Part 3

When our last annual meeting was in session we had two parties upon the ocean on their way to Africa. Mr. I. J. St. John and Rev. J. M. Hall were going to reinforce the Mendi Mission, and Superintendent Ladd and Dr. Snow were going to explore the Upper Nile with reference to locating the Arthington Mission if the project should prove feasible. Mr. St. John was to be the business manager and to have charge of the John Brown steamer which was to be built. Mr. Hall, from the theological department of the Howard University, was to take charge of the Good Hope Station. He readily got hold of the work and proved himself an acceptable and successful missionary. He has the church, and a native teacher has the school under his supervision. Mr. Hall, being of the sturdy mountain stock of East Tennessee, has endured the climate well, and we can but hope that an extended career of usefulness is before him. Mr. St. John, by his own unavoidable exposure on his voyages between Freetown and Mendi, and up the rivers to our stations, was himself made sick, and so was confirmed in the judgment that called for the steamer as a means of preserving the health of our missionaries. The English Governor-General of the West Coast agreed with Mr. St. John to give the steamer the carrying of the mail and of all Government freight between Freetown and Mendi, which is an English dependency. The transportation of supplies for the Mission and the marketing of the lumber of our mill, the only one on the West Coast, call for this steam craft. All views conspire to put down the “John Brown” as one of the most effective missionaries to be introduced to that region, where there are no roads nor beasts of burden and where the water highway is the main reliance. It was thought best that Mr. St. John should not take the risk of the first wet season at the Mission, and so he returned to this country, coming over by a sailing vessel to save expense. He makes the gratifying report that in his intercourse along the coast he found many evidences of the good influence of the Mendi Mission in its training of men who have gone out into the ways of business, and who retain their integrity of character. He named the noble chief of a tribe where is located the vigorous Shengay Mission, who, with his son, had been educated at our Good Hope Station. Rev. A. E. Jackson has continued in charge of the Avery Station and boarding-school. During the year the Mission was afflicted in the death of Rev. J. M. Williams, of the Kaw Mendi Station, who, after having endured fifteen years of service in Africa, succumbed to the disease of diabetes. Rev. Mr. Jowett, one of the native preachers, is acceptably supplying Mr. Williams’ place at Kaw Mendi. Mr. Jowett has a son now in the Fisk University, who gives promise of making himself a useful man in his native land. The other three lads from the Mendi Mission at school at Hampton and at Atlanta, are doing well. The Debia Station is under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Goodman.

Dr. Ladd and Dr. Snow, having made their long and perilous tour, which took them up the Nile 2,500 miles, have returned. They report no sufficiently inviting location for a mission in the region of the Sobat. They recommend that Khartoum be occupied as a base of operations, and that a school be established on the east bank of the river opposite the city, which lies in the junction of the Blue and White Niles. That site is quite healthy. They would have a steamer by which to communicate with the Arthington district of the Upper Nile. The Executive Committee, of course, had to submit to the inevitable, as indicated by the double revolt, and voted to put the mission into complete abeyance for the time.

THE INDIANS.

Though the Indian once had the continent to himself, he yet seems to be “the man without a country.” And the Christian missions which have sought to identify him with his native land have with him been driven along before the advancing tide of the white man’s migration. So has it been from the days of Jonathan Edwards, John Eliot and David Brainard down to these times of the Riggses and Williamsons. The Indian missions of this Association have fared in the same way, those at Northfield, Mich., and those at Cass Lake and Red Lake, Minn., which were served by some fifteen missionaries, among them Revs. S. G. Wright, J. B. Bardwell and A. Barnard. Of these the venerable Mr. Wright still abides in the service, being now at Leech Lake. Returning this year to his field, he writes: “We were very happy to find the little company of earnest, devoted Christians, whom we left two years before, still faithfully pursuing their work for God. They are truly the salt of the earth, burning lights in this great darkness, the spiritual power in the place.” Again he says: “I wish I could attend the annual meeting. I should love to give the friends a short history of the conversion and rich Christian experience of numbers of those around us.” Our church at S’Kokomish, Washington Territory, Rev. Myron Eells, pastor, during the year has swarmed, seven of its members having taken letters to unite with four other Christians of the Clallam Indians to form a Congregational Church at Jamestown. One infant was baptized. A half-dozen white neighbors came in and communed with them. Mr. Eells says that the services were held in Chinook, Clallam, English, Chinook translated into Clallam, and English translated into Clallam, a Pentecostal gift of tongues. The work of the mother church has been more encouraging this year than the last. Five have united with the church on profession of faith. The service of the agents at the S’Kokomish, Fort Berthold and Sisseton agencies has been about as usual in routine and outcome. The work that is now going on at the Hampton Institute in the educational and industrial training of 89 young Indians of both sexes is truly encouraging; not only as to its immediate accomplishment, but as to its future bearings upon the welfare of the Indians, and upon the Indian question itself. At the last commencement, the Indian classes claimed their full share of attention, and showed an improvement in the general character of the pupils over last year. One noted speech was made by an Indian youth. Rev. Dr. Bartend, referring to that speech in his address, said: “Two hundred and fifty years ago there came floating into this beautiful harbor vessels from the old country. What was their object? What was their hope? The prayer that arose from their decks was this: ‘God give us strength that we may educate and Christianize the Indian.’ William and Mary College, now almost ready to perish, is the monument of their endeavor. They did not see the answer to their prayer. God works in His own way, in His own time, with His own men. Could they see what we to-day behold, they would say, as do we, Speed on. God speed this glorious school.” Although the Association, which founded and developed the Hampton, has surrendered its control to a Board, yet besides aiding in the support of the pastor, who cares for the three races, associated in the one church of the place, it also makes a special appropriation toward the Indian department of the Institute. The Association will be ready to co-operate with the Government under its new appropriation, using some of its own institutions for the instruction and training of Indian youth. It has been proposed that the Association take up a new mission among a neglected tribe in the deep Northwest. Gen. Armstrong, by his recent tour among the several Indian tribes of that region, has been able to make judicious suggestions which will be duly considered.

THE CHINESE.

But a little while ago we were praying God to open the door of China; and now the Chinese are pressing in at our own back door, having a steam ferry between our shore and theirs. Even the building of our Chinese wall, while China has been tearing down hers, has had the immediate effect of hastening 25,000 of these people in at our Golden Gate before the law should go into effect, and this influx has been felt already in our schools, which for the last few months have had a total larger than that of any former months. Mr. Pond certifies that even the enforcement of the law will not for some time occasion any let up in the pressure upon our school accommodations. We have as stock on hand, as raw material, these 125,000 people whom we should work up in the Christianizing way, so that they may be prepared, some for their own mission work at home, and some to receive the masses who may come by-and-by when the embargo is lifted. So that while our government stands at the Golden Gate to warn off any Mayflower immigrants, it may be that this enforced quiet and isolation will become a mighty factor in the scheme for Christianizing China. But none the less is it a ludicrous object lesson that the nation which stands with its front door wide open to receive 90,000 Europeans a month, should yet shudder over the 125,000 Mongolians who in many years have sought admission at the back door. It is a humiliating confession that 50,000,000 of Christian people, compacted as a nation, should shrink from having their system come into contact with the effete superstitions of 125,000 sojourners. But the politicians’ law is only for ten years. The principle, the conscience of the nation will be at work. The law may become a dead letter or be repealed. Before we are aware of it, the flood-gates may be raised and a great tide may set in. So, in any event, we have herein a grand opportunity, a mighty obligation.

Our last Annual Report mentioned a desire on the part of the converted Chinamen in California and their friends, that a mission be located at some well-chosen point in Southern China, from which their Christian brethren going back to fatherland might go forth to carry the Gospel to their countrymen. Further consideration has settled it that Hong Kong, the centre of the district from which most of our California Chinamen come, is the proper location. Such a mission would give a Christian greeting to the returning Christian Chinamen, would furnish an atmosphere and an instrumentality for keeping up their spiritual life, would be a training-school for those who should become missionaries, would be a rallying centre there, and would be the point of juncture between our work on the coast and that heathen empire. But, as it is the purpose of this Association not to extend its operations abroad, we made a distinctive proposition to the American Board that it take up the proposed mission at Hong Kong, and so work in harmony with us on this side the Pacific. We are glad to report that this overture has been cordially acceded to, and that that venerable missionary body accepts this “sacred trust.” Our brethren of the Chinese Christian Association out there have in hand already a fund of $700, which they intend to put into that mission as an offering of the first fruits.

In its work on the Pacific Coast, the Association is represented by its auxiliary, the California Chinese Mission, whose President is Rev. Dr. John K. McLean, and whose Secretary is Rev. Wm. C. Pond, who, in addition to the care of his city parish, has the supervision of our operations there. Taking up the work into his own mind and heart, he gives to it an amount of study, watch-care and service that is marvellous. With a Pauline spirit, he goes the round of the missions, cheering and directing the workers, healing divisions and laying new plans.

Our fifteen schools are located at Berkeley, Marysville, Oakland, Oroville, Petaluma, Point Pedro, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Stockton, and at San Francisco, where are the five missions, No. 1, No. 2, Barnes, Bethany, and West. The work of the year has been greatly encouraging. These schools have been taught by thirty-one teachers, of whom eleven are Christianized Chinamen.

The total number of scholars enrolled during the year was 2,567, a gain over the previous year of 935, while that year had a gain over the former one of 76. Of these during the past year 156 have ceased from idolatry and 106 have given evidence of conversion. Nor do these figures give the full number of those who are brought to the light in our schools, for many are scattered and cannot attend them. The whole number of those of whom we have hope that they are born of God in connection with our work from the first, Mr. Pond thinks cannot be less than 431, and wisely does he add: “The figures will cease to look dry and the statistical table will glow with even a celestial light, if we but reflect that every unit in these numbers stands for an undying soul, and every unit in some of them for such a soul brought out from the dark bondage of Chinese paganism into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.”

It is proposed now to re-establish our mission at Los Angeles, which, as the original, gave way for a time to another that came in but has turned out a failure. Chico, where there are many Chinese, and no one to care for them, is another place where the Superintendent could start a mission. So also the door seems to be opening for yet another school in San Francisco at the great Pioneer Wooden Mills, where 600 Chinese are employed. And so the expanding work demands the additional appropriation which the Committee have already voted, making a total of $13,000 to be used.

FINANCES.

At our last annual meeting we reported a total of $243,795.23, which was a gain of $56,315.12, or 20 percent, over that of the previous year. One year ago the Committee felt constrained to ask that this sum should be carried up to $300,000 for the support and enlargement of the varied work in charge. We started out well. Then in the spring our chariot came to dragging heavily with a debt of $25,000 upon it. Then there was a rally, and the fiscal year came to its close, Sept. 30, with $297,584.45, which is a gain of $53,789.22 over the last year, or 22 per cent. Besides the current receipts we have received toward the endowment of the President’s chair in Talladega College, $15,000; and for scholarships in the same, $6,000; also a Scholarship note for $500, in behalf of Fisk University, which makes a total of $319,584.45 received into our treasury during the year. This leaves the treasury out of debt, with a balance in hand of $789.83, and an increase of endowment fund of $21,500. For this accomplishment we offer devout thanks to Almighty God.

The exigencies of the work, the enlargement of the expenditure made almost inevitable by the new buildings and increased facilities, will scarcely be met by $300,000 the coming year. An increase of that amount by 20 per cent, could be most economically and wisely expended without any attempt at undue enlargement. The legitimate and almost irresistible progress of the work demands that. But we are the servants of our constituents, and assume not to decide. We can most efficiently use the increase, but will faithfully work as best we can with the means entrusted to us. We can only add that the work will suffer if less than the $300,000 be secured.

As boys run backward that they may jump the further forward, so we may profitably compare the receipts of this Association in its earlier years with those of this last year. The nearly $300,000 just announced is equal to the total of contributions for the first ten years. And the total for the year, as given by the Treasurer, of the contributions from the same constituency for the general work in which the Association is engaged, more than $500,000, is equal to the receipts into our treasury for the first fourteen years.

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Never have the affairs of this Association seemed more prosperous; never have its labors on the field yielded a more abundant and precious fruitage; never has it seemed more firmly established in the confidence of the people, both at the North and the South; never has it shared more fully the favor of God!

May we have grace to walk so humbly before God, and so honestly and faithfully before men, in the administration of our trust, that His favor and their confidence may abide upon us!

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THE FREEDMEN.

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REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONAL WORK.

The Committee to whom has been referred the subject of the educational work of this Association, beg leave to report that we heartily approve the policy of the Association by which it has put its main efforts upon the Christian education of teachers for the colored people. Our Congregational churches, while it is important to plant them, are not the first need. They can enter but slowly. The people do not appreciate them nor ask for them. Education they beseech us for. The lower common-school education we can supply only here and there. We thank God, and we recognize it as a blessed evidence of the growth of healthy public sentiment, that every year more and more attention is paid in the States of the South to free public education, and that in this the colored people are having their part, and that the expense of supporting their schools is more and more cheerfully borne. But the States which are willing to educate children are not all ready as yet to educate their teachers. Whether the common schools of the South are good, depends on whether the schools for teachers are good. We believe there is no other agency which is doing so much to secure teachers for the colored youth of the South as the American Missionary Association. This is a task which does not carry with it ecclesiastical profit; but it carries the blessing of the Great Head of the Church, as it has the good will of good men in every communion.

Apprehending the paramount importance of this work, we would impress upon the officers of this Association, what they doubtless feel, the importance of raising their chartered institutions and normal schools to the very highest possible grade. Bricks and mortar are necessary, good buildings are noble, but the first demand is for good teaching, for the very best instruction which Northern culture can secure. A few extra hundreds paid to a competent principal may be of more real use than many thousands paid for a building. Our consecrated wealth will provide the buildings. That we do not fear for; but it needs great and rare executive wisdom to see that these buildings shall be put to their best use for the best instruction. Now is the molding time for the colored people, and they need to be molded aright. Good education in barracks is better than poor education in a palace. It has been the boast of our constituency that they have known how to educate. They have supported the best colleges in the North. They are now supporting the best schools in the South. We are glad that, apprehending these duties, the Association has just appointed a competent Superintendent of Education, whose special business it will be to see to it that the standard of education shall be raised to the highest possible grade. We would especially recommend that all our institutions be carefully examined, that we call nothing college or university whose course of instruction falls below the grade which belongs to the name, and that, if it be necessary in any case, inferior teachers be weeded out and their places supplied by such as are competent and earnest. This we urge, while knowing that our institutions, as a rule, are models in all the South, because we would not have the Association satisfied with that to which we have already attained, and because we believe that our schools can and should be made so superior to other institutions that they shall attract white pupils as well as black, or break down the walls of caste.

We see with satisfaction the progress made in Howard and Talladega in theological education, which has been followed by the organization of numerous prosperous churches. We would urge that, as soon as possible, Fisk and Straight universities be supplied with similar active departments of theological instruction.

Industrial departments have been made very useful in Hampton and Tougaloo. These institutions are models in these as in other respects. The explanation rests in part in the great enthusiasm or ability of the gentlemen whom we are so fortunate as to have in charge of those institutions, and who have a special gift in developing these departments, and in part in the fortunate locality in which these institutes are placed. While we would be glad to have similar instruction given in Fisk, Atlanta, and elsewhere, we recognize the great difficulty of doing similar work in cities. Domestic labor should be encouraged, to relieve the expense of board; but experiments in establishing schools of carpentry, blacksmithing, nursing, etc., while excellent, need to be made with the greatest care, and under the supervision of such teachers as possess the requisite enthusiasm and faith.

We would especially urge, in this connection, on those who manage our institutions, that they impress on the pupils the virtues of thrift and self-support. The students who have come to us are no longer ex-slaves. They have all been reared in freedom. They should be required to pay a reasonable amount for tuition. This should be imposed as an educating influence. They should be made to understand that when education is given it represents a money value as well as does the food that goes into the stomach. More and more should they be required to pay their tuition, if it be but a dollar a month, that they may understand its value. The aggregate of this will be of considerable help, as it will elevate the educational notions of the people.

We are glad to see that our chartered institutions are making progress toward independence of the Association. For this they should work by the increase of their endowments for instruction. We express our great thanks to the generous friends who have so nobly given for these purposes, and especially to the wise and generous benevolence of Mrs. Stone, which has made this a marked year in the history of our institutions. May the Lord reward her, and may her example stir up many more.

Our work would not be complete without a more formal and a most cordial recognition of the thanks we owe to the self-denying teachers of our institutions. They are men and women of most admirable culture; they have made the greatest sacrifices; they have entered with the warmest enthusiasm into their work. We have been greatly pleased with the professional enthusiasm of those at the head of some of our excellent normal schools, to whom no words of praise can be extravagant. The progress in nearly all our institutions has been such as to merit our heartiest appreciation. We commend this, our great work, to the generous hearts of our Christian constituency.

G. F. WRIGHT, _Chairman_.

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THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO.

BY PRES. E. M. CRAVATH, FISK UNIVERSITY.