Owen Lovejoy
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Owen Lovejoy (January 6, 1811 – March 25, 1864) was an American lawyer, Congregational minister, abolitionist, and Republican congressman. He was also a "conductor" on the underground railroad. His brother, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an anti-slavery Presbyterian minister, was murdered on the night of November 7, 1837 while trying to defend the printing press of an Illinois Anti-Slavery Society from an angry mob. Owen Lovejoy is reported to have sworn on his brother's grave to "never forsake the cause that had been sprinkled with my brother's blood."[1] He was also the cousin of Maine Senator Nathan A. Farwell.
Lovejoy was a platform speaker in support of Abraham Lincoln in the famous debates with Stephen Douglas. Lovejoy was elected from Illinois as a Representative to the Thirty-fifth United States Congress and succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1857, until his death. He was a trusted confidante of Abraham Lincoln for decades and one of the few steadfast congressional supporters of Lincoln during the American Civil War. Lincoln wrote "To the day of his death, it would scarcely wrong any other to say, he was my most generous friend." [1]
He was born in Albion, Maine, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1832. He served as pastor of the Congregational Church in Princeton, Illinois from 1839–1856. He died in Brooklyn, New York, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery, in Princeton.
The city of Princeton maintains and preserves his home, the Owen Lovejoy House for historical purposes. It is open to the public to view. His home was part of the Underground Railroad and has a secret compartment for hiding slaves. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
A monument, the Lovejoy State Memorial, also exists.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Sandburg, Carl (1954). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years. p64: Harvest. ISBN 0-15-602611-2.
[edit] External links
- The Official Lovejoy Homestead website
- Owen Lovejoy at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jesse O. Norton |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 3rd congressional district 1857-1863 |
Succeeded by Elihu B. Washburne |
| Preceded by William A. Richardson |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th congressional district 1863-1864 |
Succeeded by Ebon C. Ingersoll |
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