VOL. XXXIV. NO. 6.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
JUNE, 1880.
_CONTENTS_:
PARAGRAPHS 161
SIX PREACHERS, ALL CALLED—NEW INDUSTRIES AND SIGNIFICANT
FEATURES OF NEW LIFE IN THE SOUTH 166
THE NEGRO, ON THE STATUS AND EXODUS OF THE NEGRO 167
CONDITIONS OF INDIAN CIVILIZATION—AFRICAN NOTES 169
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 170
THE FREEDMEN.
A TOUR OF THE CONFERENCES 172
NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE 175
SOUTH-WESTERN CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION 176
GEORGIA, MACON—Revival 177
ALABAMA—Notes from Selma 179
AFRICA.
LETTER FROM PROF. T. N. CHASE 180
THE CHINESE.
POLITICS AND THE MISSION, ETC. 182
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
LETTERS FROM INDIAN BOYS 184
RECEIPTS 185
CONSTITUTION 189
AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS 190
* * * * *
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.
ANDREW LESTER, Esq., N. Y.
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.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D. D., 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, D. D., 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. 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.
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.
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.
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,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
CHARLES A. HULL,
EDGAR KETCHUM,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
WM. T. PRATT,
J. A. SHOUDY,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
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. XXXIV. JUNE, 1880. NO. 6
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
As we go to press, we are happy to announce the safe arrival of
Prof. Thomas N. Chase, from our Mendi Mission.
* * * * *
_That 20 per cent._ increase in our appropriations, voted at
Chicago, and voted also by the Executive Committee, has not as
yet been furnished by our friends. We are compelled to urge it
upon their attention that we are in danger of falling behind the
appropriation, to our grief and the detriment of the work, unless
they come gallantly to the rescue.
* * * * *
_Who Will do It?_—One of our missionaries in North Carolina
suggests, and we cordially second the suggestion, that some of our
friends send us the means for distributing 1,000 copies of the
MISSIONARY to as many prominent men, clergymen and others, through
the South. We are confident that a like sum of money could not be
expended in a way to tell more favorably upon our work after the
means have been supplied to carry it on. Will not some generous
friend of the South send us the money?
* * * * *
_Tougaloo’s Plea._—Through its workers, this Institution puts in a
most pathetic plea to the Executive Committee for an appropriation
for a new building. How they inquire, can 120 persons be seated in
a dining-room large enough for only 80? Or how can fifty girls be
put into 16 small dormitories? The Executive Committee gives it up,
and sends it along as too much of a 15-puzzle. The plea melts the
hearts of us who have no money, so we make it to those who have,
hoping some one will help to a solution of this problem.
Fully as difficult is that propounded by President Ware, of
Atlanta: Sixty-two girls in rooms fitted for forty, and prospects
that the number cannot be kept down to that. It could be easily
increased to one hundred next year. The $10,000, given from the
Graves estate for a building, must be supplemented by $5,000 to
make it adequate to pressing need. Who gives the answer to _this_?
* * * * *
_The Christian Recorder_, Philadelphia, (organ of the A. M. E.
Church,) in noticing the “Fool’s Errand,” refers to the fact that
the Fool found himself limited to the society of the teachers of
the colored schools and a few Northern families, and asks: “Why
so? Were there no colored people there? The South ostracised him
because of his _opinions_, while _he_ ostracised the negroes
because of their _color_.” Of the two, the _Recorder_ believes the
South the more rational and consistent.
* * * * *
_Laws of Heredity._—One of the—not fathers, but great-grandfathers,
in Israel, writes a pleasant note from Jewett City, Conn., to
say how much pleasure he takes in reading the “Receipt pages”
of the MISSIONARY, finding them the most interesting of the
whole. He notes as an especially pleasant feature, the increasing
number of “friends,” who send, as in the last number, from $2.00
to $1,747.50. He mentions with great satisfaction that he has
learned to look regularly in the May number for a contribution
from the grandson of an old French Huguenot, who fifty years ago
hobbled regularly to the parsonage on the morning after missionary
meetings, and asked him (the writer) to get 25 cents out of his
purse for the work, which always left the purse empty. The grandson
now sends $20. Of him, he says, with Leigh Hunt, “May his tribe
increase.” We shall be glad if investigation on the part of some
missionary Darwin shall establish the fact that such tendencies are
transmitted with accumulating force from father to son.
* * * * *
In Southwest Texas, at a Freedman’s country home, our
Superintendent found a Bible which had this inscription, printed
upon a fly-leaf at the front:
“One of 10,000 Bibles presented to the Freedmen of America by
the Divinity Students’ Missionary Society, connected with the
United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Printed at the University
Press, Oxford, for the National Bible Society of Scotland.” So
does religious beneficence percolate the most distant regions.
Our colored fellow-citizens have been made the recipients of an
immense amount of material and spiritual sympathy on the part of
British Christians. These Divinity Students will be glad to know
that this Bible, sent by their Society some ten years ago, is used
for morning and evening family worship in an interesting household,
which possesses its own farm, and which furnished hospitality to
our representative.
* * * * *
A dozen years ago, one of our lady teachers at a Southern
capital had a shower of stones driven through the window of her
school-room. At another time, some “fellows of the baser sort”
brought in some drunken Mexicans to annoy the school. A guard of
soldiers was placed at the school-house, and she was escorted to
and from the school by the same. Now she has so many friends among
the Southern white people that she says she doesn’t like to hear
them spoken against. She has not time to reciprocate their social
attentions. The school has proven a great success. She has her
fifty teachers out at work and she is as enthusiastic as ever.
* * * * *
_Rev. Geo. E. Hill_, of Marion, Ala., mentions a few facts in a
private note which doubtless he deemed too commonplace for formal
communication to the MISSIONARY, yet significant and hopeful. Not
every pastor, even in favored New England, is so fortunate in his
young people.
On a recent Sabbath, one of his boys, who is to graduate this
summer from Talladega, preached for him, and proved himself a good
speaker, possessed of a clear, logical mind, with the promise of
being a useful man. On the next day, he and another member of his
church, also a Talladega student, spoke at the meeting of the Young
Men’s Christian Association extemporaneously, but with great beauty
and force. His missionary meetings are conducted in a way that
might be profitably followed by such of our churches as have like
helpers. The subject of the last one was “Africa,” illustrated by
a large map. Miss M., a graduate of Fisk University, read a paper
on the Mendi Mission, “which would have done honor to any of our
Northern churches.” She is possessed of a true missionary spirit
and Bro. Hill hopes she will find her way into the mission field,
notwithstanding a misfortune which has partially disabled her.
He has also a Young People’s Club for intellectual culture. At
its last meeting, the programme included: A sketch of Gen. Grant;
a paper on Mormonism; a sketch of Eli Whitney; a history of
Umbrellas; a reading, recitations, etc.
He seems to have a church of “Holy Endeavor,” with the athletics
and pastimes left out.
* * * * *
_A Confederate and a Man._—He was a colonel. He is the editor of a
leading journal of the South. Some years since, an educated mulatto
woman from Ohio went South to secure a position as a teacher. She
was thrust into the smoking-car to endure the commingled filth and
ribaldry of the place.
After securing her position, it was necessary to return home
before entering upon her duties. She sought the intervention of
the colonel. He went to the local superintendent, who sent orders
along the line over three roads which gave her admission to the
ladies’ car, both on her way home and on her return. She proved a
splendid teacher and noble woman, and the colonel is proud to have
championed her cause, when to do so was unpopular.
The same colonel is now wielding a great influence in the South in
favor of negro education, and recently, both in his paper and at a
public meeting, has expressed thanks to the A. M. A. for work it
has been doing in the South.
The influences multiply and reach out in every direction, which are
destined soon to bring a total and wholesome change of sentiment,
North and South.
* * * * *
We have received the proceedings of the Colored Men’s State
Immigration Convention, held in Dallas, Texas, the latter part
of February. An association was formed whose object is to locate
colonies of colored people on Government lands in that State. Mr.
S. H. Smothers, editor of the _Baptist Journal_, of Dallas, said
in his address, as explanatory of the Exodus movement among his
people, what seems to have escaped the attention of the Senate
Exodus Committee, that the negro may act from the same motives that
influence white men. His address is full of good common sense, as
the following may show:
“Only a few weeks ago, in a conversation with a colored immigrant
from Georgia, I asked him why he left that State and came to Texas.
He replied that a great many of his white neighbors were moving to
Texas, and he thought that whatever was good for them would be good
for him.
“Much has been said in regard to the wrongs and oppressions of
which our people complain. While, doubtless, there is some ground
for their complaint, their hardships, in my opinion, are more
the result of their illiterate condition than all things else.
If a class of white laborers were as illiterate as our people,
they would be equally oppressed as are the Irish tenants to-day.
Capitalists look out for their own interest, and will, if they can,
oppress one man, be his color what it may, as soon as another. We
should remember that knowledge is power and ignorance is weakness.
The protection which we most need is the power which education and
property give. For my own part, all I ask of any man is an equal
chance, and then if he can outstrip me in the race of life, let him
do it.”
* * * * *
_Lovedale Missionary Institute_, South Africa, is said to be the
busiest industrial college in the world. During the session which
closed with 1879, there were in all 393 pupils of both sexes, many
of them boarders, who paid in fees £1,006, beside £510 still due.
Livingstonia and Blantyre sent 6 pupils; 19 came from Natal; 11
from the country of the Barolongs. The carpenter had 30 apprentices
and journeymen under him; the wagon-maker 8; the blacksmith 5; the
printer 4; the bookbinder 2. On the farm were raised 1,054 bags of
corn, beans, potatoes and wheat.
Twenty-one students, of whom eleven were Kaffir
certificated-schoolmasters, were under theological instruction. Dr.
Stewart thinks the home churches will hardly continue the present
number of missionaries beyond the lifetime of those now in the
field, and that the work will be done by a native ministry.
* * * * *
A “Livingstonia Central African Company,” for promoting legitimate
traffic among the natives, has been organized by a society of
gentlemen interested in the civilization of the “Dark Continent”
and in the development of its resources. Direct communication is
to be opened with Central Africa, and a road has already been
constructed a distance of sixty miles around the cataracts of the
Shiré, which, connecting with a line of steamers, will constitute
a line of 800 miles from the coast. Two Christian gentlemen of
Edinburgh, Messrs. John and Frederick Moir, are at the head of
the company. It is to be no less a missionary than a commercial
enterprise, and there is every reason for believing that in both
respects it will prove a success. The natives are becoming fully
awake to the advantages of the extensive and solid business
facilities possessed by the company, whose future will be watched
with great interest.
* * * * *
The _West African Reporter_, of Sierra Leone, in announcing changes
in the officers and probably in the location of the Liberia
College, (Dr. Blyden having been appointed President; and the
trustees, leave being given by the legislature, having voted to
co-operate with the American Board in a plan to remove the college
further into the interior,) expresses itself strongly in regard to
the injury done to natives who have been sent to Europe to receive
their education. It sums the result thus:
“We find our children, as a result of their foreign culture—we do
not say _in spite_ of their foreign culture—but as a _result_ of
their foreign culture—aimless and purposeless for the race—crammed
with European formulas of thought and expression, so as to astonish
their bewildered relatives. Their friends wonder at the words of
their mouth. But they wonder at other things besides their words.
They are the Polyphemus of civilization—huge, but sightless—_cui
lumen ademptum_.”
To some extent the same holds true of negroes from the South,
educated in the North for work in their old homes.
* * * * *
_Onondaga and Oneida Indians._—There are in the State of New York
eight Indian reservations, aggregating 86,336 acres of land, a
little less than 18 acres to each of the 5,093 Indians who occupy
them. These lands are held by tribal and not individual titles. A
few of these Indians have become thrifty farmers, but the most of
them are idle and poor; probably one-half are still pagans. A bill
has been introduced into the Legislature to abolish, with consent
of the Indians, the treaty of 1788, and distribute these lands
in severalty to these people. This would end the fatal communal
system, which has proved in this, as it must in all cases, so
deadly to all prosperity. Each Indian would thus become, under the
laws of the State, a land-owner, and amenable to the laws on the
same footing as other citizens.
Under the present tribal system, the father has nothing but his
tomahawk and scalping knife to leave to his children, and transmits
only a disposition to use them. Give him the right to acquire a
title to something else, and he will doubtless acquire and bequeath
it.
* * * * *
There is a poor blind Samson in this land,
Shorn of his strength and hound in bands of steel,
Who may in some grim revel, raise his hand,
And shake the pillars of this commonweal,
Till the vast temple of our liberties
A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies.
That same “blind Samson” is in the land to-day. It is the Negro,
uneducated, immoral, with a ballot in his hand. It is the white
man, uneducated, immoral, with a ballot in his hand. For it makes
no difference. The harm lies back of the color. The consequences of
ignorant suffrage, by whomsoever exercised, can be only detrimental
to the peace and welfare of the State. Free institutions can be
built up only on the basis of intelligence and integrity. Without
intelligence and integrity, the best cannot long survive. If there
be large numbers on whom this right has been conferred, but who are
densely ignorant, especially if these large numbers are grouped in
a single section, like these millions of negroes and poor whites
in the South, it is an official notice served on the nation that
no time is to be lost in imparting the mental and moral training
requisite for the right discharge of these sacred functions of
voting. Men are not left to settle this question of helping with
schools and churches, merely on the ground of humanity or Christian
duty. Their interest is challenged, and their very selfishness is
under contribution. We do not put matches in children’s hands, and
then leave them to play about hay-mows. If we give them matches
we train them in the use of them. With an instrument in his
hands so potent as the ballot, and with the possibility of using
the leverage of it in contingencies easy to be foreseen for the
overturning of the nation, it takes but half an eye to see that
the man who wields it ought to have an instructed mind and an
instructed conscience, and the State is not secure until he does.
—[DR. NOBLE _in Advance_.
SIX PREACHERS, ALL OF THEM CALLED.
[The following letter reveals the condition of _one_ out of many
neighborhoods scattered all over the South, densely populated
with negroes, neglected by the whites, excepting as the agent or
overseer of the plantation looks after the owner’s interests as
connected with the labor of the people. No schools, no churches,
excepting such as are ministered to by preachers as ignorant and,
in many cases, as licentious as the people themselves. Just think
of it! The visit of this Sunday-school agent the first visit of
a white Christian to the hundred families; their religious and
other culture such as those six preachers could give! And this
not in Central Africa, but in the very heart of the southwest
portion of our own land! These people citizens of our republic, and
voters!—ED. MISS.]
A missionary of the American Sunday-School Union in the Southwest
writes:
“I recently organized a Sunday-school for the colored people at
Homan Station, on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. R.,
in Miller County, between Texarkana and the Red River, where is
a large cotton plantation, and two others are near, having in
all more than one hundred families. Among them is one Baptist
church, and six preachers, every one ‘called!’ Only two of them
can read, and the pastor or ‘head-preacher’ is blind; and so are
all, in spiritual things, preachers and people. After delivering
an address, I found that only seven in the audience could read.
In all, fifty adults and children joined the Sunday-school and
promised to learn to read. I furnished them with primers, Bibles,
Testaments, etc., which seemed to please the plantation agent or
overseer as well as the people.
“After the school was organized, the blind preacher gave a sermon
from Rev. xxii. 1, 2, another preacher doing the reading. I shall
not attempt to characterize the sermon, singing and responses. When
will white Christians, who know the way of life, surrender their
prejudices and teach these poor, benighted people the truths of the
Gospel? My visit was the first made by a white Christian worker to
this place, and will be remembered.”
* * * * *
NEW INDUSTRIES AND SIGNIFICANT FEATURES OF A NEW LIFE IN THE SOUTH.
It is a good indication of the movement of the South to manufacture
its own staples, that since 1866 it has set in motion 600,000
spindles, of which Georgia has 213,157, a third of them being in
Columbus, and that the cotton mills at Augusta, Ga., alone turned
out $4,000,000 worth of manufactured products last year, paid ten
to twelve per cent. dividends, and carried a handsome surplus to
the sinking-fund accounts.
The president of the large mills at Nashville, Tenn., assured us
that his mills in 1878–9 had earned fifteen per cent. dividends.
One of our wealthiest manufacturers of New England, who has
recently been to Eastern Tennessee, where he has an interest in a
new mill, says if twenty years younger, he would certainly go South
and invest largely in manufacturing. Everything is favorable for
such enterprise.
This is in striking contrast with the time when the papers, voicing
the sentiment of Virginia, compelled the founders of Lowell, Mass.,
to abandon their purpose of building their mills in Richmond,
because such industries were in deadly hostility to Southern
institutions.
Another significant, but almost unnoted feature of the new South,
(for the old _is_ passing away more rapidly than is generally
believed,) is the increasing favor with which the town system, but
more especially the common-school system, is regarded by the people.
Under the old régime both were unknown. Virginia (and we believe
she was in harmony in this with all the other slave States)
pauperized the pupil who received aid, by making the overseer of
the poor the disburser of such funds as were appropriated by the
_County Court_ for educational purposes.
The business, which in New England is transacted by the citizens
of a town, assembled in town meeting, duly warned, and notified of
the business that could be brought before it, was, in the South,
transacted by the _County Court_ for a whole county. Surprise is
often expressed that the people of the South can be led, in almost
solid masses, to the polls, to vote for men and measures which
those who know the private sentiments of the people are sure they
do not approve.
But conceive of New England as having never sent her children to
a _common_ school; as having never gathered in town meeting; as
having never known even a Congregational Church meeting, and,
at the same time, as having free thought on all questions of
public policy overshadowed, fettered and ruthlessly throttled
by an interest which enthroned itself as supreme in commercial,
political and social life, before which good society did homage,
and politicians sacrificed, and divines worshipped, without whose
approval nothing was right, and without whose protection nothing
was safe. Conceive what, under such circumstances, New England
would have been, and then cease to wonder that the pro-slavery
disunionist was not crushed, and that the Bourbon politician is not
buried under the _new sentiment_ which lives in the South to-day.
But it is manifest to anyone who knew the South under the old state
of things, and who has had opportunity of seeing it to-day, that
these two agencies which have made New England what she is, but
were unknown to the South—which were thrust upon her as a part
of the reconstructive machinery, against her sullen but helpless
protest, and were hated accordingly—are coming more and more into
favor with the people.
It is noteworthy and significant that the Legislature of Tennessee,
last year, in all its frantic, unwise, and dishonest efforts to
reduce expenses, did not reduce her school appropriations. He must
be a blind observer and a dull reasoner who does not see that this
is most significant as showing that old things are passing away,
and all things are becoming new in a regenerated South.
* * * * *
THE NEGRO, ON THE STATUS AND EXODUS OF THE NEGRO.
It is significant that the leading article in the current number of
the _South Atlantic_, the _élite_ literary magazine of the South,
is by a colored man. His topic is, “The Status of the Negro, and
the Exodus.” It is able and fair in its treatment of the subject.
The editor disclaims responsibility for its statements, and
slightly apologizes for its publication; would have been glad, had
it not seemed unfair to the writer, to modify a few paragraphs; but
has given a negro full leave to tell his white readers just what he
thinks of negro status and exodus. This fact is one which should
not be forgotten.
On the other hand, it would be well for us to hear just what an
intelligent negro has to say on this topic. The writer, Rev. D. J.
Sanders, indicates the difficulties in the way of his people’s
progress; obstacles thrown in the way both by his friends and
his enemies; asserts that because of what _he is_, the negro has
made commendable progress in spite of these hindrances, aided by
missionary preachers and teachers who paid but little attention to,
and took no part in, the political events which were transpiring
about them. Evidently, in his estimation, the improved condition of
his people has not been due to political action, but to schools and
moral influences.
He asserts that the Exodus has not been brought about by political
causes, though a certain class of politicians have done something
to spread the movement; nor is it due to the fact that educational
or religious privileges have been withheld, for, strictly, it
cannot be asserted that such has been the case. Persons who were
pronounced in their opposition to negro schools are, when this
movement begins, laboring side by side with those who have devoted
themselves to negro education. Whatever of politics, or education,
or religion may enter into the movement is merely incidental.
Political abuse there has been, but the Exodus movement began after
this had for the most part ceased, and has raged most where this
abuse has been least known, as near the home of the writer, in
North Carolina.
There have been, and are now in some States, unjust laws regulating
labor and wages. The script system, which permits the employer to
pay the laborer in script redeemable at his store, has been known,
and is ruinously unjust to the laborer, but in the two States
where this movement has been greatest, regulative legislation has
been in the one exactly the reverse of what it is in the other. In
Mississippi the landlord must fulfil his engagements before he can
force his tenant to quit. In North Carolina the tenant must fulfil
his before he can leave.
Fundamentally, it is the impoverished condition of the people,
conjoined with restlessness, and supplemented by idle curiosity,
making change easy and desirable, which has exposed these poor
people to the designs of unscrupulous sharpers and demagogues. They
have inherited poverty, ignorance, improvidence, to say nothing
of positive vices. They have been hindered by positive efforts to
keep them down. They have been discouraged by the fact that success
would give them no social or political advantage, and so they
have either refused to labor, or have squandered in pic-nics and
cake-walks, for tobacco and whiskey, it is estimated, about eighty
millions of dollars annually.
There have been, so far, about 28,000 of these _exodusters_ who
have paid an average of about $16.65 to the railroad companies
for transportation. Out of this the companies have paid to the
unscrupulous agents who promote the movement, one dollar for full,
and fifty cents for half fares.
The roads have received about $500,000 from these people, and
hope for at least half as much more from a return movement. The
emigrants have received in charity about seven cents each, as an
offset to the $16.65 which they have paid for transportation alone.
We know not what report the Senate Exodus Committee will make, but
are confident that it will come no nearer the truth in regard to
this movement than has the writer of this article. So long as the
negro is thus ignorant he will be helpless against the oppressor,
whether he be the old master or the pretended new friend. When we
know the possibilities yet undeveloped in the negro, and give full
scope to them, we shall know also what an element of wealth and
strength here is in what is now known as an incubus on prosperity
and a menace to our national life.
CONDITIONS OF INDIAN CIVILIZATION.
Before the Indian can become civilized, the conditions of
civilization must exist. For him, at present, these are scarcely
possible. No mere tribe can attain to a civilized state, yet the
tribal relation is fostered and perpetuated by our policy. Such
agencies of a civilized life as civil courts, town meetings, common
schools, railroads, telegraphs, etc., these are simply impossible
so long as tribes of men are forced or permitted to wander over
vast territories to which they have no other title than that of
tribal occupancy. The prime condition of a home is an exclusive
title to the land upon which it stands and from which its support
can be drawn. Without a home, a high civilization is impossible,
but our policy has been to discourage, and too often render
impossible, the creation of a home by the Indian.
He is the ward of the nation—a ward who has never been taken to
the maternal bosom as a child, who is not permitted to reach his
majority, or to care for himself, who is cheated by his guardian,
and unfitted by the whole course of his education for the duties
and responsibilities of manhood. There has been no false principle
of politics but has been applied to his regulation. There has been
no species of wrong, or injustice, or folly, which has not been
practiced upon him, and regarded by him as the exponent of our
Christian civilization.
It is time this foolish and wicked treatment should cease; time
that we showed something like an honest desire to do justly by him,
even though incapable of wise statesmanship. The principles which
have lifted up savage tribes and made of them civilized nations are
historic, and might be known to, and their application attempted
by, the Government. Our Congressmen should be compelled to hear
other demands than those made by reckless adventurers who find the
Indian occupying lands he would possess.
Judging from all past experience we have every reason to believe
that, under secure conditions of life and property, these tribes
would settle down and become worthy and excellent citizens. The
protection of the Indian must be individual and not tribal; it
must be found in courts which administer impartial justice, not in
longer-ranged rifles and fleeter ponies. In short he must have the
opportunities and defences of manhood, and thus be prepared for the
responsibilities and duties of citizenship.
* * * * *
AFRICAN NOTES.
—The Mission church at Old Calabar, Western Africa, where the Rev.
E. P. Smith was buried, is spontaneously aiming at self-support.
—A few French Protestant missionaries from South Africa, have
penetrated the great Barotse Valley, North of the Zambesi, with a
view to establishing a mission in this unevangelized region. M.
Coillard, the leader, is now in Europe, endeavoring to awaken an
interest in the new enterprise.
—At the new San Salvador Congo Mission, excellent work has been
done during its first six months of labor. A school has been opened
and the scholars have made good progress. One hundred and fifty
on the average have attended preaching services; about a thousand
words of a hitherto unwritten language have been collated, and the
missionaries thank God and take courage.
—Mr. Adam McCall, a converted engineer, with seven years’
experience in African life, has gone out from the East London
Mission Institute, in charge of an expedition, planned to reach
Stanley Pool this summer. Here he proposes to establish a
good, strong industrial station, to which the natives from the
surrounding country may be attracted, and where they may gather
round a centre of civilizing and Christianizing influence.
—The mission of the United Presbyterians in Egypt has been signally
blessed. They have thirty-five stations, nearly one thousand
communicants, and over twelve hundred pupils in their schools,
and have received, in all, assistance equal in value to $120,000.
$40,000 of this was from the late Viceroy, and $80,000 from His
Excellency Maharajah Dhuleep Singh.
—According to Mr. Stanley’s report, the population in the upper
Congo region is very dense. The towns in some places are two
miles long, with one or more broad streets between rows of neat
well-built houses, superior to anything in East Africa. Mr. Stanley
is constructing a good road, ten feet wide, on the lower Congo,
past the rapids and cataracts. Relief stations are to be built at
intervals for the benefit of merchants, missionaries and explorers,
according to the original plan of the King of the Belgians.
—Coal is said to exist in abundance in the vicinity of St. Paul
river, Liberia, West Africa, and a survey for a railroad has
recently been, made on the St. Paul river.
—“The conditions of health in the Gaboon, West Africa,” says
Rev. S. H. Murphy, a Presbyterian missionary, “are good living,
godliness, cleanliness, tranquillity, patience, and quinine.”
—A Trans-Sahara Railway from Algeria to Soudan, across the Desert
to Timbuctoo on the Niger, and another line from Senegal to the
Niger, are proposed by the French. The necessary explorations
for the first of these schemes are being made by Duponchel, a
celebrated engineer, and for the second by Soleillet, another
celebrated engineer and explorer.
—The Dutch Church in South Africa began on January 2d the
publication of their first weekly religious paper, in the Dutch
language, called “_De Christen: Weekblad voor Kerk en Maat
schappij_;” (_or the Christian; a Weekly for the Church and
Society_.) It is well gotten up, and is indeed quite an attractive
sheet.
There are several large and enterprising secular sheets published
at Cape Town.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
HAMPTON, VA.—“I am glad to tell you that two of your Indian boys,
Murie and Hustice, are to unite with our church on next Sunday.”
RALEIGH, N. C.—The spiritual condition of the church is still very
encouraging. Fifteen persons entered into covenant last Sunday,
which made it a day of rejoicing. Six others have been voted into
the church, and will enter into covenant at the next communion.
WILMINGTON, N. C.—A pleasing incident occurred at our communion
season last Sabbath. Four generations in one family were
represented, from the aged great-grandmother to the infant who
was presented for baptism by its grandmother, a close-communion
Baptist; her impenitent son, the father, and the young mother, who
is a member of our church, standing by her side. The grandmother
afterward communed with us.
CHARLESTON, S. C.—Mr. Cutler writes: “Yesterday was a grand day for
us. The church renewed its covenant. About 100 were present. Some
30 or 40 others sent word that they wished to do so. We are now in
a condition to go forward. I trust the renewal was made sincerely.”
AUGUSTA, GA.—“At one place where I called, an old lady had the care
of several grandchildren. One evening she said, ‘I don’t know what
I shall do to-morrow, for I’ve only one nickel left.’ Then, one
of the grandchildren replied, ‘Grandma, don’t you know you always
say, “the Lord will provide”? Don’t you worry; it will be here in
the morning.’ And sure enough she went over to the depot the next
morning, and two ladies asked her to wait on them, and gave her
fifty cents, and another said, ‘Here, auntie, take this basket and
empty it for me,’ and there was provision enough to last all day
and part of the next. ‘Children, you just trust the Lord,’ is a
remark she often makes.”
WOODVILLE, GA.—“Our revival is still going on. God is with us.
Brother Markham preached here last Sunday, and four persons were
admitted to membership.”
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA.—A society for little children has recently been
formed in this town, known as the “Rising Youths’ Society.” It
promises well. The Sunday-school is still flourishing.
MCINTOSH, GA.—The church work is growing. Five have been added to
the church since last July, and a number are to unite at the May
communion.
MILLER’S STATION, GA.—From Miss Douglass: “You see by the date
that I am once more out of Savannah. It was hard to get away, for
there were many who were inquiring, and needed to be sought out and
led to the Saviour. I came out to fill an appointment for a Bible
reading here last night. There were only thirteen present, as it
was rainy. One of these was an old gray-headed man, who suffers
much from rheumatism. He walked nearly two miles to get here, yet
expressed himself as ‘very much satisfied’ with the pay he received
for his walk.”
MCINTOSH, GA.—Rev. A. J. Headen writes: “I have a great deal of
walking to do because I have no horse, and I am not able to go as
much as I might if I had one. Please see if you can help me to
secure one through some friend. I give you my word it would add a
hundred per cent. here to our work if a horse could be put in the
field. Some days I walk from eight to nine miles to see the people
and to attend to church work.”
MACON, GA.—Rev. S. E. Lathrop writes: “When Brother Rogers was
here he told us we ought to ‘pray for a missionary horse.’ Whether
that is the best way to get one or not, I am not sure, but I do
wish we had one. When I see a serviceable horse, I sometimes feel
like breaking the tenth commandment, and saying, as the disciples
said to a certain colt’s owner, ‘The Master hath need of him.’
We feel the need of some kind of locomotive power, as the hot
weather of spring has begun. Our long walks under the burning sun,
take the starch out of our linen, to say nothing of the lassitude
and fatigue of body. There are no street cars now running in
Macon; they are bankrupt, defunct and buried (_i. e._ the tracks)
under sand and gravel. Some of our members live two miles in one
direction and some three miles in another. The whole congregation
are scattered far and wide, hence they are somewhat irregular, and
the labor of visitation is much increased. If we had a horse we
could accomplish much more, besides saving something on draymen’s
bills, etc., etc. All our workers _need_ the recreation of riding
for the sake of health, and we can’t afford to hire hacks. Now I
don’t know why I wrote this, except that I do feel like ‘praying
for a missionary horse.’ Join your prayers with ours.”
TALLADEGA, ALA.—The theological students at Talladega College have
just been favored with a course of lectures on Eschatology by Rev.
H. S. De Forest, President of the College. The students manifested
a lively interest in these lectures, and in the study of the
intricate and somewhat obscure field of thought traversed by them.
The lecturer having positive views, combined with much classic and
theologic learning on the themes discussed, and possessing a warm,
Christian heart, did not fail to make a deep impression on all who
heard him.
Eight young men will be graduated from the Theological Department
of the College this year, all of whom will enter the Congregational
ministry in the South. They are now warmly welcomed to the pulpits
of all denominations, and are recognized as an important factor in
the elevation of the colored people in this region.
KYMULGA, ALA.—A very interesting temperance meeting is reported.
Sixty persons were present. The exercises consisted of singing,
addresses and selections by the members of the Society. Rev. H. S.
De Forest, of Talladega, visited the Sunday-school and preached for
the people.
CHILDERSBURG, ALA.—Rev. Alfred Jones writes: “My work is in a
lively condition. I have a full house. My people seem to study the
Bible with greater interest than they ever have before. Some come
to my church who did not like it at first.”
ANNISTON, ALA.—Rev. P. J. McEntosh has been the victim of a
very pleasant “April Fool.” On returning from Conference he was
invited into the chapel, and found, to his great surprise, that
an excellent stand for the choir had been erected, with banisters
and place for books. The work had been done with the proceeds of a
surprise party given while he was away.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
A TOUR OF THE CONFERENCES.
It took six weeks. Other pens were engaged to write up the details.
Some notes by the way, may be in place. The Kentucky Association
did not elect delegates to the National Council. There will be yet
another chance at the July meeting. Rev. John G. Fee is opposed
to any representation in that body beyond that of an honorary
character. Membership in it, he thinks, would be an endorsement
of the sect principle, and inconsistent with the position of the
Kentucky Association, which is simply a body of Christian ministers
and churches. He claims that testimony must be borne, if only in a
small way. At the National Council in Oberlin, I was delighted with
the catholic and non-sectarian spirit with which the delegates of
this body were welcomed to membership. I should say now: Keep on
sending delegates to encourage and emphasize that testimony. That
is the only ecclesiastical body in the United States that would
offer such organic fellowship.
You have been told of the new era in our work, marked by the
opening of half a dozen of the homes of the first families in
Selma, Alabama, for the entertainment of the white members of the
Conference. It was not merely the offer of their houses as eating
and sleeping places, but it was a delicate and attentive Christian
hospitality, which invited the guests around from home to home in
order to the extension of acquaintance. When grateful words were
said to Major Joseph Hardie for having led the way, he answered
that that gave him too much credit; that the places had all been
opened cheerfully, and that, after the sessions were over, other
families had said: “Why didn’t you give us a chance? We would
like to have had some of those folks.” Another host, referring
to the mutual satisfaction, said: “It is just because we are
getting better acquainted.” In the same line was the opening of
the Presbyterian pulpit, morning and night. The exercises of the
Conference, with a printed programme and prepared articles, were of
a high order and well sustained throughout. It was much like one of
the Western General Associations.
In the Louisiana Conference, at Terrebonne, of the twenty-six
members, the only two white men were Pres. Alexander and the
Superintendent. It was not a literary tournament, but a glowing
religious convocation. Before the adjournment, eight or ten souls
were inquiring the way of life, and some fervid spirits remained
to extend the flame. Our dear brother, Rev. Daniel Clay, the
entertaining pastor, with his own home and his church upon the same
plantation where for thirty-seven years he had served as a bondman,
is a very patriarch among the young ministers, loved and revered
by us all. The last meeting of this Conference, at New Iberia, was
followed by a revival that added one hundred to the company of the
disciples. Next year we are to go back to Terrebonne.
The regular time for the meeting of the Association of
South-Western Texas is in July, which in the South is the slack
time of the year, with the corn and the cotton “laid by,” and which
is the usual period, among both colored and white, for revival
meetings, as is the winter at the North. This year the brethren
undertook to bring it forward to April, so that the Superintendent
might be with them, but, as everybody was plowing corn and chopping
out the cotton, the effort brought to Helena only the two pastors,
B. C. Church and M. Thompson. Yet we had a glorious four days’
meeting, with preachings, conferences, a communion, a season of
baptizing, and a class meeting, which, according to the custom
of the church, precedes the communion as a preparation. People
came six, nine, or twelve miles. The native pastor, Mr. Thompson,
preached an able and moving sermon upon trust in God. The regular
meeting will be at the same place in July. This Church has a
dignified and efficient deaconess, who looks after the many little
things in the parish, which a woman can do better than anybody
else. It did seem appropriate that a woman’s taste should be
employed to arrange her Lord’s Table. I took pleasure in pointing
out to her, once a slave, the likeness of her work to that of
“Phebe, the servant of the Church at Cenchrea.” I had the pleasure
of a ride in the nice missionary buggy which Bro. Towne had given
to our presiding elder, Church. It is a good deal better, now that
he is sixty-seven, though straight and spry, when he camps out,
to have this vehicle to lie under, than to have only the starry
firmament over him. It helps to keep company on the prairie for the
preacher and the picketed pony.
For ingenuity of swindling, can any pale face beat the darkey when
he tries?
Down this way, one was going about selling tickets to Kansas for
five dollars down, and four upon arrival. In one place he took in
some forty of his confiding brethren. Some came to the railroad
agent, my informant, to learn of the cheat. Others, at another
place, had got on board to find that their tickets were a sham.
Another black sharper, for one dollar and a half, was making out
the papers for land which Queen Victoria was to give them, since
Uncle Sam had failed on the “forty acres and a mule.”
On the way, making one hundred miles north by hack to Austin, I had
my desire satisfied in overtaking one of the great droves of cattle
moving northward. It numbered three thousand. We struck them as
they were passing across a valley, so that every creature was in
view. A grand sight it was, preceded by the four-mule commissary
prairie schooner, attended by the twenty cow-boys in saddle, with
cracking whip and awful spurs, and with the relay of sixty horses
in drove, each driver having a change of four. The dreadful drouth
of the last year, which carried corn up to 25 cents a bushel, was
apparent in the poverty-stricken quality of the beasts and in the
scraping up of old scalawags and yearlings and two-year-olds to
make out the drove. Out of three counties here last year, 25,000
horses were taken. These go in droves of from twelve to fifteen
hundred. Multitudes of them, as they run from colts upward, are
sold for five dollars each. Mine host, a colored man, while I was
with him, sold eight head of broken horses for $155, to be paid
next fall, without interest. In some droves, fifty sucking colts
are sometimes shot in a day, as impediments of the march.