1837 Elijah Lovejoy
Champion of freedom for slaves.
Mr. Chairman, it is not true, as has been charged upon me, that I hold in contempt the feelings and sentiments of this community with reference to the question which is now agitating it. I respect and appreciate the feelings and opinions of my fellow citizens, and it is one of the most painful and unpleasant duties of my life that I am called upon to act in opposition to them. . . . I have asked for nothing but to be protected in my rights as a citizen – rights which God has given me, and which are guaranteed to me by the Constitution of my country . . . I plant myself, sir, down on my unquestionable rights, and the question to be decided is . . . whether my property shall be protected; whether I shall be suffered to go home to my family at night without being assailed . . . whether my afflicted wife . . . shall night after night be driven from a sick bed into the garret, to save her life from the brick bats and the violence of mobs; that, sir, is the question.
