James Lemen

James Lemen Sr. (1760 - January 8, 1823) was an American justice of the peace and minister who was a leader of the anti-slavery movement in Indiana Territory in the early nineteenth century.

Born near Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, in colonial times, he served a two-years' enlistment in the American Revolutionary War. He married Catherine Ogle, from the family whose name is perpetuated in that of Ogle County, Illinois. Lemen was a protégé of Thomas Jefferson. Some historians point to a so-called "Jefferson-Lemen Secret Anti-Slavery Compact,"Macnaul, W.C. (1865). [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21251/21251-h/21251-h.htm "The Jefferson-Lemen Compact."] ] whereby Jefferson asked Lemen to move to Illinois (then Indiana Territory), and to take up the anti-slavery cause there. He became a leader of the anti-slavery movement in Indiana Territory, and, influenced the Illinois' first "Free State" Constitution, which was framed in 1818 and preserved in 1824.

In a letter to Leman's son, Rev James Lemen Jr., dated March 2, 1857, Abraham Lincoln praises Lemen senior's anti-slavery work. Lemen, as Jefferson’s agent in Illinois, founded the anti-slavery churches, which in Lincoln's view, "set in motion the forces which finally made Illinois a free state.” [Hill, John Wesley (June 2003). Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, p. 401. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN: 978-0766161108]

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