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Full-Text Articles in Political History
Elijah Lovejoy’S Oration On The Fiftieth Anniversary Of American Independence: An Essay Discovered, William G. Chrystal
Elijah Lovejoy’S Oration On The Fiftieth Anniversary Of American Independence: An Essay Discovered, William G. Chrystal
Maine History
On July 4, 1826, the American republic celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with great fanfare. In this research note, the author provides a transcript of an oration delivered in China, Maine on that day. The speaker was local schoolmaster Elijah P. Lovejoy, better known for his tragic death eleven years later. By then an abolitionist newspaper editor in Alton, Illinois, Lovejoy was killed in 1837 by a pro-slavery mob. Lovejoy’s 1826 oration, then, serves as both a compelling look at the celebration of America’s Jubilee in rural Maine and an early example of the ideological convictions which led Lovejoy to abolitionism. …
Settling Oxford County: Maine’S Revolutionary War Bounty Myth, Jean F. Hankins
Settling Oxford County: Maine’S Revolutionary War Bounty Myth, Jean F. Hankins
Maine History
It is a common assumption that many New England frontier towns were founded by veterans of the Revolutionary War who had been given land for their service to the country. Author Jean Hankins's careful research in deeds, records, and legislative acts shows that this was not the case in representative Oxford County towns. Although there were a variety of bounties given for land in these towns, few had anything to do with the Revolutionary War. The Revolutionary War bounty myth persists, the author specidates, because it is an appealing way to begin the history of these towns, and because, since …