The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 07, July, 1888

"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.

The American Missionary.

VOL. XLII.

JULY 1888.

No. 7.

American Missionary Association

It gives us great pleasure to announce that, at a recent meeting of our Executive Committee, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., Pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, was elected President of the American Missionary Association.

The death of our late honored President, ex-Governor Washburn, occurred so short a time before our last Annual Meeting, that no attempt was there made to elect his successor, but the matter was referred according to the Constitution, to the Executive Committee. After mature deliberation and with great unanimity, Dr. Taylor was elected. A brief extract from his letter accepting the position will indicate his sympathy with our work, and his heartiness in co-operating with us in this new relation.

"Your Association, alike by its history in the past and its work in the present, has a strong hold on my heart. It is doing a work much needed; one, too, which is intimately connected with the welfare of the nation, as well as with the future of the races among whom it specially labors. It has always been a joy to me to plead for it with my people from my pulpit, and I regard your selection of me as your President, as one of the highest honors of my life."

We are glad to be able to mention, also, the election of Mr. Charles A. Hull as a member of our Executive Committee, in place of the honored and respected A.S. Barnes, deceased. Mr. Hull was formerly a member of the committee, but was compelled to retire on account of pressure of business. He now returns to his place cheerfully and to our great satisfaction.

Who reads Missionary Magazines?—We are glad to know that THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY has appreciative readers with quick eyes. From the last numbers we have noticed extracts and quotations in the New York Observer, the Religious Herald, the Advance, the New York Tribune, and the New York Times. We are more than willing.

THE INDIAN PROBLEM

A good deal of ingenious ciphering has been done in endeavoring to solve this problem, and, withal, there has been a good deal of honest and efficient work. The Government has largely increased its appropriations from year to year, the Dawes Bill and other valuable legislation have been secured, so that steps looking towards the citizenship of the Indian have been attained. Appropriations have been granted to aid him in farming and other industrial pursuits, and it is not unlikely that in a short time provision will be made for the education in the common English branches of every Indian child.

But all this is not sufficient. The Indian may have lands and citizenship and an English education, and yet, if he has no strong impulse towards civilization, no motive in his heart impelling him to be an industrious, self-supporting citizen—in short, if he has not a new heart looking to a new life as a citizen and a man, he will become a vagabond on the land granted him, and a skeptic in the school in which he is taught. The next few years will constitute a crisis in the rapidly changing condition of the Indian, and it is precisely at this point where the vital element of the Christian life must be infused into his character. To the Christian public, all other questions subordinate themselves to this, and this needs, not speculation, but hard work; legislation cannot do it, the church must; time will not do it, Christian teaching and example alone can. The vernacular question, so much agitated recently, is important only as it may hinder this practical work.

The Indian problem is not perpetual. The Indian must soon be merged into the American, and whether this shall be for good or for ill, the church must decide, and decide speedily. We trust, therefore, that our constituents will aid us to extend, as rapidly as possible, that part of the work entrusted to us. We do not ask for expensive buildings or costly plant. We ask for the means to push forward with the teacher and the preacher among these uncivilized people till, when they come forth from their present anomalous condition, they shall come forth practical Christians, as well as intelligent and industrious citizens.

AN OUTRAGE

Prof. G.W. Lawrence, teacher of our school at Jellico, Tenn., a gentleman of quiet and unobtrusive manners, was brutally assaulted by a man of that place, and was shot in three places; one ball entered the wrist and followed up the arm, coming out near the shoulder, a second went into the back of the shoulder, and a third is probably lodged in the lungs. The assault occurred May 18th, in the church in which Mr. Lawrence was holding the school, in the presence of his wife and scholars. The only provocation alleged, was that he had gone the night before to ask for the tuition of one of his scholars. He was met in an angry way by the woman, and the next day the husband, who does not live with his wife, came to the school and fired the shots. Prof. Lawrence is the brother-in-law of our highly esteemed and active Christian worker, Rev. A.A. Myers, who has not only done so much in promoting school and church work in Kentucky and Tennessee, but who has also been so zealous in promoting the cause of temperance. Prof. Lawrence sympathized and co-operated with Mr. Myers in this good work, and it is believed that liquor and liquor influence had much to do in inspiring the deed. As all the parties in this transaction were white, it is not at all probable that the color-line question had anything to do with it.

The community was moved with intense indignation, and the assassin was speedily taken to the county jail to escape a lynching. A large meeting was subsequently held in the Baptist Church, and a committee was appointed to prosecute the perpetrator. Mr. Lawrence at this writing is in a very critical condition, but hopes are entertained of his ultimate recovery.

WADE HAMPTON

We opened the June number of the Forum with the confident expectation that the article on "What Negro Supremacy Means," by Senator Wade Hampton, would furnish some well-considered and statesmanlike views on that important topic. We expected to find a fair, if not an encouraging, statement of the changes that twenty years have wrought in the educational and property qualifications of the Negro. But we confess our utter disappointment, in finding that Senator Wade devotes his entire article to details of the Acts of the South Carolina Legislature, from 1868 to 1876, in other words, to the reconstruction or carpet-bag period. He adds, it is true, a quotation from an address of Abraham Lincoln, but that dates back into the still remoter past, 1859. Mr. Lincoln learned something better before he died.

We make no defence of that carpet-bag Legislature, but does not Senator Wade recognize the change that has taken place in the condition of the Negro—a change that is going on at an increased ratio? Would an article be worth much on "What Anglo-Saxon Supremacy Means," based on extracts from Roman histories in regard to the ancient Germans? True, the comparison is an extreme one, but it must be remembered that more progress is now made in human civilization in one year, than in a century then. But let us confine ourselves to the facts as they now stand. The present generation of Negroes in the South has had the aid of the public schools, limited and inadequate as they are, and it has had the still more valuable aid of schools sustained by Northern benevolence, supplemented in some cases by aid from the Southern States, that have furnished instruction of the best quality in all ranges of study, from primary to college and professional. From Hampton, Va., to Austin, Texas, these schools, supported by various religious denominations, with carefully selected and thoroughly competent teachers from the North, have been sending forth their graduates as teachers, preachers, professional and business men. These schools of all grades number more than two hundred, and a large per cent. of their graduates become teachers who are giving a mighty uplift to their people. A colored editor could say truthfully two years ago, "We have preachers learned and eloquent; we have professors in colleges by hundreds, and school-masters by thousands; successful farmers, merchants, ministers, lawyers, editors, educators and physicians." To all this it may be added that careful estimates place the amount of property on which the Negroes in the Southern States pay taxes, at one hundred millions of dollars. Surely this race could now furnish legislators more intelligent and more interested in the assessment of taxes than in 1868, and the number and quality will be rapidly increased every year. Senator Hampton might have looked around and ahead, and not backward only! His article, as it stands, stamps him as a veritable Bourbon; "he has forgotten nothing and he has learned nothing."

MR. CABLE'S PAMPHLET

A COLORED MAN'S VIEW OF IT

Mr. Cable's Pamphlet, "The Negro Question," was sent to an educated Christian colored man in the South. We make some brief extracts from his letter acknowledging the receipt of the pamphlet. He says:

I have read "The Negro Question," by Geo. W. Cable, and appreciate it highly. It is the ablest treatment of the subject intellectually, morally and judicially that I ever saw. Mr. Cable has dealt with that great question with the insight of a statesman and a thinker, and the candor of a true Christian. Oh, how I am vexed and do smart when I think of the wicked treatment I and my people are subjected to on account of the God-given color, and by a people claiming and professing to be Christians! I can hardly believe that any other people ever bore the names freemen and citizens, and at the same time were shut out from so many of their rights and liberties as we are. Our manhood is outraged, our civil and political rights are abused, our women are robbed of their womanhood and their chastity is insulted, our aspirations are banded and proscription is held up to our eyes wherever we go, and enforced against us with Egyptian exactness and Spartan severity, and the most vexatious and grievous fact of all is, that the strong arm of the law of the land loses its power when it comes our turn to receive justice. The law either plays truant, or openly acknowledges that it has no power to defend us. But the God of law and justice, who broke down one form of slavery, will break down this, too. Still, there is a part for us to do. On this line, as on others, the man who needs help must help himself while he asks for help.

MRS. WARE

We honor the memory of the early and self-denying workers among the Freedmen. They were ostracised at the South, and were scarcely appreciated at the North. Many of them have laid down their lives in the service, others were compelled to return home on account of ill-health, but others still are toiling on, seeing the fruits of their labors in the new impulse given to the Negro in his great race struggle. Among the earliest and most efficient of these workers was President Ware, of Atlanta, now gone to his reward. Mrs. Ware is still at the post of duty, and, though in feeble health, clings with undiminished interest to her chosen life-work.

At the recent anniversary of the Atlanta University, the meeting of the Alumni, (May 28th), was made pleasant and memorable by the presentation to Mrs. Ware of a large portrait of herself. It was wholly unexpected to her, and her impromptu acknowledgment of the gift was made in the vein of her characteristic vivacity and kindness. Among the addresses made at the presentation, was one by Mrs. Chase, herself one of our earliest and most honored laborers. From this address we are permitted to make a few extracts.

It is very significant that at any time during these twenty years of your life here, it would have been just as delightful to meet and say the pleasant words that leap to our lips, as it is to say them to-day. You, whom we delight to honor this afternoon, have held the same post of honor all these years, but many of us do not know how delightfully you hold that place, so I, who have known you so long, am asked to explain, and if this hasty sketch seems too flattering to be given in your presence, I fear you alone are responsible. If you had put less into your life for us to admire, we could put less into our expression of admiration.

We know how you lost early a good mother, and that your father was taken when you were only eighteen; but the missionary spirit of that father was repeated in the daughter. We know of your being discouraged by a missionary Board because applying so young, but of your being finally accepted, and going to Hampton, reaching that now famous school even before the veteran—General Armstrong.

Then came the year of teaching at Charleston, a year so full of privations in those pioneer days, that though repeated calls came to you from Florida and Georgia, as well as the old fields, you shrank from farther hardships and decided to remain at home, till one Sunday morning in Connecticut, twenty years ago, these words were unfolded in a sermon, "Simon, Son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my Lambs." How easy it is for us now to see the beautiful Providence of those wonderful words finding a swift response in your heart and bringing you at once to Atlanta. There are those before me now that greeted you then in Storrs School. How much we might say of that eventful year when you worked beyond your strength to fit the "A" class for Atlanta University. We can hardly see how it could have been otherwise than that the next year you should come to us, the bride of our beloved President. But position brought no exemption from hard work to either of you royal workers.

We shall never forget what hosts of friends have been won for the school by your ready pen and stirring words. And during those sixteen memorable foundation years of our school, which are so rapidly passing into history, who can ever know how much of their grand success was due to you for your devotion to him who created Atlanta University, and made it what it is? We may know in that "day when He makes up his jewels."

THREE COMMENCEMENTS

BY A VISITOR

It has been my privilege to attend in succession the anniversary exercises at Hampton, Va., Atlanta, Ga., and Howard University, Washington, D.C. Hampton, as usual, welcomed a crowd of visitors, and among these a number of distinguished men—Governor Lee of Virginia, and Senator Dawes, being those most widely known. The visitor sees here the magical touch of genius in these large and commodious buildings, the schools, the shops, the houses, the cottages, and, crowning all, the stately chapel. The plat of the village in which these are congregated realizes the words,

"A mighty maze and not without a plan."

The effect of the whole, threaded by winding roads, shaded by trees, and interspersed with gardens and shrubs, is picturesque and practically convenient. The main value of Hampton, however, is found in what is done within these buildings—the teaching, the industries, the making of character.

The graduating exercises were the great attraction. The addresses and papers of the pupils did not, perhaps, as a whole, quite come up to what we have heard in other years, but all were good and some of them of great excellence. One is always impressed at Hampton with the tone and local coloring of the addresses. They are tinged and touched by the work done here, and the races for and by whom it is done. The titles of some of the pieces show this: "What is expected of a Hampton Graduate." "Hampton Girls." "Mission Work in Tennessee." "Way down in Georgia." "Progress of the Oneidas." Of the same sort was the closing tableau, "The Great Father and his Children," a representation by Indian students, with the implements or products of the industries they have learned, applying to the Great Father for admission to his country. The exercises were closed by eloquent addresses, given by Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, of New York, one of the Trustees, Governor Lee, of Virginia, and Senator Dawes.

Atlanta University now welcomes its visitors to its beautiful green lawns and fields, which were once red clay washed into deep gullies. The buildings are convenient and well-kept. The Baccalaureate sermon, delivered by Professor Francis, was very appropriate and touching. The commencement exercises were held on Monday, May 28th, and were attended by a vast concourse of people, many going away because the building, though large, could not give them room. The aisles were crowded through all the services. The audiences were, as usual, made up mostly of colored people. Heretofore, at times, the dignitaries of the State and city have graced the platform, but Governor Gordon was out of town, and, perhaps, if he had been at home, he would not have attended. The recent excitement about the Glenn Bill, and the withdrawal of the $8,000, the annual grant of the State, have left the relations somewhat strained. There is, however, no excitement on that subject. The State authorities have not yet decided what to do with the fund, and in the meantime, the University goes quietly forward with its work. Prof. Bumstead has just succeeded in raising the $16,000 necessary to meet the current expenses of the year.

At the anniversary exercises there were no graduates from the college department this year. Thirteen pupils, all girls, from the normal department, read their essays and received their certificates of graduation. The number of the class is supposed to be unfortunate, but there was nothing amiss in the quality of the essays they read. They were all good, but the absence of any male voice left the class somewhat in the condition of a choir without a baas. There was a noticeable difference in one respect between the essays on this occasion and those at Hampton. Here there was no local or race tone. If I had closed my eyes, I might have thought myself at the anniversary of a Ladies' Seminary at the North. Scarcely a word or allusion indicated that these girls belonged to the colored race, and for that matter their faces scarcely showed it, for the white blood largely preponderated in most of them. I can well understand why these pupils should prefer to stand forth not as a distinct race, but as American and Christian girls. Perhaps that is the higher wisdom, but it makes the anniversary less distinctive, and inspires less sympathy and enthusiasm. These girls were plainly dressed, and in that respect would differ greatly from the graduating class in a Northern Female Seminary, but they would have no occasion to shrink from a comparison with their Northern sisters, if propriety of deportment, and excellence and force of writing were considered.

At the Howard University, we had the opportunity of attending only the exercises of the graduating class in college. This institution has a good claim to its title as a University, for it has collegiate, medical, theological, law and normal departments. The anniversaries of the theological and medical departments had been held a few days previously in churches down in the city, and were attended, as we understand, by large audiences. The college anniversary, on the other hand, was held in the college chapel, which, while it was well filled, contained a relatively small audience, and this was made up mostly of colored people. We hardly appreciate this discrimination as to the places of holding these anniversaries, for the orations in the chapel were of a high order, and might well have attracted the attention of members of Congress and of the numerous visitors in the crowded city. The graduating class consisted of six persons, one being a lady and she the only one of the class without apparent admixture of white blood. The addresses were all orations, and resembled somewhat the essays in the Atlanta school in presenting almost no touch or tone of race or local surroundings, the lady's being almost the only exception. I could not avoid the conviction, that if these well-trained minds had thrown themselves into topics more nearly related to their own life and race struggle, there would have been more fervor in the oratory. But some of these graduates will yet be heard from as useful laborers in some fields of active Christian work.

THE SOUTH

NOTES IN THE SADDLE

BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY

I promised, in my February "Notes in the Saddle," to give a brief account of the mountain campaign which had then just closed. It was full of most interesting experiences. We began the series of meetings in the Congregational Church, Jellico, Tenn. The Association was represented by one of its Corresponding Secretaries, a District Secretary, and the writer. Beside these brethren from abroad, the local force of A.M.A. workers was large, and several neighboring churches of our Congregational faith sent their pastors.

At Jellico, the A.M.A. has planted both a church and a school, and built a meeting house. The interesting series of meetings, which began at Jellico, was for the purpose of dedicating the neat Congregational churches recently built by the Association along this line of railroad. Preaching services were held every afternoon and evening, the company of ministers taking turns, as they pushed on from one church to another. These churches are at Jellico, Pleasant View, South Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Woodbine, Rockhold and Corbin. Congregationalism, through the A.M.A., has taken possession of this whole region in the name of Christ. We can easily hold it in the interests of broad and evangelical Christianity, if our older Congregational churches in the East and North arouse themselves to meet the pressing exigencies, and realize the splendid possibilities that lie before them in this field to-day, but which will be denied them in the near future.

One very interesting feature of these meetings was the dedication of a chapel which has been recently added to the Williamsburg church, and which is used for the infant class of the Sunday-school. This class had outgrown all the accommodations of the church, in connection with the other departments of the Sunday-school. It had become a Sunday-school of itself. This chapel was, therefore, built and publicly set aside for the service of these little folks.

During these meetings, our honored Corresponding Secretary and District Secretary pushed through the storms and forded mountain streams together with the other brethren, that they might keep the appointments which had been made for them. Dr. Roy's stereopticon views, which have interested and instructed so many audiences in the North, he used with great profit during this mountain campaign.

Two men called upon Brother Myers, our general missionary in this mountain region, and requested that he and the writer visit the field, some fourteen miles away, from which they had come that morning. They told a thrillingly interesting story of how God's Spirit had entered their hearts, and stirred them up to desire better things for their children and their community than they had enjoyed. One of them was a son of a French Catholic mother, and had early adopted her faith. His life had been wild and reckless, until he found the Saviour in a meeting led by an A.M.A. missionary. He was an intelligent man of some education. He found others ready to join him in a movement for the elevation of the people. They established a church and organized a Sunday-school. We pushed over the mountain on horseback, after the other visiting brethren had left the mountain region, to inspect personally this field. We found it even as the men had represented it to be. A little church had been organized and Sunday-school gathered. I could learn of no other Sunday-school in that region. I heard afterwards, that one of the old-time preachers warned the people against the Sunday-school, saying, "It war a heap worse than a dancing place." This same preacher had a vision, and gave an account of it to his people. "Two devils," he said, "had been in that country getting up some sort of an institution that they called a church." He warned his people against them.

The two men who visited us at Jellico, together with others who had joined with them in this effort to Christianize and educate this community, we found busy on a hillside, laying the foundations of the new "church house." They were enthusiastic in this new movement, which promised so much to their community. They had drawn up a confession of faith and covenant, which were evangelical and Congregational. They reported three thousand people living in the coves and valleys radiating from the point upon which they had planted their "church house," absolutely without intelligent Christian instruction of any kind. There were hundreds of square miles without a church building of any denomination. This little company had been stirred up by God's Spirit, and were almost starving for spiritual food. There was a pathos even in their peculiar mountain vernacular, as one of them said to me, "I don't understand scarcely a word you uns say. I'm too old to larn now. I'se done left. But I does want my chilluns to know somethin'. I tell you, I'd sell my old farm down in the cove so's to help my chilluns to know somethin'." What a tremendous appeal this is from the very heart of our country! All they asked was one hundred dollars, to help them build this Congregational "church house" by the side of Hickory Creek.