Part 1

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EDITORIAL.

ANNUAL MEETING, 243 INCREASED SIZE OF THE PRESENT NUMBER, 243 FINANCIAL, 243 PARAGRAPHS, 244 THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—No. 4, 245

THE SOUTH.

THE GLENN BILL IN THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE, 247 GEORGIA’S NEED OF TEACHERS, 265 LE MOYNE INSTITUTE, 266

THE CHINESE.

CALIFORNIA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD, 267 GRADUATING ADDRESS OF YAN PHOU LEE AT YALE COLLEGE, 269

RECEIPTS 273

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NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.

American Missionary Association.

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PRESIDENT, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.

_Vice-Presidents._

Rev. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y. Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass. Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill. Rev. D. O. MEARS, D.D., Mass. Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.

_Corresponding Secretary._

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

_Associate Corresponding Secretaries._

Rev. JAMES POWELL, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._ Rev. A. F. BEARD, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

_Treasurer._

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

_Auditors._

PETER MCCARTEE. CHAS. P. PEIRCE.

_Executive Committee._

JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.

_For Three Years._ S. B. HALLIDAY. SAMUEL HOLMES. SAMUEL S. MARPLES. CHARLES L. MEAD. ELBERT B. MONROE.

_For Two Years._ J. E. RANKIN. WM. H. WARD. J. W. COOPER. JOHN H. WASHBURN. EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.

_For One Year._ LYMAN ABBOTT. A. S. BARNES. J. R. DANFORTH. CLINTON B. FISK. A. P. FOSTER.

_District Secretaries._

Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., _21 Cong’l House, Boston_. Rev. J. E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago_.

_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._

Rev. CHARLES W. SHELTON.

_Field Superintendent._

Rev. C. J. RYDER, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

_Bureau of Woman’s Work._

_Secretary_, Miss D. E. EMERSON, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

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COMMUNICATIONS

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; those relating to the collecting fields, to Rev. James Powell, D.D., or to the District Secretaries; letters for “THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY,” to the Editor, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

In drafts, checks, registered letters or post office orders may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

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.

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THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XLI. SEPTEMBER, 1887. No. 9.

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American Missionary Association.

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For notice of Annual Meeting see last page of cover.

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The present number of the MISSIONARY is eight pages larger than usual. We devote it chiefly to a broadside on Georgia’s Teachers’ Chain-Gang Bill. The importance of the subject warrants it. Valuable matter is crowded out in consequence.

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We have again reached the last month of our fiscal year. What our friends do this month will determine whether the year closes with a debt. The receipts for July, which we publish in this number, are not pleasant to look at. As compared with the July receipts last year, they are nearly seventeen thousand dollars less, and the total receipts for the year from churches and individuals, as compared with the total receipts at the same time the preceding year, are nearly twenty thousand dollars less. Dr. Dana’s Fourth of July appeal, and Miss Auld’s appeal to the ladies last year, will in part account for the falling off. The excessively warm weather during July, greatly reducing the congregations, has doubtless had an influence. But whatever the cause, our receipts are behind to an extent that threatens injury to our work, and this month is the last we have in which to ward off the double evil—debt and curtailment of work. What we do must be done quickly.

We invite our friends to serious thoughtfulness preceding action. They know better what to do than we can advise. We earnestly plead for the co-operating help of every one of them.

(1) We solicit a personal contribution from all who are able to give, and the influence of word and pen from all who can induce others to make a contribution. Please bring our needs to the attention of the prayer-meeting, the missionary concert and the Sabbath congregation.

(2) We request all churches that have made us no contribution during the year, (and there are some who have made us no contribution for several years), to be sure and give us a contribution this month. You see the work of the American Missionary Association is to be benefited or injured all through next year by what the churches do this month.

Friends, what answer will you make to this statement of facts we lay before you? You know that enemies of our work in the South are proposing the chain-gang for our teachers. They are not satisfied with ostracizing them from society, they propose to punish them as criminals because they preach the gospel to the poor and befriend the oppressed. Will you allow the work to suffer in the day when it is assailed? Must we retrench, cut down, withdraw, at such a time as this? We cannot believe that our friends will sanction it. Let there be this month such a rally to the defense and maintenance of our God-appointed mission as was never known in all our history. Let everybody have a chance to give, and let everybody give, be it much or little.

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A poor colored woman, living near one of our chartered institutions, and taking a deep interest in the education of its students, has recently given her little home, paid for by savings from small wages, to this institution for the benefit of its students. This is larger than some of the first ministerial gifts to Harvard University, and is a good omen and prophecy.

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The name of California is so much associated with the idea of gold that it is easy to imagine that it is a wealthy State. And it _is_ wealthy. How easy to think the next thought; being wealthy it ought to do more for mission work within its borders. That, however, does not prove that it will or that it can be reasonably expected to do more. If only the wealth was in the hands of Christian people—ah, yes, _if only_. Please find Rev. Mr. Pond’s article on another page and read it. His facts are unquestioned and his meditations will bear meditation.

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Mr. Yan Phou Lee, the young Chinese gentleman who was graduated by Yale College in its last class, delivered an address on the occasion of his graduation that elicited the hearty applause of those who heard it, and the widespread favorable comment of the press, secular and religious. Our readers will find this address on another page. Mr. Lee shows himself thoroughly competent to discuss the Chinese question. His words should have a wide reading. Mr. Lee expects to attend our Annual Meeting, at Portland, and we shall hope to hear from him again.

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The _Christian Mirror_, Portland, Me., Rev. I. P. Warren, D.D., editor, had in one of its issues not long since a rousing editorial on the approaching meeting of the A. M. A. in Portland. It predicts a meeting “of much interest both because of the work itself and the eminence of many of the persons whom it will bring hither,” and closes with the earnest advice, “Let all the friends of humanity lay their plans to attend.”

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The _Savannah News_, speaking of the Glenn Bill, has the following to say:

“Perhaps it may teach a lesson to the over-zealous individuals in the North who use their money in efforts to bring about social equality in the South through the schools.”

We regret to have such sentiments promulgated. They are utterly misrepresentative. The bugbear of “social equality” so distorts the vision of our Southern friends that they seem incapable of seeing things as they are. “Over-zealous individuals in the North” have helped Georgia through their missionary schools in a way that has given inspiration and progress to education, religion, morality and industry all over the State, especially among colored people. They deserve thanks, not misrepresentative sneers.

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THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO 4.

_The Duty_: To preach the Gospel to every creature, in the shortest possible time, is the duty laid upon the church by the last command of her King. The part of the work assigned to us is to be determined by our surroundings, and especially by our opportunities to reach the unsaved races of men. We are bound to put in our labor where it will go farthest and move greatest masses of men towards God. If we find that the “dark lands” can best be reached through their children on these shores, then must we seek and save the children for the sake of their kindred.

Take now the map of the world and turn to Asia; the merest glance shows that our nearest point to that greatest of the World’s divisions is the California coast. On that coast the old civilization and the new stand face to face. There, too, meet the old Paganism and the newer Christianity, and there, _emphatically_, will be the battle-ground between the past and the present, the false and the true. As Christian men we mean to regenerate the Asiatic continent, and in particular the Mongolian race. If our Bibles left us in doubt our geographies would show that the Pacific coast was the spot on which to initiate a Christian movement for the capture of China. And anyone can see that Paganism and Christianity are now in contact on that coast, and one or the other will soon be master. If only for the honor of our faith, we must accept the contest and abide the issue. The capture of the thousands of her children in this land means the capture of the Empire of China. The stake is too immense to be treated with indifference. The prize to be won involves mighty races and is offered to us alone. To secure it is to cover ourselves with glory; to decline it is to cover ourselves with guilt and shame.

If with united heart and hand we bent ourselves to the task, how easily we might absorb the Chinese into the life of the nation and into the faith of the churches. And then, when they all went back—as they all intend to do—they would bear with them the new thoughts and the new life to become the regenerating leaven for their continent. If we give them the Gospel, accompanied by the renewing energy of the Holy Ghost, they will return in the power of the Highest to save their people.

And, now, look to Africa—barbarous, wretched, and apparently hopeless. But, lo, within our own borders are seven millions of her sons and daughters, born into our civilization, already feeling the quickening forces of our learning and our faith. Who touches the African race as we do, or who can so influence the African mind and heart? Here are the African souls that are best fitted to regenerate the African race. These young Christian scholars are a hundred years in advance of anything we can find in Africa. And are they not the men to be organized into a mission to save their fatherland? We are related to Africa as no other nation on the globe is; touch more of its people and control more of the African heart and mind. This is our special opportunity and puts us under obligation to move upon the African race with all the forces of light and truth at our command.

The whole matter is in a nutshell and may be summed up thus: We have the power to preach the Gospel to every Chinaman, every Indian, and every Negro in the land, and having the power, we are in duty bound to use it.

Did we do this, our simplest duty, these people in turn would have the power to preach the Gospel to all the millions of their own countrymen. Nothing can be plainer. Then why do we hesitate to muster the forces and put these races in training for Christ and the salvation of their own lands? The _opportunity_ to do this work brings with it the obligation to do it. But when it is added to this that we _alone_ can do it in the way suggested, and in the only way that seems to make its near and easy achievement possible, there is no excuse for a moment’s delay. If we have men and money enough to go after these races in foreign lands, we certainly cannot lack means to provide for them here. To us _alone_ is given this privilege of preaching this Gospel _to the world_ at our own doors. And while the best statesmanship of the country is tasked to show how we may deal with these races for _our_ highest good, the church of God is set to the task of showing how we may deal with them so as to secure the speediest regeneration of the yet unsaved continents.

The American Missionary Association believes that this result will be soonest realized by at once bringing these children of theirs under the full light and power of the Gospel. And it believes that the interest of this land and of those lands will be best promoted by throwing among those populations a Christian force so large that not one shall fail to hear of Christ. To reach one in twenty or thirty is to trifle with the whole problem. Nothing short of reaching every soul, or making it possible for every soul _to be_ reached with the power of the Gospel, will be adequate.

The way is all open; we can see clear through to the end. The question is pressed upon us and we must answer distinctly whether we will accept this opportunity to save China and Africa, or whether we will decline the offer and withhold the bread of life.

C. L. WOODWORTH.

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THE GLENN BILL IN THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE.

This infamous bill was passed by the lower house of the Georgia Legislature by a vote of 128 (all white) to 2 (colored), the only colored men in the house. The only speech made in favor of the bill was by Glenn, its author. The two colored men were the only ones to speak against it.

TEXT OF THE BILL.

A bill to be entitled, An Act to regulate the manner of conducting educational institutions in this State and to protect the rights of colored and white people and to provide penalties for the violation of the provisions of this act and for other purposes.

Sec. 1.—Be it enacted that from and after the passage of this act no school, college or educational institution in this State conducted for the education and training of colored people shall matriculate or receive as a pupil any white person, nor shall any school, college or educational institution conducted for the training of white receive or matriculate any colored person as pupil, nor shall any school, college or educational institution receive or matriculate both white and colored persons.

Sec. 2.—Be it further enacted that any teacher or manager or controller of either of such institutions violating the provisions of this act shall be punished as prescribed in section 4,310 of the Code. If such institution be a chartered one, then not only the teachers thereof but the president, secretary and members of the board of trustees, or other persons filling corresponding offices, who shall knowingly permit the same to be violated, shall be subject to indictment and punishment as aforesaid.

Sec. 3.—Be it enacted that all laws and parts of laws in conflict with, this act be, and the same are, hereby repealed.

Section 4,310 of the Code is as follows:—

Accessories after the fact, except where it is otherwise ordered in this Code, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment not to exceed six months, to work in a chain-gang on the public works not to exceed twelve months, and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered in the discretion of the judge.

WHY THE BILL WAS INTRODUCED.

A correspondent of the New York _Tribune_, states the case as follows:

“The bill is aimed against Atlanta University. But the University is not the cause of it. It is merely the occasion. The cause is the wicked anti-Christian caste-spirit among the white people of the State. To understand the situation a few facts need to be stated:

“In 1867 the American Missionary Association secured a charter for the Atlanta University, and founded that institution for the education of colored youth. But the well-known principles of the Association, admitting no distinctions on the ground of color, forbade the closing of its doors to any worthy student who might apply for admission. The money to start that school, buy the grounds, erect the buildings, furnish them, and make improvements, was all contributed by benevolent people at the North. Into the grounds and buildings as they stand to-day there have been put something over $150,000—every cent of it contributed by friends in the North. In addition to this, Northern contributors have given toward the running expenses of the institution on an average since 1867 about $10,000 a year. That is to say, Christian people at the North have given the State of Georgia to help educate her children in this one institution something over $350,000! But the money is by far the smallest part of the contribution. The culture, piety, noble character and consecration of the teachers, graduates of Northern colleges and normal schools, have made the Atlanta University a model school to imitate and a constant inspiration to the development of the educational interest of the State. There have been, however, for several years past, a few white pupils in the school. These were the children of the professors and in one instance a child of a missionary of the American Missionary Association. The reasons for the presence of these white pupils were three: (1) The principles on which the institution was founded; (2) The fact that there was no school in Atlanta where the children could receive as thorough training and discipline, and (3) The sentiment of the people against “nigger teachers” was such that to send the children to the white schools would have been to subject them to ostracism and insult. If it were not for the first two reasons, the last would not count for much. Ostracism and insult are the condemnation of those who inflict; the honor of those who suffer.

“But the answer is not yet complete. In the distribution of a national grant of public lands for education in the several States made by Congress in 1862, under the lead of Senator Morrill, of Vermont, Georgia received 270,000 scrip, the interest on which amounts to something over $16,000 a year. And what did the State of Georgia do with it? Appropriated it to its white State University at Athens. With nearly one-half of its population colored, it took the Nation’s gift for the benefit of the whole State and put it where the colored people could have no share in it whatever. Somebody discovered that this was clearly a misappropriation of funds, and that if the United States Congress should learn of it there would probably be ‘music in the air’ of a kind Georgia would not like to hear, and so the State Legislature ‘generously’ voted that it would appropriate $8,000 a year for the education of colored youth in the State! And this money, the gift of the United States to Georgia, was always spoken of as a State appropriation and quoted as an evidence of the wonderful interest the State takes in negro education. But what would $8,000 a year accomplish for the training of teachers to supply the wants of the 725,000 colored people in Georgia? How far would it go in the purchase of grounds, erection and equipment of buildings and the salaries of teachers? It is simply laughable to ask the question. But here was an institution at hand, grounds, buildings, equipments, teachers, everything in operation. Having been placed by the American Missionary Association in the hands of its own Board of Trustees and being undenominational and unsectarian in all respects, why not appropriate the money to this school? The State Legislature appointed a committee to look into the matter. The committee visited the school, were profoundly impressed with its excellence, and unanimously reported in favor of having the appropriation go to the school. Every year since then the appropriation of that $8,000 has gone to the University. Every year since then the reports of the State Examiners have been highly eulogistic. They have admitted, often with astonishment, the splendid educational work done there. The admission was forced that this was, on the whole, the best school in the State. The contrast between the discipline and training in it, and that found in the white State University, was too great not to be noticed.

“But this year the Examiners discovered that there were a few white children, the children of the professors, and the child of the missionary already referred to, in the school, and they have become righteously indignant over their presence. The money, say they, was given exclusively for the education of colored pupils, and behold, some white pupils are receiving benefit from it! Besides it is co-education of the races, and that the State of Georgia will not tolerate! It will introduce ‘Social Equality’ and ‘Miscegenation,’ and ‘Miscegenation of Ideas!’ And these are the reasons why this bill has been brought forward. Strange that they were not discovered before, for they have all been in existence ever since the appropriation was first made, and they were known to be existing by every State committee that has visited the school.”

_The Reasons are only Pretenses._

A correspondent in the _Advance_ handles these reasons as follows: