Committee, consisting of Drs. Ward and Roy, Mr. Mead and Secretary
Strieby held an interview with the Prudential Committee of the
American Board in Boston, Sept. 14, at which the proposed exchange
was fully and fraternally considered. The Prudential Committee
of the Board subsequently passed a resolution recommending to
the Board the approval of the transfer, if all legal and other
difficulties could be obviated. In response, the Board, at its late
meeting in Portland, Oct. 3, passed the following resolution:
_Resolved_, That further arrangements for the Dakota Mission be
referred to the Prudential Committee with power, but with the
earnest recommendation that the whole mission be transferred to the
care of the American Missionary Association, unless the practical
difficulties shall prove to be insuperable.
On the 13th of October, a meeting was held in New York, of a
special committee of the Prudential Committee of the Board, and of
a special committee of the Ex. Com. of the A. M. A., in which the
principles and methods, as well as the difficulties in the way of
the transfer, were again considered.
The spirit of that meeting was not that of sharp bargaining
in commercial values, but of an earnest desire on the part of
Christian brethren, representing affiliated missionary societies
to consummate an arrangement that would facilitate the upbuilding
of the Redeemer’s Kingdom. Yet commercial values were canvassed.
The Board has in its Indian missions, buildings for churches and
schools, and other property, estimated at $36,000. The value of the
properly of the A. M. A. at the Mendi Mission can be stated with
less definiteness, but the buildings for churches, schools, and
industrial work can hardly be worth as much as that of the Board in
the Dakota Mission. But in addition to this property there is the
fund from the estate of Rev. Charles Avery, for African missions.
The points of difficulty suggested and discussed were: the legal
authority of the Association to transfer this Avery fund; the
continuance of the Mendi Mission by the Board; and its assumption
of the Arthington Mission. On the first point—the transfer of the
Avery fund—a legal opinion, very clear, and so far as could be
judged, satisfactory, was obtained, of which the following is the
decisive portion.
“Under the bequest thus given to the American Missionary
Association, it cannot lawfully delegate to another the discretion
which the testator has intrusted specifically to it. But it may
delegate to others the execution of purposes which are approved by
its discretion, and which are within the objects defined by the
testator. It may employ the agency of its own officers and servants
in the application of the income, or it may employ the agency of
other organizations, as in its discretion may be most fit, useful
and efficient in accomplishing the testator’s purposes.”
In regard to the second point, the Committee of the American
Missionary Association expressed the wish that the Mendi Mission
should be continued, while the representatives of the Board
deemed it unadvisable, on account of the great enlargement of its
African work recently entered upon; and on the third point, in
like manner and for the same reasons, they thought the Board would
be indisposed to assume the responsibilities of the Arthington
Mission. No final settlement of these points was attempted, it
being deemed necessary to wait until this annual meeting of the
Association should, if it thought best, approve of the exchange of
the missions, and, as the Board had done, remit to the Committee
the authority to arrange details. With a view to securing such
approval, I shall now proceed in behalf of the Executive Committee
to give the reasons for the exchange of missions.
1. It is believed that the churches desire the exchange.
A living missionary society must have a vital connection with the
churches. Thence mainly come its funds, and funds are as essential
to it as to a bank or factory; yet if it get from them nothing
but funds, it is no better than a bank or factory. It needs to be
grounded in the confidence of the churches, and to be permeated
in every branch and fibre by their piety and prayers. The wishes,
therefore, of the churches as to methods as well as aims should be
sought and heeded. Do the churches desire this change? That they
do, I offer in evidence the effort made to that end in the National
Council at New Haven. That effort was no sudden impulse originating
in the mind of a single individual, and as suddenly laid aside
by the Council. An elaborate report on the subject was presented
and discussed at great length. It is true that the movement was
not successful, yet it was full of significance, mainly from the
character of those who pressed it. They were among the strongest
and most influential men in the denomination. They were at the time
outvoted, but their convictions were not changed, nor in so far as
they were representative men is the weight of their testimony to
be disregarded. Passing down to the present time, we come to the
respectful resolution adopted by the Congregational Association
of Ohio, asking for substantially this exchange. This resolution
is not the work of foes, but of warmest friends, as our cordial
invitation and reception here abundantly testify.
But the most convincing fact of all is the reception which has
been given to the announcement of the proposed change. Almost
unanimously comes to us the assurance that the exchange is heartily
approved by the churches. I have said “almost” unanimously, for
there have come to us, from a few old and tried friends, words of
regret that we should abandon our work in Africa, so cherished in
precious memories.
There may be more of sentiment than of sound judgment in this plea,
but I beg the privilege of expressing my personal sympathy with
the feelings of these old friends. When I think of the toils and
sufferings of the workers in the Mendi Mission, of the buried dead
there, and of the survivors now in this country, with shattered
health, and when I think of the friends in this country and across
the ocean who have sustained this mission by their prayers and
offerings, I am frank to admit that it has cost me sleepless hours
and a sore heart to yield my consent to part with it—unimportant
as that consent may be. But in spite of all these sympathies and
of old associations, the reasons for the exchange seem to me so
conclusive as to leave no room for hesitation; and one of these
strong reasons is the one I have just presented—the wishes of the
churches.
2. The division will simplify the appeals in behalf of the two
Boards.
It is a surprise that so many people know so little about
Missionary and Benevolent Societies. This is sometimes simply
amusing, as when at the recent meeting of the American Board in
Portland, it is said that an agent of a railroad centering in
Portland asked if the Am. Board was an “Odd Fellows’ Society”; and
an intelligent looking man was overheard instructing his friend
that they were “Freethinkers.” But the matter becomes serious when
it results in the improper designation of bequests in wills and
legacies. People that leave legacies to missionary societies are
certainly interested in them, and might be supposed to know about
them, but mistakes are constantly made that invalidate legacies and
cause perplexity to heirs and loss to missionary treasuries. But
it must be admitted that the present distribution of work and the
appeals in its behalf foster the mistakes into which so many fall.
Sec. Humphrey, for example, appears before a Western conference
and in eloquent and earnest words presents the broad claim of the
American Board, dwelling with emphasis on the remarkable openings
in Africa, an almost newly discovered continent, and then calls for
sympathy for the Indians now lifting up their hands to welcome the
white man’s Bible instead of his whisky. Then follows Sec. Powell
in his vigorous and breezy way, telling not only of the colored man
in the South but of the wonderful land of his fathers, and follows
this with a stirring appeal for the Indians! Is it not too much to
expect of the average Christian that he should be able to separate
these tangled branches and make each tree stand out before him in
its own proper individuality?
But now, if the Am. Board, with its history of nearly
three-quarters of a century and its noble work in all parts
of the foreign field, is recognized as the sole agency of the
Congregational churches for foreign missions; if the Am. Home Miss.
Society, with its record of more than half a century, and with its
field stretching from Maine to California, dotted all over with
the monuments of its beneficial labors and filled with a vast and
ever-expanding population, shall be the channel for distinctively
home mission work; and if the American Missionary Association, with
its peculiar and diversified educational and religious methods,
shall be set apart to the work among the colored people of the
South and among the whites as far and as fast as the vanishing of
caste prejudice will permit, and also among the Indians and the
Chinamen on the Pacific Slope, then will the distinction between
the several societies be made clear, and Benevolence, which, like
commercial capital, is cautious, will see before it open and
distinct channels, through which it may pour its benefactions.
3. Providential indications point to the change. Missionary
Societies, if vital and effective, are born of the Spirit, but
developed in outer form and methods of work by providential
events, and if their usefulness continues, they must not remain
stagnant, but be obedient to the call of providential changes.
The American Board once wisely embraced three denominations of
Christians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed.
But the growth of those denominations and of the missionary zeal
in them, made it clear that each would do more good if working
separately, calling out the individual responsibility of the
several denominations, and the result has abundantly verified the
anticipation. So, too, has the Board modified its work. The changes
in its Indian missions, once reaching far South and now confined
to Dakota, may be cited as an illustration, not of the Board’s
fickleness, but of its wisdom.
The A. M. A. has been guided to marked changes. Its original
aim was to do mission work free from all possible complications
with slavery. It did not, as I understand the matter, assume
that all other Boards were in _favor_ of slavery, while it
alone was opposed to it, but its founders felt that the time
had come when their consciences could be no longer satisfied
unless their missionary contributions and labors constituted an
active and public protest against slavery. The breadth of this
principle included all forms of missionary efforts, and hence
the constitution of the Association provided for both home and
foreign work, and in its greatest enlargement on this basis, it
had about 110 home missionaries in the field, and its foreign
missions extended to West Africa, Jamaica, the Sandwich Islands,
Siam, the Copts in Egypt, the Indians in the United States, and
the refugees in Canada. But the war changed the whole aspect of
affairs for the Association. It set free the millions of slaves
and gave the opportunity for reaching them directly with schools
and the Gospel. The Association at once concentrated its efforts
upon these people, having shortly before or soon after the war
abandoned or transferred all its missions—home and foreign—except
the Mendi, and this was retailed as cognate to its work among the
Freedmen in this country. But now as we look back on the history
of that mission, so useful up to the date when we surrendered our
other foreign missions, and so comparatively unsuccessful since,
we are constrained to ask if it, too, should not then have been
relinquished.
Let me detail the facts: At the annual meeting in 1861, the Mendi
Mission reported four stations, three outstations and seven
preaching places; thirteen white missionaries on the ground, two
who had just returned to America, and one under appointment—sixteen
in all. Up to that date its schools and churches were prosperous,
converts were added, a theological class was formed and one young
man licensed to preach. And in addition to this more direct
evangelical work, it has exerted a marked and happy influence in
averting war among the natives, in checking the slave trade and
in developing industry and commerce among the people. I find this
testimony concerning a single station of the mission, that on the
Boom River: “The whole trade of this river has been developed
within the last ten years. It is now worth more than $40,000 a
year. The coast, or slave trade to the North, has been stopped.
Natives, in their own canoes, carry their produce to market, which
only four years ago was bartered away for half its value. The
credit for this change is due to the mission. The industry of the
people has increased ten-fold through that influence.” The mission
at that date was the most conspicuous work of the Association, and
the account of it stands at the head of the Annual Report, and
occupies seven pages. But at the close of the war, only four years
later, this mission took its place at the close of the Report,
occupied only a page and a half, and the sadly significant lines
on that page and a half were: “The increased expense (owing to
the very high rate of exchange) combined with the great demand for
missionary labors among the freedmen and the absorption of young
and middle-aged men in the armies of the country, has deprived the
committee of the ability to reinforce the mission as it needs. For
no inconsiderable portion of the year, Rev. Mr. Hinman and wife
have been the only white missionaries at the mission.” For more
than ten years the mission remained inadequately recruited. In 1876
we sent the loved and lamented Rev. E. P. Smith to explore the
field with the view to enlargement, but, alas! he never returned to
tell us the story, and his bones hallow the soil of West Africa.
In 1877 we inaugurated the effort to supply the mission with the
educated sons and daughters of the freedmen. From 1877 to 1881 we
sent thither fourteen missionaries with five children—nineteen in
all. To-day there is but one of these at the mission. Finally an
effort was made to recruit the Mendi mission with well-trained
colored men, but our efforts thus far have been unsuccessful. If
twenty-one years ago we could have foreseen these results, could we
have felt justified in going forward with the mission; and with the
results now before us as history, can we hesitate to surrender it
to another Board? Does not the Lord of missions seem to say to the
Association: I have other work for you?
Before passing from this subject it should be stated that our
experiment has been favorable as to the health of colored Americans
in Africa. Of the nineteen colored missionaries sent thither since
the year 1877, only three have died, one man and two women, and
in none of these cases did death result directly from the effects
of the climate. The retirement has in many cases been due to the
ill-health of the wives. The result emphasizes the necessity of
very close medical examination, especially of the women, and of
maturity of judgment and character in the missionaries and of
adequate preparation in study.
In 1879 Mr. Robert Arthington made to the Association the generous
offer of $15,000, on condition that it would establish a mission
within an area designated by him on the Upper Nile in tropical
Africa. The Committee expressed gratitude to Mr. Arthington,
yet feeling the responsibility of so great an undertaking, took
suitable time for deliberation. Estimates were made as to the
probable cost, and with all the light available, it was judged
that $50,000 would equip and found the mission. The Committee then
proposed to undertake the mission if our British friends would
supplement Mr. Arthington’s gift with a like amount. By the efforts
of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society this additional sum was
secured, and in 1881 Rev. Mr. Ladd and Dr. Snow made a preliminary
exploration, extending their trip 2,500 miles up the Nile, only
to find, however, the rebellion of the fanatical Achmet in full
career on the upper Nile, and barely escaping with their lives,
descended the river to find the rebellion of Arabi Pasha just ready
to break forth. The exploration was heroically and carefully made,
and yet it showed clearly that nothing could then be done towards
establishing the mission, nor can anything yet be attempted in the
present disturbed condition of the Nile basin.
In the meantime the experience of the British missions, lately
established in tropical Africa, shows us that a much larger sum
than $50,000 would probably be needed to plant the mission; and,
moreover, it has become more clear that the sud—a collection of
soil and weeds—so impedes the navigation of the Nile above the
mouth of the Sobat as to render access to the site specially
designated for the Arthington Mission extremely difficult,
uncertain, and, at times, impossible.
Under all circumstances it has become manifest that the farther
prosecution of the effort to plant the Arthington Mission will
involve the expenditure of greater sums of money, and the
encountering of much more formidable difficulties than we had
anticipated at the outset—and raises the question as to the wisdom
of transferring the fund, with the possibilities of the mission,
to another Board with larger resources and more experience, or of
returning the money to the generous donors.
Turning now from this foreign work which the Committee are disposed
to transfer, let me invite attention to the work which will be left
to us, and which, in consequence of the exchange, if made, we can
enlarge and prosecute with more vigor.
I begin with the work among the Freedmen. That work has been
remarkably, continuously and increasingly successful. It has gone
beyond the stage of experiment. It is planted firmly on lands and
in permanent buildings, and still more firmly in the confidence
of the colored people and in the respect of the white citizens.
It has been among the most important levers for the elevation of
the colored people, one of the strong influences in the settlement
of our national problem, and a most effective instrument in the
spread of the pure Gospel in the South. It has reached a point
where it ought to be greatly enlarged. If Congress shall pass the
bill appropriating ten millions of dollars annually among the
States on the basis of illiteracy, it will give such a stimulus
to common-school education in the South as to make a demand for
teachers by the thousand where we and all other agencies supply
only hundreds; it will do the preliminary work in the education of
a population that will call for a much larger number of educated
ministers; and it will give an uplift to the masses that will
render leaders in business and professional life a necessity to
their further progress and security. The munificent gift of a
million of dollars by Mr. Slater will impart a grand impulse to the
education of the colored people. It will doubtless render important
help to many societies; it will come far short of meeting the full
wants of any; and it would be a sad mistake, deprecated by no one
more than Mr. Slater himself, if this great gift should weaken the
sense of responsibility in others. Its greatest ultimate value will
probably be in awakening other generous hearts to the fact that
the work needs millions as well as hundreds and thousands. This
people are generations behind the Anglo-Saxons in preparation for
the duties of life, and they and their children need not only as
great, but for the time being greater facilities to enable them to
catch up in the race and then to march forward at even pace in the
responsibilities and privileges of citizens and Christians. The
time has come to push this great undertaking. The nation is aroused
to it, and the American Missionary Association, so well prepared
for it, needs only to be stripped of outer and foreign garments,
and to enter with disencumbered hands and redoubled energy and
means into the great work to which it has been so plainly called.
Nor by this concentration will the Association lose sight of
Africa. It believes as much as ever that God means that the
Freedmen have not only a great duty and destiny here, but that they
have also a special call and fitness to bear the Gospel to the land
of their fathers. In its schools and churches it will direct their
attention to this field, and endeavor to inspire them with the
missionary spirit. The only change will be in the hands that shall
lead them to Africa and guide and cheer them on in the work there.
The Association and the Board will work harmoniously and more
efficiently to this great end, the one on this continent, the other
on that.
The A. M. A. is prepared to do an enlarged work among the Indians.
Popular consent in the churches supporting the Association has
assigned to it especially the care of the colored races in America.
There is a fitness in putting these together; they are alike
alien to European blood: they are alike the victims of caste
prejudice, and they alike need schools as well as churches. The
Association has been the strenuous opponent of race oppression
and caste prejudice, and has devoted itself to the varied modes
of industrial, educational and church work needed by these races.
They should no longer be regarded as the subject of foreign mission
efforts. The Indians, for example, are the original inhabitants
of the land, and the strenuous efforts of those most interested
in their welfare are to induce the government to make no treaties
with them as foreigners, but to bring them as rapidly as possible
into the ranks of citizens, sharing the protection of law and
holding lands in severalty. It is a hindrance to this desirable
consummation if the Indians are treated ecclesiastically and
religiously as foreigners. If the State makes them citizens the
church ought certainly to regard them as “no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens.” On the other hand, no home
mission board with its simple plan for aiding in the formation of
churches and the support of ministers can adequately meet their
wants. They need the school and the industrial training as well as
the church, and these the A. M. A. is prepared to furnish and to
carry forward under the light of its ample experience in the South.
The Association is no stranger to the Indian work. At one time
it had twenty-one missionaries among them. It is true that its
missions were abandoned in large measure and the efforts of the
Association concentrated upon the South. But precious fruits
are yet gathered from that neglected planting. The Association
gave its hearty co-operation to the peace policy of Gen. Grant,
rendering useful service to the Government and the Indians by the
appointment of some _good_ agents, a few of whom, notwithstanding
all detractions and temptations, are alive and remain unto this
present. It has aided in the education of Indian youth at Hampton,
and the Committee had voted for the current year a much larger
appropriation for Indian work. If the Board shall transfer to it
the Dakota Mission, the responsibility and the call for funds may
be larger than was anticipated, but if it be the call of Providence
there will be no shrinking from duty.