wfn.org | Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy Monument Is Rededicated

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

19-November-1997 
97442 
 
    Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy Monument Is Rededicated 
 
    by Marianna Riley 
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
    (used with permission) 
 
ST. LOUIS--One hundred sixty years ago, Elijah Parish Lovejoy -- a 
Presbyterian minister who was the country's first martyr to a free press -- 
was buried in an unmarked grave in nearby Alton, Ill. 
 
    On a quiet hillside in the same Alton City Cemetery, about 200 people 
gathered Nov. 8 to rededicate a monument to Lovejoy on the 100th 
anniversary of its construction.  Rising 97 feet above the hillside, with a 
fine view of the Mississippi River, Lovejoy's monument is the tallest in 
Illinois. 
 
    Lovejoy, a newspaper editor, was buried on his 35th birthday.  Two days 
earlier, he'd been gunned down by an angry mob as he defended his press in 
an Alton warehouse.  Many consider the incident on Nov. 7, 1837, to be the 
first armed conflict that ignited passions leading to the Civil War. 
 
    An abolitionist as well as a Presbyterian minister, Lovejoy was known 
for his unpopular opinions, especially his hatred of slavery.  His 
newspaper, the "Observer," was the major forum for his antislavery stance. 
At the time of his death, he was moving his newspaper to Alton from St. 
Louis. 
 
    Before the Civil War, Missouri was a slave state, and many considered 
his views criminal.  Lovejoy thought he could find more tolerance across 
the river in the "free" state of Illinois.  He was mistaken.  Alton 
dissidents destroyed Lovejoy's presses four times in an attempt to shut his 
newspaper down. 
 
    At the rededication ceremony, Alton Township supervisor Donald Huber 
quoted liberally from "Freedom's Champion," a book by a Lovejoy scholar -- 
former Illinios Sen. Paul Simon -- on Lovejoy's life. 
 
    Taps and "echo taps" formed the bookends for the ceremony, but the 
climax was provided by St. Louis gospel singer Doris Frazier, with her 
stirring a cappella rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." 
 
    The keynote speaker was the Rev. George Humbert, pastor of College 
Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Alton church that Lovejoy served.  Humbert 
called Lovejoy a "journalistic saint, a courageous editor and a zealous 
preacher." 

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