VOL. XXXIII. No. 11.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
NOVEMBER, 1879.
_CONTENTS:_
EDITORIAL.
OUR ANNUAL MEETING 321
DEATH OF REV. WM. PATTON, D. D. 321
PARAGRAPHS 322
NO DEBT—NO DEFICIT 323
MISSIONARY MASS CONVENTIONS—OUR NEW
MEN 324
THE MENDI MISSION 325
THE ARTHINGTON MISSION 326
SELF-PROTECTION: Extract from address of
REV. ALBERT H. HEATH 326
SUNDAY-SCHOOL LETTERS 329
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 329
GENERAL NOTES 331
THE FREEDMEN.
PART OF A TOUR THROUGH THE CAROLINAS 334
CONTRASTS 335
GEORGIA, ATLANTA: Economical Industrial
Department 337
GEORGIA, SAVANNAH: Revival—Work and Results 338
ALABAMA, FLORENCE: New Church Building 339
ALABAMA, TALLADEGA: Protracted Meetings 339
AFRICA.
MENDI MISSION—Annual Meeting of the Missionaries 339
THE INDIANS.
A TOUR AMONG THE CLALLAM INDIANS 342
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
CABIN PRAYER-MEETINGS—Which was the
Hero? 344
RECEIPTS 346
CONSTITUTION 349
WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. 350
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.
_American Missionary Association_,
56 READE STREET. N. Y.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ct.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
H. W. HUBBARD. ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
EDWARD BEECHER,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
E. A. GRAVES,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAM’L HOLMES,
S. S. JOCELYN,
ANDREW LESTER,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either
of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the “American
Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 56 Reade Street,
New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices,
21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each
letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which
it is located.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXIII. NOVEMBER, 1879. No. 11.
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_American Missionary Association._
* * * * *
OUR ANNUAL MEETING.
The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
will be held in the First Congregational Church (Rev. Dr. Goodwin’s),
Chicago, Illinois, commencing October 28th, at 3 p. m. The Annual
Sermon will be preached by Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, N.
Y., service commencing at half-past seven in the evening. A paper on
the Chinese question will be presented by Rev. J. H. Twichell, of
Hartford, Connecticut; one on the Necessity of the Protection of Law
for the Indians, by Gen. J. B. Leake, United States District Attorney,
Chicago, Illinois; one on the Providential Significance of the Negro in
America, by Pres. E. H. Merrell, of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin.
Addresses may be expected from Rev. Drs. Goodell, Roy, Corwin, Dana,
Ellsworth and other able speakers on timely and important topics. For
reductions in Railroad fares and other important items, see fourth page
of cover.
* * * * *
We are called to record the death of another venerable friend of the
Association, Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D., who died suddenly at his home in
New Haven, only a few days after his return from a trip to Europe, on
Saturday, the 6th of September. He had been a Vice-President of the
Association for fifteen years, and always a warm and generous friend
of the colored people. He was the father of President Patton of Howard
University.
Educated at Middlebury College and at Princeton Seminary, he was the
first pastor of the Broome Street, now the Madison Square Presbyterian
Church, in New York. Since 1862 he has resided in New Haven, Conn. He
has labored much and written much, and died at the good old age of 81,
beloved and honored. He remembered the Association in his will with a
bequest of $500.
* * * * *
In our issue of last month, the article “North and South” stated
that we have a common interest in the glory of our Revolution. This
assertion finds confirmation in the fact that a Southern _Centennial_
is now under process of arrangement. It is to occur on the 7th of
October, 1880, at King’s Mountain, North Carolina, to commemorate
the battle that was fought at that place Oct. 7, 1780. In July a
meeting was held at that same mountain to make preparation. The States
of Georgia and of North and South Carolina were represented. Three
thousand people were present. Patriotic speeches were made. In these,
and in the several resolutions adopted, as reported in the _Atlanta
Constitution_, not one word was used in reflection upon the American
Union. All the other States were invited to participate. Besides the
States represented, those of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and
Tennessee were to be memorialized, through their Legislatures, to make
such appropriations as would be necessary to the proper consummation
of the celebration. The ladies of those several States were invited to
co-operate. The committee of arrangements were to secure a collection
of the historic relics of the battle ground and to apply for troops to
illustrate the plan of the battle.
* * * * *
Secretary Powell has recently made an earnest plea in the _Advance_
for printing-presses, greatly needed at Fisk, Straight and Tougaloo
Universities. He says: “About $1,000 are needed for each press, with
its accompaniments of type, rules and leads. But there is a firm in
this city that for presses going into this work will discount fifty per
cent. Only five hundred dollars, therefore, are needed for each press
and accompaniments. And in what direction could five hundred dollars be
better used for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom and the safety of
the land?”
* * * * *
Incidental testimony from pure sources of high authority to the
value of a work is often more gratifying to those engaged in it than
purposed compliments. A recognition of its value before an outside
audience is also of special importance. We are glad, therefore, to
call attention to the fact that Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, in his
recent political address at Worcester, referring to the interest of the
Northern people in everything that would promote the true interests of
the South, speaks of Captain Eads’ jetties, “making one long harbor of
the Southern Mississippi,” as a great boon to its material prosperity,
and points to “the magnificent work of the American Missionary
Association” as in a higher sphere a source of sincere rejoicing to all
good men of the North.
We notice, also, in the report of the Peabody Educational Fund, the
following reference to our work: “Much good has been accomplished
for the colored schools by the universities and other endowed
institutions with normal departments maintained by different Christian
denominations. One association has already sent out from its numerous
institutions 5,267 teachers, by whom about 100,000 pupils have
been instructed. A large proportion of the graduates of all these
institutions become teachers.”
The following tribute to the Hampton Normal Institute is also paid
by the Superintendent of Public Schools in South Carolina: “The
agent of the Peabody Fund has placed at my disposal ten fifty-dollar
scholarships in the Normal and Agricultural Institute, at Hampton, Va.
A visit to the Institute, and observation of the manner in which it is
conducted, convince me that it is doing exactly what it professes to
do.”
Whether our work needs testimonials to its value or not, we are always
glad to find such as these, which were not intended either for the ears
of our teachers or officers, or even constituency. If we needed to be
assured at all, such witnesses would give us deeper confidence than
ever in its real need and real efficiency.
* * * * *
Dr. O. H. White, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society,
writes from London:
The recent death of Dr. Mullens and four others connected with the
effort of the London Missionary Society to reach Central Africa, has
turned the thought of this people to our plans and work for Africa as
never before. They begin to believe that, as Dr. Moffat said, “Africans
must go to teach and save Africans; it is the Divine plan.” And the
more I speak upon this idea, and the more I see of the people, the more
I am persuaded that this view will prevail in the future, and we shall
have all we can do to furnish the colored missionaries for all the
missionary societies of Europe working in Africa.
If our colored missionaries show to the world that they can live in
Africa and can manage the affairs of a mission as well as white men,
then the demand for them by the missionary societies of this country
will be large enough for all we can supply from America in many years.
And the ministers here tell me that if my mission to the country should
result in nothing else, it will more than pay for all the time, work
and expense which I am giving to this effort.
Were it not for the earnest commendation of many of the most prominent
ministers and laymen in England and Scotland of my sermons and
addresses on the subject of the evangelization of Africa by the
Freedmen, I should give up at once in these hard times of dreadful
depression in business; but the Lord has evidently given me the ear and
the heart of the people with reference to the future redemption of that
vast continent of Africa by the emancipated slaves.
* * * * *
NO DEBT—NO DEFICIT.
From time to time during the year our readers have been told the
condition of our treasury. Occasionally it has been only a place to put
money in, a great vacuity. It has been with us a year of anxiety and
frequent change, of falling and of rising tides. And now we have just
closed the books which contain the record of another financial period.
And by the arrival of the date which this number of the MISSIONARY
bears, and which we have to anticipate for printing and mailing to our
remotest subscribers, we shall have made its full statement to the
annual meeting.
It is with profound gratitude to Almighty God, and with renewed
confidence in Him and in His people, that we write its record.
_First._ We have fully met all the expenses of the year from the year’s
income. We have kept in active operation all our institutions and
churches. No one has been suspended or stopped for lack of funds. We do
not by any means intend to say that all have been fully equipped and
carried on to the best advantage, for we have not dared by any means
to do with them all that could have been done. They have all been run
in the most economical manner consistent with the accomplishment of
their main intent. The salaries have been small, the services have been
great, the self-denials have been many, of our pastors and teachers;
still, in the year, which only at its close has begun to show signs of
returning commercial prosperity, we are glad to record an undiminished
work all paid for.
_Secondly._ We have fully paid the debt. The $37,389.79 of indebtedness
reported at the last annual meeting has absolutely disappeared. Every
cent of it has been paid, to the last of the seventy-nine. The great
work undertaken three years ago is finished, and we are free. We have
been for a long time like Lot’s wife, looking back and fearing lest
perchance the past might overwhelm us; but God has only rained down
riches out of Heaven and buried our burden beneath His gracious gifts;
and we are free now to look and to press forward.
But such a statement brings a weight of grave responsibility. We say
of the treasury of the Association gladly and gratefully, No debt—no
deficit. But we must remember, in all humility, we do ever owe the debt
to love our fellow-men and show it by our works of Christian charity,
and our deficit is what we have been lacking in filling up the full
measure of our opportunity for serving Christ in the person of His poor.
* * * * *
MISSIONARY MASS CONVENTIONS.
At the late State Conference of Ohio, a Committee on Missions was
appointed, of which Prof. Judson Smith, D. D., is chairman, and Rev.
C. C. Creegan, of Wakeman, secretary. It is proposed to hold a series
of mass conventions, at central points, and every member of every
Congregational church in the State will be invited to attend at least
one of these meetings. Rev. James Powell will represent the A. M. A.
The following schedule has been prepared:
Marietta, Oct. 31st,
Cincinnati, Nov. 4th,
Mansfield, Nov. 5th,
Toledo, Nov. 6th,
Wauseon, Nov. 7th,
Sandusky, Nov. 8th,
Norwalk, Nov. 10th,
Wakeman, Nov. 11th,
Elyria, Nov. 12th,
Wellington, Nov. 13th,
Medina, Nov. 14th,
Cleveland, Nov. 15th,
Burton, Nov. 18th,
Painesville, Nov. 19th,
Ashtabula, Nov. 20th,
Jefferson, Nov. 21st,
N. Bloomfield, Nov. 22d,
Youngstown (Welsh Conference), Nov. 23d,
Windham, Nov. 24th,
Ravenna, Nov. 25th,
Mt. Vernon, Nov. 28th,
Newark (Welsh Conference), Nov. 29th,
Columbus, Nov. 30th.
* * * * *
OUR NEW MEN.
We are delighted with our new men. Scarcely ever in the history of the
Association have we had so large a number of recruits for important
places in our service, of such proved quality, and more and more we
find ourselves able to retain the services of our best men, who have
served the cause of education and religion with us in years past. It is
to us a gratifying indication of the growing sense among our Christian
ministers and teachers of the importance and dignity of the work, and
of their appreciation of it, as founded and established beyond all
question, and for all time (as we measure things), that such men are
willing to commit themselves to it, and to remain in it year after year.
We accept the congratulations of _The Congregationalist_ as expressed
in the following paragraph:
The Association is to be congratulated upon new accessories to its
working force. Rev. Henry S. DeForest of Iowa has accepted the
Presidency of Talladega College, and is already upon the ground. Rev.
S. D. Gaylord, a highly commended schoolman of the West, has taken the
principalship of the Avery Institute at Charleston, S. C. The late
principal, Prof. A. W. Farnham, is proposed as an occupant of a chair
in one of the colleges of the A. M. A.; Rev. C. W. Hawley, pastor of
the Second Church at Amherst, Mass., is to enter upon the pastorate of
the First Congregational Church of Atlanta, which was resigned by Rev.
S. S. Ashley, that he might take a season of respite after his fourteen
years of invaluable Southern service. Rev. O. W. Fay accepts the call
to the pastoral charge in Montgomery, Ala.; Rev. O. D. Crawford of
West Bloomfield, N. Y., goes down to serve as pastor of the church
and superintendent of the Emerson Institute at Mobile; Prof. J. K.
Cole is transferred from New Orleans to the principalship of the Beach
Institute at Savannah, Ga.; while Prof. McPherron is promoted to be
Principal of the Normal Department of Straight University.
* * * * *
THE MENDI MISSION.
We call attention to the summary on another page of the Second Annual
Meeting of our Missionaries on the West Coast of Africa. There seems to
have been in it a careful review of the work of the year and a study of
the means at hand for carrying it in the future, and a reasonable view
of its needs and possibilities.
It will be seen that the report of church and evangelizing work
indicates not only earnest effort but substantial results. The
missionaries are planning—and the plan has resulted from their own
experience and observation—a more free use of native helpers as it
shall become possible. All Missions have come or are coming to this. It
needs but a simple knowledge of the love of God and the redemption of
the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, to fit a man to go home and tell
his neighbors the good news which has come to him. That is the work
of evangelization. And if these native Christians, carrying to their
own people only that portion of the Gospel which they have known and
certified by their experience, can come into frequent contact with the
missionaries educated and established in the faith, they will be kept
from wandering off into error, and grow in grace and knowledge by using
the grace and knowledge they have already received and acquired.
The missionaries have, to some extent, upon the basis of the year’s
experience, re-arranged themselves so that they think (and we agree
with them) that they can work to better advantage than the past year.
One of the schools, that at Good Hope, seems to have been very
successful and to have reached a large number of native children. The
other, at Avery, has been more confined to the training of children,
who are taken into the home to be under continuous influence, in the
hope that by industrial and religious, as well as mental training, they
may in time be fitted to be important helpers in the work.
Mr. Anthony, who joined the Mission in March last, to take especial
charge of the mill and other industrial work at Avery, has already
proved to be a valuable addition to the band. And the Committee have
just commissioned and sent out another recruit to strengthen the hands,
we trust, of those already in the field. His name is Nathaniel Nurse.
He was born in the island of Barbadoes, West Indies; immigrated to
Liberia, Africa, where he spent five years; came to the United States;
spent nearly two years in the cities of New York and Boston; was
converted to Christ in the latter city nine years ago. He returned to
Barbadoes, visiting also various other West Indian islands. In 1875 he
went to England, visiting Liverpool, and spending a year in London.
While in the latter city he was engaged in missionary work.
He was sent, about two years ago, by the Freedmen’s Missions Aid
Society, of London, assisted by Belmont Church, Aberdeen, Scotland,
and several individual Christians, to Fisk University, Nashville,
Tenn., where he has been studying with a view to devoting himself to
missionary work in Africa.
These young men are in a very trying position, and need the prayers of
all good people that they may have wisdom and grace and patience from
the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.
* * * * *
THE ARTHINGTON MISSION.
Let it not be thought by any of the friends of the Association, because
we have not had more to say in the MISSIONARY, that we have given up
the hope of yet being able to accept the noble offer of Mr. Robert
Arthington, and of establishing and sustaining the Mission proposed by
him. We have already fully and formally recognized the importance of
the work, the accessibility of the field and its peculiar claims upon
our body. Equatorial Africa is our sphere. It is in that that we have
labored for over thirty years, and to that that we desire to confine
ourselves. This Eastern Mission will be a proper balance and complement
to the Mendi Mission on the Western coast. But we have tried to make
haste slowly.
The condition precedent made by Mr. Arthington, that the debt of the
Association should be extinguished, is now fully and fairly met. That
is an obstacle out of the way. The only other condition is one on our
part of prudent anticipation. It will take a large amount—though it
has been more often over than underestimated—to provide the men and
the outfit and to put them on the ground. It will require at least an
amount annually equal to that we are expending on the Western Mission
to sustain this in the East. And the Executive Committee have thought
it wise to assure themselves of $50,000, which they would have in hand
to devote to this work as it might be required, before they should take
the first step towards beginning it.
There are several things within our horizon to-day which conspire to
give us hope of a speedy realization of this plan. Mr. Arthington’s
offer still holds good. There is $15,000 for the work to begin with.
Dr. O. H. White, the indefatigable Secretary of the Freedmen’s Missions
Aid Society in Great Britain, is enthusiastic on the subject of this
Mission, and reports to us that the interest of the English and Scotch
people in it is deep and deepening. Already he has secured considerable
sums to be devoted to this work. Recently he has written us asking for
a definite agreement on the part of the Association as to what it will
do in the way of providing from this country a portion of the fund
deemed necessary to the inception of the Mission, if he shall raise
from the mother country a second $15,000. The Committee has answered
him that they will agree to provide the $20,000 to make the needed
$50,000 for the start, and will then, “with the blessing of God and
the assistance of the friends of the African race in Great Britain and
America, perpetually maintain the Mission.”
The Committee felt free to make this pledge, in the present financial
condition of the Association, and especially as final receipts
from the Avery estate have recently come to hand, amounting to a
considerable part of this sum, and which are devoted by the donor to
the evangelization of the African race in Africa.
It is a great step for us to take; but we have felt that it would be
a great mistake, a great failure in duty, for us not to take it. God
bless Robert Arthington, of Leeds! God bless Dr. White in his efforts
to raise this second fund! God bless every man and woman on either side
the sea who shall join hands and put together their resources to carry
the light of the gospel of love and liberty into the thick darkness of
Eastern Equatorial Africa! Who will help us on this side the water?
* * * * *
SELF-PROTECTION.
[We extract from the valuable address given at the Boston
anniversary, by the Rev. Albert H. Heath, of New Bedford, Mass.,
his second division (all we can find room for), in which he
treats forcibly of one most important aspect of our home work.
In other portions of the address he spoke at length of our
special obligations to these people and of the work in the light
of a genuine Christian philanthropy. We commend these strong
words to careful reading and thought.]
Self-protection is to be taken into consideration in this work. What
effect, we may well inquire, is it going to have upon the beloved
institutions of our land if these races are not Christianly educated?
It is possible that many will feel that the Indian, whatever our
treatment of him, can never offer any serious menace to our civil life;
we may safely let him go, as his fathers have gone before him, marching
before our fixed bayonets toward the setting sun. And if this military
policy is to prevail, we shall all be glad when he has made his last
trail across the plain and echoed his last shrill war-whoop amid the
mountains’ fastnesses. But, after all, friends, it may be there is a
God in Heaven who will remember and avenge the red man’s wrong. “They
that take the sword shall perish with the sword,” is not alone to
be found in Scripture. It is written in our constitutions; it is a
fundamental law of our being; and history bears abundant testimony that
it is no dead letter. We ought to remember this law as we press the
Indian from his God-given right. It may be that we, the children of the
Pilgrims, may yet find ourselves driven from our Eastern homes and the
institutions which the century has helped us to build, while the red
hand of Nihilism holds sway over the graves of our fathers, and crowds
us, as we are to-day crowding the Indian, into the track of the setting
sun.
But whatever may be the result of our treatment of the Indian, there
can be no doubt what will be the effect if the Negro and the Chinaman
are left uneducated and unchristianized. Already do we feel the hand
of the black man in our politics; our ears have distinctly heard the
low rumbling, and we have felt the shudder beneath our feet which
betokens an eruption. Before we know it Vesuvius may be belching forth
its fiery flood, darkening the sky and spreading far and wide its river
of death. Nor will the exodus greatly change the matter. The demagogue
and the office-seeker are a genus that thrives in all climes. They
may be more poisonous at the South, as most reptiles are that breed
under a tropical sun; but the frosts of the North do not kill them any
more than they kill the larvæ of the insects which every April sun
hatches into life. It only needs the warmth of an election to quicken
them and bring them in buzzing swarms around your ears. There will be
corrupt politicians in Kansas who will rob them of their political
rights as readily as those in the South. It matters little where they
dwell; even in New York or Boston they would find themselves still
in the reign of demoniacal possession. While they remain an ignorant
class they will be a dangerous class. To be shot and intimidated may
not be, after all, their worst political fate; to be corrupted with
bribery would be equally bad. The electioneering purse, in the hand of
the Northern office-seeker, might prove as potent in robbing them of
their rights as the pistol which Southern chivalry may point at their
devoted heads. Let us not, therefore, cheer ourselves, nor encourage
these, our colored friends, that there is any holy land in these United
States to which they may go in solemn exodus and be safe. Wherever they
may be, ignorance is their greatest curse; nothing but education and
Christianization will dispel this shadow that is darkening their lives,
and lift this yoke of bondage that is now galling their necks, and in
no other way can they be converted into useful citizens. They are an
element of danger to the Republic, until, like our Northern children,
they grow up under the shadow of the school-house. It is possible that
all are not aware how great is the weight of this ignorance, which is
like loose ballast in the ship of State, ready at any sudden lurch to
change sides and carry us to the bottom. We and our legislators have
been most thoughtless in our treatment of this question. In a single
day, by legislative enactment, we put the ballot into the hand of a
million men, not one of whom knew a letter of the alphabet. A more
suicidal blow has seldom been aimed at the heart of this Republic. We
have given, almost indiscriminately, the right of suffrage to these
Southern States, and yet in sixteen of them seventy-five out of every
hundred of the population, according to the census of 1870, are growing
up entirely without school advantages. At the present moment a majority
of the voters in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South
Carolina are without the ability either to read or write. In either
of these States, or in all of them, any election can be carried by
sheer weight of ignorance. Seventeen hundred thousand men, according
to a statistical report which has been put into my hands, at the last
national election cast the ballot which they could neither read nor
write. No wonder we were plunged into confusion. Had not a kindly
Providence been on our side we should have been plunged into anarchy.
And this scene waits to repeat itself in 1880. The next President of
these States will be elected to his high position by sheer force of
ignorance—ignorance manipulated and controlled by men whose hearts are
as black with treason to-day as they were in ’61. No thoughtful man can
look upon these facts and not tremble for the safety of his country.
So, also, is the ignorant and unchristianized Chinaman making himself
felt in our politics. He casts no ballot, he holds no office. He
does not come to the polls to drink and smoke and sell himself to
the highest bidder on election day; and yet his political influence
already is as wide as the continent; his unwelcome ghost stalks through
the halls of Congress, and broods over every political or religious
convention that is holden between the two oceans. Already have we
seen one sovereign State changing the terms of its constitution and
revolutionizing its laws out of pure regard for the Chinaman. And,
still more significant, we have seen our great National Congress
voting to change the very genius of the Government, and to shut the
doors that have for a hundred years stood open, and which we mean
shall not be closed for a hundred years to come; and we will write
over these open doors in letters of fire, so that the most distant
islands of the sea may read: “This is the world’s asylum, free to the
oppressed of all nations.” Now, I doubt not there are evils connected
with the coming of the heathen Chinaman. There is oppression and
sorrow brought home to many hearts. I feel that there must be more
or less of pollution in his touch. I pity the State into which this
old world sewerage empties itself. But the remedy is not in building
walls, though they be heaven-high, on our Chinaward side. This evil
can be handled and neutralized only by the Christian virtue that is in
us. Can we convert this heathen material—permeate it with Christian
thought? Can we assimilate it and weave it into the civil fabric we are
making? If so, it will do us no harm; otherwise it will rankle like
poison in our blood, and possibly work our destruction in the end. This
question should not be settled in the political arena. It is a moral, a
religious question. The forces that are needed now are those that lie
in the hand of the Christian church. We must permeate this festering
mass with the leaven of Christ, and we must do it speedily. The evil
is growing. Politicians are beginning to treat it, and therefore it is
rapidly growing worse. It cannot be cured by legislative enactment.
Legislation knows of no instrumentality, save that the civil statute
ultimately seeks support in the bayonet. Before we know it, this
question may be baptized in blood. Those western shores are far away.
The Rocky Mountain wall lifts up a tremendous barrier to separate us
and make us twain; only one little thread of iron binds us together
and makes us one. Let us not wait until the whole Pacific slope
bristles with rebellion as the South did in ’61; but let us pour the
strains of our Christian influence over the mountains. If we can
Christianize this heathen mass, then the trouble is over, the danger
passed. Self-protection, then, affords a most powerful motive in the
prosecution of this work.
ALBERT H. HEATH.
* * * * *
SUNDAY-SCHOOL LETTERS.
The interest of the Sunday-schools in our Southern work has been
increasing during the past year. The concert exercise has taken well,
and many schools have sent us their first contributions.
How many of the schools connected with our churches understand clearly
our offer in regard to correspondence from the field, we do not know.
It is this: any Sunday-school which contributes ten dollars or more
annually to the work of the A. M. A., if they request it, is entitled
to a quarterly letter from one of our missionaries.
The “Children’s Page” of this number of the MISSIONARY contains such a
letter. It is bright and interesting to both teachers and scholars. The
following letter from a superintendent tells of the interest excited by
such letters in his school.
Besides the good done by the money given, is it not well worth while to
train up our children to give, and to educate them in the missionary
spirit? This letter is in response to a Sunday-school letter from Miss
Barr:
MISS L. E. B.
DEAR SISTER IN CHRIST: Your kind letter of the 11th inst. came to
hand by due course of mail, and your very valuable epistle to our
Sabbath-school, of the 2d, came last Saturday. Accept my sincere thanks
for the same, in behalf of the Sunday-school and myself. I think if
you could have seen the eager faces and deep interest manifested by
all while I read it to the school last Sabbath, you would be satisfied
that at least one missionary of the A. M. A. would be mentioned by our
praying ones in their petitions at the Throne of Grace for some time,
and that all of us have so much of a missionary spirit kindled in our
hearts, and so much interest awakened in you personally, that your next
letter will be looked for so eagerly that it will seem a good while to
wait. I think you must have a very earnest-working church in Atlanta,
and that the Master will bless them and you is my prayer. I have no
doubt but “Aunt Lucy” will have many prayers offered for a blessing
upon her.
I am glad to know that your present field of labor in the vineyard is
so pleasant; and that the Master will give you health and strength to
labor for Him in it, and that you may be the means in His hands of
gathering in many precious sheaves from it to the heavenly garners, is
the sincere prayer of
Your humble fellow-servant,
R. H.,
_Superintendent Congregational Sabbath-school_.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
ANNISTON, ALA.—Rev. P. J. McEntosh writes: “My field is increasing
in interest greatly. I have just closed a series of meetings in our
church. The Lord hath once more visited this part of His vineyard.
There have been twenty-two conversions in our meetings. Seventeen of
these have cast their lot among us—seven strong, settled men, four
settled wives, six promising young ladies. Others are still asking
what they must do to be saved, and if I can induce them to take Jesus
at His word and believe on Him, they too shall be saved. Pray for us,
that I may lead them on in the paths of peace, and that they may learn
from experience that ‘The path of the just is as a shining light, which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’”
TALLADEGA, ALA.—Our first word from the new President of the College,
Rev. H. S. DeForest: I came sound and dusty this p. m., having seen
many things of interest to me at Hampton and Atlanta. The first look
here more than meets my expectations. The buildings, grounds and
scenery are very pleasant, and the possibilities certainly are grand.
ATLANTA, GA.—The Fall term of the University opened October 1st. The
first week gives promise of a very full school. There are already
thirty girl boarders, and the indications are that their Hall will be
as badly crowded as last year. The reports of the Summer work of the
students, in all parts of the State, are very cheering. There is an
increasing desire for education. The white people are taking a deeper
and more kindly interest in the education of the colored children and
in the University.
Dr. Orr, State School Commissioner of Georgia, has, with the approval
of Dr. Sears, established fourteen Peabody scholarships, each paying
$72, in the Normal department of Atlanta University. The award is to be
determined by competitive examinations.
The Storrs School is running over full.
CYPRESS SLASH, GA.—Brother Snelson writes: Last Sunday, 14th, I spent
with Brother Headen at Cypress Slash. Gave the communion there, and
received three new members. They have made a pretty good pole-house,
about 28×20 feet, in which they hold school and meeting.
FLATONIA, TEXAS.—We are holding a protracted meeting, and last Sunday
was our communion. There seems to be more interest in the church, and
the prospect is fair for doing good. Last night seventeen persons rose
for prayer. Brother Church has been here since last Thursday, and will
remain a few days longer.
AUSTIN, TEXAS.—Mr. A. J. Turner writes: I was in Austin last week and
visited Mrs. Garland’s school. She had just returned from the North and
started her school. She has a full Sabbath-school. I visited with her
the site of the new building, the walls of which are rising. It will be
a beautiful place. I rejoice that Northern people are doing so much for
our people.
GOLIAD, TEXAS.—“There is an increasing desire among our people to carry
the Gospel beyond the bounds of our churches, and so far as it has
been done, our polity and purity have attracted favorable attention.
There is a growing dissatisfaction with the worship and moralities of
the older churches on the part of some of their members and others who
would join but for these. The young people, in their plays, imitate the
‘shouting’ to perfection. It is fine sport to them to see the church
members perform. They laugh at the claim of Divine help to do what they
can so easily do without that help. The young men, on this account,
are increasingly more difficult to reach with the Gospel. Education,
property and morality are cast aside as of little worth; stealing and
shooting among themselves are not uncommon. Only a pure Gospel can save
these young men from dissipation and crime; yet they see the grossest
immoralities in church members, and the wildest fanaticism in their
modes of worship. A wide door is open here for Christian workers, and
as promising as any other to those of great patience and self-denial.”
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—THE PEABODY EDUCATIONAL FUND—REPORTS OF THE GENERAL AGENT AND
THE TREASURER.—The annual meeting of the trustees of the Peabody
Educational Fund was held October 1st, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
The chairman addressed the meeting, and in the course of his remarks
mentioned with regret the shrinkage in the income from the investments,
and expressed the hope that from other sources the funds would be
rendered adequate to the work laid out.
The thirteenth annual report was presented by Dr. Sears, the general
agent. He said that the work had made satisfactory progress during the
past year. The difficulties arising from the poverty of the South, he
continued, are now increased by the pressure of the State debts. The
necessity of aid from the Federal Government is now greater than ever
before. The evils that are certain to grow out of popular ignorance,
if the public schools are suffered to languish, or if they reach only
a part of the population, will not be limited to the States where they
first appear, but will cast their blight over the whole country.
It might be thought best to limit the assistance to the colored
population, if any should be granted. By an act of the General
Government the right of suffrage has been extended to them. A large
proportion of them are confessedly unqualified for a judicious exercise
of this power. If the colored people are the “wards of the nation,” in
what way can the nation so well perform the duties of its trust as by
qualifying them for citizenship?
Of the two grand objects of this fund, the first, the promotion of
common school education, has been thoroughly established, and the chief
attention should be henceforth given to the second, the professional
training of teachers. In some of the States that stand most in need of
efficient normal schools, it would be impossible to provide at once the
requisite funds for their establishment.
Though there are very few normal schools of a high character besides
our own in the States with which we are concerned, there are several
of different grades of excellence, either maintained or aided by
public authority. Some of the former, and all of the latter, are for
colored teachers. Much good has been accomplished for the colored
schools by the universities and other endowed institutions with normal
departments, maintained by different Christian denominations. One
association has already sent out from its numerous institutions 5,267
teachers, by whom about 100,000 pupils have been instructed. A large
proportion of the graduates of all these institutions become teachers.
The report by States shows the following facts: In Virginia less than
half the children of the State attended the public schools last year.
In the colored schools there was a loss of 3,271, compared with the
year before. Over $250,000 of the school money has been diverted to
other purposes; but in the future three-fourths of the appropriation
are secure.
In North Carolina the attendance is less than one-half. Difficulty has
been found in this State to induce young men of character and talent to
prepare for the business of teaching, as the pay is uncertain and but
little more than the wages of a common laborer.
The school attendance in South Carolina has increased 13,843 during
the year. For several years the system of public instruction was in
a disordered condition; but, during the last year, a better state of
things has been manifest. But the want of normal schools and of more
funds is painfully felt. Such, at least, are the views of the State
Superintendent. In regard to scholarships he says: “The agent of the
Peabody Fund has placed at my disposal ten fifty-dollar scholarships
in the Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Va. A visit to
the Institute and observation of the manner in which it is conducted
convince me that it is doing exactly what it professes to do.” He
adds: “There are dangers before us which it will require the highest
patriotism and the wisest statesmanship to avoid. Nearly 57 per cent.
of the voting population of the State are unable to read the ballots
which they cast.”
In Georgia, notwithstanding the increase of nearly 40,000 in the school
population, the number of the illiterate is diminished 20,614. Great
encouragement is felt regarding the educational prospects in the State.
In Florida education is advancing rapidly. Two-fifths of the children
attend school, and there are applicants promised for all the Normal
College scholarships that can be allowed to that State.
Opposition to the public free school system is disappearing in
Mississippi, and a healthy condition is reported. A normal institute
has been established. One-third of the school population attend
in Louisiana. In the Colored Normal School we have had twenty
scholarships of $50 each. This arrangement is the result of an extended
correspondence with the State Superintendent.
In Tennessee, never since the first year of the present school system
has so much money been raised for its support; never has the school tax
been paid more cheerfully. Speaking of the use made of Mr. Peabody’s
gift, the Superintendent says: “The encouragement given by the wise
disposition of this fund has always proved an invaluable accessory in
the arduous work of organizing and sustaining the cause of popular
education in this State and in the South.”
The State Superintendent of West Virginia says of the aid received from
the Peabody Fund for the Normal Institutes: “It is of the highest value
to the cause of education, and contributes more, perhaps, in general
advantage than an equal expenditure in any other direction could do.”
The appropriations from the fund for the last year were: Virginia,
$9,850; North Carolina, $6,700; South Carolina, $4,250; Georgia,
$6,500; Florida, $3,000; Alabama, $3,600; Mississippi, $4,000;
Louisiana, $7,650; Texas, $7,700; Arkansas, $5,600; Tennessee, $12,000;
West Virginia, $4,000; total, $74,850.
The Treasurer’s report showed a balance of about $83,000 available
for expenditure during the coming year. In former years the income
has amounted at times to as much as $110,000, but there has been some
shrinkage since the 6 per cent. bonds, in which much of the fund was
invested, have been called in, the new investments being in 4 per cent.
bonds.
The officers of the Board, who have been continued from year to year,
are Robert Winthrop, Chairman; G. Peabody Russell, Secretary; Samuel
Wetmore, Treasurer; the Rev. Barnas Sears, General Agent.
* * * * *
The Indians.
—In the coming fall, twenty more girls will be added to the number
of Indian students at Hampton. Their due proportion is regarded as
essential to the success and value of the effort. When the Indian
prisoners from St. Augustine returned to the Territory, and their wives
and families turned out to welcome them home with rejoicing, the long
dreamed of meeting proved such a shock to the reconstructed braves that
some of them broke from the company and ran away to the woods, refusing
to have anything more to do with their affectionate but very dirty
squaws. The situation was humorous but tragic, and withal very natural.
How could they walk “the white man’s road” in such companionship? And
how could they walk it alone? The co-education of the Indian boys
and girls, with its lessons of mutual respect and helpfulness in
the class-rooms and work-rooms, is the hope, and the only hope, of
permanent Indian civilization.
—The Secretary of War has turned over to the Department of the Interior
the U. S. Army barracks at Carlisle, Penn., to be used for the purpose
of Indian education, under charge of Capt. R. H. Pratt, who has been
sent West to collect 100 Indian youths for his school, as well as
the girls for Hampton. Captain Pratt’s wise, Christian philanthropy
toward the Indian prisoners at St. Augustine was the origin of the
present movement for Indian education, and has demonstrated his eminent
qualifications for the work.
* * * * *
Africa.
—Mr. Mackay gives most interesting accounts of his intercourse with
Mtesa and his chiefs. Every Sunday, after Wilson left, he conducted
service at the palace for the king and chiefs, speaking in Suahili
without an interpreter, and Mtesa interpreting into the Uganda language
for the benefit of those who did not understand Suahili. On Christmas
day a special service was held, all the chiefs being in “extra dress,”
when Mackay explained the great event of the day. He regards Mtesa as
most intelligent, and quite inclined to listen to the word of God.
Gratifying instances are mentioned of the influence already exerted
upon him. Some Arab traders arrived to buy slaves, offering cloth in
exchange, and saying they had come from the Sultan of Zanzibar. Mackay
vigorously opposed them, informed the king of the Sultan’s decrees
against the slave traffic, and of the cruelties perpetrated upon its
victims. Then he gave a lecture on physiology, and asked why such an
organism as a human body, which no man could make, should be sold for a
rag of cloth which any man could make in a day. The result was not only
the rejection of the Arabs’ demand, but a decree forbidding any person
in Uganda to sell a slave on pain of death! By another decree Mtesa has
forbidden all Sunday labor, and the question of the evils of polygamy
has been seriously discussed by him and the chiefs. He was on capital
terms with the chiefs, and was teaching numbers of people to read,
having made large alphabet sheets for the purpose. He describes the
Arab traders as most bitter against the Mission. They are distilling
ardent spirits from the plantain, and drunkenness is spreading in
consequence.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
PART OF A TOUR THROUGH THE CAROLINAS.