. No subscription received for less than one year, unless
paid in advance. No subscription discontinued, unless all arrearages
are paid up, except at the option of the publisher. The Alton
Observer is published for the present as above. In the matter it is,
from necessity, essentially the same at the Cincinnati Journal,
being published at the same place and the Editor being the same.
General Agent of the Observer, Rev. T. B. Hurlbut, Upper Alton,
Illinois, to whom all communications should be addressed and
payments made. E. W. Chester
After a long and painful silence,
the cause of which out readers but too well know, the Alton
Observer once more makes its appearance. The hand that threw a
brilliant light over its pages no longer wields the editorial
pen. The mind that teemed with thought, the heart that sowed
with love, the soul that communed with God in the arduous work
of conducting this paper, devoted to the cause of religion and
benevolence; no more shall enliven us with the scintillations of
genius. Cut off in the midst of his years and usefulness by the
violent hands of those for whom he prayed and whom he would
gladly have blessed. Elijah P. Lovejoy has gone, early, but
ready, to his reward. We contemplate him now a purified spirit
of light and love, dwelling in the glorious presence of Him in
whose service he lived and died. He apprehends the violence
there. "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the
weary are at rest."
The Alton Observer, then, has
changed. It falls into other hands, and is to receive the
impress of its character from other minds. How far this change,
wrought by its enemies, may affect the opinions promulged [made
known] by it, we leave to be discovered by the result. Our
object now is simply to account for the fact that a paper
belonging to Alton should be printed in Cincinnati.
And here we remark, that it is not
because we recognize the right in any man or body of men, except
the editor, to direct or control the movements of this paper, or
any other. We plant our feet upon the Constitution of our
country, and upon the indefeasible rights which pervade all
earthly constitutions; and maintain that any power which
abridges or interferes with the free expression of opinion on
matters of public interest, whether that power is wielded by a
despot or a multitude, is tyranny; and as citizens of what is
called a free republic we protest, and shall continue to
protest, against its exercise.
It it not, therefore, because we
intent to yield to any expertise on the subject. We here
reassert our claim, not to the privilege, but the right
of uttering our sentiments on all subjects, freely, and in all
places. That claim is now reasserted, and the charge is
registered against Alton before the world, and before the Court
of Heaven, to which we appeal, that sacred, precious rights have
been wrested from us by violence and blood.
Until Alton shall "come to herself"
and see the injustice done to her citizens, and the citizens of
the state; or at least discover the fatal effects of this
suicidal act upon her own interests; we must be content to
procure the printing of the Observer from other places. The
thousands who have subscribed for the paper must not be denied
their rights on account of the folly and madness of one little
community.
Perhaps it may be thought that we
are unjust to the citizens of Alton, generally, in the charge
which we bring against Alton as a community, for the outrage
upon the office of this paper and its lamented editor. We mean
not to do injustice to any; and whenever the city of Alton shall
prove that she is not accountable for the crime, we shall take
great satisfaction in recording and publishing the vindication.
We need not remind the sagacious reader that this proof must be
found in acts performed ____ [unreadable], not only to the mobs,
but to the date of this article.
As a vindication of the course
pursued hitherto by the editor of this paper, we give numerous
extracts from various journals of the day, expressing the public
sentiment of the nation. It is consoling, indeed, in the midst
of our deep affliction, to have such abundant testimony from all
parts and all parties in favor of the course which has been
pursued in the efforts to re-establish the Observer in the place
where a mob had destroyed the office. It is extensively seen and
fully recognized that the gist of the struggle on our part was
not abolitionism against anti-abolitionism, but the freedom of
the press against mob tyranny. The question to be settled, was
Whether an American citizen might be allowed to speak as a
freeman. He asserted this right - and for this he died. Such is
the verdict of the public through the land. The exceptions are
few and of little weight. (The foregoing articles were furnished
from Alton).
REV. ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY
(The following notice of the late
editor of the Observer has been kindly prepared by one of our
friends.)
Rev. Elijah Parish Lovejoy was a
native of Albion, in Maine, and was the son of Rev. Daniel
Lovejoy, a Congregational minister. He was born Nov. 9th, 1802,
and would have been 35 years old the morning that he was buried.
He graduated with honor at Waterville College, and soon after
emigrated to Missouri, where for several years he taught school.
He then became editor of the St. Louis Times, a political paper,
advocating the election of Henry Clay to the Presidency, in
which he showed talents of the first order. His mental powers
were superior, especially in the study of languages, in the
acquisition of which he had a remarkable facility, which, if he
had devoted himself to the department of learning, would have
made him one of the first linguists of the country. During the
few first years of his residence at St. Louis, he was destitute
of vital piety, though not a confirmed infidel.
During a revival of religion in that
place in 1832, he was converted, and soon abandoning his
profession, he studied divinity at Princeton, where he was
licensed to preach. Being earnestly invited by some friends of
religion in St. Louis, to edit the "St. Louis Observer," he
consented, and arrived Nov. 11th, 1833, and soon commenced its
publication. His course as an editor was marked with great
boldness and a firm adherence to what he considered the course
of duty. He soon became in developing the character of Romanism
and so fearlessly disclosed its abomination as to excite the
hatred of many of the Catholics in that city. Especially after
the consecration of their Cathedral, in which the troops and the
flag of the United States were engaged, his bold rebukes excited
the bitter hostility of the Catholic populace. He was denounced
as an Abolitionist, and his office was entered and his types
destroyed. His powerful and patriotic appeal to the public
produced a reaction in his favor. He was at this time a
Colonizationist, and strongly opposed to the Abolition societies
and presses, and rebuked them with great plainness. But when the
murder of McIntosh, a colored man, who was burned to death by
the mob took place, and the charge of Judge Lawless was
published, the severity of his rebuke so exasperated the mob,
that they attacked and destroyed his office. He then removed his
paper to Alton. Previous, however, to his going there, he had a
meeting with a number of citizens in which he explained his
course to them. When questioned as to his course in reference to
slavery, he said that in his opinion it was a subject that ought
faithfully to be discussed in our religious and political
Journals, and as an editor he should never relinquish his right
to discuss that or any other subject as he might think it his
duty to do so. "I do not know," said he, "that I shall feel it
my duty to discuss it here as fully as at St. Louis. There,
where its enormities were constantly before me, I felt bound to
life up my voice against it. This I claim as my Constitutional
right - a right which I shall never relinquish to any man or
body of men. To discuss the subject of slavery is not the object
of my paper, except as a great moral subject in connection with
others. My object is to publish a religious journal, which shall
be instructive and profitable to my fellow citizens. As to the
subjects I shall discuss and the manner of doing them, I shall
ever claim the right of determining for myself, always accepting
counsel from others with thankfulness."
The night after the press was
landed, it was destroyed, having been left on the bank of the
river during the night. A public meeting of the citizens was
then called to express their sentiments on this outrage, at
which they took a noble stand that raised the reputation of
Alton abroad as a law-abiding city. At this meeting, Mr. Lovejoy
reiterated in substance the remarks just quoted. He said he did
not come there for the purpose of publishing an abolition paper,
but one strictly religious in which he claimed the right to
discuss any subject, always holding himself responsible to the
laws of his country. He did not ask the citizens of Alton to
grant him the right to publish such a paper or any other. He
claimed this as the right of an American citizen. It has been
stated by some of the abettors of the mob that Lovejoy violated
a pledge made to the citizens, by becoming avowedly the
supported of abolition doctrines, but though he was not an
Abolitionist when he commenced publishing at Alton, yet he never
pledged himself not to discuss the subject of slavery, but
avowed his right and intention to do it. The statement that he
pledged himself not to do so is extremely improbable in itself
considered as well as contrary to the recollection of many who
heard him. Lovejoy was not a man to promise that he would not
discuss any subject, and especially a subject whose evils he had
so long seen, and for speaking of which he had been driven by
violence from his former home. The paper was immediately
published, the title being changed from St. Louis to Alton
Observer. The progressing interest felt by Lovejoy in the
subject of slavery, although he had not yet united himself as a
member with any anti-slavery or abolition society, yet was so
strongly expressed in his paper as to lead to its destruction by
a mob on the 22d of Aug. 1837. Soon after this he openly avowed
his adherence to the cause of Immediate Abolition, and issued a
call for a convention for the organization of a state
Anti-slavery society.
On the 26th of Oct. the Convention
assembled at Upper Alton. A large number of persons not friendly
to the object of the call came in, professing to adopt the
sentiments of the call and enrolled themselves as members and
succeeded in passing resolutions in opposition to the intentions
of those who called the meeting. At this meeting, U. F. Linder,
Esq. and Rev. John Hogan, a Methodist minister, took very
prominent parts and succeeded in their underhanded and
dishonorable designs. The next day however, the friends of the
Abolition cause met at the house of Rev. T. B. Hurlbut and about
sixty delegates being present, they organized a state Society
and elected their officers.
On the following Sabbath, President
Beecher preached in both towns with great plainness and effect
on the subject of slavery. On Monday 30th, several members of
the convention, and some of the principle citizens of Alton, met
in the store of Alexander and Co. to consult on the expediency
of establishing the press again in Alton and defending it. After
much deliberation, it was advised that Mr. Lovejoy go on and
re-establish the press, and that it was the duty of the friends
of free discussion to stand to the last in his defense. This was
the uniform counsel of the friends of order to the last.
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The Alton Tragedy (as printed in the
Alton Observer from the Cincinnati Journal, December 28, 1837,
written by Rev. T. B Hurlbut)
The following account of the late
scene at Alton is reported from the Cincinnati Journal, and is
made up by extracts from letters, the first bearing date
November 8th. Other information corroborates the account which
is more particular in its details, than any other, that has been
given to the public.
My Dear Brother Chester,
I take up my pen to address you
under peculiarly solemn circumstances. I have just returned from
viewing the lifeless corpse of two of our citizens, and from the
bedsides of two others who were wounded. Of the two former, our
brother Lovejoy was one, and of the latter, our mutual and
worthy friend Mr. Roff. Yes, Lovejoy has fallen a victim to the
violence of a band of armed ruffians, fallen nobly too, in
defense of these inalienable rights which were given to him by
God, and guarantied to him by the Constitution.
I grieve and am mortified when I say
it, in such scenes have been acted ever in Alton without the
last week, as would disgrace any town on the coast of Algiers.
Steam boats have been boarded indiscriminately by armed
ruffians. Traveler's goods and boxes of furniture have been
seized and broken open, in quest of printing presses, and their
persons and lives have been threatened, for remonstrating
against, scenes similar to this have been acted over on almost
every boat that has touched our shores within the last week or
ten days.
On Monday night, the obnoxious
press, so long looked for arrived. Its friends had taken the
precaution to have it landed late in the night, when it was
supposed a mob would hardly be raised. They took the further
precaution to have about 50 armed men secreted in the wareroom,
ready for the service of the Mayor, at any moment. While the
press was landing, the spies of the enemy were seen lurking
about, and the sound of their horn was raised, shrill and long.
But whether the enemies of peace and order were buried too deep
in the arms of Bacchus and sleep, or whether they feared the
formidable preparations that were made to receive them I know
not. There were no further molestation than the throwing of a
stone or two, while the press was removed into the wareroom of
Messrs. Godfrey, Gilman & Co. Things remained quiet yesterday,
saving the threats and imprecations that were heard along the
street, against Mr. Lovejoy and the press. Mr. L's life was
threatened openly and repeatedly. Soon after dark, there were
unwonted gatherings in certain coffee houses. Here the spirit of
vengeance which had been ranking in their breasts, was excited
to desperation by spirit behind the counter. By about 10
o'clock, they were prepared for the work.
Accordingly, they repaired to the
warehouse of Godfrey, Gilman & Co. They commenced the attack by
hurling volleys of stones through the windows and doors. Mr. W.
S. Gilman appeared in the door of the 2d story, and addressed
the mob in his peculiarly kind and impressive manner. He
earnestly and affectionately advised them to desist from
violence; told them the property was left with him on storage;
that he was bound to protect it. Assured them that nobody in the
building had any ill will against any of them, and that they
should all deprecate doing any of them, any injury. At the same
time, he assured them that the press would not be delivered up,
but that he and his associates would defend it at the risk and
sacrifice of their lives. He was answered by a fresh volley of
stones. Those inside then disposed of themselves at the
different doors and windows, and prepared to defend it to the
last. They all agreed that no gun should be fired till the doors
were burst open, or till there was some firing from without.
Volley after volley of stones were hurled into the windows and
against the doors, then a gun was fired into the window from the
mob. Presently a 2d gun was fired. The balls were heard to
whistle thro' the window, but neither of them did any injury. At
this juncture one of the party within, with the consent, and by
the advice of the rest, leveled his gun upon the mob. One man
fell mortally wounded. His associates took him up and carried
him away to a physician, and the mob dispersed. The young man
died in about half an hour. The mobites have today taken a great
deal of pains to send abroad the impression that this young man
was a stranger, and was present only as a spectator and took no
part in the riot. But I have ascertained that there is no truth
in this statement. He was a carpenter by trade, and was at work
yesterday for Mr. Roff, and was heard repeatedly to boast during
the day, of the part he intended to act last night. I have just
been told also by a very respectable citizen, that he saw him
just before he was shot, very actively engaged in throwing
stones into the windows. I learn that his name was Bishop,
recently from Genossee Co., New York.
In about an hour after the mob had
had time to revive their spirits, and recruit their courage in
the aforesaid coffee house, they returned with increased
numbers, and armed with guns and muskets, &c. and recommenced
the attack with renewed violence. They formed on the east side
of the store, where there are no doors or windows and
occasionally a fire was given from each party. Whisky was
brought and distributed profusely among them, and all were
exhorted to be "good men and true." Occasionally, one
of the mob was heard to sing out "if any more guns and whiskey
is wanted, away to the French Coffee House." Baffled in the
attempt to gain admittance into the store by the doors and
windows, they resolved unanimously, with a shout which cleft the
air, to fire the building, and "shoot every damned
abolitionist in it, as they should attempt to escape."
Accordingly, a ladder was made, and combustibles prepared, and a
man ascended to the roof. Presently it was in a blaze. Meantime,
the company within sent out a detachment of 4 or 5 of their
number to prevent it. Mr. Lovejoy was one of the number. The man
on the ladder was fired at, and wounded. Just about this time,
Mr. Lovejoy was deliberately aimed at by a man who stood a few
yards from him, and shot down. He jumped up after he was shot,
went into the counting room exclaiming, "I am shot, I am a dead
man," and fell down and expired in a few minutes. Those within
perceiving the building on fire and that it, together with its
valuable contents, must inevitably be destroyed, and the press
which they were defending with it, proposed to capitulate. They
were assured by those without, that if they would withdraw from
the building and leave their arms behind them, not one of them
should be molested. They accordingly left the building, and as
they were going out of the door and turning the corner, almost
every one of them was fired at. Mr. Roff received a ball in one
of his legs; his clothes were perforated with several holes, and
one shot entered his nose near his eye, which bled profusely.
Mr. Weller, of the firm of Gerry & Weller, received a ball in
his leg, but it is thought the bone is not fractured. Several
others have their clothes perforated with balls. They were
pursued and fired after in every direction, till none of them
could be found. The mob then entered unmolested, threw out the
press and demolished it.
At about 2 o'clock, they dispersed.
It is said several of the mobites were seriously wounded. There
were 18 men in the building, with about 36 stand of arms,
besides small arms. They were not desirous of destroying life,
or they might have shot down 50 of the rioters as easily as one.
The Mayor was heard to express the opinion today that there were
of the rioters from 150 to 200 of whom from 50 to 80 were armed.
Our young and worthy Mayor exerted himself, and did what he
could to disperse the mob. But his kind admonitions were only
returned by curses. A certain grog-seller in town stood a short
distance from the Mayor and vociferated [speak or cry out
loudly] that "if any one of their number was arrested by the
civil authorities, he was authorized to say, he should be
rescued by force and arms." What is civil authority here! and
what can civil authority do!
The immediate cause which emboldened
the mob was the same here as that which preceded the famous
riots of your own peaceful city. A public meeting was got up and
resolutions were passed, not driving Mr. Lovejoy from the city,
but just strong enough to excite and embolden the mob to do it.
The late Attorney General of our goodly State took a very
conspicuous part in this meeting. He came out in an inflammatory
speech in which he abused, by every epithet he could command,
Mr. Lovejoy and his associates, and the ministers of religion
generally. He denounced Mr. L. at one time as a very wicked
fellow, at another as a fanatic who was utterly beside himself
and ought to be taken care of. But he did not yet hand him over
to the tender mercies of the mob. O no! I will testify for him,
that he said expressly that "he would not advise that
individuals, property, or person be sacrificed until the
peace of the city required it." But at the same time, he plainly
intimated by the turn of his eye, and the peculiar expression of
his countenance, that that time was not far distant. A reverend
clergyman of our city followed in a speech in which he attempted
to explain the doctrine of expediency, reminded the meeting that
St. Paul's friends thought it expedient on one occasion to let
him down in a basket from the wall and let him go. Whatever may
have been the intention of the speaker, it was manifest that the
audience were willing to construe it as a good precedent for
them to dispose of Mr. Lovejoy.
*****************
...The next morning, after Mr.
Lovejoy's death, his remains were removed, by a few of his
friends, from the warehouse in which he died, to his family. It
was manifest, as the hearse moved through the street, that the
malignity of his enemies, not satisfied by having spilled his
heart's blood, still burned against him. I myself saw their
sneers, and overheard some of their profane jests. One who was
known to have taken a conspicuous part in the tragedy remarked,
that "if he had a fife, he would play the dead-march for him."
The next morning, his friends assembled and quietly deposited
his remains in the narrow house of the tomb. There were no
public exercises except a prayer at his funeral, it being deemed
that silence was the most expressive sermon for the occasion. He
is now where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the
weary are at rest. He rests from his labors, and his works will
follow him.
There is now comparative quietness
in our city. The mob, having triumphed over the laws, have
undisputed control. No steps have yet been taken to arrest the
offenders, although they are well known. Indeed, they boast
openly in the streets of their deeds of valor. Report says,
there has been quite a contention between two or three of the
leaders, as to who was entitled to the honor of shooting
Lovejoy. There is, probably, no city on the civilized globe,
there, when the evidence of guilt is so abundant, and so
palpable, no efforts would be made to bring the offenders to
justice. The magistrates who are not in the interest of the mob,
feel, like all the rest of us, that they are at their mercy.
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The
Doctrines of anti-slavery
men (as written in the Alton Observer, December 28, 1837, Elisha
Chester, Editor)
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Abolitionists hold that "all men
are born free and equal, endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness." They do not believe that
these rights are abrogated, or at all modified by the color
of the skin, but that they extend alike to every individual
of the human family.
-
As the above-mentioned rights
are in their nature inalienable, it is not possible that one
man can convert another into a piece of property, thus at
once annihilating all his personal rights, without the most
flagrant injustice and usurpation. But American slavery does
this. It declares a slave to be a "thing," a "chattel," an
article of personal "property," a piece of "merchandise,"
and now actually holds two and a half million of our fellow
men in this precise condition.
-
Abolitionists, therefore, hold
American slavery to be a wrong, a legalized system of
inconceivable injustice, and a sin. That it is a sin against
God, whose prerogative as the rightful owner of all human
beings is usurped, and against the slave himself, who is
deprived of the power to dispose of his services as
conscience may dictate, or his Maker requires. And as
whatever is morally wrong can never be politically right,
and as the Bible teaches, and as abolitionists believe, that
"righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to
any people," they also hold that slavery is a political evil
of unspeakable magnitude, and one which, if not removed,
will speedily work the downfall of our free institutions,
both civil and religious.
-
As the Bible inculcates [impress
upon the mind by repetition] upon man
but one duty in regard to sin, and that is, immediate
repentance, abolitionists believe that all who hold slaves,
or who approve the practice in others, should immediately
cease to do so.
-
Lastly. Abolitionists believe,
that as all men are born free, so all who are now held as
slaves in this country were born free, and that they are
slaves now is the sin, not of those who introduced the race
in this country, but of those, and those alone, who now hold
them, and have held them in slavery from their birth. Let it
be admitted, for argument's sake, that A. or B. has justly
forfeited his title to freedom, and that he is now the
rightful slave of C., bought with his money, how does this
give C. a claim to the posterity of A. down to the latest
generation? And does not the guilt of enslaving the
successive generations of A.'s posterity belong to their
respective masters, whoever they be? Nowhere are the true
principles of freedom and personal rights better understood
than at the South, though their practice corresponds so
wretchedly with their theory. Abolitionists adopt as their
own, the following sentiments expressed by Mr. Calhoun in a
speech on the tariff question, delivered in the Senate of
the United States in 1833: "He who earns the money - wh digs
it out of the earth with the sweat of his brow, has a just
title to it against the Universe. No one has a right to
touch it, without his consent, except his government, and it
only to the extent of its legitimate wants: to take more is
robbery." Now, this is precisely what slaveholders do, and
abolitionists do but echo back their own language when they
pronounce it "robbery."
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Emancipation
- What is meant by it? (as written in the Alton Observer,
December 28, 1837, Elisha Chester, Editor)
Simply, that the slaves shall cease
to be held as property, and shall henceforth be held and treated
as human beings. Simply, that we should take our feet from off
their necks. Perhaps we cannot express ourselves better than to
quote the language of another southerner. In reply to the
question, what is meant by emancipation, the answer is -
-
It is to reject with indignation
the wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in
man.
-
To pay the laborer his hire, for
he is worthy of it.
-
No longer to deny him the right
of marriage, but to let every man have his own wife, as
saith the apostle.
-
To let parents have their own
children, for they are the gift of the Lord to them, and no
one else has any right to them.
-
No longer to withhold the
advantages of education and the privilege of reading the
Bible.
-
To put the slave under the
protection of law, instead of throwing him beyond its
salutary influence.
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Recounting of
the Murder of Rev. E. P. Lovejoy (as written in the Daily Standard,
Syracuse, New York, April 11, 1860), Following the Statements of His
Brother, Owen Lovejoy
In the speech which created so much excitement in the House
of Representatives last Thursday, Mr. [Owen] Lovejoy, of
Illinois, is reported to have said: “You shed the blood of my
brother twenty years ago, and now I am here, free to speak my
mind.” The Cleveland Herald give an explanation of this
language in the following account of the murder of Rev. Elijah
P. Lovejoy, at Alton, Illinois, in the year 1837:
The Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy was the editor of the Alton
Observer, an anti-slavery paper, printed at Alton, Illinois
right over the river from Missouri.
The press of the Observer was three times destroyed by
a mob; the last time on November 7th, 1837, at which
time Mr. Lovejoy was killed. On the night of the 7th,
a mob collected around the warehouse in which the press was – it
having arrived by the river the day before – and threatened
violence if it was not delivered up to them. Mr. Lovejoy and a
number of friends were in the warehouse and prepared to defend
the press. The mob were told from the warehouse that the press
would not be given up, and the mob commenced the attack.
A shot fired from the building took fatal effect on one of
the mob, named Lyman Bishop, and the mob for a time withdrew.
They, however, rallied again with increased force and set the
warehouse on fire. Then, to escape death by burning, the inmates
were forced to leave, and in doing so the Rev. Mr. Lovejoy, at
the door of the building, received four balls in the breast, and
fell a corpse. The mob bro’t out the press, and having smashed
it, threw the pieces in the river.
That is the outline of the affair. The mob was from the
Missouri side, and the whole outrage perpetrated under the lead
and direction of slavery. The thrilling effect of Mr. Owen
Lovejoy’s remarks to Mr. Clark, of Missouri, can be better seen
in the full glare of the history of that Alton outrage, and
hence we have looked up and revived the important facts.
The blood of Lovejoy stained the name of Alton for many years
– for its municipal authorities were powerless before the demand
of slavery, and that city, to this day, has not recovered from
the blow the death of that man gave her.
Back to the Top
*******************
Shooter
Arrested, The Utica Morning Herald, New York, September 22, 1862
Dr. Thomas Mordecai Hope, of Alton,
Illinois, who boasts that he was the man who shot the
anti-slavery martyr, Lovejoy, was arrested a few weeks since for
using treasonable language.
**********************
Plans for a monument,
The Skaneateles Democrat, New York, January 19, 1865
A meeting has been hold at Alton,
Illinois, to take measures for erecting a monument to Elijah P.
Lovejoy, the first American martyr in the cause of liberty.
**********************
Tanner, The Evening Courier, Buffalo,
New York, March 23, 1874
The possessor of the patent on the
celebrated "Tanner brake" was formerly a well-know citizen of
Alton, Illinois. He was one of Lovejoy's defenders, was in the
building the night when the gentleman fell a victim of mob
violence. Mr. Tanner now resides in Buffalo, New York.
Tanner, The Evening Courier, Buffalo,
New York, January 21, 1875
Mr. Henry Tanner was residing in Alton,
Ill. in 1837, when the early abolitionist, E. P. Lovejoy, was
killed, and was one of the twelve men indicted for defending him
against the mob.
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