History Holds First-Person Account of Lovejoy’s death
by
John J. Dunphy
Originally published in the 7–11–20 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL
Abolitionism triumphed in the Unted States when the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery in 1865. America’s aging abolitionists held a reunion in Chicago in 1874 to recognize distinguished members of their movement as well as to record a history of the anti-slavery cause for future generations. The June 10, 1874 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune carried an account of this event.
Thaddeus Hurlbut of Upper Alton attended the reunion to deliver an address devoted to his dear friend and fellow abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy. His speech comprises the most dramatic and detailed account of Lovejoy’s murder on November 7, 1837 while defending his last printing press.
At that time, Upper Alton and Alton were separate communities about three miles apart. Hurlbut recalled that the area between the two towns “was then covered with large forest trees.” Lovejoy and Hurlbut enjoyed a pleasant walk “through forests and ravines, and along the bluffs.”
When Hurlbut bade farewell to Lovejoy and was about to begin the long walk back to Upper Alton, the abolitionist editor asked him to return to Alton that night. “We do not know what might come to pass,” Lovejoy said. Perhaps he had a premonition that this would be the last night of his life, and he wanted his dear friend to be with him.
Hurlbut walked back to Alton around sunset and met Lovejoy, who was on his way to the Godfrey-Gilman warehouse. Lovejoy told him that a number of men were already gathered inside the building to defend the Alton Observer’s new printing press from possible mob assault.
“ As we entered the warehouse at the northeast corner,” Hurlbut told the Chicago audience, “Mr. Lovejoy in a very pleasant, cheerful mood said, ‘As you and I are equal to seven men, we are to have charge of this room and this door, for should an attack to be made, it will be at this point. And as I shall have to be moving about in different parts of the building, I give this door unto your charge. You are to keep it and to trust it to no other person, till we know the result.’ “
According to Hurlbut, the act of killing another person was “a very serious matter” to the defenders of the printing press, and they vowed not to fire a single shot unless they believed their lives were endangered or mob members actually entered the warehouse. Later, a mob indeed assaulted the warehouse and hurled rocks that shattered every window. The door that Hurlbut guarded was partially forced open before the mob retreated.
In his account, he referred to mob as “rabble” that had been “maddened by filthy whiskey and even more filthy harangues.” Having “renewed their courage at the whiskey-tubs standing in the streets,” he contemptuously noted, “they returned with the same howling as at first, again dashing rocks against the building.” The defenders refrained from discharging their weapons until the besieging mob fired on the warehouse.
Mob members then placed a ladder against the building and began an ascent to set fire to the roof. Lovejoy and several other defenders ran from the warehouse, knocked over the ladder and fired shots at the mob. A short time later, the mob again raised the ladder to reach the roof. According to Hurlbut’s account: “At length, when all our men were inside the building, two or three of the mob secreted themselves behind a pile of lumber on the riverbank, but a little distance from the door whence the defenders issued to clear the ladder. When next they went out, having no suspicion that the assassins were in such near ambush, one of those hiding behind the lumber discharged a double-barrel gun loaded with buckshot, lodging its contents in the breast of Mr. Lovejoy.”
Lovejoy had been fatally shot, but much more transpired that night. I will share more of Hurlbut’s account next week.
John J. Dunphy is the author of Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois, Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947, Lewis and Clark’s Illinois Volunteers and From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois.