apher. Various representatives of the family in later
generations have attained success as farmers, physicians, teachers,
ministers, and lawyers throughout southern Illinois and other sections
of the country.[4]

The elder James Lemen was himself an interesting character, and,
entirely apart from his relations with Jefferson, he is a significant
factor in early Illinois history. His fight for free versus slave
labor in Illinois and the Northwest derives a peculiar interest,
however, from its association with the great name of Jefferson. The
principles for which the latter stood--but not necessarily his
policies--have a present-day interest for us greater than those of his
contemporaries, because those principles are the "live issues" of our
own times. Jefferson is to that extent our contemporary, and hence his
name lends a living interest to otherwise obscure persons and remote
events. The problem of free labor versus slave labor we have with us
still, and in a much more complex and widespread form than in
Jefferson's day.

According to the current tradition, a warm personal friendship sprang
up between Jefferson and young Lemen, who was seventeen years the
junior of his distinguished patron and friend. In a letter to Robert,
brother of James Lemen, attributed to Jefferson, he writes: "Among all
my friends who are near, he is still a little nearer. I discovered his
worth when he was but a child, and I freely confess that in some of my
most important achievements his example, wish, and advice, though then
but a very young man, largely influenced my action." In a sketch of
the relations of the two men by Dr. John M. Peck we are told that
"after Jefferson became President of the United States, he retained
all of his early affection for Mr. Lemen"; and upon the occasion of a
visit of a mutual friend to the President, in 1808, "he inquired after
him with all the fondness of a father."[5]

Their early relations in Virginia, so far as we have any account of
them, concerned their mutual anti-slavery interests. Peck tells us
that "Mr. Lemen was a 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."
Concerning {p.10} the cession of Virginia's claims to the Northwest
Territory, Jefferson is thus quoted, from his letter to Robert Lemen:
"Before any one had even mentioned the matter, James Lemen, by