The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 01, January, 1889

The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 01, January, 1889
Various

Various

The American Missionary – Volume 43, No. 01, January, 1889

Daniel Hand

We present to our readers, on the opposite page, a picture of Mr. Daniel Hand from a photograph taken some time ago. It presents the likeness of a man of fine physical proportions and with energy and intelligence impressed on the features. The signature at the bottom of the picture is copied from one of Mr. Hand's recent letters, and shows the remarkable physical vigor of a man in his 88th year.

NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS

The New Year opens upon us auspiciously, and we send forth our joyous greetings to our patrons at home, and to our fellow workers in the field. Above all we thank God for putting us into this ministry for the poor and the ignorant, and for the success granted to us in prosecuting it. We have had sorrows and anxieties, but they have been followed by consolations and deliverances. The hand that penned the "Happy New Year" in our MISSIONARY for last January, is now silent in the grave, but the memory of Brother Powell's life and character is so precious that it mitigates our loss. The yellow fever prevented the opening of many of our schools, and awakened fears of widespread hindrance to our work throughout the South; but the scourge was restrained, and the work now goes on prosperously. Our last fiscal year drew towards its close with the cloud of a large debt looming up, but our friends responded so generously to our appeals, that the year ended with a debt so small as to be only a salutary warning.

But the crowning mercy of the year came at our Annual Meeting, when we were able to announce the gift of over a million of dollars from that generous friend of the poor Negro, Mr. Daniel Hand. It is a wonderful gift, and comes in a good way. The income only can be used, and that will do just so much more for the Negro, and will not be applied to work now in progress. We are tempted to fear that our patrons will diminish their gifts because Mr. Hand has been so liberal. But we will have faith in God, who has entrusted us with this great work, and we will enter upon our new year with the full confidence that every friend of the Association who appreciates our responsibilities to Christ and the Nation, will decide that his gifts to us shall be increased and not diminished in this year of grace 1889.

Financial

Emphasis is added to the closing words of the preceding article by the report of our Treasurer for the first two months of our fiscal year, October and November. The receipts for those two months were, from donations, $31,261.99; from estates, $3,961.29; from income, $1,822.72, making a total for current work of $37,046. The Association needs $62,500 for these two months. Let us remind our patrons that Mr. Hand's gift will do its own work and not theirs. We think they will feel that it is only honorable to let Mr. Hand's benefaction add so much new work, and that it should not be used simply to relieve others. The great, pressing, and stupendous work which rests upon this Association as the representative of the churches, must not stand still. Patriots and statesmen are becoming alarmed at the Southern situation, and while they will do what they can to meet the emergency, we believe that the grand solution of the problem is in the Christian enlightenment and the industrial progress of the Negro. May God grant that the Christians of this land may not fail to see their special responsibilities and to meet them in the spirit of Christian liberality and self-sacrifice.

Large Gifts of the Wealthy

It is refreshing to find in this grasping, selfish and money-making world that there are wealthy men who amass fortunes and use them for noble purposes. It is said that growing wealth only tightens the grip on the money and hardens the heart against the calls of benevolence. But the examples are accumulating that give shining evidence that there are noble exceptions. Mr. Hand has added his name to the number. He knows the needs of the colored people, and he devotes a vast fortune to their benefit. But Mr. Hand has not exhausted the opportunities, even in the range of the work of this Association, for blessing needy races of men, or of aiding in the varied forms of effort for the colored people. The mountain regions of the South present an unique and promising field of effort. The inhabitants are a noble people, descendants of some of the best races that settled America. Their mountain isolation separated them from the people around them. The want of schools and churches left them ignorant, their thin mountain lands kept them poor; but they never held slaves and they were loyal to the Union in the war. Railroads now penetrate their mountains and valleys, and the hitherto unused wealth of mines and timber is brought to light. A new future opens out to these people, and the question is, "Shall that future be one of prosperity and piety, or one of intemperance and infidelity?" Some other man wise and wealthy can do for these people what Daniel Hand has done for the primary and industrial education of the Negroes. But this does not exhaust the opening for large investments in the work of the Association. The Indians are fewer in number than the blacks or whites of the South, and their future will sooner be determined by their being incorporated into the national life as citizens, yet that problem is not settled, and a large fund could be wisely used for their benefit. Then, too, our higher schools and colleges need endowment, and our church work should be indefinitely expanded.

If this review does not succeed in drawing large gifts for these several objects, it may at least serve to show that our wants are not all provided for, and that smaller contributors have still the duty and the privilege of aiding by gifts and prayer this good work of patriotism and Christianity.

THE SOUTHERN SITUATION

The position of the South is becoming once more clearly defined. Before the war, it was fully formulated thus: The Negroes are an inferior race, and slavery is their divinely ordained condition. To this was added: The Negro question is purely local, and with it no one outside of the South has any right to interfere. To these axioms agreed the press, the pulpit and the politician. But the war came as an earthquake, with the utter upheaval of these firm foundations.

During the years of reconstruction and political agitation, uncertainty prevailed, but now again the Southern position is becoming settled. It is the old position with a variation. It runs: The Negroes are an inferior race, and must be held as a peasant class in subjection to the superior white race. To this the warning is again added: This is purely a domestic affair, and all outsiders must keep tongues and hands off. This revised version of the old theory is proclaimed by Senator Eustis in his now somewhat famous article in the Forum. More recently it has been re-affirmed in the fervid eloquence of Mr. Grady, of Atlanta, in his address at Dallas, Texas.

This is the same orator (he is an orator) who a few years since electrified the whole country by his speech at the New England dinner, on the "New South." But the logic of Southern events has driven him down again to the platform of the "Old South." More recently still, the Governor of South Carolina, in his message to the Legislature, has taken the same position.

These three gentlemen, representing the press and the politician, are sustained by the pulpit in the South. For example, the Presbyterian church South repels all overtures for re-union with the Presbyterian church North, because such a re-union would involve a practical recognition of the equal manhood of the inferior race. The Presbyterian church South does not stand alone on this platform. Other denominations are arrayed side by side with it, and we fear that even the Congregationalists in the South, with two Conferences in the same State, one white and the other black, are in danger of being numbered with them.

This is the Southern position. It portends the renewal of the old antagonism. It repels the North, denying its right to interfere, and thus draws again the sectional line; and above all, it sets up sharply the antagonism of races, consigning the Negro permanently to an inferior place. This implies, of course, that if the Negro will not quietly accept this place, he must be compelled to do so by force of arms, and in this struggle the North is notified that it has no right to interfere. We can only express our amazement at this theory! With the memory of the war so fresh, when the North broke over all warnings against interference, and stepped in to aid the helpless slave, can the South now hope to make these warnings any more efficacious? Can it hope that the North will acquiesce in a quasi slavery, that sets aside substantially all that it gained and established by the long war?

And if the struggle comes again, what hope of success can the South cherish? If in the last national struggle, it was overpowered when the slave, as Mr. Grady acknowledges, guarded the house while his master fought for his perpetual enslavement, what can it do when the Negroes have tasted freedom for a quarter of a century, and now number nearly as many as the whites in the South? It is for the white people of the South to say whether that struggle shall come. The North does not desire it, the Negro does not desire it, and we sincerely believe that a large share of the people of the South do not want it. Rev. Dr. Haygood, the efficient agent of the Slater Fund, in a recent article in The Independent, in reply to Senator Eustis, voices, as we hope, the sentiments of thoughtful and influential Southerners. But it remains to be seen whether these wise counselors will be heard. Such voices were uttered before the war, but they were drowned in the noise of sectional hatred and the imperious demands of slavery. God grant that the sad lesson of the past may be heeded.

In the meantime, the A.M.A. will continue its efforts at what it believes to be the true solution of the Southern problem—the Christian, educational and industrial advancement of the colored people. With the help of the great benefaction of Mr. Hand, whose money was made in the South, and is now consecrated to the South, we shall go forward with greater zeal and encouragement. We are not partizans; we are not sectionalists. We are working for the good of both whites and blacks, and for the peace and prosperity of our common country.

The election of Benjamin Harrison as President of the United States, and the restoration of the Republican party to power, awakens special attention to the probable attitude of both towards the great Southern problem. We have no opinion to express on the subject, and we have no interest in it as a mere party question, but only as it may lead to the sober and earnest investigation of that transcendently important problem which requires the unbiased and honest consideration of the patriot, the statesman and the Christian.

The combination of the Christian powers of Europe for the suppression of the nefarious African slave-trade is a measure sanctioned by Christianity and humanity, and is in the interest of the world's commerce. The effort can be hopefully undertaken. The abolition of slavery in the Western Hemisphere—once the great slave mart—confines the outlet of the traffic to the eastern coast of Africa, and the blockade can be made more effective than when both sides of the great continent had to be guarded.

An esteemed Christian brother, who made his wife a Life Member of the Association in 1854, and who has added a member to the list each year since by his personal gift, speaks of the pleasure he finds in thus contributing to our treasury, and at the same time enlisting others in our work. We commend to our patrons this helpful and agreeable way of doing good. Try it.

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD

From a teacher in one of our schools in the mountain country:

"As I go among the homes I continually see something new which shows me how great are the needs of the people here. The primitive ways and simplicity of the mountain people strike me and I sometimes imagine that I am in a country a century behind the times. Last week I made a call at the home of one of my pupils whose mother was sick. As I entered the room I could not distinguish the faces of those who sat about the fire, for the room had no windows. The only light that came in was through a door in an outer room, and it seemed to let in more cold than light. I wondered how much work or enjoyment could be got out of such dark, small quarters, while the sick woman told of her struggle with sickness and poverty. She also gave me some history of her early life, which showed a great lack of necessary instruction in what are the best things. The children of this home look like sickly plants which have always lived in the dark and which have never felt the invigorating influence of God's beautiful sunshine. We are praying that the sunshine of God's love may be felt in the hearts of this people, even if there are no windows in their homes to let it in."

From a pastor in Kentucky:

"We are busily at work in this mountain country, and as we think of wider possibilities for the mountain boys, you cannot imagine our gratitude in view of our hopes that a new industrial department will be opened. It has been the subject of many a prayer in the closet and in teachers' meetings, and we feel that all that is needed will be supplied according to His riches who gave himself for us. He has heard our united petitions for a pastor to gather the straying flock and relieve our overworked missionaries. We held our weekly teachers' meeting on Friday. Last evening as we were sitting together as usual, one spoke of the coming pastor, when lo, he was ushered in. He has really come. We rejoice in our work, but we see so much just ahead. I long for the time to come when this interesting people shall be a 'peculiar' people in the better sense."

From a teacher at Jonesboro, Tenn.:

"Each week brings new accessions to the school: there are now nearly a hundred enrolled. All the seats in the primary room are in use, so that when Miss Smith has a full school she has to seat some of her scholars in chairs. The seats in Miss Page's room are also full. We have eight pupils who room here and board themselves. Four of them come from Scott Co., Va., coming ninety miles. They are young men and women, but they have had very little opportunity for education. They are anxious to learn and try to carefully obey the rules of the school. We hope they will gain much from church and Sunday-school and the influences thrown around them here, as well as the lessons from the school room. Yesterday we had applications from four others from the same region for accommodations—a young married man and his little daughter, seven years old—a young man and a young woman. We said, 'Come and we will do our best for you;' but if others apply we shall have to tell them we are full. These are just the kind of people we want; eager to learn and willing to do the best they can."

From a school in North Carolina:

"Your letter of the 28th, informing us that we can have assistance from the Hand Fund for a certain number of pupils, is received, and we have had a continual thanksgiving ever since. If I could tell you how the mothers looked when I told them, and if I could put down the tones of their voices as well as their words, you would be sure that the help is appreciated."

The pastor of the church and teacher of the Theological Department of Straight University writes us:

"The religious interest has so deepened that for several weeks I have been preaching three times a week. Four or five prayer meetings have been started by the students of their own accord in each other's rooms. Eleven united with us on profession of faith at our last communion, and as many more have made a start at different meetings, and will unite with us at the next communion. A remarkable feature about the work is the fact that numbers of the older students who are most deeply interested are Roman Catholics. One young man who united with us is a Spaniard from Matamoras, Mexico, and has been educated as a Roman Catholic. I believe he may be counted on to do loyal service in his native city. In this way the A.M.A. is ever doing 'foreign work,' and work which I believe will tell in Mexico, Cuba, and the Central American States.

"If some benevolent friend in the North would send us twenty-five copies of Stalker's Life of Christ, it would be of great help in this work."

Information respecting a very interesting revival of religion comes to us from Sherwood, Tenn.