The Jefferson-Lemen Compact

The materials here presented were collected in connection with the preparation of a history of the first generation of Illinois Baptists. The narrative introduction is printed substantially as delivered at a special meeting of the Chicago Historical Society, and, with the collection of documents, is published in response to inquiries concerning the so-called "Lemen Family Notes," and in compliance with the request for a contribution to the publications of this Society. It is hoped that the publication may serve to elicit further information concerning the alleged "Notes," the existence of which has become a subject of more or less interest to historians. The compiler merely presents the materials at their face value, without assuming to pass critical judgment upon them.

W. C. M.

INTRODUCTION {p.07}

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. His "Yorktown Notes" in his diary give some interesting glimpses of his participation in that campaign.[1] His Scotch ancestors had served in a similar cause under Cromwell, whose wedding gift to one of their number is still cherished as a family heirloom.

Upon leaving the army James Lemen married Catherine Ogle, daughter of Captain Joseph Ogle, whose name is perpetuated in that of Ogle county, Illinois. The Ogles were of old English stock, some of whom at least were found on the side of Cromwell and the Commonwealth. Catherine's family at one time lived on the South Branch of the Potomac, although at the time of her marriage her home was near Wheeling. Captain Ogle's commission, signed by Gov. Patrick Henry, is now a valued possession of one of Mrs. Lemen's descendants. 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.

During, and even before the war, young Lemen is reputed to have been the protege of Thomas Jefferson, through whose influence he became a civil and religious leader in the pioneer period of Illinois history. Gov. Reynolds, in his writings relating to this period,[2] gives various sketches of the man and his family, and his name occurs frequently in {p.08} the records of the times. He was among the first to follow Col. Clark's men to the Illinois country, where he established the settlement of New Design, one of the earliest American colonies in what was, previous to his arrival, the "Illinois county" of the Old Dominion. Here he served, first as a justice of the peace, and then as a judge of the court of the original county of St. Clair, and thus acquired the title of "Judge Lemen."[3] Here, too, he became the progenitor of the numerous Illinois branch of the Lemen family, whose genealogy and family history was recently published by Messrs. Frank and Joseph B. Lemen--a volume of some four hundred and fifty pages, and embracing some five hundred members of the family.

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; and he himself is commemorated as the recognized founder of that faith in this State, by a granite shaft in the family burial plot directly in front of the old home. This memorial was dedicated in 1909 by Col. William Jennings Bryan, whose father, Judge Bryan, of Salem, Illinois, was the first to suggest it as a well-deserved honor.