LOVEJOY, ELIJAH PARISH, 1802-37; b. in Albion, Me.; graduated at Waterville college in 1826; went to St. Louis, Mo., where he was engaged first as a teacher, then as a political editor; studied theology at Princeton, and in 1833 was ordained a Presbyte rian minister; returned to St. Louis and became editor of the Observer, a religious jour nal. Antislavery agitation was then rife throughout the free states, and Mr. Lovejoy, while disclaiming any connection with the abolitionists, was yet imbued with the old time New England hostility to slavery and with an earliest zeal for the freedom of the press. Occasional paragraphs in the Observer, evincing a firm but moderate opposition to slavery, gave great offense to the people of St. Louis. Censured and menaced for this exercise of the freedom of speech in a slave-holding community, he reminded his censors that the blood in his veins was kindred to that which flowed at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and declared that he could not consent to wear a chain. In the spring of 1836, a negro criminal WaS taken out of the St. Louis jail.by a mob, chained to a tree, and burned to death. An attempt being made to indict the authors of the crime, judge Lawless, in his charge to the grand jury, laid down the doctrine that when a mob is hurried by some " mysterious, metaphysical, and almost electric frenzy," to commit a deed of violence and blood, the participators therein are absolved from guilt, and there fore not proper subjects of punishment. If the jury should find that such was the fact in the case before them, then, said the judge, "act not at all in the matter; the case transcends your jurisdiction; it is beyond the reach of human law." Mr. Lovejoy's comments upon the charge of judge Lawless aroused deep indignation in St. Louis, in consequence of which the office of the Observer was destroyed by a mob. He thereupon determined to remove his paper to Alton, Ill., but his press on being landed there was broken into fragments by lawless men. The citizens of Alton reimbursed him for his loss, and another press was procured. In Aug., 1837, the office was invaded by a mob and the press and types destroyed. Another press was brought to the place, but before it could be set up it was broken in pieces and the fragments thrown into the Mississippi. A strong body of law-abiding citizens, who felt that it would not be right to submit to the dictation of a mob, rallied around Mr. Lovejoy and offered to procure for him still another press. A convention, embracing men of the highest character from different parts of Illinois, met att Upper Alton and resolved that " the cause of human rights, the liberty of speech and of the press, imperatively demand that the press of the Observer be re-established at Alton with its present editor." The pro-slavery party were equally determined that the paper should be suppressed. At this critical juncture a public meeting was called in Alton to consider whether the publication of the Observer there should be any longer permitted. At this meeting "Mr. Lovejoy appeared and made au address. " I am impelled," he said, " to the course I have taken because I fear God. As I shall ans'wer to him in the great day, I dare not abandon my sentiments, or cease in all proper ways to propagate them. I am fully aware of all the sacrifice I make in here pledging myself to continue the contest to the last. I am commanded to forsake
father and mother, wife and children, for Jesus's sake; and as his professed disciple, I stand pledged to do it. The time for fulfilling this pledge in my case, it seems to me. has come. Sir, I dare not flee away from Alton. Should I attempt it, I, should feel that the angel of the Lord, with drawn sword, was pursuing me wherever I went. It is because I fear God that I am not afraid of all those who oppose me in tbis city. The contest has come here, aud here it must be finished. Before God and you all I have pledged myself to continue it, if need be, till death; and if I fall, my grave shall be made in Alton." This address had a powerful effect even upon some of his opponents, and for a time it was hoped that the mob could not be rallied for the commission of further violence; but when it became knovvn that another press had .arrived, an intense excite ment followed. The mob was warned of the event by the blowing of horns. The mayor superintended the transfer of the press to a warehouse, and aided in storing it away. Friends of liberty and order volunteered to watch and defend it. Mr. Lovejoy could not consent that his friends should incur, for his sake, dangers not shared by him self, and therefore he joined the party of defense. On the evening of Nov. 7, 1837, the watchers armed themselves and entered the warehouse where the press was stored, resolved to defend it, if necessary, with their lives. No attack having been made at 9 o'clock, most of the defenders retired to their homes, leaving but a dozen or so, among whom was Mr. Lovejoy himself, on guard. Near midnight a mob of 30 or 40 men issued from the drinking-shops in the vicinity prepared for deeds of violence and blood. They threw stones at the warehouse, smashed the windows, and fired seveml shots; and then they set up the cry, "Burn them out." Preparations were making to fire the building, when the mayor, who had pursued a wavering course from the beginning, came to the spot, and consented to bear a message from the mob to Mr. Lovejoy and his friends, to the effect that if they would surrender the press they should not themselves be injured. These terms' were rejected, and then went up the cry, "Fire the building, and shoot every abolitionist as he leaves." The roof being set on fire, five of the defenders rushed out, fired upon the mob, aud returned. Mr. Lovejoy and two others next stepped out, and were fired upon by rioters concealed behind a pile of lumber. One of the shots was fatal to Mr. LoVejoy, who lived only long enough to return to the counting-room, where, after exclaiming, " I am shot," he fell down and expired. The event caused great excitement throughout the country, some defending, others excusing, and many more denouncing Mr. Lovejoy. William Ellery Channing was foremost among those who held that he was entitled to the honors of a martyr to the freedom of speech and of the press; but there were men high in influence and public station who did not hesitate to cleclare that he had "died as the fool dieth." The grave of Mr. Lovejoy, which was made upon a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, was unmarked for many years, but a monument, with an appropriate inscription, now stands above it, reminding those who visit it of the sacrifices which it has cost to maintain in this republic the freedom of the press.