Part 1

VOL. XXXII. No. 4.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

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APRIL, 1878.

_CONTENTS_:

EDITORIAL.

THE WARDS OF THE ALMIGHTY 97 DOUGLASS AND HAYES AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY 98 CHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH 99 FOUR NEW MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA 100 THE TWO INDIAN POLICIES 102 NEWS FROM THE CHURCHES—ITEMS FROM THE SCHOOLS 103 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 104 INDIAN NOTES 105 CHINESE NOTES 106 OBITUARIES 107

THE FREEDMEN.

TALLADEGA COLLEGE 108 NORTH CAROLINA: “A mighty still religion.” “Good Christians is Peaceable.” 111 ALABAMA: Debt-raising in a Colored Church 112 LOUISIANA: Revival News 113 TENNESSEE: Le Moyne Normal School—A Woman’s Work Among Women 114 KENTUCKY: Berea College 115 HYMN 117

THE INDIANS.

WASHINGTON TERRITORY: Three Indian Boys and Their Letters. Rev. Myron Eells, S’kokomish 118 INDIAN WELCOME TO AN AGENT. Dr. I. L. Mahan, Red Cliff, Wis. 118

THE CHINESE.

THE CHINESE NEW YEAR—MOB DENUNCIATIONS—THE GREAT COMMISSION LESSENED—CONVERSIONS. Rev. W. C. Pond, San Fransisco 119 LETTER FROM AH JAM 120

THE CHILDREN’S PAGE 121

RECEIPTS 122

WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. 126

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NEW YORK:

Published by the American Missionary Association,

ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.

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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

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A. Anderson, Printer, 28 Frankfort St.

_American Missionary Association_,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

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PRESIDENT.

HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

VICE PRESIDENTS.

Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio. Rev. JONATHAN BLANCHARD, Ill. Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis. Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass. Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me. Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct. Rev. SILAS MCKEEN, D. D., Vt. WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, Mass. Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I. Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I. Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill. Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C. Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La. Rev. D. M. GRAHAM, D. D., Mich. HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich. Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H. Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct. DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio. Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt. SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N.Y. Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Ct. Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y. Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon. Rev. EDWARD L. CLARK, N. Y. Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill. EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H. DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J. Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct. Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct. A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio. Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn. Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn. Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa. Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis. S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass. Rev. H. M. PARSONS, N. Y. PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass. Dea. JOHN WHITING, Mass. Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct. Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa. Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct. Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct. Sir PETER COATS, Scotland. Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng. WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y. J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_. REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago, Ill._

EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._ H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, EDWARD BEECHER, GEO. M. BOYNTON, WM. B. BROWN, CLINTON B. FISK, A. P. FOSTER, AUGUSTUS E. GRAVES, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAM’L HOLMES, S. S. JOCELYN, ANDREW LESTER, CHAS. L. MEAD, JOHN H. WASHBURN, G. B. WILLCOX.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his order as _Assistant Treasurer_.

A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XXXII. APRIL, 1878. No. 4.

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_American Missionary Association._

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THE WARDS OF THE ALMIGHTY.

The notable event connected with the formal presentation of Mr. Carpenter’s picture “Signing the Emancipation Proclamation,” to the United States, was the speech of the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. It was a graceful and significant act, when the former Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy spoke such words of hearty good-will at the reception of this commemoration of its death-blow. Mr. Stephens claims for the South a share of the honor of emancipating the slaves, since “the freedom of that race was never finally consummated, and could not be, until the Southern States sanctioned the Thirteenth Amendment. They accepted the proposition for emancipation by a voluntary uncontrolled” adoption of it.

Of the institution of slavery, as previously existing, he said:

“If it were not the best relation for the happiness and welfare of both races—morally, physically, intellectually and politically—it was wrong and ought to have been abolished. This I said of it years before secession, and I repeat it still. But, as I have said, this is no time now to discuss those questions.

“I have seen something of the world, and traveled somewhat, and I have never yet found on earth a paradise. The Southern States are no exception. Wherever I have been, I have been ready to exclaim with Burns:

“‘But, oh! what crowds in every land Are wretched and forlorn!

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Man’s inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn.’

“It was so at the South. It was so at the North. It is so yet. It is so in every part of the world that I have seen.”

In regard to the future relation of the races in this land, Mr. Stephens speaks cautiously, and not unwisely. With many of the best men of the South, he sees here a problem not easily to be solved, and an outcome not lightly to be prophesied. He denies that any Southern men desire a change back to the old relation of master and slave. We quote again:

“The question of the proper relation of the races is one of the most difficult problems which statesmen or philanthropists, legislators or jurists, ever had to solve. The former polity of the Southern States upon this subject is ended, and I do not think it inappropriate on this occasion to indulge in some remarks with regard to the future. Since the emancipation, since the former ruling race have been relieved of their direct heavy responsibility for the protection and welfare of their dependents, it has been common to speak of the colored race as ‘the wards of the nation.’

“May I not say with appropriateness, in this connection, and due reverence, in the language of Georgia’s greatest intellect (Toombs), ‘They are rather the wards of the Almighty,’ committed now, under a new state of things, to the rulers, the law-makers, the law-expounders and the law-executors throughout this broad land, within their respective constitutional spheres, to take care of, and provide for, in that complicated system of government under which we live? I am inclined, sir, so to regard them, and so to speak of them—not in exceptional cases, but as a mass. In the providence of God, why their ancestors were permitted to be brought over here, it is not for us to say; but they have a location and habitation here, especially in the South, and since the changed condition of their status, though it was the leading cause of the late terrible conflict of arms between the States, yet I think I may venture to affirm there is not one within the circle of my acquaintance, or in the whole Southern country, who would now wish to see the old relation restored.”

Recognizing a national responsibility for the welfare and protection of these freedmen, he closes with this ringing exhortation:

“This changed status creates new duties. The wardship has changed hands. _Men of the North and of the South, of the East and of the West—I care not of what party—I would to-day, on this commemorative occasion, urge upon every one within the sphere of duty and humanity, whether in public or private life, to see to it that there be no violation of the Divine trust._”

To which the _Independent_ gives its enthusiastic assent as follows:

“Amen and Amen! Statesmen, patriots, Christians, listen to the words of the Vice-President of the Confederate Government! They speak the deepest feelings of the best men who fought against the Union. There remains now for us the greater task of making the freedmen worthy to enjoy and fit to adorn that freedom whose proclamation was signed September 22d, 1862.”

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DOUGLASS AND HAYES AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

Surely, the colored people of the South are receiving plain talk and good advice on all sides. Perhaps no one speaks more plainly and penetratingly, and perhaps no one has a better right or ability to do it, than the Hon. Frederick Douglass. At the reception of an engraving of Mr. Carpenter’s picture, from the artist, by the Howard University, he uttered honest words, and true. Speaking of Mr. Stephens’ speech, in which he said it was yet to be proven if emancipation was a blessing, Mr. Douglass replied that this question was to be answered in the future, and meant that his race was still on trial—on trial to see if they would be better masters to themselves than their masters were to them—if they would rise as early and work as late.

In regard to his own people, he said:

“Among the faults of my people are self-indulgence, love of ease, and improvidence. They must learn to spend their earnings judiciously. _If one can’t get up, he will be helped down._ They have a fair chance to get up. They are on the way to Congress, and if the negro can stand Congress, Congress ought to stand the negro. The colored men have been forced up by abnormal conditions, but they are now coming up gradually by their own exertions.”

This is the soundest kind of sense. Emancipation only struck the shackles from the slave; it had no power to lift him up. Federal force could hold him up by the arms, but he is still as limp as ever, for all that; his ankle bones could not immediately receive strength from it. “They have a fair chance to get up”; but that does not get them up of itself. The stairways of education are laid from the first story—yes, from the sub-cellar up through the basement, flight after flight, to the top floor. But stairways do not turn, end for end, to tumble people up. The paths of honest industry and thrift are open; but they are all up-hill, and never slide their travelers down into competence and respectability. There is a chance to get up, but the freedman must do his own climbing, after all. If there are some to dissuade him, by assuring him that for him these ascents lead up to nothing worth the effort, there are others to cheer him on, and to rejoice with him in each new advance. But even such will be compelled to admit the justice of the saying, “If one can’t get up, he will be helped down”; he must not obstruct the way. He ought, however, to be encouraged, by seeing such men as Douglass up so near the top. And those who cannot encourage him by example, because they were born on higher levels, surely may sympathize with him, in the remembrance of their own toil, as they ascended on the same scale, though higher. Let there not fail him, while he fails not to strive, cheers from above, cheers from below, cheers from all around him, and a hand, too, now and then, for him to grasp and get a friendly pull. The stair builders must be in the way to help a little, just when heart and strength are failing.

President Hayes spoke, too, on the same occasion, and in much the same line. Read this President’s Message:

“The wisdom, the righteousness, and the grandeur of Abraham Lincoln’s act of emancipation, no man will deny. That it has conferred infinite blessings on our country, on both races, and on the world, very few will question. This estimate of the act, and of its results, will not be changed by the good conduct or the bad conduct of either race. But it is said that the question of the blessing conferred on the colored race depends on their conduct. What they most need is, what Burns calls ‘the glorious privilege of being independent.’ What this requires is, the willingness to labor, and the prudence and self-denial to save the fruits of labor. My young colored friends, let this, then, be among your good resolutions: I will work, and I will save, to the end that I may become independent.”

That is good advice for any poor man, black or white. This picture of the signing of the Emancipation Act can commemorate all of which it is capable, only if the privilege of freedom be embraced as the opportunity of manly toil, and the occasion of all patient effort to become the equal of other men, not in external advantages and rights half so much as in capacity and character.

This is what we are working for among our colored brethren, and especially among the youth, and with a measure of success which makes us full of hope for their future and ours. We must be patient to hold out the chances, and keep open the opportunities, as well as they to toil and strive to use them. Most of all do we feel that when we have succeeded in leading them to an intelligent Christian experience, we have awakened in them the highest motive of which the human mind is capable, and brought them under the most powerful stimulus to the worthiest of all ambitions—to fit themselves, not for high stations, but for useful work.

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CHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH.

Is the A. M. A. devoting a proper share of its work to the extension of Congregational Churches in the South? The question is a fair one, and deserves a frank answer. But the answer, to be just to all interests concerned, must take a broad view of the whole subject. The paramount duty of the nation, and especially of the churches, to the emancipated slaves, is to fit them for their new position as citizens, and their true destiny as men and Christians in America, and as missionaries to Africa. Anything short of this is less than our whole duty. The blacks are all religious in their way, and nearly all are connected with churches. In the matter of outward profession and inward emotion, the _quantity_ is all that could be asked. It is in the _quality_ alone that a change is needed. No Christian Church can discharge its duty to them by merely denominationalizing them into its ranks, leaving the essentials of character and Christian manhood unchanged. The Congregational Churches of this country certainly will not be satisfied with this low aim.

But these Congregational Churches are, by the nature of the case, compelled to work in methods differing from those of other denominations. Methodists, Baptists, and, to some extent, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, pre-occupy the ground. Congregationalists were almost unknown among the blacks before the war, and their efforts must naturally meet with sectarian prejudice, somewhat in proportion to the ignorance of the people. But, nevertheless, Congregationalism has a great responsibility in regard to this people, in laying foundations on which to build the essentials of character in civil and Christian life. It is with this aim that the Association has, from the beginning, sought to do its work—moving, with the progress of the colored people, from the common-school to the more effective normal, collegiate and theological teaching. The wisdom of its efforts is attested by the commendations of those, both in the South and North, who are most competent to judge, and also by the more convincing fact, that it can point to 100,000 scholars in schools taught by its former pupils, to the education it has given to many colored ministers, and to the missionaries, born in slavery, trained in its schools, and now sent to Africa.

The church work must for a time, at least, grow out of, and keep pace with, this Christian teaching, which prepares the people to appreciate, and the minister to preach, a pure Gospel and a practical morality. It were easy to scatter the seeds in a thin and shallow soil, and gather a harvest that would wither while it was gathering. A writer in one of the religious papers, who censures the Association, makes this great boast, followed by a frank confession: “With half of three millions of dollars I can Congregationalize every negro in the South; _but, of course, the work would not be permanent_.” The italics in this quotation are ours, for we wish to call attention to the acknowledgment, and to say that this transient work is precisely what the Association does not attempt. It will not take the money of its patrons to start ephemeral growths. It prefers, and we are sure its intelligent friends will prefer, that it should plow deep, harrow thoroughly, and sow “wholly a right seed,” that the gatherings may be an hundred fold for the garner of the Master.

An effort is made to stir up Congregationalists to plant _white_ churches in the South. The project is not new, but its results thus far have not been encouraging. Soon after the war, the Home Missionary Society and the Congregational Union invested large moneys in establishing such churches there, and we suppose that their experience will lead them to ask for very clear evidence of more favorable auspices before they will wish to renew the attempt. But if it were renewed, it would only be an exaggeration of the difficulties at the West, where feeble rival churches, in poor and small communities, struggle against inevitable death. For, in the South, we should have two feeble Congregational churches, the one white and the other black, in still poorer and smaller places. And more than all that, the A. M. A. has started its church work on the only true Gospel basis, founding churches without distinction of color. Its churches are not black by its ordination, and are only made nearly so by the caste prejudice of the whites. It ought to be understood that the progress of any people in civilization and Christianity is a growth, taking form and bearing fruit according to soil and climate, and that it cannot be produced to order, or at the behest of mere theorists.

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FOUR NEW MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA.

Many an experiment has failed because entered upon half-heartedly, and tried on too small a scale to succeed. The height of wisdom is to find the true line on which caution and courage meet. It has been the purpose of the Association to do its part in the evangelization of Africa, by missionaries of African descent, and to begin in that effort so soon as our schools should begin to furnish those qualified for such important work.

Last fall, when, after the return of Mr. Billheimer and the death of Barnabas Root, the Mendi Mission needed rëinforcement, the new policy was begun by sending Messrs. Snelson, James and White to the field. They arrived in due time, and entered at once heartily upon their work. They have had some slight illnesses—almost, if not quite all of them having suffered somewhat in the process of acclimation—but at last accounts all were well again. If we are fully informed, they have endured less inconvenience from this cause than we anticipated.

But the mission was still weak—Bro. Snelson the only minister. Two of the white missionary helpers, who had been in the field before, soon withdrew in impaired health. It was deemed wise, and, indeed, indispensable, for the successful prosecution of the work, that the ranks should be at once filled. It was decided to send three single men, or better, if possible, two married men with their wives. A letter was written to Fisk University, stating the need, which was read without comment, at prayers, Feb. 8th.

God’s Spirit took the message to the heart of Andrew E. Jackson, and sent it by him to Albert Miller, and through them to Ella M. Hildridge and Ada J. Roberts (also students at Fisk), to whom they were respectively engaged, and three days later the four offered themselves willingly for this far-off field. The faculty recognized at once their fitness for the work; they were among the best and brightest and most advanced of the students in their respective departments. The four met daily for prayer together, and their convictions and purposes were daily strengthened. The Executive Committee accepted them promptly, and felt it necessary to press their speedy departure, that they might reach the west coast of Africa before the wet season should set in, when the conditions for their acclimature would be less favorable than earlier.

On Saturday of that week a council was convened, which, on the following day, Sunday, Feb. 17th, ordained the two young men to the Gospel ministry, they having each had considerable experience in preaching. A farewell meeting of the students was also held on the same day, full of heartiness and fervor, at which the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

“In consideration of the call of God to our brethren, to labor in Africa, and in consideration of the many hours spent together in Christian communion,

“_Resolved_, That we devote a portion of each Sabbath morning to prayer especially for them in their labors on the African shores, that they may be abundantly blessed, both spiritually and physically, and enabled to do good work for the Master.”