This text is part of:
‘
[230]
an exceptional case like that of Prof. Laboulaye being very rare.
Even he, though accurate, is a good deal fettered and limited in his English speech.’
His regret was augmented during the two days sessions of the International Anti-Slavery Conference, which met in Paris on the 26th and 27th of August, in the Salle Herz, for he could neither understand nor enjoy the eloquent speeches of Laboulaye (who presided, in the absence of the venerable Duc de Broglie) and Cochin,1 or even the brief remarks of his friend and fellow-countryman, John C. Palfrey,2 who ventured to address the meeting in French; and the exordium of his own carefully prepared speech, on the second day, was a lament that he was obliged to listen to the French and Spanish speakers as though he had neither a head nor a heart to respond to their noble sentiments, and a declaration of his ‘abiding faith in the feasibility of a universal language, at some period or other.’
The Conference was convened by the French Emancipation Committee, the Spanish Abolition Society, and the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and both delegate and non-delegate members (including among the latter the women, to whom Prof. Laboulaye paid a graceful compliment) were invited to vote on the resolutions presented as the conclusions of the assembly.
Of discussions there were none, for, under the stringent laws of the Second Empire respecting public meetings, a special authorization for the gathering had to be obtained from the Minister of the Interior, and the limitation to two days compelled a pre-arranged and inflexible programme.
The various papers read or contributed dealt with the East African slave trade, slavery in Cuba and Brazil, and the results of emancipation in the British Colonies and the United States; and addresses beseeching their
1 M. Cochin reminded Mr. Garrison and his children of Wendell Phillips in his personal appearance.
2 Other American members of the Conference were James A. Thome of Cleveland (ante, 1: 454) and Levi Coffin of Cincinnati.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.