Part 1

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CONTENTS.

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PAGE.

EDITORIALS.

ANNUAL MEETING—Last Word, Financial 289 PARAGRAPHS 290 NATIONAL AID FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION 292 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSEMBLY 293 ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER R. WILSON 294 BENEFACTIONS 296 GENERAL NOTES—Africa, Indians 297 ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 298

THE FREEDMEN.

STUDIES IN THE SOUTH 299 NEGRO PRAYER-MEETING (Cut) 301

AFRICA.

DR. LADD’S JOURNAL 303

THE CHINESE.

GOD ANSWERS PERSEVERING PRAYER 310 MISSIONARY CLASS IN CHINA (Cut) 312

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

LETTER FROM AN AFRICAN BOY 313 A QUESTION OF COLOR 314

RECEIPTS 314

THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION 318

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American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, NEW YORK.

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PRESIDENT, HON. WM. B. WASHBURN, Mass.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street N.Y._

TREASURER.

H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_. Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 50 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Dist. Sec., 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or Rev. James Powell, Dist. Sec., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member. Letters relating to boxes and barrels of clothing may be addressed to the persons above named.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

“I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested by three witnesses.

The Annual Report of the A. M. A. contains the Constitution of the Association and the By-Laws of the Executive Committee. A copy will be sent free on application.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XXXVI. OCTOBER, 1882. NO. 10.

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American Missionary Association.

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ANNUAL MEETING.

The Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Plymouth Church, Cleveland, O., commencing Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 3 P.M. Tuesday afternoon the report of the Executive Committee, including the Treasurer’s report, will be presented, and on Tuesday evening the sermon will be preached by Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.D., of St. Louis, Mo.

On Wednesday morning the report of the Committee on the Amendments to the Constitution will be presented. The succeeding sessions of Wednesday and Thursday will be occupied with papers and reports of committees, with addresses. On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, addresses will be given by Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., ex-President Hayes, and other distinguished speakers. The names of other speakers and further details will be published in the religious papers. The Thursday evening meeting will be a mass meeting at the Cleveland Tabernacle, with addresses upon “The National Problem of Southern Education.” For report of the Committee on the Revision of the Constitution see page 318.

Rev. C. T. Collins, of Cleveland, is Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements; Rev. H. M. Tenny, Chairman of Committee on Reduced Railroad Rates. Applicants for entertainment will address Mr. S. H. Cowell, Plymouth Church, Cleveland, before Oct. 12. Applicants for reduced hotel rates will apply before Oct. 19.

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LAST WORD.—FINANCIAL.

As we go to press, Sept. 12th, we find that the treasury is lacking $24,028.11 of the $300,000 which was asked for at the last Annual Meeting, and which the work absolutely demands. We yet have time to wipe out this deficit if our friends will respond promptly. October and the next year will have their own burdens to bear, and so, as usual, our books will close with the remittances of September.

“AN ARITHMETICAL PROBLEM.”

Our District Secretary Powell has the art of putting things, and this is the way he puts the question, how to “reduce 1172 to 0000,” _i.e._, to reduce the number of churches from which _no_ contribution has been received since last September for the A. M. A. within the States of the Interior, to zero. The answer is, transfer each church to the list of those contributing.—Q. E. D.

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A superintendent of our educational work has been appointed by the Executive Committee, the plan having been approved by a conference of our leading workers, held last winter. Professor Albert Salisbury, of the Wisconsin State Normal, at Whitewater, is the man. In the growth of this department, and in the purpose of the A. M. A. to do the very best work in its institutions, it was found needful to secure one who, as an expert in school processes, should help to the most approved methods of organization, of discipline, of instruction and of unification. Professor Salisbury had been assigned by his State to the specialty of conducting teachers’ institutes. In the same way he will serve our teachers and the native teachers whom they have raised up. Prominent educators and the Wisconsin and Boston journals of education have commended him as the right man for the place. Dr. Roy will continue in his service as Field Superintendent, giving yet more attention to the church work.

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A mission at Hong Kong had been proposed to this Association as a means of gathering into fellowship the Chinese who may have returned from this country to their native land as Christians. It seemed to some that such a work would be cognate to ours on the Pacific Coast. But as it is the purpose of the A. M. A. not to extend its missionary operations abroad, our Executive Committee proposed to the American Board that it take up the mission at Hong Kong, and so work in harmony with our operations on the coast. We are glad to report that this overture has been cordially acceded to, and that the American Board accepts this “sacred trust.” And hence the rejoicing of Mr. Pond in his letter, to be found at the proper place. Now, will not our good friends bear in mind our mission on the Pacific, which is to be a feeder for that one on the opposite coast, and send us such additional funds as will enable us to enlarge our work, and so to help feed the millions of China with the bread of life?

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A series of missionary meetings similar to those held in Connecticut several years ago, and in Ohio three years ago, has been held in sixteen of the leading Congregational Churches of central New York during September. The places were Penn Yan, Norwich, Walton, Utica, Antwerp, Norwood, Sandy Creek, Oswego, Elmira, Ithaca, Canandaigua, Fairport, Lockport, Homer, Binghamton and Poughkeepsie. The A. B. C. F. M. was represented by Dr. H. C. Haydn, the A. H. M. S. by Rev. C. C. Creegan, the Cong. Union by Dr. L. H. Cobb, and the A. M. A. by Drs. O. H. White and J. E. Roy. Pastors and leading laymen bore a good share. A fuller account will be given next month.

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A series of articles, worthy of attention, has recently appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_ under the title of “STUDIES IN THE SOUTH.” The name of the author is not given, but internal evidence shows that he is a Northern man who went South to study its problems with an honest purpose to get at the facts rather than sustain any pet theories. He was free in his intercourse with people of all classes and colors, and is very frank in his report of what he says. His statements as to the political situation are somewhat startling, yet correct, as we think. It is, however, his view of the deeper questions of the condition and prospects of the masses of the people, white and colored, that we are most concerned about, and we give a few extracts on these points.

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It is with profound sorrow that we note the death by drowning of two adult sons of Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, now the pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Shawano, Wis. All our readers are familiar with the heroic labors and endurance of Mr. Rogers before and after the war, in building up the college and church at Berea, Ky. The names and birthplaces of the sons are historic. William Norris was born at Berea in 1859, and Lewis Fairchild was born in Ohio, while the family were in exile on account of the war. The eldest was a graduate of Berea and was a teacher there the last year, active, useful and greatly beloved. Lewis Fairchild at the time of his decease was a member of the senior class in Olivet College. “Lovely and pleasant in their lives; in their death they were not divided.” Multitudes of our friends will be afflicted in this bereavement of our brother and his companion.

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One of our old friends writes: “Do the colleges and literary institutions supported by the A. M. A. prohibit the use of tobacco, as well as of intoxicating liquors, among their students, as Oberlin does?” We are happy to inform him and all other friends that this is the rule in all of our schools, and that they would be delighted to observe the freedom of all our school buildings from the pollution of tobacco. It is a fine element in the formation of character, as well as a matter of health and of economy.

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NATIONAL AID FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The title is its own argument. It is the instinct of self-preservation. If one member suffer, the whole body suffers. Congress has adjourned without passing the proposed law. It was to appropriate $10,000,000 annually for five years, and to distribute the same among the States and Territories in the proportion of illiteracy. There is no doubt that some such bill will yet be passed. At this ratio, the former slave States would receive seven and a half millions out of the ten. That the North heartily agrees to this has been a grateful surprise to the South. The scheme would not have been thought of, except for the need of it in that section.

The question may, then, be raised: What would be the relation of such aid to the work of this Association? It would greatly increase the demand for the training of common school teachers in our normal schools and colleges. The three months of country schools would be raised to six. The increased facilities would tend to lead the people to call for a better quality of teachers. Dr. Barnas Sears, the late Secretary of the Peabody Fund, learned that one competent teacher introduced, led to the displacement of a half-dozen incompetents. The training of the teachers is the wholesale business in the process of education. Then, it is of the utmost importance that these teachers of the millions should themselves have that moral and religious preparation which our missionary institutions seek to impart, so that the lessons of morality, and virtue and piety shall be taught, along with the elements of a common education. The House committee, in their report, state that, according to the census of 1880, 4,715,395 persons at the South over ten years of age, or 70.56 per cent., are not able to write. To raise up the qualified teachers for this illiterate mass will tax the resources of all the institutions founded in that region by the benevolence of the North.

Government aid will still leave another demand upon our style of schools, viz., that which shall furnish industrial training. The old-time colored mechanics, who had been taught trades, which greatly increased their value in the market, are passing away. Scarcely any of the young men are now learning trades, for the reasons that white mechanics will not take them, that the colored tradesmen have not capital enough to employ them, and that too many of them have seen enough of working for board and clothes in the case of father and mother, not taking into the account the large and steady wages to come by and by. As it is going now, let the old colored mechanics pass away, and the skilled artisans coming from Europe will press in to fill the demand; and then the Africo-American citizens will be driven to the wall and forced back to be mere hewers of wood and drawers of water. The first demand upon our schools was to open the doors of knowledge to millions of starving intellects; but now, more and more, must we push industrial training to help the people in the coming crisis, which they do not forecast as readily as do their friends who have studied the problem of their bondage and their freedom. So then, along with books and the art of school teaching, we must train the girls to the trades of cooking, of dressmaking, of nursing, of type-setting, of running knitting and sewing machines; we must teach the boys carpentry, blacksmithing, shoe and harness making, agriculture, the raising of improved stock and the running of machinery.

National aid for public schools will still leave upon our institutions and the like the great business of the higher education. For a portion of the people this is demanded. If they are to maintain themselves in their citizenship they must have the first quality of education in their preachers, professors, lawyers, doctors, journalists, scientists. In their general advancement they are already requiring more and more of cultivation in their preachers. With some congregations even now only the most thorough classical and professional training can satisfy the demands of their pulpits, while in the other professions nothing else can succeed. The public schools will prepare the material, and make the greater demand for the higher institutions, such as we are developing. And so we find that national aid, if granted, will only be a national call for our scheme of advanced education. Then, if such a law is passed, it is proposed to run only five years. And yet the generations of children will still be sweeping on and we must make our patriotic and missionary propagandism to keep up with them.

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An important meeting of the National Education Assembly was held at Ocean Grove, N.J., Aug. 8, 9. The audiences were large, and many prominent educators were present from various parts of the country. The opening address was by Hon. John Eaton, U.S. Commissioner of Education, in which it was held that the national government is the only agency able to cope with illiteracy in the country. A feature of special interest was the showing of the work of the Northern churches in the South since the war. Dr. Strieby, of New York, represented the Congregationalists; Rev. Dr. J. M. Gregory, of Illinois, the Baptists; Rev. Dr. R. H. Allen, of Pennsylvania, the Presbyterians; and Rev. Dr. J. C. Hartzell, of Louisiana, the Methodists. It appeared that more than $10,000,000 have been spent by this agency, and that more than 15,000 students are now in schools of higher grade, thus supported. Bishop Simpson, Dr. H. A. Butz, president of Drew Theological Seminary, and Senator Blair of New Hampshire, made addresses. The sentiments of the Assembly were formulated in a memorial to Congress. A National Education Committee was organized to continue the effort to secure national aid. The secretary of the committee will reside in Washington, and efforts to influence public opinion in favor of the end in view will be earnestly prosecuted.

The following is an extract from a letter sent to the president of the Assembly, Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D.D., from Hon. H. M. Teller, Secretary of the Interior:

“The great mass of the people must depend on the public school system for the education of their children. An efficient public school system, extending to all the State, and affording equal facilities for education to all classes of children, free from rate bills, cannot be too highly prized. * * * I recognize it to be the duty of the State to provide for the education of the children within its borders; but if the State neglects or refuses so to do, I think it is clearly within the power of the general government to provide such school facilities. But, fortunately, there is no State in which no provision for public education is made, and therefore the occasion for the exercise of this power does not exist, except as auxiliary to that of the State. I believe that in all the States the sentiment in favor of educating the children is so strong that the action required by the general government would be simply to make and wisely disburse proper appropriations, so as to encourage and stimulate the States that are the least able to carry on the work by themselves. To do this without seeming to discriminate in favor of certain States, such appropriations ought to be based on the degree of illiteracy as shown by the last census.

“If a system of public schools can be maintained for ten or fifteen years in any State, there will be no danger of its abandonment.

“An educated community will demand suitable educational facilities for the education of all classes of children. So that we may reasonably hope that the appropriation from the national treasury need not extend beyond a period of ten or fifteen years.”

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ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER R. WILSON

AT THE BOSTON ANNIVERSARY, MAY 31, 1882.

If I fail to be a good specimen, do not attribute it to my race; for my people were converted from a condition of chattel slavery into that of American citizenship, depending almost entirely upon themselves. What has been the result? In spite of nearly 20,000 political murders since the war, they have not all been killed; nor, at the present rate of increase, is it reasonable to suppose that they all will be. The prophecy of many good people, many worthy people, many earnest people, that the ballot in the hand of the negro was a stick with which to break the government’s head, finds its answer in the fact that the most loyal and law-abiding citizens south of Mason and Dixon’s line, to-day, are the ex-slaves.

With not enough land for a burial ground, had they all died immediately after the war, they now pay taxes on millions of dollars worth of real estate and personal property, being assessed for nearly $10,000,000 in the State of Georgia alone. Prior to the war there was a law throughout the South prohibiting a colored person from learning to read and write on penalty of losing the thumb or index finger, so that what they now know in that direction they have acquired since the war; and to-day ten per cent. of the entire colored race in the South can read and write. This ability, on the part of the colored man, is a great step in his progress, for it introduces a new rule of computation in the Southern arithmetic—the old rule being, as you probably know, in Southern vernacular:

“A naught is a naught and a figger is a figger; Put down the naught and carry the figger. A naught is a naught and a figger is a figger. All the cotton for the white man and none for the nigger.”