Show HONORING A MARTYR ath of this month an event K the on that must be of interest to W occur occurred red ind and women yet living in utah H old men dedication of a monument at it was illinois the to the memory of elijah alton 1832 he located in st louis f lovejoy r ovelty evangelist in and the publisher and as an the st louis observer he of 1 editor of maine and a thorough i was a 11 native he ww was an avowed hater sai yankee in I 1 tha thc slave lav e trade of mis slavery att warfare ainest he be started open and at once drew upon fe negro slavery the then rapidly growing against the abell people odthe d hatred headquarters were in to that whose fact made the missour boston every person who came 1 iana look upon abill as an states eastern easter n V from the when the mormons cormons conist tio began beean olst to hence settle in missouri missour I 1 and to introduce eastern thrift they were sup coming in to posed to be exercise political end and I 1 acquire re property slavery I 1 have no 10 doubt 0 U abt that against it wa was 8 this conception of the comers and not their religion new abat aroused the antagonism of the against the mormons cormons Mor mons this thought is strengthened by bv the fact atau diat t the fight against the mormons cormons leaders was manipulated by political it is in consideration of this coincidence between the advent of lovejoy anaf aej the mormons cormons in missouri that I 1 think the dedication of a monument to d aie Q e former in the town where he w was as v by a pro slavery mob must je pt of interest to many people white walte Jt orfed like myself now living in utah I 1 will therefore give some of the particulars tic ulars leading up to Love joys death in the spring of 1836 a runaway negro slave was located in st louis by U S officers in an attempt to arrest the negro a struggle for liberty occurred that can be understood only by one who has run away from bondage the negro killed one of his assailants sai lants A mob broke open the jail in which he was held carried the slave out of the city chained him to a tree and burned him the matter was carried before a grand jury which was instructed by the judge that it was a case that transcends your jurisdiction it is beyond the reach of human law act not in the matter lovejoy love joy condemned the charge of the judge A mob destroyed his printing office he moved across the mississippi river to alton illinois and attempted to start his paper but his press was broken and thrown into the river there is no evidence that the alton mob was the st louis mob it belonged to illinois and this fact should be remembered in the later experiences of the mormons cormons at nauvoo the fact is that while missouri was populated with ith a potpourri pot pourri population of mixed french and indian with the negro slaves thrown in to give the whites an apology for their utter ignorance and laziness the mississippi border of illnois was the then ultima thul of scalawags scala wags from the older east they were the natural enemies of everything human and honest just as in later years the same class of adventurers absconding debtors fleeing murderers and what not made salt lake their rende rendezvous ivous and began the fight against the good works of the mor mons here abut ut there were good men in alton also they were impressed with love joys sincerity they paid the loss A new outfit was procured and an 3 set up but was destroyed destroy d by the pro stiv stavry ry mob still another adoth ewt wis pur ehase chasel 1 1 it aa L ate re it is be set t ir i r it was or and thrown into the riar r the good people called a convention to f aoi m ti i stale antislavery anti slavery I 1 t ho meeting was broken up by a mob two weeks later the convention met secretly and organized a society as contemplated tem plated it pledged itself by the help of almighty god to reestablish establish re Love joys paper another outfit was sent for it arrived on the morning of november 7 1837 its arrival was announced by the mob by horns the mob collected to take it from the warehouse the mob gathered and demanded the goods they were refused they attempted to burn the warehouse and its defenders their cry was shoot every damned ab abolitionist oll as he leaves lovejoy was in the building it was fired he and two others went out presumably to reason with the mob lovejoy received five bullets three of them thein through his hia breast and fell dead not content with killing the proprietor and editor of the abolition paper they rushed into the burning building carried out the press broke it and threw the fragments ments into the river elijah lovejoy was the first and greatest martyr to the grand constitutional tut ional guarantee of freedom of thought speech and press in the united states it to is fitting that today the citizens of alton honor his memory it was Love joys fate largely that inspired lowells grandest poem from which I 1 quote from memory some lines right forever on the scaffold wrong forever anthe throne yet behind the dim unknown god within the shadow keeping watch above his own far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots fagons burn bum but the hooting mob of yester yesterday daj in silent awe return to glean up the scattered fragments into his torys golden urn lovejoy deserved deserved this monument and alton honors herself in raising it to him his martyrdom was the seed that produced the civil war when news of his murder reached boston the abolitionists at once moved for amass meeting they attempted to secure faneuil hall the cradle of liberty but the mayor refused them dr channing addressed an appeal to the citizens which secured the old hall on the ath of december 1837 1937 faneuil hall was filled to overflowing dr channing made an ImpreSS impressive LVe f speech and presented a series of resolutions reio lut ions then the attorney general of massachusetts rose and in a bitter speech declared that lovejoy had died as the fool dieth and compared his murderers with the men who threw the tea overboard in boston in that meeting was a young man who was the pride of most mos t aristocratic families ie he went as listener listen br only when the attorney general sat down he crowded his way to the platform he had never been heard in public he did not know his power but his soul was on fire As he mounted the rostrum hostile protestation began in the crowd he held his place with that same calm beautiful dignified manner that marked all his after life and secured a hearing he axing from his i speech h I 1 quote aen I 1 heard the gentleman lay i darers of alton side by side wi thOtis with otis down principles which place the mur and hancock with quincy and adams I 1 thought those pictured lips pointing poin ing to the portraits of those mend men on bhe walls would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant american the slanderer of the dead that night made wendell phillips the chief of the abolitionists and the st george who slew the dragon of negro degrof slavery in the united states rford dat night until abraham Linco lincoln lir signed i the proclamation of emancipation V wendell phillips was the voice elof of god gd for austice among the people and when vire y we are wholly free we will erect emt a monument to his memory grander i than any that has yet been malsed to man in north america because wendell phillips was the grandest ran dest man the united states has yet produced CHARLES ELLIS |