Part 4

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.

Men say that the old churches largely stand in the way of their own people. People testify that one of the greatest obstacles in the way of this educational question is to be found in the pastors themselves of those churches. As a class, they do not want their flocks to know more than they do. This is one of the greatest difficulties to be contended with. We must have churches outside of the old ones. Does not the grace of God abound in them? Yes, I believe there are multitudes who have it. But when that question is asked, I am always reminded of that familiar anecdote of the old clergyman who had a fair daughter who was noted for her violent temper. A young man became enamored of her, and asked for her hand. The old man was not willing to palm off damaged goods. He said, “It is not wise to take her.” “Why not?” said the young man; “isn’t she a Christian; isn’t she converted?” “Yes,” said the old man, “but you must remember that the grace of God can live where you and I can’t.” So the grace of God can bring forth influences to serve Him down there, but these churches stand as an obstacle. It is absolutely necessary to form new churches, that we be not burdened by the old effete organizations. I believe in Congregationalism. It may be very well for those of a different polity to talk of the God of the hills and the valleys and the dry places and streams; but our God is the King of the whole earth. It may be well for those of a different polity to quote their different authorities, but the only authority we recognize is the authority of Him whose dominion stretches from sea to sea and from pole to pole. Such is Congregationalism. It is adapted to every human being God has made. It may indeed take on different forms. You have pure, limpid water. Pour it into different vessels, but it will be the same limpid water still. So, take Congregationalism in the tropics or wherever you please, and it will be Congregationalism still.

Brother Pike would not pardon me if I did not allude to Africa. The ways of God are mysterious. We must walk by faith, and not by sight. We hear His voice saying, “This is the way; walk ye in it.” In this darkness we see His hand. The providence of God towards this nation, for generations, was exceedingly mysterious. But during the last forty years it has been becoming exceedingly clear. In the raising of this Society and the doing away with slavery, we can see almost visibly the hand of God displayed upon the midnight sky, pointing to that dark continent, saying we should send these freemen forth as apostles of light, to purify and make glad their ancestral homes. And I believe the providence of God is leading us to still greater achievements.

This Association, born amid the throes of slavery, is almost the only organization that stands for that principle which underlies the oneness of humanity. It seems to have been raised up that through it the churches might bring their influence to bear upon the vital issue of the hour. What is it? The same as it has been from the beginning of this nation--the same as in India--caste is the barrier everywhere. The battle rages to-day from Maine to California between classes of men. It is for this Association to stand up and contend against the foes that arise against whatever is good and right. If this Association ever hesitates thus to stand, whether it be in South Carolina, Massachusetts, or the Black Hills, then will its prestige be lost. But, thank God, there is no such fate for this Society. When the wolves of Communism are barking about our doors; when the shrieks of degrading socialism come up into our ears, it is no time to hesitate. It is time to resist their filth and set up the banner of that pure Gospel, under whose folds can be no bondman--neither Chinaman nor black--but where all shall enjoy the equality of the sons of God. We can almost see the hand of God visibly pouring into this nation from all sides as into the extended hopper of a mighty mill, that here they may be amalgamated. Here He brought the red man of the forest; then the Anglo-Saxon race; then He reached out to Africa and plucked up the black diamond; then He sent the phlegmatic Teutons and the Scandinavians; and even now He is opening old Cathay and pouring upon us swarms of Asiatics. “He hath made of one blood all nations of men that dwell upon the face of the whole earth.” There is no proposition which so awakens the fiendish hate of mankind as this. States and nations are rising up in indignation against this purpose of God. It belongs to Christian people to stand up and denounce God’s curse on whoever shall deny His will. Accursed be he who dares to keep out any nation or tribe under the heavens! Accursed any political party that goes through the country trying to raise a quarrel between men! Yea, accursed will be the nation itself that dares to make enactments to separate or make distinctions between races of men! It belongs to Christian people to stand up, and, in the teeth of antagonism, in defiance of States, governments, legislatures, and Protestant Congresses in the United States--to declare, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

There are many insects from which we shrink with loathing. But here comes the naturalist who takes his lens and pours in upon the insect the solar ray, and we stand back in amazement at the beauty and perfection of the work of God. It is the duty of us all to act the part of the naturalist towards these despised races--these degraded classes. Let us put them under the lens of that wonderful utterance: “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these ye did it unto me.” Pour into that lens the light of the last day, and we shall see them endued with the majesty of the Most High God.

I believe this the pressing duty of the hour. If we shall take counsel of our fears--if we are afraid to let Christianity grapple with infidel Romanism, even with heathenism, God will remand us back to forty years in the wilderness, but will bring in our children to drive out these Anakim of our faithless terror.

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ADDRESS ON CHINESE MISSIONS IN AMERICA.

REV. E. S. ATWOOD.

I am requested to add to the written report a few words, which will be unreasonably brief, in view of the importance of the subject. I count it a great misfortune that we should have been obliged to postpone to the last, weary, unenthusiastic hours of our meeting, the consideration of a subject which is one of the great problems this Association is set to solve. It would have been well for us if we had been allowed time to open the information that is accessible to us on this subject. There are many who think the Chinese question a very small affair. We get but faint rumors of it on these Eastern shores. Yet that little cloud on the Western horizon, not larger than a man’s hand to-day, is destined to cover the whole land, and will either be found to be filled with tempests or refreshing rain, according as the people meet the exigencies of the hour. The Chinese question will by-and-by, I believe, assume a proportion quite equal to that of the negro question. There is this peculiarity about it--almost every other department of work in this Association is amply provided for. The question of the evangelization of the Indian is comparatively a temporary question; for not many generations will pass before only a scattered remnant of Indian tribes will be left in this land. The welfare and lifting up of the black race is continually under consideration. But who cares for the Chinese? The discussion in regard to them is limited and local. And yet their presence on this continent is a matter of national interest. It starts grave problems, that have somehow to be studied and solved.

There are three classes in the land to-day who are studying this question, and are giving us their conclusions upon it. First of all, we have the Communists, east and west, who are trying to grapple with the question, and settle it. We have one Dennis Kearney going up and down the land, and men say he is a loud-mouthed demagogue, whose utterances have no weight of public opinion behind them. Not at all, Mr. President. Dennis Kearney is a representative man--a John the Baptist, crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Devil, and make his paths straight.” Communism, as a whole, proposes to deal with the Chinese, by driving them out from the land. If you doubt that assertion, look at the facts. Documentary statements in regard to the matter, compiled by B. S. Brooks, an eminent counsellor on the Pacific Coast, have been presented to a Joint Commission of both Houses of Congress. I wish they could be put into the hands of every Christian man. Unfortunately, the books that give any real information on these statistics are somehow not easily accessible. This setting forth of facts in the documents of Mr. Brooks, shows incontrovertibly that Communism in California is murderous in its intent towards the Chinese.

It has put its intention into acts. It has outraged unoffending men, and struck them down relentlessly in the public street. Violence of that sort is comparatively safe. The testimony of the Chinaman cannot be taken in opposition to the white man. The only chance a Chinaman, who is about to be murdered, has to obtain justice, is to secure a white witness to see it done. The rougher element on the Western coast is bound to annihilate the Chinaman. And all for no good reason. They are not numerous. There are only 100,000 Chinamen scattered up and down the coast. They foment no disturbances. There are only two offenses charged against them--grave offenses--and these are, that they live economically, and don’t get drunk; and so are able to work for lower wages than the masses of the Irish and native-born population.

There is another power trying to solve this problem, and that is the politicians. They are no more successful than the Communists. They have secured the enactment of certain statutes, but those statutes are often iniquitous. The Legislature of California has enacted what seems to me the most infamous laws that ever disgraced any statute-book. The Fugitive Slave Law was a Golden Rule in comparison. Let us see. It is well known that the Chinamen are laundry men. They do their work in their shops, and carry it out themselves. Forthwith, the Legislature of San Francisco enacts that every laundryman who carries his work out with a horse shall pay a dollar a month; but every laundryman who carries it out by hand shall pay FIFTEEN dollars a month.

The Chinese are gregarious. They crowd together in tenement-houses, from which people of other nationalities are excluded. By Section Second of an Act approved April 3, 1876, by the Legislature of California, it is provided that “Any person or persons found sleeping or lodging, or who hires or uses for the purpose of sleeping, any room or apartment which contains less than 500 cubic feet of space in the clear, for each person so occupying such room or apartment, shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than ten, or more than fifty dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.” That is, says Mr. Brooks, as a penalty for lodging in rooms containing less than 500 cubic feet of space, they are to be thrust into prison cells of less than one-fifth the dimension. Certainly

“For ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is [NOT] peculiar.”

Mr. Luttrell moved in Congress that the steamboat bills be so amended as to forbid the employment of a Chinaman in any capacity whatsoever. Congressman Shelley, of Alabama, introduced a bill providing that all Chinamen coming to the United States, except officially, be taxed $250 per capita, or serve five years in the penitentiary. The Chinese in California are made to pay more than $42,000 school taxes annually, while their children are not admitted to the public schools, neither are there other schools provided for them. Thirteen hundred Chinamen asked the California Legislature for school privileges for 3,000 of their children, seeking only such as are provided for those of African and Indian descent. Their petition was immediately laid on the table, and stigmatized as dangerous. This is only a specimen of this class legislation on the Pacific Coast. They are very ingenious there. Just as fast as one law is decided unconstitutional, they have another.

Communism crushes the Chinese. The politician says, “They sha’n’t come here if we can prevent it by oppressive legislation.” As a protest against the unreasonableness of this course of procedure, the testimony of Postmaster-General Key is of special value. In a recent conversation, he gave the following as the result of his observations during his visit to the Pacific Coast: “The politicians,” said Mr. Key, “are almost to a man against the Chinese, and antagonize them bitterly. The merchants, the manufacturers, the farmers, and nearly the entire employing class, are very fond of the Chinese, and prefer them to any other laborers. They speak in the highest terms of the Chinese; they say that they are docile, obedient, obliging, punctual, hardworking, and faithful; they are exceedingly thrifty and economical; they are temperate in their habits, do not drink liquor of any kind, eat very little meat, and live almost entirely on rice. It is wonderful to see how little a Chinaman can live on. Their economy struck me as something marvellous. Large numbers of them sleep in a single ill-ventilated room; they constantly violate the fundamental laws of health, yet they are seemingly very healthy. I was astonished to learn they had no hospital. I was shown through the Chinese Quarter of San Francisco by the Mayor, and saw everything in that locality; but there are a number of places here in Washington fully as bad, if not worse, than anything I saw in Chinatown. I also observed that the railroad companies employed a large number of Chinamen, and found them excellent workmen.” Evidently, the politicians are not competent to the settlement of the Chinese question.

The American Missionary Association takes hold of the matter in the right way. It says: Let the Chinese come and be treated as men. Let them have the gospel preached to them, and be lifted into a civilization that is level with your own. Communism has not succeeded, so far. The politician has not succeeded. The American Missionary Association has shown itself able to grapple with the question. They have got hold of the right end of the rope. If they are encouraged by the churches of America, they will solve this problem.

There appeared in the _Congregationalist_, some weeks ago, an editorial of great merit, in which this radical mistake was made: it was a sort of apology for the Chinese, because they were so few in numbers. It said they were decreasing instead of increasing. Why, Mr. Chairman, look across the ocean and see that great nation, covering one-tenth of the globe, and holding one-third its population. So crowded is it that millions (even more than our entire population) who never have a home upon land, are born, live and die floating upon rivers and canals. A more industrious race is not; neither can agriculture, which still ranks far above any other employment, be found anywhere else carried to such perfection of thoroughness. There is no idleness among these millions. The monstrous human ant-heap is astir. They are also an educated people, nimble in figures, as well as in all kinds of labor. There is but one written language for all the population, which has been transmitted, with even no dialectic changes, for at least 2,500 years. It is a nation industrious and frugal. We talk about the heathen Chinese, but we had better talk about the heathen Anglo-Saxon. What useful art is practised to-day that China has not had for centuries? What we count the great discoveries of modern science, may turn out not to be so modern after all. I saw a statement made within ten days, that it has been discovered that Edison’s phonograph was known in China two hundred years before Edison was born. China has a history--a record which cannot be ignored.

We do vastly ill when we talk about the “heathen Chinee.” Their religion is something against which we set our faces; but their character is worth commendation. I was talking, the other day, with a gentleman who had passed the greater part of his life in China. He said there was not an element in the Japanese character that was not in the Chinese, and of the two, he considers the Chinese the more hopeful. In dealing with the Chinese, we are not dealing with refuse material. China is a great nation. It has its place among the foremost of the earth. It is a sad thing for this great nation of ours, if it cannot endure the little leaven on the Pacific Coast. Do you suppose it will affect the great mass of Christianity unfavorably?

Over 300 of the Chinese have already been received as members of the Protestant Churches in California, and 700 are under Christian instruction, studying the doctrines of our faith, while 1,000 attend Sunday-school, and two young men are preparing for the Christian ministry. Even those who do not come under the influence of such instruction can scarcely be said to be the worst people in the land. In 1875, of the 7,643 arrests for drunkenness, not one was a Chinaman; of the 3,263 paupers admitted to the alms-house, only six were Chinamen; of 83 murderers hanged during the last year in the United States, not one was a Chinaman.

If any other race, born or naturalized, on this continent, can show a similarly good record, let them step to the front and declare it.

The truth is, Mr. President, we are only standing on the threshold of this great question. I believe if you and I live to come to these meetings ten years hence, less will be said about the blacks and more about the Chinese. We need to understand this great work now opening before us. We ought to remove one source of prejudice against the Chinese. Men say the Chinese must go, because their coming reduces their wages. I happen to have a statement of wages in California for the past year, clipped only a few months since from a San Francisco paper: Carpenters, from $3 to $3.50; bricklayers, $4 to $5; painters, $3; plasterers, $3.50; hod-carriers, $3; stone-cutters, $4; machinists, $3 to $4; common laborers, $2; house work in families, per week, $6 to $7. Can we make a show equally in favor of the wages of the workingmen on this sun-rise side of the continent, where the Chinese are insignificant as a competing power? The truth is, all this cry about their taking the bread out of our children’s mouths is simply nonsense.