Paris 19 August 1890
Mister President,
I had the pleasure of sending by post, to your committee, the printed letter that I recently addressed to the members of the anti-slavery effort, on the occasion of the meeting of our next free congress.
I feel the need, today, to invent directly to give the honour of your presence along with two delegates who, according to the terms published in the last anti-slavery bulletin of France, will be elected by each national committee, to represent it at our Congress.
I must finally let you know officially that this Congress will take place in Paris on Monday 22 September (1.).
In the afternoon of Sunday the 21st, a solemn religious ceremony will take place, with the authorization of His Eminence the cardinal archbishop of Paris, in the church of Saint-Sulpice, to thank God for the happy results already obtained through your common efforts and ask for the Holy Spirit to shine his light on our future works. We will sing, before the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the "Veni Creator Spiritus," which will be preceded by the execution of the anti-slavery cantata, set to music by Mr. Bellenot, music director at Saint-Sulpice. I will have the honour of personally presiding over this ceremony.
Yours sincerely with the highest consideration and religious devotion,
Your very humble and obedient servant,
Charles Cardinal LAVIGERIE,
Archbishop of Carthage and Algiers
P.S. – The next congress being tasked with electing, by a majority of voices, the jury destined to decide the results of the contest that I have opened, in the name of Our Holy Father the Pope, for the composition of a popular work to be judged most capable of serving practically for the abolition of African slavery, I believe I should add a reminder that the prize offered is twenty thousand francs. This amount has been deposited at the Bank of France and will be granted to the author of the winning work as soon as the jury has made its decision.
To be clear about the nature of this contest, I will allow myself to reiterate here what I have written on this subject in the open letter that I sent, a few months ago, to His Majesty King Leopold of Belgium.
I propose, I said then, the opening of a competition for a popular work destined to illuminate, to draw out the opinion of the question of the abolition of slavery. We know the importance, half a century ago, in England, in America, and in France, of works composed to this end by considerable men.
Even in our century, one could say truthfully that it was a simple novel, Uncle Tom, that definitely led to the suppression of the American slavery.
I am only waiting, I concluded, for the wrapping up of the Brussels Conference to declare this open contest.
I declare it open today.
The works presented to the competition will be received until 31 December 1891, at the office of the Anti-Slavery Work, 6 Rue Chomel, Paris, or at the Procuracy of Algiers Missions, 27 Rue Cassette, Paris.
