Elijah Parish Lovejoy

Elijah Parish Lovejoy, editor of the Alton Observer, minister of the Gospel, and moderator of Alton Presbytery, was born in Albion, Maine, on Nov. 8, 1802, and died in Alton, Illinois, on Nov. 7, 1837. He was honored as a martyr to liberty, a champion of free speech, and a man sworn to eternal opposition to slavery who declared that he would never turn back. He held that if the laws of his country failed to protect him, he would appeal to God, rest his cause with Him, die at his post, and not desert it. He also declared himself at liberty, as an American citizen, to speak, write, and publish whatever he pleased on any subject, while remaining amenable to the laws of his country. In Alton on Nov. 7, 1837, the noble defenders of the press made the first armed resistance in America to the aggression of the slave power.

Alton, Illinois · United States