Lovejoy, Elijah Parish

“I cannot surrender my principles, though the whole world would vote them down. I can make no compromise between truth and error, even though my life be the alternative.“

– – ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY, 1835

Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1802-1837) was born in Albion on November 9, 1802, the son of Daniel Lovejoy, a Congregational minister. In 1826 he was valedictorian of his Waterville College (now Colby) graduating class.

At age 27 he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary. While there he was persuaded to move to Missouri to launch a religious (Presbyterian) newspaper, The St. Louis Observer, of which he was named editor in 1833.

Lovejoy wrote moderately about slavery, and his views were at first acceptable in Missouri. (Maine had previously achieved statehood as a “free” state as part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that established Missouri as a slave state.)

As fear of slave uprisings increased, an incident occurred during which a freedman was trapped and killed. When the mob leaders were freed by the court, Lovejoy editorially criticized the decision. His press was destroyed and his home burglarized.

He moved across the river to the free state of Illinois, where he believed he could write without fear in his Alton Observer. When his press was shipped to Alton, however, thugs smashed it at the dock. Local citizens raised money for a new press, and Lovejoy published successfully for a year.

His position on slavery hardened, and on July 6, 1837, he published another editorial condemning the practice. His press was destroyed, and reestablished several times during that year. On the night of November 7, 1837, a mob attacked his office. The militia fought back, but the mob eventually set fire to the building, drove out the militia and killed Lovejoy. Many Northerners became abolitionists after his death.

He was buried on November 9, his 35th birthday. Lovejoy was America’s first martyr to freedom of the press. On September 29, 2000, he was inducted into the Maine Press Hall of Fame.

The Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award of Colby College honors a member of the newspaper profession who continues the Lovejoy heritage of fearlessness and freedom. The recipient may be an editor, reporter or publisher who, in the opinion of the judges, has contributed to the nation’s journalistic achievement. The selection committee makes its decision on the basis of integrity, craftsmanship, character, intelligence and courage.

The purpose of the award is threefold: to honor and preserve the memory of Elijah Parish Lovejoy; to stimulate and honor the kind of achievement embodied in Lovejoy’s own courageous actions; and to promote a sense of mutual responsibility and cooperation between a journalistic world devoted to freedom of the press and a liberal arts college devoted to academic freedom.

Additional resources

Colby College Internet site, www.colby.edu

Gill, John. “Elijah Lovejoy’s pledge of silence.” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin. January 1958.

Elijah P. Lovejoy (1802-1837). A Resource Packet for Teachers & Students. Monroe, Maine. Social Justice & Truth in History. 2001.

Dillon, Merton Lynn. Elijah P. Lovejoy, Abolitionist Editor. Urbana, Illinois. University of Illinois Press, 1961.

Jameson, Melvin. Elijah Parish Lovejoy as a Christian. Rochester, N. Y. Scranton, Wetmore & Co.. [1910?]

Tanner, Henry. The Martyrdom of Lovejoy. An Account of the Life, Trials, and Perils of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was killed by a pro-slavery mob at Alton, Illinois, the night of November 7, 1837. By an eye-witness. Chicago. Fergus Printing Company. 1881. c1880. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections; Bangor Public Library]

Trow, John Fowler, 1810-1886. AltonTrials: of Winthrop S. Gilman, who was indicted with [others]; for the crime of riot, committed on the night of the 7th of November, 1837, while engaged in defending a printing press, from an attack made on it at that time, by an armed mob. . . . for a riot committed in Alton, on the night of the 7th of November, 1837, in unlawfully and forcibly entering the warehouse of Godfrey, Gilman & Co., and breaking up and destroying a printing press. New York. J. F. Trow. 1838. [Portland Public Library Special Collections]