Part 7

This Association has been promoting Christian education at the South in quite another fashion. Gently, without censure or denunciation, by the silent influence of Christly lives, it has been teaching the Southern people that caste is un-Christian. It is a great lesson; it is a lesson hard to learn; and we must not wonder at it: the social maxims and usages of centuries are not changed in a day. But it will be learned by and by; patience and fidelity and sweet reasonableness in those who teach it will have their reward in God’s good time. It only needs that we should quietly bear our testimony and wait; the leaven may be hidden now, but it is working; and the time will surely come, and as speedily as it ought to come, when from churches and from schools the color line will disappear. I do not think that the people who have commissioned and who support this Association in its work—the great Congregational communion, on which it mainly depends—can propose to themselves any better sort of work than that which this Association is doing, or can afford to carry on that work in any other way or by any other hands. It is true, as the figures I have quoted have shown, that the colored people have received most of the benefit of this work, and that the whites have profited by it but little. This is true of the educational work, and of the church work as well. But it is not because the schools and churches of this Association are not open to whites and blacks on equal terms. It is simply because they _are_ open to whites and blacks on equal terms. This is the only reason why the whites do not generally avail themselves of these excellent advantages. It is because the basis on which these schools and churches rest is frankly and thoroughly Christian—because caste is not tolerated in them—that the white people of the South have held aloof from them. For the present, until their convictions and feelings on this subject shall have changed, the white people of the South will, generally, hold themselves aloof from any church or school that rests on this basis, no matter by whom it may be administered. Any society that is as frankly and thoroughly Christian as this society has always been, will have the same difficulty in reaching the whites that this society experiences.

It is possible that churches or schools might be established at the South, nominally open to both races, but really intended exclusively for the whites, into which some whites could be drawn. You might put it into the constitution that no distinctions of color were recognized in the church, and you might still keep saying: “Of course colored people are welcome here, if they want to come; but we think they will be happier and better off in churches of their own.” Probably the colored people would not accept this kind of welcome; and possibly some whites would be satisfied with this method of establishing the color line. It would be an effective method, no doubt. But is this the sort of thing that the people calling themselves Congregationalists want to do? For one I feel sure that it is not worth doing. I don’t believe that we can afford to propagate two kinds of Congregationalism down there, one of which is frankly and bravely Christian in its dealings with the caste of color, and the other of which is, to say the least, less frankly Christian, consenting, by its silence, to the maintenance of the color line. Such a policy seems to me something other than Christian, something less than Christian: and I, for my part, have no time and no money to spend in propagating a Congregationalism that is broader or narrower, or higher or lower, or tighter or looser than simple Christianity. When our zeal for the propagation of Congregationalism leads us to slur over the everlasting verities of Christ’s kingdom, it is leading in doubtful ways.

It has been said that this Association is handicapped by its record and its methods in the work of reaching the whites of the South. Perhaps it is. So was He handicapped in His work among the Pharisees, of whom it was said: “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” The burden it is bearing is the cross of Christ; nothing else. It has gone down into humiliation with its Master to succor and save these His brethren. Would it be better for the Association to fling aside this burden? Would it be wise for any other society going down into that field to work to refuse to take it up or to try to hide it from the sight of men?

The disability under which this Association labors is its glory. And I do not believe that it will prove to be a permanent impediment in its work. No; that cannot be. I believe in the victorious might of Christian principles. The heroic faith and patience of the men and women who have been toiling there so long among Christ’s little ones, identifying themselves with the lowly and giving their lives for them, neither striving nor crying against the scorn that has greeted them, reviled but reviling not again, must triumph in the end. It is the one power that is irresistible. The barriers of caste will go down before it, and the color line will no longer stain the threshold of the Christian Church.

So, then, I do not believe that we, as Congregationalists, need any other agency in the Southern field than the one that has wrought there so nobly in the years now past. I am sure that even the educational work of this Association would be obstructed by the entrance of any other missionary organization into this field. Because I love and honor the Home Missionary Society, I do not want to see it compromise itself or imperil the interests of Christ’s kingdom at the South by turning from its proper work, its urgent work, to try a doubtful experiment. And I trust this Association, in all love and kindness, but with all needful frankness, will express its wishes in this matter. Two little boys were astride of a hobby-horse, and the one who was riding ahead was being crowded out of the saddle, and was clinging with some difficulty to the neck of the wooden steed. Finally he ventured: “Jimmy, don’t you think if one of us should get off I could ride a little better?” I hope that the American Missionary Society will say, by her representatives here, to her honored sister, the American Home Missionary Society: “Don’t you think that if one of us should keep out of this Southern field, I could do my work in it a little better?” I am sure that she has earned the right to express this wish, and I have not the slightest fear that the wish will not be heeded.

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ADDRESS OF PROF. C. G. FAIRCHILD.

From the trend of the discussion this morning I find that a large responsibility has drifted into my hands. There is among the churches in the North a deep, unmistakable interest in those long-neglected ignorant whites of the South. It is a difficult problem to tell how to turn this into channels that shall benefit these people without on the one hand neglecting the work already undertaken by this Association or, on the other, giving some suspicion of countenancing a color line and perhaps bringing a clashing of interests between sister societies. In the report on education just received, special attention was turned to the mountain whites. Perhaps the solution of our difficulties may be found here. Certainly there will arise in your minds no suspicion of waning interest in the colored people or sympathy with caste on the part of those who have heretofore been closely connected with this mountain work at Berea College and the surrounding regions. It is their unanimous conviction that work undertaken for these mountain people with firm faith in Christian brotherhood and unswerving courage will assist in unfurling upon a higher masthead the broad motto borne on the seal of Berea College for twenty-five years past: “God hath made of one blood all nations of men.”

The term “mountain” stands for much more than appears at first. It stands for a larger, more inviting and fertile section than many are aware of. It comprises a stretch of country commencing in the Virginias and extending to Alabama, 500 miles one way by 200 the other. Much of the land, not simply in valleys, but also upon the benches of hillsides and even upon the broad mountain tops, is as fertile as the better known sections of the South. At the base of these hills lies an untold wealth of coal, iron and other minerals which is, as yet, almost untouched, while the summits of these hills are still crowned with the virgin forests. This country supports now a population of two millions, though its capabilities are wretchedly developed. The growth since the war in these regions has been at almost double the ratio of that of other parts of the South.

But the term “mountain” bespeaks a country with different social and political characteristics. Slavery had no use for a self-respectful, laboring white man. The badge of manual labor was a badge of servile degradation. Of two brothers one would chance to get a little start, own a few slaves and all society would spur him onward. The other, less fortunate at the start, would slip away to some mountain hamlet and lead an uneventful, unambitious life and bring up a large family in utter ignorance. He plodded on his way, working only as necessity compelled him, instinctively hating slavery, slave-owners and slaves. Thus slavery rejected not simply this broken mountainous country, but the large class of whites which inhabited this region. If the North cares to dignify physical labor in the South, if it feels the need of a class that has a natural love for free, republican institutions, if it cares to have the common-school system take rooting in the soil, if it desires a class of whites that shall be the wise, consistent friends of the colored people, perhaps it may find that this large body of whites rejected by slavery will prove the effective agency under the divine planning for this purpose. The stone which the builders rejected may become the head of the corner.

But one or two railroads cross this section. There are few towns of any importance, and a man who should own $10,000 worth of property would be the great man for twenty miles around. They are an agricultural people, each family living on its own little farm of 50 to 100 acres, the homestead often having been handed down through two or three generations. The houses range from the painted and unpainted frame house of four to six rooms to the very common little log hut of one to two rooms where you will find huddled together at night a father and mother, and children of every age, and you yourself if you happen to be their guest. The most that is needed for family wants, from corn and bacon to tobacco, is raised by themselves. Often such a family will not see $50 in cash the year round. Even the old hand looms find a friendly shelter in those Rip Van Winkle hollows. A man who moved from these regions to Berea, that he might give his seven children an education, wore upon his back his carefully preserved wedding suit, the wool for which he himself had cut from the backs of his father’s sheep, and which his mother, after spinning, and weaving, and dyeing with butternut bark, had cut and made for him. A little shovel plough, a hand-made hoe, and an unkempt mule with a straw collar make up the agricultural outfit. The schoolhouse is a log hut sometimes without doors and windows, or even a floor. For religious services, dependence is placed upon the chance visits of an exhorter who sometimes cannot read, and is even proud of getting his inspiration at first hand. There is a section of Eastern Kentucky, 200 miles one way by 100 the other, that has not a settled minister of any denomination. Some hesitate about extending the work of this Association beyond the blacks, but they need have little scruple here, for this section of the map of our country is black through illiteracy. More than half of the adult white population native born, of the same stock and lineage that furnished from the more favored sections the Clays and Breckenridges, that gave to this country Abraham Lincoln—more than half of this white population cannot read or write. Thus, not on the farther side of broad oceans, or even the distant borders of our land, but right at hand in the very heart of the best settled and most cultured part of our country lies this territory, vast in extent, utterly neglected by all uplifting agencies in the past, peculiarly susceptible to the awakening influences of the changed social conditions at the South, where there is an ignorance so dense that when we remember that they are our brothers and sisters, not by Christian ties simply but by direct blood and lineage, we must hang our heads in shame. Surely if the Church at the North is sighing for new worlds to conquer, what more claim can there possibly be upon its attention and benevolence?

It is a matter of congratulation that this work can be entered upon by this Association at once and with vigor, without embarrassment or exciting in any quarter criticism or suspicion. It is idle for us to suppose that the social growth of generations enforced by ignorance, savage heredity and marked physical characteristics, has wasted away in less than a score of years. More vital than any political problem or the growth of any special church polity is the question whether the time can ever come in this country when the negro in debating his chances and opportunities in life shall not be made to feel that his color is a drawback to him. In working out the solution of this problem this Association has borne a part that is fast challenging the respect of the South and the admiration of the North. This is a vantage ground that it is hazardous to yield. The work of this Association is understood everywhere to mean that nothing less than the utter demolishment of every barrier in the upward progress of the negro race will satisfy it. If, therefore, the churches lay upon it this further work, we feel sure that not only by heritage will it prove true to these fundamental principles, but that the workers at present in the South will exercise an Argus-eyed vigilance that nowhere shall there be a shadow of a suspicion that the spirit of caste has influenced its action. Without rashness on one hand or neglecting its opportunities on the other, the churches at the North can thus safely gratify their present earnest and commendable, though somewhat tardy, desire to benefit the needy whites of the South by asking this Association to turn its attention specially to these mountain whites.

The friends of this Association should also remember that the man whose name as a missionary has been the longest on your roll, the Rev. John G. Fee, was born at the base of these Kentucky hills. You should remember, too, that the men who made an anti-slavery church and school in a slavery State years before the war were these mountain whites. This Association nursed its firstborn on these mountain slopes. As patriots, some of whose sons sleep on that Southern soil, you should remember that this whole section was loyal in the battle for a united country unstained by slavery. West Virginia parted from the parent State under this patriotic impulse. Some mountain counties in Kentucky sent more men into the Union army than they had liable to military duty. Surely gratitude for such help in that struggle is not so dead at the North that it will not say to this Association: “If you have the opportunity by churches and schools to repay in part the debt we owe, we will see that you have the money and the men.”

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REPORT ON CHURCH WORK.

Your Committee finds in the report of the Executive Committee for the past year, proof of healthy and steady growth in the work of planting churches. The report records the organization of six new churches, viz., McLeansville, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Fayetteville, Ark.; and Belle Place, La., and one new State Association of six churches in Miss.; making the whole number of churches eighty-nine, and of State Associations eight. The additions to these churches during the past year have been six hundred and sixty-seven; the number of scholars gathered in the church and Mission Sunday-schools has been nine thousand four hundred and four; the contributions for church work $12,027.21 and for benevolent purposes $1,049.35.

We are glad to find it to be the distinct aim of the Society to press its work of evangelization to its consummation in Christian churches, and that while its educational and industrial work must from the nature of the case be general in its character, the obligation is recognized to gather up the result, so far and as fast as opportunity affords, in a more specific and permanent form. An intelligent Christianity, such as is fostered in the academies, seminaries and colleges maintained by the Society, demands a church-polity that gives scope to the developed manhood and retains it in a process of growth. Our work would be but half done did we leave those brought under its influence to fall back into old methods and be lost in the mass of ignorance and superstition.

The Association was debarred from this distinctive work at first, but when soon after the war, others, who had contributed to the funds of this Society, seeing the magnitude of the undertaking, wisely began efforts of their own, the Association was left to the support of the Congregational churches, it directed its labors to this end. This distinctive church-planting work began in 1867. In that year the Society organized three churches. The statistics of its growth in this direction are summarized thus: In 1867 there were three churches; in 1870 there were twenty-three; in 1875, fifty-six; in 1880, seventy-three; in 1883, eighty-nine. The membership now numbers five thousand nine hundred and seventy-four, an average of sixty-seven to each church. Every church but two has a pastor, and eighty of the eighty-nine have their own houses of worship. These churches give promise of permanency. They have not sprung from a division or denominational spirit, and are not the representations of restlessness or the mere desire to try some new thing. Their roots are laid deep in the Christian education of the schools, and their organization expresses the need of the growing intelligence of those who compose them. Churches made of such material, formed upon the New Testament plan, have thus far been stable; those first formed are among the strongest.

Nor are these churches isolated and independent. They have recognized the principle of the fellowship of the churches and have grouped themselves into eight State Conferences, thus giving to our polity an example and an acknowledged position in that great section of our land. It is gratifying to find from the reports that the methods of this church-government are readily apprehended by the members of these churches, and that in the order and discipline of the individual churches and in the management of their councils and conferences, they are showing capacity for self-control.

This body of churches, so well organized and underlaid by Christian schools, presents a record of sixteen years’ effort that does no discredit to the Congregational name.

While anxious for a more rapid growth in the future, and wishing to extend the good influences which we believe will be felt by the establishment of such churches, we would commend the wisdom and prudence that have seized upon strong centers and have avoided the hasty multiplication of churches for the sake of members. While urging for the future the utmost watchfulness for opportunity and the pushing of this branch of the work of the Association, we express the hope that what is done be well done, that no discredit may come to the cause of Christ, as represented by the churches of our polity. It is not number but might that tells in the formation processes of a people. A single church of genuine substance, rightly constituted and ordered and working outward, is a germ around which a whole community will take form. More than numbers, the inherent vitality of this molds and fashions after the ideas and principles with which it is charged. It has vitalizing and organic power in it, and kindling the intelligence and awakening the responsibility of its own members, it leads and sways the people around it. It may work dimly for a time amid the surrounding chaos, but presently as the social fabric thus woven is brought to light, the figure appears and it commends itself as a true church of Christ.

But the work so well begun ought soon to be greatly enlarged. The rapid growth of the colored population gives emphasis to this—a growth that so far outstrips the means of education and spiritual improvement as to leave a constantly increasing number of illiterate voters and of degraded people. The benevolent societies of the North, of every name and order, ought to multiply their efforts for training the needed teachers—the business and professional men, the mechanics and the educated and consecrated ministers. Meantime, as the higher education of some advances, there will be more and more demand for churches of our order. We say this not from denominational feeling. We hold no invasive attitude. We stir no controversy. We aim not at division, but believing that the apostolic method of gathering churches is the true one, that in its fluent and free adaptation, its simplicity of form and order, in its investing Christ as the immediate Head of each local church, in its putting the individual members upon responsibility, and thus setting them to the study of God’s Word for authority and the dependence upon the Divine Spirit for guidance—that in this free and fraternal way of ordering the churches there is a molding power for good beyond others, and remembering its working and product elsewhere, we desire such fruit of it all abroad.

That Providence which always surpasses our thought in preparing its agencies has given us for this work this Association with its schools and machinery, its knowledge of the needs of the section where its greatest efforts have been put forth. Started with no expectation of founding churches, it yet has nothing in its constitution limiting it to one kind of effort nor to any one class or race. Its schools are open to all. Its churches are simply Christian churches. It goes to teach and preach and to elevate the masses. That is what is needed—no distinction of caste or class, and in the organization of churches the recognition of a regenerate membership on the principle that mankind are of one blood and on the fellowship of all Christians.

While practically its work has been mainly among the freedmen, and while it may continue for some time to find itself limited to them, theoretically its work is for all, and it should hold fast to that principle. It should never form some churches for black men and other churches for white men; but always Christian churches for Christian men and women. We should deprecate any line drawn in the Christian church based on difference in wealth, in social position, in education, in color, in sex, in previous condition. The only line to be drawn there is between those who give good evidence of renewed hearts and those who do not. We recognize this as the principle governing this Association, and therefore commend it as the adequate agency for the evangelizing work of our churches in the South. May it be abundantly sustained by the prayers and sympathies and means of our churches at the North, and may it soon find an open door through the ignorance and the prejudice by which it is surrounded and be free to work among all classes at the South.