a well-connected statement, I have examined, selected, and read the
numerous family notes myself, dictating, while my secretary has done
the writing, and after all was completed we made another critical
comparison with all the notes to insure perfect accuracy and
trustworthiness.
I have had one copy prepared for Rev. James Lemen, Jr., and one for
myself. I should have added that of the one hundred dollars of the
Jefferson funds given him Rev. James Lemen, Sr., used none for his
family, but it was all used for other good causes, as it was not Mr.
Lemen's intention to appropriate any of it for his own uses when he
accepted it from Jefferson's confidential agent in Virginia.
III. "HOW ILLINOIS GOT CHICAGO"
(Communication from Joseph B. Lemen, under head of "Voice of the
People," in _The Chicago Tribune_ some time in December, 1908.)
O'Fallon, Ill., Dec. 21, 1908.
Editor of the Tribune:--In October, 1817, the Rev. James Lemen, Sr.,
had a government surveyor make a map showing how the boundary of
Illinois could be extended northward so as to give a growing state
more territory and a better shape and include the watercourses by
which Lake Michigan might be connected with the Mississippi river.
With these advantages marked in the margin of the map, he gave his
plan and map to Nathaniel Pope, our territorial delegate in congress,
to secure the adoption of the plan by that body, which he did.
The facts were noted in the Rev. J. M. Peck's pioneer papers and
others, and in commenting on them some of our newspapers have recently
charged Nathaniel Pope with carelessness in not publishing Mr. Lemen's
share in the matter, but unjustly. Mr. Lemen and Mr. Pope were ardent
friends, and as the former was a preacher and desired no office, and
he wished and sought for no private preferment and {p.38} promotion,
he expressly declared that as Mr. Pope had carried the measure through
Congress with such splendid skill he preferred that he should have the
credit and not mention where he got the map and plan.
Rev. Benjamin Ogle, Mr. Lemen's brother-in-law, and others mentioned
this fact in some of their papers and notes. The omission was no fault
of Mr. Pope's and was contrary to his wish.
The present site of Chicago was included in the territory added, and
that is how Illinois got Chicago.
PIONEER.
IV. ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM
(From _The Illinois Intelligencer_, August 5, 1818.)
The undersigned, happening to meet at the St. Clair Circuit Court,
have united in submitting the following Address to the Friends of
Freedom in the State of Illinois.
Feeling it a duty in those who are sincere in their opposition to the
toleration of slavery in this territory to use all fair and laudable
means to effect that object, we therefore beg leave to present to our
fellow-citizens at large the sentiments which prevail in this section
of our country on that subject. In the counties of Madison and St.
Clair, the most populous counties in the territory, a sentiment
approaching unanimity seems to prevail against it. In the counties of
Bond, Washington, and Monroe a similar sentiment also prevails. We are
informed that strong exertions will be made in the convention to give
sanction to that deplorable evil in our state; and lest such should be
the result at too late a period for anything like concert to take
place among the friends of freedom in trying to defeat it, we
therefore earnestly solicit all true friends to freedom in every
section of the territory to unite in opposing it, both by the election
of a Delegate to Congress who will oppose it and by forming meetings
and preparing remonstrances against it. Indeed, so important is this
question considered that no exertions of a fair character should be
omitted to defeat the plan of those who wish either a temporary or
unlimited slavery. Let us also select men to the Legislature who will
unite in remonstrating to the general government against ratifying
such a constitution. At a crisis like this thinking will not do,
_acting_ is necessary.
From {p.39} St. Clair county--Risdon Moore, Benjamin Watts, Jacob
Ogle, Joshua Oglesby, William Scott, Sr., William Biggs, Geo. Blair,
Charles R. Matheny, James Garretson, and [34]William Kinney.
From Madison County--Wm. B. Whiteside.
From Monroe County--James Lemen, Sr.
From Washington--Wm. H. Bradsby.
V. RECOLLECTIONS OF A CENTENNARIAN
By DR. WILLIAMSON F. BOYAKIN, Blue Rapids, Kansas (1807-1907)
(_The Standard_, Chicago, November 9, 1907.)
The Lemen family was of Irish [Scotch] descent. They were friends and
associates of Thomas Jefferson. It was through his influence that they
migrated West. When the Lemen family arrived at what they designated
as New Design, in the vicinity of the present town of Waterloo, in
Monroe county, twenty-five miles southeast of the city of St. Louis,
Illinois was a portion of the state of Virginia. [Ceded to U. S. two
years previous.]
Thomas Jefferson gave them a kind of carte blanche for all the then
unoccupied territory of Virginia, and gave them $30 in gold to be paid
to the man who should build the first meeting house on the western
frontier.[32] This rudely-constructed house of worship was built on a
little creek named Canteen [Quentin], just a mile or two south of what
is now called Collinsville, Madison county, Illinois.
In the mountains of Virginia there lived a Baptist minister by the
name of Torrence. This Torrence, at an Association in Virginia,
introduced a resolution against slavery. In a speech in favor of the
resolution he said, "All friends of humanity should support the
resolution." The elder James Lemen being present voted for it and
adopted it for his motto, inscribed it on a rude flag, and planted it
on the rudely-constructed flatboat on which the family floated down
the Ohio river, in the summer of 1790 [1786], to the New Design
location.[33]
The distinguishing characteristic of the churches and associations
that subsequently grew up in Illinois [under the Lemen influence] was
the name "The Baptized Church of Christ, Friends to Humanity."
One {p.40} of these Lemen brothers, Joseph, married a Kinney, sister
to him who was afterwards governor [lieutenant governor] of the state.
This Kinney was also a Baptist preacher, a Kentuckian, and a
pro-slavery man.[34] When the canvass opened in 1816, 17, and 18 to
organize Illinois into a state, the Lemens and the Kinneys were
leaders in the canvass. The canvass was strong, long, bitter. The
Friends to Humanity party won. The Lemen brothers made Illinois what
it is, a free state.
The Lemens were personally fine specimens of the genus homo--tall,
straight, large, handsome men--magnetic, emotional, fine speakers.
James Lemen [Junior] was considered the most eloquent speaker of the
day of the Baptist people. Our present educated preachers have lost
the hold they should have upon the age in the cultivation of the
intellectual instead of the emotional. Religion is the motive power in
the intellectual guidance of humanity. These Lemens were well balanced
in the cultivation of the intellect and the control of the emotions.
They were well educated for their day, self-educated, great lovers of
poetry, hymnal poetry, having no taste for the religious debates now
so prevalent in some localities. They attended no college
commencements [?]. James Lemen, however, at whose grave the monument
is to be erected, was for fourteen consecutive years in the Senate of
the State Legislature, and would have been elected United States
senator, but he would not accept the position when offered. [This was
James, Jr., not his father.]
Personally of fine taste, always well and even elegantly dressed, they
rode fine horses, owned fine farms, well cultivated. They lived in
rich, elegant style [?]. They were brimful and overflowing with
spontaneous hospitality. All were married, with several sisters, and
were blessed with large families. Almost all of them, parents and
descendants, have passed away. Old Bethel, the church house, and the
graveyard, in sight of the old mound, are yet there.
NOTE.--Dr. Boyakin was a physician, Baptist minister, and newspaper
editor for many years in Illinois. He delivered the G. A. R. address
at Blue Rapids, Kansas, on his one hundredth birthday. He has confused
some things in these "recollections," especially the story concerning
the origin of the name "Friends to Humanity," but for his years his
statements are unusually in accord with the facts.
VI. {p.41} IN MEMORY OF REV. JAMES LEMEN, SR.
BY A WELL-WISHER
(_The Standard_, Chicago, November 16, 1907)
When James Lemen's early anti-slavery Baptist churches went over to
the cause of slavery, it looked as if all were lost and his
anti-slavery mission in Illinois had failed. At that crisis Mr. Lemen
could have formed another sect, but in his splendid loyalty to the
Baptist cause he simply formed another Baptist church on the broader,
higher grounds for both God and humanity, and on this high plane he
unfurled the banner of freedom. In God's good time the churches and
state and nation came up to that grand level of right, light, and
progress.
Of James Lemen's sons, under his training, Robert was an eminent
Baptist layman, and Joseph, James, Moses, and Josiah were able Baptist
preachers. [William, the "wayward" son, also became a useful minister
in his later years.] Altogether they were as faithful a band of men as
ever stood for any cause. This is the rating which history places upon
them. The country owes James Lemen another debt of gratitude for his
services to history. He and his sons were the only family that ever
kept a written and authentic set of notes of early Illinois; and the
early historians, Ford, Reynolds, and Peck, drew many of their facts
from that source. These notes embraced the only correct histories of
both the early Methodist and the early Baptist churches in Illinois
and much other early matter.[35]
NOTE.--This communication was probably from Dr. W. F. Boyakin.
VII. STATEMENT REGARDING JOSEPH B. LEMEN
"Joseph B. Lemen has written editorially for _The New York Sun_, _The
New York Tribune_, _The Chicago Tribune_, _and The Belleville
Advocate_.
"During the McKinley campaign of 1896 he wrote editorials from the
farmers' standpoint for a number of the metropolitan newspapers of the
country at the personal request of Mark Hanna.
"He also wrote editorials for the metropolitan newspapers during the
first Lincoln campaign."
--Editor, _Belleville Advocate_.
December, 1912.
VIII. {p.42} HISTORIC LETTER OF REV. J. M. PECK ON THE OLD LEMEN
FAMILY NOTES
(From _Belleville Advocate_, January, 1908)
(Clipping in I.B.H.C., K11)
To the Editor of the Belleville Advocate:
We herewith send the Advocate a copy of a letter of the eminent
historian and great Baptist divine, the late Rev. J. M. Peck, to his
old ministerial associate, the late Rev. James Lemen, concerning the
anti-slavery labors of his father, Rev. James Lemen, Sr., and also his
views as to the old Lemen family notes, which will perhaps interest
your readers. It seems quite appropriate for the Advocate to print
these old pioneer matters, as it is one of the old pioneer landmarks.
Rev. James Lemen took the paper when it started, under its first name,
and it has come to his family or family members at his old home ever
since.
By order of the Family.
[JOSEPH B. LEMEN.]
REV. JAMES LEMEN, SR., AND HIS ANTI-SLAVERY LABORS
Rev. James Lemen,
Ridge Prairie, Illinois
Dear Brother: At my recent very enjoyable visit at your house you made
two important requests, which I will now answer. The first was as to
my estimate or judgment of your father's anti-slavery labors, and the
second was as to what disposition you had better make of your vast
stock of old family notes and papers. Considering your questions in
the order named, I will write this letter, or more properly, article,
under the above heading of "Rev. James Lemen, Sr., and His
Anti-Slavery Labors," as the first question is the most important, and
then in conclusion I will notice the second.
In considering your father's anti-slavery labors, I will proceed upon
the facts and evidence obtained outside your old family notes, as it
might be presumed that the trend of the notes on that matter would be
partial. Not that the facts I would use are not found in your family
notes, for they appear to cover about every event in our early state
and church history; but that I would look for the facts elsewhere to
prove the matter, and indeed I can draw largely from my own {p.43}
knowledge of the facts upon which your father's success as an
anti-slavery leader rested. Not only from my own personal observation,
but scores of the old pioneers, your father's followers and helpers,
have given me facts that fully establish the claim that he was the
chief leader that saved Illinois to freedom. Not only the state, but
on a wider basis the evidence is very strong that Rev. James Lemen,
Sr., largely shared in saving the Northwestern Territory for free
states. This was the estimate that General [Governor] William Henry
Harrison placed on his labors in his letter to Captain Joseph Ogle
after his term of the governorship had expired. [17]In his letter
to Captain Ogle he said that, though he and Mr. Lemen were ardent
friends, he [Lemen] set his iron will against slavery here and
indirectly made his influence felt so strongly at Washington and
before Congress, that all efforts to suspend the anti-slavery clause
in the Ordinance of 1787 failed.
But James Lemen was not only a factor which saved the anti-slavery
clause in the Ordinance of 1787, but there is no doubt, after putting
all the facts together, ... that his anti-slavery mission to the
Northwestern Territory was inspired by the same cause which finally
placed the anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance, and that Lemen's
mission and that clause were closely connected. Douglas, Trumbull, and
Lincoln thought so, and every other capable person who had [been] or
has been made familiar with the facts.
Many of the old pioneers to whom the facts were known have informed me
that all the statements as to Rev. James Lemen's anti-slavery teaching
and preaching and forming his anti-slavery churches, and conducting
the anti-slavery contest, and sending a paid agent to Indiana to
assist the anti-slavery cause, were all true in every particular; and
so the evidence outside and independently of that in the Lemen family
notes is conclusive that Mr. Lemen created and organized the forces
which finally confirmed Illinois, if not the Northwestern Territory,
to freedom. But there was just one fact that made it possible for the
old pioneer leader practically single handed and alone to accomplish
such results; and that was because President Jefferson's great power
was behind him, and through his secret influence Congress worked for
the very purpose that Jefferson, more than twenty years before, had
sent Lemen to Illinois, or the Northwestern Territory, to secure,
namely, the freedom of the new {p.44} country. The claim that Mr.
Lemen encompassed these great results would, of course, be ridiculous
were it not known that the power of the government through Jefferson
stood behind him. Hence Douglas, Trumbull, and others are correct, and
I quite agree with them, that when you publish the old family notes on
the matter, if, for reasons you state, you do not wish to publish
Jefferson's letters to your father which concern the subject, it will
be sufficient just to say he acted by and under his advice and aid,
and people will accept it, as it is self-evident, because it is
preposterous to hold that Mr. Lemen could have accomplished such
results without some great power behind him. In conclusion, it is my
judgment that your father's anti-slavery labors were the chief factor
leading up to the free state constitution for Illinois.
Now as to your old family notes. They are valuable. In their
respective fields, they embrace by far the most trustworthy history in
our state. They ought to be preserved, but your generous nature will
not permit you to say no; and your friends, as you say, are carrying
them off, and they will all be lost, and presently the vast and
priceless collection will have disappeared, which will be an
unspeakable loss. Like your friends, Dr. B. F. Edwards and J. M.
Smith, I would advise you to make copies of all to keep for use, and
then give Smith the old collection to keep and hold in St. Louis in
his safe, and leave them there for good. This will save you an
infinite amount of worry, as people will not trouble you to see the
mere copies. It would be a good disposition to make of them, and thus
bury that dangerous element in many of the old letters bearing on the
anti-slavery contest of 1818. With some of those interested in that
contest, in fifty years from this time, the publication of these
letters would create trouble between the descendants of many of our
old pioneer families.
There is a danger lurking in many of these old collections where you
would not suspect it. In 1851, when I wrote the first or preliminary
part of the Bethel church history from your old family notes, now
generally referred to as the history of the "Jefferson-Lemen
Anti-Slavery Pact," and part second as the history proper of the
church in the letter which was simply the history from its
organization in 1809 to my pastorate of 1851, I carefully omitted all
mention of the anti-slavery contest which gave the church its origin.
I {p.45} did this so that that part of its history could then be
recorded in the church book, which could not have been done had I
mentioned the anti-slavery contest; because the bitterness of that
period had not yet fully disappeared; and the full history of the
church, with the causes creating, and the results flowing from its
organization, if recorded or published then, would have aroused
considerable ill feeling against the church in some parts of the
state. So part second, or the history proper, was only recorded at
that time. But having lately completed part third of the Bethel church
history, showing the results of its organization, I sent it with a
copy of part first, or the history of the Jefferson Lemen Anti-Slavery
Pact, to our worthy and noble Christian brother, the Bethel church
clerk, James H. Lemen, and the other brother whose name you suggested,
and they can place them in safe keeping somewhere until after your old
family notes are published, and then they should be recorded in the
church book with the church history proper and all the papers be
placed with the other church papers. I shall also send them a copy of
this letter to be finally placed with the church papers, as it is in
part the history of the founder of that church, all parties agreeing
that your father created, though of course he did not formally
constitute, it. The old church, when all the facts become known, will
become noted in history, as it stands as the monument of the contest
which began by putting the anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance of
1787, and which concluded by making Illinois and her neighboring
sisters free states.
As to the more valuable letters in your family notes and collections,
I have kept them securely for you. Douglas' and Lincoln's letters take
very correct views as to your father's anti-slavery labors, and
Jefferson's two letters to your father disclose his great friendship
for him, and show that he placed the greatest confidence and trust in
him. Poor Lovejoy's letter reads as if he had a presentment of his
coming doom. There is no more interesting feature in all your old
family notes than Lincoln's views at your many meetings with him, and
your copy of his prayer is beautiful. Some of his views on Bible
themes are very profound; but then he is a very profound thinker. It
now looks as if he would become a national leader. Would not he and
your father have enjoyed a meeting on the slavery question? I put all
the letters with the other papers you gave me in a safe {p.46} in St.
Louis, in a friend's care, where I sometimes put my papers. Your son,
Moses, was with me and the check is given in his name. This will
enable you to tell your friends that the papers are not now in your
custody, and they will not bother you to see them. Hoping to see you
soon, I remain as ever.
Fraternally yours,
Rock Spring, Ill.
July 17, 1857.
J. M. PECK.
PIONEER LETTERS
IX. SENATOR DOUGLAS'S LETTER
(From _Belleville Advocate_, April 10, 1908. Clipping,
I.B.H.C.,--K11)
Springfield, Illinois. Mar. 10, 1857
Rev. James Lemen,
Collinsville, Illinois,
Dear Sir:--In a former letter I wrote you fully as to my views as to
the "Jefferson-Lemen Anti-Slavery Pact," and that there is no doubt
but that the anti-slavery contest of your father, Rev. James Lemen,
Sr., and the organizing of Bethel church as one of the results,
eventually led to our free state constitution. I also thank you again
for the privilege of reading Jefferson's letters to your father, and
other papers in connection with the matter, but desire to add a
thought or two, or more properly expound [expand] some points in my
recent letter.
The anti-slavery pact or agreement between the two men and its far
reaching results comprise one of the most intensely interesting
chapters in our national and state histories. Its profound secrecy and
the splendid loyalty of Jefferson's friends which preserved it, were
alike necessary to the success of the scheme as well as for his future
preferment; for had it been known that Jefferson had sent Lemen as his
special agent on an anti-slavery mission to shape matters in the
territories to his own ends, it would have wrecked his popularity in
the South and rendered Lemen's mission worse than useless.
It has always been a mystery why the pressing demands of Governor
Harrison and his Council for the repeal of the anti-slavery clause in
the Ordinance of 1787 which excluded slavery {p.47} from the
Northwest Territory, could make no headway before a encession [?] of
pro-slavery Congress; but the matter is now clear. The great
Jefferson, through his confidential leaders in Congress [held that
body back, until Mr. Lemen, under his orders], had rallied his friends
and sent in anti-slavery petitions demanding the maintenance of the
clause, when the Senate, where Harrison's demands were then pending,
denied them. So a part of the honor of saving that grand clause which
dedicated the territory to freedom, belongs to your father. Indeed,
considering Jefferson's ardent friendship for him and his admiration
and approval of his early anti-slavery labors in Virginia, which
antedated the Ordinance of 1787 by several years, there is but little
doubt but that your father's labors were a factor of influence which
quickened if it did not suggest to Jefferson the original purpose
which finally resulted in putting the original clause in the
Ordinance.
This matter assumes a phase of personal interest with me, and I find
myself, politically, in the good company of Jefferson and your father.
With them, everything turned on whether the people of the territory
wanted slavery or not. Harrison and his council had informed Congress
that the people desired it; but Jefferson and Lemen doubted it, and
when the latter assisted in sending in great anti-slavery petitions,
Jefferson's friends in Congress granted the people their wish, and
denied Harrison's pro-slavery demands. That is, the voice and wishes
of the people in the territory were heard and respected, and that
appears to me to be the correct doctrine.