Life span: 01/06/1811 to 03/25/1864TabsLife SummaryFull name: Owen LovejoyPlace of Birth: Albion, MEBurial Place: Princeton, ILBirth Date Certainty: ExactDeath Date Certainty: ExactGender: MaleRace: WhiteSectional choice: NorthOrigins: Free StateNo. of Siblings: 7No. of Spouses: 1No. of Children: 7Family: Daniel Lovejoy (father), Elizabeth Pattee (mother), Elijah Parish Lovejoy (brother), Joseph Lovejoy (brother), Eunice Storrs Denham (wife, 1843)Education: OtherOther Education: Bowdoin College, MEOccupation: PoliticianAttorney or JudgeClergyRelation to Slavery: White non-slaveholderChurch or Religious Denomination: OtherOther Religion: CongregationalistPolitical Parties: LibertyRepublicanOther Affiliations: Abolitionists (Anti-Slavery Society)Government: US House of RepresentativesState legislature Note Cards Owen Lovejoy (Congressional Biographical Directory) ReferenceLOVEJOY, Owen, (cousin of Nathan Allen Farwell), a Representative from Illinois; born in Albion, Maine, on January 6, 1811; attended the common schools and was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1832; studied law but never practiced; studied theology; moved to Alton, Madison County, Ill., in 1836; ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Princeton, Ill., 1839-1856; member of the State house of representatives in 1854; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1857, until his death in Brooklyn, N.Y., March 25, 1864; chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Thirty-seventh Congress), Committee on District of Columbia (Thirty-eighth Congress); interment in Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Ill. “Lovejoy, Owen,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000462. Owen Lovejoy (American National Biography) ScholarshipIn the 1840s Lovejoy became an active political abolitionist, running unsuccessfully for Congress as a Liberty party candidate in 1846. In August 1848 he attended the Free Soil convention in Buffalo and again ran unsuccessfully as that party's candidate for Congress from Illinois's Fourth District. During these years he modified his antislavery stance, rejecting the argument of the more radical abolitionists that slavery should be attacked wherever it existed in favor of advocacy of the Wilmot Proviso, which would contain slavery and prevent its expansion into territories acquired during the Mexican War. With other Free Soilers, he opposed Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and joined in the unsuccessful efforts that year to form the Illinois Republican party. In doing so he urged antislavery radicals to moderate their demands to facilitate unity in a new party. The Whig party in Illinois died more slowly than in many other northern states, and Lovejoy was among the most active in persuading members to join the new Republican organization rather than its rival, the anti-immigrant Know Nothing party. Among those he befriended in these efforts was Abraham Lincoln. In 1856 Lovejoy was a delegate to the state and national Republican conventions, and that fall he won a seat in Congress as a Republican, beginning eight years of antislavery agitation in the House of Representatives. Lovejoy campaigned actively in Illinois for Lincoln's election as president in 1860. A supporter of a vigorous prosecution of the war effort against the Confederacy, he sought to persuade President Lincoln and the Congress to move more quickly toward emancipation.Frederick J. Blue, "Lovejoy, Owen," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00643.html. Events Date span begin Life span End Event 01/06/1811 01/06/1811 Owen Lovejoy is born in Albion, Maine 01/18/1843 01/18/1843 Owen Lovejoy marries Eunice Storrs Denham in Princeton, Illinois 03/12/1860 03/12/1860 House of Representatives passes the Homestead Bill 06/12/1862 06/12/1862 Owen Lovejoy speaks at an Emancipation League meeting in New York City 05/20/1863 05/20/1863 In Cleveland, Ohio, thousands hear speeches at a mass meeting of the National Union League 03/25/1864 03/25/1864 Owen Lovejoy dies in New York City Major TopicsLincoln-Douglas DebatesRepublican PartyUnderground RailroadThirty-Seventh Congress of the United StatesThirty-Eighth Congress of the United States Documents Author Docs Date Title 08/04/1858 Owen Lovejoy to Abraham Lincoln, August 4, 1858 Subject Docs Date Title 02/16/1855 Abraham Lincoln to Jesse Olds Norton, February 16 1855 06/09/1858 Ward Hill Lamon to Abraham Lincoln, June 9, 1858 08/17/1858 John W. Shaffer to Abraham Lincoln, August 17, 1858 08/25/1858 B. Lewis to Abraham Lincoln, August 25, 1858 08/27/1858 Recollection by A.A. Terrell, Freeport, August 27, 1858 10/09/1858 Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “The Galesburg Debate,” October 9, 1858 09/26/1860 (Jackson) Mississippian, "Black Republican Bible," September 26, 1860 10/27/1860 (Montpelier) Vermont Patriot, “Illinois Sure for Douglas,” October 27, 1860 07/14/1861 New York Herald, “Lovejoy Rebuked,” July 14, 1861 Addressee Docs Date Title 08/11/1855 Abraham Lincoln to Owen Lovejoy, August 11,1855 Images Owen Lovejoy, portrait size Owen Lovejoy Owen Lovejoy, detail Owen Lovejoy, 1859 Owen Lovejoy, 1859, detail Owen Lovejoy, Brady image, circa 1862 Owen Lovejoy, Brady image, circa 1862, detail Bibliography Chicago Style Entry Link Magdol, Edward. Owen Lovejoy: Abolitionist in Congress. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1967. View Record Magdol, Edward. "Owen Lovejoy's Role in the Campaign of 1858." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 51 (1958): 403-416. View Record Blue, Frederick J. No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. View Record Trefousse, Hans L. “Owen Lovejoy and Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 22, no. 1 (2001): 14-32. View Record Lovejoy, Joseph C., and Owen Lovejoy. Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy; Who Was Murdered in Defence of the Liberty of the Press at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837. New York: John S. Taylor, 1838. View Record Haberkorn, Ruth E. "Owen Lovejoy in Princeton, Illinois," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 36 (1943): 284-315. View Record Berfield, Karen. “Three Antislavery Leaders of Bureau County.” Western Illinois Regional Studies 3 no, 1 (1980): 46-65. View Record Snay, Mitchell. “Abraham Lincoln, Owen Lovejoy, and the Emergence of the Republican Party in Illinois.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 22, no. 1 (2001): 82-99. View Record Dillon, Merton Lynn. Elijah P. Lovejoy, Abolitionist Editor. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961. View Record
Owen Lovejoy (Congressional Biographical Directory) ReferenceLOVEJOY, Owen, (cousin of Nathan Allen Farwell), a Representative from Illinois; born in Albion, Maine, on January 6, 1811; attended the common schools and was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1832; studied law but never practiced; studied theology; moved to Alton, Madison County, Ill., in 1836; ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Princeton, Ill., 1839-1856; member of the State house of representatives in 1854; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1857, until his death in Brooklyn, N.Y., March 25, 1864; chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Thirty-seventh Congress), Committee on District of Columbia (Thirty-eighth Congress); interment in Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Ill. “Lovejoy, Owen,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000462.
Owen Lovejoy (American National Biography) ScholarshipIn the 1840s Lovejoy became an active political abolitionist, running unsuccessfully for Congress as a Liberty party candidate in 1846. In August 1848 he attended the Free Soil convention in Buffalo and again ran unsuccessfully as that party's candidate for Congress from Illinois's Fourth District. During these years he modified his antislavery stance, rejecting the argument of the more radical abolitionists that slavery should be attacked wherever it existed in favor of advocacy of the Wilmot Proviso, which would contain slavery and prevent its expansion into territories acquired during the Mexican War. With other Free Soilers, he opposed Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and joined in the unsuccessful efforts that year to form the Illinois Republican party. In doing so he urged antislavery radicals to moderate their demands to facilitate unity in a new party. The Whig party in Illinois died more slowly than in many other northern states, and Lovejoy was among the most active in persuading members to join the new Republican organization rather than its rival, the anti-immigrant Know Nothing party. Among those he befriended in these efforts was Abraham Lincoln. In 1856 Lovejoy was a delegate to the state and national Republican conventions, and that fall he won a seat in Congress as a Republican, beginning eight years of antislavery agitation in the House of Representatives. Lovejoy campaigned actively in Illinois for Lincoln's election as president in 1860. A supporter of a vigorous prosecution of the war effort against the Confederacy, he sought to persuade President Lincoln and the Congress to move more quickly toward emancipation.Frederick J. Blue, "Lovejoy, Owen," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00643.html.