The Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument is a memorial to this advocate of free speech and the abolition of slavery. Lovejoy ran a newspaper called the St Louis Observer in Missouri, a slave state, when slavery advocates attacked and destroyed his presses three times. He moved across the river to Alton, Illinois in 1837, where he renamed his newspaper as the Alton Observer. He was also a Presbyterian minister.
Although Illinois was a free state, southern Illinois was settled by many slaveowners from the South. On November 7, 1837, a crowd attacked the warehouse owned by an abolitionist who had aided Lovejoy in acquiring his fourth press. Lovejoy and some supporters were in the warehouse where the presses were stored. As the building was stormed and in the conflict, Lovejoy was killed.
He was considered a martyr in the causes of both freedom of speech and the abolition of slavery.
In 1857, Abraham Lincoln wrote to a friend about this event:
Lovejoy’s tragic death for freedom in every sense marked his sad ending as the most important single event that ever happened in the new world.”- Abraham Lincoln, 1857
In June of 1858 Lincoln delivered his famous House Divided speech in Alton during his campaign for the U.S. senate seat.
The memorial was dedicated in 1897. The sculptors were Robert Porter Bringhurst and Richard W. Bock. It consists of a 93-foot-tall main shaft topped by a 17-foot-tall winged statue of victory. Located on a bluff, the complete work stands more than 300 feet above the Mississippi river below. It has two side spires mounted by eagles, representing freedom and valor. as well as two bronze lion chalice statues. A stone whispering wall bench wraps around the central spire.
The four sides of the central spire’s pedestal contain quotes by Lovejoy. These give examples of major aspects of his life:
Champion of Free Speech. 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, to publish whatever I please on any subject–being amenable to the laws of my country for the same.
Salve, Victores! This monument commemorates the valor, devotion and sacrifice of the noble Defenders of the Press, who, in this city, on Nov. 7, 1837, made the first armed resistance to the aggressions of the slave power in America.
Minister of the Gospel. Moderator of Alton Presbytery, If the laws of my country fail to protect me I appeal to God, and with him I cheerfully rest my cause. I can die at my post but I cannot desert it.
Elijah P. Lovejoy, Editor Alton Observer, Albion, Maine, Nov. 8, 1802 Alton, Ill., Nov. 7, 1837.
A Martyr to Liberty.I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back.
