ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN 
 
 MELV1N JAMESON 
 
 IFitk Appendix as to t/if Lwvejoy Monument 
 Etc., Etc., Etc.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN 
 
 By 
 MEL^IN JAMESON 
 
 With Appendix as to the Lovejoy Monument 
 Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 
 SCRANTOM, WETMORE & Co. 
 
 Publishers 
 ROCHESTER, N. V.
 
 E. R. ANDREWS PRINTING CO. 
 ROCHESTER, N. Y.
 
 A 4 J& 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFATORY NOT;-: ....... 7 
 
 2 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 13 
 
 1. 1 
 
 "* ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY AS A CHRISTIAN 15 
 
 APPENDIX 66 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 
 
 w SILHOUETTE OF LOVEJOY 5 
 
 % LOVEJOY MONUMENT, ALTON, ILL. . . 66 
 
 HOME OF LOVEJOY, ALTON, ILL. . . 91 
 
 d PORTRAIT OF HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, M. C. 97 
 ^ PORTRAITS OF Two DEFENDERS OF THE 
 
 FOURTH PRESS 105 
 
 uj PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS . . . 106 
 
 LATER PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS 109 
 
 446298
 
 [ From Dffen!( 
 
 Citizens of St. Louis. Nov. S. '35.1 
 
 " The path of duty lies plain before me, and I must walk there 
 though it lead to the whipping-post, the tar-barrel, or even the stake. 
 bold and dauntless in the service of sin: it is not fitting that I should 
 so in the service of my Redeemer. He sought me out when there was 
 help; when I was fast sinking to eternal ruin, he raised me up. and pl 
 on the Rock of Ages; and now shall I forsake him when he has so few 
 and so many enemies in St. Louis.' I can not, I dare not, and, his gr 
 
 ced me 
 friends 
 ace sus- 
 
 Humbly entreating all whom J have injured, whether intentionally or 
 erwise, to forgive me; in charity with all men; freely forgiving my enemies, 
 n those who thirst for my blood, and with the blest assurance, that in life or 
 ith, nothing can separate me from my Redeemer, I subscribe myself. 
 
 Your fellow citizen, 
 
 KI.1JAH P. LOVEJOY."
 
 E occasion of the address, here pre- 
 sented to the reading public was the 
 proposal to erect at Alton, 111., in 1897, 
 a monument to Love joy, who, as patriot and 
 philanthropist, was generally and cordially 
 acknowledged to be worthy of such a tribute. 
 To the present writer, however, as one ac- 
 quainted with his life story,* it seemed de- 
 
 *The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebted- 
 ness to Henry Tanner's book, ''The Martyrdom of 
 Lovejoy, By an Eye-Witness," printed by the Fergus 
 Printing Co., Chicago, 1881, for the facts given of 
 Lovejoy's life, as well as for the extracts introduced 
 from the martyr's utterances with tongue or with pen. 
 The "eye-witness* character of Tanner's testimony 
 seems to vouch satisfactorily for its trustworthiness 
 as what modern historical writers call a "source." He 
 gives also the extended, valuable testimony of two 
 other eye-witnesses, Winthrop S. Gilman, of New 
 York, and Dr. Samuel Willard, of Chicago, both 
 formerly residents of Alton. Since making quota- 
 tions from Mr. Tanner's book the writer has been 
 favored by the loan of a rare copy of the original 
 Memoir of Lovejoy, published in 1838, by his brothers 
 Joseph C. and Owen Lovejoy, to which Mr. Tanner 
 gives credit for much help in the compilation of his 
 book.
 
 8 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 sirable and important that attention should 
 be called to his rare piety and loyalty to Jesus 
 Christ. This aspect of his character was, 
 therefore, presented to the writer's congrega- 
 tion in Alton, at the Cherry Street Mission 
 Chapel, and soon again to the Y. M. C. A. of 
 Alton, and yet once more to the Faculty and 
 students of Shurtleff College in Upper Alton. 
 It is rare for a city to be so undesirably 
 notorious as Alton was for many years, on 
 account of having had the misfortune to be the 
 scene of the first bloodshed in the conflict with 
 the slave-power in ^America. Having become 
 a resident of the city, as pastor of one of its 
 churches, early in 1860, and soon going to Cin- 
 cinnati on a brief visit, the present writer, being 
 introduced as from Alton, 111., to that war 
 horse of Abolitionism, Dr. Nathaniel Colver, 
 received from the massive man the prompt, 
 emphatic response, "Alton! It is core reef with 
 blood!!" At home, reminders of the sad trag- 
 edy in the city's history, though less pro- 
 nounced, might well have been even more
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 impressive to thoughtful men, familiar with 
 the occurrences of the preceding generation. 
 There, for instance, was the house in which 
 Lovejoy resided ; here was the stone building 
 occupied for his printing office, which the mob 
 broke into at night and totally destroyed press 
 and printing material ; here, of course, was 
 the street on which he was waylaid ; there, 
 between the river and the bluff, was the spot 
 where he fell ; and yonder in the cemetery was 
 his sadly neglected grave. Then came the 
 great excitement of the war brought on by 
 slavery on account of which, more than twenty 
 years before, the peace of Alton had been so 
 fearfully disturbed. Then came Owen Love- 
 joy to speak in our City Hall, on behalf of 
 the cause for which his brother died. To that 
 cause he had dedicated his life by the side of 
 his brother's bullet-riddled body, at the home 
 on Cherry street. Then came many hundreds 
 of Confederate prisoners, landing from Missis- 
 sippi steamers, and passing close by the spot 
 where Lovejoy fell, to be safely guarded by
 
 10 ELIJAH PARISH LOVKJOY 
 
 L . S. soldiers in the old penitentiary, a little 
 way up the bluff, overlooking the same historic 
 spot. Scores of these prisoners, hundreds in 
 all, died from disease, and were laid in the 
 Confederate burying ground, on one side of 
 the city, while on the opposite side, in the city 
 cemetery, was the grave of Lovejoy. How 
 natural, in the retrospect, to connect these suc- 
 sessive local incidents in the progress of the 
 irrepressible conflict, with the local tragedy 
 which had marked the violent beginning of 
 that conflict ! Then came Wendell Phillips to 
 stand at the grave of- Lovejoy, as did also 
 Nathaniel Colver. 
 
 Let it not be thought that the confessedly 
 heretofore neglected grave was now forgotten. 
 The present writer was member of a Lovejoy 
 Monument Committee, composed of earnest 
 men, who held meetings at intervals in the 
 sixties of the Nineteenth Century. But, though 
 they met and deliberated, and discussed plans, 
 and would have been glad to do something 
 commendable, they really accomplished noth-
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. ' '11 
 
 ins;-. One member of the committee, Hon. 
 Thomas Dimmock, on his own account, placed 
 over the grave the scroll of Italian marble, on 
 a base of New England granite, which still 
 marks the spot. But that at the time of Mr. 
 Phillips's visit, another and more conspicuous 
 monument was contemplated, let his eloquent 
 letter, printed in the Appendix to this publica- 
 tion, bear witness. The letter was written in 
 1867, thirty years after the martyrdom ; but it 
 was not till thirty years later, 1897, that Air. 
 Phillips's prophecy of a suitable "testimony" 
 was fulfilled. Xo one could be more gratified 
 than the surviving members of the unsuccess- 
 ful committee, over what the later efficient 
 Monument Association was able to accomplish, 
 with the endorsement of the Alton Common 
 Council, the generous contributions of citizens 
 of Alton and others, and the noble appropria- 
 tion of $25,000 by the Legislature of Illinois. 
 What they accomplished will be shown in the 
 Appendix. Very few more welcome oppor- 
 tunities have come to the present writer than
 
 12 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 the privilege afforded him at the Dedication, 
 of giving voice in prayer to the gratitude- of 
 the great assembly for the life, character and 
 influence of the Christian Patriot and Philan- 
 thropist, whom the monument commemorated, 
 and to the earnest desire of that assembly for 
 the welfare in all respects of the millions in 
 whose behalf he was willing even to die. 
 
 Ten years after the delivery of the address 
 suggested by the proposal to erect the monu- 
 ment, as the Seventieth Anniversary of the 
 martyrdom drew near, a paper upon the same 
 subject, by the same writer, was read, with the 
 same purpose, before the Ministerial Alliance 
 of Alton and vicinity. This paper was by them 
 urgently recommended to be printed. It will 
 be found to consist largely of Love joy's own 
 words, with only enough of the story of his 
 consistent life to be a fit setting for the devout 
 utterances of this Stephen of the Nineteenth 
 Century. May many be hereby led to glorify 
 Jesus Christ in him. M. J.
 
 rIE earnest, forceful words, which con- 
 cluded the INTRODUCTION BY JOHN 
 QUINCY ADAMS to the "Memoir of Rev. 
 , Elijah P. Love joy," published in 1838, the 
 next year after the martyrdom, by his brothers, 
 Joseph C., and Owen Love joy, may still be 
 fittingly used, though more than seventy years 
 afterwards, to introduce the same story, now 
 briefly told, since its aim is identical with that 
 of the original Memoir. Mr. Adams wrote : 
 "The incidents which preceded, and accom- 
 panied and followed the catastrophe of Mr. 
 Lovejoy's death, point it out as an epocha in 
 the annals of human liberty. They have given 
 a shock as of an earthquake throughout this 
 continent, which will be felt in the most distant 
 regions of the earth. They have inspired an 
 interest in the public mind which extends al- 
 ready to the life and character of the sufferer, 
 and which it is believed will abide while ages
 
 14 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 pass away. To record and preserve for pos- 
 terity the most interesting occurrences of his 
 life has been considered an obligation of duty, 
 especially incumbent upon the surviving mem- 
 bers of his family ; and in the effusions of his 
 own mind, and the characteristic features of 
 his familiar correspondence, the reader will 
 find the most effective portraiture of the first 
 American Martyr to THE FREEDOM OF THE 
 PRESS, AND THE FREEDOM OF THE SLAVE." 
 
 J. Q. A.
 
 fitjalj 
 
 as a OUjrtHttatt 
 
 T is now full seventy years since the 
 memorable summer of 1837, during 
 which the city of Alton, 111., was the 
 scene of great and growing excitement, mani- 
 festing itself frequently and variously, until 
 it culminated, Nov. 7th, in the violent death 
 of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who fell a martyr 
 in the cause of free speech and a free press. 
 As such a martyr he was immediately lamented 
 and honored throughout the Northern States 
 by thoughtful men who realized how essential 
 was the right of free discussion to the triumph 
 of truth and righteousness, and the permanence 
 of popular government. Inasmuch as the sub- 
 ject which he insisted upon his right to discuss 
 was American slavery, he was regarded, and 
 rightly, as a martyr in the cause of human 
 liberty. He was a lover of his country, willing,
 
 16 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 if need were, to die in the maintenance of 
 rights, absolutely essential to his country's wel- 
 fare. He was a lover of his fellow men, will- 
 ing, if need were, to die in lawful effort to 
 lift the yoke of human bondage. Noble, self- 
 sacrificing patriot and philanthropist ! But ex- 
 alted as these encomiums are, he is worthy of 
 other and even higher commendation, in view 
 of the fact that he was an avowed, fearless 
 servant of God, and a faithful follower of 
 Jesus Christ. In such service and discipleship 
 do we find the fountain head of his patriotism 
 and his philanthropy. It is to set forth, illus- 
 trate and, emphasize the distinctively godly, 
 Christian element in his character that this 
 rapid survey is presented of his consecrated 
 life. 
 
 Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Albion, 
 Me., Nov. 8th, 1802. He was the son of a 
 Congregationalist minister. He was graduated 
 from Waterville College, (now Colby Univer- 
 sity), Waterville, Me., receiving the first honors 
 of his class, and upon coming West, soon be-
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 17 
 
 became editor of a political newspaper, The St. 
 Louis Times, an organ of the Whig party.* 
 Though reared in a Christian home, and edu- 
 cated in a Christian college, he had not yet 
 yielded to the claims of the gospel. But early 
 in the thirtieth year of his age, a glad letter 
 carried the welcome tidings to the New Eng- 
 land parsonage, that the son, long prayed for, 
 had been converted, and was already on his 
 way to Princeton to prepare for the ministry. 
 The following paragraphs from a letter to his 
 parents will show the earnestness of his pur- 
 pose : 
 
 "My dear and honored parents : I wrote 
 you four weeks since, and as you will have 
 learned from that letter, was then in a state 
 of deep distress. Sorrow had taken hold upon 
 me, and a sense of my long career in sin and 
 rebellion against God lay heavy upon my soul. 
 
 *The Memoir by his brothers gives September, 
 1826, as the time of his graduation, and the latter 
 part of 1827, after several months of teaching in an 
 Eastern academy, as the time of his arrival in St. 
 Louis, where he engaged in teaching before becoming 
 editor of a political paper.
 
 18 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 But it pleased God, and blessed be his holy 
 name, to grant me, as I humbly hope, that very 
 night, joy and peace in believing. I was by 
 divine grace enabled to bring all my sins and 
 all my sorrows and lay them at the feet of 
 Jesus, and to receive the blessed assurance that 
 he had accepted me all sinful and polluted as 
 I was. * * * I look back upon my past 
 life and am lost in utter amazement at the per- 
 fect folly and madness of my conduct. * :;: * 
 Do Christians ever feel oppressed, as it were, 
 with the debt of gratitude which they owe to 
 their Redeemer? Why, it seems to me some- 
 times as if I could not bear up under the weight 
 of my obligations to God in Christ, as if they 
 would press me to the very earth, and I am 
 only relieved by the reflection that I have an 
 eternity in which I may praise and magnify 
 the riches of his grace. * * * If God shall 
 spare my hitherto unprofitable life, I x hope to 
 be able to spend the remainder of it in some 
 measure to his glory. Time now with me is
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 19 
 
 precious, and every day seems an age, till I 
 can be at work in the vineyard of the Lord." 
 This letter was dated Feb. 22d, 1832. Doubt- 
 less owing to previous attainments, and to dili- 
 gent application, Mr. Love joy completed his 
 studies the following year, was licensed to 
 preach, and returning to St. Louis, became 
 editor, Xov. llth, 1833. of The St. Louis Ob- 
 server, the organ of the Presbyterians in Mis- 
 souri and Illinois. In this paper he was very 
 outspoken in the exposure and denunciation of 
 wrong doing, and in opposition to errors of 
 faith as well as of practice. Inasmuch as a 
 convention had been called for revising the 
 Constitution of the State of Missouri, he ar- 
 gued and pleaded for an amendment abolishing 
 slavery. The Missouri Republican also, the 
 leading secular journal in this section of the 
 country, strongly advocated the same amend- 
 ment on economic grounds. The Observer 
 called upon Christians to pray the Lord to send 
 a laborer into the state to enlighten public 
 sentiment on this important subject. As to
 
 20 ELIJAH PARISH LOVKJOV 
 
 this laborer the editor says : "We do not want 
 a man from the northern or middle states : \ve 
 want one who has himself been educated in the 
 midst of slavery, who has always lived in con- 
 tact with it, who knows experimentally all its 
 evils, and all its difficulties." 
 
 He was at this earlier period in favor of 
 gradual emancipation and colonization, and 
 was quite moderate in his utterances. But the 
 slaveholding community were not to be satis- 
 fied with moderation in the discussion of the 
 subject. They demanded silence. 
 
 In the fall of 1835 the local excitement had 
 become so intense, with some rumors of a pur- 
 pose to destroy the office of The Observer, 
 that a card was published by the proprietors 
 of the paper and some of the city subscribers, 
 advising the publishers to exclude from their 
 columns all discussions of slavery. This was 
 during Mr. Lovejoy's absence from the city 
 of about three weeks in attendance upon Pres- 
 bytery and Synod. An earnestly persuasive 
 letter was also sent to him personally, to the
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 21 
 
 same effect as the published card, by nine 
 prominent citizens, including the pastor and 
 two elders of the Second Presbyterian church. 
 This letter, carefully preserved, was found 
 among Mr. Lovejoy's papers after his death, 
 with an endorsement made just two weeks 
 previously, which gives impressive evidence 
 that in deciding what to do, he was altogether 
 independent of eVen trusted Christian friends ; 
 for one of the names signed to the letter was 
 that of his esteemed pastor, who had encour- 
 aged him to enter the ministry. The endorse- 
 ment is as follows : 
 
 "I did not yield to the wishes here expressed, 
 and in consequence, have been persecuted ever 
 since. But I have kept a good conscience in 
 the matter, and that repays me for all I have 
 suffered or can suffer. I have sworn eternal 
 opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of 
 God I will never go back." 
 
 E. P. L., October 24, 1837. 
 
 About the time the card was published and 
 the letter sent, (Oct. 1835), a public meeting
 
 22 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 was held in St. Louis to denounce the course 
 pursued by the opponents of slavery. Strong 
 resolutions were passed approving American 
 slavery as Scriptural, denying the right to dis- 
 cuss the subject, and denouncing such discus- 
 sion as seditious. 
 
 Mr. Lovejoy's friends besought him not to 
 return to the city, because he would be in 
 danger. But his wife, though young and an 
 invalid, said, "Go, if you think duty calls you." 
 He did go, and he suffered no personal harm. 
 He soon published a reply to the resolutions 
 passed at the meeting, and an appeal to his 
 fellow citizens, a few sentences from which will 
 show what was the foundation of his firmness 
 and persistence. He wrote : 
 
 "I hope to write in that spirit of meekness 
 and humility that becomes a follower of the 
 Lamb, and at the same time with all the bold- 
 ness and sincerity of speech which should mark 
 the language of a freeman and a Christian 
 minister." 
 
 He quoted an article of the Constitution of
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN*. 
 
 the State of Missouri, which guaranteed to 
 every person the right "to speak, write and 
 print freely on any subject, being responsible 
 for the abuse of that, liberty." After indicating 
 the evils liable to result from the subversion 
 of this right, he wrote : 
 
 "I deem it therefore my duty to take my 
 stand upon the Constitution. Here is firm 
 ground. I feel it to be such, and I do most re- 
 spectfully, yet decidedly, declare to you my 
 fixed determination to maintain this ground. 
 We have slaves, it is true, but / am not one. 
 I am a citizen of the United States, a citizen 
 of Missouri freeborn, and having never for- 
 feited the inestimable privileges attached to 
 such a condition, I cannot consent to surrender 
 them. But while I maintain them, I hope to 
 do it with all that meekness and humility that 
 become a Christian, and especially a Christian 
 minister. I am ready, not to fight, but to suf- 
 fer, and, if need be, to die for them. Kindred 
 blood to that which flows in my veins flowed 
 freely to water the tree of . Christian liberty,
 
 24 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 planted by the Puritans on the rugged soil of 
 New England. It flowed as freely on the 
 plains of Lexington, the heights of Bunker 
 Hill, and fields of Saratoga. And freely, too, 
 shall mine flow, yea, as freely as if it \vere so 
 much water, ere I surrender my right to plead 
 the cause of truth and righteousness before my 
 fellow citizens, and in the face of all their op- 
 posers. * * * The path of duty lies plain 
 before one, and I must walk therein, even 
 though it lead to the whipping post, the tar 
 barrel or even the stake. I was bold and 
 dauntless in the service of sin ; it is not fit that 
 I should be less so in the service of my Re- 
 deemer. He sought me out when there was 
 none to help; when I was fast sinking to 
 eternal ruin, he raised me up and placed me 
 on the Rock of Ages ; and now shall I forsake 
 him, when he has so few friends, and so many 
 enemies in St. Louis? I cannot, I dare not, 
 and his grace sustaining me, / will not. * * * 
 "Fellow citizens, they told me that if I re- 
 turned to the city from my late absence, you
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. ZO 
 
 would surely lay violent hands upon me, and 
 many of my friends besought me not to come. 
 I disregarded their advice, because I plainly 
 saw, or thought I saw, that the Lord would 
 have me come. And up to this moment that 
 conviction of duty has continued to strengthen, 
 until now I have not the shadow of a doubt 
 that I did right. I have appeared openly 
 among you, in your streets and market places, 
 and now I openly and publicly throw myself 
 into your hands. I can die at my post, but I 
 cannot desert it." 
 
 This long defense and appeal closes with 
 these words : "Humbly entreating all whom 
 I have injured, whether intentionally or other- 
 wise, to forgive me ; in charity with all men, 
 freely forgiving my enemies, even those who 
 thirst for my blood, and with the blest assur- 
 ance that in life or death, nothing can separate 
 me from my Redeemer, I subscribe myself. 
 Your fellow citizen, 
 ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY."
 
 26 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 As to his situation in St. Louis, upon his 
 return at this time, he afterwards wrote : 
 
 "I was alone in St. Louis with none but 
 God of whom to ask counsel. But thrice 
 blessed be his holy name. He did not forsake 
 me. I was enabled deliberately and unreserved- 
 ly to surrender myself to Him. I thought of 
 mother, of brothers and sisters, and above all 
 of my dearest wife, and felt that I could give 
 them all up for Jesus' sake. I think I could 
 have gone to the stake, and not a nerve have 
 trembled, or a lip quivered. Under the in- 
 fluence of these feelings, I wrote and sent forth 
 my appeal." 
 
 This Appeal was dated Nov. 5th. 1835. My 
 quotations have, by my purpose, been limited to 
 a single class of passages. . But I must not fail 
 to refer to the great cogency of his arguments, 
 and the aptness of his illustrations in maintain- 
 ing his positions. But forcible argument and 
 telling illustration served rather to exasperate 
 than to convince his adversaries. However, 
 the current of public opposition was somewhat
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 27 
 
 stayed. Some men who cared little for the re- 
 ligious views of the editor as expressed in his 
 paper, said, "The Observer must be sustained, 
 or our liberties are gone." A few sentences 
 from a letter to his brother will tell of the relief 
 that came to the man of God at this critical 
 time : 
 
 "The pressure which seemed as though it 
 would crush me to the earth began to lighten. 
 Light began to break in upon the gloomiest 
 day I have ever seen. I cannot think or write 
 about it without my eyes filling with tears 
 to think of the deliverance which God wrought 
 by so weak and unworthy an instrument as I 
 am." 
 
 Notwithstanding', however, the diminution 
 of public opposition, the original proprietors 
 of The Observer insisted that Mr. Lovejoy 
 should not continue to be its editor, and he 
 cheerfully consented to comply with their re- 
 quest. But the paper was in debt, and press 
 and material passed into the hands of an en- 
 dorser of a note soon to fall due. This new
 
 28 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 owner, to avoid loss, insisted that Mr. Love- 
 joy should continue to be editor, with the 
 understanding that the paper should be re- 
 moved to Alton, 111., on the opposite side of 
 the river, about twenty-five miles distant. 
 This change of ownership seems to have oc- 
 curred late in 1835, but the removal was de- 
 ferred until the following June. 
 
 Meanwhile there occurred in St. Louis, 
 startling events which could not be passed over 
 in silence by a religious newspaper. The 
 lynching of a negro, who had murdered a 
 white man, including the public burning of the 
 negro alive at the stake, was denounced as 
 atrocious, and the charge of the judge to the 
 Grand Jury, practically justifying the mob, 
 was severely condemned in the editorial col- 
 umns of The Observer. Very promptly there- 
 upon, just as the removal to Alton was about 
 to be made, it was well nigh prevented by an 
 attack on the office, resulting in the destruc- 
 tion of much of the printing outfit, Mr. Love- 
 joy's furniture, even, not altogether escaping
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 29 
 
 the rage of his enemies. It was only what 
 escaped this destruction that was shipped to 
 Alton, and left on the levee, where before day- 
 light of the day after its arrival, this remnant 
 of the first press was destroyed and thrown 
 into the river. This occurred in June, 1836. 
 
 At a public meeting of the citizens of Alton, 
 held immediately, this act of violence was dis- 
 claimed, and provision was made for the pur- 
 chase of a new press. It was at this meeting 
 that Mr. Lovejoy in closing his address ut- 
 tered these memorable words : 
 
 "But, gentlemen, as long as I am an Ameri- 
 can citizen, and as long as American blood runs 
 in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty 
 to speak, to write and to publish whatever I 
 please on any subject, being amenable to the 
 laws of my country for the same." 
 
 There is abundant evidence of the utterance 
 of these words by Mr. Lovejoy at this time, 
 even the testimony of ten men, whose names 
 Mr. Tanner gives, describing them as "ten of 
 the most respectable citizens of Alton." The
 
 30 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 fact is of great importance, because his enemies 
 afterwards contended that in coming to Alton 
 Mr. Lovejoy agreed to abstain from the dis- 
 cussion of slavery. 
 
 The summer of 1836, now just at an end, 
 had been a season of much sickness in Alton, 
 which the Love joys had not escaped. How 
 ill prepared physically the editor was to make 
 vigorous use of the new press, expected soon 
 to' arrive, is indicated by the following letter 
 to his mother, dated Aug. 31st, which shows 
 also the Christian spirit of the man. He 
 wrote : 
 
 "Why, when my services are so much need- 
 ed, I should be laid on a bed of sickness, I 
 cannot tell; why, when God has in his wise 
 and holy providence, let loose upon me angry 
 and wicked men, he should also so heavily lay 
 his own hand upon me, I cannot see, but he 
 can, and I desire to submit without a murmur. 
 I can now fed as I never felt before, the wis- 
 dom of Paul's advice not to marry, and yet 
 I would not be without the consolations which
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 31 
 
 my clear wife and child afford me for all the 
 world. Still I cannot but feel that it is harder 
 to fight valiantly for the truth, when I risk 
 not only my own comfort, ease and reputation, 
 and even life, but also that of another beloved 
 one. But in this I am greatly favored. My 
 dear wife is a perfect heroine. Though of del- 
 icate health she endures affliction more calmly 
 than I had supposed possible for a woman to 
 do. Xever has she by a single word attempted 
 to turn me from the scene of warfare and 
 danger; never has she whispered a feeling of 
 discontent at the hardships to which she has 
 been subjected in consequence of her marriage 
 to me, and these have been neither few nor 
 small, and some of them peculiarly calculated 
 to wound the sensibility of a woman. She has 
 seen me shunned, hated and reviled by those 
 who were once my dearest friends ; she has 
 heard the execrations wide and deep upon my 
 head, and she has only clung to me the more 
 closely, and more devotedly. When I told 
 her that the mob had destroyed a considerable
 
 32 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 portion of our furniture, along with their other 
 depredations, 'No matter,' said she, 'what they 
 have destroyed, since they have not hurt you.' 
 Such is woman, and such is the woman -whom 
 God has given me. 
 
 "And now do you ask, Are you discouraged ? 
 I answer promptly, Xo. I have opened my 
 mouth for the dumb. I have pleaded the cause 
 of the oppressed. I have maintained the 
 rights of humanity, and of nature outraged in 
 the person of my fellow men around me, and 
 I have done it, as is my nature, openly, boldly, 
 and in the light of day, and for these things I 
 am brought into these straits. For these 
 things I have seen my family scattered, my 
 office broken up, my furniture as I was mov- 
 ing to this place destroyed ; have been loaded 
 with execrations, have had all manner of evil 
 spoken of me falsely, and finally have had my 
 life threatened, and have lain down at night, 
 weary and sick, with the expectation that I 
 might be aroused by the stealthy step of the 
 assassin. This was the case the last night I
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 33 
 
 spent in St. Louis. Yet none of these things 
 move me from my purpose. By the grace of 
 God I will not, I will not forsake my prin- 
 ciples ; and I will maintain and propagate 
 them with all the means he puts into my hands. 
 The cry of the oppressed has entered not 
 only into my ears, but into my soul, so that 
 while I live I cannot hold my peace." 
 
 A week and and a day later than the date 
 of this letter, the first number of The Alton 
 Obscri'cr was issued, September 8th, 1836, and 
 the paper continued to be published regularly 
 for eleven months. The removal to Alton 
 proved to be a success financially. The cir- 
 culation of the paper was greatly increased. 
 As occasion required, the editor did not fail 
 to express his convictions as to the evils of 
 slavery, which had now become an exciting 
 subject over the whole country. It was espe- 
 cially so in the halls of Congress, where John 
 Quincy Adams, late President of the United 
 States, persisted in presenting petitions from 
 his constituents for the abolition of slavery in
 
 34 ELIJAH PARISH LOVE JOY 
 
 the District of Columbia. This aim was ap- 
 proved by The Alton Observer, which called 
 for names of those who were willing to cir- 
 culate petitions for this object in different 
 counties. A still more obnoxious proposition, 
 however, was a call for the formation of an 
 Illinois Anti-Slavery Society. It was written 
 on July 4th, 1837, and immediately published. 
 Alton was now a city of some four thousand 
 inhabitants, about as large as Chicago. Its 
 prosperity and prospects had attracted men 
 from the South as well as from other parts 
 of the country. It is not strange therefore 
 that there was a response to an anonymous 
 call, made at this time by means of a handbill, 
 summoning all who were opposed to the course 
 taken by The Alton Observer, to meet at the 
 public market, July llth, 1837. At this meet- 
 ing its object was stated to be, "The suppres- 
 sion of Abolitionism." A committee was ap- 
 pointed to wait on Mr. Lovejoy, "to ascertain 
 whether he intends to disseminate through the 
 columns of The Observer the doctrines of
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. ' 35 
 
 Abolitionism." But they were so dilatory in 
 doing their work, that when at length they 
 did communicate with him, he had already, 
 four days before, published an article entitled, 
 "What are the doctrines of Anti-Slavery men ?'' 
 to which he referred them, with a kindly ex- 
 pressed denial of their right to question his 
 liberty of free speech. 
 
 In this article he frankly admits that he 
 now holds views different from those which 
 he formerly held. He then proceeds to de- 
 fine and defend the views of Abolitionists, 
 using the term repeatedly, as, "Abolitionists 
 hold," "Abolitionists believe," etc., in describ- 
 ing and defending their views. He protests 
 against frequent misrepresentations of those 
 views by their enemies. The article clearly, 
 indisputably involves an admission that he has 
 himself become an Abolitionist of the kind he 
 describes and defends. In reading his state- 
 ment of principles, it is difficult to conceive 
 why they did not commend themselves to every 
 reasonable mind. For example, to the ques-
 
 36 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 tion, "How and by whom is emancipation to 
 be effected?" he answers, ''By the masters 
 themselves, and by no others." 
 
 This able article was very extended, and \\ as 
 written under a deep sense of responsibility. 
 He thus concludes : "These principles are 
 eternal and immutable, for they are established 
 by God himself,- and whoever would destroy 
 them must first reach up to heaven and de- 
 throne the Almighty. Sin had well nigh ban- 
 ished them from the earth, when the Son of 
 God came down to reassert them, and died to 
 sanction them. They are summed up perfectly 
 in the language by which the angels announced 
 the object of the Redeemer's mission : 'Glory 
 to God in the highest. On earth, peace, good 
 will toward men.' " 
 
 One or two sentences from The Missouri 
 Republican of this time may serve to indicate 
 the feeling and purpose of pro-slavery men. 
 "The editor of The Observer has merited the 
 full measure of the community's indignation, 
 and if he will not learn by experience, they are
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 37 
 
 very likely to teach him by practice, something 
 of the light in which the honorable and re- 
 spectable portion of the community view his 
 conduct. He has forfeited all claim to the 
 protection of that or any other community." 
 Again, a few days later : "We had hoped that 
 our neighbors would have ejected from 
 amongst them that minister "of mischief, The 
 Observer, or at least, corrected its course. 
 Something must be done in this matter, and 
 that speedily." 
 
 Four days later something was done, as 
 to method and extent quite enough to satisfy 
 even The Missouri Republican, for a mob en- 
 tered the office of The Observer at night, and 
 totally destroyed all that pertained to the pub- 
 lication of the paper. But earlier in the even- 
 ing of the same night, an attack was made 
 upon the editor himself, characteristically 
 planned. The plan was nothing less than to 
 tar and feather him, and then set him adrift on 
 the Mississippi in a canoe secured for the pur- 
 pose. A crowd of men came upon him at about 
 
 446298
 
 38 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 9 o'clock, as he was returning home from a 
 drug store in the city, with some medicine for 
 his sick wife. His own account is as follows : 
 "We reside more than half a mile from town. 
 Just as I was leaving the principal street I 
 met the mob. They did not at first recognize 
 me, and I parted their columns for some dis- 
 tance, and had just reached the rear, when 
 some of them began to suspect who it was. 
 They immediately wheeled their column, and 
 came after me. I did not hurry at all, believing 
 that it was not for such a man as I am to flee. 
 They seemed a little loth to come on me, and 
 I could hear their leaders swearing at them, 
 and telling them to push on, etc. By this time 
 they began to throw clods of dirt at me. and 
 several hit me, without hurting me. And now 
 a fellow pushed up to my side, armed with a 
 club, to ascertain certainly who I was. He 
 then yelled out, 'It's the d d Abolitionist, give 
 him hell,' whereat there was another rush upon 
 me. But when they got close up they seemed 
 again to fall back. At length, a number of
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 39 
 
 them, linked arm in arm, pushed by me and 
 wheeled in the road before me, thus stopping 
 me completely. I then spoke to them, asking 
 them why they stopped me. By this time the 
 cry was all around me, 'd n him, rail him, rail 
 him, tar and feather him, tar and feather him.' 
 I had no doubt that such was to be my fate. 
 I then said to them, 'I have one request to 
 make of you, and then you may do with me 
 what you please.' I then asked them to send 
 one of their number, to take the medicine to 
 my wife, which I begged they would do with- 
 out alarming her. This they promised, and 
 sent one of their, number to do it, who did it 
 according to the promise. I then said to them, 
 'You had better let me go. You have no right 
 to detain me. I have never injured you.' They 
 began to curse and to swear, when I added, 
 'I am in your hands, and you must do with 
 me whatever God permits you to do.' " 
 
 I complete the account in the words of Col. 
 Geo. T. M. Davis, a prominent lawyer of Alton, 
 on whom some of the mob called the same
 
 40 ELIJAH PARISH LOVKJOY 
 
 night to secure his services in their defense 
 should they be arrested. Col. Davis writes: 
 "For a few moments entire silence reigned. 
 At last it was broken by one of the medical 
 men, who made up in part the disguised party. 
 exclaiming, 'Boys, I can't lay hands upon as 
 brave a man as this is,' and turning away was 
 followed by the rest." Mr. Love joy was al- 
 lowed to go quietly home. 
 
 Where Col. Davis obtained his information 
 as to the conclusion of the assault may be in- 
 ferred from the following record in his auto- 
 biography, page 62. "About 11 o'clock that 
 night. I was awakened from sleep by a violent 
 knocking at the door of my residence. Upon 
 my opening it, there stood the two physicians 
 and a third member of their tar and feathering 
 party, impatiently awaiting my appearance. 
 The whole three at one time or another had 
 been clients of mine, and as" soon as I admitted 
 them to my house. Dr. - - related the 
 
 particulars of their escapade, and at the conclu- 
 sion told me the sole object of their visit at
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 41 
 
 so unseemly an hour of the' night was to retain 
 me in advance, should any friends of Mr. Love- 
 joy institute legal proceedings against them or 
 any others of their associates, for an unlawful 
 attempt to do bodily injury to Mr. Love joy/' 
 
 The date of this memorable event was Aug. 
 31st, 1837, and at a later hour the same night, 
 as already stated, the press was destroyed 
 the second press to fall a victim before the 
 violence of the enemies of free discussion and 
 human liberty. 
 
 Immediately offers of a new press were made 
 to the editor, some of them from distant states. 
 The friends of the cause held a meeting at 
 Alton to favor the continued publication of the 
 paper. Money was furnished and a new press 
 was at once ordered. But inasmuch as there 
 was a difference of opinion among his friends, 
 Mr. Lovejoy at first decided to surrender the 
 editorship unconditionally. Afterwards, how- 
 ever, he concluded to leave the decision to all 
 his friends, and if they so advised, to yield his 
 position to a successor. In leaving the question
 
 42 ELIJAH I'ARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 with them he earnestly urged that they act 
 without reference to his personal feelings. He 
 \vrote : "I should be false to the Master 1 
 serve, and of whose gospel I am a minister, 
 should I allow my own interests (real or sup- 
 posed), to be placed in competition with His. 
 Indeed, I have no interest, no wish, at least I 
 think I have none; I know I ought to have 
 none other than such as are subordinate to His 
 will. Be it yours, brethren, to decide what is 
 best for the cause of truth, most for the glory 
 of God, and the salvation of souls, and rest 
 assured whatever my own private judgment 
 may be of my cordial acquiescence in your 
 decision. * * * I am ready to go forward 
 if you say so, and equally ready to yield to a 
 successor, if such be your opinion. Yet let me 
 say, promptly, that in looking back over my 
 past labors as editor of The Observer, while I 
 see many imperfections, and many errors and 
 mistakes, I have nevertheless done the best 
 I could. This I say in the fear of God; so 
 that if I am to continue the editor, you must
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 43 
 
 not on the whole expect a much better paper 
 than you have had." 
 
 As to the esteem in which Mr. Love joy was 
 held, it may be said that he was Moderator of 
 the Alton Presbytery. His friends having been 
 appealed to by him, held a meeting, and after 
 much deliberation expressed their judgment 
 "that The Observer should be re-established, 
 and that Elijah P. Lovejoy ought to continue 
 to be its editor." 
 
 The new press arrived Sept. 21st, an exact 
 month after the destruction of its predecessor. 
 As it was being conveyed to the warehouse, 
 though no one interfered, unfriendly remarks 
 were made by some of the bystanders, showing 
 that the newly arrived packages were recog- 
 nized by them as parts of an "abolition press." 
 Their words of ridicule were that night suc- 
 ceeded by deeds of violence, for before another 
 day dawned, this third press was broken in 
 pieces and thrown into the river. 
 
 An experience of Mr. Lovejoy, about ten 
 days later, at St. Charles, a city across the
 
 44 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 Mississippi, in Missouri, only a few miles from 
 Alton, will show how much more violent his 
 treatment would have been, if he had tried to 
 reside in a slave state. This city was Mrs. 
 Lovejoy's home, and they were visiting 1 her 
 mother, having with them their sick child. Mr. 
 Lovejoy had preached twice on Sunday for his 
 friend, Rev. Wm. M. Campbell, the pastor of 
 the church, who had gone with him to the 
 home of his mother-in-law. While they were 
 conversing Mr. Lovejoy was called for from 
 outside the house. Upon his responding, a~- 
 he wrote, "They immediately rushed up the 
 portico, and two of them, coming into the room, 
 laid hold of me. One of them was formerly a 
 Virginian, the other called himself a Missis- 
 sippian. I asked them what they wanted of 
 me. 'We want you down stairs, d n you/ 
 was the reply. They accordingly commenced 
 attempting to pull me out of the house. And 
 not succeeding immediately, one of them began 
 to beat me with his fists. By this time Mrs. 
 Lovejoy had come into the room. In doing
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 45 
 
 so she had to make her way through the mob 
 on the portico, who attempted to hinder her 
 from coming by rudely pushing her back. 
 She flew to where I was, and throw- 
 ing her arms around me, boldly faced the 
 mobites, with a fortitude and self-devotion, 
 which none but a woman and a wife ever dis- 
 played. While they were attempting, with 
 oaths and curses, to drag me from the room, 
 she was smiting them in the face with her 
 hands, or clinging to me to aid in resisting 
 their efforts, and telling them that they must 
 first take her before they should have her hus- 
 band. Her energetic measures, seconded by 
 those of her mother and sister, induced the 
 assailants to let me go, and leave the room." 
 TUit they soon returned, and although Mrs. 
 Lovejoy was lying upon the bed in a hysterical 
 condition, and Mr. Lovejoy was holding the 
 sick child in his arms, they broke into the room, 
 rushed up to the bedside, and attempted to 
 force him from the house. He adds : "I sup- 
 pose they would have succeeded, had not my
 
 46 ELIJAH PARISH LOVKJOY 
 
 friend, \\'m. A!. Campbell, at this juncture, 
 come in, and with undaunted boldness, assisted 
 me in freeing myself from their clutches. They 
 did not, however, leave the yard of the house, 
 which was full of drunken wretches, uttering 
 the most awful and soul-chilling oaths and 
 imprecations, and swearing they would have 
 me at all hazards. * * * They were armed 
 with pistols and dirks, and one pistol was dis- 
 charged, whether at any one, I do not know. 
 The fellow from Mississippi seemed the most 
 bent on my destruction. He did not appear at 
 all drunken, but both in words and actions 
 manifested the most fiendish malignity of feel- 
 ing and purpose." 
 
 \Yhat these infuriated men would have done 
 if he had fallen into their hands it is easy to 
 conjecture. The only safe course seemed to 
 be to escape beyond their reach. Finding an 
 opportunity of doing this, he slipped away in 
 the darkness, and after going about a mile, 
 secured a horse and was able to reach Alton 
 in safety.
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 47 
 
 Over against the strong and violent pro- 
 slavery sentiment of the South, as indicated by 
 the incident just narrated, there was at the 
 North a correspondingly intense anti-slavery 
 sentiment, nowhere more marked than in 
 Ohio. It is not surprising, therefore, that from 
 that section of the country, as was understood, 
 came the funds for the purchase of a new 
 press, but where it was to be set up was uncer- 
 tain, since a request had been received from 
 Quincy, 111., to make that city the future loca- 
 tion of The Observer, and there were strong 
 reasons for complying with the request. 
 
 But now the time approached for the pro- 
 posed meeting of anti-slavery men at Upper 
 Alton, to form an Illinois Anti-Slavery Society. 
 About two hundred and fifty persons from dif- 
 ferent parts of the state, all north of Alton, 
 had signed the call for this convention. Some 
 of them were aged clergymen, highly esteemed 
 by Mr. Love joy, and he looked to this repre- 
 sentative meeting to decide as to the future lo- 
 cation of the paper. The convention met Oct.
 
 48 ELIJAH PARISH LOYKJOY 
 
 26th, 1837, in the Presbyterian church of Upper 
 Alton. The venerable Dr. Gideon Blackburn 
 was, by general consent, called to the chair. 
 I cannot dwell upon the events of that mockery 
 of a convention. Suffice to say that it was 
 actually captured by pro-slavery men, one of 
 whom, the Attorney General of the state, who 
 in this meeting went so far in the expression 
 of his. anger as to shake his fist in Mr. Love- 
 joy's face, succeeded in having himself put on 
 the Business Committee, with two good men, 
 one of them Dr. Edward Beecher, President 
 of Illinois College. When this committee 
 brought in their report, the Attorney General 
 presented a minority report, which the cap- 
 tured convention adopted, and then, at the end 
 of the second session, adjourned sine die! 
 
 Immediately the real friends of the cause, 
 for which the convention had been called, met 
 at the private residence of Rev. T. B. Hurlbut, 
 formed a State Anti-Slavery Society, and chose 
 Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, Corresponding Secretary. 
 After a full discussion of the question of The
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 49 
 
 Observer, they recommended Mr. Lovejoy to 
 continue its publication in Alton. It is proper 
 to add, however, that many were opposed to 
 this decision without some assurrance from the 
 city of Alton of the maintenance of law and 
 order instead of mob rule. It was therefore 
 not absolutely certain that Air. Lovejoy might 
 not take the paper to Quincy, 111. 
 
 On the 30th of October, in the Presbyterian 
 church at Alton, Dr. Edward Beecher made 
 an address to the friends of free speech, in 
 which he favored defending Mr. Lovejoy 
 against all opposition. He was interrupted by 
 a stone thrown through a window. Immedi- 
 ately the order was given from the gallery, 
 "To Arms," and the church door was at once 
 guarded by armed men. This prevented any 
 further disturbance, and Dr. Beecher finished 
 his address. Such prompt show of readiness 
 to resist violence was the result of a conference 
 between Mr. Lovejoy in company with some 
 of his friends and the Mayor, which had been 
 followed by the organization of a company of
 
 50 ELIJAH PARISH LOVKJOY 
 
 about fifty men. It was some of this company 
 who responded to the order of their captain, 
 and some of the same men defended the fourth 
 press in the warehouse a few days later. They 
 understood that they were acting with the au- 
 thority of the Mayor. 
 
 Only one other meeting remains to be con- 
 sidered a meeting of two sessions. It was 
 held Xov. 2d and 3d, three days after the meet- 
 ing in the Presbyterian church at which Dr. 
 Beecher had been interrupted in his address. 
 At the first session of this last meeting Dr. 
 Beecher presented resolutions, which set forth 
 in positive language the invaluable right of 
 free discussion, and called for the maintenance 
 of this right in behalf of Mr. Love joy and 
 The Observer. These resolutions were re- 
 ferred to a committee of which the aforesaid 
 Attorney General was a member, to report on 
 the following day. At the second session, the 
 following day, a resolution, introduced by the 
 Attorney General, was promptly and unani- 
 mously adopted, limiting participation in the
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 51 
 
 meeting to citizens of Madison county. Others 
 were to consider themselves as only "welcome 
 spectators." Among these Dr. Beecher, of 
 Jacksonville, Morgan County, was of course 
 included. The committee then reported a series 
 of resolutions as a substitute for those referred 
 to them. As finally adopted, the new resolu- 
 tions recommended abstinence from violence, 
 and moderation in discussion, but demanded 
 that the editor of The Observer be no longer 
 identified with any newspaper established in 
 Alton. One member of the committee, how- 
 ever, Winthrop S. Oilman, protested against 
 the substitution of the new resolutions, and 
 expressed .the opinion that "the rigid enforce- 
 ment of the law would prove the only sure 
 protection of the rights of citizens, and the 
 only safe remedy for similar excitements in 
 the future." 
 
 At the close of Mr. Oilman's earnest words 
 of protest, Mr. Lovejoy made his last recorded 
 public address as follows : "Mr. Chairman, it 
 is not true, as has been charged upon me, that
 
 52 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 I hold in contempt the feelings and sentiments 
 of this community with reference to the ques- 
 tion which is now agitating it. I respect and 
 appreciate the feelings and opinions of my fel- 
 low citizens, and it is one of the most painful 
 and unpleasant duties of my life that I am 
 called upon to act in opposition to them. If 
 you suppose, sir, that I have published senti- 
 ments contrary to those generally held in this 
 community, because I delighted in differing 
 from them, or in occasioning a disturbance, 
 you have entirely misapprehended me. But, 
 sir, while I value the good opinion of my fel- 
 low citizens as highly as any one, I may be 
 permitted to say that I am governed by higher 
 considerations than either the favor or the fear 
 of man. I am impelled to the course I have 
 taken because I fear God. As I shall answer 
 to my God in the great day, I dare not aban- 
 don my sentiments, or cease in all proper ways 
 to propagate them. 
 
 "I, Mr. Chairman, have not desired or asked 
 any compromise. I have asked for nothing
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN*. 53 
 
 but to be protected in my rights as a citizen 
 rights which God has given me, and which 
 are guaranteed to me by the Constitution of 
 my country. Have I, sir, been guilty of any 
 infraction of the laws? Whose good name 
 have I injured? When and where have I 
 published anything injurious to the reputation 
 of Alton? Have I not on the other hand, 
 labored, in common with the rest of my fellow 
 citizens, to promote the reputation and inter- 
 ests of this city? What, sir, I ask, has been 
 my offense? Put your finger upon it define 
 it and I stand ready to answer for it. If I 
 have committed any crime, you can easily con- 
 vict me. You have (your) juries, and you 
 have your attorney (looking at the Attorney 
 General), and I have no doubt you can convict 
 me. But if I have been guilty of no violation 
 of law, why am I hunted up and down con- 
 tinually like a partridge upon the mountains? 
 Why am I threatened with the tar barrel? 
 W T hy am I waylaid every day, and from night 
 to night, and my life in jeopardy every hour?
 
 54 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 "You have, sir, as the lawyers say. made up 
 a false issue; there are not two parties between 
 whom there can be a compromise. I plant 
 myself, sir, down on my unquestionable rights. 
 and the question to be decided is, whether I 
 shall be protected in the exercise and enjoy- 
 ment of those rights. that is the question, sir: 
 whether my property shall be protected ; 
 whether I shall be suffered to go home to my 
 family at night without being assailed, and 
 threatened with tar and feathers, and assas- 
 sination ; whether my afflicted wife, whose life 
 has been in jeopardy, from continued alarm 
 and excitement, shall night after night be 
 driven from a sick bed into the garret, to 
 save her life from the brick bats and violence 
 of the mobs; that, sir. is the question." 
 
 This reference to the sufferings of his de- 
 voted wife, on his account, so affected the 
 speaker that he lost his self control, and gave 
 way to grief. A wave of sympathy swept over 
 his hearers, some of whom wept. Even his 
 enemies wete affected. Regaining self control
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 55 
 
 he proceeded : "Forgive me, sir, that I have 
 thus betrayed my weakness. It was the allu- 
 sion to my family that overcame my feelings. 
 Not, sir, I assure you, from any fears on my 
 part. I have no personal fears. Not that I 
 feel able to contest the matter with the whole 
 community. I know perfectly well I am not. 
 I know, sir, you can tar and feather me, hang 
 me up. or put me into the Mississippi without 
 the least difficulty. But what then? Where 
 shall I go? I have been made to feel that 
 if I am not safe in Alton, I shall not be safe 
 anywhere. I recently visited St. Charles to 
 bring home my family, and was torn from their 
 frantic embrace by a mob. I have been beset 
 night and day at Alton. And now if I leave 
 here and go elsewhere, violence may overtake 
 me in my retreat, and I have no more claim 
 upon the protection of any other community 
 than I have upon this ; and I have concluded 
 after consultation with my friends, and ear- 
 nestly seeking counsel of God, to remain at 
 Alton, and here to insist on protection in the
 
 56 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 exercise of my rights. If the civil authorities 
 refuse to protect me, I must look to God ; and 
 if I die, I have determined to make my grave 
 in Alton.". 
 
 One who was present at the meeting bears 
 this impressive testimony : "I cannot attempt 
 to describe his manner. He was calm and 
 serious, but firm and decided. Not an epithet 
 or unkind allusion escaped his lips, notwith- 
 standing he knew he was in the midst of those 
 who were seeking his blood, and notwithstand- 
 ing he was well aware of the influence that 
 that meeting, if it should not take the right 
 turn, would have in infuriating the mob to do 
 their work. He and his friends had prayed 
 earnestly that God would overrule the delibera- 
 tions of that meeting for good. He had been 
 all day communing with God. His counte- 
 nance, the subdued tones of his voice, and his 
 whole appearance indicated a mind in a pecu- 
 liarly heavenly frame, and ready to acquiesce 
 in the will of God, whatever that might be. 
 I confess that I regarded him at the time, in
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 57 
 
 view of all the circumstances, as presenting a 
 spectacle of moral sublimity, such as I had 
 never before witnessed, and such as the world 
 seldom affords." 
 
 Only three days later, Nov. 6th, the fourth 
 press arrived, and was stored in the warehouse 
 of Godfrey and Oilman, being "snugly packed 
 away in our third story, guarded by volunteer 
 citizens with their guns," to use the language 
 of Mr. Oilman, a member of the firm. It was 
 he who had insisted, at the late meeting, that 
 Air. Lovejoy should be protected in his rights 
 of free speech. His conduct corresponded with 
 his expressed opinion. He afterwards wrote : 
 "The Mayor had been consulted by me, and 
 was present when the press was landed, and 
 all arrangements were made, I believe, with 
 his sanction. He told us he would make us all 
 special constables, and would order us to fire 
 on the mob, if we were assailed." The number 
 of well-armed citizens the night the press was 
 received, was about sixty, all ready to defend 
 it by force of arms against all assailants. Mr.
 
 TO ELIJAH PARISH LOVKJOY 
 
 Tanner gives a fac-simile of the order to the 
 party of defenders on the ground floor of the 
 warehouse, as follows : "You will hold your 
 fire until the second and third stories have 
 fired, and don't waste a single charge. Have 
 a light and other preparations to reload." 
 
 It is well to remember these preparations to 
 resist the slave- power, and their significance, 
 to the credit of much stigmatized Alton, which 
 had the misfortune to be the scene of the first 
 bloodshed in the inevitable conflict, that, before 
 it ended, deluged the land with blood. It is 
 a question impossible to be answered with cor- 
 rectness, but for its suggestiveness well worth 
 asking, What town of the size of Alton, on 
 the border of a slave state, would have fur- 
 nished as many volunteers from among its' 
 citizens to arm themselves for the protection 
 of an anti-slavery press at that period of the 
 conflict? Judging from Mr. Lovejoy's own 
 words, such was the spirit of the times, that 
 he did not know a place where he would be 
 safer than in Alton ! 
 It
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 59 
 
 During' the day following the arrival of the 
 fourth press the city was quiet, and in the 
 evening', although the defenders of the previous 
 night assembled, it was with expressions of 
 mutual congratulation rather than of appre- 
 hension. Mr. Oilman, however, intending him- 
 self to stand guard in his warehouse all night, 
 asked some of his friends to remain with him 
 and nineteen remained. About 10 o'clock they 
 became aware that a crowd had gathered. 
 Soon the demand was made for the surrender 
 of the press. Shots were fired on both sides. 
 A man in the mob was killed. Threats were 
 made to set the warehouse on fire. A ladder 
 was placed against the building and a man be- 
 gan to ascend it to carry out the threat. Vol- 
 unteers were called for from the defenders 
 inside the warehouse to go out and fire upon 
 this man. Mr. Lovejby was one of three who 
 responded. Two of the three were hit by shots 
 from the mob. Mr. Lovejoy, shot fatally, five 
 balls being lodged in his body, had strength 
 enough to run up stairs into the counting room.
 
 60 ELIJAH PARISH L-OVEJOY 
 
 where he immediately expired. This was Xov. 
 7th, 1837. The next day he would have been 
 thirty-five years old. 
 
 It is impossible to overestimate the influence 
 of this tragic death, in view of all its aggra- 
 vating circumstances, upon the cause in which 
 the precious life was laid down. Of that in- 
 fluence, Dr. Samuel \Yillard, of Chicago, at 
 the time of the tragedy a resident of Upper 
 Alton, and an intimate friend of Mr. Lovejoy, 
 wrote more than forty years after the event : 
 "The wide-spread and deep indignation that 
 stirred myriads of hearts throughout the land 
 did more to drive nails in the coffin of slavery 
 than Mr. Lovejoy could have done in a long 
 life." Xo better evidence of the impression 
 made by the event upon the minds of thought- 
 ful men could be possible than that afforded 
 by the words of ex-president John Quincy 
 Adams, who wrote so soon afterwards, of its 
 having given "a shock as of an earthquake 
 throughout this continent, which will be felt 
 in the most distant regions of the earth."
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 61 
 
 I will here mention but one instance of this 
 influence the occasion it afforded for the en- 
 trance of Wendell Phillips upon his life-long 
 career of opposition to American slavery. 
 After the news of the Alton riots and the mur- 
 der of Lovejoy reached the city of Boston, an 
 indignation meeting, called by Win. Ellery 
 Channing and kindred spirits, was held in 
 Faneuil Hall., Dec. 8th, 1837. Strong resolu- 
 tions, prepared by Dr. Channing, were pre- 
 sented. These resolutions were opposed by 
 the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts, in an extended speech, in which 
 he likened the rioters of Alton to the "orderly 
 mob," which threw the tea overboard in Boston 
 harbor. He charged Lovejoy with presump- 
 tion, and declared that he "died as the fool 
 dieth." Wendell Phillips, then a young man, 
 was in the audience. Though a lawyer, his 
 voice had never been heard in Faneuil Hall. 
 But he came forward, and answered the Attor- 
 ney General in an impromptu speech, which 
 took the audience bv storm. As to the merits
 
 62 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 of this speech, George \Yilliam Curtis, in his 
 eulogy pronounced at the funeral of Mr. Phil- 
 lips, said that there had been three great 
 speeches in the history of our country one, 
 the speech of Patrick Henry, which closes with 
 the familiar words, "Give me liberty or give 
 me death;" one, (though not in this order of 
 time), the brief address of Abraham Lincoln 
 at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery ; 
 one, the speech of Wendell Phillips, at the 
 meeting held in Faneuil Hall, to denounce the 
 murder of Lovejoy. "These three," said Mr. 
 Curtis, "and there is no fourth." Any one who 
 will read the speech, being familiar with the 
 circumstances of its delivery, will not be dis- 
 posed to dispute this claim for it of surpassing- 
 excellence. We know how determinedly Wen- 
 dell Phillips sprang into the arena, and en- 
 gaged in a life-long conflict with American 
 slavery; what merciless blows he dealt; how 
 he never slacked his hand till the monster lay 
 lifeles? in the dust. 
 
 Two vears after the close of the Civil War.
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 63 
 
 Air. Phillips came to Alton and delivered one 
 of his lectures in the City Hall. The next day 
 he went to the cemetery and stood beside the 
 gra've of Lovejoy. He visited also other mem- 
 orable spots. Before he left the city, he wrote 
 a letter to the Anti-Slavery Standard. The 
 letter is dated Alton. 111.. April 14th, 1867, and 
 is in part as follows : "I lectured here last 
 night, and to-day have been visiting the places 
 made historical and sacred by the labors and 
 martyrdom of Lovejoy. Hitherto the name of 
 the city brought always but one idea to my 
 mind, and I could never hear it or see it in 
 print, without a shudder. A cordial welcome 
 here, and by men who have done good service 
 in the valley of the Mississippi, where the bat- 
 tle was for a time so hot, has broken that spell, 
 and I trust hereafter to think of it as the home 
 of brave and true men. I can never 
 
 forget the quick, sharp agony of that hour 
 which brought us news of Lovejoy's death. 
 We had not fully learned the blood-thirstiness 
 of the slave power. When John Brown con-
 
 64 ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY 
 
 fronted it at Harper's Ferry, we had long 
 known the risk that any man ran who defied 
 the fiend. But twenty years before, Garrison 
 had just waked up to its horrors, and we saw 
 it but blindly. The gun fired at Lovejoy was 
 like that of Sumter it -scattered a world of 
 dreams ! Looking back, how wise as well as 
 noble his course seems ! Incredible, almost, 
 that we should ever have been obliged to de- 
 fend his 'prudence' ! What world-wide bene- 
 factors these imprudent men are the Love- 
 joys, the Browns, the Garrisons, the saints and 
 martyrs ! How prudently most men creep into 
 nameless graves, zvhile noiv and then one or 
 two forget themselves into immortality!" 
 
 Is not exactly this the secret of Lovejoy's 
 consecrated life? He forgot himself in 'his 
 devotion to the welfare of his fellow men. He 
 Io9ked not on his own things but on the things 
 of others, and so this mind was in him, which 
 was also in Christ Jesus. 
 
 As we of Alton, and those who come after 
 us, lift our eyes to the familiar winged figure
 
 AS A CHRISTIAN. 65 
 
 of victory, poised so lightly on the summit of 
 the Love joy monument, as if about to fly 
 abroad, and proclaim in trumpet tones, to all 
 the world, the triumph of free speech and 
 human liberty, let our ears be quick to catch 
 the announcement, in gentler tones, of another 
 triumplv even the triumph of the grace of God 
 in the heart of our now honored fellow citizen, 
 delivering him from all fear of man, and filling 
 him with a great love so akin to love divine, 
 that he counted not his life dear unto himself 
 in his service of his fellow men, but cheerfully 
 resisted evil even unto blood, striving against 
 sin. So shall he, though dead, yet speak to 
 us, and to all who know the story of his life, 
 of a power able and ever ready to help us in 
 our conflict with evil, that we also may serve 
 our generations by the will of God as he served 
 his.
 
 LOVEJOY MONUMENT. 
 
 COST, $30,000. 
 DEDICATED AT ALTON, ILL., Nov. 8, 1897.
 
 Nat? 
 
 The story of ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY, AS 
 A CHRISTIAN, when first told in the preced- 
 ing address, was intended for the information 
 of the people of Alton and vicinity, who were 
 anticipating the erection of a monument in 
 honor of the martyr. These, af course, do 
 not need to be informed as to the Lovejoy 
 monument, for more than ten years past so 
 prominent an object in. the "Bluff City." But 
 it is now hoped that the story, as published in 
 the present form, will have many besides local 
 readers, who cannot but be interested in know- 
 ing how the city of Alton, and the state of 
 Illinois, at length, honored the now famous 
 martyr. A view of the monument is, there- 
 fore, herewith presented, as given in the Sou- 
 venir Booklet distributed by the Monument 
 Association, with a description in detail of 
 the noble structure, and a full report of the im-
 
 68 APPENDIX. 
 
 pressive exercises, and eloquent addresses of 
 the Dedication. The Booklet was admirably 
 prepared by Secretary W. T. Norton of the 
 Monument Association, who has cordially con- 
 sented to the free use of its contents for the 
 information of readers of this publication. 
 While the extracts introduced will necessarily 
 be limited, they will leave no room for doubt 
 that the celebration was altogether worthy of 
 the occasion. The additional information 
 given in the Appendix, and the illustrations 
 presented are pertinent to the subject of the 
 address, and as not otherwise easily, if at all, 
 accessible, will be prized by local as well as 
 other readers. 
 
 The following statement will show the 
 features of the information now appended : 
 
 VlEW OF THE LOVEJOY Moxr.MEXT, WITH DESCRIP- 
 TION IN DETAIL. 
 
 EXERCISES OF DEDICATION. 
 
 PRESIDENT'S ACCOUNT OF THE RISE OF THE MONU- 
 MENT. 
 
 THE LOVEJOY MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES OF Hox. THOMAS DIM- 
 MOCK, REV. J. M. WlLKERSOX, AXD I.IF.UT. GOVERNOR 
 NORTHCOTT. , 
 
 NAMES OF HONORED Gri.srs.
 
 APPENDIX. 69 
 
 ViEW OF THE LOVEJOY HOME IN ALTON, WITH SOME 
 INCIDENTS OF ITS HISTORY, ETC. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, M. C, AND 
 BRIEF STORY OF HIS LIFE. 
 
 THE BRAVE DEFENDERS OF THE FOURTH PRESS. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF WINTHROP S. OILMAN, LOVEJOY'S 
 RESOLUTE CHAMPION. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF HENRY TANNER, ONE OF THE DEFEND- 
 ERS OF THE FOURTH PRESS. 
 
 EARLIER PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 
 
 His TRIBUTE TO THE DEFENDERS OF THE PRESS, AND 
 THE CLOSING PARAGRAP-HS OF HIS FANEUIL HALL 
 SPEECH IN 1837. 
 
 LATER PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 
 
 His LETTER FROM ALTON IN 1867. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT 
 
 "The Monument is emblematic of 'the tri- 
 umph of the cause for which the hero died. 
 The sculptor's ideal was Victory, and that 
 conception has been expressed throughout the 
 entire work. The winged statue of Victory 
 which crowns the main shaft and the exultant 
 eagles with outstretched wings surmounting 
 the sentinel columns, alike express the idea of 
 triumph and consummation. The monument 
 was designed by Mr. R. P. BRINGHURST, of 
 St. Louis, who associated with him Mr. Louis 
 MULLGARDT, of the same place, to arrange the 
 architectural features. The contract was let 
 to the Culver Stone Co., of Springfield, 111., 
 and Hon. L. PFEIFFENP.ERGER supervised the 
 work for the association. The Building com- 
 mittee consisted of Directors L. PFEIFFEN-
 
 70 APPENDIX. 
 
 BERGER, JOHN E. HAYXER and EDWARD LEVIS. 
 with Hon. THOMAS DIM MOCK, advisory mem- 
 ber. 
 
 "The monument, described technically, is a 
 massive granite column some 93 feet high, 
 surmounted by a bronze statue of Victory. 17 
 feet high, weighing 8,700 pounds. This shaft 
 in three sections, weighing respectively 16, 18 
 and 22 tons each, is one of the largest columns 
 in this country. The base consists of a round 
 plinth, square cap, die and base in form of a 
 seat. It stands in the center of a terrace 40 
 feet in diameter, surrounded on three sides by 
 a granite exedra wall 8 feet high on outside. 
 having a seat on the inside. The terrace is 
 floored with 6 inch granite flagging and is 
 reached by seven granite steps. Two large 
 granite pedestals, surmounted by ornate stand- 
 ard bronze tripods, finish the exedra walls. 
 By the steps are two granite sentinel columns 
 30 feet high, surmounted by bronze eagles 8 
 feet over the wings. On each of ,the four 
 sides of the die is a bronze panel with an in- 
 scription. The name of ELIJAH PARISH 
 Lov K.JOY is placed in the back of the seat on 
 the inside of exedra in granite letters about 15 
 inches high. With the exception of the bronze 
 the monument is built entirely of light Barre 
 granite. 
 
 "It is a magnificent piece of work from an 
 artistic standpoint, and as massive and firm 
 as the everlasting hills. Its cost was $30,000.
 
 APPENDIX. 71 
 
 It is worthy of the man and of the cause for 
 which he died. 
 
 THE MONUMENT INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 "The idea of the monument association in 
 preparing the inscriptions was to let LOVEJOY 
 speak for himself in the three-fold capacity of 
 editor, minister of the gospel and opponent of 
 slavery, and a quotation from his writings was 
 placed under each of these heads. The fourth 
 inscription is in honor of the men who stood 
 by him in defense of his rights and risked their 
 lives and property for the same cause. The 
 inscriptions and historical data are : 
 
 (SOUTH FRONT.) 
 (Medallion of Love joy.} 
 ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY, 
 
 EDITOR OF ALTON OBSERVER, 
 
 Albion, Maine, Nov. 8, 1802, 
 Alton, 111. Nov. 7, 1837. 
 
 A MARTYR TO LIBERTY. 
 
 'I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, 
 
 and by the blessing of God, I will 
 
 never go back.' 
 
 (NORTH FRONT.) 
 
 CHAMPION OF FREE SPEECH. 
 
 (Cut of Love joy Press.} 
 'But, gentlemen, as long as I am an Ameri- 
 can citizen, and as long as American blood 
 runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at 
 liberty to speak, to write, to publish whatever
 
 72 APPENDIX. 
 
 I please on any subject being amenable to 
 the laws of my country for the same.' 
 
 (EAST PANEL.) 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 MODERATOR OF THE ALTON PRESBYTERY. 
 'If the laws of my country fail to protect 
 me I appeal to God, and with him I cheerfully 
 rest my cause. I can die at my post but I can- 
 not desert it.' 
 
 (WEST PANEL. ) 
 SALVE VICTORES ! 
 
 This monument commemorates the valor, 
 devotion and sacrifice of the noble Defenders 
 of the Press, who, in this city, on Nov. 7, 1837, 
 made the first armed resistance to the aggres- 
 sions of the slave power in America. 
 
 In addition to these epitaphs in bronze the 
 following explanatory inscriptions are placed 
 on the granite bases below the urns : 
 
 Erected, 
 
 by the State of Illinois, 
 and citizens of Alton, 
 
 1896-97. 
 
 Dedicated, 
 
 in gratitude to ( lod. 
 
 and in the love of Liberty, 
 
 November 8th, 1897." 
 
 EXERCISES OF DEDICATION DAY 
 
 "On Monday afternoon, November 8th, 
 1897, amid "booming of cannon, the cadence of
 
 APPENDIX. 73 
 
 victorious music and the thrill of oratory, the 
 Lovejoy monument was dedicated to the mem- 
 ory of that great man who, as the fearless fore- 
 runner of Emancipation and the champion of 
 the right of free speech will be honored as long 
 as this republic stands. For a generation de- 
 spised by all but the few who stood with him 
 in defense of his rights, for another generation 
 almost forgotten, the work of ELIJAH PARISH 
 LOVEJOY is at last fully vindicated, and the 
 people of the State of Illinois and the citizens 
 of Alton have redeemed the debt of gratitude, 
 so long ignored, by the consecration in his' 
 honor of one of the grandest memorials ever 
 dedicated to any man or any cause. 
 
 "The first feature of the program was the 
 firing of the Governor's salute by the gun crew 
 of the local division of the Naval Militia. This 
 took place at 2 o'clock in Seminary Park, Lieut. 
 Governor NORTH COTT being present with 
 members of the Association, and Lieutenant E. 
 Y. GROSSMAN commanding the gun. 
 
 "The scene was then changed to the Temple, 
 where was gathered one of the largest audi- 
 ences ever brought together in Alton on any oc- 
 casion. All the Altons were represented, the 
 students of Shurtleff College and cadets of the
 
 74 APPENDIX. 
 
 Western Military Academy, together with the 
 Naval Militia, being there in full force. There 
 were also many strangers present, who had 
 come from other states to be here on this oc- 
 casion, and occupying a box on the east side of 
 the house were several members of the Love- 
 joy family, relatives of the martyr, who were 
 come to see this glorious vindication of his 
 life and work. On the stage were the mem- 
 bers of the Association, the speakers, other 
 guests of honor, the White Hussar band and 
 chorus, the latter composed of over fifty 
 voices, and under the leadership of Prof. W. 
 D. ARMSTRONG. Mr. E. P. WADE, President 
 of the Association, had charge of the exercises. 
 "The program opened with music by the 
 band, a stirring overture superbly rendered. 
 The invocation was offered by Rev. M. JAME- 
 SON, D. D., one of the members of the Associa- 
 tion of 1867. Then came the song 'America' 
 beautifully rendered by the chorus." 
 
 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
 
 President E. P. Wade, of the Monument 
 Association, then told of the rise of the monu- 
 ment, referring to desultory intentions in ear-
 
 APPENDIX. 75 
 
 Her years of members of the press and other 
 citizens, the existence in 1867 of a Monument 
 Association which collected a small sum of 
 money, the individual act of Hon. Thomas 
 Dimmock in placing over the grave a marble 
 scroll on a granite base, and securing the 
 means to build a protecting wall around the 
 lot. He then referred to the incorporation of 
 the Lovejoy Monument Association, Jan. 2, 
 1886, which however, did not really set to 
 work until some eight years later, when with 
 the endorsement of the Common Council of 
 Alton, and the earnest advocacy of the late 
 Hon. Chas. A. Herb, State Senator, an ap- 
 propriation of $25,000 was secured from the 
 Legislature, the bill passing unanimously in 
 the Senate, and with only three dissenting 
 votes in the House. This result was doubtless 
 largely due to the general support of the press 
 of the State. The $5,000 needed additionally 
 was contributed by citizens of Alton and sev- 
 eral others interested in the object.
 
 76 
 
 CoXTRIIJUTORS OF THE $5.000 
 
 An analysis of the receipts acknowledged in 
 the published Treasurer's Report, shows 99 
 separate contributions from Alton ; from other 
 places in Illinois, 28; Missouri, 10; Kansas. 3; 
 Nebraska, 1 ; Indiana, 3 ; Ohio, 1 ; Xew York, 
 4 ; Xew Jersey. 2 ; Massachusetts, 4 ; Connec- 
 ticut, 2; Vermont, 2. Though the contribu- 
 tions from the ten states besides Illinois 
 amounted to but $165.18, they showed a wide- 
 spread interest. 
 
 LOVEJOY MoXf.MKXT ASSOCIATIOX 
 
 The -erection -of the monument was due to 
 the persistent efforts of the members of the 
 Monument Association, and to the \vork of 
 those whom they were able to call to their 
 assistance. It is well to give these names as 
 part of this account of the Monument. 
 
 EDWARD P. WADE, President. 
 
 WM. AKMSTKONT,, / 'icc-I'rcsidcnt. 
 
 Jmix E. HAYXKR. Treasurer. 
 
 W. T. XORTOX, Secretary. 
 
 ("HAS. lIoi.MHx. As^t Secretary.
 
 APPENDIX. 77. 
 
 BOARD OF DIRECTORS I 
 
 EDWARD P. WADK L. PFEIFFENBERGER 
 WILLIAM ARMSTRONG GEORGE D. HAVDKN 
 JOHN E. HAYNER YV. A. HASKELL 
 W. T. NORTON DAVID R. SPARKS 
 
 CHAS. HOLDEN HENRY WATSON 
 
 HENRY C. PRIEST ISAAC E. KELLEY 
 EDWARD LEV is H. G. M'PiKE 
 
 JOHN A. COUSLEY. 
 
 DEDICATORY ADDRESSES 
 
 Only extracts can be given from the elo- 
 quent addresses heard with great interest at 
 the Dedication. The first was by Hon. THOS. 
 DIM MOCK, of St. Eouis, who had done more 
 than anyone else to perpetuate the memory of 
 Love joy. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. THOS. DIM MOCK 
 
 "There is not, so far as I know, in any 
 country such a monument as this to one not 
 distinguished either in war or statesmanship. 
 Yet not one of those thus distinguished has 
 deserved monumental honors better than the 
 man who was neither soldier nor statesman, 
 and whose onlv and all-sufficient claim to pub-
 
 78 APPENDIX. 
 
 lie gratitude is his sublime devotion to great 
 and precious principles, and his willingness to 
 die- for them. 
 
 "For a few choice souls there is immortality 
 here as well as hereafter. In yonder grave a 
 little handful of dust is all that is left of the 
 mortal part of Lovejoy. But his spirit, 'the 
 vital spark of heavenly flame/ that made him 
 what he was, still lives and breathes and burns 
 not only here among us to-day, but wherever 
 his story has been told the wide world over. 
 And so it must always be as long as unselfish 
 and heroic manhood is recognized and appre- 
 ciated on this earth. Such immortality as 
 Lo.vejoy unconsciously achieved is worth living 
 for aye, and worth dying for. The granite 
 and the bronze raised to perpetuate his mem- 
 ory, must sooner or later yield to the inexora- 
 ble assaults of time, and mingle again with the 
 original elements from whence they came. 
 But that memory, vivified by the deathless 
 spirit, can never perish it is eternal. He does 
 not need this monument. It is we who need 
 to give it him. We cannot afford to longer 
 withhold such-grateful memorial from one who 
 has taught us, at such cost, the priceless lesson 
 that 'It is necessary^ that a man be true not 
 that he live.' 
 
 "Lovejey's name and fame have long since 
 gone far beyond the narrow circle in which he 
 moved while living, a comparatively unknown 
 man. He has passed into history; he is an
 
 APPENDIX. 79 
 
 historical personage and no history of any 
 value of the period to which he belongs can 
 ever be written without doing full justice to " 
 his character and to his work. He was a fore- 
 most figure in that long and desperate strug- 
 gle beginning in peace and ending in war 
 which swept human slavery, from American 
 soil forever. In that struggle he occupied a 
 unique position which, I think, has not re- 
 ceived the attention its peculiar features de- 
 serve. He was the first man to publish an 
 anti-slavery paper in a slave state; and, as we 
 know, continued the publication until it was 
 made impossible by the destruction of printing 
 material and threats of worse things to come. 
 He was certainly the first man and thank 
 God, the last ! to lose his life for publishing 
 an anti-slavery journal in a free state. 
 ###*.#**# -.;< 
 
 " 'God buries his workmen, but carries on 
 His work' said John Wesley, one of the 
 greatest of the world's great men. To the few 
 faithful friends, who, sixty years ago, followed 
 Love joy's coffin to this then neglected spot, 
 it must have seemed, as they stood around that 
 lonely grave, as if the work God had given 
 him to do ended in dismal failure, and that 
 his sun had gone down in the darkness of 
 hopeless defeat. But we see now that the work 
 was carried on to triumphant and enduring 
 success, and that temporary defeat was only 
 the gateway to glorious victory.
 
 80 APPENDIX. 
 
 "The column we dedicate to-day is a Column 
 of Victory. The sentinel eagles at its base are 
 the Eagles of Victory. The colossal figure that 
 crowns its summit is the Angel of Victory. 
 
 "All hail ! All hail ! All hail ! to this victor. 
 whose laurels are stained with no blood but his 
 own ! 
 
 "Long may this column stand, a consecrated 
 monument to faith and courage in a righteous 
 cause! Long may this column stand, a noble 
 reminder of Milton's noblest line 'Peace hath 
 her victories no less renowned than war !' 
 Long may this column stand, to tell in mute 
 yet most eloquent language that 
 
 " 'Whether on scaffold high, 
 
 Or in the battle's van, 
 The fittest place for man to die. 
 
 Is WHERE HE DIES FOR MAN.' " 
 
 The next speaker was Rev. J. M. WILKER- 
 SON, pastor of the A. M. E. Church, who spoke 
 as the representative of the colored people. 
 His remarks were most happily received. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. MR. WILKERSOX 
 
 "The exercises of to-day would not be com- 
 plete without some one of the race, whose 
 right he, Lovejoy, so bravely defended, speak-
 
 AIM'KNDIX. 81 
 
 ing words in favor of his noble actions. He 
 dared to speak for the negro, at a time when 
 the negro was not permitted to speak for him- 
 self. 
 
 "Monuments reflect and perpetuate the prin- 
 ciples and actions of those in whose honor 
 thev are erected, and should alike represent 
 the principles maintained by those erecting 
 them. The monument that we dedicate to-day 
 represents the ideal American citizen, Elijah 
 P. Love joy, who laid down his life for the 
 rights that belonged to him ; not him only, but 
 the rights of every American citizen, be he 
 rich or poor, white or black, the right to 
 think, write or print that thought, subject to 
 the law of the land. Thank God the day has 
 come when we, as American citizens, have but 
 one master, and that master is the law, and to 
 its behest every true American citizen will bow. 
 The unwilling should be made to bow by the 
 mandates of its power. I am here as the rep- 
 resentative of the 8,000,000 negroes, who, for 
 the principles spoken and printed by Lovejoy, 
 and the fortunes of war, have become citizens. 
 We love the name of Lovejoy for his manly 
 courage in standing up for the rights of men 
 and attesting that principle with his life. The 
 keeping of his grave being submitted to the 
 negroes, I would just say that the interest 
 manifested by us in the past may reflect our 
 action in the future. Every position of honor
 
 82 APPENDIX. 
 
 and trust placed in the hands of the negroes 
 by city, county, state or nation, has been filled 
 with such fidelity as reflects honor on the race. 
 Give us the blessings and punishments of the 
 law. We ask nothing more and will not quiet- 
 ly submit to anything less. 
 
 "In conclusion I would just say that I am 
 unlike many of my race, who are continually 
 trying to apologize for being black. I have 
 never felt it to be necessary for me to apologize 
 for God Almighty. If he, in his great wisdom, 
 saw fit to make me a black man, and another 
 a white man, that is none of my business, 
 neither is it yours. Those who think that God 
 made some mistake about the matter, I refer 
 them to Him for settlement of the matter and 
 not me. The manhood of the negro has been 
 sufficiently tried and he is not found wanting. 
 When a dark cloud hung over this nation and 
 her destiny was trembling in the balance, the 
 negro rushed to the front and helped to save 
 her flag from the impending danger ; he fought 
 to save the flag of this country, when he had no 
 country of his own. Let me say to you to-day, 
 you may safely rely on the 8,000,000 negroes 
 in any impending danger of this country. We 
 have some little clouds that trouble us on ac- 
 count of wicked prejudices, but I like that 
 little song that we sometimes sing, 'We shall 
 know each other better, when the mists have 
 rolled awav.' '
 
 APPENDIX. 83 
 
 The final address was delivered by Lieut. 
 Governor W. A. XORTHCOTT, who had come to 
 represent the Governor of the State. 
 
 ADDRESS OF LIEUT. GOVERNOR NORTHCOTT 
 
 ****^:**** 
 
 "Here in Alton, sixty years ago, appeared 
 the first cloud of the impending storm. A man, 
 persecuted and driven from a sister state, came 
 here to make his home and exercise the rights 
 guaranteed him by the laws of his country, 
 'the right to speak, to write, and to publish 
 whatever he pleased upon any subject.' He 
 brought with him his wife and little child, and 
 he felt that he ought to be protected by the 
 laws and the flag of his country, the country 
 his fathers had fought to establish. He be- 
 lieved in the great principle of human liberty 
 and his right to advocate it. He met opposi- 
 tion, as he would have met it at that time any- 
 where within the confines of this Republic 
 bitter, stern, unrelenting opposition. Why 
 should this man place himself in antagonism 
 to his fellow man ? Why should he seek to 
 disturb the existing order of things ? He had 
 his home and his family, and by abandoning 
 this' contest he could have lived in comfort and 
 in harmony with his fellow men. Why should 
 he have brought upon himself and family, so- 
 cial ostracism, and why should he have en-
 
 84 APPENDIX. 
 
 gaged in a contest that brought to his sick and 
 feeble wife daily anxiety, terror and even mob 
 violence? How could he have had the heart 
 and courage to expose her, whom he loved, 
 to these terrors and dangers ? He was not re- 
 sponsible for human 'slavery he was but one 
 man among many. It would have been easier 
 for him to have drifted with the tide and ac- 
 quiesced in all these things. 
 
 "But this was not to be. He 'rather held it 
 better men should perish one by one, than that 
 earth should stand at gaze like Joshua's moon 
 in Ajalon.' He put behind him his love for 
 his wife and child, and his tender care for 
 their welfare, and with no thought for the pre- 
 servation of his own life, walked through this 
 garden of Gethsemane. even as One before 
 him had walked because of his great love for 
 humanity. In his heart burned the fires of 
 liberty that could not be quenched. This in- 
 spiration drove him with relentless force on its 
 course. It was with him when he appealed to 
 his fellow citizens and said 'if the civil authori- 
 ties refuse to protect me I must look to God, 
 and if I die, I am determined to make my grave 
 in Alton.' 
 
 "The death of Lovejoy inspired the oratory 
 of Wendell Phillips, whose words rang out in 
 favor of liberty like a call to battle. It lent 
 strength to the noble Garrison in Massachu-
 
 APPENDIX. 85 
 
 setts ; it was with John Brown when he died 
 at Harper's Ferry. It inspired Lincoln in his 
 great debates with Douglas, here upon the 
 prairies of Illinois so open that truth could 
 find no hiding place. 
 
 "Then the storm which had been gathering 
 for more than a half century broke with all its 
 fury and violence. And upon its winds rode 
 the spirit of Lovejoy. It heard the thunders 
 of the guns at Sumter, as they challenged this 
 young republic to do battle for its existence. 
 It stood with the legions of Illinois before the 
 fiery mouths of the cannon at Fort Donelson, 
 when was given to a faltering cause the cour- 
 age of a first great victory gained. It waited 
 with Grant in front of Yicksburg until that 
 place gave way before his grim determination. 
 It was with Meade when his cannon from the 
 heights of Gettysburg threw shrapnel into the 
 ranks of Lee's defeated army. It fought with 
 the boys in blue above the clouds at Missionary 
 Ridge, and when they met the storm of leaden 
 hail and de?.th at Chickamaugua. It marched 
 with Sherman to the sea, and rode with Logan 
 in front of his victorious troops at Atlanta. 
 It heard the glad acclaim of the people when 
 the bottom dropped out of armed rebellion 
 upon the field of Appomattox. It witnessed 
 the grand review at Washington, when no 
 braver and better soldiers ever formed the pha- 
 lanx of Csesar or followed the eagles of Napo- 
 leon, than those battle-scarred veterans, who
 
 86 APPENDIX. 
 
 marched down the streets of the national capi- 
 tal, cheered by all Christendom. 
 
 "Then it saw 'lifted into the forum of the 
 constitution to shine forever and ever like a 
 star, the great principle of the equality of all 
 men before the law.' It saw the shackles fall 
 from four million slaves and saw them lifted 
 from chattels to the rights of American citi- 
 zenship. And then this river, whose waters 
 once mingled with the blood of Love joy, in its 
 joyous march to the gulf and from the gulf 
 to the sea, told no story of Illinois, sang no 
 song of Missouri. In it was hot heard the 
 name of any state, but in that ceaseless mur- 
 mur between two great oceans was heard a 
 grand anthem to the American Republic. In 
 it was heard the voice of a nation, proclaiming 
 the will of the people. It now flows by the 
 home of no slave and no bondman. 
 
 "Through the death of Lovejoy, through the 
 blood and tears of a great war, there was 
 breathed into this nation the breath of a broader 
 national life. Human slavery was abolished, 
 state sovereignty was dead ; liberty of thought, 
 of speech and of publication was established. 
 And if such things be, then the spirit of Love- 
 joy hovers around the poor black man, once a 
 slave, now a freeman, hearing the tinkling of 
 the school bell as it calls on the children of his 
 people to advance. 
 
 "At the request of Governor Tanner, whose 
 representative I have the honor of being, and
 
 APPENDIX. 87 
 
 upon the invitation of your committee, I feel 
 it a proud honor to accept from your hands, in 
 behalf of the State of Illinois this beautiful 
 monument. Here in historic old Alton Alton 
 that slew him, and Alton that defended him ! 
 Alton whose people to-day with one heart and 
 one mind, pluck from oblivion this wreath of 
 immortality and place it around the memory of 
 Lovejoy. Love joy and Alton ! Names as in- 
 separable and as dear to the people of Illinois 
 as those of Lincoln and Springfield, Grant and 
 Galena." 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE EXERCISES 
 
 "Following Lieut. Gov. NORTHCOTT'S ad- 
 dress the chorus sang: 
 
 Praise God from whom all blessings flow, 
 Praise Him all creatures here below, 
 Praise him above ye heavenly host, 
 Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 
 
 "The audience then dispersed after benedic- 
 tion by Rev. H. K. SANBORNE, pastor of the 
 Presbyterian Church, and member of the Pres- 
 bytery of which Mr. LOVEJOY was Moderator 
 at the time of his death."
 
 88 APPENDIX. 
 
 AT THE CEMETERY 
 
 "After the close of the exercises at the Tem- 
 ple several carriage loads of visitors, escorted 
 by members of the Association, were driven to 
 the cemetery to inspect the memorial. The 
 monument looked very imposing, and its beau- 
 ty, and suggestiveness were much admired, 
 while its solidity and massiveness attracted uni- 
 versal comment. The great bronze urns on 
 the pedestals had been filled with beautiful 
 flowers and trailing vines, while the space be- 
 tween the base of the monument and granitoid 
 pavement was covered with evergreens. The 
 grave of LOVEJOY, [a little distance from the 
 monument, and still marked as described in 
 Mr. Phillips's letter], was decorated with an 
 immense floral wreath of beautiful design 
 which entirely encircled the tablet, and over it 
 drooped the stars and stripes, the beautiful 
 banner of Alton Post, No. 441, Grand Army 
 of the Republic, which was loaned by the veter- 
 ans for the occasion." 
 
 HONOKKI) ( i TESTS 
 
 Among the notable persons present from 
 abroad were four members of the Lovejoy
 
 APPENDIX. 89 
 
 family connection, viz. : Mrs. John A. An- 
 drews, of Boston, Mass., niece of the martyr, 
 being daughter of Rev. Jos. C. Love joy, of 
 Cambridge, Mass.; two nephews of Lovejoy, 
 Messrs. E. P. and C. P. Lovejoy, of Princeton, 
 111., they being sons of the late Congressman, 
 Hon. Owen Lovejoy, and Hon. W. O. Love- 
 joy, of Galesburg, 111.
 
 ulhe Untieing ifflttt* in Alton, tuttlt 
 sntu? tnribrnis tn tta iftatnrg, rtr. 
 
 ^nmp nf E. $1. Hntir;og, Alton, 3111. 
 
 CHERRY STREET, BETWEEN SECOND AND THIRD 
 
 In this humble home Mr. Lovejoy lived with 
 the wife and child of whom he wrote : "I
 
 92 Al'l'KXDIX. 
 
 would not be without the consolations which 
 my clear wife and child afford me, for all the 
 world." To this home he came alone, when 
 the mob in St. Charles, Mo., had prevented 
 his bringing his family with him. To this 
 home, where his wife was lying seriously ill, 
 he came quietly and unharmed on the night 
 of Aug. 21st, 1837, when he had been waylaid 
 on Second street by a mob, which intended to 
 tar and feather him, but overawed by his fear- 
 less trust in God, had dispersed without laying 
 a violent hand upon him ! 
 
 There is no better place than this for a brief 
 reference to the personality of the man whose 
 residence in this house made it a sacred spot. 
 Mr. Tanner writes: "Mr. Lovejoy was of 
 medium height, broadly built, muscular, of 
 dark complexion, black eyes, with a certain 
 twinkle betraying his sense of the humorous, 
 and with a countenance expressing great kind- 
 ness and sympathy. His demeanor among 
 friends manifested meekness and patience, 
 which nothing short of the controlling power
 
 APPENDIX. 93 
 
 of the Christian religion could have produced 
 in ope possessed of a will so strong and a 
 nature so energetic. There probably had not 
 lived in this century a man of greater single- 
 ness of purpose in bearing witness to the truth, 
 or one who was more meek and peaceful ; or 
 more courageous in maintaining principle in 
 the face of passionate opposition." Dr. Sam- 
 uel \Yillard endorses this estimate of Air. Love- 
 joy. He writes : "As I recall him, there comes 
 up such a man as Mr. Tanner describes, and 
 a round pleasant face, full of good humor, and 
 beaming with kindness and gentleness. I saw 
 him in the midst of the excitement of the at- 
 tempted anti-slavery convention, and witnessed 
 the wonderful calmness and mildness of his 
 demeanor when all about him were excited, 
 and the Attorney General shook his fist in 
 Mr. Love joy's face, so near that he lacked 
 not much of striking him. He was not in 
 the least a Boanerges or 'son of thunder,' but 
 a gentle man, always. His firmness was not 
 that of passion or obstinacy, but the gentle
 
 94 APPENDIX. 
 
 persistence of one who felt that he was right, 
 and that he must prevail as the sun prevails 
 against winter, by mild shining and not by 
 storm. There was no bitterness in his heart, 
 no venom on his tongue, no sound of fury in 
 his voice. He is entitled to be ranked with 
 the St. John of tradition, or the sweet St. 
 Francis di Assissi of the Catholic Church. Xo 
 man seemed less fitted to stand foremost in a 
 great struggle ; and yet that dreadful lot befell 
 him ; and we see that it was best that he should 
 be such a man, so that, to use the words of the 
 poet, 'his virtues might plead like angels, 
 trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation 
 of his taking off.' " 
 
 Mr. Tanner makes the following interesting 
 but pathetic statements as to Mrs. Love joy : 
 "Her maiden name was Celia Ann French, and 
 her former residence was St. Charles. Mn. 
 She was a fragile and beautiful girl of 21. when 
 he married her in 1835. She died some years 
 since (that is, some years before 1881), with- 
 out ever having entirely recovered from the
 
 APPENDIX. 95 
 
 trials of 1837. Before her death, she became 
 quite poor, passed several days at my house, 
 a broken-down, prematurely old person, pos- 
 sessed of scarce a trace of her early beauty. 
 The prophecy regarding her, made in 1837, 
 that 'her strong heart would break down her 
 physical frame,' was indeed most sadly veri- 
 fied." Mrs. Lovejoy was not at home at the 
 time of her husband's death. 
 
 From the house on Cherry St. the martyr 
 was buried, but not till after Owen Lovejoy, 
 as he has himself left on record, "went into 
 a room where the dead body was lying, and 
 there alone with the dead and with God, vowed 
 on his knees, never to forsake the cause that 
 had been sprinkled with his brother's blood." 
 
 The house remained standing more than 
 fifty years after the martyrdom, when it was 
 taken down to make room for another edifice. 
 A few citizens familiar with its history, availed 
 themselves of the opportunity to secure me- 
 mentos from the ruins. Chief among these 
 were two old fashioned wooden mantels, be-
 
 96 Ai' 
 
 fore which, without a doubt, the man of God, 
 at his family altar and in secret prayer, had 
 often strengthened himself for the great con- 
 flict from which no opposition could compel 
 him to withdraw.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 97 
 
 "It is as preposterous to think of taking 
 slavery down through the civilisation of the 
 
 ages, as to think of floating an iceburg throngli 
 the tropics." Speech in Congress, 1860.
 
 Irof lOtfr teg of !?r 
 H. dL 
 
 It were easier to write a long story of the 
 life of this remarkable man, whose influence 
 was so great in the halls of 'Congress, and when 
 he stood' before the people. After his death, 
 Mr. Lincoln wrote of him, "It would scarcely 
 wrong any other to say, he "^'as my most gcn- 
 crous friend." This valued friendship began 
 long before Mr. Lincoln became President, 
 and continued "with increasing respect and 
 esteem, no less than affection" on Mr. Lincoln's 
 part, as he himself testified, until Mr. Love- 
 joy's death in 1864. During nearly all the 
 time of his brother's residence in Alton, Owen 
 Lovejoy was intimately associated with him, 
 and being more than eight years younger, he 
 pursued under his instruction theological 
 studies, with the intention of entering the min- 
 istry. Reference has already been made to the
 
 APPENDIX. 99 
 
 influence of his brother's martyrdom in making 
 him a life-long antagonist of slavery. The 
 year after the tragedy, 1838, he removed to 
 Princeton, 111., and became pastor of a small 
 Congregationalist church, said to have been 
 the earliest of that denomination in the state. 
 Here he labored effectively as pastor for sev- 
 enteen years. His preaching was attractive, 
 and his congregations often rilled the house, 
 some of his hearers having driven eight or ten 
 miles from the surrounding country. He was 
 always outspoken as to the evils of the liquor 
 traffic and American slavery. His opposition 
 to these evils was part of his religion. He 
 became a recognized leader of Reform in his 
 section of the state; and was at length sent to 
 Congress, where he was also an acknowledged 
 leader of great ability and alertness. A brief 
 booklet prepared by Rev. D. Heagle, a brother 
 minister, gives the only published account of 
 a life of great influence, which deserved a more 
 extended record. From that account the facts 
 already given are obtained, as is also the fol-
 
 100 APPENDIX. 
 
 lowing specimen of readiness in Congression- 
 al debate. 
 
 "When Abraham Lincoln was meditating 
 the issuing of his Emancipation Proclamation, 
 John J. Crittenden of Kentucky attempted 
 in the House of Representatives to dissuade 
 him from the purpose, saying among other 
 eloquent things, that if Lincoln could save 
 the country without disturbing slavery, there 
 was a 'niche awaiting him near to that of 
 Washington ; so that the founder and preserver 
 of the Republic should stand side by side.' To 
 this Mr. Lovejoy replied : 'The gentleman from 
 Kentucky says he has a niche for Abraham 
 Lincoln. Where is it?' Crittenden pointed to- 
 ward heaven. Then said Lovejoy : 'He points 
 upward. But, sir, if the President follows the 
 counsel of that gentleman, and becomes the 
 perpetuator of slavery, he should point down- 
 ward, to some dungeon in the temple of Mo- 
 loch, who feeds on human blood, and where 
 are forged chains for human limbs ; in the 
 recesses of whose temple woman is scourged
 
 APPENDIX. 101 
 
 and man tortured. * * * That is a suit- 
 able place for the statue of him who would 
 perpetuate slavery. But I, too, have a niche 
 for Abraham Lincoln. It is in Freedom's holy 
 fane ; not surrounded by slave fetters and 
 chains, but with the symbols of freedom ; not 
 dark with bondage, but radiant with the light 
 of liberty. In that niche he shall stand proud- 
 ly, nobly, gloriously, with broken chains and 
 slaves' whips beneath his feet. Let Lincoln 
 make himself the Liberator, and his name 
 shall be enrolled, not only in this earthly 
 temple, but it shall be traced on the living 
 stones of that temple which is reared amid the 
 thrones of heaven.' " 
 
 During the first Lincoln campaign in -I860, 
 Owen Lovejoy came to Alton and made a 
 political speech in the City Hall, to a great 
 throng of spellbound hearers of whom the 
 writer was one. During his speech he made 
 no allusion to the tragedy which had so in- 
 fluenced his life. But in conclusion he uttered 
 the following words, as recalled by Hon.
 
 102 APPENDIX. 
 
 Thomas Dimmock, who describes them as 
 "words which I shall never forget :" 
 
 "This is not the time nor the place to speak 
 of my brother, or of the cause for which he 
 died. Enough that he lives a dear and pre- 
 cious memory, in the hearts of those he left 
 behind. As for his cause, time will vindicate 
 that as surely as God lives and reigns. Twenty 
 three years ago the blood of my brother, slain 
 in these streets, ran down and mingled with 
 the waters of the mighty river which sweeps 
 past your city to the sea. 
 
 "The Avon to the Severn runs, 
 
 The Severn to the sea, 
 And Wickliffe's dust shall spread abroad 
 Wide as the waters be."
 
 t? Iran? lefrntora of lit? Jfawrtlt 
 
 It may be well to say a few words as to the 
 bad repute of the name of Alton for many 
 years, owing to the city's misfortune, and to 
 some extent its fault, in having been the scene 
 of so blameworthy a tragedy. The instanta- 
 neous condemnatory thought of Nathaniel Col- 
 ver, on hearing the name of Alton has been 
 referred to, and Wendell Phillips tells of a 
 similar effect upon his mind of the name heard 
 in speech or seen in print. So wide spread and 
 deep was the indignation over the deed of 
 blood, heralded everywhere throughout the 
 land, that little thought w y as given abroad to 
 the facts of the brave defense of the press 
 made by scores of armed citizens, some of 
 whom did not share in the editor's views. At- 
 tention has already been sufficiently called to 
 these facts, and the suggestive question has 
 been asked, What other place of the size of 
 Alton ; on the border of a slave state, would 
 have furnished an equally numerous party of
 
 104 APPENDIX. 
 
 armed men at that time, to defend an anti- 
 slavery press ? It was a happy thought of the 
 Monument Association to let one of the panels 
 of the monument commemorate these brave 
 defenders, that they might be honored together 
 with the man whom they faithfully, though 
 unsuccessfully defended. Readers will be 
 gratified to see the portraits of two of these 
 men. Winthrop S. Oilman has been already 
 several times referred to as Mr. Love joy's res- 
 olute advocate in the last public meeting, as 
 well as his defender against the violence of the 
 mob. The day preceding the eventful night, 
 he sent his young wife with their child, to her 
 father's in Upper Alton, while he remained to 
 be one of those who guarded the press in the 
 warehouse. His name has ever been an hon- 
 orable one in Alton. Mr. Henry Tanner was 
 another of the defenders. He claims to have 
 had for effective use an unusually good rifle. 
 To him we are indebted for the account of 
 thrilling events, of which he was an eye wit- 
 ness, given to the public in 1881.
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 106 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 WENDELL Pn ILLIPS'S TRIBUTE TO THE DE- 
 FENDERS OF THE PRESS, AND THE CLOSING 
 
 PARAGRAPHS OF His SPEECH IN FANETIL 
 HALL, 1837. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, from the bottom of my heart 
 I thank that brave little band at Alton for 
 resisting. \\'c must remember that Lovejoy
 
 APPENDIX. 107 
 
 had fled from city to city, suffered the de- 
 struction of three presses, patiently. At length 
 he took counsel with friends, men of character, 
 of tried integrity, of wide views, of Christian 
 principle. They thought the crisis had come : 
 it was full time to assert the laws. They saw 
 around them not a community like our own, of 
 fixed habits, of character moulded and settled, 
 but one "in the gristle, not yet hardened into 
 the bone of manhood." The people there, 
 children of our older states, seem to have for- 
 gotten the blood-tried principles of their fath- 
 ers the moment they lost sight of our New 
 England hills. Something was to be done to 
 show them the priceless value of the freedom 
 of the press, to bring back and set right their 
 wandering and confused ideas. He and his 
 advisers looked out on a community, stagger- 
 ing like a drunken man, indifferent to their 
 rights and confused in their feelings. Deaf to 
 argument, haply they might be stunned into 
 sobriety. They saw that of which we cannot 
 judge, the necessity of resistance. Insulted
 
 108 APPENDIX. 
 
 law called for it. Public opinion, fast hasten- 
 ing on the downward course, must be arrested. 
 
 "Does not the event show they judged right- 
 ly? Absorbed in a thousand trifles, how has 
 the nation all at once come to a stand? Men 
 begin, as in 1776, and 1640, to discuss princi- 
 ples, to weigh characters, to find out where 
 they are. Haply we may awake before we are 
 borne over the precipice. 
 
 "I am glad, sir, to see this crowded house. 
 It is good, for us to be here. When Liberty 
 is in danger, Faneuil Hall has the right, it is 
 her duty, to strike the key-note for these 
 United States. I am glad, for one reason, 
 that remarks such as those to which I have 
 alluded have been uttered here. The passage 
 of these resolutions, in spite of this opposition, 
 led by the Attorney-General of the Common- 
 wealth, will show more clearly, more decisively, 
 the deep indignation with which Boston re- 
 gards this outrage."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 109 
 
 LATER PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 
 
 "/ can never forget the quick, sharp agony 
 of that hour which brought us news of Love- 
 joy's death. * * * Incredible, almost, that 
 zue should ever have been obliged to defend his 
 'prudence.' Hozv 'prudently' most men creep 
 into nameless graves, while nozv and then one 
 or tz(.'o forget themselves into immortality." 
 Letter from Alton, 1867.
 
 Wt ttto II Iphtlltji'H letter fnmt Alton 
 in 
 
 Republished Nov., 1897, in the Alton Even- 
 ing Telegraph, with editorial comments. 
 
 "On April 13, 1867, Wendell Phillips lec- 
 tured in Alton, in the City Hall, as one of a 
 course under the auspices of the Ladies' Li- 
 brary Association. After going to the site of 
 Love joy's office and that of the warehouse 
 where he was killed, he went to the city ceme- 
 tery where Lovejoy was buried. He wrote a 
 letter from this city to the Anti-Slavery Stand- 
 ard, which appeared in that journal April 27. 
 It was copied into the TELEGRAPH at a later 
 date. The reprint in the TELEGRAPH Rev. Dr. 
 Jameson placed in his scrap book, to which 
 we are now indebted for a copy for publication 
 at this time. 
 
 ALTON, ILL., APRIL 14, '67. 
 "Dear Standard: I lectured here last night. 
 and today have been visiting the places made 
 historical and sacred by the labors and martyr-
 
 APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 clom of Love joy. Hitherto the name of this 
 city brought always but one idea to my mind, 
 and I never heard or saw it printed without an 
 involuntary shudder. A cordial welcome here, 
 and by men who have done good service in 
 this valley of the Mississippi where the battle 
 was for a time so hot, has broken that spell, 
 and I trust hereafter to think of it as the home 
 of brave and true men. 
 
 "The plain stone store, from which his first 
 press was flung into a creek, (now covered by 
 a business street under which .it runs) still 
 stands. Its walls brown and dingy with 
 what in this young country is age are to me 
 the most interesting relic in the place. Here a 
 brave man and the slave power began their 
 death-grapple. How proudly the seeming con- 
 querors left those walls that night ! How little 
 aware that the seemingly humbled roof covered 
 a courage and patience that 'slowly would out- 
 weigh their solid globe !' The building where 
 he was shot has been taken down and a large 
 mill built there ; but the same long, gray stone 
 wall stands on one side, and the same river 
 runs on the other side, the last objects on 
 which his eyes rested ; these mute, unchanging 
 witnesses saw the first bloodshed in defense of 
 the right to discuss American slavery. That 
 death stunned a drunken people into sobriety. 
 Slowly at first, but afterward with what a mar- 
 velous promptness the people rallied to the 
 struggle, determined that if there was anything
 
 112 APPENDIX. 
 
 in the land which would not bear free speech, 
 it was not free speech they would surrender. 
 
 "Lovejoy lies buried now in the city ceme- 
 tery on a beautiful knoll. Near by rolls the 
 great river. His resting place is marked by 
 an oblong stone, perhaps thirty inches by twen- 
 ty, and rising a foot above the ground ; on this 
 rests a marble scroll bearing the inscription 
 
 Hie Jacct 
 
 LOVEJOY 
 
 Jam Parce Scpulto. 
 
 "(Here lies Lovejoy; spare him, now in his 
 grave.) 
 
 "A more marked testimonial would not, 
 probably, have been safe from insult and dis- 
 figurement previous to 1864. He fought his 
 fight so far in the van, so much in the hottest 
 of the battle, that not till nigh after thirty 
 years and the final victory, could even his dust 
 be sure of quiet. Myrtles and some flowers 
 grow over his resting place, fresh and green, 
 this beautiful spring day. Other graves are 
 guarded by tasteful and costly architecture, but 
 this one lies close to the path, unfenced. fitly 
 holding up its record and appeal to the eye of 
 every passer. [Mr. Phillips' letter was written 
 previous to the stone wall being placed around 
 the Lovejoy lot by Mr. Thomas Dimmock, of 
 St. Louis, ED. TEL.] 
 
 "Soon the gratitude and penitence of his
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 113 
 
 friends and neighbors will build, not for him 
 a monument, but a testimony on their part that 
 he died not in vain. It should be placed nearer 
 the river, on the bluff that looks down directly 
 on the Mississippi, so that every boat in passing 
 up and down shall be able to show to the mil- 
 lions of busy and prosperous men the name of 
 him who consecrated this grand valley to liber- 
 ty. Grandly the valley spreads north, south 
 and west, miles and miles away, holding great 
 States bound together by the golden ribbon 
 of the Mississippi, a valley made historical by 
 many a hard fought fight. But it will soon 
 know that it holds no prouder spot than that 
 which saw the first defeat like Bunker Hill 
 and Bull Run better and more fruitful than 
 a hundred victories in this war for free speech 
 and justice. 
 
 "I can never forget the quick, sharp agony 
 of that hour which brought us news of Love- 
 joy's death. We had not then fully learned 
 the bloodthirstiness of the slave power. When 
 John Brown confronted it at Harper's Ferry, 
 .we knew and had long known the risk any 
 man ran who defied the fiend. But twenty 
 years before, Garrison had just waked up to 
 its horrors, and we saw it but blindly. The 
 gun fired at Love joy was like that of Sumter 
 it scattered a world of dreams. Looking back, 
 how wise, as well as noble, his course seems ! 
 Incredible almost that we should ever have 
 been obliged to defend his 'prudence.' What
 
 114 APPENDIX. 
 
 world-wide benefactors these 'imprudent' men 
 are the Love joys, the Browns, the Garrisons, 
 ' the saints and martyrs ! How 'prudently' most 
 .men creep into nameless graves ; while now and 
 then one or two forget themselves into immor- 
 tality ! 
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS." 
 
 "When Mr. Phillips was in Alton in '67 an 
 effort was being made to erect a monument to 
 the memory of Lovejoy, and this will explain 
 his reference to a 'testimony' which was to 
 be erected by neighbors and friends. But thir- 
 ty years and more elapsed between Mr. Phil- 
 lips' visit and the erection of the memorial 
 shaft that was dedicated last Monday. And 
 not alone by the citizens of Alton, but by the 
 great State of Illinois. It was right that it 
 should be more than a local matter. It was a 
 national affair, and Alton was only the battle 
 ground of the first fight in the cause of human 
 liberty on this continent. Mr. Phillips, while 
 in Alton, promised the then monument asso- 
 ciation, or persons who were aiming to build 
 a monument, that if it was completed during
 
 APPENDIX. 115 
 
 his lifetime he would make the dedication ad- 
 dress." 
 
 The foregoing letter, although presumably 
 only an ephemeral though eloquent communi- 
 cation to a newspaper, having been providen- 
 tially preserved for thirty years, became the 
 means whereby its lamented author could 
 appropriately express himself in connection 
 with the Dedication of the Monument to the 
 martyr whose champion he had been sixty 
 years before. 
 
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