Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy : who was murdered in defence of the liberty of the press, at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837

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The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library. LSTA Grant

Introduction

TO THE MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF" THE REV. ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY, MURDERED IN THE DEFENCE OF THE LIB- ERTY OF THE PRESS AT ALTON, IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ON THE 7TH NOVEMBER, 1837.

In the biographical narratives of the Founder of the Christian religion, and of his primitive disciples, there is an internal evidence of truth, not less conclusive than that of the miraeles which they performed. The miracles were the evidence necessary to prove the authenticity of his mission to his cotemporaries, to whom he was accredited, to whom he revealed the hidden mys tery of their own immortality, and to whom he proclaimed the laws of their own nature, the obligations of mutual benevolence and charity : — love upon earth — and life hereafter, were the everlasting pillars of his system of religion and of morals. So congenial to the nature of man are this precept, and this promise, that on presenting them in their simplicity to the mind, it would seem as if they must meet the universal acquiescence and assent of every intelligent human being. But before the precept of brotherly love, as the universal law of human kind, carried out to its logical conclusions, empires and kingdoms, principalities and powers. War and Slavery, were destined to fall prostrate, to crumble into dust, and to be extinguished on the surface of the globe.

The first extensive operation of the Christian system of religion and morals, was to demolish the religion of Rome, the mistress of the world, and at the same time, to abolish the ritual portion of the Jewish religion — systems of government as well as systems of religion, were to be overthrown, subdued, annihilated by this simple ray of supernatural light, and with those systems were to be overcome and vanquished all the selfish and sordid passions of man's nature, and all the aggregations of physical human power.

In the progressive revolutions effected by the Christian system of religion and morals, it was in the order of Providence that its operations should be slow and gradual, embracing a period of many thousand years.

Its first converts were among the humble and the lowly — the diseased who had no physician ; and the vicious who had no friend. Its first apostles were fishermen, publicans, and tent-makers. The earthly condition of the Messiah was to be the son of a carpenter, and the. first of his disciples above the rank of a centurion, is known only as having offered a sepulchre for his grave.

For the propagation of his doctrines he disclaimed once and again, with undeviating perseverance all recourse to an arm of flesh. He declared that his king- *;> dom was not of this world. He declared that he came not to destroy, but to fulfil. He commanded his discipies to render to Caesar the things that were Csssar's, and he paid for his own person the tribute to Rome.

Yet no sooner was his system of morals disclosed than the Scribes and Pharisees, the Priests and the Rulers of the Synagogue, discovered in it the inevitable downfall of the Levitical Law. They accordingly seized, condemned, and executed him as a malefactor.

That the religion of the Roman empire was also to be exterminated by this kingdom of Heaven, the denomination given by the Saviour to his new system of doctrines, was not so soon discovered, but could not long be concealed. The ignominious death' of the teacher was in the ways of Providence, the most effective means of spreading abroad his faith. The apostles, to whom he had left the charge of preaching the gospel to all nations, encoimtered wherever they went, the persecution of the multitude, and of their rulers, and as the Baptist's head had fallen at the mandate of a king to satiate the ven geance of a rebuked adulteress, his accomplice Stephen became the victim of a lawless rabble, for proclaiming to them the doctrines of universal love and eternal life. -

In those doctrines, however, there was a principle of vitality, destined to survive all persecution, and to triumph over all human power. The moral precepts of the Levitical Law, purified and refined, shone with un dying lustre in the new dispensation — its rites and cere monies, its Priests and Levites, its sacrifices of blood, its visions, and its dreams, gave way to a simple and spiritual form of worship, the working of miracles, no longer necessary for the authentication of faith, was withdrawn

1* from the disciples of the cross, and the new system of religion and morals was left to make its way in the world by the perpetual miracle of its celestial oiigin, self-evident by the inte^rnal demonstration of its irresistible power, and its superhuman perfection.

In the space of three hundred years it accomplished the annihilation of Rome's three hundred thousand gods. The beautiful and stupendous system of the Heathen Mythology, melted before its effulgence into air. The Csesars of imperial Rome bowed the knee to the name of Jesus, and Constantine, the master of the world, was taught by better proof than the visions of the night, that the cross of Christ was the sign by which he was to conquer.

It was not only over the false gods of paganism, that the religious and moral system of Christ was to prevail — nor was it only the cumbrous and sanguinary ritual of the Jewish dispensation that it was to supersede. The Christian system, meddles not directly with the organization of human government. It commands obedience to the laws. It enjoins reverence to the powers that be • — ^but it lays down first principles, before which, carried to their unavoidable conclusions, all oppression, tyranny and wrong must vanish from the face of the earth.

That all mankind are of one blood, and that the relation between them is that of brothers. That the rule of social intercourse between them is that each should do to all, as he would that all should do to him. This is Christianity — and this is the whole duty of man to man.

The conflict of Christianity is with all the evil passions, aided by all the physical and all the intellectual powers of man. The physical and intellectual powers are indeed instruments adapted equally to the use of Christianity and of its adversaries. It is by the unalterable and eternal truth of its principles, that the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of Christ must be extended throughout the habitable earth.

Its first great victory was over false religions. In the progress of ages, its slow, gradual, and progressive advancement has been over tyrannical governments. It has weaned the human mind from the toleration of governments founded only upon conquests, and acting only by arbitrary will and physical force. It has prompted the heart, and armed the hand of the Christian man to resist and overthrow them. It has taught him that the duty of obedience to government is founded upon a covenant of mutual respect for the unalienable natural rights of man : and that however this covenant may be violated by power, the rights can never be extinguished, and may always hy power be resumed.

It is the pride and glory of the confederated North American Republic, that in the instrument of their first association they solemnly declared and proclaimed these truths, derived by clear unequivocal deduction, from the first principles of the Christian faith, to be self-evident — and announced them as the first principles both oC their Union and of their Independence.

The second great victory of the Christian system of morals was over oppressive governments — and that victory has not yet been consummated. The absolute des.- potisms of antiquity, under which the lives, persons, and property of the subject were utterly unprotected from the will of the despot, vanished very early by the adoption of the Christian faith as the religion of the Roman empire. But that life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness were inextinguishable rights of all mankind, had never been proclaimed as the only rightful foundation of human association and government, until the Declaration of Independence, laid it down, as the corner stone of the North American Union.

It was a discovery in the combined science of morals and politics. It was an electrical spark which passed invisibly through the whole chain of the Christian nations, seen only at the instant of its emission — felt at once, though unseen by all — and from that day throughout the whole circle of the Christian nations, a simultaneous struggle has been in constant operation, though in forms infinitely diversified, to new model their governments and political institutions, to approximate the practical realization of those self-evident elementary principles.

But Government, whether civil, ecclesiastical, or military, is not the only nor the most pernicious agent of tyranny and oppression. The laws of war, and the institutions of domestic Slavery, have been far more effective instruments for converting the bounties of the Creator to the race of man into a curse, than all the tyrannies of emperors and kings that ever existed upon earth. War is a perpetual violation of the right of human beings to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and Slavery is no more than tlie base-bom progeny of war. The Christian system of morals, as delivered by its Founder, pro* hibits war not in direct, but in implied, unqualified terms. This prohibition has not yet had its full development, among the nations which profess the Christian faith. They receive the law, and acknowledge its obligations, without yielding obedience to its precepts. But the Christian nations, in their practice among themselves, have in many important respects, mitigated, and in others, wholly abolished the most cruel usages and established laws of ancient war, among w^hich hereditary Slavery was by far the most oppressive. In the wars of Christian nations between themselves, it has long since been totally abolished. The Mahometan and Heathen nations still continue to make slaves of their prisoners of war, and Christians, after discarding forever the practice of enslaving one another, have but recently begun to reflect upon the necessary consequence in the reasoning of moral principle, that the same precept which forbids them from holding as a slave their Christian brother, equally interdicts them from defiling themselves with the pollution of Heathen or Mahometan bondage.

The first cries of conscience against the engraftment of African Slavery, upon the Christian communities of the European colonies in x\merica, were heard precisely at the time when the contest of liberty began between Great Britain and her own colonists in North America. They were raised by Anthony Benezet, a native of France, who had betiome an inhabitant of Pennsylvania. From him they passed to Granville Sharpe in England.

The labours of these two humble, obscure, powerless Christian philanthropists, first awakened the civilized world to the atrocious immorality of Slavery and the slave trade. Little less than a century has elapsed since this struggle of right against oppression commenced, and it has resulted in a conventional agreement of all the Christian nations, identifying the African slave trade with the crime of piracy.

But if the African Slavery be piracy, human reason cannot resist, nor can human sophistry refute the conclusion, that the essence of the crime consists not in the trade, but in the Slavery. Trade has nothing in itself criminal by the law of nature, or that can be made so by any law or compact of nations. It is one of the natural rights flowing from the condition of man ; from reciprocal wants and reciprocal good will. Trade, therefore, iian be made criminal only by the nature of the article in which it is carried on. It is the Slavery, and not the purchase and sale, or the transportation of the slave, which constitutes the iniquity of the African slave trade. The moral principle then, which dictated the interdict of the African slave trade, pronounced at once the sentence of condemnation upon Slavery.

Slavery had from an early period been introduced into the colonies of all the European powers of the western hemisphere. It existed in all the English colonies, though by one of those unaccountable inconsistencies which mark the imperfection of all human institutions, the mother country spurned from her own soil the Slavery which she established and supported in her colonies. It was even during the progress of the war for American Independence, solemnly settled by the decision of England's highest judicial court, that the slave of an English West Indian, if brought by his master to England, no sooner set his foot on English ground than he became a freeman. The same decision was made by the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a necessary consequence from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, repeated in the Declaration of Rights forming part of her State Constitution.

The subject of the ensuing memoir, the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, was a native of the Commonwealth of Mas sachusetts — born in a state where the abjuration of the authority of Great Britain, and of the institution of Slavery, had been universally held to have been consummated by one and the same act, he had like all the citizens of that State, born since the Declaration of Independence, been bred and nurtured in the belief that Slavery was an institution, politically incompatible with a free Constitution, and religiously incompatible with the laws of God. Led by his destiny, in the pursuit of happiness, and in the fulfilment of his religious and moral duties, to the western region of his country, the fundamental condition of whose political existence was the exclusion of all Slavery and involuntary servitude, he there fell a victim to the fury of a band of ruffians, stung to madness, and driven to despair, for the fate of their darling Slavery, by the terrors of a printing press.

That an American citizen, in a state whose Constitu= tion repudiates all Slavery, should die a martyr in defence of the freedom of the press, is a phenomenon in the history of this Union. It forms an aera, in the progress of mankind towards universal emancipation. Martyrdom was said by Dr. Johnson to be the only test of sincerity in religious belief. It is also the ordeal through which all great improvements in the condition of men, are doomed to pass. The incidents which preceded and accompanied, 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 already to the life and character of the sufferer, and which it is believed will abide while ages pass away. To record and preserve for posterity the most interesting occurrences of his life has been considered an obligation of duty) specially incumbent upon the surviving members 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.

MEMOIR.

Chapter I

When the prophet Elijah was taken up beyond the gaze of his companions, it was but natural that the heir of his mantle should cherish his memory, and record the more important incidents of his life. So would we now trace the history of our brother Elijah Parish Lovejoy, dear indeed in life, but more beloved in death.

In the year 1790, our grandfather, Francis Lovejoy, removed from Amherst, N. H., to the town of Albion, Kennebec County, Maine. This region was then an uncultivated, indeed an almost unbroken wilderness. Only here and there, at great intervals, could the eye catch the lonely column of smoke curling up through the thick and rich foliage. With all this extended forest before him, in which to choose a home, our ancestor selected a beautiful eastern slope, terminating by the shore of a small lake, about five miles in circumference. Around its shores he set his traps, and over its surface dragged his lines. For these were favourite amusements, even at that season when desire fails. He died October 11th, 1818, aged eighty-fiA^e.

In the severe labours incident to an early settlement, among the dense forests of Maine, our father, the late Rev. Daniel Lovejoy, passed his early years. His mother was a truly devout woman, whose memory he ever cherished with lively and grateful recollections. Guided solely by her instructions, and assisted by her prayers, at the age of seventeen, after a season of deep mental distress, he gave himself to the covenant God of his mother. Two years after this, relying upon his own resources, and the never-failing energy of his character, he left the cleared spot of his father's farm, in order to obtain an education preparatory to the work of the ministry. He became a resident in the family of the late Rev. Elijah Parish, of Byfield, Mass. In the academy at that place he received a respectable education, and in the person of bis benefactor, acquired a warm friend, faithful unto death.

He commenced the work of the ministry in 1805, and continued to labour in this, to him, delightful employment, with zeal and general acceptance until his death, August 11th, 1833, aged fifty-eight. His character is briefly, but correctly given in the following extract from a sermon preached at his funeral by the Rev. Thomas Adams, of Waterville, Maine.

" It will be interesting to dwell for a moment on the character of our departed friend, though this can hardly be necessary, speaking as I do to those who knew him well. I regTet that my memory has not more faithfully retained the circumstances I have heard him relate, concerning his early religious history. The impression of deep interest it excited remains, though the detail has escaped me. He was not brought into the kingdom of Christ, borne, as it were, on the tide of excitement, but it was when all was dark and cold around him, when professing Christians of any denomination were exceedingly rare, when there was almost every influence, but that of the word and the spirit of God to oppose, it was m circumstances like these, that he came forth, and took it may almost be said, a solitary stand as a disciple of Christ, and, as is generally the case, with those who, in such circumstances, espouse the cause of Christ, he firmly maintained his stand. To this, I cannot doubt, you will all bear witness. Whatever imperfections yon may have discovered in his character, and there are none without imperfections, — you never, I will venture to say, you never suspected that he was ashamed of Christ, or that he was unwilling, in any circumstances or in any society, to be known as a follower of Jesus. Never was he moved either by the sneers or frowns of an unbelieving world. His principles he was ever ready to avow without palliation or concealment. As he was ardent and decided in his feelings, he did not always, perhaps, exert that conciliating influence which one of a different temperament would have done.

Peter had not all the softness and tenderness of John, but he was, nevertheless, a disciple, and perhaps the peculiar energy of his character, might render him the more extensively useful. As a minister of Christ he was highly valued. The native vigour of his mind, and the ardor of his feelings, overcame, in a great degree, the want of that early culture, which he ever considered important and desirable, as a preparation for the sacred office, and threw entirely into the shade those minor deficiences which the more critical hearer might, perhaps, generally discover. The character of his devotional services showed that he had much intercourse with heaven . His mind was evidently habitually imbued with the spirit of devotion. As he was subject to an unnatural elevation and depression of spirits, this would of course occasion an inequality in the character of his public performances ; but they were generally such as those of cultivated minds, would listen to with interest and profit, and he often rose to a high degree of excellence. To his brethren in the ministry he has ever been an interesting, as well as highly valued and profitable associate. His labours as a minister have been much with our feeble and destitute churches, and to them his services have been uniformly and highly acceptable. To the people of God throughout our land, he has ever been a welcome guest, and the number is great of those to whom his memory will be precious."

Our mother, who survives the tragical death of her son, was born at Winslow, Maine, February 1772. Her father, the late Ebenezer Pattee, Esq. of Unity, and her mother, Mary Stinson, were both from Georgetown, Maine. Their ancestors originated in Scotland. And here we cannot forbear to give this public testimony to the faithful instruction, and pious example of both our beloved and honoured parents. They not only dedicated their children to God, but with great diligence laboured to train them up in the fear of the Lord, And if any of them have done, or shall do any thing worthy and good, it is but the reflection of that excellence which always shone bright before them, in the example of their parents ,

Chapter II

Odr eldest brother, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, was born at Albion, November 9th, 1802, just thirty-five years previous to the day of his burial. Three brothers preceded him to the grave ; three yetlive and two sisters. In childhood and youth he manifested the elements of character, which were fully developed in the trials of his last years. He was courageous, firm, and persevering.

When he had once taken a stand, he was sure to maintain it to the utmost of his power. Less than four years were numbered, when he began to exhibit his ruling passion, — an ardent desire for knowledge. At this age he read with fluency in his Bible. His letters were all learned, by his own solicitation, from his mother. He would take his book, go to her, and ask the name of a letter, and then retire to his seat, until he had marked its form, and indelibly fixed it in his memory ; and then again to his mother for the name of a new let ter. In the same way, he not only learned to read, but acquired much, and varied knowledge. Throughout his youth, the ends of the day saved from the axe, the plough, and the scythe, were all employed in the diligent use of books. When the small theological library of his father was exhausted, he had recourse to a public one, of a more varied character, in the vicinity. The stores of this also by weekly visits, were very soon transferred to his own mind. His memory was uncommonly retentive. While at the sabbath school, his teacher one day remarked to the class, that they might

2* increase their lessons for the next Sabbath. In the leisure hours of the following week, he committed the 119th Psalm, and some twenty or more hymns to go with it. Poetry he drank in like water. By reading any piece of one or two pages twice, he could accurately rehearse it. The writer has heard him repeat one hundred and fifty Hymns from Watts at a single recitation. In all the exercises of the district school of which he was a member, he evinced decided superiority. One of his mates lately remarked, that it was impossible to do more than gain a place next the head, for he that was there could not only spell the words, but also pronounce them in their order without the book. When the school was divided by what is called " choosing sides," his name was always first heard.

Nor was he first in the school-room only. He engaged with great zest in all the sports of his early companions. Swimming was our weekly, and almost daily amusement. A very considerable portion of the bottom of the lake, we have before mentioned was visited, in a competition to see who should dive the greatest number of feet. Mud or clams was the only evidence admitted as proof that the effort had been successful. A depth of twelve or fifteen feet was often reached in this dangerous, exhilarating sport, Elijah being once bantered by his companions, swam the whole width of the lake, three fourths of a mile, and back again without stopping.

Under the forming hand of his assiduous mother, with a few months in each year at the district school, the first eighteen years of his life were passed. At this time he set his heart strongly upon obtaining a public education. He spent a single quarter in the Academy at Monmouth ; during which he read thoroughly Virgil entire, Cicero, and Sallust. He had studied Latin but two or three jveeks previous to this. His preparatory studies vrere contir/ued at intervals in China Academy ; and he entered a sophomore, in Waterville College, September, 1823. He was assisted in defraying the expenses of his education by one whose gifts are in every department of benevolence, the Rev. Dr. Tappan of Augusta. The writer pursued his studies preparatory to entering college with his elder brother ; and he can truly say, he has not since met with a scholar, to whom the ancient authors appeared so nearly vernacular.

Occasionally he employed a leisure hour in the writing of poetry. One specimen is given, written previous to his entering college. With the allowance for youth, and limited advantages, which the indulgent will make, it may be read with some interest. The Poem is entitled " Europe." Having painted some of the revolutions ot that continent, he now speaks of one to come still more overwhelming :

«' But Europe's fields were drunk with blood,

Drawn from the martyrs of their God ;

The sword of vengeance long had slept, —

But justice still its vigils kept :

Heaven guarded with a jealous eye,

The day of retribution nigh.

'Twas come ! then fell the awful blow,

And Europe drank the cup of wo,

Till Heaven, appeased, withdrew its hand,

And mercy saved the sinkmg land.

Back to a state of bondage turned.

Yet Freedom in their bosoms burned ;

And still they wish, in slavery bound,

The prize oft sought but never fovmd.

An awful calm has filled their sky ;

Presage of some convidsion nigh :

Like the low vapours deep, and still,

That hang around the sunny hill, — ,

Ere some dread tumult shake the skies

And all the heavens in anger rise.

The vi^ild, dark murmurings of despair

Are kmdling into madness there ;

Tyrants combined must try in vain,'

Its bursting fury to restrain ;

The spark of Freedom, Nature gives.

Oppressive bondage but revives.

Taugl^t by the errors of the past,

Their arms shall meet success at last.

Ah, who can view the fearful sight,

When Europe rises in its might !

In frenzied madness flies to arms,

And sounds alond death's deep alarms 1

O the dread scene that meets the eye.

As wistful fancy passes by,

Where the vast plain its surface wends.

Far as the level sight extends !

Whole nations in collected might,

Fierce for the onset join the fight.

And broad swords flashing to the sky.

With vengeful hearts, that scorn to yield.

They stain with blood the verdant field.

Rise the dread tumidts of that day.

Fresh slaughter bathes th' ensanguined ground,

Heaps fall on heaps and groans resound ;

Fell Fury wantons o'er the plain !

Death riots on its thousands slain !

Nature alarmed, her voice awakes.

Earth to her inmost centre shakes.

Death's angel hovers o'er their heads !

And gleam along the slackened sky.

Heaven from on high its fury pours,

And ocean beats its sounding shores ; —

Hell's blackest furies urge the fight,

Despair, wild rage, and dread affright ;

Discord, the worst of all the train,

Swells the red horrors of the plain !

Fierce and more fierce the combat grows,

And loud resound the hostile blows ;

Like hons rushing for the prey.

Thro' heaps of slain they urge their way,

Promiscuous mighty chiefs are killed,

Rage, death, and carnage load the field I

Oh ! teU not half the horrid tale,

'Twould make the firmest spirit quail.

Nations inhumed, unhonoured lie,

And dim the warrior's flashing eye !

Lo I hovering clouds obscure the Sight,

And hide the scene in sable night.

Turn where the pleasing theme would lead,

Where Freedom claims h«r dear bought meed

Fell tyrants from their thrones are hurled.

Justice shall renovate the world !

Its even balance hold secure,

And anarchy shall rule no more :

No more Oppression's cruel hand

Spread devastation o'er the land ;

No more beneath a tyrant's frown

Virtue shall cast her honours down.

But white rob'd peace her arms extend.

And millions in her temple bend ;

From orient beams to western skies.

Sweet incense from her shrine arise.

O'er Nature's face new beauties spread.

And skies their softest influence shed ;

No blsisting star's malignant breath,

Shall scatter wide contagious death ;

The scorching sun its beams restrain,

Nor bniows toss the unruflJed main.

Light playful zephyrs fan the trees, Sweet odours rise on every breeze, Heaven with its gifts descend to men, And Eden bloom on earth again."

The following, written while in college, unless we are very partial judges, contains poetic merit.