Part 2

To those who are acquainted with the fact, that there is not a single Protestant missionary in the Nile Basin proper, from the Albert Lake to the Lybian Desert, the subject of this article will be of profound interest. Is Ethiopia stretching out her hands to God, or will she do so soon? For a reply to these questions, the eye turns, just now, to this Association and the progress of the proposed Arthington Mission. We have considered Mr. Arthington’s proffered aid, and have sounded the call for men and means. Expectations have been raised, money has been contributed, and the service of experienced missionaries tendered. There have been so many disasters in connection with Central African Missions, so much delay has been caused by unexpected obstacles, and such sacrifices of health and life have been experienced, that we have felt constrained to proceed with the greatest caution. The courage and faith of God’s people may be sustained for a time by displays of enterprise, daring, and readiness to give one’s life for a good cause. Indeed, such exhibitions are essential; but a time comes when nothing will satisfy but solid success. Our earnest prayer from the beginning has been, that we might be led to enter upon work in the Nile Basin, if at all, in a manner that would give promise of great and permanent usefulness. We have, therefore, endeavored during the past year to gather information from every available source, and, especially, from persons who have been engaged in the service of the Egyptian Government. In this, we have been fortunate.

Col. C. C. Long, of New York, who visited Mtesa’s kingdom on the Nile, has kindly responded to our calls upon him, whenever questions of interest about which he was informed, have arisen. More than a year ago, we submitted to him in writing a list of thirty-nine questions for the purpose of obtaining information on every matter of interest in connection with the Mission. To these questions, he responded fully in writing.

Last autumn, Col. H. G. Prout, who had served for two years and a half on Gordon Pasha’s staff in ancient Ethiopia, established himself in New York. At our request, he gave us several interviews of great interest and profit. During his stay in Central Africa, he had carefully surveyed the route from Souakim to Berber, of which we have a full report. He had also surveyed the countries of Kordofan and Darfur, after which, with a view to the acceptance of the governorship of the Upper Nile Basin, he proceeded to Mrooli, by way of the White Nile and the Albert Lake, traversing the country we propose to occupy. He kindly reviewed with us the responses given by Colonel Long, and added valuable information.

Prof. Chase, on his return from Africa to London, submitted the information, received from Col. Prout and Col. Long, to Gordon Pasha, who at that time was in England, and from him gathered in writing additional and valuable knowledge of the country, and the methods of procedure necessary for entering it. Prof. Chase also obtained an interview with Dr. Felkin, of the Church Missionary Society, who had just returned from Mtesa’s kingdom, by the way of the Nile and Souakim. From these gentlemen, and the current literature of the year pertaining to the Nile Basin, we are prepared to re-affirm and supplement the statements made by us a year ago:—

1.—The country is accessible. Col. Prout’s survey from Souakim on the Red Sea to Berber on the Nile, a distance of 240 miles, is reported with such fullness of detail as to familiarize the reader with almost every mile of the journey, impressing him with the feeling that a trip over the road at the right season would prove a pleasurable pastime. From Berber to the mouth of the Sobat, the northern border of the territory selected for the Mission, steamers with suitable accommodations ply with more or less regularity. To this it may be added that abundant supplies, except medicines, can be purchased along the route.

2.—The negroes from the Sobat to the Equator have not been Mohammedanized. They are real heathen, in very needy circumstances, and would, doubtless, welcome missionary endeavors, especially if trade and industries were promoted in connection with religious teachings.

3.—The efforts of the missionaries would have a very wholesome influence upon the Egyptian officials, and serve to check the slave-trade and to ameliorate the condition of slaves.

4.—It would be the part of wisdom to locate our first stations where the people are already protected by the Egyptian Government, as their flag would be sure to follow if new fields were opened, and with it, temporary disturbance. Pressure should be brought to bear upon the Khedive for obtaining permission to navigate the Nile with steam-boats, and for freedom and protection while pursuing missionary work at the points selected.

5.—While it would be desirable to commence at once, for many reasons, among the Obbo and Latooka, south-east of Gondokoro, yet it would probably be the part of prudence to plant our first station near the mouth of the Sobat, where the country is rolling and well-wooded, and the people of the Nouer tribe are friendly to missionary endeavors. From this point, there is frequent and not difficult communication with Khartum, which is a sufficient base of supplies. From the mouth of the Sobat, mission stations may be extended throughout the region we hope to occupy.

6.—A rendezvous might wisely be established at Berber, where a fruitful oasis affords supplies. This locality is said to be healthy, and, being situated on the Nile in the southern portion of the desert, free from African fever. If a steamer is secured for the Mission, the missionaries, in case of sickness or need of changes, could easily resort to Berber, spending a portion of the more unhealthy season; and possibly, meanwhile, developing a Mission at that point.

7.—The aid rendered by the Egyptian authorities to the United Presbyterian, of America, who have established 35 mission stations in Lower Egypt, gives promise of a good measure of protection and co-operation. Although the Mohammedans as such, and, especially, the slave-dealers, are sure to look with disfavor upon Protestant missions in the Nile Basin; yet, American and English influence is sufficient to assure such toleration as is needful, while the real heathen, to whom we hope to minister, have no political or other reasons for discouraging our efforts.

From the information gained during the year, we are encouraged to believe that as soon as the means, now being gathered in Great Britain and America, is sufficient to warrant us in inaugurating the Arthington Mission, we can safely and wisely enter upon the work. The amount to be made up is a little less than $15,000. May the Lord hasten His work in His own good time.

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THE GENERIC AND THE INDIVIDUAL NEGRO.

In commenting upon the evidence in the Whittaker case, one of our most fair-minded weeklies says: “Should his guilt be finally established, the act will be a blunder no less than a crime. Whatever his purpose, the _necessary_ result of his conduct will be injurious to ‘his people.’”

This is ambiguous. Whittaker is three-fourths part Caucasian, and we are unwilling to take, as being a part of _his people_, even 1/46,000,000 part of his crime if he is guilty, and do utterly refuse to be hurt by it. If, on the other hand, his one-fourth part negro blood so dominates these three-fourths, that he must be accounted a negro, then grave apprehensions are excited. That he has, as we go to press, passed so many of his examinations successfully under all the difficulties of his position, we must conclude is due to the modicum of negro blood in his composite nature; a fact which foreshadows the supremacy of _his people_ in our land.

But, seriously, we do most earnestly and decidedly protest against this idea that the negro is not an individual but a fraction of an unit. We believe the _certain_ result will be injurious to his people, but this will not be a _necessary_ result. Were a white student guilty of such a crime and blunder, it would be simply ridiculous to say that the _necessary_ result was injurious to “his people,” meaning the white race. There are reported cases of self-inflicted injuries of this kind. Who believes for a moment that, because a wife mutilates herself, as in a case reported, she has brought discredit upon all our wives?

We treat Indians and Negroes in classes as if it inhered, by eternal necessity, in the nature of things, that their individuality should be ignored, disregarded, or trampled upon. We are a great ways off from the true and right basis of action when we pass by the personality of any one with all his inherent rights and responsibilities, and think of him and treat him only as belonging to a general class.

It may be, that until his rights are respected by the public at large, the negro must receive special attention as the case of Whittaker has received; but, so long as his treatment is special because he belongs to a class, it is evident that the treatment of the class to which he belongs is all wrong. Whittaker’s innocence or guilt pertains to himself alone, and should in no way affect the question as to the standing or character of his people. The feeling that it must necessarily affect them is one phase of the sentiment which has isolated and made intolerable the life of this poor fellow at West Point. Personally he appears to be a very fine fellow, but the condition of “his people” has necessarily—so these young cadets think, and evidently many others who are not in the callow softness of their cadetship agree with them—affected him, rendering him unfit for comradeship, or even decent treatment. The questions, (any one of which is deemed a final and conclusive estoppel to all argument as to the right of the negro to Christian courtesy), “Would you sleep with a negro?” “Would you associate with a negro?” “Would you marry a negro?”—these are simply absurd. Whether we would do any, or all of these, should be answered as in the case of any person of whatever race, in view of considerations and qualifications that are purely individual, with no reference whatever to Ham, or to his or her people. We associate with friends because of personal qualities, not because they are white or yellow.

We apprehend that in some schools for the education of colored people, the treatment of the pupil is special because of his color. He is made to feel that he is a special case, whatever the advantage or disadvantage of the fact, its honor or dishonor. He is a negro, and not simply a human being. He is to stand or fall as a part of “his people” rather than by his own individuality and personal character. We say again, with great emphasis, that we protest against the whole so-called necessity of the case as false and absurd; as indicative of abnormal sentiments which must be eradicated before right results can be even sought, much less reached.

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THE THIRD STAGE OF OUR EXPERIMENT.

We have reached, and, in some of the States, have distinctly entered upon, the third stage of our experiment of negro suffrage. In glancing at these, we shall be simply historical, not critical; shall set down naught in malice, but with simple truth as we have understood it. The fragments of the late Confederacy resumed their autonomy as parts of this nation almost wholly under direction of the negro voter. There seemed to be a double necessity that he should be armed with the ballot, that he might defend himself against his old master who showed unmistakable evidence of his purpose virtually to re-enslave him, and that he might maintain the political ascendency of his friends over his master’s old friends. In this first stage we had, as the political representative of the South, what is historically known as the carpet-bagger—an immigrant elected by the Freedman, hated and opposed by the native white; and legislation which burdened some of the States to the verge of endurance was the result.

The second stage was reached when the influence of the general Government was withdrawn from the South, and control passed again into the hands of the native whites. The alien was remanded to obscurity, or found the climate of the North more congenial, and the negro was mightily prevailed upon to forego his right to vote. This gave us what is generally regarded as the reign of Bourbonism. The white vote of the South became solid, and the opposition was almost silenced. We state the fact without commenting upon it or arguing from it. This result we might easily have inferred from what had gone before. The instinct of self-preservation, it would seem, must have compelled such a united front against the outrageous robbery to which the South had been subjected by ignorant and dishonest legislators.

But now we have entered upon the third stage of this experiment. The solid South is broken, not by federal assaults, or through the ambition of carpet-baggers, but by native greed of power. The irrepressible conflict between the “ins” and the “outs” hurls to the ground the fabric which seemed to the South so fair and so strong. The hero of a hundred battles leads the ignorant negro to the polls, deluded by lies and false promises, displaces one-armed Confederates who had fought under him, to make room for a low grade of negro politicians, trails the honor of a once proud old commonwealth in the dust, and dissipates forever the fond delusion of a solid white South. We have had the negro placed in authority for a brief day by federal power; then by a certain reaction driven from the legislative hall, and in many cases from the ballot box, by the outraged white restored to power. Now we are to see him debauched and led to the polls by political demagogues, in a desperate and most demoralizing struggle for office.

Which stage has been, or promises to be the worst? Concerning this there would doubtless be difference of opinion, according to the latitude of those who express it. To the Southern white, nothing could seem more terrible than exposure to the insult and burden of _negro_ legislation; not simply because it is ignorant, but chiefly because it is negro legislation. To the average citizen of the North, the stories told of wrongs and cruelties perpetrated by the Southerners in their efforts to deliver themselves from this, to them, intolerable degradation, have seldom been eclipsed in horror and utter fiendishness, and nothing could be worse than that a solid South be maintained. But to us who have been trying to grasp, in order that we may solve, the great problem involved in the negro’s relation to our national life, and the kingdom of our Lord, it seems evident that we are just beginning to get a glimpse of the danger we are called to face, and with which we must grapple. Hitherto we have chased the bear, and the chase has had its dangers; but now the bear has turned to chase us. We can no longer calmly discuss the question, “What shall we do with the negro?” but it becomes one of vital interest, “What will he do with us?” We have put a bludgeon into a giant’s hands, with which he will beat out our brains, unless we soothe and exorcise the devil that is in him.

There is this one way out of our danger, and there is none other. We have been bold enough to attempt the experiment, staking the life of our Republic upon the issue; let us be wise enough to supply, with all promptness and fidelity, the conditions which shall ensure its success. While the statesmanship which thrust the problem upon us has given itself no concern whatever as to the issue, Christian charity has shown that a blessed solution is possible. Our schools have proved that of the ignorant slave a wise and useful citizen can be made. The path of safety has been clearly pointed out; now let the means for achieving this safety be supplied. We believe the nation ought to do it. We know the patriot and Christian must do it, or this third will prove to be the final stage in this experiment, not only of equal negro citizenship in a free Republic, but of Republican government itself.

AFRICAN NOTES.

—Africa is the most profoundly interesting of missionary lands, because it is God’s greatest providential mystery. Great in antiquity, great in its ancient curse, great in its colossal wickedness, great in its hideous wrongs, great in its tremendous difficulties as a mission field, great in its costly missionary sacrifices, great in its future possibilities for Christ and the world. The eyes, the efforts, the progress of the Church of God, must ever be more and more directed to this grand Satansburg, as Dr. Schlier would call this great citadel of sin.—“_Bible in all Lands._”

—Africa is the white man’s grave; to him the sentinel of death stands five miles out at sea; pass beyond that line and sleep on shore, and death is almost certain. “The story of all past mission work on that Dark Continent,” says Dr. Blyden, “is one of the saddest of our missionary stories, and three hundred years of European intercourse with West Africa has left the people worse than it found them.” With these facts before me, I do not hesitate to assert my honest conviction that Africa is to be redeemed by, and through the instrumentality of, her own sons. If we will now do our duty to bleeding Africa, and not debauch her people with intoxicants, then we, of the Anglo-Saxon race, may yet sit as a grand jury over that Continent, introducing all the arts of civilization, and all the pure influences of Christianity. I am encouraged in this belief from the fact that no tribe in the immediate rear of Liberia is considered perfect, unless it has a man who can speak English, and this may be the language of Africa in less time than many of us think.—_Edward S. Morris._

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ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

MCLEANSVILLE, N. C.—Bible temperance meetings at McLeansville, N. C., seem to tone up the sentiments of the people. One young man, who at considerable trouble and expense had procured a situation in a grocery store where whiskey is sold, has thrown up his position and gone to work on a farm, because he was convinced that the Bible condemned liquor-selling, and he could not ask God’s blessing upon his daily work.

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CHARLESTON, S. C.—Prof. S. D. Gaylord, principal of Avery Institute and licentiate of the Central Association of Iowa, was ordained in Plymouth Church, Charleston, S. C., by a Council convened on the 29th and 30th of May last. Several members of the Council preached in various churches of the city, which fact indicates a growing ministerial fellowship with our missionaries and pastors.

The Avery Institute for the year has numbered 476 pupils, with an average of 376—its most prosperous year.

The “renewal of the Church Covenant,” introduced and recommended by Pastor Cutler, is proving a great spiritual blessing to the church, and conduces to greater watchfulness on the part of the members.

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ATLANTA, GA.—On the 28th of March, the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Atlanta proposed that the debt of that church should be paid off. $26, from two Sunday-schools in the North, were handed in by the pastor as a _starter_. The Professors of the University gave $30 more, and the people nobly came forward and have now paid off all the debt, making some $563 they have raised, aside from current expenses, since last October. They have since raised money, which, with special gifts for that purpose, has procured a fine 800 lbs. bell, which will greet our Secretary, when he reaches Atlanta on the 24th of June.

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MARIETTA, GA.—A gem of a church school-house, 24×40 feet, with a gallery, and furnished with wardrobes and Sherwood’s crown double desks, was dedicated at Marietta, Ga., on the 6th of June. The people raised $300 for it; two young men in Illinois gave $50, and the A. M. A. furnished the remainder, and owns the property.

C. P. Jordon, a graduate of Atlanta University, takes the school; and Rev. E. J. Penney, also a graduate of Atlanta University, and more recently of Andover Seminary, will have charge of the church-work. Our Field Superintendent preached the sermon. A promising enterprise, strongly manned.

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MOBILE, ALA.—The _Daily News_, in giving notice of the examinations at Emerson Institute, says: “Prof. Crawford deserves great credit for the successful manner in which he has conducted and built up this colored institution, which today has no superior in our State.” And Miss Stevenson, of that school, from whom we have had a pleasant call, speaks of a great change in the feelings of the citizens of that city toward the school, its work and teachers.

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FLORENCE, ALA.—The _Florence Gazette_ says of the pastor of the Colored Congregational Church of that town: “Mr. Ash has gained the respect and goodwill of all classes in this community, and has accomplished a most praiseworthy educational and religious work among the people of his race.”

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CHATTANOOGA, TENN.—During the absence of the Rev. Jos. E. Smith in Africa, a retired Presbyterian clergyman of Chattanooga, the Rev. T. H. McCallie, offered to preach for his church three Sabbaths for three months, and to extend the time if necessary. He took the greatest interest in the work, hunted up and looked after the members, and, either in person or by substitute, attended the Sabbath services and buried the dead, as if he were the pastor of the church. The Rev. J. W. Bachman, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of this city, also preached one Sabbath, and has expressed the deepest interest in the church, and invited the pastor to call on him.

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BEREA, KY.—There were four accessions to the church at Berea on profession of faith on the first Sabbath of May.

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THE FREEDMEN.

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

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

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MAKE HASTE SLOWLY.

At one of our Southern conferences last spring, the brethren, colored and white, were bemoaning the small numbers and slow progress of our churches. A Baptist minister who was present, and who is engaged in this educational work, turned the tide by stating that there were advantages, for the present, in that state of things, and that his denomination suffered somewhat from the embarrassment of numbers. He said that he had been a farmer’s boy, and that when at the tail end of a steam threshing machine for shoving away the straw, if for only a short time his associate stepped away, he found himself unable to keep up with the thresher, and covered down by the accumulation. So they were sometimes bothered in handling their great numbers by way of discipline and effort at moral elevation.