If I am not safe in Alton, I shall not be safe anywhere. Elijah Parish Lovejoy More Quotes by Elijah Parish Lovejoy More Quotes From Elijah Parish Lovejoy But gentlemen, 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy writing running blood 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy i-am myself speak long I have sworn eternal opposition to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back. Elijah Parish Lovejoy never slavery blessing god 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy live cry soul peace 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy view will truth-is truth 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy alone slavery men believe 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! Elijah Parish Lovejoy waves flag freedom blood Emancipation - what is meant by it? Simply that the slaves shall cease to be held as property and shall henceforth be held and treated as human beings. Simply, that we should take our feet from off their necks. Elijah Parish Lovejoy human take property feet 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy my-life truth life world Is he not a God that showeth mercy and keepeth covenant? Of all sins, it seems to me that the sin of unbelief is the most dishonouring to God. Elijah Parish Lovejoy me sin mercy god I was, by divine grace, enabled to bring all my sins and all my sorrows and lay them at the feet of Jesus, and to receive the blessed assurance that He had accepted me, all sinful and polluted as I was. Elijah Parish Lovejoy me grace blessed feet The eternal God - the infinite Jehovah - has done all he could do - even to the sacrificing his own Son - to provide a way for man's happiness, and yet they reject him, hate him, and laugh him to scorn! Elijah Parish Lovejoy man god happiness son While I value the good opinion of my fellow citizens as highly as anyone, I may be permitted to say that I am governed by higher considerations than either the favor or the fear of man. I am impelled to the course I have taken because I fear God. Elijah Parish Lovejoy i-am good man god 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy me hope home love I most earnestly advise you, again and again, love, honor, and obey your parents. Friends like them, you need not expect to find in this world. Elijah Parish Lovejoy parents you love world I have appealed to the constitution and laws of my country; if they fail to protect me, I appeal to God, and with Him I cheerfully rest my cause. I can die at my post, but I cannot desert it. Elijah Parish Lovejoy die me constitution god It is not possible that one man can convert another into a piece of property, thus at once annihilating all his personal rights, without the most flagrant injustice and usurpation. Elijah Parish Lovejoy without personal man injustice 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. Elijah Parish Lovejoy act value free slave It seems to me scarcely possible that one who has so long lived in sin, who has resisted so much light and has so often grieved away the Holy Spirit, as I have, should again be visited with its heavenly influences. But I hope it is so. Elijah Parish Lovejoy me light hope long Nothing but a miracle of sovereign mercy could have arrested and saved me from eternal perdition. How I could have so long resisted the entreaties, the prayers, and the tears of my dear parents, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, is, to me, a wonder entirely incomprehensible. Elijah Parish Lovejoy parents me tears long