The Boston mob was followed by one at Utica, New York, headed by Judge Beardsley, who broke up a meeting of the New York State Anti-slavery Society. Arthur Tappan’s store was attacked by a mob in New York City, and his property destroyed, to the value of thirty thousand dollars. The Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, a brave man of the State of Maine, had located at St. Louis, where he took the editorial charge of “The St. Louis Times,” and in its columns nobly pleaded for justice to the enslaved negro. The writer of this was for a period of six months employed in the office of “The Times,” and knew Mr. Lovejoy well. Driven from St. Louis by mob law, he removed to Alton, Illinois. Here the spirit of slavery followed him, broke up his printing-press, threw it into the river, and murdered the heroic advocate of free speech.
Thus this good man died; but his death raised up new and strong friends for the oppressed. Wendell Phillips visited the grave of the martyr recently, and gave the following description of his burial-place:—
“Lovejoy lies buried now in the city cemetery, on a beautiful knoll. Near by rolls the great river. His resting-place is marked by an oblong stone, perhaps thirty inches by twenty, and rising a foot above the ground; on this rests a marble scroll bearing this inscription:
Hic
Jacet
Lovejoy.
Jam parce sepulto.
[Here lies Lovejoy, Spare him, now, in his grave.]”
A more marked testimonial would not, probably, have been safe from insult and disfigurement, previous to 1864. He fought his fight so far in the van, so much in the hottest of the battle, that not till after nigh thirty years and the final victory could even his dust be sure of quiet.
In the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Albany, Utica, and many other places in the free states, the colored people were hunted down like wild beasts, and their property taken from them or destroyed.
In the two first-named places, the churches and dwellings of these unoffending citizens were set on fire in open day, and burnt to ashes without any effort on the part of the authorities to prevent it.
Even the wives and children of the colored men were stoned in the streets, and the school-houses sought out, their inmates driven away, and many of the children with their parents had to flee to the country for safety.
Such was the feeling of hate brought out in the North by the influence of slavery at the South.
During this reign of terror among the colored people in the free states, their brethren in slavery were also suffering martyrdom. Free blacks were arrested, thrown into jail, scourged in their own houses, and if they made the slightest resistance, were shot down, hung at a lamp-post, or even burnt at the stake.