to Christ, and a great hindrance to the Gospel. In this country it
is the bitterest force left by Slavery—bitter in him who cherishes
it, and in him who suffers from it. Christianity must conquer it
as it did slavery—for the world. It can do this; its love can
subdue the pride of the Caucasian, and its light and power uplift
the negro, the Chinaman and the Indian. To the practical preaching
of this love and light must the American Missionary Association
devote its concentrated efforts, till all the people of this land
shall come into the fellowship of the Gospel and into the glorious
liberty of the children of God.
* * * * *
ADDRESSES AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT HAYES’ ADDRESS.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen.—Without preface I proceed
at once to state the proposition to which I ask your considerate
attention. The friends of popular education believe that the time
has fully come when national aid should be given wherever such
aid is needed, and to the extent that it is needed, for the free
education of all the citizens of the United States. The grave
necessity for national aid for education is in the Southern States,
and especially for the colored people. But the white people of
the South also need it. The people of New Mexico and the other
Territories need it. It is not improbable that by reason of
immigration from countries where popular education is neglected,
some of the new States and some of the large cities may need it.
The Indians did need it, but happily the large appropriations
recently made for their education—amounting to almost half a
million of dollars for the next fiscal year, and the action of the
government during the last few years in behalf of their education
at Hampton, at Carlisle, in Oregon, at the Indian agencies, and
at tribal schools, have at last fully committed the nation to
the wise and beneficent policy of fitting the Indians, as far
as practicable, and as fast as practicable, for the duties and
privileges of American citizenship.
The bills pending in Congress on the subject of national aid
for education are of two classes. One class seeks to establish
a permanent fund by devoting to the purpose the receipts of the
sales of the public lands, or from the taxes on spirituous liquors,
or from other specified sources. By the other class of measures
the money required is appropriated directly from the public
treasury. The measure which perhaps meets with most favor is the
latter class. It requires that ten or fifteen millions of dollars
a year shall be distributed among the States—each State to have
that proportion of this sum which its illiteracy bears to the
total illiteracy of the whole country. This appropriation, it is
contemplated, will be continued long enough to test the value of
the measure, or until the States themselves shall become able to
provide for the free education of all citizens.
And now, my friends, what are the grounds upon which these measures
are supported? This question opens a wide field of discussion—a
field so large that I do not hope to make even a hasty survey of
the whole of it in the time limited by the proprieties of this
occasion. Fortunately, it is not at all important that I should
attempt it. The facts, the figures and the arguments bearing on
the subject are all familiar. The embarrassment is that they have
been repeated so often and presented so ably that one hesitates
to spread them again before such an audience as this. But if the
question is asked, why repeat what is already so familiar, the
reply is cogent and near at hand. The evil we deplore and wish
to remove still remains. In spite of the work of the religious
denominations, and of benevolent associations and individuals,
the number of ignorant men armed with ballots which control the
Nation’s destiny grows larger and larger. Congress hesitates to
act, has adopted no remedy, and has not even reached a test vote
on the question. This leaves to the friends of free and universal
education at the South no recourse, except further agitation. This
is the American way to obtain from the government needed reforms.
Senators and Representatives have made reports and speeches, which
cover the whole ground. Voluminous and valuable writings leave
nothing to be desired by the citizen who would conscientiously
investigate this question.
There is another testimony in behalf of the right side of this
important subject which must not be overlooked. More than
seventeen years have passed since the close of the great war which
consolidated the Union, gave liberty to the slaves and opened
the way for free education at the South. During all of that time
a stream of benevolent enterprises and efforts has been poured
into the South in aid of this work by the various religious
denominations and by missionary and charitable associations. Rich
men have been glad to contribute to it generously out of their
abundance. Many men and women from humble homes have nobly given
their best years—their very lives—in the face of privations,
hardships and unparalleled discouragements to uplift an obscure and
injured people just released from the house of bondage. The history
of these voluntary organizations and voluntary individual efforts
is radiant with examples of self-sacrificing devotion in doing the
work of the Divine Master, which are at once touching and sublime.
If one could enumerate all that has been done, contributed,
sacrificed and suffered by associations and individuals for the
regeneration of the South, it would go far toward demonstrating to
the satisfaction of all fair-minded people that God has given to
this generation of the prosperous citizens of the United States a
duty and a privilege with respect to their countrymen of both races
in the South of unexampled interest to the Nation and to the cause
of human freedom throughout the world.
But admirable as their work has been, if we wisely consider the
magnitude of the task that remains, we shall begin to apprehend
that we have only picked up here and there a few pebbles on the
shore, while the great ocean of ignorance stretches vast and
untouched before us.
The following statistical tables are only too familiar:
_Number of Males in the late Slave-holding States twenty-one Years
of age and upward who could not Read and Write in 1870 and 1880_:
——————1870.—————— ——————1880.——————
White. Colored. White. Colored.
Total 217,371 850,032 410,550 944,424
Total number of illiterates of voting age in the
late slave-holding States in 1870 1,167,303
In 1880 1,354,974
Increase of illiterate voters in the South from
1870 to 1880 187,671
Increase of illiterate whites of voting age from
1870 to 1880 93,279
Increase of illiterate colored people of voting
age from 1870 to 1880 94,392
Total number of males of voting age in the South
in 1880 4,154,125
Total number of illiterate males of voting age in
the South in 1880 1,354,974
32.3 per cent of the voters in the South are illiterate.
Of the illiterates 69.7 per cent are colored and 30.3
are whites.
From these tables it appears that the illiterate voters in each
one of the eight Southern States having the largest proportion of
emancipated slaves exceed in number the majority of votes ever
cast even at the most important elections. In one of these States
the ignorant voters constitute an absolute majority of the total
voting population of the State. In more than one-third of the Union
the ignorant voters are almost one-third of the total number of
voters. Most seriously important of all, these tables show that
the illiterate voters of the South have increased in the last
ten years, from 1870 to 1880, almost two hundred thousand. This
increase of ignorant voters in the last decade exceeds the number
of votes cast in any one of more than twenty of the States of the
Union at the last Presidential election. Adopting a phraseology
that was very familiar in the political debates of a generation
ago, it may be truly said that ignorance at the ballot box has
increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.
In the electoral colleges which choose the President, in both
Houses of Congress, in all the departments of the national
government, ignorance at the South is as efficient for evil—as
mischievous and dangerous—as if it was in New England or New York,
or here in the Western Reserve. It was settled by the war for the
Union beyond recall that the United States constitute one people
and have one national life, one interest and one destiny.
Recognizing this to be one of the legitimate results of the war,
the people of the Nation by constitutional amendments entered
into every State and defined and regulated those vital elements
of free government—citizenship and suffrage. In pursuance of
these amendments the lately-emancipated slaves by the most solemn
expression of the national will became citizens and voters. In the
presence of these facts, how can a statesman say that under this
Constitution there is no duty and no power to give national aid to
fit by education these freedmen for the responsible positions in
which the Nation has placed them?
Under the Constitution as it was before these vital amendments
were made, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and other great men of the
early days of the Republic, whom we are accustomed to call the
“Fathers,” by significant and solemn enactments and recommendations
fully affirmed the principle that the general government could and
ought to give encouragement and aid to the education of the people.
They placed in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the
Northwest Territory, as the corner stone of the institutions they
wished to build, this article: “Religion, morality and knowledge
being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind,
_schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged_.”
Under every administration from the origin of the government to the
present time, appropriations of money or land for education in the
States and Territories have been made by the general government,
and it is now too late to question the constitutional power of
Congress to make such grants.
The exercise of this authority by Congress is in strict accordance
with the distribution of the governmental powers, which is one of
the distinguishing features of our American institutions. Whatever
in civilized communities individual citizens can do better than
any public authority is wisely left to individuals. Whatever
local organizations, such as counties, towns and cities, can more
efficiently accomplish than individuals, or the State, or national
government, belongs to the local authorities. The extensive range
of powers which State governments can most beneficially exercise
should be confided to the States. The aim of the framers of the
national Constitution, and of the people who have amended the
original instrument, has been to confer on the national government
those supreme powers which would enable it to secure to the people
of the United States, “union,” “justice,” “tranquillity,” “the
common defense,” “the general welfare,” and “the blessings of
liberty to themselves and their posterity.”
The history of education in this country and in Europe abundantly
proves that individuals and communities never have and never can
provide universal education. Government alone is adequate to the
task.
In the free States, in many cases, after a long and doubtful
struggle, it has been settled that the State can and ought to
provide free instruction for all its people. In almost all of the
late slave-holding States, however, especially in those States in
which the number of colored people is large, the efforts made since
their reconstruction have conclusively shown that to establish and
support an efficient system of free education without aid from
the national government, in the existing condition of the South,
is simply impossible. The situation of the South is so manifestly
exceptional that it is needless to dwell upon it. Slavery and
free schools would not dwell together. Slavery did not, could
not, tolerate universal education. I do not pause to debate the
question, who was responsible for slavery. It is perhaps enough
to say that the Union and the Constitution breathed into this
Nation the breath of life, and gave to it that glorious history
of which we are so proud. To the Union and to the Constitution we
are indebted for our present prosperity, power and prestige, and
the still more inspiring future which lies before us. The Union
and the Constitution, to which we owe all that we are, and have
been, and shall be, contained and recognized slavery. All who took
part in forming the Union or in framing the Constitution, all who
maintained them down to the war which brought emancipation, are in
some degree and in some sense responsible for slavery. The only
American citizens who are in no way responsible for slavery are
the sons of Africa. “They are here by the crimes of our ancestors
and the misfortunes of theirs.” And it is especially these colored
people who now eagerly and with uplifted hands implore the Nation
for that light which education alone can give, and without which
they cannot discharge the duties which the Constitution requires by
making them citizens and voters.
The slaveholders of the South had their full share of educational
facilities. But when the war ended, their impoverishment was more
complete and disastrous than ever before befell a wealthy and
civilized community. Without capital, without credit, without a
labor system, and burdened with debt, they were in no condition
to establish free schools. Want of means was not the only
difficulty. Neither white nor colored people at the South had any
knowledge or experience which would help them in establishing
popular education. The colored people were eager to learn. To them
education was a badge of freedom. But encumbered with we know not
how many centuries of barbarism behind them, and certainly with
two or three centuries of bondage, they were utterly helpless to
do anything which presupposes knowledge and experience in relation
to the complex methods and organizations of social life in highly
civilized communities.
We need not dwell on this aspect of the subject. It has plainly
come to pass that the whole question of popular education at the
South must be considered and dealt with by the great body of the
whole people of the Nation. The appeal must be made to the popular
judgment, conscience and patriotism. War measures and political
measures are no longer required to settle the controversies of
the past, or for reconstruction in the South. To finish the work
of uplifting the slave, and to fuse into one harmonious whole our
lately divided people, we must rely upon the healing influences of
time, and upon the forces which religion, business and education
can furnish. Of these forces, the government can usefully
employ only one. The stream of time will flow on, “The designs
of Providence to fulfill.” Religion, depending under God, upon
individual conscience and sense of duty, unaided by government,
wins its way by the voluntary contributions and efforts of
Christian men and women. Business, an agency of vast and unmeasured
power in promoting the peaceful progress of mankind, results from
a deeply seated and universal principle of human nature—self
interest—and will most efficiently do its work when government
wisely lets it alone. To complete reconstruction and regeneration
in the South, the only force now left to the government is popular
education.
Let national aid to this good cause be withheld no longer. Let it
be given by wise measures based on sound principles, and carefully
guarded. But let it be given promptly, generously and without
stint, to the end that the whole American people may be reared
up to the full stature of mental and moral manhood required for
intelligent self-government under our American institutions.
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT A. D. WHITE.
FELLOW CITIZENS: At that period to which our distinguished chairman
has just referred at the close of the late civil war there were
presented to this nation a number of great questions, appalling
by their magnitude and by the dangers of a wrong decision. Among
these I think one was in the hearts of all thinking men foremost:
What shall be done with these millions formerly chattels, now
citizens, the wards of the nation, the wards of humanity? Two
answers were given to that question. Two paths were open to the
triumphant nation. The first path laid out before us by many was
simply confiscation. It was said: Don’t in Heaven’s name give to
this country a great class of agricultural laborers divorced from
the soil, with no property in the land upon which they stand, for
if you do this you will but have escaped from the black sea of
bondage into the red sea of pauperism and of socialism. We were
told that right favored such a course. It was declared that these
freedmen had a right to the soil which for ages had obtained
its only value from the unpaid labor of themselves and of their
forefathers for many generations. We were also told that experience
favored such a course. We were pointed to Russia, where by the
ukase of the despot a vast body of serfs had been set free, and
had been endowed from the lands of their former masters. But,
thank God, nobler counsels prevailed. The better instincts of the
Anglo-Saxon race predominated. May I not say that the rising, the
reviving spirit of brotherhood between North and South averted such
a catastrophe. Nay, may I not go farther and still more truthfully
say that that same hand of the Almighty, which every reverent
and thoughtful student of history sees displayed so clearly in
the history of our nation from first to last, was never more
evident than when we avoided this path to new and deeper wells of
bitterness. But on the other hand there was pointed out another
path—a path chosen by devoted women, by earnest men, and that
path was simply education. It led us at first, no doubt, through
thickets of dislike; it led over chasms of hatred; nay, still
worse, it led through vast deserts of indifference—but at last it
became better and broader. It became better footing; it became more
and more paved with the noble deeds of self-sacrificing men and
women. It became more and more shaded by noble growths of human
self-sacrifice until all could see it as the appointed highway and
a better and nobler future for the whole nation.
My distinguished friend who has preceded me has looked at this
question from a lofty point of view—the point of view of a
statesman—the point of view of one who has been able to survey
this and the other questions which naturally connect themselves
with it over this entire nation from the highest seat which any
loyal son of this Republic recognizes—the Chief Magistracy of the
United States. May I be permitted to survey it from a much humbler
elevation—from that of a simple instructor of young men, whose duty
for years has been to show to young men, and, indeed, I am happy
now to say, young women also—to show to them the indications in
human history of the great hand of God leading humanity on through
all that blooms and decays, through all that struggles and suffers,
through all that falters or stands fast, to the great goal which
Divine Providence has appointed. And in that view and from that
point I do not hesitate to reiterate the assertion that in all
our history there is no greater proof of a Divine intelligence
which takes an interest in the affairs of this world than in that
Heaven-inspired choice of the path of education rather than the
path of confiscation.
You will remember, doubtless, fellow citizens, that prophecy of
Thomas Jefferson—the greatest political genius whom our country has
yet seen—that prophecy which used to ring in the hearts of some of
us before the civil war, even into the watches of the night—that
famous prophecy which seems to have come from Divine inspiration,
beginning with those terrible words: “I tremble when I remember
that God is just.” Had Thomas Jefferson foreseen the fulfillment of
his prophecy he would have been blasted with horror at the sight
of the wrath of the Almighty poured forth over this land, North
and South, for, as has so well been observed, whatever sin there
was, rested at the doors of the North as at the doors of the South.
But had that great political genius looked over and beyond this
out-pouring of God’s wrath, he would have seen an out-pouring of
mercy which would have led him to kneel humbly in adoration at the
blessings lavished upon the future nation. He would have seen the
nation welded together into one homogeneous whole as never before.
He would have seen prosperity revived as it had never been dreamed
of by the most sanguine. He would have seen an enlightenment and
civilization taking their roots, which he, with all his optimism,
never dared dream of.