abolitionist editor journalist
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born at Albion, Maine, on November 9, 1802. Lovejoy's father was a Congregational preacher and farmer and his mother, a devout Christian. Daniel Lovejoy named his son "Elijah Parish" in honor of his close friend and mentor, Elijah Parish, a minister who was also involved in politics.
After completing his early studies in public schools, Lovejoy attended the Academy at Monmouth and China Academy. After becoming proficient enough in Latin and mathematics, he enrolled at Waterville College (now Colby College) in Waterville, Maine, as a sophomore in 1823. In September 1826, Lovejoy graduated from Waterville College with first-class honors at the top of his class.
During the winter and spring, he taught at China Academy. On receiving his license to preach he returned to St. Louis to edit a Presbyterian weekly, the Observer. His editorials on slavery soon brought protests from his readers, for even the gradual abolition of slavery that Lovejoy proposed was controversial. A meeting of citizens in 1835 warned him to desist, but Lovejoy refused to modify his position.
In early 1836 Lovejoy published a full account of the brutal lynching of a free African American in St. Louis, including a report of the trial that acquitted the mob leaders. Threats of personal harm and lack of support by the Presbyterian General Assembly soon led him to move to Alton, Ill. , 25 miles away. When the Observer's press, left unguarded on the Alton dock, was smashed and thrown into the Mississippi River, local citizens pledged money for a new one. Lovejoy's abolitionism, however, grew increasingly aggressive, and his press was destroyed again in 1837, 2 months before he helped form the Illinois auxiliary of the American Antislavery Society. When his third press was thrown into the river, Lovejoy wrote in his paper, "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. " By this time his uncompromising abolitionism and defense of free speech had received national attention. At the request of Alton's mayor the Observer's fourth press was placed in a warehouse for safekeeping. Lovejoy's friends gathered about 50 armed men to guard it. On the evening of November 7 some 20 or 30 local citizens surrounded the warehouse. Responsibility for the first shot was never fixed, but one from within the building killed a member of the attacking group. There was more firing from both sides, and when several defenders rushed out to extinguish a fire on the roof, Lovejoy, standing in an open doorway, fell with five bullets in his body. He died within the hour. After his supporters surrendered, the mob burned the warehouse. The fact that Lovejoy died defending the freedom of speech and press was the subject of hundreds of sermons and editorials throughout the North. His death, wrote John Quincy Adams, "gave a shock as of an earthquake throughout this continent. "
He was a newspaper editor and martyred abolitionist who died in defense of his right to print antislavery material in the period leading up to the American Civil War (1861–65).
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. Furthermore, an inscribed memorial rock from his birthplace occupies a prominent position in a grassy square at Colby.
Elijah Lovejoy is recognized by a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Quotations: "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, and to publish whatever I please on any subject. "
In 1835, Lovejoy married Celia Ann French, of St. Charles, and they had two children.
