VOL. XXXV. NO. 3.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
MARCH, 1881.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
PARAGRAPHS 65
SENATOR BROWN ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION—OVERTURE
TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL 67
MIXED SCHOOLS 68
EXCEPTIONS AND THE RULE—CONVERSION VERSUS EDUCATION 69
INCONSIDERATE GIVING 71
THE INDIAN PROBLEM: Gen. S. C. Armstrong 72
GENERAL NOTES—Africa, Indians 74
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 76
THE FREEDMEN.
NORTH CAROLINA, MCLEANSVILLE—Severe Winter, Good
Progress, etc. 78
GEORGIA, ATLANTA—Sequel to Begging Letter: Mrs.
T. N. Chase 79
ALABAMA, MOBILE—Emerson Institute 80
MISSISSIPPI, TOUGALOO—A Changed Home 81
TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE—Cabin, Frame House and Little
Brick 82
TEXAS, PARIS—The African Congregational Church 83
THE INDIANS.
COMMUNION SUNDAY AT HAMPTON: Miss Isabel B. Eustis 85
WOMAN’S HOME MISS. ASSOC’N
ANNOUNCEMENT 87
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
CHILD’S LETTER—A CRUMB FOR THE BOYS 89
RECEIPTS 89
AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 96
* * * * *
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. J.
Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D.D., Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Washington Ter.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, D. D., Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
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.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
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.
E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill.
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.
Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D.D., Ill.
Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D.D., Mo.
J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill.
E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill.
C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct.
Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D.D., Cal.
Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D.D., Kansas.
Rev. W. H. WILLCOX, D. D., Mass.
Rev. G. B. WILLCOX, D. D., Ill.
Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR. D. D., N. Y.
Rev. GEO. M. BOYNTON, Mass.
Rev. E. B. WEBB, D. D., Mass.
Hon. C. I. WALKER, Mich.
Rev. A. H. ROSS, Mich.
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_.
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
H. L. CLAPP,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
A. J. HAMILTON,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
CHARLES A. HULL,
EDGAR KETCHUM,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
WM. T. PRATT,
J. A. SHOUDY,
JOHN H. WASHBURN.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields to
the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American
Missionary,” to Rev. C. C. PAINTER, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 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.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXV. MARCH, 1881. No. 3.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
We call attention to our new pamphlet (No. 6,) which contains
the papers read at the woman’s meeting held at Norwich, Conn.,
Oct. 13th, in connection with our Annual Meeting. This has been
published, and will be sent to those of our friends who express the
wish to have it.
* * * * *
“Communion Sunday at Hampton,” by Miss Eustis, and Mrs. Chase’s
“Sequel to a Begging Letter,” we are confident will each be read
with very tender, almost tearful gratitude, and will thrill the
reader with most sweet hopes of the triumphant success of our
prayers and labors for the despised and wronged, but soon to be
redeemed, races. The grace that is redeeming them is also sweetly
touching the hearts of many with reference to them.
* * * * *
In this number of the MISSIONARY, the W. H. M. Association
announces the purpose of bringing and keeping before the Christian
women of our land their relation to the great work in which this
Association is engaged.
When the claims of the colored women of the South and of the Indian
women of the West have been heard and recognized by their sisters
of New England, we are confident that the work of elevating and
saving them will receive a new and wonderful impulse. We call
attention to the announcement and suggestions made.
* * * * *
The acceptance by Rev. Henry M. Ladd, of Walton, N. Y., of the
position of Superintendent of the African missions of the A. M. A.,
and his readiness to enter upon the work by the 1st of February,
was announced in the last number of the MISSIONARY. Mr. Ladd sailed
for the Mendi mission on the 12th of February, and was followed
on the 16th by Rev. K. M. Kemp, a native of North Carolina, and
a graduate of Lincoln University, who, with his wife, are to
re-enforce that mission.
After a visit to our missions on the western coast, Mr. Ladd
expects to enter upon an exploration of the Upper Nile basin for
the purpose of locating the Arthington mission.
We have at once an interesting fact and practical suggestions in
the action of the Ladies’ Missionary Society of Elgin, Ill. This
society is a branch of the Woman’s Board for the Interior, and is
equipped with two treasurers—one to receive contributions for the
foreign, and the other for home work.
At the meeting referred to, papers were read on the work at
Hampton, on the work at Fisk, and on the school and church work
of the A. M. A., which gave great interest to the meeting, and
awakened enthusiasm for this branch of home mission work.
* * * * *
W. E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Cook County, Ill., has published a
general directory of missionary societies of this and other lands,
which will be a great convenience to those who wish to communicate
with such, and a source of valuable information to those who would
get a comprehensive view of the work the church of Christ is doing
for the evangelization of the world. This pamphlet is neatly and
compactly gotten up, and is well worth the 25 cents asked for it.
* * * * *
One who is spending his first year at the South writes as follows:
“When I listen in the prayer-meetings to remarks and prayers,
especially the latter, I cannot help wishing that the churches of
the North could be present to be ‘edified,’ for they surely would
be. I know those who have given largely to the A. M. A., both as
men count largeness and as the Lord counts it (and His way is not
always man’s way), and they would have more than felt satisfied
with their investment just to have been present for one hour in
some of the meetings at which it has been my privilege to be in the
last two months. I am satisfied that we are building wiser than we
know when we are seeking to introduce a ‘colored element’ into the
Congregationalism of the Republic; but how much wiser, I do not
profess to be able to measure even in imagination.”
* * * * *
_The tone of Southern sentiment_ is changing toward the negro,
in all parts of the South. In his recent message, Gov. Jarvis,
of North Carolina, took occasion to speak in warm terms of the
pleasant relations existing between the races, and adds: “I am glad
to say negroes are becoming more industrious and thrifty.”
He refers, with satisfaction, to their industrial fairs held at
Raleigh, and to the encouragement shown them by the whites, and
urges it as an imperative duty that full and equal justice shall be
done the blacks, and that they shall not be left to work out their
destiny unaided. He favors greater provision for public schools,
and recommends that the school tax shall be 2.5 mills on the dollar.
* * * * *
That was quite a love feast held in the Opera House, Lynchburg,
Va., a few weeks since, when local politicians, United States
officials and Northern business men of the city united, regardless
of party prejudices, in tendering a supper to capitalists from
Pittsburgh, and all joined in applauding the name of Blaine, from
whom a telegram was received during the evening, “until the rafters
rang again.”
* * * * *
Whatever opinion we may form as to the justice of the charges made
by Senator Dawes or the sufficiency of Secretary Schurz’s reply,
we can and do rejoice that they seem to vie with each other in
demanding justice for the Poncas, and we would commend not alone
to the Massachusetts Senator, but to all the members of Congress,
the appeal of the Secretary of the Interior, and express the
conviction that the American people will not hold them guiltless
of a large share of the guilt incurred in that matter, if they
fail, before adjournment, to carry out the recommendations of the
President. Mr. Schurz concludes his letter to Senator Dawes as
follows:
“Permit me now to make an appeal for the Poncas to you, Senator.
Let these Indians at last have rest. Recognize their rights by
giving them the indemnity they justly asked for and which I asked
for them years ago. Let them quietly go about their farms and
improve their homes and send their children to school, undisturbed
by further agitation. That is the best service you can render them.
They would probably be in a better condition already had that
agitation never reached them.”
* * * * *
SENATOR BROWN ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION.
Hon. Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, who has recently been elected
U. S. Senator, has for a long time manifested an interest in our
work. A short time since he gave $50,000 to an institution under
the auspices of the Baptists, for the education of the whites. On
the night before his election, in an address to the Legislature, he
expressed his appreciation of the importance of education in the
following words:
“I have the educational question very much at heart. Disguise
it as you may, the New England States, with their schools and
universities, have dictated laws to this continent. They have sent
New England ideas all over the West, and they dominate there.
Look at Prussia, that little Empire over which Napoleon rushed
and almost obliterated. Hardly a generation passed before it had
in turn humbled France and taken the power from its Empire. The
bright-eyed boys in your mountains and wire-grass may represent you
nobly before the world if you educate them. We must also educate
the colored race, and they ought to be educated for the benefit
of the Union, and by the friends of the Union. I would devote
the proceeds of the public lands to this purpose on a basis of
illiteracy. The colored people are citizens, and we must do them
justice. Let us give them every legal right. Social rights will
take care of themselves.”
* * * * *
OVERTURE TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL.
It is felt by many of our missionaries South that their work would
be facilitated by a creed, prepared under direction of the National
Council, suited to the average intelligence of the Freedmen who
apply for admission to our new churches. To this end, therefore,
the Central South Conference, at its recent meeting in Memphis,
drew up an overture setting forth the reasons why such creed should
be provided, and presented it to the Council at St. Louis. After
preliminary statements, the overture adds:
“Our eight colleges and our two score normal and high schools,
with their more than 8,000 students, and these, with their 150,000
pupils in primary schools, where they teach, are rapidly preparing
the material out of which churches of our faith and polity will be
developed.
“These children of nature, with their ready faith but rude
culture, coming into the inheritance of this New Testament way of
the churches, need the ‘sincere milk of the word’—a declaration
of doctrine that shall not be in the nomenclature nor in the
philosophy of a past age, but in the language and after the spirit
of our improved New England theology. They need a form of sound
words such as that when they have once learned it they will not
need to be taught over again what it does not mean in spite of its
phraseology.
“As a duty of brotherly love and of honest recompense we owe them
the best things we have to give in the way of the freshest and
ripest statement of the ideas and doctrines which have leavened the
East and the West, and are now setting the South in foment.”
We trust the Committee appointed by the Council to formulate a
statement of doctrine will meet the want.
* * * * *
MIXED SCHOOLS.
Opposition to mixed schools in the South is not confined to the
white race. Intelligent colored people see that these mean no
opportunity for them as teachers, at least for some years to come.
Those who would be willing to wield the birchen rod over colored
children are as yet largely in excess of those who would consent to
have a colored teacher wield it over them.
Mixed schools are needed in all the sparsely settled neighborhoods,
which includes, of course, all the country outside of the larger
villages, as none other can be effectively maintained. None
others can be harmonized with the democratic ideas upon which our
institutions are based, and it is safe to say that anything which
is favored by every public and private interest, and is opposed
only by prejudice, will in the end gain the day. Victories are
being won with such rapidity that we can afford to wait patiently
for this one, which when gained will prove the Appomattox of this
war.
Almost all that can be gained for the negro by legislation has been
accomplished; to overcome prejudices which wrong and hinder him,
will now depend largely upon himself. The gratifying fact, attested
by prominent men all over the South, is that he is playing his
part with commendable manliness, and is gaining what will never be
long withheld from those who deserve it—the respect of his white
neighbors.
It would be well for those who complain of the slow progress made
for better feelings and sentiments among the Southern whites in
regard to the negroes, and their manifest unwillingness to accord
to them their rights, quietly to digest a recent letter from the
Superintendent of Schools in Cambridge, Mass., who explains that he
has not employed properly qualified colored teachers in that city,
simply because there is so much color prejudice among the people
that he deems it inexpedient to do so.
We know of a young colored woman, a graduate of the high-school
of the town in which she lives, admitted by all parties to be the
best scholar of her class, and one of the best ever graduated from
the school, who cannot find employment in the profession for which
she has so ably qualified herself, only because she has a trace of
negro blood in her veins. When Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and
we may as well include the whole of New England, have reached and
occupied sufficiently long to feel comfortable upon it, the ground
which they insist the South ought to take at one bound, the South
may be more favorably affected by their preaching of equal rights.
* * * * *
EXCEPTIONS AND THE RULE.
There may be exceptions which, after all, confirm the rule to which
they do not wholly conform, but to say that it is by exceptions the
rule is to be proven, is to betray a blind adhesion to maxims whose
claim to credence is their antiquity alone.
A partial and hasty generalization from two or three particulars
suffices for the enunciation of a general law applicable to all
cases. The declaration of a more careful investigator that a number
of particular facts are not harmonious with the law as enunciated
is met, not with a revision of the law, but with the assertion that
exceptions do not invalidate, but prove the rule.
A naturalist in the tropics describes water as being under all
circumstances a fluid. The solid block of ice which drifts for the
first time into his field of observation he will not accept as
disproving his doctrine, but as being the exception necessary to
confirm it.
It becomes a matter of interest to know in what way exceptions do
confirm what they seemingly disprove, and how many maybe admitted
before we shall revise our classifications and re-state our general
rule, because false in its old form. Unquestionably an indisputable
exception proves at least that the rule is not universal, and
suggests that there may be a thousand more facts out of harmony
with it.
Anglo-Saxon prejudice and conceit have laid it down as a general
rule, a law of race, that the negro is only a somewhat superior
grade of monkey, incapable of any high degree of intellectual
development; that the only good Indian is a dead Indian, and the
best use he can be put to is to make a target of him for the
training of our soldiers in musket firing.
The American Missionary Association has been engaged for the past
score of years in developing exceptions to these dicta, and it is
time to raise the question seriously whether these only prove the
rule or demand its revision!
We respectfully submit that the experiments made show a large
number of exceptions; in fact, the number has been numerous exactly
in proportion to the largeness of our opportunities and facilities
for developing them. A serious doubt ought by this time to take
possession of the public mind whether $32,000,000 spent in Indian
wars during the past dozen years is not rather expensive target
practice, and whether the results shown by those who, under great
disadvantages, have been attempting to civilize and Christianize
the Indians, are not of such character as to demand most
emphatically that our method of dealing with them shall be changed.
We also challenge attention to the results of our educational
experiments in the South, as demanding in all fairness that they
shall be made on a national scale, and not simply by the private
enterprise of philanthropists.
It is time the old answer of ignorance and stupid imbecility that
exceptions only prove the rule should be thrown to the dogs, and
we should as a nation convert the dangerous elements with which we
have so wickedly and foolishly dealt into sources of national power
and safety.
* * * * *
CONVERSION VERSUS EDUCATION.
It was a wild and weird scene that we looked down upon from the
gallery of one of the prominent colored churches in a Southern
city a few months since. The preacher had, at 10 o’clock, p. m.,
finished his part of the service, having preached an excellent
and very simple sermon, in which there was nothing calculated to
produce the violent scenes which followed, and having come down
from the pulpit, the brethren and sisters took the meeting under
their own management.
Up to this time it had been as quiet and decorous as a deacons’
meeting in New England. A stentorian “son of thunder” now led the
singing, and a general movement of the whole assembly at once
began. Soon, nearly a hundred “seekers” were kneeling at the
“mourners’ bench,” a row of seats extending across the church,
in all stages of physical and spiritual abasement. Prayer and
song followed each other in rapid and boisterous succession,
while the congregation of believers marched and counter-marched,
each one discharging at once his duty and a volley of counsel or
encouragement to the mourners as he passed along the line.
Black was the ground and prevailing color. The lights were hardly
sufficient to resolve this nebulous blackness into faces, black
sun-bonnets of the sisters, and black-coated forms of the brethren
moving to and fro through the room, while the singers sang, the
exhorters exhorted, the mourners mourned in dismal howls, and the
shouters shouted and leaped in ecstatic joy. Now and then, one
would come to the surface of all this uproar, to tell what voices
he had heard, what visions he had seen, what dreams he had dreamed,
and receive the assurance from the minister: “I have no more doubt
that he has got religion, than I have of my own existence,” which
would be the signal for a general shout of “glory to God!” that
made the preceding bedlam seem tame, and gave renewed impetus to
the marchings and songs and prayers.
These meetings had been in nightly session for weeks, and continued
for weeks afterward, prolonged often, as on this night, until 2
o’clock in the morning. As we left, about midnight, our driver, an
intelligent negro, said: “You are going away too early. Things will
get pretty warm after awhile. ’Ligion strikes a nigger first in the
foot and then works up; it is just beginning to work, it will be
lively after awhile;” of which there could not be much doubt.
One of our missionaries, some time since, was applied to by a
colored woman for admission to the church. At her examination
before the committee, she had a wonderful dream to tell as proof of
her conversion. The committee, not deeming it sufficient evidence,
refused her application. She went immediately to one of the old
ministers, and the day of her immersion was duly celebrated by a
great gathering, of which she was the heroine. As she clambered up
the bank of the river, shouting aloud, she suddenly encountered one
of the deacons whose church had refused her admission. Giving a
sudden pause to her religious fervor, she thrust her clenched hand
into his face, exclaiming: “There, I am baptized,” and followed up
with imprecations upon himself, pastor, and church, which were, to
say the least, not saintly, and then resumed her shout of glory!
To one who has seen the negro often under religious excitement, it
is evident that he seeks it as many men do intoxication, for the
mere pleasurable excitement; he neither feels nor hears, nor does
he know of reasons for being a better man morally because of his
religion; if it only makes him happier, it meets his need, and the
only demand he has to make of it.
This is a just idea of what conversion was under the old-style
minister among the negroes. Of course, there were many among them
who preached a purer Gospel, and sought renewed spiritual lives
among their people, especially before emancipation, but with
freedom came the hope of political or other power, which could be
gained most easily by the preacher, and many sought and secured
such positions who were utterly unscrupulous as well as ignorant.
It is such a ministry as this which, more than anything else,
opposes to-day our work among the Freedmen.
Dr. Sears stated last spring, in his address at the School
Superintendents’ Convention, that he knew of the presence of one
trained normal teacher in a village to necessitate the dismissal of
seven old-fashioned teachers. Contrast and comparison revealed sad
deficiencies before unknown, and the committee was forced to get
rid of the poor teachers. And so it is chiefly by what we compel
others to do, that we are to estimate the value of our intelligent
and largely undenominational work in the South. The Freedmen
are beginning to see that religion is something different from
dreaming dreams or seeing visions, or shouting, or anything of the
kind; that it means honest, pure, industrious lives, inspired and
controlled by the spirit of Jesus Christ. Education is securing
something better than such conversions, in fact is making them
impossible with the new generation.
* * * * *
INCONSIDERATE GIVING.
We deem it inaccurate to say “inconsiderate charity,” for such
giving is not charitable giving. “To him that _knoweth_ to do
good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” The obligation is as
imperative that we shall give intelligently as that we shall give
at all. The intolerable tramp nuisance with which we have been
so grievously afflicted, was nourished and built up by the illy
considered sentiment which found expression in the declaration of
a well-known minister, who said he would refuse to give anything
to the cause of missions before he would refuse a gift to the poor
fellow who asked at his door for help, and in the custom of a good
woman of wealth, who bought a set of crockery for tramps, and
always kept a large coffee-pot full of that delightful beverage
on the stove ready for the use of her frequent guests, a dozen of
whom she has been known to feed in one day. There can be no doubt
that a ready and full _supply_ of this kind will develop an almost
infinite _demand_.
A lady, prominent and well-known in New York city, whose habit
was never to give to any one asking at the door, but to take the
address of the applicant and investigate the case, said that in
seventeen years’ experience she had never found a single deserving
one among the many who had so applied; in every case a fictitious
address had been given.
We can do no safe and really charitable work until such work is
intelligently organized, so that deserving cases are supplied
with just the kind of aid needed, and fictitious and unworthy
ones are exposed and punished. We must know, either by ourselves
or accredited and trusted agents, what we are doing if we are to
benefit rather than curse our fellows by our so-called charities.
The friends of the negro are in danger constantly of being imposed
upon by impostors, who rob the cause they desire to promote of
much-needed funds. It is very easy for one who comes soliciting
aid for a prospective college or church to secure testimonials
that said institution is greatly needed, and that the solicitor is
seeking money for a most important purpose.
It is not necessary to show, which is by no means the case, that
all who come from the South asking aid for such causes are frauds,
in order to give weight to our words of caution. Many of these
are attempting honestly a most important work, and ought to have
sympathy and material aid, but the individual to whom application
is made has neither time nor facilities for making the proper
investigations to establish this fact. True, the applicant
has testimonials, but they need investigation no less than the
applicant himself.
We know of several cases where funds have been contributed, and
have been expended in the erection and maintenance of schools,
which are doing honest and most valuable work, concerning which
nothing but praise should be spoken, and yet nothing but the life
of one man stands between this present use of these funds and an
utter perversion of them. The school property is the personal
property of the individual who procured the funds, and at his death
will of necessity pass into the hands of others, who can do what
they choose with it.
We know of one case where a wealthy man from New York, spending the
winter in the South, became interested in a negro public school
near his hotel. He converted the rude building into a New England
school-house, supplied with first-class apparatus, and took great
satisfaction in what he had done for the poor negroes. Next year
the negro school was transferred to another building, and the
whites made this one, with its books, globes, and philosophical
apparatus, the foundation of a higher school for their own race. We
believe it best for the friends of negro education to work, through
some one of the various organizations which are doing this work,
who are in position to do it more wisely and efficiently than they
could do it; and would call attention to the following suggestions
from a correspondent of the New York _Tribune_, as being wise and
of urgent importance:
“There are associations connected with nearly every religious
denomination in the country, to meet the great and terrible need
of education among the millions of the emancipated and their
children. These associations are under the administration of the
best and most sagacious business men in our communities, and
it is safe to say that the moneys committed to the custody of
these associations are judiciously, desirably and economically
appropriated. Of one of these associations I have personal and
familiar knowledge. It has extensive colleges or universities in
Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and
Texas, besides numerous schools scattered throughout the Southern
States. Nearly $300,000 was expended by this association the past
year, almost exclusively in the interest of these people, one
excellent woman putting $150,000 in the treasury, to be expended
in making much needed additions to colleges so utterly thronged
by applicants that they were compelled to turn numbers from their
doors.”
* * * * *
THE INDIAN PROBLEM.
GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.
The Indian problem is upon us as never before.
The wrongs of the Poncas, both in themselves and as illustrating
our country’s mode of dealing with the red race for generations,
have touched and stirred the people.
The sum of six generations of slavery has been to the negro,
oppression, offset by steady progress through it all, and only
injury to the white man. The sum of six generations of Indian
treatment has been a succession of wrongs, offset by little real
advantage, and the steady gain of the white man.
The negro acquired our language and ways, and by becoming the
industrial reliance of the South, became, even more than his
master, capable of taking care of himself. We have destroyed the
reliance of the Indian, his game, and have put nothing in its
place. With all the justice and humanity intended in our annual
outlay for the red race, there is a pauperizing, weakening tendency
that is full of danger. Practically, has the politician been any
better guardian than the slave-holder?
The country is waking up to a sense of justice. The shameful record
of violated treaties and untold wrongs for the past hundred years
is being brought out. From the outraged negro, for whom the country
can now do nothing but help educate him, and who, indeed, needs
nothing but intelligence to fit him to hold his own, our people are
turning to the Indian and demanding that Government open before him
the only way to manhood and citizenship—_rights_ and _education_.
It must be done.
In the “Century of Dishonor,” just published by the well-known
author, “H. H.,” she states that “To write in full the history of
one of these Indian communities, of its forced migrations, wars,
and miseries, would fill a volume by itself.”
As this shall be better realized, a stronger public sentiment will
be formed and felt. Other forces are at work. The three hundred and
fifty Indian youth who have come voluntarily from the West, many
of them children of chiefs, and entered the Carlisle and Hampton
schools, have already proved their capacity for mechanical and
agricultural, as well as for mental and religious improvements. Not
but that this has already been abundantly shown; but the work has
been done at our doors; the evidence is thrust upon us.
How many know that of the 275,000 Indians in the United States,
150,000 are already self-supporting, 84,000 partly so, while only
31,000 are entirely dependent on the Government; that their numbers
are hardly diminished since the landing of the Pilgrims?
Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, says: “The North American Indian
is the noblest type of a heathen man on the face of the earth.
He recognizes a Great Spirit; he believes in immortality; he has
a keen intellect; he is a clear thinker; he is brave, fearless,
and until betrayed, he is true to his plighted faith; he has a
passionate love for his children and counts it joy to die for his
people. Our most terrible wars have been with this noblest type of
Indians and with those who have been the white man’s friends.”
Nearly three years’ experience at Hampton has shown that the chief
danger, the death-rate, while serious, is not discouraging. Our 80
Indian pupils are now in better health than ever before. They need
in bodily ailments careful, prompt treatment; with that there is
little danger. It is clear that the death-rate is not increased by
transplanting them to the East.
Is not the story of our last communion service which I sent to the
MISSIONARY last week evidence enough to stimulate Christians to
the greatest effort for this race? I write this paper especially
to urge upon the American Missionary Association and its friends
some effort for Indians in connection with their institutions for
colored people.
The mingling of races at Hampton has worked admirably. Our colored
students increased in number last year by 37 in spite of the 70
Indians for whom separate and special pecuniary provision was made
by Government and by friends.
Bringing Indians to negro schools is like putting raw recruits
among old soldiers. The former are pushed along by a thousand
indirect helpful influences; they are improved by contact with
those always ahead of them in the march of civilization; and the
latter are ennobled by what they do for their needy brethren. It
works well; such mingling will strengthen and not weaken your
schools, if Hampton experience is safe to go by. To make men of the
savages on our frontier and to save their souls by putting them
with the ex-slave of the country is a grand work, if it has been
called “sensational.”
Why not take these twenty Indian children that the Indian
department are ready to give you? This would be safe; then feel
your way along. Let them study mornings and work afternoons,
and play Saturdays. We do so. The labor is one of some delicacy
and difficulty. But the Indian is like everybody else. That’s
our experience. Treat him firmly, fairly, kindly; give him no
second-rate teacher; he is keen and appreciative.
Why not go ahead? The Government will place them at your doors free
of expense, and give you $150 a year for twelve months’ schooling
and care—which will barely pay for their food and clothing. That’s
all we can get. The people must pay in part the cost of such
education to get it done. We try to obtain a yearly seventy-dollar
scholarship for each one and have been fairly successful. You can
get these by working for them. You say, “We have no room for them;
where is the money with which to erect buildings?”
We hope next fall to have thirty more Indian girls, making fifty
boys and fifty girls, and are now trying to raise twenty thousand
dollars to put up next summer a suitable building for the girls,
that shall have every appliance for practical education, including
cooking, sewing, clothes-making, washing and ironing, and housework
generally, furnishing room for seventy.
We have no idea where the money is to come from. We have faith
that it will come, because such work is in the line of God’s
providential movement. He who wisely works in that line cannot
fail. The way to get it is to ask for it, prepare for it, push for
it, be worthy of it, pray for it, and it will come. The people of
the country will sustain a good work for Indians.
Some may object that it will trespass upon the negro. Has it been
so here? How would our colored students feel to-day if our Indians
were to be withdrawn? They would vote solidly against it; they
would lose and not gain, and they know it. Is the mutual love and
respect of these races of no account?
The American Missionary Association aims to destroy caste. This
is our way to do it. Nothing here has ever filled me with more
pleasure than watching our students’ recreations, in which race
lines are utterly forgotten. They exist between them, and many
feared, in consequence, disastrous results of their mingling. Two
of our most important and successful Indian teachers are negroes,
graduates of this school.
Three seventy-dollar scholarships are contributed by Virginia
churches for this Indian work, from Petersburg, Portsmouth, and
Hampton, respectively. Southern churches are aiding negro schools.
Have faith and go in for Indians!
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
Africa.
—A French school of archæology, like those which already exist
at Rome and Athens, will be established at Cairo. M. Maspero,
Professor in the College of France, has charge of the organization.
—M. L. Vassion, attached to the office of foreign affairs in
France, has gone to Cairo; he will start from there for Khartoum
and the river Blanc, where he will study the nature of the
commercial relations which it will be possible to establish with
Soudan.
—Dr. Pogge and his companion, M. Wissman, have sailed from Hamburg
for Saint Paul de Loanda. The German Government has officially
asked for them the protection of the Portuguese Government, by
which they may traverse the African possessions on the western side.
—The mission of Algiers proposes to found two new stations between
the great lakes and the Atlantic. The first will be upon the Congo
itself, at the point where the river bends to the north; the second
will be in the States of Mouata Yamvo.
—Messrs. Brazza and Ballay will descend the Alima in the
transportable steamer which the latter has obtained from Europe, to
complete the exploration of the Congo.
—The _L’Afrique_, in an article on the Sanitary Condition of Africa
and the adjacent Isles, says, “Madeira is remarkably healthy,
so that it has been for a long time chosen as a sanitarium for
consumptives. Malaria is wholly unknown there; dysentery is rare
and shows itself only in the epidemic form.”
—Bishop Crowther returned to Lagos, from a six months’ absence on
the Upper Nile, just in time for his wife’s prayer, that she might
die in his arms, to be answered. She did so, though unconscious of
the fact, on the 19th of October last.
Adjai, afterwards Bishop Samuel Crowther, and Asano, afterwards
Susanna, his wife, were children of the same tribe, kidnapped,
rescued, and landed almost the same time, though not in the
same party, at Sierra Leone, and were placed in the same church
missionary school. They were married fifty-one years since, in 1829.
—_A Kaffir Girl’s Worthy Example._ One day a Kaffir girl in South
Africa went to a missionary and dropped four sixpences into his
hand, saying: “This is your money.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” replied the teacher.
“I do,” she answered; “and I will tell you how. At the public
examination you promised a sixpence to any one in the class I was
in who would write the best specimen on a slate. I gave in my slate
and got the sixpence; but you did not know then that another person
wrote that specimen for me. Yesterday you were reading in the
church about Zaccheus, who said: ‘If I have taken anything from any
man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.’ I took from you
one sixpence, and I bring you back four.”
* * * * *
The Indians
SISSETON AGENCY, DAKOTA TERRITORY.—Mr. Charles Crissey, the agent,
in a brief report, says:
There have been built since I came here in 1879 seven new frame
houses, and three others finished that were not habitable when I
came, besides a number of log houses roofed and floored. A new
engine has been procured and put in place for the flour mill,
and the building enlarged to double its former capacity. A barn
21×70 feet has been built; the school building repaired, after six
years’ use; the old engine converted into a portable saw-mill; and
timber for a new church at Good Will sawed out. The people have
been supplied with 95 yoke of work cattle, with yokes and chains
complete; also with all the plows, wagons, harrows, etc., that they
will need for some time.
I have also had thrown upon my care the Brown Earth Indians,
formerly living here, 30 families, now 40 miles away, who are
trying to get homesteads like white men. They have been supplied
with 20 yoke of oxen, 20 wagons, all tools necessary, including
portable forge and tools, also carpenters’ tools, and material for
a new school-house.
The Drifting Goose Indians have been quietly disposed of and
settled at Crow Creek, D. T., after being on my hands ten months.
Three Indians are now talking of building for themselves frame
houses as good and large as the one I live in, provided the
Government will furnish half the material required.
Our grain is not all threshed yet. From present indications it will
reach about 28,000 bushels wheat and 10,000 bushels oats; potatoes,
corn, etc., in abundance. I cut down the estimate on flour for this
season 25,000 lbs. The Indians now furnish about 70 per cent. of
what they eat.
My next step will be to introduce stock raising, by procuring cows
and calves for this people.
WASHINGTON TERRITORY.—Hon. John McReavy has fitted up a hall at
Union City for church purposes, and the people have procured an
organ and bell for the same object.
The Clallam Indians at Jamestown, near Dunginess, Washington
Territory, have bought a bell for their church, the first church
bell in their county, although it has been settled more than twenty
years, and has a white population of over five hundred and fifty.
The members of the church at Seabeck, at the close of the services
on the first Sabbath in December, presented their pastor, Rev.
M. Eells, with a purse containing forty dollars and fifty cents;
and the ladies of the place who are not members of the church,
presented his wife on Christmas with a box containing articles of
clothing worth about thirty dollars.
Two persons at Jamestown were received into our church in December,
and two more at S’kokomish in January, all on profession of faith.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
WASHINGTON, D. C.—_The Memorial Church_, recently known as the
Lincoln Mission, has, as noted in the last MISSIONARY, just
blossomed into a church, and begins its life as such in a renovated
hall on the corner of Eleventh and R streets. The A. M. A. and
the trustees of the Mission decided last fall that the building
must be repaired, and the work was so far completed that it was
occupied again by the church on the first Sabbath of the new year.
The room will seat about 800 people, and with the expenditure of
$75 for matting in the aisles, would be very attractive indeed.
Mrs. Babcock, city missionary, has opened industrial schools in
connection with this church, both for mothers and the younger
girls, and proves a great help in the spiritual work of the church.
RALEIGH, N. C.—The winter has been unusually severe, and our people
are so very poor and unprepared for it that the attendance at
church services has been very small. A part of the time it has
been so cold and muddy that it was impossible for the people to get
about. The Sunday-school numbers 128.
WOODBRIDGE, N. C.—The young folks are wide awake and hard at work.
There are three grades in school, the highest studying Mental
and Written Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, History, Physiology,
Reading, Writing and Spelling. The school is working as never
before. A Band of Truth and Purity has been organized, pledged to
be temperate, truthful and chaste, and to observe the rules of good
society. It meets weekly in a social way and strictly examines its
members.
MACON, GA.—Some idea both of the sufferings of the poor who
could not possibly meet the increased expense, and also of the
drafts upon our appropriations for our school work in the South,
necessitated by the intensity of the cold, may be gathered from the
statement of Mr. Lathrop, of Macon, Ga., when he says: “For a week
or more the mercury stood below the freezing point, going down to
zero one night, and ranging from 8 to 30 degrees above, most of
the time. In some places wood could with difficulty be purchased
for $15 per cord by those who had the money.” Pastor Lathrop has
opened a library of more than 1,000 volumes, open to all classes at
the cost of five cents per month to each member. The cold winter
here, as at all points in the South, has materially increased the
expense of school and church work, and at the same time hindered
its progress.
ATLANTA, GA.—Mr. Francis writes: “I have just come from an Inquiry
Meeting, which was attended by forty persons, most of whom give
good evidence that they are earnestly seeking the salvation of
their souls. We have had less faithful activity in religious
matters thus far in our school year than usual, owing to a variety
of circumstances, but during this week the attention of very many
has been aroused, and we are walking under the shadow of the
manifest presence of the Spirit. Quite a number have already given
good evidence that they have submitted to Christ, and several now
are apparently not far from the kingdom of God. We have a large
attendance, there being 102 girls and about 90 boys in the family,
and we hope to gather a large harvest for the Master. We shall hold
some extra meetings, but do not expect to interfere with regular
school work. Thus far the interest is quiet, deep and persuasive
among the girls, and we trust will be equally thorough in the other
household. Pray that we may have wisdom and fidelity to rightly
care for the precious interests at stake.”
LAWRENCE, KAN.—The last number of the MISSIONARY stated that
a young colored man had been put in charge of the Second
Congregational Church of Lawrence. He (Rev. H. R. Pickney) reports
the outlook of that enterprise as in every way encouraging. Several
have been received into the church by letter, and the church
has been quickened under the manifest presence of the Spirit in
connection with a series of meetings, in which Brother Markham
aided the pastor.
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.—It has been awfully wet, muddy and cold all the
month; the like has not been experienced here for many years. The
great suffering among the poor for the want of food, fuel, clothing
and shelter to keep them from the terribly cold weather, was
fearful. It rained steadily through the week of prayer, and we were
able to have meeting only one night.
NASHVILLE, TENN.—During the present term, a deep religious interest
has obtained among the students in Jubilee Hall. It began soon
after the opening of the fall term. New students, especially,
seemed to be deeply interested in their own spiritual welfare,
and when the opportunity presented itself, offered themselves for
prayers.
The week set apart by the International College Y. M. C. A. for
prayer was observed by the members of the association in the
Institution, in a half-hour prayer-meeting each evening. During
that week several persons were hopefully converted. The meetings
were afterward continued. Up to the time of writing fourteen
students have made a profession of their faith in Christ, and
others are inquiring.
The day of prayer for colleges was a good one. Several of the
students are doing good work among their people in this vicinity,
preaching where there is opportunity and holding prayer-meetings
in private houses, so far as they can without interference with
their studies, and with good effect both upon the people, and upon
themselves as looking forward to their future work.
FLATONIA, TEXAS.—A set of outline maps is needed for the school.
Can anyone furnish a second-hand set?
SELMA, ALA.—Rev. C. B. Curtis writes that he has been very busy
holding meetings every night since the beginning of the week of
prayer. He has been assisted by his brother from Marion and by Rev.
Mr. Hinman, of Oberlin. Thus far there have been six conversions,
a great many inquirers, and a great reviving of the members of the
church.
MEMPHIS, TENN.—Through the kindness of Judge J. O. Pierce, the
cabinet of Le Moyne Normal School has just been increased by the
addition of a fine collection of minerals and fossils, numbering
some hundreds of unusually fine specimens. A very interesting
feature of the institution, added this season, is an experimental
kitchen in which practical cookery is taught to the girls of the
school. Besides this, classes are trained in needlework, etc., a
room having been fitted up for this especial purpose.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
NORTH CAROLINA.