conversions from the world. In fifteen only of the churches, this
growth gives a total of 358 additions, an average of twenty-four. Have
our Northern churches done so well? It is equally gratifying to learn
what kind of Christians our churches South are making, or seeking to
make; to know our students are pledged to work; what these converts
think of the standard of morality enjoined by the Gospel; the honesty,
purity and truth--in short, the practical righteousness which God
ordains. We rejoice to know that this Association has planted, and is
training, these Southern churches to be the salt of that part of the
earth--cities on a hill, lights in dark places--so recognized, having
the reputation of being Bible Christians--industrious, virtuous,
zealous of good works--thus already having obtained a good report.
It is cheering to learn that some of the best of the pastors of these
sixty-five churches have been raised not only from bondage, but from
all the degradation of slavery--boys picked up in the street, and
polished like diamonds, for the Master’s use.
We have certainly made a beginning in the matter of church extension,
as in that of education. Not the least gratifying feature is seen
in the character, the growing influence, and reputation, even among
the whites, which these churches enjoy, though some of them are
numerically small. By your instrumentality and the grace of God, they
have learned what a Christian character is, and that Christ’s friends
are not those who can sing loud and pray loud, whether they are honest
or thievish, tell the truth or lies, are virtuous or licentious; not
those who, with these immoralities, crowd sanctuaries and make them
echo; but, rather, those who keep the commandments of God.
This Association crowded the years before the war fighting against the
extension of slavery; then crowded the years during the war, and those
immediately following it, with efforts to teach the colored people
to read the Bible; and later, devoted itself to the work of planting
higher institutions--as at Hampton and Nashville and New Orleans--in
order to make of the blacks men of a higher, nobler type, teaching and
preaching men, worthy to lead their host. Shall it now set them to no
grand work of evangelization among their fellows?
The question is, whether you, who have always been identified with
Congregationalism, and still love it, after long trial and large
observation, will give it a fair trial South? We rejoice in your plan
to move slowly in this, and wisely. We warmly approve your selection
of Dr. J. E. Roy to reconnoitre the whole field, and report.
Palfrey says, “Faith in God, faith in man, and in work,” was the
brief formula taught by the founders of New England. May we not, the
children of the Pilgrims, have faith enough in God and in these men to
give them the church polity of these founders?
We are encouraged to recommend the planting of Congregational churches
among the blacks, because we have great advantages in so doing. The
eager aspiration of the blacks to be men, will help. Congregationalism
has a clean record South. Has any other of our leading denominations?
There is no prejudice to be overcome by it, as a polity. In the
competitions of the denominations on the ground, will not there be
an advantage for us? Then, again, the colored people look upon this
Association as a tried friend, and trust it. Is not this an advantage?
And, further, has not Providence opened the South to our polity, as
well as piety, in a marked manner? The work already accomplished has
shown the tree to be good, and given it favor widely, even among the
old masters. Hence the aid given to our institutions by several of
the States. Hence the high hope of many whites, that our work will do
much to tone up the blacks in all that belongs to good citizenship,
good morality, and proper church discipline. As Mohammedan Turkey,
and Pagan Hawaii and India, have welcomed the Christian homes planted
among them by the missionaries, and as the mission churches have been
a leaven of light in their social and political life, so it has been,
and will more and more be, as you establish your church centres over
the South.
In conclusion, then, we approve what seems to be the thought of the
Executive Committee--to “advance its activities in the direction of
saving souls at the South, and organize churches of our polity, as
really missionary centres of leavening influence. Let the trial of our
polity at the South be a fair and full one, carrying out our ideas
of Christian doctrine and morality. Thus, as we pray and believe,
will that wilderness the sooner bud and blossom like the rose.” We
recommend, therefore, the adoption of the following resolution:
_Resolved_, That this Association approves the plan of its Executive
Committee--to make a careful examination of the field at the South,
and infuse new activity into its church work, organizing churches,
where the way is open, on the principles of the Congregational order.
REV. EDWARD STRONG, D. D.
REV. WM. L. GAYLORD.
REV. A. H. PLUMB.
REV. D. O. MEARS.
REV. O. T. LANPHEAR, D. D.
The resolution was adopted.
Rev. Edward S. Atwood, of Salem, presented the report of the committee
upon the “Chinese in America,” as follows:
The Committee, to whom was referred that portion of the Annual Report
which relates to mission work among the Chinese in America, would
respectfully submit the following:
We recognize with satisfaction the positive and demonstrable success
of the Association in this department of labor--a success emphatically
evidenced by the 1,500 gathered into the day-schools; the increased
usefulness of the Bethany Home; the seventy-five conversions during
the year, and the ardent desire of these newly-born souls for the
Gospel light to shine on their native and beloved land. Were we to
stop here and content ourselves with the mere statistics of progress,
we should have no hesitation in saying to the officers and the
missionaries of the Association, “Servants of God, well done!”
But simple justice compels a larger view of the matter. There is
something to be taken into account besides these nominal assets. The
chief worth of the work done lies in the fact that, in the doing of
it, the Association has been loyal to its old and fixed theory, that
a man is a man everywhere and always, with a soul to be saved, and
a Saviour sufficient for its needs. Questions of nationality are
irrelevant. The simple fact of humanity is all that needs to be known
in order to institute a legitimate claim for the giving of the Gospel,
by those who have it in trust. In this department of work, loyalty
has not been an easy matter. The rough, unreasoning passions of the
mob have glanced fiercely against it. Iniquity, baptised with the
name of legislation, has endeavored to thwart it. The conciliatory
conservatism of timid, good men, has been eager to dispense its
soporific platitudes, and generous in prescribing its universal
panacea for all difficulties--“Let us have peace!” The unwarrantable
enmity to the Mongolian on the Pacific Coast has been supplemented
and reinforced by the unaccountable apathy on the Atlantic shore of
the continent. Yet, undaunted by these accumulated obstacles, the
Association has said, like the great Missionary Apostle; “None of
these things move me.” “The waves of the Yellow Sea,” it has said,
“break on a land peopled by men for whom Christ died. If we can reach
them without crossing thousands of intervening leagues of ocean, so
much the better.” In spite of hostility, often white-hot; in spite of
statute books, whose leaves were blistered with iniquitous provisions;
in spite of the furious rage of lawless crowds, the Association has
passed through the thick and peril of opposition of every sort,
and taken by the hand the despised Mongolian, against whom so many
scowling faces were set, and so many angry hands raised, and called
him “Brother,” claiming kinship, and tendering the richest offices
of help. For this, especially, the constituency of this Association
should say to its management: “Vastly well done.” The old banner under
which the Society was organized is still “full high advanced.” It is
no small honor in these degenerate times to find men who are faithful
to their trust at any cost.
But more than this, it is believed that in this department the
Association is doing germinal work. The few early ears that have
ripened for our encouragement are types and prophecies of a greater
coming harvest. In any other view of the matter the religion of the
Gospel is spiritual class legislation. It is suited to the needs of
the few and not the many. The Cross loses its power under the shadow
of the Great Wall; and men scorn, as well they may, such a deduction
as that; they are shut up to the only other possible conclusion, that
the school, the mission work, the unfolded Word, will effect in the
Pacific Coast, and among the Chinese immigrants, just what it effects
here and among us. And, therefore, we say to the Association that its
high mission in this hour is to push its work. Let it turn a deaf ear
to all pleadings to stay its hand, however plausible those pleadings
may be, and from whatever quarter they may come. Let it distrust the
shallow expedients of so-called statesmen, who are even shallower than
their expedients. Let it give no heed to the unreasoning taunts and
empty rage of Communism, but push its work; secure in the fact that
back of its efforts is the intelligent Christian public sentiment of
the land; and still more encouraged by the greater fact, that the God
who has made of one blood all nations, and provided one Gospel for all
men, is saying with an emphasis that cannot be mistaken, “Go forward!”
REV. E. S. ATWOOD.
REV. G. R. W. SCOTT.
The report was discussed by Rev. E. S. Atwood, Rev. Jesse H. Jones, of
North Abington, Rev. Geo. E. Freeman, of Abington, Rev. A. P. Marvin,
of Lancaster, Rev. S. H. Emery, of Taunton, and Col. Amos Tappan, of
Ipswich. The report was accepted, and the resolution adopted.
Rev. Geo. A. Oviatt gave the report in behalf of the committee on the
“Work of the Association in Africa” as follows:
Your Committee on so much of the report of the Executive Committee
as relates to the Mendi Mission in Africa, beg leave to submit the
following:
At the time of the last Annual Meeting of this body, the first company
of colored missionaries was on its way to the Mendi Mission. The plan
of sending out to Africa men and women of African descent redeemed
from American slavery, converted and educated at the South, was long
and thoroughly considered before it was adopted for action. Great care
was exercised in selecting this first band of colored missionaries,
and it is evident that the right workers were sent forth to test the
experiment--persons of deep, earnest piety, of more than ordinary
common sense, and of sound education, as their communications to the
Executive Committee show. In February two other missionaries, and
their wives, were sent out to help the too small number of those who
set sail for Africa in September.
This year’s trial has proved two things: (1) That persons of African
descent can endure the sickly climate of the country of which their
ancestors were natives, better than white missionaries: and (2) That
converted and educated Freedmen and women are equal to the work
of wise, thorough missionary labor in the land of their fathers.
Everything at the stations to which these brethren and sisters were
sent, seems to have been improved under their management. Converts
have been multiplied and pupils gathered into the schools in augmented
numbers.
The call is for an enlarged number of missionaries to occupy this
promising field, and for more ample provisions to enable them to take
a larger number of native children into their homes, “to be under
their care, as well as removed from the debasing influences of their
heathen surroundings.”
The Executive Committee express the hope that, with the strengthening
of these mission stations, “they may be made the point of departure
for a mission into the interior of Africa.”
It is a grand, inspiriting idea, that the men and women the best
adapted to civilize and Christianize the millions of Africa, are to
be found among those who, at the South, were so lately in bondage,
and fitted for their work as foreign missionaries in Normal schools,
Colleges, and Theological Seminaries, planted and sustained by
Northern philanthropists and Christians, not on Northern but Southern
soil.
The Executive Committee can only delay to enlarge these missionary
operations in Africa on account of the too limited amount of means in
the Treasury of the Association.
Your Committee present the following _Resolutions_:
1. That we recognize with heartfelt gratitude to God, His evident
approval of the plan of attempting to evangelize Africa by the sons
and daughters of Africans born in this country, brought out of slavery
under the Proclamation of Emancipation of President Lincoln, and here
converted and educated for this glorious work in their fatherland.
2. That we cannot do otherwise than lay on the churches the
responsibility of increasing their contributions in aid of this
Association, so as to enable it, at once, to enlarge its operations
connected with the Mendi Mission, in the hope of sending from this, as
a centre, bands of laborers into the interior of the continent.
REV. GEO. A. OVIATT.
REV. FRANKLIN AYER.
REV. JOHN C. LABAREE.
REV. G. D. PIKE.
The resolutions were adopted.
The report was discussed by Rev. G. D. Pike, and was then accepted, and
the resolution adopted.
Rev. George M. Boynton presented, as the report of the Nominating
Committee, the following nominations:
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WM. CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D.D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WILLIAM 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. W. 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. GEO. THATCHER, LL. D., Iowa.
Rev. A. L. STOKE, D. D., Cal.
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 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.,
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., N. Y.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. CHARLES L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer_, _N. Y._
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer_, _N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_, _N. Y._
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL.
A. S. BARNES.
EDWARD BEECHER.
GEO. M. BOYNTON.
WM. B. BROWN.
CLINTON B. FISK.
A. P. FOSTER.
E. A. GRAVES.
S. B. HALLIDAY.
SAMUEL HOLMES.
S. S. JOCELYN.
ANDREW LESTER.
CHAS. L. MEAD.
JOHN H. WASHBURN.
G. B. WILLCOX.
By vote of the Association, the officers named by the committee were
elected. President Tobey made remarks appropriate to his election as
President.
By vote of the Association, the report of the committee on the Indians
was taken from the table, and discussed by President Tobey.
By invitation, Rev. Dr. Rust, Corresponding Secretary of the Freedmen’s
Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, addressed the
Association.
District-Secretary Powell extended an invitation from the
Congregational Churches of Chicago to the Association, to hold the next
Annual Meeting in Chicago. The Association voted to recommend to the
Executive Committee that, if deemed expedient by them, the invitation
be accepted.
The Secretary then read the minutes, which were adopted.
After the Benediction by Rev. Stephen M. Newman, the Association
adjourned to meet at 7.30 P. M.
Thursday Evening.
An audience filling the church assembled at 7.30 o’clock. The services
opened with a voluntary by the choir. Prayer was offered by Rev.
Jonathan Edwards, of Grantville, Mass. The hymn “Great God of nations”
was then sung by the choir and congregation. Secretary Strieby, then
read a paper on “The Work of Half a Generation among the Freedmen.” The
hymn, “The morning light is breaking” was sung. An address by Rev. Dr.
Hartranft, of Hartford, followed. The hymn “My country, ’tis of thee”
was sung. An address was then made by Rev. Albert H. Plumb, of Boston.
The following vote of thanks to the churches of Taunton, for their
reception of the Association, as proposed by Secretary Woodworth, was
unanimously passed:
The American Missionary Association renders hearty thanks to the
Congregational churches of this city, for the invitation to hold its
Thirty-second Anniversary in Taunton. Especially to the Broadway
church, for the use of its house of worship for the different sessions
of the meeting, and of its chapel and parlors for the Committees and
friends in attendance; to the Winslow church, for the use of its
chapel and parlors for the entertainment of their numerous guests from
abroad; to the families of the Congregational churches, for abounding
and pleasant hospitality; to the Committee of Arrangements, for wise
and generous plans to meet all demands of the meeting and the wants
of the guests; to the chorister and choir of this church, for most
delightful aid in the service of song, and to all who have contributed
to render the meeting a pleasure and a profit to those who have been in
attendance.
Also, it renders sincere thanks to the writers of the different
papers, and to the Committees and speakers who have given time and
thought, and so greatly aided in the power and success of the meeting.
A response was made by Rev. Dr. Blake, of the Committee of
Arrangements. The closing prayer was offered by Rev. A. H. Plumb, of
Boston. The Doxology was sung, and, with the Benediction by Rev. Dr.
Hartranft, the Association adjourned.
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF REV. SYLVANUS HEYWOOD.
MR. PRESIDENT AND CHRISTIAN FRIENDS:
I do not feel that I can stand here to give any instruction, nor
scarcely any stimulus, in the work you are engaged in. Your presence
is enough for that. But there are four or five points which seem to
need special emphasis at this time--points upon which there appears to
be some doubt in the minds of the people of the North.
First, is there absolute necessity of a higher education for the
Freedmen in the United States? I do not say of a common-school
education, for all admit the necessity of that. But I apprehend that
there are many people who doubt the policy of founding universities
at the South. I have a suspicion that thousands of dollars have been
withheld from this Association for that very reason. This seems to me
a most important work. I think upon it depends the vital principle
of equal rights for all. You may enact laws, and hedge them about
with penalties for securing the rights of the blacks, but law alone
will prove a failure. But give to them the highest Christian culture,
and they will not only demand, but command, their rights. Give them
a common-school education, and it will be a blessing to them; but
with nothing more, they will remain but hewers of wood and drawers
of water. They will be _in_ society, but not _of_ it. But give them
the highest culture among cultured men, and the case will be far
different. It is too late in the day to raise the question whether
they are capable of this. This Association has demonstrated that, day
by day. I have spent ten years as a teacher among the whites, and two
among the blacks; and I must say that I accomplished more in those two
years than in the ten--more in the way of giving instruction. I say it
is too late to raise that question at all. It is already demonstrated.
Let them be educated with broad culture. Let them have the training
that will put them in possession of practical skill, such as shall
win success. Let them have their own lawyers, well trained in legal
lore, so that they shall be able--in that natural eloquence in which
they excel--to carry conviction to dignified courts. Let them have
clergymen, not only earnest and sanctified, but able to cope with the
deep things of science and theology--men able to stand before the most
learned bodies. Let them have statesmen, well grounded in philosophy,
history and government, so that they will be able not only to win
victories upon the stump, but in the halls of legislation. Let their
homes become homes of Christian culture and social refinement Then,
and not till then, will they cease to struggle for their rights, and
will take them; and not a dog will dare wag his tongue against them.
I feel that this is a subject of the most vital importance. Whoever
considers it, I think will say that this Association has been wise in
planting these influences at the South. I believe that here lies the
master-key to its social and political problems.
The next point to which I would call your attention is the necessity
of planting new churches all over the South--Congregational churches.
People ask if they need such churches down there now. Certainly; and
it is practically impossible to work there without them. We must work
there with them. We have heard to-day that the old churches in
the shadow of our institutions have grown purer and better. It is
absolutely necessary that there should be an influence from the outside
upon these churches. Men ask after the Uncle Toms of the South--ask if
it is all imagination. By no means. The Uncle Toms of the South are met
just about as frequently as the Harlan Pages of the North.