Rock Spring, Ill., June 4, 1851.

The history of the confidential relation of Rev. James Lemen, Senior, and Thomas Jefferson, and Lemen's mission under him, which I have prepared for his son, Rev. James Lemen, Junior, at his request from the family notes and diaries.

J. M. Peck,
Per A. M. W.

Chapter I.

The leading purpose of Thomas Jefferson in selecting James Lemen, of Virginia, afterwards James Lemen, Senior, to go to Illinois as his agent, was no doubt prompted by his great affection for Mr. 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. Lemen was a natural born anti-slavery leader and had proved himself such in Virginia by inducing scores of masters to free their slaves through his prevailing kindness of manner and Christian arguments, he was just Jefferson's ideal of a man who could safely be trusted with his anti-slavery mission in Illinois, and this was an important factor in his appointment.

The last meeting between Mr. Lemen and Jefferson was at Annapolis, Maryland, on May 2, 1784, a short time before he sailed as envoy to France, and all the terms between them were fully agreed upon, and on Dec. 28, 1785, Jefferson's confidential agent gave Mr. 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.

In 1789 Jefferson returned from his mission to France and his first thought was of Mr. Lemen, his friend in Illinois, and he lost no time in sending him a message of love and confidence by a friend who was then coming to the West. [5]After Jefferson became President of the United States he retained all of his early affection for Mr. Lemen, and when S. H. Biggs, a resident of Illinois, who was in Virginia on business and who was a warm friend of both Jefferson and Mr. Lemen, called on him in 1808, when President, he inquired after him with all the fondness of a father, and when told of Mr. Lemen's purpose to soon organize a new church on a strictly anti-slavery basis Jefferson sent him a message to proceed at once to form the new church and he sent it a twenty-dollar contribution. Acting on Jefferson's suggestion, Mr. Lemen promptly took the preliminary steps for the final formation of the new church and when constituted it was called the Baptist Church of Canteen Creek and Jefferson's contribution, with other funds, were given to it. This church is now called the Bethel Baptist Church, and it has a very interesting history.

But in view of the facts and circumstances the church might properly have been called the "Thomas Jefferson Church," and what volumes these facts speak for the beneficent and marvelous influence which Mr. Lemen had over Jefferson, who was a reputed unbeliever. The great love he had for James Lemen not only induced him to tolerate his churches but he became an active adviser for their multiplication.

[30]The original agreement between Jefferson and Mr. Lemen was strictly confidential; on the part of Jefferson, because, had it been known, his opponents would have said he sent paid emissaries to Illinois and Indiana to shape matters to his own interests, and the extreme South might have opposed his future preferment, if it were known that he had made an anti-slavery pact with his territorial agents; and it was secret on the part of Mr. Lemen because he never wished Jefferson to give him any help and his singularly independent nature made him feel that he would enjoy a greater liberty of action, or feeling at least, if it were never known that his plans and purposes to some extent were dictated and controlled by another, not even by his great and good friend Jefferson; so the agreement between them was strictly private. [30]And there was another circumstance which finally determined Mr. Lemen to always preserve the secrecy, and that was that some of Mr. Jefferson's opponents shortly before Mr. Lemen's death informed him that he had become an absolute unbeliever, and this so impressed his mind that he wept bitterly for fear, if the fact should ever be known that he had an agreement with Jefferson, that they would say that he was in alliance with an unbeliever in the great life work he had performed, and he exacted a promise from his sons, his brother-in-law, Rev. Benjamin Ogle, and Mr. Biggs, the only persons who then knew of the agreement, that they would never divulge it during his lifetime, a pledge they all religiously kept, and in later years they told no one but the writer and a few other trusted friends who have not, and never will, betray them. But the writer advised them to carefully preserve all the facts and histories we are now writing and to tell some of their families and let them publish them at some future time, as much of the information is of public interest.

As to Jefferson's being an absolute unbeliever, his critics were mistaken. He held to the doctrine that the mind and the reason are the only guides we have to judge of the authenticity and credibility of all things, natural and divine, and this appears to have been the chief basis on which Jefferson's critics based their charges against him. But while these harsh criticisms in some measure misled Mr. Lemen he never lost his great love for Jefferson and to the latest day of his life he always mentioned his name with tenderness and affection. I had hoped to complete this history in one chapter, but there appear to be notes and materials enough for another. By oversight the notes of Mr. Lemen's war record were not given me, but he honorably served an enlistment of two years under Washington, and returned to his regiment at the siege of Yorktown and served until the surrender of Cornwallis, but did not re-enlist.

Chapter II.

At their last meeting at Annapolis, Maryland, on May 2, 1784, when the final terms in their agreement as to Mr. Lemen's mission in Illinois were made, both he and Jefferson agreed that sooner or later, there would be a great contest to try to fasten slavery on the Northwestern Territory, and this prophesy was fully verified in spite of the fact that Congress, at a later period, passed the Ordinance of 1787 forever forbidding slavery; two contests arose in Illinois, the first to confirm the territory and the second to confirm the state to freedom.

[17]From 1803 for several successive congresses Gen. William Henry Harrison, then governor of the Northwestern Territory, with his legislative council petitioned that body to repeal the anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance of 1787 and to establish slavery in the territory, but without avail, and finally recognizing that the influence of Rev. James Lemen, Sr., was paramount with the people of Illinois, he made persistent overtures for his approval of his pro-slavery petitions, but he declined to act and promptly sent a messenger to Indiana, paying him thirty dollars of the Jefferson fund given him in Virginia to have the church and people there sign a counter petition, meanwhile circulating one in Illinois among the Baptists and others; and at the next session of Congress Gen. Harrison's pro-slavery petitions for the first time encountered the anti-slavery petitions of the Baptist people and others, and the senate, before which the matter went at that time, voted to sustain the anti-slavery petitions and against the repeal of the anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance of 1787, and for the time the contest ended.

[21]The next anti-slavery contest was in the narrower limits of the territory of Illinois, and it began with the events which called the Bethel Baptist Church into existence. When Mr. Lemen received President Jefferson's message in 1808 to proceed at once to organize the next church on an anti-slavery basis and make it the center from which the anti-slavery forces should act to finally make Illinois a free state, he decided to act on it; but as he knew it would create a division in the churches and association, to disarm criticism he labored several months to bring them over to the anti-slavery cause, but finding that impossible he adopted Jefferson's advice and prepared to open the contest. The first act was on July 8, 1809, in regular session of the Richland Creek Baptist Church, where the people had assembled from all quarters to see the opening of the anti-slavery contest, when Rev. James Lemen, Sr., arose and in a firm but friendly Christian spirit declared it would be better for both sides to separate, as the contest for and against slavery must now open and not close until Illinois should become a state. A division of both the association and the churches followed, but finally at a great meeting at the Richland Creek Baptist Church in a peaceful and Christian manner, as being the better policy for both sides, separation was adopted by unanimous vote and a number of members withdrew, and on Dec. 10, 1809, they formed the "Baptist Church at Canteen Creek," (now Bethel Baptist Church). Their articles of faith were brief. They simply declared the Bible to be the pillar of their faith, and proclaimed their good will for the brotherhood of humanity by declaring their church to be "The Baptist Church of Christ, Friends to Humanity, denying union and communion with all persons holding the doctrine of perpetual, involuntary, hereditary slavery."

[23]The church, properly speaking, never entered politics, but presently, when it became strong, the members all formed what they called "The Illinois Anti-Slavery League," and it was this body that conducted the anti-slavery contest. It always kept one of its members and several of its friends in the Territorial Legislature, and five years before the constitutional election in 1818 it had fifty resident agents—men of like sympathies—in the several settlements throughout the territory quietly at work, and the masterly manner in which they did their duty was shown by a poll which they made of the voters some few weeks before the election, which, on their side only varied a few votes from the official count after the election. [17]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. True to his promise to Mr. Lemen that slavery should never prevail in the Northwestern Territory or any part of it, he quietly directed his leading confidential friends in Congress to steadily defeat Gen. Harrison's pro-slavery petitions for the repeal of the anti-slavery clause in the Ordinance of 1787, and his friendly aid to Rev. James Lemen, Sr., and friends made the anti-slavery contest of Bethel Church a success in saving the state to freedom.

In the preparation of this history, to insure perfect reliability and 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 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 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 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. 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.