Willard C. MacNaul

“ 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. ”

“ With people familiar with all the circumstances there is no divergence of views but that the organization of the Bethel Church and its masterly anti-slavery contest saved Illinois to freedom; but much of the credit of the freedom of Illinois, as well as for the balance of the territory, was due to Thomas Jefferson's faithful and efficient aid. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It was in view of this evident determination to make of Illinois Territory a slave state, that James Lemen, with Jefferson's approval, took the radical step of organizing a (p. 17) distinctively anti-slavery church as a means of promoting the free-state cause. [21] From the first, indeed, he had sought to promote the cause of temperance and of anti-slavery in and through the church. He tells us in his diary, in fact, that he "hoped to employ the churches as a means of opposition to the institution of slavery." ”

“ James Lemen was a noted Indian fighter in Illinois, ever ready with his trusty rifle to defend the homes of the early settlers against the savage foe, and in every way he fully justified Jefferson's judgment in sending him to look after the best interests of the people in the new territory. ”

“ The people of Indiana proper, except those of the old French inhabitants of Vincennes, who were possessed of slaves, were either indifferent or hostile towards slavery. Its partisans in the Illinois counties of the Territory, in the hope of promoting their object thereby, now sought division of the Indiana Territory and the erection of a separate government for Illinois at Kaskaskia. This movement aroused a bitter political struggle in the Illinois settlements, one result of which was the murder of young Rice Jones in the streets of Kaskaskia. ”

“ And when, in the course of the campaign for the division of the Territory in 1808, it became apparent that the lines between the free-state and the slave-state forces were being decisively drawn, Lemen prepared to take a more radical stand in the struggle. ”

“ It is a well-known fact that the vote of these fourteen northern counties secured the State to the anti-slavery party in 1856; but as this section of the State was not settled until long after its admission into the Union, the measure, whatever its origin, had no effect upon the Constitutional Convention. However, John Messinger, of New Design, who surveyed the Military Tract and, later, also the northern boundary line, may very well have made such a plat, either on his own motion or at the suggestion of the zealous anti-slavery leader, with whom he was well acquainted. ”

“ True to his avowed purpose in coming to Illinois, young Lemen became a leader of anti-slavery sentiment in the new Territory, and, undoubtedly, deserves to be called one of the Fathers of the Free State Constitution, which was framed in 1818 and preserved in 1824. His homestead, the "Old Lemen Fort" at New Design, which is still the comfortable home of the present owner, is the birthplace of the Baptist denomination in Illinois ”

“ Lemen recorded his belief that President Jefferson "will find means to overreach the evil attempts of the pro-slavery party." Early in the year 1806 the Vincennes memorial was introduced into Congress for the third time and again favorably reported from committee, but to no avail. It was about this time, as we learn from his diary, that Mr. Lemen "sent a messenger to Indiana to ask the churches and people there to get up and sign a counter petition, to uphold freedom in the Territory," circulating a similar petition in Illinois himself. ”

“ The younger James Lemen was on terms of intimacy with Abraham Lincoln at Springfield, and (p. 09) his cousin, Ward Lamon, was Lincoln's early associate in the law, and also his first biographer. Various representatives of the family in later generations have attained success as farmers, physicians, teachers, ministers, and lawyers throughout southern Illinois and other sections of the country. [4]
The elder James Lemen was himself an interesting character, and, entirely apart from his relations with Jefferson, he is a significant factor in early Illinois history. ”

“ As Messinger was later associated with Peck in the Rock Spring Seminary, and in the publication of a sectional map of Illinois, it would seem that Peck was in a position to know the facts as well as Ford.
In the campaign for the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, slavery was the only question seriously agitated. The Lemen churches and their sympathizers were so well organized and so determined in purpose that they made a very energetic and effective campaign for delegates. ”

“ Lemen one hundred dollars of his funds, and in the summer of 1786 with his wife and children he removed and settled in Illinois, at New Design, in what is now Monroe County. A few years after his settlement in Illinois Mr. Lemen was baptized into the Baptist church, and he finally became a minister of the people of that faith. He eventually became a great organizer of churches and by that fact, reinforced by his other wonderful traits as a natural leader, he fully realized Jefferson's fondest dreams and became a noted leader. ”

“ RELATIONS OF JAMES LEMEN AND THOMAS JEFFERSON IN THE EXCLUSION OF SLAVERY FROM ILLINOIS AND THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
In view of the approaching centennary of statehood in Illinois, the name of James Lemen takes on a timely interest because of his services—social, religious, and political—in the making of the Commonwealth. He was a native of Virginia, born and reared in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry. He served a two-years' enlistment in the Revolutionary War under Washington, and afterwards returned to his regiment during the siege of Yorktown. ”

“ In the past summer, with my wife and children I arrived at Kaskaskia, Illinois, and we are now living in the Bottom settlement. On the Ohio river my boat partly turned over and we lost a part of our goods and our son Robert came near drowning.
May 10, 1787.
I am very well impressed with this new country, but we are still living in the Bottom, as the Indians are unsafe. We prefer living on the high lands and we shall get us a place there soon. People are coming into this new country in increasing numbers. ”

“ James and Catherine Lemen were well fitted by nature and training for braving the hardships and brightening the privations of life on the frontier, far removed from home and friends, or even the abodes of their nearest white kinsmen. ”

“ J. M. Peck, who was at the time pastor of the Bethel Church, to be deposited in the private safe of a friend of his in St. Louis. As the slavery question was then (1851) at white heat, it is not surprising that Dr. Peck advised the family to carefully preserve all the facts and documents relating to their father's anti-slavery efforts "until some future time," lest their premature publication should disturb the peace of his church. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ We found fine prairie lands some miles north, south and east and some timber lands along the water streams mostly. Game is plentiful and we killed several deer and turkeys. It is a fine country.
New Design, May 3, 1803.
As Thomas Jefferson predicted they would do, the extreme southern slave advocates are making their influence felt in the new territory for the introduction of slavery and they are pressing Gov. William Henry Harrison to use his power and influence for that end. Steps must soon be taken to prevent that curse from being fastened on our people. ”

“ James Lemen also first suggested the plan to extend the boundary of Illinois northward to give more territory and better shape, and had a government surveyor make a map showing the great advantages and gave them to Nathaniel Pope, our territorial delegate, asking him to present the matter, which he did, and Congress adopted the plan. The extension gave the additional territory for fourteen counties and Chicago is included. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Lincoln, too, in a letter to the younger James Lemen, is quoted as having a personal knowledge of the facts and great respect for the senior Lemen in the conflict for a free state in Illinois. "Both your father and Lovejoy," he remarks, "were pioneer leaders in the cause of freedom, and it has always been difficult for me to see why your father, who was a resolute, uncompromising, and aggressive leader, who boldly proclaimed his purpose to make both the Territory and the State free, never aroused nor encountered any of that mob violence which, both in St. ”

“ Lemen and his impression that a young man of such aptitude as a natural leader would soon impress himself on the community, and as the advantages in the territory were soon to be great, Jefferson was desirous to send him out, and with the help of a few friends he provided a small fund to give him, and also his friend who was going to Indiana on a like mission, to be used by their families if need be, and if not to go to good causes. There was also another motive with Jefferson; he looked forward to a great pro-slavery contest to finally try to make Illinois and Indiana slave states, and as Mr. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As late as 1857 he writes of "that dangerous element in many of the old letters bearing on the anti-slavery contest of 1818," and adds, "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." [6]
A (p. 25) man by the name of J. M. Smith is suggested by Dr. Peck as the custodian of the originals. When this gentleman died, the documents in his care are supposed to have been either lost or appropriated by parties unknown to the Lemen family. Mr. ”

“ The collection of letters was published at various times by Mr. Joseph B. Lemen, of Collinsville, Illinois, in The Belleville Advocate, of Belleville, Illinois. The Diary is a transcript of the original, attested by Rev. James Lemen, Jr. The "History" is a brief sketch, in two chapters, prepared from the original documents by Dr. Peck while he was pastor of the Bethel Church, in June, 1851, and written at his dictation by the hand of an assistant, as the document itself expressly states. Mr. Joseph Lemen, who is responsible for the letters, is the son of Rev. ”

“ 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. ”