However, Alton was also tied to the Mississippi River economy, easily reachable by anti-Lovejoy Missourians, and badly split over abolitionism.

The mob was seeking to destroy a warehouse owned by Winthrop Sargent Gilman and Benjamin Godfrey, which held Lovejoy's printing press and abolitionist materials.

"[5] The Boston Recorder wrote that "these events called forth from every part of the land 'a burst of indignation which has not had its parallel in this country since the Battle of Lexington.

'"[6] When informed about the murder, John Brown said publicly: "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.

Daniel Lovejoy named his son in honor of his close friend and mentor, Elijah Parish, a minister who was also involved in politics.

[11] In 1829, Lovejoy became a co-editor with T. J. Miller of the St. Louis Times, which promoted the candidacy of Henry Clay for president of the United States.

"[11] Opponents of the ACS including Frederick Douglass noted most African Americans had been native-born for generations and considered their future to be in the U.S.[20] Among Lovejoy's new acquaintances were prominent St. Louis attorneys and slaveholders such as Edward Bates (later U.S. Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln); Hamilton R. Gamble, later Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court; and his brother Archibald Gamble.

He attended revival meetings in 1831 led by William S. Potts, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, that rekindled his interest in religion for a time.

In 1832, influenced by Christian revivalist meetings led by abolitionist David Nelson, he joined the First Presbyterian Church and decided to become a preacher.

[23][11] By 1830, sixty percent of the population of St. Louis was Catholic, and the proprietors of the Observer tasked Lovejoy with countering the increasing influence of Catholicism.

[11] Lovejoy urged antislavery groups in Missouri to push for the issue to be addressed during a proposed state constitutional convention.

[11] To their dismay, the editors of both newspapers soon found that their "moderate" proposal to end slavery gradually could not be discussed without igniting a polarizing political debate.

Over time, Lovejoy became bolder and more outspoken about his antislavery views, advocating the outright emancipation of all slaves on religious and moral grounds.

A group of prominent St. Louisans, including many of Lovejoy's friends, wrote a letter pleading with him to cease discussion of slavery in the newspaper.

He traveled a circuit across the state, during which he met Celia Ann French of St. Charles, located on the Missouri River west of St. Louis,[25] now a suburb of the city.

[28][26][a] In a letter to his mother, Elijah had written about Celia:My dear wife is a perfect heroine... never has she by a single word attempted to turn me from the scene of warfare and danger – never has she whispered a feeling of discontent at the hardships to which she has been subjected in consequence of her marriage to me, and those have been neither few nor small.

[26]In the summer of 1836, Lovejoy attended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and met several followers of abolitionist Theodore Weld.

"[22] In the face of all the negative publicity and two break-ins in May 1836, Lovejoy decided to move The Observer across the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois.

[29] On July 21, 1836, Lovejoy published a scathing editorial in St. Louis criticizing the way that the Missouri court's Judge Luke Lawless had handled the murder trial of Francis McIntosh.

[22] Arguing that the judge's actions appeared to condone the murder, he wrote that Lawless was "a Papist; and in his charge we see the cloven foot of Jesuitism.

The printing press sat on the riverbank, unguarded, overnight; vandals destroyed it and threw the remains into the Mississippi River.

[30] Lovejoy's views on slavery became more extreme, and he called for a convention to discuss forming an Illinois state chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society, established in Philadelphia in 1833.

They felt Southern states, or even the city of St. Louis, might not want to do business with their town if they continued to harbor such an outspoken abolitionist.

[28]Lovejoy had acquired a fourth press and hid it in a warehouse owned by Winthrop Sargent Gilman and Gilford, major grocers in the area.

[32] After the attacking party had apparently withdrawn, Lovejoy opened the door and was instantly struck by five bullets, dying in a few minutes.

It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Dimmock that ten years ago the Lovejoy Monument Association was formed....[38]Francis B. Murdoch, the district attorney of Alton, prosecuted charges of riot related to both assailants and defenders of the warehouse in January 1838, on Wednesday and Friday of the same week.

[11] After Lovejoy was killed, there was a dramatic increase in the number of people in the North and the West who joined anti-slavery societies,[42] which formed beginning in the 1830s.

It became a catalyst for other pro- and anti-slavery events, like John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, that culminated with the American Civil War.

Owen and his brother Joseph wrote a memoir about Elijah, which was published in 1838 by the Anti-Slavery Society in New York and distributed widely among abolitionists in the nation.

A later recollection by his half-brother Edward Brown had a different formulation: "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.