I have concluded, after consultation with my friends and earnestly seeking counsel of God, to remain at Alton, and here to insist on protection in the exercise of my rights. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
I have been beset night and day at Alton. And now, if I leave here and go elsewhere, violence may overtake me in my retreat, and I have no more claim upon the protection of any other community than I have upon this. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
If I have been guilty of no violation of law, why am I hunted up and down continually like a partridge upon the mountains? Why am I threatened with the tar barrel? Why am I waylaid every day, and from night to night, and my life in jeopardy every hour? Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
While I value the good opinion of my fellow citizens as highly as anyone, I may be permitted to say that I am governed by higher considerations than either the favor or the fear of man. I am impelled to the course I have taken because I fear God. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
Emancipation – what is meant by it? Simply that the slaves shall cease to be held as property and shall henceforth be held and treated as human beings. Simply, that we should take our feet from off their necks. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
As the Bible inculcates upon man but one duty in respect to sin, and that is immediate repentance, abolitionists believe that all who hold slaves, or who approve the practice in others, should immediately cease to do so. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
It is not possible that one man can convert another into a piece of property, thus at once annihilating all his personal rights, without the most flagrant injustice and usurpation. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
The very flag of freedom that waves over our heads is formed from material cultivated by slaves, on soil moistened with their blood drawn from them by the whip of a republican taskmaster! Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
If the civil authorities refuse to protect me, I must look to God, and if I die, I have determined to make my grave in Alton. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
It is the easiest thing in the world to become a Christian – ten thousand times easier than it is to hold out unrepenting against the motives which God presents to the mind, to induce it to forsake its evil thoughts and turn unto Him. Elijah Parish Lovejoy Read Quote
