The Jefferson-Lemen Compact | Page 7

Design, in 1796, he soon afterwards induced
that body--the first Protestant church in the bounds of the present
State--to adopt what were known as "Tarrant's Rules Against Slavery."
The author of these rules, the Rev. James Tarrant, of Virginia, later of
Kentucky, one of the "emancipating preachers," eventually organized
the fraternity of anti-slavery Baptist churches in Kentucky, who called
themselves "Friends to Humanity."
From 1796 to 1809 Judge Lemen was active in the promotion of
Baptist churches and a Baptist Association. He labored to induce all
these organizations to adopt his anti-slavery principles, and in this he
was largely successful; but, with the increase of immigrant Baptists
from the slave states, it became increasingly difficult to maintain these
principles in their integrity. And when, in the course of the campaign
for the division of the Territory in 1808, it became apparent that the
lines between the free-state and the slave-state forces were being
decisively drawn, Lemen prepared to take a more radical stand in the
struggle. With this design in view he asked and obtained the formal

sanction of {p.18} his church as a licensed preacher. In the course of
the same year, 1808, he is said to have received a confidential message
from Jefferson "suggesting a division of the churches on the question of
slavery, and the organization of a church on a strictly anti-slavery basis,
for the purpose of heading a movement to make Illinois a free
state."[21] According to another, and more probable, version of this
story, when Jefferson learned, through a mutual friend (Mr. S. H.
Biggs), of Lemen's determination to force the issue in the church to the
point of division, if necessary, he sent him a message of approval of his
proposed course and accompanied it with a contribution of $20 for the
contemplated anti-slavery church.
The division of the Territory was effected early in the year 1809, and in
the summer of that year, after vainly trying to hold all the churches to
their avowed anti-slavery principles, Elder Lemen, in a sermon at
Richland Creek Baptist church, threw down the gauntlet to his
pro-slavery brethren and declared that he could no longer maintain
church fellowship with them. His action caused a division in the church,
which was carried into the Association at its ensuing meeting, in
October, 1809, and resulted in the disruption of that body into three
parties on the slavery question--the conservatives, the liberals, and the
radicals. The latter element, headed by "the Lemen party," as it now
came to be called, held to the principles of The Friends to Humanity,
and proposed to organize a branch of that order of Baptists. When it
came to the test, however, the new church was reduced to a constituent
membership consisting of some seven or eight members of the Lemen
family. Such was the beginning of what is now the oldest surviving
Baptist church in the State, which then took the name of "The Baptized
Church of Christ, Friends to Humanity, on Cantine (Quentin) Creek." It
is located in the neighborhood of the old Cahokia mound. Its building,
when it came to have one, was called "Bethel Meeting House," and in
time the church itself became known as "Bethel Baptist Church."
The distinctive basis of this church is proclaimed in its simple
constitution, to which every member was required to subscribe:
"Denying union and communion with all persons holding the doctrine
of perpetual, involuntary, hereditary slavery." This church began its

career as "a family church," in the literal sense of the word; but it
prospered nevertheless, {p.19} until it became a numerically strong and
vigorous organization which has had an active and honorable career of
a hundred years' duration. Churches of the same name and principles
multiplied and maintained their uncompromising but discriminating
opposition to slavery so long as slavery remained a local issue; after
which time they were gradually absorbed into the general body of
ordinary Baptist churches.
During the period of the Illinois Territory, 1809 to 1818, Elder Lemen
kept up a most energetic campaign of opposition to slavery, by
preaching and rigorous church discipline in the application of the rules
against slavery. He himself was regularly ordained soon after the
organization of his anti-slavery church. His sons, James and Joseph,
and his brother-in-law, Benjamin Ogle, were equally active in the
ministry during this period, and, before its close, they had two churches
firmly established in Illinois, with others of the same order in Missouri.
"The church, properly speaking, never entered politics," Dr. Peck
informs us, "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."[23] The contest
culminated in the campaign for statehood in 1818.
At the beginning of that year the Territorial Legislature petitioned