Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument

The Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument, also known as the Elijah Lovejoy Monument, Elijah Parrish Lovejoy Shaft, Lovejoy Monument, and Lovejoy State Memorial, is a memorial in the United States to the advocate of free speech and the abolition of slavery, who died fighting for these ideas when his newspaper, the Alton Observer, was attacked and destroyed by pro-slavery fanatics.HistoryElijah P. Lovejoy was an abolitionist in the 1830s, running a newspaper called the St Louis Observer, in Missouri, a slave state. Slavery advocates attacked and destroyed his presses a number of times, driving him to move across the river to Alton, IL in 1837, where he renamed it the Alton Observer. Although Illinois was a free state, in November 1837, his presses were attacked for what would have been the fourth time. He and some supporters were in the warehouse where they were stored, and as the building was stormed, the attackers apparently began firing guns. Lovejoy and his men returned fire, but in the conflict Lovejoy was killed.His death garnered national attention, and was viewed by abolitionists and others as a tragic martyrdom in the cause of both freedom of speech and the abolition of slavery. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying:Lovejoy's tragic death for freedom in every sense marked his sad ending as the most important single event that ever happened in the new world - Abraham Lincoln, letter to friend Lemen, in 1857By 1850, plans were made for a monument to Lovejoy's efforts and death, but it was not completed until 60 years after his death, when it was officially opened to the public on its anniversary.