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ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY, son of Rev. Daniel Lovejoy, and the eldest of seven children, was born at Albion, Maine, November 9, 1802. His ancestors, partly English and partly Scotch, all of the industrious middle class, had been citizens of New Hampshire and of Maine for several generations. He was distinguished, from early youth, alike for diligence in labor and for zeal and success in the acquisition of knowledge. He graduated with high honors at Waterville College, Maine, in September, 1826. In May following, he turned his face westward, and in the autumn of that year found employment as a teacher in St. Louis. In 1828, he became editor of a political journal, of the "National Republican" faith, and was thence actively engaged in politics of the Clay and Webster school, until January, 1832, when he was brought under deep religious impressions, and the next month united with the Presbyterian Church. Relinquishing his political pursuits and prospects, he engaged in a course of study preparatory for the ministry, entering the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, on the 24th of March. He received, next Spring, a license to preach from the second Presbytery of Philadelphia, and spent the Summer as an evange

list in Newport, R. I., and in New
York. He left the last-named city
in the autumn of that year, and re-
turned to St. Louis, at the urgent in-
vitation of a circle of fellow-Chris-
tians, who desired him to establish
and edit a religious newspaper in that
city-furnishing a capital of twelve
hundred dollars for the purpose, and
guaranteeing him, in writing, the en-
The St.
tire control of the concern.
Louis Observer, weekly, was accord-
ingly first issued on the 22d of No-
vember. It was of the "Evangeli-
cal" or Orthodox Protestant school;
but had no controversy, save with
wickedness, and no purpose, but to
quicken the zeal and enlarge the use-
fulness of professing Christians, while
adding, if possible, to their number.
There is no evidence that it was com-
menced with any intent to war on
Slavery, or with any expectation of
exciting the special hostility of any
interest but that of Satan. Its first
exhibition of a combative or belliger-
ent tendency had for its object the
Roman Catholics and their dogmas;
but this, though it naturally provok-
ed some resentment in a city so
largely Catholic as St. Louis, excited
no tumult or violence. Its first arti-
cles concerning Slavery were exceed-
ingly moderate in their tone, and fa-
vorable rather to Colonization than
to immediate Abolition. Even when
the editor first took decided ground
against Slavery," he still affirmed his
hostility to immediate, unconditional
emancipation. This article was, in
part, based on an editorial in The St.
Louis Republican, of the preceding
week, which-discussing a proposed
Convention to revise the Constitution
of that State-said:

10 April 16, 1835.

ATTEMPT TO GAG A RELIGIOUS JOURNAL.

"We look to the Convention as a happy | means of relieving the State, at some future day, of an evil which is destroying all our wholesome energies, and leaving us, in morals, in enterprise, and in wealth, behind the neighboring States. We mean, of course, the curse of Slavery. We are not about to make any attack upon the rights of those who at present hold this description of property. They ought to be respected to the letter. We only propose that measures shall now be taken for the Abolition of Slavery, at such distant period of time as may be thought expedient, and eventually for ridding the country altogether of a colored population."

Mr. Lovejoy, commenting on the foregoing, wished that some Southern-born man, of high character, decided ability, and fervent piety, would take up the subject of Slavery in a proper spirit, and, being familiar, experimentally, with all its evils and its difficulties, would show the people, practically, what they ought to do with regard to it. He continued:

"To such a man, a golden opportunity of doing good is offered. We believe the minds of the good people of this State are fully prepared to listen to him-to give a dispas

sionate consideration to the facts and rea

sonings he might present connected with the subject of Slavery. Public sentiment,

11

ST. LOUIS, October 5, 1835.

To the Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, Editor of The Observer : Sir:-The undersigned, friends and supporters of the "Observer," beg leave to suggest, that the present temper of the times requires a change in the manner of conducting that print in relation to the subject of domestic Slavery.

The public mind is greatly excited, and, owing to the unjustifiable interference of our Northern brethren with our social relations, the community are, perhaps, not in a situation to endure sound doctrine in relation to this subject. Indeed, we have reason to believe, that violence is even now meditated against the "Observer Office;" and we do believe that true policy and the interests of religion require that the discussion of this exciting question should be at least postponed in this State.

131

amongst us, is already moving in this great matter-it now wants to be directed in some defined channel, to some definite end.

"Taken all in all, there is not a State in this Union possessing superior natural advantages to our own. At present, Slavery, like an incubus, is paralyzing our energies, and, like a cloud of evil portent, darkening all our prospects. Let this be removed, and Missouri would at once start forward in the race of improvement, with an energy and rapidity of movement that would soon place her in the front rank, along with the most favored of her sister States."

He continued to speak of Slavery at intervals, through that summer, leaving his post in October to attend a regular meeting of the Presbyterian Synod.

citement commenced with regard to Directly after his departure, an exhis strictures on Slavery; and the proprietors of The Observer, alarmed card, promising that nothing should by threats of mob-violence, issued a be said on the exciting subject until the editor's return; and, this not proving satisfactory, they issued a further card on the 21st, declaring themselves, "one and all," opposed to the mad schemes of the Abolitionists. Before this, a letter" had been written

silence everything connected with the subject of Slavery. We would like that you announce in your paper, your intention so to do.

We shall be glad to be informed of your determination in relation to this matter.

Respectfully, your obedient servants,
ARCHIBALD GAMBLE, G. W. CALL,
NATHAN RANNEY,
H. R. GAMBLE,
WILLIAM S. POTTS,
HEZEKIAH KING,

JNO. KERR.

I concur in the object intended by this communication.

I concur in the foregoing.

BEVERLY ALLEN.

J. B. BRYANT. This document is indorsed 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 more than repays me for all I have suffered, or can suffer. I have sworn eternal opposition to Slavery, and, by the blessAmen. "E. P. L.

Although we do not claim the right to prescribe your course as an Editor, we hope that the concurring opinions of so many persons, having the interest of your paper and of religion both at heart, may induce you to distrusting of God, I will never go back. your own judgment, and so far change the character of the " Observer," as to pass over in

"October 24, 1837."

to the editor by nine eminent citizens of St. Louis (including H. R. Gamble, her present provisional Governor), urging him "to pass over in silence everything connected with the subject of Slavery;" which, in due time, he respectfully declined.

The immediate cause of the excitement here alleged was the illegal and violent seizure, in Illinois, of two white men suspected of having decoyed slaves away from Saint Louis. The suspected persons, having been forcibly brought to St. Louis, and there tried and convicted by a mob, which voted, 40 to 20, to whip, rather than hang them, were accordingly taken two miles back of the city, and there whipped between one and two hundred lashes-the sixty wealthy and respectable citizens taking turns in applying the lash. A public meeting was thereupon held, wherein it was gravely

"2. Resolved, That the right of free discussion and freedom of speech exists under the Constitution; but that, being a conventional reservation made by the people in their sovereign capacity, does not imply a moral right, on the part of the Abolitionists, to freely discuss the subject of Slavery, either orally or through the medium of the press. It is the agitation of a question too nearly allied to the vital interests of the slaveholding States to admit of public disputation; and so far from the fact, that the movements of the Abolitionists are constitutional, they are in the greatest degree seditious, and calculated to excite insurrection and anarchy, and, ultimately, a disseverment of our prosperous Union.

"3. Resolved, That we consider the course pursued by the Abolitionists, as one calculated to paralyze every social tie by which we are now united to our fellow-man, and that, if persisted in, it must eventually be the cause of the disseverment of these United States; and that the doctrine of amalgamation is peculiarly baneful to the interests and happiness of society. The union of black and white, in a moral point of view, we consider as the most preposterous and impudent doctrine advanced by the infatuated Abolitionists—as repugnant to judgment |

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and science, as it is degrading to the feelings of all sensitive minds-as destructive to the intellect of after generations, as the advance of science and literature has contributed to the improvement of our own. In short, its practice would reduce the high intellectual standard of the American mind to a level with the Hottentot; and the United States, now second to no nation on earth, would, in a few years, be what Europe was in the darkest ages.

"4. Resolved, That the Sacred Writings furnish abundant evidence of the existence of Slavery from the earliest periods. The patriarchs and prophets possessed slavesour Saviour recognized the relation between master and slave, and deprecated it not: hence, we know that He did not condemn that relation; on the contrary, His disciples, in all countries, designated their re

spective duties to each other.

"Therefore, Resolved, That we consider Slavery, as it now exists in the United States, as sanctioned by the sacred Scriptures."

Mr. Lovejoy, on his return to the city, put forth an address to "My Fellow-Citizens," wherein he said:

"Of the first resolution passed at the meeting of the 24th October, I have nothing to say, except that I perfectly agree with the sentiment, that the citizens of the nonslaveholding States have no right to interfere with the domestic relations between master and slave.

"The second resolution, strictly speaking, neither affirms nor denies anything in reference to the matter in hand. No man has a moral right to do anything improper. Whether, therefore, he has the moral right to discuss the question of Slavery, is a point with which human legislation or resolutions have nothing to do. The true issue to be decided is, whether he has the civil, the And political right, to discuss it, or not. this is a mere question of fact. In Russia, in Turkey, in Austria, nay, even in France, this right most certainly does not exist. But does it exist in Missouri? We decide this question by turning to the Constitution of the State. The sixteenth section, article thirteenth, of the Constitution of Missouri, reads as follows:

"That the free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights 'of man, and that every person may freely 'speak, write, and print ON ANY SUBJECT, 'being responsible for the abuse of that liber'ty.'

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Here, then, I find my warrant for using, as Paul did, all freedom of speech. If I abuse that right, I freely acknowledge my

MR. LOVEJOY IN ST. LOUIS.

self amenable to the laws. But it is said that the right to hold slaves is a constitutional one, and therefore not to be called in question. I admit the premise, but deny the conclusion."

Mr. Lovejoy proceeded to set forth that Robert Dale Owen and Frances Wright had recently landed on our shores from Great Britain, and had traversed our country, publicly propagating doctrines respecting Divorce which were generally regarded as utterly destructive to the institution of Marriage, yet they were nowhere mobbed nor assaulted for so doing. And yet, most surely, the institutions "of Slavery are not more interwoven "with the structure of our society "than those of Marriage." He continued:

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"See the danger, and the natural and inevitable result, to which the first step here will lead. To-day, a public meeting declares that you shall not discuss the subject of Slavery in any of its bearings, civil or religious. Right or wrong, the press must be silent. To-morrow, another meeting decides that it is against the peace of society that the principles of Popery shall be discussed, and the edict goes forth to muzzle the press. The next day it is, in a similar manner, declared that not a word must be said against distilleries, dram-shops, or drunkenness and so on to the end of the chapter. The truth is, my fellow-citizens, if you give ground a single inch, there is no stopping-place. 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 respectfully, yet decidedly, declare to you my fixed determination to maintain this ground. We have

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I am a

slaves, it is true; but I am not one.
citizen of these United States, a citizen of
Missouri, free-born; and, having never for-
feited the inestimable privileges attached to
such a condition, I cannot consent to sur-
render them. But, while I maintain them,
I hope to do it with all that meekness and
humility that become a Christian, and
cially a Christian minister. I am ready, not
to fight, but to suffer, and, if need be, to die
for them. Kindred blood to that which

espe

flows in my veins flowed freely to water the

tree of Christian liberty, planted by the

133

| Puritans on the rugged soil of New Eng-
land. It flowed as freely on the plains of
Lexington, the hights of Bunker Hill, and
the fields of Saratoga. And freely, too, shall
mine flow-yea, as freely as if it were so
much water-ere I surrender my right to
plead the cause of truth and righteousness,
all their opposers."
before my fellow-citizens, and in the face of

view and refute all the positions and
He continued in this strain to re-
doctrines of these resolutions, and,.
toward the close of his appeal, said:

the laws of my country, or its Constitution, "If in anything I have offended against I stand ready to answer. If I have not, then I call upon those laws and that Consti

tution, and those who revere them, to protect me.

"I do, therefore, as an American citizen, Liberty, and Law, and RELIGION, solemnly and Christian patriot, and in the name of PROTEST against all these attempts, howsoever or by whomsoever made, to frown down the liberty of the press, and forbid deep sense of my obligations to my country, the free expression of opinion. Under a the Church, and my God, I declare it to be my fixed purpose to submit to no such dictation. And I am prepared to abide the consequences. I have appealed to the Constitution and laws of my country; if they fail to protect me, I APPEAL TO GOD, and with Him I cheerfully rest my cause."

The Observer failed for one week to appear, but was issued regularly thereafter. On the request of its proprietors, Mr. Lovejoy gave up the establishment to them, intending to leave St. Louis; but they handed it over in payment of a debt of five hundred dollars, and the new owner immediately presented it to Mr. Lovejoy, telling him to go on with the paper as before. He had gone to Alton, Illinois, expecting to remove it to that city; but, while there, a letter reached him from St. Louis, urging him to return and remain, which he did.

On the 28th of April, 1836, a quarrel occurred between two sailors, or boatmen, at the steamboat landing

in St. Louis. When the civil officers attempted to arrest them for a breach of the peace, a mulatto named Francis J. McIntosh interfered, and enabled the boatmen to escape, for which he was very properly arrested, carried before a justice of the peace, and committed to jail. On his way thither, being informed that his punishment would be not less than five years in the State Prison, he immediately broke loose from the officers, drew a knife, and stabbed one of them fatally, severely wounding the other. He was instantly secured and lodged in jail. A mob thereupon collected, broke open the jail, tore him from his cell, carried him out of town, and chained him to a tree, around which they piled rails, plank, shavings, etc., to the hight of his knees, and then applied fire. He was burning in fearful agony about twenty minutes before life became extinct. When the fire had nearly died out, a rabble of boys amused themselves by throwing stones at the black and disfigured corpse, each endeavoring to be first in breaking the skull.

This horrible affair came in due course before the grand jury of St. Louis for investigation, and a Judge, who bore the apposite name of Lawless, was required to charge said jury with regard to it. Here is a specimen of his charge:

"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 these wordsnot 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 in the matter; the case then transcends 12 your jurisdiction—it is beyond the reach of human law"!!!

On this charge, Mr. Lovejoy commented with entire unreserve; whereupon a mob surrounded and tore down his office-although, in the issue which contained his strictures, he had announced his decision to remove the paper to Alton, believing that it would be there more useful and better supported than at St. Louis. His first issue at Alton is dated September 8th.

Meantime, his press was taken from St. Louis, by steamboat, to Alton, and landed on the bank about daylight on Sunday morning. It lay there in safety through the Sabbath; but, before the next morning, it had been destroyed by some five or six individuals. On Monday, a meeting of citizens was held, and a pledge voluntarily given to make good to Mr. Lovejoy his loss. The meeting passed some resolutions condemnatory of Abolitionism, and Mr. Lovejoy assured them that he had

not come to Alton to establish an abolition, but a religious, journal; that he was not an Abolitionist, as they understood the term, but was an uncompromising enemy of Slavery, and so expected to live and die.

He started for Cincinnati to procure new printing materials, was taken sick on the way, and, upon reaching Louisville, on his return, was impelled by increasing illness to stop. He remained there sick, in the house of a friend, for a week, and was still quite ill after his return.

The Observer was issued regularly

12 "Higher law" again-fourteen years ahead of Gov. Seward.

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