Lovejoy: Martyr to Freedom (review)

290CIVIL WAB HISTOBT the notes, thus making it easier to refer back and forth to the sources from which material is drawn. Paul W. Gates Cornell University Lovejoy: Martyr to Freedom. By Paul Simon. (St Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964. Pp. 150. $3.00.) It is, perhaps, surprising that another biography of Elijah Lovejoy should have appeared so scon after the publication of Merton Dillon's revealing study. But Mr. Simon's book is not an ordinary "Life." It is rather a passionate plea for justice, a clarion call for action—not merely against the evils of society, but also against the widespread indifference which allows them to flourish. Mr. Simon is an unusual man. A newspaper editor when still in his teens, he made a name for himself in Troy, Illinois, as a determined fighter against organized crime. Since then, in keeping with his interest in public affairs, he has served several terms in the state legislature. That the story of a newspaperman in the ¦——H«*" neighborhood murdered because of his convictions should appeal to him is only natural The author is not a professional historian. Writing in a simple and straightforward style, he has produced a book that may easily be read by teen-agers. Nevertheless, he is so honest and has made such judicious use of source material that he may well make an impression on a public seldom reached by others. He is imbued with fervor for his cause, and the cause for him is not merely the antislavery struggle of over one hundred years ago, but the active fight for civil liberties today. The facts of Lovejoy's life emerge easily from these pages. His New England youth, his religious upbringing, his gradual conversion to abolitionism , and bis work as an editor in St Louis form the background. But the core of the volume is devoted to Lovejoy's martyrdom, his murder at Alton in 1837 at the age of thirty-five. It was this outrage which made him famous, and Mr. Simon has rightly stressed its impact upon the conscience of the nation. According to the author, those responsible for the crime were not merely the actual assassins. The "moderate" citizens of Alton, men who believed in law and order but failed to resist Lovejoy's persecutors, seem to him to have been the real culprits. The book is addressed to similarly passive men of today, a group which Mr. Simon seeks to rouse by an appeal to Christian conscience. It cannot be denied that in the nineteenth century as today many an evil might have been prevented if so-called decent citizens had taken a more positive stand on controversial issues. Whether Mr. Simon's preoccupation with the present is conducive to the writing of good history, however, is another question. As is unavoidable in a book of this type, there are a few points that might have been treated somewhat more extensively. Possibly the author might BOOK REVIEWS291 have devoted more time to his hero's conversion to outright abolitionism; he might also have said a little more about the antislavery movement in general. Recent reinterpretations of the importance of William Lloyd Garrison as compared with Theodore Weld have a place in a life of Lovejoy, but they are not mentioned. Moreover, it is very doubtful that Alton lost out to St Louis as the most important city in the vicinity as a result of the bad reputation it sustained because of the lynching. Finally, a few illustrations and an index would have improved the book. But these points should not obscure the fact that this is a noteworthy effort to reawaken the spirit that animated the antislavery apostles. Mr. Simon has not given us any new facts; he has provided us with the emotional background necessary for the understanding of Elijah Lovejoy. It is to be hoped that his words will not remain unheeded. Hans L. Trefousse Brooklyn College The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists. Edited by Martin Duberman. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965. Pp. x, 508. $10.00.) This book, comprising a number of original essays, is a diverse bill of fare. Five of the essays...