The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-08-17
ANTl-SLAyERY CONGRESS.
The Great Anti-SlaverY Congress at
Lucerne, and What it Proposes
to Accomplish.
THE STATES REPRESENTED.
Cardinal Lavigerie the Leading Spirit IN
the Great Movement for
Freedom.


Freedom.
The United States is represented at
the anti-slavery congress which is being
held this week at Lucerne, over in
Switzerland. under the presidency OF
Cardinal Lavlgerie, the apostolic arch
bishop Of Carthage and Algiers. MIR.
Robert L. Ruft1n, the well-known Cath
olic representative of his race in Bos-
ton, left there few weeks ago to attend
the Lucerne gathering, and he and
Editor Daniel A. Rudd of the Cincin-
natl Catholic Tribune, the organ of the
colored Catholics OF this country, will
represent the United States at the con-
gress. An effort was made to have
Rev. Augustus Tolton, the African
priest of Quincy, ILL.,, go, too. but that
clergyman absolutely refused to go
unless he was delegated by his bishop.
That prelate gave no indication of his
desire that Father Tolton should attend
the conference, however, and the re-
suit wss that the priest stays at home,
It was Cardinal Lavigerie's original in-
tention to have the Lucerne congress
begin on Aug. l, but the recent cantonal
elections in France interfered with that
design. and in order to secure the at
tendance of many prominent French
men, who could not have reached
Lucerne at an earlier date, the cardinal
postponed his convention for a lew
days. The postponement proved a
fortunate event in one way, too, for
had the congress opened on the LIST of
August Cardinal Lavigerie would not
have been able to attend it, since on
the day before that date the cable re-
ported him 80 seriously ill that the last
rites of the Catholic Church were ad-
ministered to him. Happily, the next
day brought better tldings, however,
and inspired the belief that the cardinal
would have 50 far recovered his health
by the time the congress convened as
TO be able to attend it's sessions.
No prsttier place in all Europe could,
perhaps. be found for the assembly
Of the delegates to this International
Anti Slavery Congress than Lucerne.
This town, which is the
CAPITAL OF A CANTON
of the same name, stands on the north
western shore of the famous Lake of
Lucerne, and, with Kussnacht and
Alpnach, forms one of the chief places
on that side of the beautiful sheet OF
water. The Reuss river flows from the
lake by it's side, with the old tower or
lighthouse rising midway IN the stream,
and from the Latin name of this tower
came the designation of the city itself i,
Lucerne, a lighthouse. a truly appro,
pirate place for the convocation Of a
congress whose object is to throw light
upon the barbarities which the slave
hunters practice in the Dark Continent.
The population Of the place is probably
less than 10000. but Lucerne has it's
theatre, it's public library, it's natural
history rooms, and it's inhabitants are
an industrial class, their cheap opera
tion being the manufacture OF silk.
cotton and other textiles. The vast
majority of the people are Catholics,
not over one per cent. being Protes-
tants. Yet, with that liberality which
is characteristic of Catholic communi-
ties, this minority enjoys perfect free
dom Of worship, that having been
granted to them years and years ago.
The prime object which the Lucerne
convention aims at is the suppression
of the infamous slave traffic in Africa,
a traffic whose horrors have peen so
often depicted that there is no need of
detailing them here. In one of his
recent speeches on the subject, Cardinal
Lavigerie said that one could trace the
paths of the African slave traders by
the bones of their victims that are
bleaching beneath the equatorial sun in
the central portions Of the Dark Con.
tinent. This is not by any means the
first time the Catholic Church, always
opposed to slavery, has sought to sup
press this hideous trade in human flesh.
The great question of establishing mis-
slons in
THE HEART OF AFRICA
was always before the mind Of the
Propaganda, and when Livingstone
issued, years ago, an invitation to mis-
sionaries ito come on the real heathen,'
not alone Catholic, but also Protestant,
missionaries hastened to accept it, and
sent evangelists in the footsteps Of the
great explorer. In 1879 the Jesuits
were given the district watered by the
Zambesi, and among the pioneer priests
sof that order to enter this then virtually