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THZ NOTEE DAME SCHOLASTIC •DI5CE-9VA5I 5EMPERV1CTVRV5- -VIVE-gVASl-CRAS MORITURV? VLO. XXXIV. NOTRE DAME, INDIANA, JUNE 8, igoi. No. 35. PREACHER OF THE BACCALAUREATE SERMON, SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 1901. THE REV. NATHAN J. MOONEY, B. S., '77, A. M., '95, Rector of St. Columbfcille's Chorcli, Chicago, Illinois. 590 ry/UTRB DAME SCHOLASTIC. island of Santo Domingo. He derived his Summer "Winds. being from a line of kings.. His father had been stolen from the coast of Africa and sold /'^LAD winds that loiter over stream and lea, into slavery. Inheriting all the ambition and ^"^ Through city ways and quiet valleys fair; energy of his royal lineage, he rose above his Gentle your voice as kneeling virgin's prayer natural condition, and secured an education Before the altar of a sanctuary. that fitted him for the great work of his later Thrice happy comrades of the laden bee, life. As he ripened into manhood he realized I often think those accents that you bear more and more the unhappy degradation of Were whispered by an absent friend somewhere. his people. Once he saw his old father And travelled on your pinions here to me. whipped, and all the compassion and resent To what blithe land j'ou go I may not tell. ment of his nature was aroused. For fifty long Yet Avould I share your welcome with the flowers years he endured his bondage and dreamed Whose chaliced heads bow vibrant 'neath your on, while the conviction grew in him that strain; slavery was a monstious wrong; and as the And should you wander where the blessed dwell. instinct of leadership waxed stronger, he Breathe to one soul Avithin the azure towers, resolved that ^slavery should die, justice and "A little while and we shall meet again." freedom should triumph,and it should triumph PATRICK MACDONOUGH, '03. by his voice, by his act, by his blood. The opportunity came in the summer of 1795. The mixed population of Santo Domingo ToTissaint L'Ouverture.* was agitated by the revolution in France. An- extraordinary decree had just reached the JOSEPH W. KENNY. island. "Liberty and Equality" was the mes sage from the French republic. The mulattoes and negroes received it with demonstrations ITTLE more than a century of the wildest joy and asked that their cause ago slavery was firmly estab be heard. Instead of acceding, the whites took lished, in the world. It was measures to repress them. Fifteen thousand advocated by statesmen, de blacks rose in arms and demanded the first fended in the pulpit, embodied rights of liberty—-"one day of rest out of -uT. in every constitution. A reso- ^^seven." The French governor refused and ution in the House of Commons " that slavery ordered them to disband. At the head of that was contrary to the laws of Godand the rights army of slaves Toussaint faced the governor of man" was overwhelmingly defeated. The and said: "In the past I have aided you; my civilized world decided that the negro was. not arm has. saved you and restored to you your a man but a chattel; that the Magna Charta -power. Henceforth it shall be raised in defence and the Declaration of Independence were not of the rights of my people." The whites and for him, but only for the \yhite man. To-day mulattoes stood aghast. The first blow known the clanking of the bondman's chains is heard to history for the rights of the negro race no more, and thioughout the earth society is was then struck, and the Clock of Destiny educating and uplifting the negro, is recogniz tolled the knell of slavery and the dawning ing his rights, his dignity, his political equality of the era of emancipation. with other races. , With the grim determination of a man hard Whence this change, this mighty revolution? ened by fifty years of oppression, Toussaint It began in the closing years of the eighteenth stood fast for the object of his devotion—the century. Slavery was at the= zenith of its power manhood of his race. From every quarter of when an old man. stepped forth , and dared Santo Domingo came negroes ready to die for to strike the first blow for; the liberation their hero. From these lawless forces of insur of a fettered race; a man whose genius arid gent slaves, ill-clad and ill-armed, Toussaint self-sacrifice were; to shape .; the course of organized an army. That band of blacks, civilization. f '/^^ : • ..li , j' collected under his command, fired with his This, man, known in history as Toussaint impetuous spirit, swept from one end of the L'Ouverture, was born in' the year 1743 on the island to the other, everywhere bearing the * * Winning, oration, in=^the. Oratorical.Contest, held in banner of victory. His intimate knowledge of Washington' Hall, Wednesday']evening. May 29. the country gave him the key to the situation. ^OTRH DAME SCHOLASTIC. 591 He seized the mountain passes and roads, article of this constitution a provision that intercepted the enemy and balked their plans. Santo Domingo grants liberty and equality, in The most vindictive spirit that ever roused religion." Refusing an offer to the crown of hostile armies burned in the hearts of the Hayti, he turned to the committee and said: combatants. Black was pitted against white, "This constitution shall provide for Santo slave against master. On the north the Spanish Domingo a republican government, and tell drew up their forces to attack him, while the the, world that all races are free and equal English invaded the French territory from under its laws. The negro only asks for that the east. The iron will of that intrepid leader liberty which God gave him." nerved this band of slaves into a host of The passion for civiL equality that had been warriors. Before their invincible onslaught the kindled in the heart of the Anglo-Saxon, proud blood of Spain was crushed to earth; fanned by a tyrant king, that had glow^ed in the impetuous chivalry of France went down; the tattered tents of Valley Forge, had here the indomitable English soldier fled from the in Santo Domingo burst into a flame which field defeated and disheartened. His people was to illumine the world and proclaim anew made him governor of Santo Domingo, and the brotherhood of man. Nursed in vicissi under his iron rule order took the place of tude, beaten upon by the rough winds of chaos. Revolution ceased. adversity, this slave had become in his old The world marvels at the military skill of age a man of mailed fortitude, ready to Hannibal, Caesar and Napoleon. But where is confront the world, prepared for torment and the genius that has written a brighter page in armed for death. Hoping against hope he the annals of military history than was written had moulded custom to his will, and made a by the hand of this simple black of Santo nation of freemen out of a herd of lawless Domingo? Out of a herd of ignorant slaves, slaves. Trusting in the divine power of for debased by generations of servitude, armed giveness he had reconciled the factions of with clubs and corn knives, he organized an society, and secured for Santo Domingo the army, successively defeated the disciplined blessings of friendship and of peace. troops of the three most powerful nations of Ambitious Napoleon from across the seas Europe, broke the shackles of his race, and watched the rise of the new government. The out of the turmoil of revolution restored black chieftain seemed to dim his glory. peace and prosperity. Warned of Napoleon's designs, Toussaint The genius of Toussaint on the field of appealed to America for help; .but America, battle was even surpassed by his rule of state. herself sunken in slavery, refused. England, Before him was a task that demanded the flouting the negro's freedom, promised Napo ablest diplomacy and the coolest judgment. leon neutrality; and Holland, the historic To lay the foundation of a state for men who lover of liberty, assisted him with forty ships. had just t rown off the yoke; to adopt laws Sixty thousand of Europe's choicest troops so just, so liberal, so modified that the intense landed in Santo Domingo. General Le Clerc prejudice of caste be abolished, popular pros had come to restore slavery in the island. For perity be secured, and unity of government be a moment Toussaint despaired. The world maintained, was an undertaking to. tax the pitted against him! Then in his desperation ingenuity of the wisest of statesmen. he ordered the cities to be burned, the harvests When order had been restored in the island, destroyed, the wells poisoned; and fortifying he called a committee of eight men to draw his retreat in the mountains, he anxiously up a constitution. At this time in England the awaited the approach of the enemy. The Established Church' animated by bitter prej- whole French army was pouring into the udicej made the worship of God—if contrary road which passed the place where he was to her formula — a crime of state. Across stationed. Crouching for a moment as the the channel, France in a reign of blood had wild animal crouches, he sprang with a fierce done her utmost to blot out Christianity. impetus upon his foe, and the army before In America, the honie of liberty, a spirit of whose mighty march all Europe had trembled intense intolerance prevailed; but Toussaint was shattered into ruins. had within his broad mind no trace of religious The French sued for peace.