31 Quotes by Elijah Parish Lovejoy

The cry of the oppressed has entered not only into my ears, but into my soul, so that while I live, I cannot hold my peace.

As the Bible inculcates upon man but one duty in respect to sin, and that is immediate repentance, abolitionists believe that all who hold slaves, or who approve the practice in others, should immediately cease to do so.

If the civil authorities refuse to protect me, I must look to God, and if I die, I have determined to make my grave in Alton.

Emancipation, to be of any value to the slave, must be the free, voluntary act of the master, performed from a conviction of its propriety.

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

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.

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.

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.

I cannot surrender my principles, though the whole world besides should vote them down - I can make no compromise between truth and error, even though my life be the alternative.