Elijah Parish Lovejoy

Elijah Parish Lovejoy


The story of Elijah Parish Lovejoy is the story of the vigil for the freedom of thought, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of the press. In 1837, Alton, Illinois, was the scene of a battle for that freedom. It was felt by its citizens across the United States of America.

An American Presbyterian minister, journalist, and newspaper editor by the name of Elijah Lovejoy loged a campaign in his Illinois newspaper on the evils of slavery in America,  On November 7, 1837, he was shot and killed, by a local pro-slavery mob, in Alton Illinois.

Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Albion, Maine, on November 9, 1802.  He would graduate from Waterville College (now Colby College) in 1826 and then move to St. Louis to be a school teacher and write periodicals for the local newspapers.  He soon became editor of a paper and wrote articles supporting Henry Clay for President of the United States.  Even while he was feeling the pull of a political career,  the strong  conviction to become a minister overtook him.  Elijah Lovejoy returned yo the east, and entered Princeton Theological Seminary.  Elijah Lovejoy was licensed to preach in April, 1833, by the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia.

Elijah Parish Lovejoy was ordained by the Presbytery of St. Louis in 1834,  and then he was elected its Moderator in 1835.

St. Louis 1830s.


Shortly after returning to St. Louis,  Elijah Lovejoy was the pastor of the Des Peres Presbyterian Church  (the "Old Meeting House").  He published a religious newspaper that he named "The St. Louis Observer".  The first weekly issue was printed in November of 1833. It was a religious oublication.  He soon began to argue for the abolition of slavery.  Despite the huge amount bitter feelings that were being expressed against him., Elijah Lovejoy persisted in arguing the fights of freedom of the press,  freedom of speech,  and freedom from slavery.

In 1835,  Elijah Lovejoy married Celia Ann French,  and they had two children together.

Slavery was not just located in the South.  In 1836, there were many slave holders in the northern states as well.  And there were many men who did not own slaves,  but they were making fortunes from the results of slavery and by participating in the slave trade.

Francis McIntosh
Frances McIntosh was a a free black man who lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was working as a steward on a riverboat running on the Mississippi River.  Trouble started when Frances McIntosh interfered with two St. Louis officers who were attempting to arrest two rowdy sailors.   Frances McIntosh helped them get away.   Because of his actions the two officers then arrested Frances McIntosh.   As the officers were taking him to jail, he asked them what they thought his punishment would be. The two officers, as a joke, responded that they thought he would likely be hanged.  Taking the comment seriously , Francis McIntosh broke free and stabbed both officers.  One officer was dead and the other was severely wounded.   Frances McIntosh escaped,  but he was later captured by a crowd of people, who took him to jail.   The crowd very soon, numbered over a thousand people,  and cries for a lynching was heard.

Shortly afterwards, the angry mob forced the sheriff to clear out,  they thrn brought Francis McIntosh out of the jail,  at Chestnut and Sixth streets,  and literally dragged him to near Market and 10th streets.  There the mob of rioters chained Francis McIntosh to a tree. The proceeded to stack logs around him, and lit a slow burning fire.

Accounts varied as to how quickly Frances McIntosh died.   Those who were sympathetic to the mob claimed that Francis McIntosh was quickly engulfed by the flames and died.  Many others claimed that he died a slow, agonizing death,  begging to be shot,  trying to say prayers and singing hymns throughout.  They very slowly burned him to death.   After burning alive for 18 minutes,  Frances McIntosh died. 
 

Judge Luke E. Lawless.


Less than a month after the St. Louis mob's retaliation against Frank McIntosh, a grand jury gathered in a small back room of the old St. Louis courthouse. This is where the grand jury heard arguments concerning persons who were accused of crimes that had been committed during the past year and to decide which offenders deserved to be criminally indicted for their actions.

Toward the end of the day, the grand jury turned its attention to the details of the violent mob action which killed the free black man, Frances McIntosh.

Their charge was to decide which person or persons, if any, deserved to stand trial for their actions on April 28th.  Not surprisingly, this case sparked a large amount of local interest.  Many people filled the courtroom until all the seats had been taken and people were forced to stand in the back of the chamber or outside.  Written accounts of the proceedings tell of the uneasiness and excitement that the capacity crowd brought with it into the courtroom.

Since members of the grand jury usually took their cues from the presiding judge, the key figure in the whole case became Judge Luke E. Lawless.

Judge Lawless had come to the United States from Dublin, Ireland.  He had served as a sailor in the British Navy,  before beginning his law career in Dublin.  His military background and confrontational law practice characterized him as a man who did not shy away from controversy.  Despite many  repeated moves to unseat Judge Lawless and mutiple letters being sent to the "St. Louis Republican" attacking his caracter and his methods.  Judge Luke Lawless held enough political power to make sure that he retained his seat on the bench.

Judge Lawless' record as a lawyer, was highly controversial.  On one occasion, a judge before whom he was arguing a case sentenced then Attorney Luke Lawless to eighteen months disbarment and twenty-four hours in jail, for misconduct.  Luke Lawless responded to this with a counter-charge accusing the judge of "tyranny, oppression, and usurpation of power."  The case eventually ended in the United States Senate where it was shown that Luke Lawless had suppressed evidence,  thereby confirming the judge's original sentence of attorney Lawless.

Judge Luke Lawless opinionated style played the major roll in the grand jury's decision.   Reading carefully from previously prepared notes,  Judge Lawless offered the following advice to the twelve member grand jury:

"Gentlemen of the grand jury, I would here conclude my observation did I not think my fellow citizens might well expect from the judge of this court special notice the dreadful events that have so recently thrown a gloom over our prosperous and generally peaceful city."

"You will at once perceive that I refer to the murder of our respected fellow-citizen, the late deputy sheriff Hammond; to the wounding with an intent to murder him of another meritorious officer, the deputy constable Mull; and lastly to the destruction of the murderer himself, a free colored man whose name I understand was McIntosh, by a force unauthorized by law and by a mode of death forbidden by the Constitution, by a "cruel and unusual punishment" by chaining the prisoner alive to a tree and burning him to ashes... Let us hope that the dreadful retribution which he has met with in this world will plead for him in the world to come."

"If on a calm view of the circumstances attending this dreadful transaction, you shall be of the opinion that it was perpetrated by a definite and, compared to the population of St. Louis, a small number of individuals separate from the mass and evidently taking upon themselves as contradistinguished from the multitude the responsibility of the act, my opinion is that you ought to indict them all without a single exception."

"If, on the other hand, the destruction of the murderer of Hammond was the act, as I have said, of the many, of the multitude in the ordinary sense of those words -- not the act of numerable and ascertainable malefactors, but of congregated thousands seized upon and impelled by that mysterious metaphysical and almost electrical frenzy which in all ages and nations has hurried on the infuriated multitude to deeds of death and destruction -- then, I say, act not at all in the matter. The case then transcends your jurisdiction, it is beyond the reach of human law."

Because a near insane frenzy gripped the mob responsible for Frances McIntosh's death,  Judge Luke Lawless instructed the jury not to single out specific people for being responsible.  Try as they might,  he said, the jury could never understand the mania which seized the masses that day.  Therefore, no legal action could be called for by the grand jury because the courtroom was no place to judge such behavior.  In this case, there was nothing the legal system could do to protect an individual from a provoked mob action.

Merton Dillon writes that "Judge Lawless has frequently been criticized for his position,  both by his legal contemporaries and twentieth century scholars.  All agree that by ethical legal standards,  he was wrong to impose this decision.  However, later portions of his speech to the grand jury revealed several interesting insights into the minds of abolitionists and their opponents.  As his comments show,  he played on the fear of the citizens who believed that abolitionism was sent by religious zealots from New England to stir up trouble in slave holding states."

Judge Lawless continued: "If the murderer (McIntosh) had been tried by a jury,  convicted and executed -- the horror at his crimes would have been unmixed with any other feeling.  There could have been no reaction,  no pretense for the outcry which now, in all probability,  will be raised throughout the Union by the misguided or unprincipled men engaged in the anti- national scheme of abolitionism.  The public attention in this state would have been concentrated on what, I am much disposed to think,  was the exciting cause of McIntosh's crime and of similar atrocities committed in this and other states by individuals of Negro blood against their white brethren."

"The abolitionist influence upon the passions and intellect of the wretched McIntosh seems to me to be indicated by the peculiar character of his language and demeanor.  His deadly hostility to the whole white race -- his hymns and his prayers so profanely and frightfully mixed up with those horrid imprecations seems,  I say, to betray the incendiary cause to which I have adverted."

"If this be indeed the case,  the murderer of Hammond was,  morally speaking, only the blind instrument in the hands of the abolitionist fanatics.  They, and not McIntosh,  would then be responsible in the sight of God and man."

"[Abolitionists appear] to labor under a sort of religious hallucination -- a monomania -- for which it would perhaps be inconsistent with sound reasoning to hold them morally responsible. . .  They seem to consider themselves as special agents...  in fact,  of Divine Providence.  They seem to have their eyes fixed on some mystic vision -- some Zion,  as they term it,  within whose holy walls they would impound us all,  or condemn us to perish on the outside.  But, although all this may be very sincere,  is it the less pernicious?  Are we to be victims of those sanctimonious madmen?"

The judge had successfully turned the law upside down and made those guilty of murdering Frances McIntosh the victims of an abolitionist plot.  After establishing this as being  fact with the crowd, Judge Lawless then turned his attention specifically to Elijah Lovejoy and his newspaper.  And although "The Observer" had never been guilty of calling for a slave rebellion,  public opinion swayed on the words of Judge Lawless and presented for a call for action against the publication.

The judge continued:  "I have adverted to the abolitionist press in this city, and now I would ask who that has observed its course for a considerable time past has not seen in its publications matter abundantly calculated to fanaticize the Negro and excite him against the white man?"
Judge Luke Lawless then held up an edition of  "The Observer" as an example of the destructive force to which he referred. Judge Lawless read several articles from pages of the paper in order to show that Elijah Lovejoy's newspaper editorials were not designed to restore the calm amongst its readers.

Judge Lawless successfully turned the guilt of the crime of burning a man to death,  around to accuse Elijah Lovejoy of the crime of attempting to incite revolts throughout the southern states.

Judge Lawless blamed the murder of the officers on abolitionists,  whose ideas could supposedly incite blacks into murdering whites,  as part of some divine reckoning.  Judge Lawless even passed out to the grand jury copies of Elijah Lovejoy's "Observer" and his sermons where Reverand Lovejoy stated, "Slavery is a sin and ought to be abandoned," and that southern slave-owners suffered from an "abandonment of virtue." 

Judge Lawless concluded his speech by commenting that, "It seems to me, impossible that while such language is used and published as that which I have cited from the St. Louis Observer, there can be any safety in a slave-holding state."

Not only did the grand jury fail to charge anyone for the murder of Frances McIntosh,  but many people in St. Louis began to blame Elijah Lovejoy and other abolishonists for what happened.

In "The St. Louis Observer" on July 21, 1836, Elijah Lovejoy printed the following:

"The Charge of Judge Lawless"

"The horrid transaction which called forth the document to which we now refer, is fresh in the minds of all our readers. A fellow-creature was torn from prison, by an infuriated mob, and burned alive in the city of St. Louis. This deed it became the duty of Judge Lawless to bring before the constituted authorities of the land, and he has done it in the charge to the Grand Jury, now lying before us. In this charge the ground is openly taken that a crime, which if committed, by one or two, would be punishable with death, may be perpetrated by the multitude with impunity!!! "

"Says the Judge: "If, on the other hand, the destruction of the murder of Hammond was the act, as I have said, of the many--of the multitude, in the ordinary sense of these words--not the act of numerable and ascertainable malefactors; but of congregated thousands, seized upon and impelled by that mysterious, metaphysical, and almost electric frenzy, which, in all ages and nations, has hurried on the infuriated multitude to deeds of death and destruction--then, I say, act not at all on the matter; the case then transcends your jurisdiction--it is beyond the reach of human law!!!!!!!" "

"1. In this charge of Judge Lawless we see exemplified and illustrated the truth of the doctrine we have, for years, been endeavouring to impress on the minds of our countrymen, viz. that foreigners educated in the old worked, never can come to have a proper understanding of American constitutional law. Judge Lawless is a foreigner--a naturalized one it is true, but still to all intents and purposes a foreigner--he was educated and received his notions of government amidst the turbulent agitations of Ireland, and at a period too, when anarchy and illegal violence prevailed to a degree unprecedented even in the annals of that wretched, and most unhappy land. Amidst the lawless and violent proceedings of those times Mr. Lawless grew up. He is next found in arms, in the service of France, fighting against the country to whom his allegiance was due. His third appearance in a public capacity, is as Judge in one of the republican state of America, where he delivers such a charge to our Grand Jury, as the one now under our consideration."

"We disclaim all wish or intention to wound the feelings, or injure the personal reputation of Judge Lawless; but we do wish to disarm the monstrous doctrines he has promulgated from the bench, of their power either as a present rule, or a future precedent; and we apprehend that when the school in which the Judge was educated, is know and candidly considered, his notions of practical justice, at once so novel to Americans, so absurd and so wicked, will have little influence with our sound hearted, home educated republicans."

"2. Judge Lawless is a Papist; and in his Charge we see the cloven foot of Jerusalem, peeping out from under the veil of almost every paragraph in the Charge. What is Jesuitism but another name for the doctrine that principles ought to change according to circumstances? And this is the very identical doctrine of the Charge. A horrid crime must not be punished because, forsooth, it would be difficult perhaps to do it. The principles of Justice and of constitutional law, must yield to a doubtful question of present expediency. Doubtless the Judge is not aware whence he derived these notions; and yet it cannot be doubted that they came originally from St. Omers, where so many Irish priests are educated. So true is it, that Popery in its very essential principles is incompatible with regulated, civil or religious liberty. Our warning voice on this subject is lifted up in vain; but some of those who now hear it, will live to mourn over their present incredulity and indifference."

"3. In his answer to the remarks of the New York American, Judge Lawless intimates that the safety of this office is owing to the course he took in this matter. We don not believe him; but if he says true, then what a disgraceful truth to St. Louis! What had the 'Observer' done? It had told the story of the horrid tragedy enacted here in plain, unvarnished terms, just as the affair occurred. No one pretends that our version of the affair was incorrect, and we added nothing more than in the spirit of earnest and solemn warning, to entreat our fellow-citizens to stay such proceedings, or their all was lost. And for this the Judge says, but for his interposition, our office would have been destroyed. That is, a mob in St. Louis burns a man up, and then citizens tear down the office of the press, that dares to reprobate such an act. This assertion of the Judge is a gross libel upon the city, as we verily believe. We have never heard of any threats to pull down our office, which did not originate with his countrymen--mark that."

"But even supposing it true, and that our office was endangered by what we wrote concerning the McIntosh tragedy, we desire no such volunteers as Judge Lawless, with such principles, to come to our rescue. We reject all such. We desire not to be saved at such an expense. To establish our institutions of civil and religious liberty, to obtain freedom of opinion and of the press, guaranteed by constitutional law, cost thousands, yea, tens of thousands of valuable lives. And let them not be parted with, at least, for less than cost. We covet not the loss of property nor the honours of martyrdom; but better, far better, that the office of the 'Observer' should be scattered in fragments to the four winds of heaven; yea, better that editor, printer, and publishers, should be chained to the same tree as McIntosh, and share his fate, than that the doctrines promulgated by Judge Lawless from the bench, should become prevalent in this community. For they are subversive of all law, and at once open the door for the perpetration, be a congregated mob, calling themselves the people, of every species of violence, and that too with perfect impunity. Society is resolved into its first elements, and every man must hold his property and his life, at the point of the dagger."

"Having traveled somewhat extensively of late, we have had opportunity of learning the impression made abroad by recent occurrences in this city. And we know that the feeling excited by this charge of Judge Lawless, is far more unfavourable than that consequent upon the burning of McIntosh. For that, say they, was the act of an excited mob, but here is the Judge on his bench, in effect sanctioning it!!"

"The subject grows upon our hands, but we forbear. We again repeat that we have had no wish in all we have said, to injure the reputation of Judge Lawless. The subject is one altogether too important to allow personal feelings to enter into the discussion of it, either one way or the other. For all that part of his charge where an attempt is made to identify the 'Observer' with Abolitionism, and then charge upon that the McIntosh tragedy, the Judge is perfectly sincere in the expression of this opinion. And the ignorance and prejudice which could lead to such an expression of opinion, however censurable in the Judge is still more pitiable in the man. Of this part of the charge, Charles Hammond, Esq. of the Cincinnati Gazette says, "It is as fanatical as the highest state of Abolition fanaticism can be." "

 Elijah Lovejoy's editorials became so strong against slavery that he became an object of hatred by both Southerners and slave-holders. His press was wrecked by a mob in July, 1836.

He purchased a second press and decided to move his paper across the Mississippi to Alton, Illinois.

In 1836,  Elijah Lovejoy moved with his family across the river and the next year founded the "Alton Observer".   Even though it was in a free state,  Alton was also a center for slave catchers trying to capture escaped slaves and for other pro-slavery forces.  Alton had also been largely settled by southerners.

College Avenue Presbyterian Church


In Alton, Elijah Lovejoy became the Stated Clerk of the Presbytery in 1837.  and the first pastor of the present College Avenue Presbyterian Church.  In the begining, the majority of Alton citizens welcomed the arrival of "The Observer".  They believed a well-edited, religious newspaper could help the growing city’s national reputation.  However,  they wanted to hear from Elijah  Lovejoy that he would not provoke any kind of controversy in their town,  They didn't want him to write about the things that he did while he was in St. Louis.

At a public meeting, te Reverand Elijah Lovejoy assured the crowd that he did not plan to publish as much about slavery because he was now living in a free state.  He said the paper would revert back to its roots and concentrate on religious editorials.  He did, however,  make it quite clear that he reserved the right to set any editorial policy he saw fit,  whether that included the slavery issue or not.

 He actively supported the organization of the Ant-slavery Society of Illinois,  which did not please some of the Alton citizens.

Though Illinois had been a free state since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were  pro-slavery aggressors who still plagued Elijah Lovejoy.  On July 6, 1837,  he published another editorial that again condemned slavery.  That night, his printing press was destroyed.  He bought a third printing press.  It too, was very quickly destroyed.

In a letter to his brother, Joseph Lovejoy, Elijah Lovejoy wrote: "The Observer had been muzzled by the original proprietors.  A communication had been sent to me signed by them and by my friend,  Mr. Potts,  requesting me to say no more on the subject of Slavery.  I was accused, by name, in one of the city papers of being an abolitionist in the bitterest manner  and the public vengeance's invoked [sic] upon me."

He continued writing and publishing "The Alton Observer" even after three presses had been destroyed and thrown into the Mississippi River.

Elijah Lovejoy wrote in his  newspaper:  "We distinctly avow it to be our settled purpose,  never,  while life lasts, to yield to this new system of attempting to destroy, by means of mob violence, the right of conscience, the freedom of opinion, and of the press."

Alton had no police force, but a volunteer militia of sixty men, who were opposed to mob violence, was formed to protect Elijah  Lovejoy's next printing press.  They acted under the authority and direction of the Alton mayor.  The new printing press arrived at the warehouse on November 6, 1837.   There was no disturbance that night.

 The following night, November 7,  only twenty men remained around the warehouse containing the printing press.  At about 10 p.m.,  a mob arrived at the warehouse.  They were armed with stones, shotguns,  rifles and pistols.  The angry mob demanded that they be given the printing press.

"Sir, I dare not flee away from Alton...  No sir, the contest has commenced here; and here it must be finished.  Before God and you all,  I here pledge myself to continue it,  if need be,  till death.  If I fall,  my grave shall be made in Alton." - Elijah Lovejoy.

According to "The Alton Observer",  the mob fired shots into the warehouse.  When Elijah Lovejoy and his 20 militia men returned fire, they hit several people in the crowd.  A man by the name of Bishop was killed.

The mayor of Alton ordered the mob to disperse, but he was jeared and mocked for his efforts.

The mob leaders set up a ladder against the warehouse.  They then sent a boy up the ladder, with a torch to set fire to the wooden roof.  Elijah Lovejoy and with the support of Royal Weller, went outside and surprised the pro-slavery mob.  They pushed over the ladder and quickly retreated back inside the warehouse.  The mob put up the ladder again. When Elijah Lovejoy and Royal Weller went out again to overturn it,  they were spotted and shot.  Elijah Lovejoy was hit with slugs from a doule-barrled shotgun and died immediately. It was later determined that he was hit with 5 slugs.  Royal Weller was also wounded.

The last of the militia group who had been guarding the warehouse ran from a final volley of buckshot,  to the safety of the river . The victorious mob from Alton, calmly entered the building,  walked past the dead body of Elijah Lovejoy,  and began the dismantling of his last printing press.  Quietly and without celebration,  they went about the task of destroying the last of the abolitionist voice in Alton.  Several men hoisted the press up to a third floor window and dropped it to the street below.

The mob members on the street picked up up the fallen pieces of the press, and dragged them to the steamboat landing along the Mississippi River. There hammers were used ito smash the parts of the printing  press, beyond recognition.   Eyewitnesses described the behavior of the group as orderly,  although they appeared to be enjoying the final act of destruction. By midnight,  the entire tragic incident had become a part of American history.

Later the next day,, after friends had recovered Elijah Lovejoy's body from the warehouse floor, the funeral wagon passed through the streets of Alton to take him home to his wife and two small children.  Some onlookers laughed and jeered as the coffin passed through their midst.

Elijah Lovejoy's body was then buried on November 9, 1837  (the day that would have been his 35th birthday) in an unmarked grave in the Alton City Cemetery, the location known by a black man, William "Scotch" Johnston, who assisted in the burial."  (Account of the evening as reported by the Alton Observer).

This same man who was so despised by pro-slavers that lived in Alton,  was called,  a year later,  by former president John Quincy Adams, as "the first American Martyr to the Freedom of the Press, and the Freedom of the Slave."   That is an assessment that is now shared by most Americans who have taken the time to study about his life.  

 Years later, through the generosity of Thomas Dimmock, Elijah Lovejoy's body was exhumed and reinterred at the present site,
 in Alton Cemetery. Some of his supporters would be later buried near him.  Thomas Dimmock also purchased the small but appropriate marble scroll which marks the grave on which is inscribed the Latin words which translates to English: "Here lies Lovejoy - Spare him now the grave."  He also purchased the New England granite block beneath the scroll and the wall which encloses the grave site.

Those in St. Louis and Alton who had opposed the ideas of Elijah Lovejoy,  thought that he had finally been silenced.  Most never realized that the spirit and convictions of Elijah Lovejoy were not so easily silenced.  They were repetedly printed and reprintd in newspapers around the country.   Men were motivated to speak out and support those who were against America's curse of slavery.

The killing of Elijah Lovejoy became widely known throughout the country.

At a church memorial service for Elijah Lovejoy that was held in Hudson, Ohio,  John Brown rose from his seat in church and after raising his right hand,  he issued this vow:  "Here before God, in the presence of these witnesses, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery."  Thus, John Brown would begin a journey that would end at Harper's Ferry and immortality.

 John Quincy Adams said it had given "a shock as of an earthquake throughout this continent, which will be felt in the most distant regions of the earth."

After Elijah Lovejoy's death,  the city of Alton struggled with its new image it had, as a home to lawless mobs. 

Ironically, the lucrative Mississippi River boat traffic business moved a few miles south to St. Louis,  which was just as lawless.  The loss of revenue to the city of Alton was great. 

Twenty-eight year old State Representative Abraham Lincoln stated publicly:  "Let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own, and his children's liberty.  Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother...  in short let it become the political religion of the nation". 

Indicted for crimes of Riot were:  Winthrop S. Gilman,  Enoch Long,  Amos B. Roff,  George H. Walworth, George Whitney,  William Harned,  John S. Noble,  James Morse, Jr.,  Henry Tanner,  Royal Weller,  Rueben Gerry,  Thaddeus B. Hurlbut,  John Solomon,  Levi Palmer,  Horace Beall,  Josiah Nutter,  Jacob Smith,  David Butler,  William Carr,  James M. Rock,  Dr. James Jennings,  Solomon Morgan  and Frederick Bruchy.

Francis Butter Murdoch, the district attorney of Alton, prosecuted Lovejoy's murder case, but no one was ever convicted.


It was widely believed by many who had the best opportunities for knowing.  that Rev. Elijah Lovejoy was killed by Dr. James Jennings.  It was later said, that James Jennings, was "cut to pieces" and died in a bowie knife fight in a Vicksburg bar room several years later.

Elijah Lovejoy was considered a martyr by the abolition movement.  In his name,  his brother Owen Lovejoy became the leader of the Illinois abolitionists.  Owen and his brother Joseph wrote a memoir about Elijah, which they published in 1838, by the Anti-Slavery Society in New York.  The memoir was distributed widely among abolitionists throughout the nation.

***

One of the most committed and outspoken abolitionists to achieve national prominence after the death of Elijah Lovejoy, was his younger brother, Owen.  Owen Lovejoy's presence in Alton the night his brother was killed inspired him to continue the work of his older brother.  On the day of Elijah Lovejoy's funeral,  Owen knelt next to the body, in prayer, and vowed,  "I shall never forsake the cause that has been sprinkled with my brother's blood."

Owen Lovejoy's  was born in 1811.  He was nine years younger than Elijah.  As a child,  Owen looked up to his older brother and tried to emulate his intellectual nature.  Elijah had helped teach his younger brother from the Latin classics when he returned home on breaks from Colby College.  Owen made his own mark in the academic world by enrolling in Bowdoin College in 1830.  Like his older brother,  Owen Lovejoy supported himself and paid for his schooling by teaching school.  After their father's death in 1833,  Owen Lovejoy left school and returned home.

Owen and John Lovejoy joined Elijah in the St. Louis in 1836.  John Lovejoy knew the printing trade and worked for "The Observer".  Both brothers took part in organizing the state antislavery society, and encouraged their brother Elijah not to leave Alton.

In 1838,  Owen and brother Joseph gained a commission from the American Anti-Slavery Society to publish a memorial volume of their brother's work.  The book highlighted Elijah's life and showed the American people how dedicated he was to his abolitionist and religious beliefs.  After the completion of the book by the printers,  Owen felt the need to return to the west.  He heard offers to become an agent in Illinois for the American Anti-Slavery Society,  but he aspired to be ordained by the Episcopal convention.  Owen, however,  never preached for this church, because he refused to sign a pledge from the bishop saying that he would not discuss the subject of abolition from the pulpit.

A recommendation from Rev. Edward Beecher, sent Owen Lovejoy Lovejoy to Princeton, Illinois, in order to relieve an ill pastor.  As a religious leader,  he used his public status to publicly speak out against slavery.  The small community did not initially accept these radical doctrines openly.  Owen Lovejoy received several threats of violence,  but he refused to back down from the pledge he made at his brother's funeral. Owen Lovejoy's house became one of the busiest stops in Illinois, along the Underground Railroad.  He and his wife actively aided runaway slaves. who were attempting to make their way north to freedom.

Pro-slavery elements in Illinois, attempted to break the influence of the Underground Railroad in Princeton by bringing formal charges against Owen Lovejoy in 1843.  He was indicted by a grand jury in May and made to stand trial for harboring fugitive slaves in October. Owen Lovejoy and his lawyer argued that since the owner had willingly brought the slaves into the free territory of Illinois,  they became free when they touched Illinois soil.  They based it on the laws created by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the state constitution, Owen Lovejoy achieved an acquittal.

 Owen Lovejoy later took his antislavery views to the United States House of Representatives. He was elected to this office as a representative of the Third Congressional District of Illinois in 1856 and 1858.

Owen Lovejoy became instrumental in the creation of the Republican Party in Illinois,  although his abolitionist views helped to label Owen Lovejoy as one of the so called Radical Republicans.

Although their views on slavery differed considerably, Owen Lovejoy supported Abraham Lincoln both in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, and the Presidential election of 1860.

Owen Lovejoy died in Brooklyn, New York, on March 25, 1864.   Owen Lovejoy did not live to see the introduction of the Thirteenth Amendment to Congress,  it occurred two weeks after his death.

A letter from President Abraham Lincoln summed up both the private and public life of Owen Lovejoy:  "My personal acquaintance with him commenced only about ten years ago, since when it has been quite intimate; and every step in it has been one of increasing respect and esteem, ending, with his life, in no less than affection on my part.  It can be truly said of him that while he was personally ambitious,  he bravely endured the obscurity which the unpopularity of his principles imposed,  and never accepted official honors,  until those honors were ready to admit his principles with him. 

Throughout my heavy, and perplexing responsibilities here,  to the day of his death,  it would scarcely wrong any other to say,  he was my most generous friend.  Let him have the marble monument,  along with the well-assured and more enduring one in the hearts of those who love liberty, unselfishly,  for all men."

***

Joseph P. and Owen Lovejoy -

The Martyrdom of Lovejoy,
An Account of the Life, Trials,
and Perils of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy
(1838)

On November 2, 1837, five days before his death, Elijah Lovejoy had given the following speech in Alton on the slavery question.

"It is not true, as has been charged upon me, that I hold in contempt the feelings and sentiments of this community, in reference to the question which is now agitating it. I respect and appreciate the feelings and opinions of my fellow 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 sentiments 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 fellow-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 it to my God in the great day, I dare not abandon 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 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 any thing 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 interests of this City?  What, sir, I ask, has been my offence? [sic] Put your finger upon it -- define it -- and I stand ready to answer for it. If I have committed any crime, you can easily convict me. You have public sentiment in your favor.  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 continually like a partridge upon the mountains?  Why am I threatened with the tar-barrel?  Why am I waylaid every day, and from night to night, and my life in jeopardy every hour?

"You have, sir, made up, as the lawyers say, 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 enjoyment 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 assassination; 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-brats and violence of the mobs; that, sir, is the question." [Here, he reportedly broke into tears, then continued.]

"Forgive me, sir, that I have thus betrayed my weakness. It was the allusion 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 at 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 earnestly seeking counsel of God, to remain at Alton, and here to insist on protection in the 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."

***

In 1897, sixty years after the tragedy, Alton erected a monument over his grave.

The monument (110 feet tall) consists of a 93 foot tall main shaft topped by a 17 foot tall winged statue of victory, which stands over 300 feet above the Mississippi river below. There two side mounted by eagles, as well as two bronze lion chalice statures, and a stone whispering wall bench that wraps all the way around the central spire. The whispering wall allows you to hear someone whispering completely out of sight on its opposite side of the monument.

The four sides of the central spire's pedestal contain quotes by Elijah Lovejoy.  The focusf on each aspect of his life:

Because the monument is based on the top of the river bluffs, it is easily seen from a distance, even when you are crossing the bridge over the Mississippi river, from Missouri into Illinois.

In Gratitude To God,
And In The Love Of Liberty,

The State Of Illinois And Citizens of Alton,

Erect This Monument,

1896-7.

By the steps are two granite sentinel columns 30 feet high mounted by bronze eagles eight feet over the wings. On each side of the die is a bronzed panel, four in all, devoted to excerpts from the life of Elijah P. Lovejoy.



Monument Inscriptions

The program for the dedication of the Lovejoy monument indicates that the original idea of the monument association was to let Lovejoy speak for himself in his three occupations of editor, minister, and opponent of slavery. Accordingly, a writing from each capacity was placed on three of the four sides of the monument base.

A fourth inscription honors the men who helped to defend the warehouse and press the night that Elijah Lovejoy was killed.

On The South Front

Elijah P. Lovejoy,

Editor Alton Observer,

Albion, Maine, Nov. 8, 1802

Alton, Ill., 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."

***


On The North Front

Champion of Free Speech.

"But, gentlemen, as long as I am an American citizen, and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, to publish whatever I please on any subject--being amenable to the laws of my country for the same."

***


On The West Front

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 aggressions of the slave power in America.

***


On The East Front

Minister of the Gospel.

Moderator of 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 cannot desert it."

***

Beautification and Rededication of the Lovejoy Monument

In 1969, a local civic group in Alton took over the responsibility of urging the State of Illinois to renovate the Lovejoy Monument and encourage the city of Alton, Alton Cemetery Board of Directors, and people living in the immediate area to participate in beautification programs around the grounds. The monument and the grave site of Elijah Lovejoy each received a thorough cleaning, and a large rededication ceremony was held on the grounds of the cemetery.


Second Rededication Ceremony

On November 8, 1997, a group of about 200 people met at the sight of the Lovejoy Monument in Alton to again rededicate the memory of Reverend Elijah Lovejoy. Speaker and Alton Township supervisor Donald Huber remembered Lovejoy by quoting from former Illinois Senator Paul Simon's book Elijah P. Lovejoy: Freedom's Champion. The keynote speaker was the Reverend George Humbert, pastor of College Avenue Presbyterian Church, the very same ministry that Elijah Lovejoy served over 160 years before. Newspaper reports mentioned the musical highlight of the ceremony was Doris Frazier singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".


HONORS

    1838, his brothers Joseph P. and Owen Lovejoy wrote a memoir about him and his defense of the free press, which they published in New York, under the title: Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy: Who was Murdered in Defence of the Liberty of the Press at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837

    In 1897, Alton citizens erected a monument to Elijah Lovejoy at the cemetery.

    The majority African-American village of Brooklyn, Illinois, located just north of East St. Louis, is popularly known as Lovejoy in his honor.

    The Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is named in his honor; some had proposed naming the university after him.

    The Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award was established by Colby College in his honor, and is awarded annually to a member of the newspaper profession who "has contributed to the nation's journalistic achievement." A major classroom building at Colby is also named for Lovejoy.

    Elijah Lovejoy is recognized by a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame along Delmar Boulevard.

    In 2003 Reed College established the Elijah Parish and Owen Lovejoy Scholarship, which it awards annually.

Thomas Dimmock,

Dedication of the Lovejoy Monument,

November 8, 1898

"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 today, 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 appreciated on this earth."