The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-02-18
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHE Els.
OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD


owen Lovejoy. Rs An AbOlitionist.
Men are generally the creatures Of circum-
stances. Events beyond their control shape
their ends, rough.hew them Al they may
They are often developed from obscurlty to
prominence, merely by accident A man
makes a general out of q "cow' boy ma
lions political crisis evolves n statesman
from "counterjumper" CinciDnatus was
farmer; Washington, o surveyor; Burns,
n tax collector, and Grant, tanner. Now
as then, "the boy is the father to the
man." So Napoleon, as a student at Brie-
nne, made snow forts ana fought mimic bat
ties; and Samuel Johnson composed poetry
in Latin, when other children of his age were
still in their nurses arms. But those are
The exceptions that make the rule the other
way. The preachers son is proverbial for
becoming bad man; the bright boy of every
school has grown up into Ounce, and the
Ounce" Of the same school, who sat on the
stove in summer, with q FOOLS cap on his
head, and stood up behind the door in win
ter, while the bright 10y stood al The head
Of the class. This is some Ounce, the then
scape goat Of all the follies Of the school; Is
now in congress, or the penitenlary, while
,ue bright hoy knows just about enough
10 " come in out Of the wet
Aboliiiouism appealed to humanity, TO
religion, to humanity, TO morality, 10 seni
rent. IL invested the negroes with emotions
of highly cultivated refinement, such rs can
be appreciated only by most delicately sen
sitive people. And then the orators and
word painters Of abolitionism proceeded 10
draw horrifying pictures of the mental and
physical sutferings Of the black race, based
upon these supposi,ions, intensity Of spirit
ual feeling and emotion, Of which the
negroes were wholly incapable No ism in
our history ever produced 80 many writer's,
orators and statesman, and wonderful was
the number Of its be and she philanthropists.
In the North, every city had its shining sun
Of aboltionism, every town . star Of greater
or less magnitude, and every neighborhood
n sort Of reflector Of some one or other of
these GALAXY Of higher lighis As previously
mentioned, Illinois had her full share Of
prominent and enthusiastic abolitionists.
Among them none WAS better known. more
J caous, or more aggressive than Rev. Owen
I.ovejoy, OF Princeton, Bureau county. He
WAS for long time Congregational minis
ter, and fer many years wsrm--yea. . red
hot abolitionist. His consistent, and unfiinoh.
ing denunciations Of slavery. and vehement
maledictions upon the fugitive slave law, had
attracted the attention Of the abolition, or
ul'ra, republicans to him, as fitting candi-
date for congress, and in 1856 he was elected
20 that Office, his opponents being Hon. G.
". Armstrong. Of Brookfeld, Uhe writer's
father) and Dr.. David Leroy. then of Nor
rs. Mr.. Armstrong resolved the regular
nomination by the democracy, who supported
Judge Douglas, and Mr.. Leroy. as the bolter.
or buchanan, or pro slavery party. During
The progress Of that campaign Mr.. Lovejoy
made speech At the court house in Ottawa,
which was our earliest achievement rs q re-
porter, for The Little Giant, wonderfully
aad fearfully made little campaign daily,
conducted chiefly BY Chas. Delano, now q
senator In Florida That speech was won
desful for It's intensity Of bitterness towards
Buchsnan's administration, and as a diatribe
against slavery and the shareholders; II was
a model Of tremendous, invective declams-
lion, such as We have never heard before nor
since. lie was an intensely earnest speaker
and had the g,ft of natural oratory, and held
his audience spellbound-his friends in ex.
sticies Of delight, his foes overwhelmed In