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Narrator:
In 1827, 24-year-old Elijah Lovejoy set out to walk a thousand miles from his home in Maine to Missouri. The educated son of devoutly Christian parents, Lovejoy was in desperate search of his calling. But God had not yet appeared to him.
Choir/Elijah:
Step! Step! Walk! Walk!
Elijah, Where Are You Going To?
Elijah, What Are You Going To Do?
Hear Me
Hear Me Calling You!
Elijah, Where Are You Going To?
Elijah, What Are You Going To Do?
Can’t You Hear Me
Hear Me Calling You?
Elijah:
Shadows, Clouds And Darkness Are All That I Can See
Is There No Heaven, Or Just An Empty Sky?
I’m Walking In Darkness To The Western Frontier
Searching For God But I Don’t Know Where He Is
The Road Is Long, My Body Is Tired
And I’m A Long, Long Way From Home
This Life Is Not A Flowery One
But I’m Never Turning Back.
Choir:
Step! Step! Walk! Walk!
Elijah:
Walk, Walk.. Tired, Tired..
I Must Go Forward, I Must Go Forward, To My Destiny.
You Must Go Forward, You Must Go Forward,
To Your Destiny.
You Must Go Forward, You Must Go Forward
Forward, Westward, Forward, Westward
You Must Go Forward To The West.
Choir:
Step! Step! Walk! Walk!
Elijah, Where Are You Going To?
Elijah, What Are You Going To Do?
Can’t You Hear Me
Hear Me Calling You?
Hear Me Calling You?
You Must Go Forward To The West!
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Narrator:
After his long walk from Maine, Elijah Lovejoy arrived at the rough-and-tumble frontier town of St. Louis, at the edge of the American wilderness. The idealistic young minister’s son was shocked at the sinful behavior he found there. He opened a school, then became editor of a daily newspaper. From this pulpit, he weighed in on the rampant immorality that plagued the city.
Choir:
City, City Of Sin
City Named After A Saint
Clouded By Shadows And Darkness
Covered By Thin Holy Paint.
We Are Men Of The West
We Work Hard, We Play Hard
We Made This Frontier Our World
No Preacher From Maine Will Take It Away.
Elijah:
Friends And Neighbors, Heed My Call!
Greed And Pride Have You In Their Thrall
My Press Is A Lantern, Held On High
A Beacon Shining For You All.
The Apathy Of The People
Never Reproved For Neglect Or Abuse
Wealth Has Been The God After Which The Nation
Has Gone Whoring!
Chorus:
City, City Of Sin. Woe To This Fallen City
Clouded By Shadows And Darkness, Covered By Thin Holy Paint
We Are Men Of The West
We Work Hard, We Play Hard
We Made This Frontier Our World
No Preacher From Maine Will Take It Away.
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Narrator:
In 1832, Elijah attended a revival meeting at which an abolitionist preacher named David Nelson gave a fiery sermon. In the eyes of God, Reverend Nelson thundered, slavery was a sin as great as murder. Nelson’s sermon pierced Elijah’s soul. He converted on the spot. (piano vamp begins) After years of searching, he had found his calling—and an inner strength that would never leave him.
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Narrator:
Until this point, Elijah had avoided writing about slavery. In the slave state of Missouri, it was too hot a subject to handle. After his conversion, however, Elijah began, slowly and hesitantly at first, to speak out against slavery. In 1834, he wrote in his newspaper, The Observer, “The institution of slavery as it now exists among us, must cease to exist.” Elijah made it clear he was not an Abolitionist and did not favor the immediate emancipation of enslaved people. But this stance, moderate as it was, enraged his fellow Missourians, for whom even bringing up slavery was taboo.
About this same time, Elijah fell in love with a young woman named Celia Ann French. They were married in March 1835. Celia knew the dangers he was facing when attacking slavery, and she accepted them. For the next two and a half years, Celia Lovejoy would stand shoulder to shoulder with her husband.
As Elijah continued to editorialize against slavery, popular anger against him swelled. In late 1835, his enemies planned to tar and feather him. Talk of mob action to destroy the Observer grew. Elijah wrote, “Men came to me and told me I could not walk the streets of St. Louis by night or by day.” An assembly of leading citizens, including future U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, passed a resolution demanding that Lovejoy stop writing about slavery. The resolution stated that freedom of the press did not give the right “to freely discuss the question of slavery, either orally or through the medium of the press.” Slavery was “too nearly allied to the vital interests of the slaveholding States” to be publicly discussed.
Then, on April 28, 1836, something happened to a free black man named Frances McIntosh that was to propel Elijah Lovejoy onto the front lines of the battle that was ripping the country apart.
Mcintosh:
Saturday Afternoon
Going To See My, See My Girl Soon
In My New Red Coat
And My Shiny Shoes
I’ll Wash Off My Hands
And Those Mi-Ssi-Ssi-Pi Blues!
Saturday, Half-Past Noon
Going To See My, See My Girl Soon
When This Steamboat(The Flora) Lands
I’ll Get Ready To Dance
Going To Put My Feet The Shore Soon
I Don’t Like Trouble,
I Don’t Care For Strife
Or Those Who Stir Up Anger, Hate And The Like
Who Make A Fuss Of Somethin’
That Don’t Amount To Nothin’
After Too Much Whiskey And A Blown-Up Pride!
Saturday, Half-Past Noon
Going To See My, See My Girl Soon
When The Flora Lands
I’ll Be Ready To Dance
Going To Put My Hat On
And Get On The Shore Soon
Don’t Give Me Trouble
Cause I’m Not Like You
Don’t Tell Me You’ve Got Nothin
Better To Do!
No Matter What You Make Of It
I’m Going To Walk Away From It
Keep To My Own And Live Life In Peace… Live Life In Peace
Just Let Me Be, Just Let Me Be…
Leave Me In Peace, Just Let Me Be
Going To See My Girl Soon…
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Narrator:
It was a fine Saturday afternoon
When Francis McIntosh walked off the steamboat Flora
A free man in a red coat
Going to see his girl.
A fight broke out along the docks
The police came rushing in
They arrested McIntosh because he was black
And happened to be standing there.
“Five years,” they said. “You’ll get five years in jail.”
He lost his head, he drew a knife
He stabbed a man and tried to flee
But there was no escape.
A mob appeared, five hundred strong
And smashed into his cell
Strong arms of hate seized McIntosh
And carried him outside.
They chained him to a locust tree
And piled up stacks of wood
They lit a match and watched in glee
As flames began to mount.
“Please shoot me,” McIntosh begged the crowd
But no one raised a hand
He sang old hymns and prayed to God
As flames grew ever higher.
Two thousand watched, that Saturday
As Francis McIntosh
Burned to death in agony
Under the Missouri sky.
When Elijah heard about what happened to McIntosh, he was devastated. The next day, he went to the place where McIntosh was killed and looked in horror at his charred remains. That night, in agony of heart, he knelt in prayer.
Mcintosh:
Can You Not Feel My Pain?
Did My Blood Not Run Like Yours?
They Tied Me Up And Burned Me
Is There No Justice?
Elijah:
It Has Entered My Soul
I Will Not Turn Back
The River Is Wide And Deep
But I Will Not Forsake My Post!
The Cry Of The Oppressed
Has Entered Unto My Ears, And Unto My Soul
So That While I Live
I Can Never Hold My Peace.
I Will Not Hold My Tongue!
I Fear God More Than I Fear Man.
Though I Am One And You Are Many
With The Lord’s Help
I Will Not Turn My Back.
Truth In All Its Severity
I Condemn This Savage Barbarity!
A Call For All Our Future Generations:
Freedom And Justice For All!
The Cry Of The Oppressed
Has Entered Unto My Ears, And Unto My Soul
So That While I Live
I Shall Never Hold My Peace.
Elijah/Choir:
I Will Not Hold My Tongue!
I Fear God More Than I Fear Man.
Though I Am One And You Are Many
With The Lord’s Help
I Will Not Turn My Back.
Elijah
The River Is Wide And Deep
But While I Live
Chorus:
I Cannot Forsake My..
I Cannot Forsake My Post!
Narrator:
The Murder Of Mcintosh So Horrified Elijah That He Prayed For Death. He Wrote A Searing Editorial Blasting “The Spirit Of Mobism” That Had Led His Fellow Citizens To Burn A Man At The Stake. In Response, Some Men Vandalized His Press. Meanwhile, A Slave-Owning Judge Bearing The Singularly Appropriate Name Luke Edward Lawless Was Assigned To Handle The Investigation Of The Slaying Of Mcintosh. Judge Lawless Instructed The Grand Jury Not To Find Anyone In The Mob Guilty Of The Murder, Saying “The Case Was Beyond The Reach Of Human Law.” Instead, Judge Lawless Blamed Lovejoy, Calling Him A “Sanctimonious Madman” And Saying His Editorials Had “Fanaticized The Negro” And Constituted “A Crime Against The Peace And Rights Of The People Of Missouri.” The Grand Jury Followed Judge Lawless’s Instructions And Found No One Guilty. Elijah Wrote That He Would Rather “Be Chained To The Same Tree As Mcintosh And Share His Fate” Than Accept Lawless’s Ideas.
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Narrator:
The murder of McIntosh so horrified Elijah that he prayed for death. He wrote a searing editorial blasting “the spirit of mobism” that had led his fellow citizens to burn a man at the stake. In response, some men vandalized his press. Meanwhile, a slave-owning judge bearing the singularly appropriate name Luke Edward Lawless was assigned to handle the investigation of the slaying of McIntosh. Judge Lawless instructed the grand jury not to find anyone in the mob guilty of the murder, saying “the case was beyond the reach of human law.” Instead, Judge Lawless blamed Lovejoy, calling him a “sanctimonious madman” and saying his editorials had “fanaticized the Negro” and constituted “a crime against the peace and rights of the people of Missouri.” The grand jury followed Judge Lawless’s instructions and found no one guilty. Elijah wrote that he would rather “be chained to the same tree as McIntosh and share his fate” than accept Lawless’s ideas.
Elijah:
Awful Murder And Savage Barbarity!
Chorus:
Awful Murder And Savage Barbarity!
Elijah:
See Where The Spirit Of Mobism Carries Us!
Chorus:
See Where The Spirit Of Mobism Carries Us!
It’s Beyond The Reach Of The Human Law
The Mob Shall Be Acquitted
Elijah:
Awful Murder And Savage Barbarity!
Chorus:
Awful Murder And Savage Barbarity!
Elijah:
See Where The Spirit Of Mobism Carries Us!
Chorus:
See Where The Spirit Of Mobism Carries Us!
Chorus:
It’s Beyond The Reach Of The Human Law
The Mob Shall Be Acquitted
Elijah:
I Cannot Believe That Justice Would Be So Abused!
Narrator:
Rage At Elijah Boiled Over. A Mob Broke Into The Observer Office, Destroyed Printing Equipment And Threw Elijah And Celia’s Furniture Into The Mississippi. Celia Knew That Her Husband Could Be Killed At Any Moment, And That She Herself Was In Grave Danger. But She Did Not Flinch.
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Narrator:
Rage at Elijah boiled over. A mob broke into the Observer office, destroyed printing equipment and threw Elijah and Celia’s furniture into the Mississippi. Celia knew that her husband could be killed at any moment, and that she herself was in grave danger. But she did not flinch.
Celia Reading Elijah’s Letter To His Mother:
“My Dear Wife Is A Perfect Heroine. Enduring Affliction More Calmly Than I Had Supposed Possible -For A Woman”
I Am Frightened
It Does Not Matter
What They Have Destroyed
Since They Have Not Hurt You
Though I’m Frightened,
I Will Fight Them
For My Love, My Life,
I Will Not Break
With My Fists, I Will Defend You
When They Come, I Will Not Shake
They Draw Knives, I Strike Their Faces
They Threaten Our Lives, I Will Not Break!
They Try To Drag Him From Our House
I Cling To Him With All My Strength
The Mob Attempts To Take Elijah
I Tell Them It Is Me They Must Take!
I Fear For Him,
And For My Child
Exhaustion By Day
Terror By Night
Though I’m Frightened
I Will Fight Them
I Shall Not Let Them Harm You
I Shall Not Let Them Harm You
I Will Not Let Them Take You Away…. From Me!
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Narrator:
In late 1836, Elijah moved his home and newspaper across the river to Alton, Illinois. Because Illinois was nominally a free state, he thought his antislavery views would be more tolerated there, but he was wrong. Southern Illinois was filled with slaveowners who detested him. Within hours of his arrival in Alton, a group of men threw his printing press into the Mississippi. Undeterred, Elijah denounced slavery with increasing boldness. By the summer of 1837, he had become an abolitionist in all but name. After he organized an Antislavery Society in Alton, a crowd again destroyed his printing press and threw it into the river. The Missouri press wrote that Lovejoy had gotten what he deserved. Elijah ordered a third press. When it arrived, it too was destroyed. Then a mob of men broke into his home and tried to drag him out. Celia, three months’ pregnant with their second child, fought them off with her bare hands.
On October 26, 1837, the Illinois Anti-slavery Congress, organized by Elijah, met in a church in Alton. But Elijah’s enemies, including Illinois Attorney General Usher Linder, had packed the house, and passed a pro-slavery resolution, making a mockery of the Congress. Meanwhile, threats against Elijah’s life had grown so serious that some moderate citizens called for a meeting to defuse tensions. Without taking any position for or against slavery, they introduced a resolution simply affirming that “every citizen may freely speak, write and print on any subject,” as guaranteed by the United States’ Constitution. But Linder and other leading citizens rejected the resolution. Instead, they demanded that Lovejoy quit the Observer and leave Alton. And they defeated a resolution to support the mayor in the suppression of violence. It was clear that none of the community’s leaders would stand in the way of the assassination that was now being openly threatened.
Chorus:
Endangering The Peace! Endangering The Peace!
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence!
Elijah:
I Will Speak, Write And Publish Whatever I Please.
Chorus:
Endangering The Peace! Endangering The Peace!
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence!
Elijah:
I Cannot Forsake My Principles, Though The Whole World Should Shut Them Down!
Chorus:
Endangering The Peace! Endangering The Peace!
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence!
Elijah:
I Refuse! I Will Not Forsake My Post!
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Narrator
After the meeting, Attorney General Linder told someone, “Elijah Lovejoy will be killed within two weeks.”
In the days that followed, one of Elijah’s closest friends and a fellow minister, Edward Beecher, recalled that Elijah was unfailingly kind, calm and peaceful. “His inexpressible love for his son I shall never forget,” Beecher wrote of Elijah. “Perhaps even then he thought that his son might soon be deprived of a father’s care.”
Elijah & Celia
There Is An Isle, A Lovely Isle
Which Ocean Depth’s Embrace
Nor Man’s Deceit, Nor Any Wile
Hath Ever Found The Place.
How Sweet ‘twould Be
If I Could Find This Isle
And Leave The World Behind.
Its Silvery Streams O’er Crystals Flow,
Where Sparkling Diamonds Be,
And, Sweetly Murmuring, Gently Go,
To Meet A Stormless Sea;
And In Their Clear, Reflective Tide,
In Golden Scales The Fishes Glide.
Ten Thousand Naiads Sport Along,
Her Ever Joyous Train;
And Life And Love Are Poured In Song,
And Bliss In Every Strain;
So Soft, So Sweet, So Bland The While,
That Even Despair Itself Would Smile.
Eternal Calm Hangs O’er Its Plains
Its Skies Are Ever Fair,
In Nectar’d Dew Descend Its Rains
No Fire-Charged Clouds Are There,
To Speak In Thunder From The Path
Of God Come Down To Earth In Wrath
Oh! I Would Leave This Wretched World
Where Hope Can Hardly Smile
And Go On Wings By Faith Unfurled
To Reach This Happy Isle
But That Some Ties Still Bind Me Here
Which While They Fetter, Still Endear.
And I Would Not That These Should Part
Till He, And He Alone
Who Wound Them Finely Round My Heart
Has Cut Them One By One
And When The Last Is Severed, Then
Upon This Isle ‘twill Heal Again.
Chorus:
Endangering The Peace! Endangering The Peace!
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence
Hold Your Tongue, Pass Over In Silence!
Elijah:
I Refuse!! My God, I Am Shot!!...
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Narrator:
In the small hours of Tuesday, November 7, 1837, a new printing press for Elijah’s newspaper was delivered to a warehouse. Elijah and 14 of his friends decided to stay in the warehouse to guard it.
That night, hundreds of drunken men surrounded the warehouse. Hurling cobblestones, they broke every window in the building and opened fire on it. When they failed to get in, they leaned a ladder against the building and tried to set fire to the roof, but Elijah and other defenders pushed the ladder over. The mob raised the ladder again, this time covered by two doctors with rifles hiding behind a woodpile. When Elijah ran out again to push over the ladder, the two doctors took careful aim and fired. Elijah was hit five times. He staggered inside, fell down, said, “My God, I am shot!” and died.
One of the men in the warehouse shouted out, “They have murdered Elijah Lovejoy!” This led to a tremendous “yell of exultation” from the mob outside, which “shook the very heavens.”
The mob poured in and gloated over Elijah’s body. Then they broke his press into pieces and threw them in the Mississippi.
Later that morning, Elijah’s friends took his body home. The next day, Elijah Lovejoy was buried in a field near his home. Only a few mourners attended. Celia, a widow at age 24, was too overcome to attend the funeral.
Elijah:
I Lit A Lamp, I Lit A Lamp
But The Lamp Went Out
I Lit A Lamp
And Nothing Changed
What Was It All For? What Was It All For?
I Ran The Race And Lost.
I Fought For Freedom
I Fought For Brotherhood
And They Killed Me.
I Spoke For Justice, I Wrote For Freedom!
The Authorities
Sought To Silence Me
They Ignored My Pleas
And Then They Killed Me.
Oh God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
I Stood Up For Our Laws And Nothing Changed
Why, Oh, Why? 24 Years After I Fell
The Nation Tore Itself Apart…
And We Still Haven’t Put It Together.
Is There No Justice?
Is There No Freedom?
I Lost My Children, My Life—
My Beloved Wife…
I Lit A Lamp, I Lit A Lamp…
Was It All For Nothing?
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Narrator:
Elijah Lovejoy’s death hit the country like a thunderbolt. Newspapers across the North ran passionate editorials praising the fallen editor and condemning his murderers. The Philadelphia Observer wrote that Lovejoy’s death QUOTE “has called forth from every part of the land a burst of indignation which has not had its parallel in the country since the battle of Lexington, 1775.” UNQUOTE The press proclaimed Lovejoy a double martyr: he gave his life fighting for free speech AND against slavery. Even pro-slavery newspapers in the South denounced the mob that killed Lovejoy. Pastors in churches across the nation mourned the death of their fellow clergyman. Many were inspired by Lovejoy’s courage to unequivocally denounce slavery.
In death, Elijah Lovejoy achieved more for the Abolitionist cause than he ever could in life. With the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” his death was one of the two greatest boosts to the antislavery movement before the Civil War.
When he heard about Lovejoy’s death, John Brown stood up in church, raised his right hand and said, “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!”
Elijah’s brother, Owen, who saw his older brother gunned down, also dedicated his life to the cause of abolition. Owen Lovejoy went on to become a founder of the anti-slavery Republican Party and a friend and key political supporter of a young Illinois Congressman named Abraham Lincoln, who was to become president of the United States in 1860. When Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, he reportedly asked that Owen Lovejoy be present.
Almost 200 years ago, a 34-year-old preacher and editor named Elijah Parish Lovejoy gave his life for the cause of freedom, justice and humanity. As long as men and women honor his sacrifice, and carry on his fight, he will not have died in vain.
Mcintosh:
Come To The Valley Of Love And Grace
We’re All Brothers And Sisters, Sinners And Saints
We Are All Born As Children And Go To The Same Place
Oh, Let’s Grow A Garden Of Love And Grace!
Celia:
By The River At Alton One Man Made A Stand
He Saw Injustice And Oppression, Raised His Voice And His Hand
But For Some, Their Hatred Is Born In The Home
From The Shadows They Shot Him, But His Spirit Lives On.
Elijah/Mcintosh/Celia/Chorus:
Come To The Valley Of Love And Grace
We’re All Brothers And Sisters, Sinners And Saints
We Are All Born As Children And Come From The Same Place
Let’s Grow A Garden Of Love And Grace!
We Are All In This Together
We All Are One
Light Your Lamp, Keep It Shining
Brightly, Like Our Elijah!
We Will Go Together To The Promised Land!
We Are All In This Together
We All Are One
Light Your Lamp, Keep It Shining
Brightly, For All To See It!
We Will Go Together To The Promised Land!
Brothers, What Are You Going To Do?
Sisters, What Are You Going To Do?
People, Hear Me, Hear Me Calling You!
Let Us Go Forward In Love And Grace!!