VOL. XXXII. No. 9.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
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SEPTEMBER, 1878.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
PARAGRAPHS 257
THE CLAIM OF SELF-INTEREST 258
PLEASE PERUSE, AND PONDER 259
THEN AND NOW 260
ANNUAL REPORTS NEEDED 261
A GOOD EXAMPLE—THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES 262
ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS 265
GENERAL NOTES 266
THE FREEDMEN.
SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE IN ATLANTA UNIVERSITY:
Rev. Horace Bumstead 267
CHARLESTON, S. C.—Avery Normal Institute.—Reunion
Exercises.—Impressions made on a Visitor from a
Neighboring State 270
GEORGIA—Ogeechee: Rev. John R. McLean 272
ALABAMA—A Surprise Party: Mr. E. C.
Silsby.—Anniversary of Trinity School: Rev.
Horace J. Taylor.—A Gospel Ship: Rev. P. J.
McIntosh 272–274
MISSISSIPPI-Grenada 275
KENTUCKY—Berea College Commencement.—Frankfort:
Miss Mattie E. Anderson 275, 276
AFRICA.
MENDI MISSION—In Good Health and Good Heart:
Rev. Albert P. Miller 276
THE CHINESE.
CHINA FOR CHRIST: Rev. W. C. Pond 277
THE CHILDREN’S PAGE 281
RECEIPTS 283
WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. 286
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NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
* * * * *
A. Anderson, Printer, 23 to 27 Vandewater St.
* * * * *
_American Missionary Association_,
56 READE STREET, N. Y.
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PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Rev. JONATHAN BLANCHARD, Ill.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
Rev. SILAS MCKEEN, D. D., Vt.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
Rev. D. M. GRAHAM, D. D., Mich.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Ct.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. EDWARD L. CLARK, N. Y.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Rev. H. M. PARSONS, N. Y.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN WHITING, Mass.
Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago, Ill._
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
EDWARD BEECHER,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
A. P. FOSTER,
E. A. GRAVES,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAM’L HOLMES,
S. S. JOCELYN,
ANDREW LESTER,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to
either of the Secretaries as above.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when
more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational
House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.
Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his
order as _Assistant Treasurer_.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each
letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in
which it is located.
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THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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VOL. XXXII. SEPTEMBER, 1878. No. 9.
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_American Missionary Association._
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The thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary
Association will be held in Taunton, Mass., by invitation of the
Congregational Churches of that city, commencing on Tuesday,
October 29th, at three P. M.
The sermon will be preached by the Rev. S. E. Herrick, D. D.,
of Mt. Vernon Church, Boston. Other speakers and the order of
exercises will be announced hereafter.
A cordial welcome will be given to delegates, and a full
representation of the churches is earnestly desired.
* * * * *
On the 2d of July, Lord Polwarth gave a missionary conference
in the grounds of Mertown House, on the Tweed, at which Dr. O.
H. White, of America, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid Society,
made an address. He dwelt upon the explorations of Africa and the
emancipation of the slaves in America, and on the relation of these
two remarkable events to the evangelization of the 180,000,000 of
ignorant and idolatrous inhabitants of the hitherto almost unknown
continent. “The address was marked by intense earnestness and
pathos, and was listened to with rapt attention.”
* * * * *
The monthly concert arranged for Rev. Mr. Winship’s Questions and
the Jubilee Songs seems to be a great success. Almost daily orders
are coming in for the Songs and Questions. Wherever they have been
used they have given the highest satisfaction. We confidently
commend them, therefore, to churches and Sabbath-schools that
desire to spend a pleasant and profitable hour in considering the
work and wants of the Association. We do not see how the same
amount of information in regard to the Association could be so
readily imparted in any other way.
Orders sent to Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Congregational House, Boston,
or to any A. M. A. office, will be filled gratuitously.
* * * * *
The friends of Fisk University will be interested to hear of
the safe return to this country of President Cravath. With him
have also come the Jubilee Singers, who have been giving popular
concerts during the last year in Holland, Germany and Switzerland,
and have now disbanded.
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THE CLAIM OF SELF-INTEREST.
The claim of the three despised races in the United States is
enforced by a motive of self-interest, by the relation of their
leavening to the future prosperity and even perpetuity of our
nation. Especially is this true of the freedmen, as large enough
in their numbers to have weight, and endowed with privileges which
make their numbers powerful for good or evil.
So large a mass, if it be corrupt, is also corrupting. Here are
three lepers; I can but hint at their diseases. They are full of
wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. You shrink and shudder
at the picture. But, my brother, they are at your very door. What
shall we do with them? This sickness is not unto death. Worse than
that; it is perpetuated and transmissible; but it may be cured.
The power of Christ, who touched the leper with His life-giving
hand, is still with us. But we must go in the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. We cannot bar the negro out; he has the right to sit in
our midst, even among the senators of the land; and if he be still
ignorant, and immoral, and superstitious, he will spread corruption
around him. The only way to prevent him from contaminating us is
to let virtue go forth from us to convert and cleanse him. And the
question is, is there enough in us to do it? The very _presence_ of
vice and ignorance is contaminating; it conducts all evil influence
and spreads it. The swamp malaria which fills the air, while it
chokes the hovels of the poor, can by no means be kept out of
the palaces of the rich. The foul odors of Hunter’s Point pay no
respect to the brown-stone fronts of Murray Hill. If one member
suffers, all the body is afflicted.
Do you say, “It is not our concern”? But it is every one’s concern.
Is the ignorance and vice of your own town or city not your
concern? You have to pay for it dearly. Your taxes for police, for
courts and for prisons are only a small part of what it levies
on you. It, too, pervades the air and mingles its deadly poison
with it, and you breathe it in. You are proof against it; it only
imperceptibly lessens the tone of your health and vigor. But your
neighbor is not, and perhaps your son or daughter is not; and in
the traps which line our streets your son or my son may stumble and
fall; or behind the shaded windows where the snares are laid, your
son or my son may go to ruin.
It is so in the nation. If the leaven be not more active and more
potent than the mass, it will be itself unleavened and spoiled.
But there is a greater peril to us than the mere presence of
ignorance and vice in its _power_. By the chances of war, and for
the sake of its success, 1,000,000 slaves were made citizens. They
were armed with the rifle and the ballot. With the rifle they
turned the day of strife to the day of settlement; but with the
ballot, if left slaves as to their intelligence and manliness,
they may make of peace fatal disaster. Till they can exercise this
solemn trust with wise discretion, and with conscientious fidelity,
it is a perilous trust in their hands. One million more votes added
to the vast number which are swayed by demagogues of either party,
increase by a fearful percentage the dangers of the land.
In their Christian education is our only surety for the future.
Education for their intelligence, and Christianity for their
morals, and as a foundation on which both intelligence and virtue
may rest secure.
The same danger would be swelled by the numbers of the Indians and
the Chinese if they were citizens. As it is, the Indian can only
become so by forswearing all the relations which are most sacred to
him, and which mean to him family and religion. And the Chinaman,
it has just been decided, cannot vote, at least in California,
because he is neither white enough nor black enough.
But it is the part of every wise man to see the danger, and to do
what he can to avert it. The Federal Government cannot do what
is needful. The States will not do it. Christian charity, with
far-sighted wisdom and self-denying philanthropy, can alone be
relied on for the work required—the training of these races. It
is an illustration of the truth, that all self-interests are met,
not by a narrowly planned seeking of them, but by that broader
conformity to the great law of love which, loving God first, has
love for each one in his place, and seeks the highest good of all.
In that is wrapped up, concealed sometimes, but surely there, our
own gain and good.
* * * * *
PLEASE PERUSE, AND PONDER.
Our friends will pardon us for reminding them that the fiscal
year of the Association will close with the month of September.
What is done to swell the receipts, either for diminution of debt
or to meet current expenses, must be done quickly. Let no one
imagine, however, that we are not duly grateful to God and to His
people, for the gifts which have made possible the work on the
field, and lightened so much the drag on our treasury. Still, we
feel constrained to ask these givers for a larger giving, in order
that we may free ourselves from an incumbrance which has sadly
embarrassed us for years, and keep pace with the openings before
us. Two things we ask:
1. The debt _must_ be cleared away. Every interest of the
Association demands it. Our friends demand it—do they not? Else,
would they have reduced our indebtedness, within eighteen months,
from over $90,000 to some $40,000 at this present writing? Why
may we not believe that God has His reserves, both of men and of
money, at hand, to wipe out the remaining balance against us? We
wait to see who will step into the place of honor, and make some
great sacrifice in this behalf. This debt was incurred to aid the
poorest of the poor, as we thought, at the call of Christ himself.
May not they expect His blessing who shall now come to the rescue?
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”
2. We need increased supplies to meet our constant outgo. Our
friends have done well by us during this year—such a year, too, as
it has been! But they must be faithful to the end of it to ensure
us a good record on the 30th of September. They need not be afraid
of overdoing it; for if, by any good fortune of ours and good-will
of theirs, we should, after paying all our current claims, have a
small balance, it will go at once to lessen this still burdensome
debt.
Remember, too, that the work is ever increasing on our hands, save
as we have to keep it down. Millions of these freedmen must in the
next ten years, if ever, be brought under the influence of sound
learning and true religion. This generation must not pass away till
it be possible for every colored child to read the word of God.
The Chinaman and the Indian, too, make claims upon us which their
cruel treatment by our fellow-citizens only serves to emphasize.
Africa, also, as a culmination of our work, is calling for new
laborers of her own sons to come and bring back to those sitting
in darkness the light which is the life of men. But, in order to
this, our teachers and missionaries must be numbered by hundreds
and thousands, where now they are numbered by scores and hundreds.
This is the true economy and the true wisdom. If we are to realize
our ideal, there must be a new interest kindled in the work, and
a great advance in the gifts of God’s people. With the closing of
the year, therefore, we invite the intelligent and liberal men of
the land to consider _once more_ the work of this Association, in
its bearing upon this nation, and in its bearing upon the nations,
to which these races belong. We do not see how we can vindicate
ourselves as righteous men, as men who fear God and love our
neighbors, if we neglect this work brought to our doors and laid
upon us by sanctions as solemn and pressing as were ever imposed on
men. We do, then, in behalf of these races, and in the name of our
risen Lord, ask the good and the wise, everywhere, to give us their
sympathies, their prayers, and their money, in measure large enough
to put these fields under ample culture for a better and brighter
future.
* * * * *
THEN AND NOW.
REV. J. E. ROY, D. D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT.
Then—in October, 1860—as the newly-appointed District Secretary
for the A. M. A., I attended its fourteenth annual meeting, in
pastor M. E. Strieby’s church at Syracuse. It was an occasion of
congratulation that the receipts for that year had come up to
$56,000—$5,000 more than for the preceding, and $2,000 more than
for any previous year. There had been sixty missionary laborers in
foreign lands, and 112 in our own country, the most of whom were
in the West, and forty of them in Illinois. The churches aided
numbered 140, to which had been added 989 members, of whom 659 came
by profession of faith. Twenty-five revivals were reported. In the
South, North Carolina had one missionary and Kentucky had four, all
of whom were engaged in caring for little churches among the white
people. In a year and a half the war came on, and our missionaries
were driven out of the South. The American Home Missionary Society
had cleared itself, the first of all the national societies, from
complicity with slaveholding, and so the missionary churches of the
A. M. A. at the North and the District Secretary were transferred
to the old society.
Now—after sixteen and a half years—I find myself, by the clearest
drift of Providence, back in the service of the Association. At
its anniversary of 1859, in Chicago, there was a discussion as
to what should come of the A. M. A. when all the societies and
churches should have reached the anti-slavery standard. Some
held that the Association was only a tug to help those noble
crafts out to sea. President Blanchard said, “Yes, a tug; but
when she has got them all over the bar we will change her into
a frigate, to course up and down all the Southern waters.” Last
fall, the Association came back to Syracuse to hold its thirtieth
anniversary, and, sure enough, the tug had come in as a frigate,
with report of engagements all over the South. And so it had been
running for the last twelve years. The Treasurer’s report ran up
to $264,709. Instead of the 112 white churches North, are shown 59
churches among the ex-slaves; also 7 chartered institutions, 14
high and normal schools, with 10,000 scholars, and with 100,000
pupils reached by their teachers. The Indian work abides; the
Chinese has come on. The scheme for evangelizing Africa, by using
the Christianized freedmen, is opening into proportions immensely
beyond the conception of its early movers.
Then—its constituents were individuals, and churches of the more
pronounced abolition sort. Now—since the National Council at
Boston—the Association has been recognized as the agency of the
Congregational churches for doing their work among “the three
despised races.” The old adherents, developed into generous giving
by the necessities of their enterprise, abide with the enthusiasm
of veterans; while now the mass of our people acknowledge
themselves under just as much obligation as they to use this
organization in its peculiar sphere of Christianization at home
and abroad. They find it by Providence marvelously developed and
fitted to its work—tested, toughened and trusted. They hear it said
from without, that our body of churches is doing more and better
work among the freedmen than any other. They find that the old
anti-slavery education in our families had prepared a multitude of
our cultured and consecrated young people to enter this work as
soon as the way was open, even at a salary little above the nominal
rate. And so they find this charge laid upon them and readily
accept the obligation, grateful for the opportunity.
In coming back to this service, I feel that I am only shifting from
the right to the left wing of the home missionary army. No man can
go beyond me in appreciation of the sublime movement represented by
the American Home Missionary Society. But in this other department
I find that most of the same arguments are to be used. Do we call
for the Christianizing of the people of our country? Here are
millions of them at the South in need of that process. Do we plead
for the saving of our country from the spiritual despotism of
Rome? The Jesuits, using hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly,
are scheming to Romanize the congenial material found in the
ex-slaves. Do we appeal in behalf of the political interests of
our country? Here are 1,000,000 black voters who cannot read. Then
by their side, only lower down in the social scale, are 1,100,000
white voters who also cannot read the ballots they are to cast;
and the conviction is now gaining ground that the most effectual,
if not the only way, to lift up that class is to put under them
the leverage of the educated negro. Do we use that grandest
argument—the salvation of our country for the sake of the salvation
of the world? Here in our own land is looming up the most potent
agency for the evangelization of Africa. That despoiled continent
may yet say to her despoilers, “Ye thought evil against me, but God
meant it unto good.”
The A. H. M. S., true to its charter as a national institution,
as soon as war had battered down the walls that were in its way,
sought, with the Philip of its evangelism, to go towards the
South. It explored the chief cities and centres of that region,
and was entering devotedly upon that part of the field. It has
kept pressing every hopeful opening. It will still be true to its
national idea and do all it may be allowed to do there. None feel
more keenly than do its chief officers the chagrin at the few
opportunities afforded and the failure in so many of them. They
have done only their duty in making the costly experiments. And now
the apostolic spirit of our Congregational churches seems to say to
the white people of the South, “Seeing ye count yourselves unworthy
of these good things, lo, we turn to the freedmen.”
If, in some distant part of the globe, a people had just been
discovered, numbering 5,000,000 souls, speaking our own language,
hungering for our ideas, our civilization and our Christianity, it
would thrill the Christian world to go in at once and possess that
land for Christ. That thing we may do in our own country, under our
own flag. And some of us who now, with our years, could not pass
muster to go and cope with a foreign language, have yet not a few
years left in which we may do an essentially foreign missionary
work in our own language, in that tongue, which, more than any
other spoken by man, is freighted with the associations and the
spirit of the Gospel of the Crucified One.
* * * * *
ANNUAL REPORTS NEEDED.
Any of our friends who have the following back numbers of the
Annual Report of the A. M. A. that they can spare, will confer a
favor by sending them to our office as soon as convenient: Numbers
3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 24. We do not ask our friends to
break a set if they are anxious to keep it, but to send any extra
numbers they may have. Without realizing it, we have exhausted our
supply of these numbers, and now wish to make up a few extra sets
to have bound for our own use. As years go by, we learn more and
more the value to us of these old reports.
* * * * *
A GOOD EXAMPLE.
Mrs. Sally Perry died in Boston, Mass., June 17th, aged ninety-one
years. The slaves had a large place in her sympathies, when she
could do little more than offer her prayers in their behalf. But
when the war had set them free, and left her charity at liberty
to enter on practical offices of good will, she eagerly embraced
the opportunity, watching for openings. She read in the AMERICAN
MISSIONARY, for 1866, a call for funds to establish orphan asylums
for the thousands of homeless colored children in the South. She
came to our office in Boston for information in regard to it. The
result was a donation of $500, to found the Brewer Orphan Asylum in
Wilmington, N. C., in memory of her deceased daughter. And, year by
year, while the Asylum existed, she gave it the interest of $2,000,
devised in her will for its benefit.
When the Asylum was no longer needed, the city of Wilmington
undertaking to care for its poor, with the consent of Mrs. Perry,
the funds which she had invested in it were transferred to the
Brewer Normal School in Greenwood, S. C. This school so enlisted
her thoughts and sympathies, that she determined to make over to
it, two years before her death, the amount she had designed for
it at her decease. Accordingly, she paid over to the Association,
for the benefit of the school, two one-thousand-dollar U. S.
Bonds, which realized $2,416.25. The writer remembers how her
face shone after the act was done. Indeed, giving seemed to be,
to her, a supreme luxury. The whole amount which she contributed
to the Association, for its work of physical relief and Christian
education, was not far from $4,000. And the school which she has
left in her daughter’s name, the support of which is mainly from
her bequest, will go on perpetuating her influence for the years
and generations to come. Many, in the great day, will rise up and
call her blessed. Are there not other dear saints of God, friends
of the poor and the needy, who will imitate her spirit and her
example?
* * * * *
THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES.
We attempt to give, though it is difficult, a condensation of the
address made by President BUCKHAM, of Burlington, Vt., at the
Boston Anniversary of the A. M. A., May 29th, 1878. It has been
published in full in the _Congregationalist_, and in pamphlet
form already.
The negro, it must be confessed, has lost the place he once
held as an attractive object of philanthropy. Invested with the
legal rights of a man, and thus by necessity thrust forward into
comparison and competition with other men, he not only exhibits his
inferiority on a conspicuous stage, but manifests some traits which
make him repulsive and odious. The negro cause has thus sunk from
an impassioned crusade to a common-place charity.
The Negro Question.
And yet the Negro Question is still the great American Question.
Perhaps it is with questions like this as with the movements of a
battle; those at a distance see them more clearly than those in the
thick of action. The intelligent Englishman or Frenchman will tell
you in an instant that our great problem is the negro question—the
political, as dependent on the social and moral condition of the
freedmen.
With a population as large as that of the colonies at the
Revolution, with the full privileges of American citizens theirs
by constitutional right, they hold in their hands—the very hands
but recently manacled in cruel and degrading bondage—the balance
of political power in the nation. As parties are now divided,
the supremacy of one or the other depends on the negro vote; and
whether the negro vote shall be the vote _of_ the negro, or merely
the vote _by_ the negro, will depend on the degree of manhood he
reaches through his social and moral condition.
The Southern Solution.
One party in the South, not including the best elements of Southern
society, but for the present the dominant one, has already matured
and avowed its solution of the problem. “The negro,” they say,
“belongs to a race constitutionally and forever inferior—a race
foreordained to serve in some capacity the superior white race.
You have declared by law that he shall not be a chattel; we are
determined that he shall not be more than a serf. Rule over us
he shall not; rule with us he shall not; if he must vote, he
shall vote as we bid him; by all the methods usually employed for
that end wherever caste prevails, by compulsory ignorance, by
superstition, by terrorism, by fraud, when necessary by force, he
shall be compelled to stay in his place as a member of a subject,
an abject race.”
There are others—and it must not be ignored that among them are
some of the leaders of opinion at the South—whose language is less
violent, and whose measures are less threatening, but whose end is
substantially the same. They are willing, possibly I should say
desirous, to better the condition of the negro, so far as to make
him a better laborer, a more thrifty and useful factor in political
economy, a more honest man and a more devout Christian, but with
stringent limitations to his social and political ambition. They
favor education, but an education so controlled by the superior
race, and so differenced from the education given to the children
of this race, that it shall beget no dangerous and revolutionary
aspirations. These men favor religion for the blacks—but such a
religion as shall keep them occupied with emotional fervors and
boisterous bodily exercises, not such as shall encourage thoughtful
study of truth in God’s word and works.
The Christian Solution.
Now, as the policy of the party unfriendly in a greater or
less degree to the freedman, is based on the assumption of his
inferiority, so the policy of his friends and benefactors—and he
has friends at the South as well as at the North—must be based on
the counter assertion of his manhood. It is not necessary—it is
somewhat dogmatic, it is at least premature—to assert his equality
in all respects with the white man. That is an ethnological
question which it may take ages to settle, and when settled it will
be mainly a matter of scientific interest. But that the negro is
a man; that everything distinctively human belongs to him; that
he is capable of improvement; that his intellectual faculties
are expanded, and his moral nature is elevated by means of the
same truths and the same influences which invigorate and enlarge
and fructify the souls of other men, and that he is entitled to
his full share, without stint or reserve, of all the knowledge
and all the human agencies and the divine influences by which
it is ordained that our common humanity shall reach its highest
attainable perfection—this is the broad basis of principle on
which the American Missionary Association, and all true missionary
associations, found their policy in dealing with negroes, as with
all other races of men whom God has made of one blood on all the
face of the earth, and for whose common redemption and perfection
Christ died, who is the Saviour of all men.
But in one sense the freedman is something more than a man; he is
an American citizen; and he is more than an ordinary citizen; he
is a voter. He has been entrusted by the nation with the highly
important duty of giving expression to the municipal, the State,
and the national will in legislative, judicial and executive acts.
He is an integral part of the sovereignty of this nation. We may or
may not think it a national mistake to have made him so important
a functionary. But the negro is here. He is here either to corrupt
our politics, to degrade our social life, to debase our religion,
possibly to drag us into another civil war, if we continue or
repeat in some other form our injustice and tyranny to him; or, he
is here to perform some useful, perhaps some noble, part in the
work of developing a Christian civilization at home and extending
it abroad through the earth, if we are faithful to the trust
committed to us by Providence in him.
The Negro Intellectually.
The question of the negro’s intellectual capacity has almost become
obsolete as a debatable question. Strange that it should ever have
been seriously maintained, that a race which has produced its full
share of the world’s great men all along through history, a race
which has given to the world a Hannibal, an Augustine, a Toussaint,
is a race lacking intellectual capacity. Strange it is, on the
other hand, that a race, however gifted, should, though oppressed
and stupefied by ages of bondage, so frequently throw off minds of
a high order.
If it should be said that these are a few picked men, whose cases
do not indicate the intellectual capacity of the race, I reply
it is only a few picked men of any race who are capable of high
intellectual attainments, and that, because the rarest of talents
is that ambition for high attainments which will carry one through
toils and sacrifices to the far-away prize. I know no better test
of intellectual capacity than the ardent desire for knowledge, and
that desire the freedmen have in a remarkable degree. When the
freedman spelt out, by the light of his pine-torch, the words:
“Thou God seest me,” and then jumped to his feet and exclaimed:
“John Martin, you can read! John Martin, you are a man!” he
uttered a truth which too few of the boasted superior race so well
appreciate—that manhood comes from power to appropriate great
ideas. There is no doubt that the returns for money invested in
freedmen’s schools are large. No one can read the accounts sent
to us by teachers in these schools, and doubt that. The soil is
a virgin one, and yields great crops for a small outlay. Think
what the Peabody Fund is doing for the whole South! Think how
wide-reaching would be the effects of a few thousand dollars put
into the colleges at Atlanta, Berea and Nashville, where it might
be hoped that almost every single dollar would quicken some mind
which else were benighted, but which, if enlightened, might carry
light to hundreds of benighted minds.
The Negro’s Moral Capacity.
If the negro had come out of this long, cruel bondage without being
terribly degraded morally; if, as some pretend, his moral nature
had been under an elevating discipline, then had slavery not been
“the sum of all villainies.” But there is no denying that the
American negro bears the marks of his bondage, in his indolence,
his untruthfulness, his dishonesty, his animalism. But these are
all vices of the slaves, not of the men; of the condition, not of
the race. The possibilities of the negro nature are to be estimated
by its highest actual attainments in the most favored individuals.
Two of the noblest races of history have come from an ancestry less
promising than our Southern freedmen—the Israelites and our own
ancestors.
He would be a daring prophet who, in face of these examples, and of
the instances of moral greatness actually produced by this race,
should assert that something noble in character, some unique type
of spiritual excellence, some splendid order of manhood, may not
yet emerge from this now degraded and unpromising race. What the
nature, the moral capacity of the American negro is, future ages
will determine; and if we believe that God made him and gave him
his nature, with all its unrealized possibilities, it surely cannot
be hard for us to believe that there is for him a glorious future
of moral and spiritual character.
Our Hope in Schools and Churches.
To the schools and to the churches, then, of the South we look as
the hope of this race. But there are schools, and schools; there
are churches, and churches; and everything depends on the kinds of
schools and churches they have.
Depend upon it, unless we help the negroes to establish schools
which will impart the kind of education which will give them
intelligence and thrift, which will bring to them a consciousness
of their resources and ambition to use them to the utmost, and
thus raise themselves in the social and political scale, others
will see to it that schools are established which, in response to
their cry for knowledge, shall keep the word of promise to their
ear, and break it to their hope; which shall give them the kind
of education that occupies and amuses the mind without developing
it, and that will leave them fit subjects for the ecclesiastical
and political yoke which has even now been prepared for them. And,
unless we plant churches among them, which shall aim to consecrate
and employ in Christ’s service heart, soul, mind and strength—the
whole man and all his capacities—others will see to it that
churches are established which, appealing to his love of display
and big responsiveness to sensational and dramatic demonstrations,
shall keep him a child forever, submissive to his self-constituted
masters at home and abroad.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
WILMINGTON, N. C.—“Applications for next school-term are coming in.
The students don’t mean to be caught as they were last year. I had
to refuse so many for want of room.”
ATLANTA, GA.—There are known to be more than 142 of the present
pupils of Atlanta University engaged in teaching during their
three months’ vacation. This short term is all the present school
system of Georgia contemplates during the year. Although many are
prepared every year to take up the work, the demand is constantly
larger than the supply. A short time since, application was made
at the institution for three teachers in one day, to take schools
already organized in the country, and none could be found to go.
One graduate of the school, who has taught a school of his own in
the southern part of the State for two years past, has raised up
the present teachers of nearly every school in two counties, and a
large part of those in seven others.
BYRON, GA.—Four persons united with the church, July 7th. One
infant was baptized. Many are inquiring the way of life. A woman’s
prayer-meeting is held every week. The Sunday-school numbers
fifty-two.
WOODVILLE, GA.—Pilgrim Church has started a mission at Five-mile
Bend, which promises well. They have licensed a brother to preach
there. Mr. Sengstacke preaches there once or twice a month. Since
last March thirty-five persons have been added to the church.
GEORGIA.—The railroads diverging from Atlanta generously passed
at reduced rates the students of Atlanta University, after
Commencement, to their homes and schools in the country. This
reduction on one line, and on one trip, resulted in a saving to the
students of a hundred and thirty-two dollars, a sum sufficient to
pay the board and tuition of a student in that institution one year
and two months.
ATHENS, ALA.—At the July communion, six children were baptized in
Trinity Congregational Church. Two cases of discipline have just
been issued. Rev. Horace J. Taylor is pastor.
NASHVILLE, TENN.—Nathaniel Nurse, a student of Fisk University, has
been appointed a city missionary.
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
—The Atlanta _Republican_ says that, in proportion to their means,
the colored people of that city are paying a much heavier tax than
the whites, while their school facilities are far inferior. It also
alleges that the hostility of the mayor to the colored school is
evidenced by the removal of their best teachers, and especially of
those who have gone thither from the North.
* * * * *
—Catlin says that the Indians preserve their health by keeping
their mouths shut. Some pale-faces might preserve their spiritual
health by observing the same rule.—_Christian at Work._
—“It is a singular _non sequitur_ to refer to the discovery
of frauds made by the Interior Department, as proofs of its
inefficiency and unsuitableness to conduct the service, when, in
fact, they are proofs of exactly the opposite.”—_Independent._
—The following resolutions, written by men who have worked in
Oregon and Washington for thirty years, and who ought to know
something about this question, were unanimously adopted by the
Oregon Congregational Association:
“_Resolved_, That the Association affirm its faith in the
redemption of the Indian from barbarism.
“_Resolved_, That we deplore the policy that tends to his
extermination.
“_Resolved_, That the provisions of the Constitution, and the acts
of Congress, and the pledges of treaties, furnish a strong motive
for effort on the part of the friends of the Indian to secure him a
homestead and citizenship as the best way to secure his rights in
law, and promote his manhood and his welfare permanently, and
“_Whereas_, There is now a proposition in Congress to consolidate
the various reservations in Oregon and Washington Territory,
without regard to the previous labor and rights of the Indians, and
without their consent, and
“_Whereas_, We believe such consolidation would be unjust to the
Indians, dangerous to the surrounding settlers, and, in the end,
of vast expense to the government, as well as a great hindrance to
the civilization of the Indians physically, mentally and morally,
therefore,
“_Resolved_, That before any consolidation takes place, we
earnestly urge upon Congress the necessity of now, by positive act,
granting to the Indians of industrious habits, on the reservations,
homestead titles to their lands in severalty.
“_Resolved_, That the recommendation of the Secretary of the
Interior, that boarding schools be established among Indians for
the better training of their children, meets our convictions of
what is needed.
“_Resolved_, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the
Secretary of the Interior.”
—General Crook is reported to have said, recently, to a newspaper
man, “It is hard to be forced to kill the Indians when they are
clearly in the right.”
—The question of Indian loyalty or revolt is generally decided by
our treatment of them. If served by capable and faithful agents,
supplied according to agreement, and protected from whiskey-dealing
traders, they are peaceable and friendly. If defrauded of their
rights, starved, and driven from place to place, they become “bad
Indians,” and who wouldn’t? Witness the contrast between the Piutes
and Shoshones, of Nevada, and the Bannocks.
—The Bannock war would seem to be nearly over. An official report
announces that the Bannocks and Piutes have separated, and are
fleeing, apparently towards their reservations or former haunts.
Wheaton, and the boats on the Columbia, with Bernard and Forsythe
pressing from other points, all under the direction of General
Howard, who also operated separately with a small force of cavalry,
prevented the intended crossing of the Columbia, and an escape
into Washington Territory and the British Provinces. Settlers in
the vicinity of Camas Prairie are now in terror from the returning
Bannocks. Well they may be. The war began in connection with
an attempt of these Indians to go back from their Fort Hall
reservation, when nearly starved, to dig the camas, a nutritious
root, from which that region is named. The white inhabitants
objected, as they wanted the roots for their hogs. A difficulty
arose, a white man was killed, the military was called upon,
and, though the tribe did not justify the killing, nor shield
the murderer, yet proceeded to inflict punishment upon the whole
tribe by taking their horses and guns—largely their dependence for
subsistence.—_Advance._
* * * * *
—The President is said to be making careful inquiries into the
facts as to the immigration of Chinamen to our Pacific Coast, and
to purpose a special message to the next Congress on the subject.
He has been reported as favoring its limitation by modification of
the Burlingame treaty.
—On the 19th of July, Judge Belden, of the District Court, rendered
a decision important to the interests of Chinese labor on the
Pacific Coast, declaring the exorbitant license tax on Chinese
laundries, of twenty dollars a month, to be void, and payments
made recoverable, on the ground that such charges were excessive,
disproportionate, and derogatory to fundamental principles of just
government.
—Twenty-five Chinese laborers sailed July 19th for Peru, to work
on a sugar estate. They are guaranteed prompt payment of sixteen
dollars a month, and good treatment. Others will probably follow
them.
—Judge Choate, of the United States District Court, ruled, July
10th, that a Chinaman cannot be naturalized under the laws of
the United States. The application was made by a Chinaman known
as Charles Miller, who has lived in New York for twenty-eight
years. Judge Choate was guided by the decision of Judge Sawyer,
of California, in the Ah Yup case, when thirteen hundred Chinamen
petitioned that schools might be provided for them, as for Indians
and negroes, and showed that in San Francisco alone they were
paying $42,000 in school taxes. Their request was not granted,
although it merely asked the carrying out of a provision of the
State Constitution which the honorable gentleman had sworn to obey.
—Colonel F. A. Bee, attorney for the Chinese six companies,
declares, upon official records, that during the past two years,
up to June 1, the emigration and death-rate of the Chinese have
exceeded the immigration by about 500; and that the entire number
of Chinese residents on the Pacific Coast, as shown on the
registers of the six companies, does not exceed 65,000.
THE FREEDMEN.
SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE IN ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.
BY REV. HORACE BUMSTEAD.
During a portion of the past school-year a plan of systematic
beneficence has been in operation among the scholars and teachers
of Atlanta University. It was undertaken largely as an experiment,
and with many misgivings as to the results. Its success has been
so gratifying as to suggest the possibility that other schools and
churches in this missionary field might like to introduce it, if
made acquainted with its practical workings.
THE PLAN.—This is set forth in the following recommendations,
drawn up by a committee of teachers and scholars, and adopted by a
unanimous vote of the school:—
“1. That we recognize more fully the duty and privilege of
systematic giving.
“2. That during the remainder of the school-year we make
twenty-five weekly offerings of money at the Friday afternoon
meeting, to aid in paying the debt of the A. M. A.
“3. That all persons connected with the school be invited to hand
in on slips of paper, to be provided, a statement of the amount
which they will endeavor to give weekly.
“4. That all persons handing in these statements be provided
with envelopes in which to deposit the weekly amount; and that
envelopes be furnished also to any who may desire to give as they
are able, without stating beforehand a definite amount.
“5. That any persons who prefer to devote their offerings to
any other benevolent object than the one already suggested, be
allowed to do so by giving timely notice of their desire.
“6. That arrangements be made for furnishing cents in exchange
for larger coins, so that all may be enabled to give as small
sums as they wish.
“7. That an account be kept with each holder of an envelope
showing the amount given by each.
“8. That some person be appointed by the president to superintend
the execution of this plan.”
ITS OBJECT.—We desired not so much to raise a large sum of money
as to cultivate the habit of giving with thoughtfulness and
regularity. The value of this habit we sought to impress upon our
scholars in several prayer-meeting talks when the subject was under
consideration. If each one gave only one cent a week, the _habit_
of giving would be acquired, and this would be worth acquiring.
We wished also to encourage the idea that benevolent giving is
a fitting act of Divine worship. Our offerings were made at the
weekly school prayer-meeting on Friday afternoon, and were always
preceded by a short prayer of consecration from the president.
ITS FREEDOM.—So far as possible the word “pledge” was avoided in
presenting the matter to the school. Each person was asked to
consider carefully how much he was able and willing to give. The
handing in of a statement of his resolve to give so much per week
was designed chiefly to secure a thoughtful decision on the part of
each one. If any preferred not to do this they could still receive
an envelope and give what they liked from week to week. The keeping
of the record was not for the purpose of dunning delinquents; this
was never done. Undoubtedly, however, the mere fact that the record
was kept proved a stimulus to regularity in making the offerings,
and made it possible to tell any donor at any time how much he had
paid or had yet to pay. If any one desired to change the amount of
his offering, or to discontinue it altogether, he was met with no
remonstrance. While it was suggested that the offerings be devoted
to the debt of the A. M. A., full opportunity was given to each
one to contribute to any other object that he might select. The
scholars were especially urged not to be ashamed to give a small
sum if they could not give more. In a word, the whole management
of the plan was designed to be helpful rather than dictatorial or
inquisitive.
ITS DETAILS.—These may be skipped by those not specially
interested. One thousand strong Manilla envelopes, of the size
represented below, were bought for eighty-five cents, and five
hundred of them were printed, with the dates of the twenty-five
weekly offerings, at an expense of one dollar. A blank cash
book, with stiff covers, was bought for twenty-five cents, and a
conductor’s punch for a dollar and a quarter. Thus, the cost of the
outfit was but $3.35, and we have the book and punch for indefinite
use, and envelopes enough for another year or more.
There being no cents in general circulation in Atlanta, several
dollars’ worth were procured from the Post Office. Every Friday
morning, for half an hour before school, the “money-changer” sat at
his table in one of the school halls and gave pennies in exchange
for nickels and dimes. The sight of him, by the way, proved a very
serviceable reminder to the scholars that the day of the offering
had come.
Each person was provided with only one envelope, to be used over
and over again. In case of loss a new one was cheerfully given. On
the envelope, between the columns of printed dates, are written
his name, the number of the name in the record book, and the page
where found, and a letter indicating the school-room or department
to which he belongs. On the inside of the flap is written the
number of cents he is to give weekly, or an interrogative mark if
no definite sum has been stated. When the holder of the envelope
receives it again, he finds a little hole punched opposite the date
which his last payment has covered; this constitutes his receipt,
and the unpunched dates show how many more offerings he has to make.
[Illustration]
George Brown, for example, has made ten offerings, and has fifteen
yet to make. His name is numbered “46” on page “8” of the record
book, and he is to receive his envelope back in the Middle (“M”)
school-room, where he studies.