Owen Lovejoy
Born: January 6, 1811
Birthplace: Albion, Maine
Father: Rev. Daniel Lovejoy 1776 – 1833
(Buried: Lovejoy Cemetery, Albion, Maine)
Mother: Elizabeth Gordon Pattee 1772 – 1857
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Wife: Eunice Conant Storrs 1809 – 1899
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Children:
Sarah Moody Lovejoy French 1844 – 1881
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Owen Glendower Lovejoy 1846 – 1900
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Ida Taylor Lovejoy 1848 – 1909
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Sophia Lovejoy Dickinson 1849 – 1933
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Elijah Parish Lovejoy 1850 – 1931
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Charles Perkins Lovejoy 1852 – 1914
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois)
Political Party: Republican Party
Occupation before War:
1837: Observed his brother being murdered by an angry mob
1838: Author of Memoir of Elijah P. Lovejoy
1838 – 1856: Minister of Congregational Church in Princeton, Illinois
Organizer of 115 Anti – slavery Congregational Churches in Illinois
1854: Illinois State Representative
1854: Worked with Abraham Lincoln to found the Republican Party
1857 – 1864: United States Congressman from Illinois
1858: Platform Speaker for Lincoln in the Lincoln Douglas Debates
1859: Responded to Democrat charges that claimed him to be a negro stealer
1860: Gave a Speech against the Democrats in their support of slavery
1860: He was threatened with physical harm by several Democrats
Civil War Career:
1857 – 1864: Missed 577 Votes while United States Congressman
1861 – 1864: Member of House Committee on Territories
1861 – 1863: Chairman of House Agriculture Committee
1863 – 1864: Chairman of House District of Columbia Committee
Died: March 25, 1864
Place of Death: Brooklyn, New York
Age at time of Death: 53 years old
Burial Place: Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois
Famous Speech in 1859 When he was Called a “negro stealer”:
“Proclaim it upon the house-tops! Write it upon every leaf that trembles in the forest! Make it blaze from the sun at high noon and shine forth in the radiance of every star that bedecks the firmament of God. Let it echo through all the arches of heaven, and reverberate and bellow through all the deep gorges of hell, where slave catchers will be very likely to hear it. Owen Lovejoy lives at Princeton, Illinois, three-quarters of a mile east of the village, and he aids every fugitive that comes to his door and asks it. Thou invisible demon of slavery! Dost thou think to cross my humble threshold, and forbid me to give bread to the hungry and shelter to the houseless? I bid you defiance in the name of my God.”
Famous Speech April 5, 1860 when he condemned Democrats:
“The principle of enslaving human beings because they are inferior, is this. If a man is a cripple, trip him up; if he is old and weak, and bowed with the weight of years, strike him, for he cannot strike back; if idiotic, take advantage of him; and if a child, deceive him. This, sir, this is the doctrine of Democrats and the doctrine of devils as well, and there is no place in the universe outside the five points of hell and the Democratic Party where the practice and prevalence of such doctrines would not be a disgrace.”
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