Part 2

It may be doubted whether any Governmental efforts yet made to subdue or civilize these people have essentially improved either the Indians themselves or their relations to us. Indian wars have not made the Indians peaceable; Indian schools have not civilized them; Indian rations and reservations have not satisfied the requirements of even their bodily comfort and sustenance; and the proposal now made and loudly advocated, of breaking up all their tribal privileges and allotting the property of the tribe to the members of the tribe in severalty, while encompassed by grave difficulties from the ignorance of the Indian and his need of guardianship, would endanger that sense of common rights and privileges, that communal relationship, on which not only the very existence of human society depends, but in which is the germ of whatever is distinctively human. We are not educated up to our individual rights in spite of our communal relations, but because of these.

I am not speaking here of what Governmental efforts should have been, or should now be, but I speak of the actual facts of the past and the present, and I say that the Governmental procedure thus far, instead of solving the Indian problem, has only increased prodigiously the difficulty of its solution. Incidents illustrative of this might be cited by the hour, but would be impertinent in an audience as intelligent as that here assembled.

And yet the solution of the Indian problem is not a matter of theory or of speculation, but is an accomplished fact. It has been wrought out before our eyes. Wild, savage Indian tribes, as fierce, as lawless, as intractable as any now existing, have been tamed, have been taught the arts and ways of peace, have subjected themselves to law, and are now living in orderly, peaceable, industrious communities. The Cherokees, and the Delawares and Shawnees now united with them, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the Creeks, and the Seminoles—who are known as the five civilized tribes—now have their constitutions and laws, their supreme court and their district courts, their well-arranged public school system, and “indeed every provision of law and organization requisite in a State founded on the consent of the governed, controlled by officers chosen by the people, and suited to an advancing civilization,” (U.S. Senate Rep., I.: XVII.). Pauperism among them is unknown, and, by the best reports, crime is less frequent in proportion to numbers than among the adjoining whites. The Report of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs made to the Senate July 4, 1886, says of the Cherokee nation, that “it is difficult, after a searching criticism, to point out any serious defects in their constitution or statutes. In some respects several of our State constitutions could be amended with advantage by adopting some of the provisions of the Cherokee constitution. Their situation, and that of each of the five tribes, was full of difficulties, but they have met them skillfully.” (I.: XVII.)

“Fifty years ago,” in the language of this same report, “these five nations—now blessed with a Christian civilization, in which many thousands are active and intelligent workers, while the common sentiment of the whole people reverently supports their efforts, and approves their influence—were pagans.”

Fifty years ago the Sioux, now gathered at Santee and Sissiton, in Christian communities and homes and schools, with churches enrolled on the same records as those of New York and Philadelphia, in connection with Presbytery and Synod and General Assembly, were savage hordes, roaming through the Northwest as wild as the wildest. These savages have been changed. The facts are before our eyes. How was the transformation wrought? The answer is clear. No one can, no one does, mistake it. The United States Senate Report, from which I have quoted, acknowledges these to be the results of Christian missions. Where the Government has totally failed, the voluntary efforts of the churches have been crowned with this success. The preaching of the Gospel has done this work, and it alone. This ought not to surprise us. It will not surprise any historical student. The same agency by which our ancestors have gained their law and liberty and civilization—who a few centuries ago were savages and cannibals, offering human sacrifices, hanging the skulls of their slain enemies in their houses and using them as drinking-cups in their feasts—the same agency by which in our time the cannibals of the Fijis, and the cruel tribes of Madagascar, have found themselves possessed of a peaceable and progressive civilization, has broken the darkness and rolled away the shadows from these Indian tribes, as quietly, as peacefully and as gloriously as the coming of the sun has brought in the morning. Only the changes which in our ancestors required centuries for their accomplishment, have been wrought among these Indians in as many decades.

Here is the solution of the Indian problem—the only solution—and here is the work to which we are to gird ourselves afresh. Our first great work, the work which holds in itself all other agencies for Indian civilization, as the oak is held in the acorn, is the preaching of the Gospel to these people, the patient, earnest, loving presentation to them of the glad tidings that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Instruction in letters, instruction even in virtue is idle without this, and with this all other instruction follows as flowers open at the sunshine. The great trouble with us, brethren, is we are too unbelieving in the efficacy of the Gospel. We seek to supplement it; we think it needs other things; we forget that the Gospel is, and that it alone is, the power of God unto salvation, and we forget, too, what a broad term salvation is, that it covers the godliness which hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto the salvation of the body, the salvation of the intellect, the salvation of manners and customs, the salvation of society, and it is this power to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. What wonders it has wrought! What wonders it is working now! How would every difficulty in our social state, our vice and crime and poverty, our selfishness and sensuality and woe, all disappear if the Gospel only dwelt among us, a living principle in every heart! We need no other evidence of its divine all-sufficiency than the adaptation it has already shown to every human need, and we need no other motive to its proclamation than the privilege of being co-worker with Him, “Who shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and the needy, and shall save the soul of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight.”

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ADDRESS OF REV. DR. C. I. SMITH

AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL.

[The National Council at Concord decided to send fraternal delegates to the African M. E. Zion General Conference, and the African M. E. General Conference; and so Dr. Wm. H. Ward and Rev. Joseph E. Smith, of Chattanooga, were appointed to visit the former, and Revs. J. E. Roy and Wm. A. Sinclair, of Nashville, the latter. The first pair of delegates presented the salutations of the Congregational churches to the Zion Conference meeting in this city in May, 1884; and the second pair did their duty in the other Conference, which met the same month in Baltimore. Whereupon the last-named body appointed Rev. Dr. C. I. Smith, Secretary of its Sunday-school work, to respond at the Chicago National Council. He appeared, and the following is the substance of his eloquent address:]

We are all proud of the work which your Church, through the American Missionary Association, is doing in the South. It is impossible to measure the good results growing out of the efforts of the A. M. A. for the Christian education of colored youth. Through its instrumentalities, thousands of our youth have been measurably prepared for the successful discharge of the substantial and higher duties of life, and it must be gratifying to you to learn that most of those are doing life’s work well. The leading philanthropists of the South regard the colored youth now being educated in your institutions in that section as destined to exert a powerful influence for the conservation of healthy social and moral forces.

Many of the graduates of your Southern institutions are the recognized leaders in their respective communities for the advocacy and advancement of every question of social and moral reform. Their fidelity to the principles of temperance is remarkable. In the memorable contest at Atlanta, Ga., none did more valiant work for prohibition than the students of your institution in that city. They are exerting an influence upon the thought and conscience of the South that must eventually show itself in favor of maintaining the better life among all classes. I might say that you do not know the amount of good you are doing in the South; for, if you did, I verily believe that you would try to do more.

We do not look upon the Congregational Church in the South as an unfriendly rival, but as a stalwart ally in emphasizing the great principle of the brotherhood of man. Thus far you have refused to compromise with the spirit of evil by establishing churches and schools on the basis of what is known as the “color-line.” In this refusal you have answered to the highest needs of the hour. Unfortunately this cannot be said of all the Christian societies that are at work in the South. Color-line churches and schools, under the patronage of Christian organizations, have been established among us. This we greatly deplore, especially when such proceedings are begun and carried on by Northern societies. Christian churches and schools, like the gates of heaven, should be open to all, and we bitterly regret that anything further should be done to outrage the enlightened Christian conscience that this century has developed. It is mere mockery to cut off the branches from a tree of evil and leave its roots and trunk untouched. Lay the axe to the root of the tree, and the work of reformation, though necessarily slow, will prove substantial and enduring. Berea College, in Kentucky, has successfully demonstrated that the co-education of the two races is both possible and practicable, and what it has done all other institutions of learning in the South can and should do.

In Nashville, Tenn., we have two great institutions of learning, Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities; each gazing upon the other, yet widely differing as to their influence and aim, and the age which they represent. Vanderbilt represents the age that was and is; Fisk the age that is to be—the age when every worthy man shall be to every worthy fellowman a brother. Fisk University is your child, and one of which you can justly be proud, and may you fully nourish and protect it. It is a great light in a dark land—an oasis of living thought in a vast desert of parched and stupid ideas. May its light never diminish nor its fountains cease to flow.

Through the work of the A. M. A. you have firmly imbedded yourselves in the deepest affections and highest gratitude of the colored people of the South. No words can express our gratitude for the firm stand which you have taken in favor of the New Testament idea of human equality. You have made for yourselves a glorious name, and your work will endure so long as the thought of God sways the minds of men.

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WELL SAID.

FROM ADDRESS OF REV. A. G. HAYGOOD, D.D.

But back of the courts there must be educational work. There must be among the people a better sense of essential righteousness. There must be a justice that will not and cannot sentence a poor wretch, who steals a coat or a piece of bacon for a longer term than the rich man who breaks a bank and robs a thousand people; that will not and cannot send a poor man without friends or money to prison for a longer term than a rich man with both money and friends who has committed the same offense; that will not and cannot send a Negro or a Chinaman to prison for a longer term than it will send a white man for the same offense. Among the people there needs to be developed a better conscience as to the sanctity of an oath, and the sacred majesty and divine authority of law that knows no conditions of society and no distinctions of race. With such a conscience paramount, even among the leaders of opinion, prison reform will be easy.

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THE SOUTH.

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NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER.

There is no department of work in the great field which is being developed by the A. M. A. more thrillingly interesting than that of the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee. A recent trip, one of several already made through that region, has greatly increased my appreciation of this work, and confidence in the grand success which is even now opening before us. I have just been over the ground covered by our missionary work and have been impressed with the vast opportunities, as well as the imperative needs which exist on every hand in this mountain region. Let us go over that field together. New and strange phases of life meet us at every turn.

We enter the mountain regions of Kentucky in which the A. M. A. has schools and churches, a few miles north of Knoxville. Indeed the first station of the Kentucky missions is in Tennessee. This part of the work is under the direction of Rev. A. A. Myers. This region has only recently been opened to the outside world. Coal fields are abundant, and timber of the very best kinds still stands in vast forests on the hillsides and along the streams. These trees shoulder against each other like an army of giants marshalled to defend the wild freedom of their mountain home against the impertinent intrusion of the “humans,” as the mountaineers call men. These brave defenders, however, are fast falling beneath the axe of the lumberman. In the yard of a single mill, seven million five hundred thousand feet of walnut timber was piled ready for the market. This same mill cuts on an average ten million feet of lumber, of all kinds, in a week.

A rough, but interesting mountaineer, who sat near me in the freight caboose, in which I rode from Knoxville northward into the mountain region, told me that he kept eight yoke of cattle at work all the time in bringing lumber from the “benches” on the sides of the mountains to the “slides.” These benches are small plains, or miniature plateaus upon which the larger forests grow, as the soil is deeper and richer, being formed from the wash of the mountains above. They draw the logs to the edges of these benches and let them over the slides, down which they dart, as the arrow flies from the string of a bow. It is in this country, so rich in mineral and timbered wealth, that a large part of the mountain work of the A. M. A. lies.

The vast army of men crowding into this region to gather its wonderful wealth, makes still more imperative the necessity for Christian work here immediately. A new railroad is pushing its way from Corbin through Barboursville, and pointing toward Cumberland Gap, through which it will probably pass out into Virginia. The whistle of the locomotive is the reveille awakening other thousands to the possibilities of this region, and bringing them together here. You see, therefore, that this field claims our attention and our help, just as every new region of the West does, as it is rapidly filling up through emigration from other parts of our own country and from other lands. There are also the communities of mountaineers, for whom these churches and schools were planted, who have a claim upon us. Within a few years, hundreds of coal mines will pour out their black streams along the railroads, many of which are as yet unbuilt. Furnace fires will light up the darkness of the night along the hillsides. These small towns will be great centers of commercial and industrial importance.

Such is the country, and such are the circumstances, surrounding the work here. “What has actually been done?” you ask, and it is a very natural question. Nine churches have been organized, and are doing faithful work for the Master in this region. Four schools have been wholly or partially supported by the A. M. A. for some time, and their influence is felt far and wide. In the Williamsburgh Academy, between one and two hundred bright, earnest young people gathered in the chapel for the opening exercises of the school. These scholars range in their studies from first primary to higher normal. Many teachers from other schools come here to complete their otherwise imperfect preparation for their work. The work of the academy is not that of intellectual training, with a little religion tacked on to make it palatable with Christian people; it is Christian training which the pupils receive here.

I rode with Brother Myers forty-four miles on horseback, much of the way through a driving rain-storm, to visit some stations which we could not conveniently reach by rail. At Corbin, which is to be the junction of the new railroad with the present railroad, we have a beautiful site for a church building—some lumber already on the ground—and we ought to push the building to completion at once. People came out from their cabins along the roadside as we rode past, and eagerly asked: “When are you coming to take up a meeting with us again?” Children especially crowded around our horses when we stopped, to inquire about the Sunday-school, to get a pleasant word from Bro. Myers, which he never failed to give, and to receive some little paper, or brightly colored card with a Scripture gem upon it. His pockets seemed to be always full of these children’s traps.

There are four church buildings ready to be dedicated, and two pastors, native mountaineers, one a graduate of Berea College, awaiting ordination. And so the work moves on in a wonderful way, for it is God’s way.

This is only one part of the work which the A. M. A. is pressing forward in these mountain regions. I had hoped to have space to speak of the work in Scott and Morgan and Cumberland Counties, Tenn., but cannot now. The large academy building at Mount Pleasant, Tenn., of which our readers of THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY have heard an occasional word, is already completed, and will be ready for dedication in a few weeks. It is a grand building, a cause of wonderment to the simple mountain people, who ride for tens of miles to see it. I shall speak of it more at length hereafter. This school and church work is like the rising of the sun of a brighter and better day over this Cumberland plateau.

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A CONTRAST.

BY A TEACHER.

It was twelve o’clock of a hot May day in the noisy Southern city. Out upon the scorching sidewalk it seemed almost impossible to escape the remorseless heat of the sun, and so I turned gladly down the narrow alleyway and climbed the rickety stairs of an old building at its end. In a little low room at the top, through whose small windows very few breezes could find their way, were the old man and woman for whom I was seeking. The room itself was so gloomy that I tried to forget both heat and weariness, and put all of cheerfulness possible into my voice as I bade them “good morning” and inquired after their health. It seemed a relief to the poor old woman to tell me of her own pain and her husband’s failing mind, and so I let her talk on, suggesting occasionally little things which might make them more comfortable, and promising aid where that was best. Gradually we came to talk of other things, and then I spoke of God and asked her if they loved him. She shook her head sadly and answered, “No, we are two poor old sinners together,” while the old man, hearing that name which to so many brings joy and peace, muttered over and over, “No hope, no hope; I’ve sinned away my day of grace.”

For a moment my heart failed me, but, after a quick prayer for help, I tried to tell them the “old, old story” so simply that the truth could reach their darkened minds. Over and over I repeated Christ’s own words, “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out,” and then we knelt and asked the dear Father who loves all to help them. Saying “good bye” to them and promising soon to come again, I descended the stair and knocked at the door of the son’s room, which stood wide open. I was invited into the not very tidy room by a pretty-looking woman with her head tightly bandaged with a handkerchief. On inquiring her trouble she told me she was suffering from nervous headache, and, as I know something of that, I was able to suggest remedies which she said were effective. On the bed in the corner, stretched out at full length, lay her husband. The faithful wife said he was sick, but to me he looked lazy. We talked together of many things, and I found that neither this husband or wife were Christians, though she seemed very anxious to know the way. I read to them from that blessed word, the word of which God Himself said, “It shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent,” and with a little word of prayer left them, glad in my faith in God’s transforming power.

It was two o’clock when I reached home, and I had only time for a lunch and a short resting spell before starting to make another call, which proved to be full of pleasantness and encouragement. My friend and I were piloted on this trip by a dark-eyed, but fair-skinned girl, who was a pupil of our school. We rode as far as the street car would carry us, and then walked through country paths and fields until we reached her home. It was a luxury to rest in the easy rocking-chair in the pleasant little parlor, while fresh country breezes rustled the simple white curtains at the windows. And when, in addition to the pleasant words of greeting, clear water was brought us from the well, and large, sweet berries from the garden, we felt that our welcome was complete. After visiting for a little time, we were asked by the children if we didn’t want to see the farm, and following them out found that the farm, though not large, was carefully cultivated, and that the peas, beans, potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables which grew there, found a ready market in the great city. I have heard and seen much of the thriftlessness of the South, but here at least was thrift and prosperity. Coming back to the house we were introduced to the father, a dark-browed but fine-looking man, who by honest toil is trying to support his family, and give to his children the opportunities which shall make of them good men and women. These children are sent to the Sunday-school and day-school regularly. Can we doubt that from these they shall gain that which shall make them a blessing to their race and to the world?

Against the dark background of thriftlessness and ignorance and poverty which we find among the colored people, such homes as these stand out in bright relief, and they should be a source of encouragement to all who are trying to do God’s work in the world. And so, dear friends, I have told you of these homes, that seeing the difference and what may be accomplished in all these homes by Christian education, you may not grow weary, but may look forward to that harvest-time when the seed which your prayers and gifts have sown shall spring up and bear fruit even an hundredfold.

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BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

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ANNUAL REPORT.

BY MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.