repeatedly, have had a crowded and very pleasant reception at the
“Home,” and begin to feel as if I knew the ground. I see great
reason for encouragement. We have 60 members on the ground whom I
can find, and who seem to be quite as consistent as the average
church members at the North. This, out of a list of 77, seems to
me a pretty good showing. Half of the absentee list is accounted
for by the former teachers who have not taken their letters,
and students at Atlanta and Talladega. I have more reliable
“prayer-meeting” members in proportion to our number than most
pastors enjoy. _“Pauses” in the prayer meeting_ have not yet been
introduced. The majority of Christians who come to prayer-meeting
at all seem to take it for granted that they must take an active
part in carrying it forward; and the majority, male and female, do
so with great acceptance. They are free from the “Shame-facedness”
of Northern Christians about religious activity; and have not
yet fallen into any routine ways. Of course they are generally
ignorant; but I find their spiritual exercises very quickening and
helpful to me. In this respect the work is very delightful. We
sustain two prayer meetings every week, at the church Wednesday
evening, and from house to house Monday evening; and I have begun a
young people’s meeting Sunday evening half an hour before regular
service, which opens with good promise. The Lord has given us one
soul as a pledge of His readiness to bless. A bright, promising
young girl has been seeking Christ for a long time, but has been
hindered by the general superstitious notion that she must have a
_vision_ or tangible evidence of God having heard her prayers. She
has finally been persuaded to trust God, and try to walk by faith,
and has found peace in believing. So we can already set up our
Ebenezer, and go forward.
Outside of the direct church work I am impressed with two things
especially. First, that a good number of the people are making
substantial progress in material things. They show a very healthy
tendency to seek the outskirts of the city, and to obtain homes
of their own. Montgomery is girdled all around with little
cottages (not very fine, to be sure, but a vast improvement on the
plantation cabins), which they have built on land bought with their
savings since Emancipation. The Democratic Legislature a year ago
took advantage of this fact, and, by drawing in the city limits,
changed Montgomery from a Republican to a Democratic town, throwing
out a thousand colored votes. This shows the extent of the movement.
The second thing which has struck me, is the improvement in the
old churches; or rather the evident straining after something
better. There cannot be _much_ change while the present generation
of ignorant preachers survives; but the changes recently have all
been for the better, and a new Baptist organization has just been
started among the people themselves with no outside persuasion,
with the avowed purpose of securing an educated minister and
maintaining better discipline. It is an interesting fact that the
leaders in this last movement are all men who have been in close
relations with our church and its work. I think our Northern
friends need have no fear of the effect upon our principles of
_Southern kindness_ here in Montgomery. The white people let us
severely alone, unless they can make a little money out of us. The
Presbyterian Pastor, Dr. Petrie, has, called upon me; but, besides
that, our only visits have been from business men who wanted
patronage.
* * * * *
TENNESSEE.
Le Moyne Normal School—The Year Begins Well.
MISS L. A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS.
The first month of school has closed with a larger attendance than
during the corresponding month one year ago, while the class of
students is much superior in every respect. This is especially true
of the young men from other places who attend Le Moyne for the
first time. They enter the advanced classes and have capacity for
more rapid progress than we have been accustomed to find.
We regret the absence of many girls, who prefer teaching to
thoroughly fitting themselves for their work. With very limited
qualifications, they secure positions in country schools, where
they doubtless do fair work for present needs. Some time, they will
see the mistake of not pursuing their studies further.
Our Thursday evening family readings have been resumed. This week
the Alumni joined us. When two or three guests have come, it
has been the habit to have an author designated, but this time
the circle was so large it was thought best to invite each to
contribute any selection he chose. The first offering was Joseph
Cook’s remarks upon uneducated suffrage in the South. It provoked
very earnest discussion. Every one was surprised at Mr. Cook’s
familiarity with the true condition of affairs. A young man who has
taught in the neighborhood, was inclined to dispute the educational
statistics. “Go out into the country and you will find that most of
the children can read a little,” was one remark. He admitted the
ignorance of the adults. He is certainly mistaken in applying his
statement to the country at large, however true it may be of the
region within a radius of thirty miles from this city.
His hopefulness concerning the children is an offset to the report
of another young man teaching forty-five miles away, where the
children in Sabbath School could not tell who betrayed Christ, or
answer similarly easy questions. I think it is the same place
where the minister told his people, in a vivid description of the
Flood, that “the rain drops fell as large as a flour barrel.”
Our student teachers have generally accomplished excellent
work during vacation. Some of the least promising have shown
capabilities which surprised us.
We commence the year with hope as to the intellectual progress to
be attained, and trembling over the spiritual condition of the
school. Several of the active Christians, heretofore leaders,
do not return to us. Their influence is missed. The new element
is earnest and determined so far as lessons and deportment are
concerned, but indifferent towards higher interests. Yet, even as
I write, there is a gentle movement, as if the south wind were
blowing upon the garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.
* * * * *
TENNESSEE STATE TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE.
PROF. A. K. SPENCE, FISK UNIVERSITY.
I think it may be a matter of interest to you and the readers of
the MISSIONARY to know that, last winter, an organization was
formed here called the State Teachers’ Institute. Its object is the
promotion of education, and especially that of the colored people
in Tennessee and adjoining territory. It embraces in its membership
all those engaged in the work of colored education who may choose
to join it. It unites all the forces so engaged in a general
educational effort for lifting up the common schools, by improving
those who teach them. It operates in accordance with the views of
the State Superintendent of Education, by whom it is endorsed and
to whom it reports.
The plan was first proposed by this institution, and the Methodist
and Baptist institutions located here heartily responded. It thus
forms a bond of union and a way of co-operation long felt to be
desirable on the part of schools of learning occupying the same
ground. It also unites these with the public schools, and combines
all educational forces in the work among the freedmen.
During the summer, sixteen local institutes were held in Tennessee
and North Alabama, with a total attendance of five hundred
teachers. These institutes continued two or three days each and
varied in attendance from fifteen to seventy-five each day. Two
sessions were held in the day time, and one at night. The day
sessions were for the professional instruction of teachers of
schools. This was done by lectures, class drills and the like,
adapting those exercises to circumstances and persons, aiming
always at practical benefit to the teachers present. The sessions
at night were made popular gatherings in the interest of education
and sought to reach the masses. Men of influence, both white and
colored, in the various localities, were invited to make addresses.
Good music was provided when it was possible. One speaker called it
_an educational revival_. This is what we sought to make it. This
is what I think it was.
As you may suppose, there were many obstacles in the way of this
good work—ignorance as to what an institute is, prejudice of
white and colored, the sickly season of the year and the previous
exhaustion of those who gave instruction. These were men who, in
ordinary circumstances, should have been resting after the toils of
the last school year in preparation for those of the year to come.
All sorts of misconception must be met. Frequently the lecturers
arrived at the place, and found almost no one there. Yet by singing
and speaking and work generally, success would come at last, but
with an immense outlay of effort.
In other cases the house would be packed with people, but scarcely
a teacher there. They came on horseback and muleback and in wagons
and on foot, bringing their children and dinners with them, to stay
all day. The infants were passed from one to another as nurses grew
tired, or were quietly palleted on the floor or toddled about among
the feet of the people.
What should be done with an institute like that? Turn the people
away? By no means. The teachers present were taught how to teach
by seeing these people taught the alphabet, and how to count and
the like. One thing never failed—rote singing. Oh, what a wealth
of music in voice and ear lies in this people! And it was a study
for an artist to see those earnest dark faces, with their great,
dreamy eyes, as they peered in at the portals of the temple of
knowledge so long closed against them, and just got a glimpse of
the glory beyond, and knew, if they themselves could not enter,
their children might. Many a parent vowed then that his child
should go to Fisk University or Central Tennessee College, or the
Baptist Institute, as the crowded halls of these institutions,
filled almost to bursting, now testify. I think that some of these
strange, nondescript institutes were, perhaps, our best.
One case of zeal I may not omit. A man came seventeen miles across
the country, staid the first day, and at the close of the night
session, about eleven o’clock, started for home, woke up his
friends and neighbors, and was back with them by nine the next
morning. And, oh, the hand-shakings, and the God-bless-yous! Who
would not be willing to re-enlist in so good a work?
But it was hard work. Night sessions could not begin till nine,
or later, as the people could not be got together sooner, and so
we were up till eleven or twelve. Add to this the thermometer in
the nineties and up to a hundred, small rooms, impure air and many
other things, and no wonder if nearly every one of the workers
suffered.
As to actual expenses for travel, &c., we expect to get them from
the Peabody Fund. They were only between two and three hundred
dollars. We were, for the most part, kept free of expense,
sometimes at hotels and sometimes in families, white or colored.
This we left for the colored people of the place to decide. They
generally thought it best for the cause that we stop with white
people. We made some friends in that way whom it is pleasant to
have.
We let politics alone, but kept ourselves to education; still,
being Christian educators, we often preached Jesus. In one case a
revival meeting was resumed each day at the close of the institute.
I have written thus minutely, thinking that our experience may
lead A. M. A. workers to go and do likewise in other States. Great
masses of our school teachers can never come to us. We must go to
them.
But, dear Secretary, do not work us so hard in our schools that
there will be nothing of us left for this or any other of the many
things we see to do about us, that need so much to be done.
* * * * *
TWO SIMPLE RULES.
We welcome with peculiar pleasure the volume just issued by
our old friend and co-laborer, Rev. J. P. Thompson, D.D., the
former pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle. It consists of six
lectures delivered in the leading cities of the continent during
the Centennial year. It is entitled “The United States as a
Nation.” Among many valuable things which it contains, we select
the following extract, giving from this life-long friend of the
colored race his counsel as to their treatment by the government
and their treatment of themselves:
“1. Let the general government refrain from all further legislation
or interference on behalf of the negro as such. If riots arise that
the State authorities cannot quell, the National Government, duly
invoked, should interfere, to preserve the public peace; and also,
if necessary, it should use the arm of power to sustain the courts
in putting down injustice, outrage and wrong, by the arm of the
law. But all this without making a point of caring for the negro in
distinction from any other man; for the best way of caring for the
negro is to cease to know him as a negro, and to treat him always
and only as a man. Above all, should the government refrain from
legislating upon social customs, instincts and prejudices. A legal
injustice can be done away by law; a moral wrong, in the form of
overt action, can be dealt with by law; but a taste, a sentiment,
a feeling, an instinct, a prejudice—these pass the bounds of all
legislation; and the attempt to rectify or regulate these by law
serves only to irritate opposition. At these points human nature
has much in common with the porcupine.
“2. The black race should be taught that they are to depend upon
themselves. Having freedom, schools, the rights of citizens
guaranteed by law, and the inducement to self-culture presented
by opportunities of political action, they should be made to feel
that their future is in their own hands; that, if they would rise
to a position of respect and of responsibility as men, they must
show themselves to be men. There is no other way for any race. If
they cannot do this, they must go under. If they will not do this,
they ought to go under. But no one who knows the negro race in
America can doubt, that with time on their side, and patience and
justice toward them on the part of others, they will rise to the
full measure of their opportunities, and, with their capacity for
work, their docility, their kindliness, their adaptivity, their
mirthfulness, their religious faith, will form as good a part as
any in the social system of the future. Time, patience, justice,
will cause the friction of races to disappear in the working of the
American system of harmonized humanity.”
* * * * *
EXTRACTS FROM DR. PATTON’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
As “there is no royal road to learning” to suit dullards of kingly
birth, so no peculiar and accommodating pathway to wealth and
power, to civilization and culture, opens before those of African
descent. Their own expectations, and the efforts of those who would
assist them, must be based simply on their manhood. It is only as
this shall be developed and brought to bear upon life’s duties
and opportunities, that progress can be made in outward condition
and in the estimation of mankind. There are no sudden results
to be secured by artificial means. Neither special legislation,
nor military protection, nor favor extended by those in power,
nor the peculiar regard and effort of philanthropists, will, of
themselves, avail to procure the abolition of caste-feeling, and
the elevation of the colored people to an entire equality with the
whites. The effects of ages of slavery are not to be removed in a
day, by a mere legislative vote. An amendment to the Constitution
alters no fact of ignorance, of poverty, of moral debasement.
The prejudices of the whites, descending through generations,
imbibed by individuals in infancy, and strengthened by universal
sentiment, practice, and association of ideas, cannot be easily
and soon overcome, and are not, so far as feeling is concerned,
wholly within the power of volition, so as to be annihilated at
will. They will vanish gradually in the presence of increasing
evidence of a noble manhood. Developed intellectual power, the
higher education, success in industrial pursuits, the acquirement
of wealth and culture and character, will cause them to disappear
as the sun does the heavy, chilly, obscuring mists which night
generates in the valleys. When I deposit a gold coin on the table,
it commands a certain degree of respect. No one is obliged to argue
in its behalf. It speaks for itself. Having intrinsic value and
the added stamp of the national mint, it represents so many grains
of precious metal and their equivalent in whatever money will buy.
Hence everybody welcomes it, and looks upon it with regard. Will
the result not be analogous, when the colored man shall be seen to
have an intrinsic value equal to that of the white man? When one
shall no longer associate with him the ideas of bondage, pauperism,
and barbarism, but those of freedom, prosperity, intelligence, and
culture; when he shall not only carry in his person the stamp of
American citizenship, but shall come out from a university training
a scholar and a gentleman, like a glittering coin from the die?
* * * * *
Every case which is at all parallel, confirms the validity of our
reasoning. The classical scholar will, perhaps, remember that
Cicero, in writing to one of his friends, advises him, when he
has occasion to purchase a slave, not to buy one of those stupid
Britons. Doubtless, after the Roman wars in Britain, thousands of
captives had been sent to Italy and exposed for sale, according
to ancient custom; and those who bought them had learned that
they were intellectually inferior to slaves obtained from other
sources. Why does a Briton no longer bear such a reputation?
Because generations of favorable influences have brought him out of
the barbaric condition in which he then was, and have educated him
into the representative of civilization.
* * * * *
There can be no reasonable doubt that educational forces, rightly
brought to bear upon the colored people, will in time work a change
in the matter of prejudice; which is only partially an incident
of difference of feature and complexion, and is principally a
manifestation of caste-pride.
* * * * *
The only certain corrective for this evil is general and
special education, which shall raise the average intelligence
of the masses, so as to make them more capable and independent
in their judgments of men and measures, and which shall also
provide appropriate leaders, worthy of their confidence, from
among themselves. These leaders must be such as naturally come
to the front in organized and cultivated society—the men in
all professions and pursuits who to native talent add superior
education. There must be a speedy addition of cultivated mind to
the colored population if it is to be saved from follies which will
be fatal. That grade of mind must operate not only directly and
purposely through public addresses and by the press, but in all
those quiet, incidental, and unconscious ways of daily and hourly
intercourse, which are equally, or even more, effective. Hence we
must have colored lawyers, physicians, editors, authors, clergymen,
artists, statesmen, and teachers, whose attainments shall be equal
to those of white men in similar occupations, and whose expressed
opinions shall have just weight with their race, on the various
mooted questions which may arise in Church and State.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
FORT BERTHOLD, DAKOTA TERRITORY.
A Discouraging First View. School Teaching and Brick Making.
Increasing Hope.
E. H. ALDEN, INDIAN AGENT.
My work here since January has been incessant, and unprecedented
in trial and difficulty in all my experience. I can labor on the
wild frontier of Minnesota, organize Sunday-schools and churches,
and labor with my own hands in the erection of meeting houses,
with the mercury more than 30° below zero. But harder still it
is to have the burden of care for 1,200 savages, bowed down by
superstition and sin, through whom the rough ploughshare of the
most degraded and vile white civilization has been driven for the
last fifty years. With the prejudice of Indians against all agents
to overcome, the strife arising from the desire to _make money_, in
conflict with the desire to promote the highest and best welfare
of the Indian, in our very midst, the underground whiskey traffic,
with the vilest of all whites to encounter—these were barriers
requiring time and pluck to overcome. Added to this, the red-tape
of the department, making one always feel the force of the Latin
words—“_Incidet in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim._”
The time for forwarding my report for your anniversary came when
this deep, dark gulf of difficulty first opened to my view, and the
letter that I then wrote, but did not send, had scarcely a gleam of
hope for these savages. I am glad it was not sent. Since then, I
have been laboring to overcome the difficulties, and I believe it
is possible to do what I then thought was impossible. I have just
come in from visiting our school of 40 Indian boys and girls, in
the new schoolhouse we have built this summer. It was a pleasant
sight. Miss Briggs has care of the Arickarees, and Miss Calhoun,
Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., has care of the Grosventres and
Mandans, both excellent Christian young ladies, who guarantee
success. Not far away is a new building for Indian supplies,
120×20; and at the new agency a barn 400×22, just completed. And
near by is a pile of superior brick, which the Indians have aided
in manufacturing, in the face of obstacles to overcome in the clay,
probably unprecedented in the history of brick making.
While I am writing, “Son of the Star,” chief of the Arickarees, an
intelligent, sensible man, comes in and gives me the shake of his
friendly hand—one of the great majority of all the tribes who now
look up to me with confidence as their friend and “chief.” All this
assures me that the Indian can be civilized and Christianized.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L.
Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon.
F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S.
H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D.,
Jacob S. Taber, Esq.
DIRECTORS: Rev. George Moor, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. W. E.
Ijams, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, E. P. Sanford,
Esq., H. W. Severance, Esq.
SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.
* * * * *
THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.
REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.
By virtue of a tacit understanding, a place is given, year by year,
in the course of the meetings of our General Association, for the
Anniversary of “The California Chinese Mission.” This meeting was
accordingly held this year at Sacramento, October 12th. It shared
with the American Home Missionary Society the evening service. A
large congregation was present. Rev. J. K. McLean, D.D., president
of the mission, occupied the chair, and conducted the devotional
exercises. The reports of the Treasurer and of the Directors, (some
of the main points of which may be found in the Annual Report of
the A. M. A.), were read by the Secretary, and stirring addresses
were made by our helper, Mr. Fung Affoo, and by Rev. Joseph Lanman,
of Woodland, and Rev. Martin Post, of Stockton. A very satisfactory
token of the interest of the meeting appeared in the goodly number
and generous amount of the offerings received.
THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION ON THE CHINESE QUESTION.
The action of our General Association on the Chinese question has
excited attention and surprise among our Eastern friends. I am not
prepared to defend it, and do not believe that it is defensible.
Yet it was not so bad as to the spirit that prompted it, nor so
bad in itself as to our Eastern friends it will naturally seem
to be. The mistake was in meddling with a question on which we
could scarcely speak at all without being misunderstood. The
resolutions adopted were three: the first, in emphatic terms,
rebuked lawlessness and riot; the second, in terms equally
emphatic, endorsed the missionary work among the Chinese; the third
set forth the perils attending Chinese immigration, and urged some
modification of the Burlingame treaty and the adoption of any other
just measures which may restrict this immigration. The fault and
the danger is, not so much in what was really said, as in what will
naturally and easily be inferred. For the first two resolutions
will be taken as practically meaningless;—designed simply to
smooth the way for the last: while the last will be interpreted as
a surrender on the part of Christian people to the hoodlum element;
a cowardly backsliding of Congregationalists in California from
the position as up-holders of the liberties and rights of men,
which our churches here and elsewhere held so bravely in the years
gone by. The following extracts from a paragraph in the _Pacific_,
truthfully represents, as I believe, the real sentiments of the
Association: