Also today in history (SJ "funny" alert --- I'm sure he'll find this side-splittingly hilarious) --- Elijah Lovejoy was murdered, two days before his 35th birthday --- for his excercise of Freedom of the Press:
>> In May 1836, after anti-abolitionist opponents in St. Louis destroyed his printing press for the third time, Lovejoy left the city and moved across the river to Alton in the free state of Illinois. In 1837 he started the
Alton Observer, also an abolitionist paper. On November 7, 1837, a pro-slavery mob attacked the warehouse where Lovejoy had his fourth printing press. Lovejoy and his supporters exchanged
gunfire with the mob, which fatally shot him. He died on the spot and was soon hailed as a
martyr by abolitionists across the country. After his death, his brother
Owen Lovejoy entered politics and became the leader of the Illinois abolitionists.
On November 2, 1837, five days before his death, he gave an emotive speech in Alton on the abolition question. In it, he asserted his willingness to respect the views of his opponents, but claimed the right to challenge them, as guaranteed in the Constitution. He reminded the audience that he was a hardworking and God-fearing citizen who had broken no laws, and that the physical threats to him and his family were totally unjustified. He ended by declaring that he would not be driven away, but would continue his work in Alton.
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Elijah Parish Lovejoy (Wiki)
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