Jefferson's connection with Lemen's anti-slavery mission in Illinois was never made public, apparently, until the facts were published by Mr. Joseph B. Lemen, of the third generation, in the later years of his life, in connection with the centennary anniversaries of the events involved. However, the "compact" was a matter of family tradition, based upon a collection of letters and notes handed down from father to son. Jefferson's reasons for keeping the matter secret, as Dr. Peck explains, were, first, to prevent giving the impression that he was seeking his own interests in the territories, and, second, to avoid arousing the opposition of his southern friends who desired the extension of slavery. Lemen, on the other hand, did not wish to have it thought that his actions were controlled by political considerations, or subject {p.23} to the will of another. Moreover, when he learned that Jefferson was regarded as "an unbeliever," he is said to have wept bitterly lest it should be thought that, in his work for the church and humanity, he had been influenced by an "infidel"; and, sometime before his death, he exacted a promise of his sons and the few friends who were acquainted with the nature of his compact with Jefferson that they would not make it known while he lived.[30] Under the influence of this feeling on the part of their father, the family kept the facts to themselves and a few confidential friends until after the lapse of a century, when the time came to commemorate the achievements of their ancestor.