Part 2

“3. The common-school system has been established throughout the Southern States, and recognized in theory by the wisest Southern men as to be applied impartially to whites and blacks.

“4. All of the large religious denominations are conducting educational movements among the Freedmen on a large scale. There are scattered through the Southern States, under the patronage of different denominations, thirty-nine chartered and endowed institutions for the higher education of colored people as teachers, ministers, physicians, farmers and mechanics. Besides these, there are sixty-nine schools of a lower grade. It is calculated that in the last sixteen years twenty million dollars has been contributed and invested in the work of educating the Freedmen.

“5. Leading and influential men at the South are in many cases openly patrons of these educational efforts. Several of these institutions have been generously assisted by the States in which they are founded. The last reports of all these institutions represent them as in a successful and flourishing condition.

“6. The colored race is advancing in material wealth and prosperity.”

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CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.

4. Its Relation to the African Race.

DIST. SEC. C. L. WOODWORTH, BOSTON.

Beyond any sentiment of honor, or of ambition to do our share of the immense work thrown in an hour upon the churches of this land, is the higher aim to introduce our faith and our polity to the African race. Not only is it our reproach that we have been, almost exclusively, confined to a small part of the English-speaking people, but we shall deserve our littleness if we consent to be limited to this nation, or even to this continent. The world needs the principles we have in trust, and will not reach its best until it attains them. And, now, before us is an open field, rich in resources of life and wealth, all untilled. One-sixth of the human family waits to be moulded by Christian influence. A continent bares its bosom and asks Christianity for her strongest and best. Why should the Church, which took possession of _one_ continent and gave it the most benign institutions earth ever saw, hesitate to lay hold of _another_, and plant it with the good seed of the kingdom?

There is something immensely stimulating in the thought of breaking forth after a lost race. All we need is an infusion of the enterprise which guided the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. A new continent for Christ is what we need to take up as our watch-word, and pass along the lines till our membership is fired with a holy zeal to win its 200,000,000 unto the Lamb that was slain. And if we were intent on this, how easy it would be to connect the work _here_ with the work _there_. If, when the door opened into the South, we had gone in with our plans to save the African race, we could hardly have done differently from what we have. We have planted our schools and our churches in the very centres of population and of influence. We have a large force of young men and women in our schools, and our churches are constituted almost wholly of young Christian scholars. How easy it would be to turn the whole tide of their study and thought and influence towards Africa! There is in the African mind of the South now a strong drawing toward the land of their fathers. The schemes of colonization afloat all through the South show it. The hundreds of young men and young women banded together in our schools and churches to go to Africa as teachers or as preachers, if the way shall open, show it. They only need the guiding intelligence to undertake to plant on Africa’s shores another Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay.

And this opportunity comes to the Congregational church and finds it well prepared to enter on the training of Christian scholars and preachers for this work. Our churches on the ground are few in number, but filled with young, fresh, intelligent, pure material, and co-operate with our schools to bring forward the teachers and leaders of the African race. Is it all chance that puts us in this position and gives us this advantage in laying the foundations of education and religion for another race and another continent? God’s plan may include _black_ as well as _white_ pilgrims, and it may be ours to impart the pilgrim spirit and prepare the men who shall make a new Africa, as our fathers made a new America. This is possible to us as a church, and we ought to work towards it with unflagging zeal. We can only lose our advantage by our own neglect and lack of enterprise. We are in the front of workers for Africa. Eight or ten of our young Christian scholars are already on African soil. They send back a call for reinforcements, and the reinforcements will be ready as soon as our churches furnish the equipments and give them marching orders. The work may be long and rough; our fathers found it so here. Congregationalism is used to that. Indeed, she does best when on the strain. She is grand when she leads the forlorn hope. Easy, comfortable, self-pleasing life is not the atmosphere in which she grows tough, sturdy, courageous and aggressive. Show her something to do for Christ, something calling for sacrifice, some mighty battle to be fought for her King, and she will cover herself with glory.

Out at the front--among the ranchmen, herdsmen, miners, soldiers, savages--she is at home. This Southern work, which has taken the feet of her toilers as near the thorns, and their heads as near the crown of martyrdom, as any work of the century, has shown her splendid qualities. Her faith and meekness, love and heroism, have won her praises even in the gates of her enemies. And now we ask her to make the whole African race the object of her endeavor. This is the mission offered to her; let her not decline it. Let her lead the hardest and perhaps the grandest movement in modern missions. The young colored scholars of the South have learned to trust her, and they will follow her.

Now is the time: Africa swings wide open her long barred gates; commerce and science are moving to possess the land; foundations are being laid for the centuries: let the church that can build so wisely and so well, build this new temple of a regenerated Africa.

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DEATH OF A TEACHER.

It is with painful regret that we are obliged to record the untimely death of Miss Laura S. Cary, one of the teachers of the Fisk University. She was the daughter of John J. Cary, Esq., of Nashville, well known as cashier of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank, and as a trustee of the Fisk University from its organization.

Miss Cary pursued the full course of study at the University, and was graduated with honor in the class of 1877, receiving the degree of A.B.; after this she engaged in teaching in the classical department as an assistant to Professor Spence.

She was very attractive in person, cultured in manners, dignified, quiet and winning. Her character as a Christian was unobtrusive and consistent. As a teacher she was proficient, kindly and patient, adding to exact scholarship a grace of demeanor and a voice of such rare sweetness as to attract constant attention to it. In her death the institution has lost one of the most valuable members of its corps of workers, and the African race a representative of rare merit and promise.

She died of typhus fever, June 28th, after an illness of ten days, aged 23.

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ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

RALEIGH, N. C.--After the closing of the Conference, Pastor Smith, with the assistance of Rev. Mr. Peebles, of Dudley, held special services for three weeks. The church was greatly revived. Two young men have been received into the church. Others have been and are interested. The congregation is increasing, especially in the attendance of young men.

GREENWOOD, S. C.--The Brewer Normal School, under the care of Mr. J. D. Backenstose, closed, June 26th, a successful year’s work. Examinations and exhibition were very creditable and largely attended. The annual address was delivered by the Rev. F. E. McDonald, on “Culture.” Ministers of other denominations, graduates of the school, and many prominent citizens, showed by their attendance, and expressed in words, their deep interest in the work and gratification with its results.

ATLANTA, GA.--The teachers and students of Atlanta University contributed about $75 at their monthly missionary meetings during the past year, and have employed that sum in aiding the work of the National Temperance Society, from which they have received a large supply of the best temperance literature. As nearly 150 of the students are at present engaged in teaching summer schools, and nearly all enter into the temperance work, they will find such a supply a valuable help, and can give it wide and effective distribution. About an equal sum was given at weekly school meetings, and will be sent to aid mission work among the Indians.

A State Teachers’ Association was organized in Atlanta, during commencement week, by the young colored teachers of Georgia. There was an attendance of more than one hundred, and all parts of the State were represented. The proceedings were dignified and appropriate, and wise and useful plans were set on foot for future action. A large portion of the participants were graduates of Atlanta University, and were in attendance upon its closing exercises.

Rev. S. S. Ashley has resigned the care of the First Church in Atlanta, and Rev. Geo. E. Hill, of Marion, Ala., is supplying the pulpit during the summer.

WOODVILLE, GA.--The Sabbath-school is growing, and God is with us. It is in a better condition now than ever before since its organization. Last Sunday we had both white and colored people, who came seven miles to our Sunday-school. The day-school has never been as prosperous as it is this year. Truly we ought to be thankful. Our Sunday night meetings have been crowded for some time.

NEW ORLEANS, LA.--A very complete manual of the Central Congregational Church, neatly printed, is in our hands. The order of admission and of administration of the church is very complete. The present membership is 149. Rev. Walter S. Alexander has been pastor of the church as well as President of Straight University for the past three years.

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GENERAL NOTES.

The Indians.

From a recent report to the Department of the Interior, we extract the following items of information in regard to our Indian treaties, which may be to many as novel as they are striking:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, } OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, WASHINGTON, _April 28, 1879_. }

TO THE HONORABLE THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C.

SIR: By reference to the treaties now in force with our nomadic tribes, it is found that a clause, in like terms, in reference to education, appears in seven (7) of our most important ones, while manifestly the same spirit of educational help from the Government pervades them all.

One of the clauses referred to is as follows (see revision of Indian treaties, page 132, Treaty with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 1868):

“Article 7.--In order to insure the civilization of the tribes entering into this treaty, the necessity of education is admitted, especially by such of them as are or may be settled on said agricultural reservation, and they thereby pledge themselves to compel their children, male and female, between the ages of six and sixteen years, to attend school; and it is hereby made the duty of the agent for said Indians to see that this stipulation is strictly complied with; and the United States agrees that for every thirty children between said ages, who can be induced or compelled to attend school, a house shall be provided, and a teacher, competent to teach the elementary branches of an English education, shall be furnished, who will reside among said Indians and faithfully discharge his or her duties as teacher.

“The provisions of this article to continue not less than twenty years.”

These treaties were all confirmed in 1868, and, as will be seen, the educational clause is respectively limited to twenty years. The _intent_ was unquestionably to gather into schools _all_ of the children of the tribes who became parties to the treaties. By reference to the last annual report from this office, it will be found that the total population of the tribes having this clause in their treaties, on the date of that report, was about 71,000, and their children of school age numbered 12,000; and that ten years after making these treaties, of this great number of children entitled to educational privileges at Government expense, only 944 were really provided for.

The following extracts from said report have a direct bearing upon this subject, and merit special attention in this connection:

“Experience shows that Indian children do not differ from white children of similar social status and surroundings, in aptitude or capacity for acquiring knowledge; and opposition or indifference to education on the part of parents decreases yearly; so the question of Indian education resolves itself mainly into a question of school facilities.

“But the figures contained in the tables herewith fall far short of indicating a purpose on the part of the Government to make this question one of speedy solution.

“At a low estimate, the number of Indian children of school-going age, exclusive of those belonging to the five civilized tribes of the Indian Territory, may be placed at 33,000. Of these, not less than 8,000 could, within a short time, be gathered into boarding-schools, except for the fact that the teachers are yet to be employed, the school buildings are yet to be erected, and the funds for both, and for feeding and clothing the scholars, are yet to be appropriated.

“The whole number of children who can be accommodated in the boarding-schools now provided at the various agencies is only 2,589. To these may be added 5,082 more, who can find room in day-schools--those expensive make-shifts for educational appliances among Indians,--making a total of only 7,671 Indians who have yet been placed within reach of school facilities. And when it is considered that the fifty youth who spend from one to _three_ years in a boarding-school, must step from that into the social atmosphere created by 500 youth and 2,500 other members of the tribe who are still in ignorance, it can readily be seen that the elevation of an Indian tribe is being attempted by a method at least as slow as it is sure; and that what should be the work of a year will be protracted through a decade, and the work of a decade through a generation.

“In many cases this policy is not only short-sighted, but in direct contravention of treaty stipulations, as, for example, the treaty of 1868 with the Kiowas and Comanches (heretofore noted). The one boarding-school at the Kiowa and Comanche Agency, which will accommodate 75 pupils, is filled, and the other 425 children are waiting their turn. To comply with treaty stipulations with these two tribes would more than absorb the entire fund appropriated for the civilization and education of all the Indians in the Indian Territory, exclusive of the five civilized tribes. Even more glaring violations of educational clauses in Sioux treaties might be cited.”

The experience of the Department has been that the best results are obtained by a removal of the children from all tribal influence during the progress of education, so that educators can command all the time and attention of their pupils.

Youth so educated return to their tribes as teachers, interpreters and examples in farming, etc.; and if properly sustained and guided thereafter, prove far more effective guides than whites of the same capacity.

Nothing is more essential than that Indian youth, while passing through school, should have thorough instruction in some practical branch of labor that will meet their needs for obtaining a livelihood after leaving school.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, E. J. BROOKS, _Acting Commissioner_.

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

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ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.

The Tenth Anniversary--Commencement--Alumni Meeting--Going Forth to Work.

REV. C. W. FRANCIS, ATLANTA, GA.

The tenth anniversary of Atlanta University, which has just occurred, was an occasion of special interest to all its patrons and friends. The fact that the school was closing a year of prosperous work, during which a larger attendance than ever had been secured and maintained, and that evidences were multiplied of increasing confidence and respect on the part of all classes of people in the State, so that opportunities for usefulness were never greater, while generous gifts had recently come to provide needed facilities for the work, together with the real merit of the exercises and the large attendance of graduates, gave all a feeling of satisfaction which did much toward making the week one of great pleasure.

The exercises were introduced by a thoughtful and instructive sermon on the Sabbath, addressed to the graduating classes by the Rev. Mr. Bumstead, in which he set forth the occasion and motives for a high standard of attainment in life according to “the pattern shown on the Mount.”

Three days of examination followed, which were attended by a board of examiners, appointed by the Governor of the State, and by a committee of citizens, invited by the Board of Trustees, and a large number of patrons and friends. The chairman of the Board of Examiners, a prominent editor of the State, who has attended these exercises in his official capacity for six successive years, spoke, in an address to the students at the close, of his increasing satisfaction with the progress in education exhibited, and the substantial work done, with the spirit and management of the institution, and the zeal and skill of the students in their work, in different communities. He assured them of the liberality and friendliness of the people, and pledged the hearty co-operation of the State authorities and leading citizens with all their efforts at self-improvement, and for the elevation of the poor and ignorant so long as the present high standard of doing good was maintained. For all their work in these directions thus far, he had nothing but praise to give.

The Commencement exercises upon the last day were brief, sensible and entertaining. Five young men were graduated from college and two young women from the normal course, and degrees were conferred upon six young men who were graduates of three years’ standing. The music was a pleasant feature of the occasion, being well selected and well rendered. A report, which was highly commendatory, was read by Rev. J. M. Martin, D.D., of Atlanta, who had been in attendance upon the examinations by request of the Board of Trustees.

The gathering of the graduates in their meeting in the afternoon was the most striking feature of the occasion, as it was their first formal meeting, and secured the attendance of a large portion of them, and was marked by the warmest expressions of devotion to the school, its aims, discipline and culture, and affection and gratitude for its instructors. A singularly sober and earnest feeling pervaded their utterances, and it could plainly be seen that the conflicts of life in the difficult work nearly every one has taken up, have led them to appreciate as never before the value of work done for them here.

A finely framed portrait of Pres. E. A. Ware was presented by them to the school, as an expression of their appreciation of his sacrifices and devotion to its interests, as well as a testimonial of personal affection.

The next day witnessed the busy scenes connected with the departure of more than 150 young people, who, for the most part, go to teach summer schools of three months’ duration throughout the country regions of the State. There is something peculiarly interesting in the separation and departure of a large company of young people anywhere, but a special interest belongs to this occasion. These go with such a simple faith to difficult work among strangers, with so few facilities and so many obstacles of many kinds; and yet they seem to win favor, even from those naturally opposed to their work: they find places open for them, gather schools in churches, log-cabins, or brush arbors, make furniture, black-boards and charts, give lectures, lead Sunday-schools, Bible classes and meetings, teach ministers and elders, and become “all things to all men,” that they may save some from the degrading bondage to ignorance, superstition and sin in which they find the mass of those for whom they labor. It is rare that any are unable to find schools through lack of money to travel and friends to aid them, but the absence of any efficient system of schools makes the burden heavy, and brings to a few sad disappointments. But the fact that so many young people, with no experience and little money and few friends, accomplish every year such a great work, seems to prove that the hand of the Lord guides and protects them, and that His purpose is to make them a leavening power at the base of society in this State, to regenerate and bless and save the whole mass.

The religious work of the year has been prospering, twelve having united with the school church, and more than as many more, who were hopefully converted here, being expected to unite with churches at their homes. All the members of the graduating classes are professing Christians, as has been the case with all who have been graduated thus far. The opportunities and possibilities for good were never greater nor the outlook more hopeful; and we may well set up at the end of the year another stone of witness and say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

We append the following statements from the Editorial correspondence of the Macon _Telegraph and Messenger_:

This institution has been conducted with singular wisdom and propriety, and has already proved an inestimable blessing to the colored people of Georgia. Gradually, but surely, all the prejudices of the whites have been overcome, and the predictions of many that it would eventuate in a mere nursery of Radicalism and hate to the superior race, have not been justified by the facts. On the contrary, we have the testimony of our own School Superintendent, Mr. B. M. Zettler, that some of the most efficient and conservative teachers in the Bibb County schools were educated at the Atlanta University. Moreover, he favors the appointment, by the various Boards of Public Education, of teachers of their own race for the colored children of the State, in every instance where they show themselves competent.

Accordingly, we find from the official report of President Ware, that of the fifty-one alumni of the University, forty-two have engaged in teaching as a profession, while three are pastors of churches, two theological students, and one, Nathaniel D. Harris, of Washington, D. C., is pursuing the study of law. Of the teachers, four only have located beyond the limits of the State.

In addition, over ninety of the more advanced pupils employ their time during vacation in teaching.