One of the most important anti slavery speeches ever delivered in the U.S. House of Representatives! HUMAN BEINGS NOT PROPERTY
SPEECH OF HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, OF ILLINOIS
Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 17, 1858
8 pages, 6 x 9 imprint. Buell & Blanchard, Printers, Washington. Light age toning and overall wear. Archival tape repair on the front page. Some small fold splits at the edges. Small hole on back page which affects a few words. Small area of paper loss at bottom corner of the back page.
Historic speech delivered by one of the country's leading abolitionists warning of the evils of slavery! Very desirable slavery related imprint.
Owen Lovejoy: (1811-64) Ordained as pastor of the Congregational Church in Princeton, Illinois, in 1836. Brother of famed abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy, the editor of the Alton Observer, and member of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. Elijah was murdered by a white pro-slavery mob on November 7, 1837. At his funeral Owen vowed that he would never "forsake the cause sprinkled with his brother's blood." Owen was a member of the Liberty Party and was active in the campaign against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In 1854, he was elected to the Illinois State House of Representatives, and during this period he became a friend of Abraham Lincoln. However, Lincoln disapproved of Lovejoy's abolitionists views and refused to join him in forming a new radical political party. After joining the Republican Party, Lovejoy was elected to the 35th Congress and took his seat in March, 1857. He soon gained the reputation as being the most aggressive of the anti-slavery orators and associated with the Radical Republican group in Congress. However, he gradually moderated his views and assured the voters that he was content "to fight slavery in modes pointed out in the Constitution, and in those modes only." He was a platform speaker in support of Lincoln in the Lincoln - Douglas Debates. In the 1860 presidential election Lovejoy campaigned vigorously for Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War he argued that the president should free the slaves. When critics in the Republican Party expressed fears that the former slaves would want to live in the North, Lovejoy replied; "let them stay where they are and work under the stimulus of cash instead of the lash." He also championed the cause for the recruitment of negro regiments. Unlike some Radical Republican, he took care not to be too critical of President Lincoln. At one speech on June 12, 1862, he said of the president; "If he does not drive as fast as I would, he is on the right road, and it is only a question of time." Owen Lovejoy died in Brooklyn, New York, on March 25, 1864. |
