VOL. XXXIII. No. 7.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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“To the Poor the Gospel Preached.”
* * * * *
JULY, 1879.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
PARAGRAPHS 193
SIGNS OF THE TIMES 194
RESPONSIBILITY OF ANSWERED PRAYER: Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D. 195
AFRICA IN AMERICA AND AMERICA IN AFRICA 196
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH: Rev. C. L. Woodworth 197
GENERAL NOTES 198
OUR QUERY COLUMN 201
THE FREEDMEN.
THE HAMPTON ANNIVERSARY: By the Editor 201
FISK UNIVERSITY——Increasing favor——Closing days 205
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT 207
TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT 208
HOWARD UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT 210
BEACH INSTITUTE——Year’s Work 211
GEORGIA——NO. 1 MILLER’S STATION——Work——Temperance——
Superstition 212
TENNESSEE, MEMPHIS——The Kansas Fever——Le Moyne School 213
THE CHINESE.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND OUR MISSIONARY WORK 215
THE CHILDREN’S PAGE 217
RECEIPTS 218
CONSTITUTION 221
WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. 222
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
American Missionary Association,
56 READE STREET, N. Y.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
Wm. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ct.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
EDWARD BEECHER,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
E. A. GRAVES,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAM’L HOLMES,
S. S. JOCELYN,
ANDREW LESTER,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to
either of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the
“American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York
Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 56 Reade
Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch
Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West
Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each
letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in
which it is located.
* * * * *
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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VOL. XXXIII. JULY, 1879. No. 7.
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American Missionary Association.
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The time has come when our schools at the South are closing the
year’s work. In this number will be found communications from
Hampton, Fisk, Straight, Tougaloo, Howard, and Beach. All of them
give reports encouraging and hopeful. The change wrought in those
who go forth from these institutions by their few years of study
and discipline is marvelous, and the contrast in all the course
and influence of their lives with what it might have been may well
satisfy all who have taken part in so good a work.
* * * * *
The Boston anniversary day has come and gone again. The last hour
of the morning was given to the work of this Association. Secretary
Woodworth read a brief report of work. Rev. P. B. Davis, of Hyde
Park, spoke from his observations in a recent tour among our
schools and churches. Rev. Albert H. Heath, of New Bedford, spoke
of this continent as the mens’ battle-ground for the settlement of
the great questions which have never been decided, and argued that,
having the opportunity and the ability, we are under obligation to
help the three despised races.
* * * * *
We have no word to say in favor of intermarriage between whites
and blacks in our country, but we desire to say an earnest word
against the laws of Virginia in the South and of at least one State
in the North, which makes a marriage between such parties a cause
of imprisonment, but permits them to live together in illicit
relations unpunished. The best restraint upon such miscegenation
will be by punishing it when unlimited by law, and only allowing it
when it does not violate the law of God.
* * * * *
A few barrels of clothing have been received by us for the Freedmen
in Kansas. We forwarded them to the Kansas Freedmen’s Relief
Association at Topeka, and have received their acknowledgments and
thanks. Governor St. John, who is the President of the Association,
in a recent letter says:
“Between three and four thousand refugees have arrived in Kansas,
and have been distributed to various portions of the State, and I
think, perhaps with the exception of say not to exceed one hundred
of the entire number, they are now making their own living, and
getting along without asking or receiving aid. I am inclined to the
opinion that the rush is over for the present, but will be renewed
again in the fall; meantime, no doubt there will be small numbers
coming in from time to time, but I think, as a general rule, will
not require much aid. There are now between two and three hundred
on the banks of the lower Mississippi desiring to come here,
but the boats refuse to bring them. I think it very likely that
measures will be resorted to that will end in transporting these
people to the North, and in all probability to Kansas, and it is
very likely that within the next few weeks they will have to be
provided for.”
* * * * *
One of the best ways of aiding the poor negroes in Kansas, or
anywhere else, has been devised by Mr. Montgomery, a colored
planter in Mississippi. Visiting Kansas, he bought a section of
land in Wabaunsee county. Four other sections have been divided
into forty-acre tracts, and a colony of about fifty families will
be established upon them. Until the colonists get their little
farms in order, they will be given employment upon Mr. Montgomery’s
640 acres, and will thus be able to earn enough for their support.
The settlers agree to pay $2.65 an acre for their land with 7 per
cent. interest. Could there be a simpler or better way devised of
helping poor immigrants or poor citizens to help themselves?
* * * * *
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
It seems to be a day of great bequests. While our country and
others as well have been straitened by hard times, fortunes well
planted have been growing silently, and those who have watched over
them have been devising liberal things. The estate of Daniel Stone
of Massachusetts, yields $1,000,000 for educational endowments;
that of Asa Otis of Connecticut, at least $1,000,000 for foreign
missions. Judge Packer of Pennsylvania leaves $2,000,000 to the
Lehigh University; this in addition to $1,000,000 which it cost
to found the institution. Gardiner Colby of Boston directs nearly
$400,000 to be distributed among various Baptist institutions
and societies. Dr. Hugh Miller of Scotland leaves some $140,000
for missionary purposes. Nor can we fail to mention here the
$100,000 which Mr. Robert Arthington of England has given or
offered to British and American missionary societies, of at least
four denominations of Christians, for the planting of missionary
enterprises in Equatorial Africa. The estate of Mr. R. R. Graves
of New York, in addition to large gifts already made, has nearly
$100,000 in process of distribution mainly for work in the South.
These and others like them are significant facts, that from so many
sources there should have been such large appropriations to such
good work.
We are led to look, therefore, to the other end of the line. What
is the motive which has moved these stewards of God to turn their
benefactions in such directions in so large a measure? Rather, we
ask, what is the corresponding providence which has called for
them, or the preparation which has been making far away for their
wise use, the signs of which were not seen, perhaps, by the givers
at the time when they were thus carrying out the Lord’s will? What
is the significance of it all in the divine plan?
Is it not that the world is suddenly opening for missionary work
as perhaps never before in all its history? that in more than one
direction the long twilight which has been slowly creeping over
the eastern sky is breaking in a moment into glorious dawn? that
the seed which has been growing secretly these many days has come
to be the bud, and now is bursting into the flower? Such crises do
come in the history of God’s world, in the progress of the Gospel
of his Son.
Three illustrations of this truth are just now conspicuous——India
is clamoring for the Gospel; missionaries are beset with eager
throngs begging for the bread of life; whole villages are calling
each for a Christian teacher to come and dwell among them and
lead them to the Christ. Thousands have been baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus during the past year. Japan, too, which
succeeded in keeping itself secluded from all interference from
without until so late a day, has taken down its official threats
published at every crossroad against “the Jesus religion,” and,
as it throws away its idol gods, is ready to accept either the
materialism or the Christianity of Europe and America; and Africa
is no longer a region of unexplored darkness, but has been forced
to give up its secrets to the Christian explorer as well as to
the Arab slave-trader, who heretofore alone has shared them with
the aborigines. Africa is known, and already has followed the
death-blow to the internal traffic in human life; missionary
expeditions are winding along its rivers and across its swamps,
and, with the Arab out, the Christian may come in. For us, this
last great continent is of peculiar interest, and its opening
lends a new and wider meaning and reach to the work we have been
patiently doing in the South? Are not these the complementing facts
which stand over against those stated first, and which explain them?
God has brought his church into a crisis by which he will try its
faith and its faithfulness. He has opened the doors wide for its
entrance into new fields. No longer does the missionary have to
push himself into the midst of heathendom; but the cry is heard on
every side, “Come over and help us.” And then the Lord of both the
fields and the fountains has shown us by these illustrious examples
of both the living and the dead, how he looks to the men who hold
his wealth to administer their trusts, and to lead on the hosts
of those who may swell the stream with much or little, as he has
prospered them. Will the church of Christ bear the testing? Let us
hope that these large gifts are only the great drops which tell us
of the coming shower which shall fill all the pools. Nay, rather,
let us pray that this may be the beginning of “the latter rain.”
* * * * *
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ANSWERED PRAYER.
The obligation which comes from offered prayer is apparent. It
implies a complete subordination of our will to God’s will——a
readiness for any self-denial and effort on our part necessary to
the answer, through whatever trying ordeal that answer may come.
But the process is essential to the result.
Once answered, the prayer brings the additional responsibility of
walking in its light. We find ourselves straggling within the toils
of some disaster. We ask the Lord, “How is this?” He gradually
unfolds the meaning as indicating some transition in His plan for
our life. Having carried us safely through, and having set us
surely in the line of the new departure, He expects us to take up
the full measure of its obligation. When, with Saul of Tarsus, we
are dazed by the new experience and cry out, Lord, what wilt thou
have us to do? we are, with him, to accept the labor and sacrifice
implied thereby. David puts it thus: “I will pay Thee my vows
which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in
trouble.” Hannah, with her prayer answered in the gift of a son,
must fulfil her vow in devoting him to the service of the Lord. For
a long time God’s people were praying Him to open the way among
the nations for the entrance of the Gospel of his Son. He answered
by setting open the door to every land and to every island of the
sea. It is our duty to enter and occupy. If we do not, we are
grossly disobedient to the heavenly vision; we are found guilty of
deserting in the battle of the great day of the Lord Almighty. The
Christian world now rests under this obligation.
We wrestled with God in prayer for the deliverance of our brethren
in bonds. We cried, Oh Lord, how long! how long! The answer came
by terrible things in righteousness. We had scarcely expected
to see it in our day. Our thought had stopped with the great
burden of emancipation. Our vision scarcely took in the mountain
of obligation looming in the horizon of our answered prayer. We
thought that if we could only see our country delivered from its
crime and shame of oppression, the millennium would be near at
hand. We had not yet taken upon our hearts the burden of lifting up
the emancipated race. We had not yet received our divine commission
to lead this people through their forty years of training into the
citizenship of the republic and of the kingdom of God. But this
was all implied in the answering of our prayer. We asked for this
child of liberty, and now it is but the instinct of nature and
the demand of reason that we meet the obligation of its nurture.
We prayed that the slaves might be set free, and this implies
that we make good the conditions of freedom. In the words of the
martyr-President, they are “the wards of the nation.” So also are
they the children of the Church, given in answer to prayer, to be
nourished into Christian character for service in this their native
land and in the country of their ancestral home.
J. E. ROY.
* * * * *
AFRICA IN AMERICA AND AMERICA IN AFRICA.
We are glad to print the following letter, from an intelligent
friend in New England, to a member of our Executive Committee:
MY DEAR SIR:
I have received and read with interest the paper you have sent me
in relation to Africa and the colored people.
It has seemed to me a very remarkable indication of God’s
recognition of His promise, “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands,”
that the two great events of recent years——the abolition of
American slavery, and the brilliant explorations and discoveries in
Africa, which have become epochs in history——have occurred nearly
simultaneously; and the higher education of the colored young
men and women seems to have progressed in relative proportion to
the further opening up of Africa, with its immense population,
suffering, dying for the Word of Life.
The climate of tropical Africa, taken as a whole, is evidently
fatal to the white man. There is a region about those large
interior lakes, though under the equator, which from its altitude
(4,600 feet above the ocean level) at the Victoria Nyanza, is
represented by Mr. Stanley to be salubrious. But the climate, even
in this most highly favored part of the African continent, is
enervating and ultimately destructive to the life of the white man.
The missions upon the West Coast of Africa have been conducted for
the past hundred years at a fearful sacrifice of the lives of white
missionaries.
We may not forecast events for the Providence of God to follow. We
do our duty when we faithfully perform the work He assigns us. But
I cannot exclude the thought from my mind, that sometime at the
proper time, the children of Africa now natives of our own country,
must be prepared by education and the Spirit of God to go with
hearts of love, laden with the Gospel of Peace, to their own race
in Africa, and elevate them from their degradation and barbarity,
to the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free.
I feel deeply the wrongs which have been perpetrated upon poor,
suffering, abused, down-trodden, defenceless Africa. Her country
has been the foraging field for the violent, the cruel and
bloody-minded for centuries. A dim light now dawns upon it. The
slave trade is nearly, perhaps quite suppressed. A million of
philanthropic hearts are beating high with earnest desire to repair
the wrongs which inhumanity has inflicted upon it. God grant that
the sun of righteousness may soon arise upon that benighted land.
The American Missionary Association is doing a noble work in the
schools it has inaugurated for the education of colored young men
and women to be teachers and missionaries, and should receive
increased subscriptions from our New England States.
G. M.
* * * * *
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.
4. Its Opportunities.
DIST. SEC. C. L. WOODWORTH, BOSTON.
We have now reached the point where attention may be well directed
to the opportunity of Congregationalism for enlargement, and so
for greater usefulness in the Southern States, and especially
among the blacks. If the claim that our faith and polity lie in
the very letter as well as spirit of the New Testament be anything
more than pretense, then it is nothing less than cowardice to
consent that either should be limited by lines of latitude. The
other denominations have spread over the country, and have aspired
to a national name and influence; but Congregationalism, until
within thirty years, had hardly set foot outside of New England.
It had clung to the early home, and lingered among the graves
of the fathers, while other churches were pressing across the
continent. Late in the contest it joined the grand march of the
churches Westward, and has shown what fine work she can do as an
educator and civilizer. Now the door opens Southward, and she will
be recreant to every call of duty, to every impulse of patriotism
and religion, if she does not widen her borders and diffuse her
influence in that direction. The opportunity is before her for
enlargement to the full dimensions of our country, and she should
be satisfied with nothing less. The church of the Pilgrims has a
right to a national name——the South has a right to any good she may
have to bestow.
It has been intimated, indeed, that other churches hold the field,
and that ours has no right to intrude. If the churches on the
ground had fairly done all the work——had enlightened the ignorant,
had lifted the degraded——there would be some place for such a
sentiment. It may seem a cheap and almost contemptible thing to
enter the South through the negro cabins and offer the poorest of
the poor our culture and our faith. But nothing is contemptible
that bears the image of the Son of God or carries His sanction. We
simply follow the spirit of His own command: “If they receive you
not in one city, flee ye into another.” We have no disposition to
discriminate against the whites, but when they discriminate against
themselves we have no alternative but to turn to the blacks. And
perhaps it is as well; for if the whites had opened their hearts
and their homes to receive us, what would have become of the race
that needs us most of all; that showed such hunger for knowledge
and eagerness for teachers as perhaps was never before seen in the
history of races? As it is now, we can lay foundations at the very
bottom of Southern society. It is an opportunity to be useful to
those who have made themselves useful to us.
They see in our teachers and missionaries the practical
illustration of human brotherhood; and they find that just so far
as the doctrines we teach prevail, they are recognized as men. They
only need to know us fully, to turn to us by thousands.
We have an immense advantage in this work, too, because we are
not hampered by any connection with the old colored churches, and
are not tempted to cater to their superstition and confusion in
worship. The temptation to count members in the Annual Report, and
to sweep whole congregations into the church, is very great; but,
fortunately, it has not lain in our path. There were no Southern
Congregational churches, and so there were no churches of our name
for which we were held responsible. It was our work to prepare a
pure and intelligent seed with which to plant the Southern field.
We antagonized no other church; “the land was all before us where
to choose.” The 5,300 laborers we have sent into the South during
these seventeen years were for the negro race; and the 2,000 more
we have raised up out of that race are for the instruction of their
people. The foundations we have laid, therefore, have been broad,
and just those needed to start the race upward.
To those who are intent on merely propagating an _ism_, the results
up to this time may seem small compared with the outlay of men and
money; but to those who look deeper, the results cannot be counted
in numbers of schools or churches; the churches founded represent
but a part of the spiritual outcome. The old churches have been
wonderfully quickened and elevated by the incoming of large numbers
of youths brought to Christ under our teaching; these have carried
back a more intelligent piety and a severer standard of morals.
Such a result was to be expected, and, if the old churches are to
be purified and saved, is not to be regretted. In estimating the
good done, therefore, we must take into account not merely the new
churches planted, but the old ones enlightened and cleansed. Our
mission has been, and may be, largely to leaven the old, while we
build up, over the South, the churches and schools to serve as
lights and guides of the people into the new and nobler future.
We oppose nothing that is good; we come with no Northern name to
antagonize a Southern one; we come as a new spiritual force to help
all true churches, and all good people, in working out the problem
of the negro’s salvation. Our right to go, then, is the right to do
good as we have opportunity; is to take advantage of most favoring
circumstances for enlargement and usefulness.
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
——A National Colored Convention met in Nashville, Tenn., May 6th,
and continued in session four days. It was a body thoroughly in
earnest and deeply impressed with a sense of the wrongs endured by
the people of whom they were the representatives from all parts
of the South. In an address to the country, adopted by them, they
speak as follows in regard to their political condition: “Wholly
unbiased by party considerations, we contemplate the lamentable
political condition of our people, especially in the South, with
grave and serious apprehensions for the future. Having been given
the ballot for the protection of our rights, we find, through
systematic intimidation, outrage, violence and murder, our votes
have been suppressed, and the power thus given us has been made a
weapon against us.” In regard to the recent emigration they say in
the same address: “The migration of the colored people now going on
has assumed such proportions as to demand the calm and deliberate
consideration of every thoughtful citizen of the country. It is
the result of no idle curiosity or disposition to evade labor.
It proceeds upon the assumption that there is a combination of
well-planned and systematic purposes to still further abridge their
rights and reduce them to a state of actual serfdom. If their labor
is valuable it should be respected. If it be demonstrated that it
cannot command respect in the South, there is one alternative, and
that is to emigrate.”
At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at its recent
meeting at Saratoga, the report of the Committee on Missions for
Freedmen, contained the following items: receipts from churches,
$52,921.93; receipts from the State School funds, $4,246.00;
expenditures on account of missions, $40,360.27. There are 48
ordained missionaries (of whom 34 are colored), 9 licentiates, 25
catechists (all colored), and 58 teachers (of whom 36 are colored).
Eight churches were organized last year, and 1,215 communicants
were received. The whole number of communicants is 10,577. The
total amount paid for self-support by churches and schools is
$18,611.55. It was determined not to transfer this department to
the Home Missionary Board.
* * * * *
The Indians.
——Judge Dundy, of the U. S. Court at Omaha, has made a decision
which, if confirmed by the Circuit Court to which an appeal has
been taken, will greatly change the status of the Indians. It
declares the reservation plan a nullity, and that Indians cannot
be held within certain boundaries. It was made in regard to the
Poncas, who were removed two years ago against their will to the
Indian Territory. A small number returned this spring to Nebraska,
where, though peaceably engaged in agriculture, they were arrested
by Gen. Crook and taken back to the Territory. On a writ of
habeas corpus, sued out for their relief, the judge decided that
the Indian is a “person” within the meaning of the laws of the
United States, and has rights under the laws; that Indians possess
the inherent right of expatriation, as well as the white race,
and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, so long as they obey the laws; that no rightful
authority exists for removing by force any of these Poncas to the
Indian Territory, as Gen. Crook had been directed to do, and that
being unlawfully restrained of liberty, they must be discharged.
If this decision be confirmed and the principle established, the
results will be far-reaching.
——A prominent citizen of Southern Kansas asserts that not less than
5,000 white persons are now in the Indian Territory. A despatch
from Independence, dated May 5, says: “Over 150 wagons passed into
the Indian Territory southwest of this point yesterday.”
* * * * *
The Chinese.
——Gen. Grant, in responding to a cordial reception given him by the
Chinese merchants of Penang, said that he never doubted, and no one
could doubt, that, in the end, no matter what agitation might for
the time being effect at home, the American people would treat the
Chinese with kindness and justice, and not deny to the free and
deserving people of that country the asylum they offer to the rest
of the world.
——The bill introduced into the Senate by Slater, of Oregon, seems
to be of some interest to the Chinaman in America. It provides that
after July 1, 1880, no Chinaman shall be allowed to “engage in,
carry on, or work at any manufacturing or mechanical business, or
to own or lease, carry on or work any mine, or to own or lease any
real estate for any other purpose than that of lawful commerce and
for places of residence.” As if this were not enough, the Chinaman
is forbidden to “work or engage to work as mechanic, artisan,
laborer, waiter, servant, cook, clerk or messenger, or in any other
capacity or at any other kind of labor, skilled or unskilled.” And
there is a heavy penalty inflicted upon the Chinaman or American
citizen who violates it. If such a bill should become a law there
would be nothing left for the Chinaman to do except to climb a tree
and stay there.
* * * * *
Africa.
——The London Missionary Society has received advices dated Jan.
23d, from Mr. Dodgshun. Preparations for proceeding to the lake
from Kirasa were begun in June, 1878. Various delays have made
progress very slow, as lack of porters and war between Mirambo
and the Arabs, and Mr. D. had only then reached Unyanyembe.
Meanwhile, three of the six who set out in August, ’77, were left
on the field, and they the juniors of the expedition. Messrs. Hore
and Hutley are at Ujiji. Two students of the Society have been
appointed to join the force——Rev. W. Griffith and Mr. Southon,
M. D. Dr. Mullens, the Foreign Secretary of the Society, offered
himself to lead the new expedition. The Directors allowed him to go
as far as Zanzibar, hoping that it would not be necessary for him
to go farther. Central Africa seems yet to be a great way off.
——The following illustrates the exposure of African missionaries
to suspicion and violence: “At Mukondoku in Ugogo we were within
an ace of being attacked by over 100 of the natives, fully armed,
and thirsting for the blood of the white men. Their only ground
of complaint was that M. Broyon’s little child had lost a toy——an
indiarubber doll——in our camp, which they found, and persisted in
calling ‘medicine to ruin their country!’ When convinced that they
were wrong, and that we had not the slightest wish to injure them,
they only grew the more violent, and told the pagazi to leave us
alone that they might kill us. A heavy payment of cloth smoothed
the way for peace, but we fully expected to have to fight for our
lives, as we had not a single man to be depended on to stand by us.”
——Mr. Mackay, of the C. M. S., at Lake Nyanza, writes that after
his two years’ march he found the goods of the expedition in
safety, but mixed in indiscriminate confusion. Ten days brought
some order out of this chaos. The engines are complete, and almost
everything, though divided into 70 lb. parcels for the journey of
700 miles, is at hand and in place.
——Mr. Mackay speaks thus of the evil of intemperance in Africa:
“Oh, how often will I enter in my journal, as I pass through many
tribes, Drink is the curse of Africa! Useguha, Usagara, Ugogo,
Unyamwezi, Usukuma, Ukerewe, and Uganda too——go where you will, you
will find every week, and, when grain is plentiful, every night,
every man, woman and child, even to sucking infant, reeling with
the effects of alcohol. On this account chiefly I have become a
teetotaler on leaving the coast, and have continued so ever since.
I believe, also, that abstinence is the true secret of continued
and unimpaired health in the tropics. Whoever wishes to introduce
civilization into Africa, let a _sina quâ non_ of the enterprise be
that its members be total abstainers.”
——The expedition, under Dr. Laus, to explore the west side of Lake
Nyassa, returned in December. Livingstonia is proving a city of
refuge to natives escaping from slavery. The health record is good.
——“In Western Africa the climate is still our great difficulty.
It cripples our work by prostrating our men. The Gambia Mission
has been almost entirely deprived of its Missionaries during the
year from this cause, and the River Mission has been obliged to
be suspended. The Committee would gladly diminish, if possible,
these risks, and improve the chances of health, and attention is
being given to this subject; but the need is being felt more and
more keenly every year of adequate and well-furnished institutions,
in which _the African shall be trained to win Africa for Christ._
The education of the girls, the women of the future, is also
most desirable here.”——_From the Annual Report of the Wesleyan
Missionary Society of Great Britain._
——The Church Missionary Society received last year $935,000, and
expended $1,020,000. The Wesleyan Missionary Society reports
receipts, $666,000; expenditures, $786,000.
* * * * *
OUR QUERY COLUMN.
1. How do you prevent truancy?
2. How do you prevent tardiness?
3. Do you allow anything but failures in lessons to be deducted
from scholarship?
4. What is your standard in scholarship for promotion?
5. How much time, and in what manner, do you devote to religious
exercises in schools wholly attended by resident pupils?
* * * * *
Answers to Queries in June Missionary.
Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary (Latham’s Edition, 1866-74, 4to, 4
vols.), probably surpasses all others in the English book market.
Richardson’s is an accepted standard, especially in matters
of definition and derivation. Walker’s is still a standard in
pronunciation. Of American dictionaries, Webster’s leads in England.
Khedive is pronounced Kay-deeve.
So far as we know, Beaufort, S. C., alone is pronounced Bew-fort.
Other places of the name, Bo-fort.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.
* * * * *
THE HAMPTON ANNIVERSARY.
The Negro and the Indian——Co-Education of the Races——Addresses
by the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of Richmond, and Secretary Carl Schurz, of
Washington.
By the Editor.
More than the ordinary interest attaches this year to the
anniversary exercises of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural
School, just held. The experiment of negro education has been tried
for the last 16 years, until it is no longer an unsolved problem,
but one of which the once unknown quantities have come to have
an ascertained value. But the question of the educability of the
red man has been one not so conspicuously settled. What has been
accomplished in that direction has been done so far away as not to
have made much impression on the American people. This year, the
institution which has done so much to prove the responsiveness of
the negro to educational training has been engaged in its first
experiment with the Indian. Of its success thus far there can be
no shadow of a doubt. The Indian boys are contented and making
progress, and coming steadily up to a plane on which they can
pursue the regular courses of study. It was said by many at the
outset that the negro and Indian races would not associate with
each other, but the case is as contrary to this as can be. The
Indian boys at first seemed to be somewhat discontented, and Gen.
Armstrong found that they wanted most of all to learn English. “Too
much Indian talk,” they said. He asked them in class one day how
many of them would like to room with the negro boys; every hand
went up. He then went to his senior class and asked them how many
of them would be willing to take in an Indian as a roommate, to
help and teach him. A larger number than was needed of his very
best young men expressed their willingness, and so, instead of
standing aloof, the two races are completely mixed in their rooms
and at table, to their mutual satisfaction. This is a notable
element in the experiment. Some 12 of the Indian boys have joined
the church connected with the Institute.
Is it needful to say a word about the Hampton Institute itself?
Beautiful for situation it certainly is, with its front on the
creek, and only a narrow point of land separating it from the
famed Hampton Roads. Its buildings are simple but effective in
their outline and grouping. Virginia and Academic Halls, and the
new wigwam——the quarters prepared for the 70 Indian students; the
cottages in which the boys live, in families of 30 or more, largely
self-governed; the residences of the Principal and his assistants;
and not least, the great barn, sheltering a fine collection of
blooded stock——and all this on a farm of some 200 acres. It is but
a few years since there were only small and temporary barracks
to accommodate the applicants for admission; now about 200 negro
and 70 Indian students are well provided with dormitories,
recitation-rooms and workshops.
A creditable brass band, composed of students, greeted the visitors
with their cheering strains, well rendered, considering the short
time since practice was begun. Capt. Romeyne keeps the boys, both
black and red, in good military drill, and under firm, though kind,
government, and in their gray uniforms, cheap but comely, they
presented no mean appearance. Work and study are the order of every
day. The brightest and most inspiring teaching the writer ever saw
wakens the intellect to an eager activity; and work on farm and in
shop for the boys, in kitchen and laundry and with the knitting
machine for the girls, both teaches them how to labor, and enables
them to pay a considerable part of the expenses of their living.
The examinations, except of the graduating class, were not written,
but were oral, and on the plan of the daily recitations. The
Indians attracted perhaps the greatest attention from the many
visitors, in the conversation classes, which were conducted with
rare tact and skill. On a table was placed a mass of common plants
and flowers. One of the band of Indians brought only a few months
ago by Capt. Pratt was called up and asked to pick out some grass;
its uses brought out the words eat and horse, and sentences were
formed of these words. Beet, onion, potato and clover were selected
in turn, and their uses brought out by skillful questioning. Then,
in another lesson, working and earning money and spending it were
illustrated, and the language taught necessary to express these
ideas. At the other end of the gradation of studies were the very
creditable recitations of the graduating class of colored students
in algebra, history, physiology and other higher branches; nor
would it do to omit the class in teaching, where the seniors showed
their skill in interesting and instructing the little children of
the Butler Normal School.
In the afternoon the public exercises were held in Virginia Hall,
which was crowded to overflowing. The addresses were manly and
earnest; some of them quite forcible and free in thought and
expression, and dealing with questions affecting their race. It was
quite touching to see a black boy pleading for the extension of the
privileges of education to the Indian, and one of the features of
interest was a simple story of his home life in Indian Territory
by an Indian youth. Music by the band, by a select few, and by the
whole school, relieved the speaking.
But we must not forget to give the prominence due them to the
visitors of the day. Most conspicuous among them was the delegation
of Indians, in blankets and feathers, from Washington. Little
Chief and six warriors with him of the Northern Chippewas were
persuaded to come down to see what was being done for the boys
of their own race. Just how they were impressed by it all, it is
impossible to say, as their faces were covered with their blankets
most of the time, and they acted like a group of shy old women.
Probably they were a good deal bored, though they gave signs of
occasional amusement. But there were other visitors of note. Chief
among these were Secretaries Schurz and McCrary, of the President’s
Cabinet; Senator Saunders and Representative Pound, of Wisconsin;
ex-President Mark Hopkins, of Williams College; the Rev. Dr.
Plumer, of Charleston, S. C., and the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of Richmond;
the Rev. Dr. Armstrong of Norfolk, Va., and Judge Lafayette S.
Foster, of Connecticut. After the diplomas had been presented
to the graduating class by the Rev. Dr. Strieby, of this city,
President of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Hoge was called upon to
address the graduating class, and among other things said:
“It has been my lot to attend a good many college commencements,
but I never attended one in all my life where so much honor and
encouragement were given to those connected with an institution
as to-day. Two members of the Cabinet of the United States, the
President of the youngest university of the United States, and
which bids fair to be one of the grandest (President Gilman, of
the Johns Hopkins University), judges of our courts, eminent
professional men, and two of the most venerable gentlemen on this
continent, Dr. Plumer and Dr. Hopkins——Massachusetts and South
Carolina uniting to-day to give encouragement to this institution
and to the labors of those who are so nobly carrying out its
objects.
“I cannot stand here to-day in this historic latitude without
some profound emotions. I should not be a Virginian if I did. I
cannot stand in sight of Fortress Monroe without remembering our
fallen fortunes. The last two summers I have been abroad, and I
have come back believing that there is no land which God has so
smiled upon as this country. We have no need so great as of a
stable government. I do not mean of force. No government can be
stronger than the love of the people for it. You may put great
iron bands upon it, but there will be a centrifugal power which
will burst them. There must be centripetal force powerful enough
to attract the people together in it. If our Government is to be
like that, may the Lord smile upon it and perpetuate it to the
last syllable of time.
“All my life long I have been a friend to one of the classes
represented here, and now I am grateful that this institution has
extended its protecting wing over another. I have been something
of a student of races. I could occupy the remainder of the day in
telling you of the good qualities of the African race; and there
has always been a great deal that has touched my heart in the
character of the Indian people——their love for their ancestral
lands, their reverence for the bones of their forefathers, that
decorous reserve which gives such dignity to their bearing. One
thing which I have always admired in them is this, that when a
war is over, they never talk about the war that is fought. It
is not considered magnanimous in an Indian to taunt a fallen
foe. It seems to me that in our popular assemblies and in other
assemblies it might be well to imitate the Indian, and not talk
too much about the war.
“The Indian who told us the story of his life at home said
something that went straight to my heart. He didn’t say it very
forcibly, but the force was in the thing he said. Time was, he
told us, when he did not know anything about his soul or his
salvation. One end of this institution is to make the poor Indian
acquainted with the things which shall help him see God, not in
the clouds, but in the face of Jesus Christ; and to hear him,
not in the winds, but in the still small voice of the Spirit,
speaking peace to his soul.”
The Doctor closed with calling attention to goodness as the
greatest element of success; that no man can afford to succeed by
sacrificing it; illustrating it by reference to a humble girl who
came during the yellow fever scourge to nurse the sick, and who
died a victim to its poisons, and by the life of a colored Baptist
minister who recently died in Richmond.
The Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, was called upon to
follow. He began thus:
“I respond to this call not to prolong the exercises of the day,
nor for purposes of debate. I do not intend to discuss the war. I
am glad it is over. I only desire to bear testimony that of all
the speakers of the day, not one has alluded to the war save in
a most innocent way, and they were the Indian and the reverend
gentleman who is, I am sure, a most peaceable member of the
church militant. As to the manner in which civil wars should be
treated, he and I do not disagree.
“My heart is elated with this spectacle to-day. Reference has
been made to the fact that two Cabinet officers are present. I
assure you that we did not come here for purposes of amusement,
but to witness elements in the solution of one of the most
difficult and dangerous problems of our day——the problem of
blending two races, one of which has been in subjection and the
other in hostility. We are all filled with feelings of admiration
and gratitude to Gen. Armstrong and his co-workers here; to
the State of Virginia, which, by its generous aid, renders a
service to itself not only and to the colored people, but to this
whole country; and to the benevolent people North and South, in
Massachusetts and in South Carolina. In this I see the real end
of the war and the inauguration of true peace. If I look back
with satisfaction on anything in my official career, it is that I
have been instrumental in aiding such a work. I am happy to know
that the experiment is a success; and I assure you that so far as
the means and power of my department go, nothing shall be left
undone to strengthen and enlarge the experiment. The time has
gone when the Indian can live on buffalo meat and give himself to
the chase. The time has come when every man must work. All the
information which comes to us tends to show that not only these
but other tribes desire education, and that the attempt to give
it to them is successful.
“The question is often asked, Will they not relapse into
barbarism on returning among their own tribes? I am inclined to
think that this danger is real, unless the education be extended
to a much larger number of Indians——enough to support each other,
and so resist the pressure. This is the object to be held in
view, and which I hope, in part, may be accomplished before my
term of office expires.
“I commend this institution. I do not know of one educational
institution in the country which is more important in its
tendencies, as well as in its promised results, than this. I hope
that Virginia will continue to extend her helping hand, that its
patrons North and South will not withdraw their support, and that
continued success may attend the labors of the General and those
who are associated with him in this work. I will only add that
these sentiments of appreciation of this work, and the desire for
its enlargement and extension, are most heartily concurred in by
the President of the United States.”
With a benediction from the venerable Dr. Plumer, the assembly
broke up. The visitors turned toward their homes, and the school
resumed its work, which will continue for three weeks, to the end
of its academic year. I need not say to the friends of the Indian
and the negro, perhaps scarcely to those who care for the welfare
of our own Caucasian race in these United States, don’t forget
Hampton and the institutions of which it is a shining example.
* * * * *
FISK UNIVERSITY.
Early delays——Increasing favor——The five closing days.
MISS ANNA M. CAHILL, NASHVILLE.
Looking back over the past nine months, it seems a long time
since the dark days of last September, when the school opened
under the shadow of the pestilence, and we saw one of our own
students, just returned from his summer work, stricken down by
the fever. The firmness with which the few students then in the
school stood bravely by their work gave some of us a confidence in
their fortitude and faithfulness which, perhaps, we could not have
gained without some such time of trial to develop it. As the autumn
advanced the school began to fill up, though some who came to us
after Christmas from the lower part of Mississippi assured us they
came “as soon as it was safe.” Naturally the decrease in attendance
resulting from the epidemic, was mostly seen in the number of new
students. Those who have fairly started in the work of getting an
education cannot be detained except by absolute necessity; others,
who were thinking for the first time of going away to school, were
easily led to wait another year.
Notwithstanding the delay in getting the school started, one of
the features of the year has been the steadiness in attendance,
especially in the advanced classes. As the result of this
regularity in attendance, the school work has gone on with rather
unusual satisfaction. There has been little to interrupt the
quiet spirit of study that has so much to do with the amount
accomplished; a friendly spirit of rivalry between different
classes and among members of the same class makes it from year to
year more of a disgrace to fall below the standard of scholarship.
The school has been growing in favor with the Southern people. The
presence of a large part of the State Legislature at our public
rhetorical exercise, in March, and the evident pleasure with which
they listened to the young people, indicated an increasing interest
in our success. We find that the aims of the University commend
themselves to the best men of the State.