vast field, and compare it with our limited resources, we are
satisfied and speak the praises of the noble men and women in the
field and in the office. We have garnered fruit grandly
proportionated to the planting. But when we look at the work which
has been done and contrast it with what remains to be done, we are
far from being satisfied. Instinctively we are impelled to repeat the
call of the prophet in the hearing of the Church of Christ: "Arise,
shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee." Proportioning the means used to the products reaped, we
look forward with hope, expecting a future that shall correspond with
the promises of God. The statistics in this department of the
Association's labors may look like "Holy Trifles;" and comparatively
they are "Holy Trifles;" but so is the "handful of corn" in the
Messianic psalm, which depicts the future growth of Christendom. The
things tabulated in these statistics are the "handful of corn" in our
Southland, but as we contemplate them, we may use the old, old song
of the church and sing ourselves into an ecstasy: "There shall be an
handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit
thereof shall shake like the cedars on Lebanon; and they of the city
shall flourish like the grass of the earth. His name shall endure for
ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall
be blessed in him and all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be
the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And
blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be
filled with his glory. Amen and amen."
* * * * *
REPORT ON MOUNTAIN WORK.
BY REV. G.S. BURROUGHS, CHAIRMAN.
Your committee, to whom those portions of the General Survey relating
to the work of the Association among the mountain whites has been
referred, are strongly convinced that this work is one of great and
growing importance. We rejoice in the evidence that such is also the
conviction of the management of the Association.
The territory occupied by these mountain people, consisting of
between three and four hundred counties, covers an area twice the
size of New England. Its population is equal to that of New England,
excepting Massachusetts. Its resources, in mineral deposits and in
valuable timber, are varied and rich. It is being rapidly opened up
to trade, and thus indirectly to civilization. Its inhabitants are
ready to welcome outside influences, and they are in large degree
susceptible of those that are good. These facts, we believe, cannot
receive too careful attention.
We are deeply impressed with the great destitution of these people as
regards intellectual, moral and spiritual things. Poor in the extreme
as far as their physical wants are concerned, they are still poorer
in reference to the wants of their minds and souls. So great is their
poverty in these particulars, that, in large measure, they do not,
until approached in Christian kindness, realize it. They are without
education, and without true religion; without schools and without
churches. Practically, they do not know the Sabbath; they are in
utter want and ignorance of those ordinary means of grace which are
as familiar to us as the sunshine and the rain. The violence and
social confusion which are to be expected under these circumstances
are prevalent.
Your committee rejoice that the day of small things, in our work in
this field, is already becoming the day of larger things, with a wide
outlook into a permanent and brighter future. In two normal schools,
two academies, five common schools and twenty churches the few loaves
and fishes seem to be at hand. "But what are they among so many?" We
are grateful for the enlargement which the past year has disclosed,
for the new church and school building, find the rapidly advancing
dormitory and boarding hall at Pleasant Hill, Tenn., and for the
slightly increased accommodations in the Grand View Normal Institute,
but we see clearly that enlargement only necessitates greater
enlargement. The meagreness of the supply renders the destitution
more manifest. The little which has been done, and well done, only
gives louder voice to the demand _to do_.
One of the most encouraging features of the work, and one which we
believe should be particularly emphasized, is the possibility of its
comparatively speedy self-support, if it be pushed forward rapidly.
It is a work which must be done to-day, and it can be done because
these people, even in their poverty, will do their part. This is
abundantly shown, not only by their disposition regarding it, but
also by their deeds in its behalf.
The influence of the work among the mountain whites upon the general
Southern work of the Association should be carefully recognized. Here
is a vantage point which can be carried, and which must be carried
for the success of our great campaign in the South. To neglect this
present duty is to be culpable regarding the future of the
Association's activity. Problems of caste and questions bound up with
them, can, at least in part, be settled in this field. Those needed
concrete illustrations, which will tend most powerfully toward their
general settlement, can here be furnished. We do not believe that the
conquest of the West is of more importance to our Home Mission work
than is the conquest of these Southern highlands to that of the
A.M.A. It is our opinion, therefore, that there should be in this
department steady and rapid advance, and that it should no longer be
tided along.
We fear that the facts regarding the peculiar character of this
mountain work are not sufficiently known, and that its bearing upon
the general work of the Association is not adequately realized.
We feel that a special examination of this field may wisely be
commended to those who would devise liberal things with a view to
special gifts for institutions of learning. The church and the
school, the missionary and the teacher must go together into this
territory. Who will place a Christian college among the mountain
whites?
We give thanks for the spared life of a trusty and consecrated worker
in this field. With the earnest prayer for means to send and employ
them, let there be joined the petition for many workers possessed of
a like spirit of earnestness and fidelity.
* * * * *
REPORT ON INDIAN WORK.
BY S.B. CAPEN, ESQ., CHAIRMAN.
It is not the intention of your committee to spend more than a moment
of the time allotted to it in speaking of the details of the work of
this Association among the Indian tribes.
It is a pleasure to note in the Executive Committee's report that it
is in the fullest sympathy with the increased and increasing interest
in the solution of our Indian problem. It has more scholars under its
care than ever before, and is steadily increasing its buildings and
its facilities for doing its work. The four new stations provided for
at the Northfield gathering call especially for our gratitude. But
why enlarge upon these particulars?
The work of this Association has been spread before the Christian
world in so many reports that all know of its great success. Its
preachers and teachers, who have given their lives to this work with
such courage and devotion, are also known, and it only needs to be
said in a word, that the year that has closed and whose review is now
being taken, has been one of great blessing and power. We approve of
what it has done and we commend it for the future without reserve.
We would rather occupy our time, if we may, in looking at this whole
Indian question, hoping that we may arouse a more universal interest,
and cause, thereby, to flow into the treasury of this Society the
funds which shall enable it to enlarge and broaden its work and
hasten the complete Christianizing of our Indian tribes.
For let it be said while I have your freshest attention, that it is
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not education or
civilization, that is to solve this problem; and all I have to say is
to lead up to this thought. Wherever modern civilization without
religion has touched the barbarian it has been to curse him.
The blood of every American ought to tingle at the thought of the
foul stain upon our national honor because of the treatment the
Indian has received.
General Sherman has told us that we have made more than one thousand
treaties with him, but the United States Government has never kept
one of these treaties, if there was anything to be made by breaking
it; and the Indian has never broken one, unless he has first had an
excuse in some cruel wrong from the white man. No wonder that the
Sioux have hesitated to sign their treaty. Do you not blush at one of
the reasons for this hesitation? Because they doubt whether we can be
trusted. This boasted American Republic is to them a nation of liars.
I am glad to speak for these men who have been, so cruelly wronged.
Here before we had any rights, they have been steadily driven back
before our civilization as it has advanced from the Atlantic and
Pacific shores. While our ears have ever been open to the cry of
distress the world over, the silent Indian moan has passed, too often
unheeded. We have made him a prisoner upon the reservation, and when
we have wanted his land we have taken it and put him on some we did
not want just then. His appeal, when in suffering and distress, has
been stifled by those who can make the most money out of him as he
is; and if hungry and in desperation he leaves his reservation, we
shoot him. We have put him in the control of an agent, whose
authority is as absolute as the Czar's. We have kept from him the
motive to be different and he has been literally a man without a
country and without a hope. Multitudes of people say, "Oh, yes, the
Indian has been wronged," but it makes very little impression upon
them. It is much the same feeling that the worldly man has who
acknowledges, in a general way, that he is a sinner, but it does not
touch him sufficiently to lead him to act. Will you bear with me in
giving some facts, with the hope that all may feel that this is not a
merely sentimental, indefinite sort of a subject for philanthropists
and "cranks," and a few women, but one in which each of us has some
personal responsibility. He is your brother and mine, in need, and we
owe him a duty. Some years ago Bishop Whipple went to Washington
pleading in vain for the Indians in Minnesota. After some days' delay
the Secretary of War said to a friend, "What does the Bishop want? If
he comes to tell us that our Indian system is a sink of iniquity,
tell him we all know it. Tell him also--and this is why I recall this
fact, more true than when it was first spoken--tell him also that the
United States never cures a wrong until the people demand it; and
when the hearts of the people are reached the Indian will be saved."
Then let us try to arouse the people to demand it.
And I beg you to notice, that the wrongs are not of the past, but of
the present. Those who say otherwise have either not examined the
facts or else they are deceived. While there has been much progress
made since General Grant's administration, the machinery of our
Indian affairs in its last analysis seems to be largely yet a scheme
to plunder the Indian at every point. Its mechanism is so complicated
that there are comparatively few who understand the wrong, and these
seem almost powerless. While there are many men in the Government
employ of the best intentions, there is always a "wicked partner" who
contrives, somehow, to rob the Indian.
He is wronged: (1) In his person. Let me illustrate. Go with me to
Nebraska. An Indian, upon one of our reservations, injured his knee
slightly. There was a physician who was paid a good salary by the
Government, but when asked to visit this man he refused to go. The
poor sufferer grew worse and worse, till the limb became rotten and
decayed: his cries could be heard far and near in the still air, yet
the physician heeded not. A friend was asked to take a hatchet and
chop off the limb. In agony he died, the physician never having once
visited him. That was a brother of yours in America. A short time
ago, in Southern California, lived an Indian in comfort, upon a lot
of ten acres upon which he had paid taxes for years. The land about
him was sold, but no mention was made of his lot, as his lawyers told
him it was not necessary and the purchasers promised he should never
be disturbed. Within a few months, however, a suit was brought for
his ejectment, and in the midst of the rainy season, this old man of
80, his wife and another woman of nearly the same age, were put out
of their home. They were thrust with great cruelty into a wagon, left
by the roadside without shelter and without any food, except parched
corn, for eight days. The wife died of pneumonia, and the old man is
a homeless wanderer. Why this cruelty? Because there was a spring of
water on his land which the white man wanted. This was in America.
2. In his property. Let me illustrate again. In North Dakota one of
the tribes asked that they might have some barns. The request was
granted: the lumber, valued at $3,000, was bought in Minneapolis, and
the freight charges, which ought to be about $1,500, were $23,000. A
little clerk in Washington that belongs to the "ring" "fixed it" in
this way.
In the Indian Territory an Indian worked hard all summer, and in the
fall carried his grain to market, delivered it to an elevator, and
than the owner turned around and refused to pay him, and the poor man
had to go home without one cent. It was the worst kind of robbery. If
that man had been a German, or Swede, or a howling Anarchist of any
nation under the heavens, we would have protected him, but an Indian
has no rights in America.
A man who has been the private clerk of one of our highest Government
officials was appointed an Indian Agent. The Indians on that
reservation were having their lumber taken from them at a price much
less than its value, and notwithstanding their protests, it went on,
the Agent refusing to listen. They complained then at Washington, and
the Government appointed one of the most corrupt of men as an
inspector. When he visited the reservation he asked for the witnesses
at once. They asked for a reasonable time to get them together. This
was refused and they asked for two days, and when this was denied
they asked for one. In their dilemma and haste they got one Indian
near-by to testify. The Agent himself broke down this man's
testimony, because he had been at fault two or three years before, in
a way which did not affect, in the slightest degree, his statement
now, and the inspector at once returned to Washington and decided
against the Indians! It was a fraud and a farce.
3. In the helpless condition in which we have left him, he has a new
wrong now, because when he votes he is of political importance. If
you will read "Lend A Hand," you will find an illustration where the
Indians in North Carolina had become citizens and had votes, and
because those votes were cast against the powers that be, they were
willing to go all lengths, even to closing the schools, in order to
accomplish their purposes.
And this is to be more and more a vital question, as more and more
they are becoming citizens. We talk about "dirty politics!" Is it not
a proper name, when, in order to get votes, schools are to be closed
and children left in ignorance?
4. There is no earnestness of purpose in a majority of the Government
officials to protect him from wrong. To show exactly what I mean;
recently, in Southern California a lot of land grabbers took from the
Indians their land. When private individuals ascertained the facts,
complaint was made and an order was issued for their removal. The
time fixed was March 1st. On July 1st inquiry was made, and the agent
said the order had been carried out. But individual examination
showed the settlers to be there still, and five saloons open in
defiance of law.
In a similar way recently, the representative of one of our
philanthropic societies had arrested an agent who had committed a
crime. It was so clear a case that he was found guilty at once. Let
us hear this travesty of justice. The law required a fine and
imprisonment both. The fine was placed by the Judge at twenty-five
cents, which the Judge paid himself. The term of the imprisonment he
made one day, and told the Sheriff to allow the jail, in this case,
to be the agent's own comfortable home. Shall we be obliged to
constitute Law and Order Leagues to see that the laws of the United
States are executed?
This is the awful background as the starting point for this
discussion. Some people question whether or not there is a personal
devil. If any man would study the Indian question he would be
convinced there was not one only, but a whole legion of them.
But, friends, so long as these are facts, there is an Indian
question, and there is going to be one until these things are
settled. There is nothing ever settled in this world till it is
settled right. In the progress that has been made in opening up the
possibility to the Indian, of civil rights, we may be inclined to
relax our efforts in his behalf. The passage of the Dawes Land in
Severalty Bill was, indeed, a great day for the Indian. It opens the
door by which he can have a home on land of his own and become a
citizen, with all the privileges thereof. Here, at last, is solid
ground upon which he can stand. But we must not forget that that bill
is but the commencement of what is needed. He is but a child with new
rights truly, but in his ignorance he does not know what they are. He
is surrounded by enemies as before. While he has the law and the
courts, the nearest Judge may be one hundred to three hundred miles
away. He must be brought more under the care of the judiciary.
The Indian Bureau, as at present constituted, cannot do for him what
he needs. This is a part of the political machine, and its appointees
are selected because they have done good service as ward politicians.
It has been well said that such a Bureau is no more fitted to lead
these people aright than Pharaoh was to lead the Israelites out of
their house of bondage.
To show how even some good men fail to comprehend the situation is
evidenced by the proposed "Morgan Bill," which in its practical
working would give the Indian Agent--already a despot--even more
power than before. By that bill he is made chief Judge, with two
Indians as associate Judges; and the agent is given power to select
the jurors when a jury is demanded. What a travesty of justice, to
make the present agent a judge and give him power to select the jury.
With such a bill the friend of the Indian may well say: Oh Lord, how
long! We must demand that all Indians, whether on the reservations or
not, shall be given full protection of righteous laws, and that the
tyrannical methods of the past shall forever cease.
But, with the solid ground of the Dawes bill beneath, and the further
protection of the judiciary certain to be given at no distant day, he
needs, more than all else besides, the Christian school and the
Christian church. He now has "Land." If we are earnest and persistent
he will soon have "Law." But, most of all, does he need "Light," and
that light which is from above. All the laws we may enact the next
hundred years will not change the character of a single Indian. To a
considerable extent he is a superstitious pagan still. He needs Jesus
Christ. He needs to learn the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man. As it is a part of the Indian man's religious belief that his
god does not want him to work and he will be punished if he does, it
is especially necessary to touch his religious nature first. When he
accepts the Christian's God, then he will be ready to go to work for
himself. The taking up of the hoe and the spade is his first
confession of faith. What has already been accomplished through the
new laws giving him his civil rights, puts an added responsibility
upon the church. It is the Indian's last chance. Our further neglect
is his certain death. Shall we leave him with his "Land and Law"
without God? Do we realize that we have lived with these original
owners of our soil for more than two and one-half centuries, and yet,
today, there are sixty tribes who have no knowledge of Jesus the
Christ? Shall we allow longer such a stain? I know well the pressure
of various claims in religious work at home and abroad, but in the
light of what has been said, is not the duty of Christianizing the
Indians a debt of honor, a "preferred claim," which should take
precedence over others? In this way only can we partially atone for
our "century of dishonor."
The history of the past few months, and the famous order with regard
to the use of the vernacular, ought to arouse the church to new
efforts. The probable instigators of it are known to friends of the
Indian, and it shows the necessity of increased activity on our part.
The order was despotism itself, and would have done credit to a
Russian Czar. It was a blow aimed at the Indian's highest religious
interests, and the President of the United States, instead of
explaining and translating it, should have recalled it as an act
unworthy of Christian civilization in the nineteenth century.
Everything is still done to hamper the Protestant missionary work.
The A.M.A. has a theological school, and the Government allows (?) it
to teach a theological class; but, when the students are chosen and
ready to come, the Government agents prohibit their coming. We have a
young man who has been waiting for a year for a permit from
Washington. The same obstructive policy meets us when we try to get
pupils under the Government school contracts. And even after we have
obtained the order from the Government to procure the pupils from a
given agency, the Government will, at the same time, instruct the
Agent to let no pupils go till the Government schools are full. In
this way the Christian Indian parent has taken from him the right to
send his child where he desires, for the Government stops his rations
and annuities if he refuses to send to the Government school. The
vote recently passed at the General Association of Congregational
Churches in South Dakota ought to be taken up and echoed through the
land, protesting against the assumption, by the Administration, of
the right to control our missionary operations, dictating what pupils
may attend our schools, or what language may be used in them.
In conclusion, let us gird ourselves anew for the struggle that is
before us, to fight the enemies of Protestant Christianity,
entrenched as they are in our Government, the Indian ring, the cattle
kings, the land grabbers and the thousands whose selfish interest it
is to keep the Indian ignorant. This is no holiday affair; it means
earnest, determined work. We must give the Indian the Gospel of the
Son of God as his only safeguard for the life that now is as well as
that which is to come. Civilization, education alone can never lift
the Indian to his true position. You may take a rough block of marble
and chisel it never so skillfully into some matchless human form, and
it is marble still, cold and lifeless. Take the rude Indian and
educate him, and he is still an Indian. He must be quickened by the
breath of the Almighty before he will live. It is religion alone
which can lead him to the truest manhood, which will quicken his
slumbering intellectual faculties and prevent him from being an easy
prey to the selfishness and sinfulness of men. Let us support this
society in its grand work, by our money, our sympathy and our
prayers. Let us join in the fight, and by-and-by we will share in the
triumph. Dr. Strieby, you can remember just before this society was
formed, that it was a disgrace to be an abolitionist. It is a glory
now. The day is not far distant, yea, its light is already breaking
in the western sky, when it will be considered equally glorious to
have helped save our Indian brother, by leading him back again to
God. And while we are doing it, and as a means to this end, we must
try to get this Indian ring by the throat and strangle its life. It
has lived long enough on the blood of the Indian; let it die, and we
will never say "the Lord have mercy on its soul," for it has none. If
you have never been interested in the matter before, begin to-day; if
you have never helped before, help now. Get in somewhere, get in
quick, get in all over; do not stand around the edges looking on and
criticising others; be sure you get your pocket book open, and send
the Treasurer of the Association double what you did last year; do
something, do anything. We have been playing at missions long enough.
With our great wealth it is a disgrace that this work was not
completed long ago. With an aroused and awakened Church the whole
problem will be solved, for there will be no more Indians, but only
brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
Let us fear nothing, God is with us and we shall triumph.
"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."
* * * * *
REPORT ON CHINESE WORK.
BY REV. SIMEON GILBERT, D.D., CHAIRMAN.
1. Is it worth while to attempt Christian missions among the Chinese
in our own country?
2. If so, of how much importance is it?
3. Who should do it?
4. If anything is to be done by us, how much should be done?
5. And is there any case of urgency about it?