Elijah Parish Lovejoy Quotes

Author Image

Elijah Parish Lovejoy

Profession : Clergyman

Birth : November 9, 1802

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

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

If I know my own heart, I do now feel the necessity of resigning myself into the hands of my God, to mould and guide me at His will; tho I dare not say that I am, at present, willing to do it.

Elijah Parish Lovejoy

Truth is eternal, unchanging, though circumstances may and do operate to give a different colour to it, in our view, at different times. And truth will prevail, and those who do not yield to it must be destroyed by it.

Elijah Parish Lovejoy

I know that I have the right freely to speak and publish my sentiments, subject only to the laws of the land for the abuse of that right.

Elijah Parish Lovejoy

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

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

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