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. ”

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. ”

I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back. ”

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. ”

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! ”

It is the easiest thing in the world to become a Christian - ten thousand times easier than it is to hold out unrepenting against the motives which God presents to the mind, to induce it to forsake its evil thoughts and turn unto Him. ”

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. ”

As long as I am an American citizen, and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, being amenable to the laws of my country for the same. ”

Abolitionists believe that, as all men are born free, so all who are now held as slaves in this country were born free, and that they are slaves now is the sin, not of those who introduced the race into this country, but of those, and those alone, who now hold them and have held them in slavery from their birth. ”

Fortune has, in the main, hitherto looked unfavourably upon me since I left home, but I begin to hope for better things. Still, in all my past distresses, one thought has consoled me - I have learned to appreciate a parent's love. ”