How Elijah Lovejoy’s Younger Brother Became Abraham Lincoln’s “Right-Hand Man”

Owen Lovejoy didn’t seem to know exactly what he wanted to do with his life. But his older brother Elijah did. Elijah had become a minister, a newspaper editor, and an outspoken opponent of slavery. Owen admired him. he wasn’t jealous of his brother’s growing fame. He followed Elijah west, studied for the ministry himself, and wanted to become involved in the fight against slavery.

But Owen was still searching for his own direction. Elijah seemed to possess something his younger brother was still developing certainty.

Once Elijah believed something was right, he was extraordinarily difficult to move. He was a man of uncompromising principle, willing to put himself in danger rather than surrender what he believed.

Owen was proud of him.

Then came the events I am writing about in Lincoln Seeks Justice for Elijah Lovejoy. For Owen, this wasn’t simply a controversy over slavery, a newspaper, or freedom of the press. The man at the center of it was his brother–the man he admired and had followed west. It became a pivotal moment in Owen’s life.

Owen became a committed abolitionist and participated in the Underground Railroad. He entered politics. And along the way, he became a close friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln would later describe Owen Lovejoy as his “right-hand man” in Congress.

One of the things I enjoy about writing these characters in the 1830s is we know where history takes them. Owen doesn’t. The Owen in my novel is still the younger brother following a man he admires and trying to discover what he himself is meant to do. He cannot know that the events unfolding around Elijah will help determine the course of the rest of his life.

And he certainly cannot know that another young Illinois politician named Abrahma Lincoln will one day become one of his closest friends.

We know what these men became. They were still becoming.

Current Projects

• My Book: continuing revisions of Lincoln Seeks Justice for Elijah Lovejoy, where the events surrounding Elijah Lovejoy become a turning Point not only for the mystery, but for the lives of the people caught up in it.
• Edward Bryant: continuing preparations for future publication and preservation of stories by my friend Edward Bryant.

Thanks for walking alongside me.