THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
Vol. XXXII.
No. 3.
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
MARCH, 1878.
CONTENTS :
| EDITORIAL. | |
| Paragraphs | 65 |
| Paying the Debt | 66 |
| Negrology | 67 |
| Bills in Congress | 68 |
| Education Among the Freedmen | 69 |
| What Can the Women Do?—School Items | 70 |
| News from the Churches—Teachers’ Association—Negro Notes | 71 |
| Chinese Notes | 72 |
| Poetry. “No Room in the Inn” | 74 |
| THE FREEDMEN. | |
| Georgia: Atlanta University | 75 |
| Georgia Macon: Devotion to Study—Conversions to Christ | 78 |
| Alabama: Breaking Ground for New Emerson Institute Building. Prof. T. N. Chase | 78 |
| Tennessee: A Debt Extinguisher—The Happiest Girl in the Land. Rev. T. Cutler | 79 |
| THE INDIANS. | |
| The Indian Commissioners | 80 |
| THE CHINESE. | |
| Address by Fung Affoo | 81 |
| AFRICA. | |
| The Mendi Mission | 83 |
| COMMUNICATIONS. | |
| Education of the Colored People. Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D. | 84 |
| From a Life Member.—Slave and Free Labor Cotton. From the N. Y. Herald | 85 |
| THE CHILDREN’S PAGE | 86 |
| RECEIPTS | 87 |
| WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. | 92 |
Published by the American Missionary Association,
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
A. Anderson, Printer, 28 Frankfort St.
American Missionary Association , — PAYING THE DEBT. — NEGROLOGY. [A] — EDUCATION AMONG THE FREEDMEN. — WHAT CAN THE WOMEN DO? — ITEMS FROM THE SCHOOLS. — NEWS FROM THE CHURCHES. — NEGRO NOTES. — HOME. — FOREIGN. — CHINESE NOTES. — NO ROOM IN THE INN.
56 Reade Street, N. Y.
PRESIDENT.
Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE PRESIDENTS.
|
Hon. F. D. Parish, Ohio. Rev. Jonathan Blanchard, Ill. Hon. E. D. Holton, Wis. Hon. William Claflin, Mass. Rev. Stephen Thurston, D. D., Me. Rev. Samuel Harris, D. D., Ct. Rev. Silas McKeen, D. D., Vt. Wm. C. Chapin, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. Eustis, Mass. Hon. A. C. Barstow, R. I. Rev. Thatcher Thayer, D. D., R. I. Rev. Ray Palmer, D. D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, D. D., Ill. Rev. W. W. Patton, D. D., D. C. Hon. Seymour Straight, La. Rev. D. M. Graham, D. D., Mich. Horace Hallock, Esq., Mich. Rev. Cyrus W. Wallace, D. D., N. H. Rev. Edward Hawes, Ct. Douglas Putnam, Esq., Ohio. Hon. Thaddeus Fairbanks, Vt. Samuel D. Porter, Esq., N. Y. Rev. M. M. G. Dana, D. D., Ct. Rev. H. W. Beecher, N. Y. Gen. O. O. Howard, Oregon. Rev. Edward L. Clark, N. Y. |
Rev. G. F. Magoun, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. Hammond, Ill. Edward Spaulding, M. D., N. H. David Ripley, Esq., N. J. Rev. Wm. M. Barbour, D. D., Ct. Rev. W. L. Gage, Ct. A. S. Hatch, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. Fairchild, D. D., Ohio. Rev. H. A. Stimson, Minn. Rev. J. W. Strong, D. D., Minn. Rev. George Thatcher, LL. D., Iowa. Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. Chapin, D. D., Wis. S. D. Smith, Esq., Mass. Rev. H. M. Parsons, N. Y. Peter Smith, Esq., Mass. Dea. John Whiting, Mass. Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D., Ct. Hon. J. B. Grinnell, Iowa. Rev. Wm. T. Carr, Ct. Rev. Horace Winslow, Ct. Sir Peter Coats, Scotland. Rev. Henry Allon, D. D., London, Eng. Wm. E. Whiting, Esq., N. Y. |
| J. M. Pinkerton, Esq., Mass. | |
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, 56 Reade Street, N. Y.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, New York.
Rev. JAS. POWELL, Chicago, Ill.
EDGAR KETCHUM, Esq., Treasurer, N. Y.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., Assistant Treasurer, N. Y.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, Recording Secretary.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
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Alonzo S. Ball, A. S. Barnes, Edward Beecher, Geo. M. Boynton, Wm. B. Brown, |
Clinton B. Fisk, A. P. Foster, Augustus E. Graves, S. B. Halliday, Sam’l Holmes, |
S. S. Jocelyn, Andrew Lester, Chas. L. Mead, John H. Washburn, G. B. Willcox. |
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his order as Assistant Treasurer.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
American Missionary Association.
By the brief extracts, given on another page, from recent letters of our African missionaries, it appears that they were at last accounts in good health and heart, and hard at work re-organizing the church and schools, repairing buildings, and laying foundations for future work. The death of Rev. Barnabas Root had left the mission without a minister, so that its higher work had been greatly interrupted. To keep the numbers good, and the working force equal to the necessities of the case, it has seemed both to those recently sent out, and to the Executive Committee, that there should be a speedy addition to the Missionary band. It has been the experience of other organizations as well as our own, that missionary work suffers by nothing more than by having too few workers in a place. We hope, therefore, before this number of our Magazine reaches its readers, that two more good men, with their wives, will be on their way to join the Mendi Mission. Albert Miller and Andrew Jackson have offered themselves, in response to a general call read at the Fisk University by Prof. Spence. The former is a preacher who has nearly completed the collegiate course, the latter a teacher just finishing the normal course, and each will be accompanied by a good wife, able to sing and teach: (one of them was formerly with the Jubilee Singers.)
Thus strengthened by the addition of these four “fellow-helpers in the gospel,” we look for good tidings from month to month from Africa, and have less fear that the force already on the field will over-work themselves in that warm and trying climate.
General Charles H. Howard, of the Advance, owing to a recent attack of pneumonia, will, under the advice of his physician, spend the remainder of the winter, and the spring months, at the South. It was natural for General Howard, from his former connection with the American Missionary Association as its Western Secretary, to take a special interest in its work at the South. He has planned, with our hearty cooperation, to visit a number of the institutions and churches under our charge, and to inform himself and the readers of the Advance as to the condition and progress of our work among the freedmen. The Association heartily welcomes all such friendly observation and criticism. General Howard is now at Savannah, Ga., and, after a trip to Florida, will return to visit our institutions farther West in the spring. He will publish letters on the condition of Southern society, and the colored population especially, with whose uplifting he feels the warmest sympathy.
We are rejoiced to be able to report cheering progress in the payment of our debt. Our last statement, in the December number of the Missionary, announced the payment of $30,416, thus bringing the debt down from $93,232.99 in 1876, to $62,816.90, as reported at the Annual Meeting in 1877. It also gave a list of pledges of $5,000, reducing the balance to $57,816.90. Pledges and payments have been made since that date, which reduce the amount to a little below $50,000.
The spirit manifested by our friends in this movement, may be gathered from extracts from the letters we have received. A liberal friend in New England writes: “I have thought for a long time of your Society, and of its just call upon me for aid, additional to what I do when I send you our church collection. * * I will soon send you my check for $1,000” [it has been received] “for your debt, and I will add another thousand during 1878, conditioned upon the total wiping out of the debt in 1878.”
A friend in Hartford, Ct. says: “I have from time to time received reports of the doings and wants of your Association with much interest. You may count me in as one of twenty-five, for a thousand dollars for liquidating your debt, and I hope the full number may soon appear.”
Another Connecticut friend writes: “After getting through with the very busy month, and inspecting the balance sheets, I conclude to anticipate a little on the strength of my hopes, and promise you five hundred dollars toward the debt. I wish I could see my way clear to do more.”
A gentleman in Springfield, Mass., whose “Unabridged” contributions we have often had occasion to acknowledge, sends us his check for $500. “A worshipper at Indian Orchard,” remits $500.
One of our liberal and constant patrons at the West, tells his experience thus: “I could not see where the funds were to come from to aid you, but yesterday, to my great joy, the inclosed three hundred dollars dropped into my hands, and as a faithful and favored steward, I take great pleasure in handing it over to you, to aid in extinguishing the debt of the Association.”
Many expressions of regret come to us from those whose hearts are with us in this effort, but whose means will not permit them just now to help. We wish to express our earnest hope that an effort, so well begun, will not be suffered to fail. It will be seen that some of the pledges are made on condition that the whole sum be raised in a specified time—an additional reason for promptness on the part of those who desire to aid in the movement. We have avoided thus far, the expense of collecting agents, and we trust that the friends of the Association will continue to forward their contributions, and thus save us from any such outlay. It will be a triumph of economy, as well as of liberality.
Rev. Peter J. Gulick, a veteran missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., died at Kobe, Japan, Dec. 8th, 1877. We record his death with affectionate regret, remembering his annual contributions sent to us for many years, accompanied with expressions of his deep interest, in the uplifting to Christian citizenship of the destitute and despised people of his native land.
The Council Fire is the title of a new Monthly Journal, of 16 pages, devoted to the history, character, social life, religious traditions, government, current legends, etc., of the American Indian, including also discussions of our relations to him as a people and a Government. The fact that it is under the editorial management of Col. A. B. Meacham, formerly Indian Superintendent and Peace Commissioner, is a guarantee of its character and value. It gives the current history of Indian affairs in all parts of the country.
The political calm in the Southern States has apparently given leisure for a somewhat wide discussion of the negro: what he is in himself, and what he may be in the State. It is largely a discussion by Southern men, and from a more or less distinctively Southern standpoint.
Mr. Stetson gives a series of answers to questions, representing the negro as he is, morally, socially and politically: the sum of it all being, what might be anticipated for a race of tropical origin, held for generations in slavery, and suddenly endowed with political equality. Sensual and emotional by nature, lazy and thievish by training, clannish and easily misled as a voter, his salvation will depend on his receiving education, but not by a forcing process, and on his coming gradually to the independent exercise of his civil rights.
The South Carolinian gives an apparently frank representation of the situation as it appears to the native people of that State. The present shows more honesty and less crime, a renewed interest of the whites, and the banishment of the blacks from politics. No party will be tolerated “which aggressively, and in real earnest, advocates negro rights.” He says: “The whites regard the negro as an inferior animal, admirably adapted to work and to wait, and look on him, ‘in his proper place,’ with a curious mixture of amusement, contempt and affection. It is when he aspires to participate in politics, or otherwise claim privileges, that their hatred becomes intense.” In regard to Education, he writes: “There is great prejudice in this State against free schools for any color; nor have the airs put on by colored-school children contributed to remove it. Policy, however, and past promises will probably impel the maintenance of a free-school system for some time, at least, but on a less extensive scale. It is proper to add that some cultured Southerners are in favor of educating and elevating the negro, as the best way to solve our race difficulties. But it is doubtful if their views will prevail against inherited prejudice.”
But The Louisianian takes stronger ground. The Southern question germinated when a slave was first introduced into the American colonies. The institution of slavery made all the difference; giving rise in the South to a “domineering and proscriptive aristocracy,” with regard to all of the African race, and putting all whites—poor or rich, ignorant or educated—on a footing of equality. “There was a nobility in the white skin, more sacred and more respected than the one derived from the letters patent of kings;” more even, apparently, than that based on intelligence or virtue. Slavery made of the Southern planters, “high barons in reality, although not in name.” In the North and West, on the contrary, there was a democracy politically, but a social aristocracy, not recognizing the equality of the white skin. The writer says: “The aristocrats of the South were the real ones; those of the North were spurious. The Southern question used to be, that of the maintenance of this supremacy over the whole land by these real aristocrats.”
Now “mediocrity is enthroned,” and the Southern question is the free negro question; a reversal has been made—the body politic has had its feet up and its head down. The author seems to see nothing but the race question: the law of animal life, where the strong destroy the weak, is the highest law he can think of for its solution; where a weak race comes in contact with a stronger, it must merge into it, or “subserve its interests and prejudices,” or be wiped out of existence, and Providence so orders it.[68] “There will never be peace and prosperity in the Southern States, as long as Caucasian supremacy shall be opposed there;” but, “we intend to control the negro vote by superior intelligence, by persuasion, and not by violence.”
Equal opportunity for education should, he thinks, be given to the blacks; but they should be discouraged from all “aspirations and efforts which will end in disappointment,” [and this is the sentiment, also, of so earnest a worker as Col. Preston of Va.]; “and hasten a more active and deadly struggle.”
It will be a surprise, we doubt not, and a disappointment to many of our Northern friends, to find that such views, especially those of the admirably-written article in the North American Review, still constitute the substratum of thought among the cultivated classes of the Southern States. For what such men as this accomplished writer think in their bed-chambers, finds very different and much grosser expression among men of coarser fibre and ruder touch. We do remember that the last two writers quoted, are from the two longest and most sorely troubled States, where sentiment is probably more extreme than elsewhere in the South; and we hope, indeed, to some extent we know, that there are many of the natives of these States, who are not represented by these views, but who have freed themselves from the dominion of the old ideas of race-rule and caste prejudice. But we are glad to see these free discussions, and from these varying standpoints.
We are pleased to see that education is still not absolutely denied in them, though the motives for its acquirement are largely taken away. But we suggest to our co-workers in this field that, even though the various States in which these freedmen live, are, and have been, extending the advantages of their public schools to children of the blacks, yet, with such sentiments deep-seated in the minds of the educated, and so the influential class, this provision is uncertain, and may be at any time diminished or withdrawn. The substantial foundation for the permanent and patient work of the education of the negro, must be in the minds and hearts of those who believe in his manhood and in his education, for some sufficient use.
In regard to the general question, we believe it a law of God that, as intellectual attainment and moral character are in themselves of far more consequence than complexion or race, those who are equal in these higher spheres easily overlook the differences in things below. If we understand it at all, the Christian idea is not that the strong should destroy the weak, but “laboring, should support” them. The noblest sight on earth is when a superior race, or family, or individual—we care not which—reaches down to an inferior race, or family, or individual, to lift them up toilfully and patiently to its own higher level. The aristocracy of Christ’s kingdom is an aristocracy of service. And, in its accomplished peace, the lion does not eat the lamb, but they lie down together. It may be worth our while to practice a little here.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] “The Southern Negro as He Is”: a Pamphlet, by George R. Stetson, Boston, Mass. “The Result in South Carolina”: Atlantic Monthly, by a South Carolinian. “The Southern Question”: North American Review, by Charles Gayarré, of Louisiana.
—A variety of bills have been introduced into Congress affecting the interests of the red man. One to organize a territorial government, to secure land to individuals, to missions and to Church societies, the residue of land to be forfeited to the United States. Another granting right of way to two railroads, and still another for “a military and post-road bisecting the territory from North to South”; taking for it a strip five miles wide, some 300 to 1,000 square miles. Our large army could certainly travel it without elbowing one another. Another still is arranged, to make Indians having an organized government citizens by wholesale.
Unfortunately, most, if not all, these bills indicate by their origin, as well as by their contents, that they are in the interest of those ambitious to get possession of the lands set apart by treaty to the Indians, and that they involve an utter disregard of the plighted faith and the sworn promises of the nation.
Under this title appears a valuable article in the Methodist Quarterly Review, for January, by S. G. Arnold, Esq., of Washington, D. C. As an early testimony to the capacity of the African race, he cites a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1791, to Benjamin Banneker, a free negro of Maryland, who had shown remarkable inventive and constructive genius, and acquired a thorough astronomical knowledge. Mr. Jefferson says:
“Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing only to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. * * * * I have taken the liberty to send your Almanac to M. de Condorset, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic Society, because I consider it a document to which your whole color has a right, for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.”
The writer then gives a graphic picture of the active efforts of the Christian world, to educate and enlighten this needy and neglected class, as soon as the Emancipation Act had given access to them. From 1863 to 1866, the work in the Freedmen’s camps around Washington was, perhaps, the most conspicuous of all; so that in this latter year, 42 regular day-schools, with 71 teachers, were caring for 3,930 pupils. These were sustained from New England and the Middle States, and by Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Friends, Congregational, and various undenominational agencies.
Then came the era of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which expended some thirteen millions of dollars, and the free-school law for the District of Columbia. The history of the Normal school, established with much self-denying effort, and against great obstacles, by Miss Mytilla Miner, is given quite at length, and a full and appreciative sketch of the beginning and development of the work of the A. M. A. The story of Fisk University and the work of the Jubilee Singers is told at length. We quote from the closing paragraphs of Mr. Arnold, this impressive comparison:
“At the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, the whole population of the United States was not very different in point of numbers, from that of the colored population now residing in the Southern States. The country had then been settled for more than 200 years, and there were large interests of production and commerce and government, which would seem to demand very liberal provisions for higher institutions of learning. But it may be doubted whether the advantages for education were not inferior to those now possessed by the colored population of the South, after a probation in freedom of scarcely more than a dozen years. The only colleges which appeared to have been in existence at that time are in existence still, and can be told by the number of your fingers. We have seen that there are now in the South, for the benefit of the negro, between 30 and 40 institutions for higher education, with an annual catalogue of nearly 5,000 students; and although they do not, as yet, graduate annually through all the higher departments of learning as many scholars as were graduated from the 10 colleges that were in operation prior to the Revolutionary War, because the training is not for scholarship, but for special work, it seems probable that the educational power is greater and exerts a wider influence.
“But whether this is so or not, the result of these brief years of Christian work must be regarded as a phenomenon in the history of the world. It is often said of the movements of our time that they are only history repeating itself; but if there is anything in history like this generous outpouring of effort and means to redeem a great mass of human merchandise, and lift it up out of its squalor and wretchedness to the level of our common Christian manhood, we exhort the friends of history to produce it.”
We gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity, to recognize the generous appreciation of our work which we have always received from our Methodist friends—indeed, some of them are “ourselves”—not the least valuable indication of which is the cordial and kindly tone of the article from which we have quoted above from their leading Review.
We are gratified with the evidence which is coming to us from various quarters, of an increasing interest in our Southern work on the part of our Christian women. A letter from Rhode Island inquires the cost of supporting a female missionary to work among the colored women of the South in their homes, after the plan mentioned in the January Missionary. Another letter from Vermont asks, more generally, What can the women do? How can they best help the work by money and by goods? A word comes even from a missionary in Constantinople, endorsing Caucasian women’s work for Negro women in America.
In reply to such questions, we are happy to give all the light we can. A lady missionary, to devote herself to the work named above, can be sustained for from $350 to $450 a year, according to location; or, a lady teacher in one of our established schools, for $250. A student’s scholarship is from $70 to $80. We are, of course, glad to accept money for such special purposes, and to use it as we are instructed by the donors. One of the most pressing needs just now, in which we are sure of sympathy from the house-keeperly instincts of our good sisters, is that of bedding and table-linen for our Educational institutions. We hear from the matron of Tougaloo University, that the press of students is so great that she has used her last quilt, and may have to take up carpets to cover the students by night. Others are nearly as badly off. Perhaps the women of the North can do no better thing than to supply this want for the remainder of this winter, and more fully for another year.
We have no fear that we shall for a long time lack specialties of wants and pressing needs, which will appeal to all who have an ear to hear, and a heart to sympathize. Meanwhile, the great work goes on in all its length and breadth, in which the Christian women of the land may well join forces with the Christian men, as they have always done, and do their part to save and elevate a needy race.
Talladega, Ala.—“There are five Sunday-school prayer-meetings every Sabbath afternoon, in which much feeling is manifested. In these meetings four have expressed the hope of a new life. Others are much interested.”
Tougaloo, Miss.—“There is considerable religious interest. Several are inquiring, and a few profess conversion. We are running over with students. We have put up a bed in the north recitation-room of the primary building, and shall probably have to arrange another bed in the same room before this week closes. We know of others that are coming next week, and so on, and what are we going to do with them? We have concluded to purchase lumber at once and put up barracks for twenty students, for the prospect is that we shall have that many more young men. We can accommodate six or eight young women in the Peoria room. The erection of barracks will involve an outlay of some three hundred dollars; but the lumber will all come in play when we build the new chapel, which we shall be obliged to have before the sessions of the next year begin. If the school continues to prosper we shall probably commence another year with a hundred boarders.”
Nashville, Tenn.—“We have a good school this year; about 270 in all. We hold a half-hour extra meeting in the boarding department. Some inquirers. About twenty conversions last term.”
Atlanta, Ga.[71]—“School is full. We have more pupils than for several years before. There is some religious interest, though not so much as we wish. Our purpose and hope is to make you a big contribution toward the debt, by not asking you for any aid this year.”
Marion, Ala.—“We had an interesting day, yesterday, in our church. It was Communion. Four girls from twelve to sixteen years old, and one young man of twenty years, were received on profession. A Female Prayer-meeting has been commenced at the ‘Home,’ and promises well. The Teacher’s Meeting is also held in our parlor every Friday night. Our evening meetings are well attended. We enjoy singing the ‘Gospel Hymns.’ The people almost all sing, and are not afraid to hear their own voices. Last evening seven or eight of the brethren took part, and one woman felt constrained to say a few words. Perfect harmony and good-feeling seem to prevail in the church, and the prospects for the coming year are quite encouraging.”
Macon, Ga.—“Our church is greatly blessed in connection with the Week of Prayer. Daily meetings have been held for three weeks, and the interest continues good. Several conversions have cheered our hearts.”
We have been favored with a copy of the “Minutes of the South-western Georgia Teachers’ Association (colored), held at Howard Normal School, December 1, 1877.”
The graduates and students of Atlanta University seem to be the leading spirits in this Association. The exercises were very much like those of similar associations or conventions, though without the set speeches of old wheel-horses, which are of doubtful advantage.
That parliamentary gymnastics were not entirely ignored is evident from the following quotation: “It was moved that the roll be called, for the purpose of members paying their dues. Thereupon quite a discussion arose, when the previous question was called for; the previous question was seconded, but the main question was lost.”
The report says of the address of the President: “He very graphically described the field in which we are to do the work that is to be done, and how it is to be done. He said that he felt sure that ‘the Great Disburser of Human Events’ held something good in store for the Negro. Teachers, you are the salt of the race; lose not your savor, but keep pushing on in this grand cause of education, and the heights may yet be reached in our day.”
The Committee on the Educational Condition of South-western Georgia gives the reins to its tropical imagination for a moment, when it says: “We are exceedingly sorry to find our people in some places sleeping on Poverty’s bedstead, covered with the blanket of Ignorance.”
Their statement that, in the eight counties reported, the public-school fund pays only from thirty-three and one-third to eighty cents a month per pupil, and that for three months only, would seem to indicate that the public-school system of Georgia is not very expensive or uniform in its operation. But it is to be hoped that this little plant, so cautiously set by the poverty-stricken farmer, may have a steady growth into a large and symmetrical tree.
We are glad to note the enterprise of our colored friends in sustaining and directing for themselves this Howard Normal School, and in holding these educational meetings, and we recognize in it one of the cheering results of our work.
—A colored gentleman of high standing and great influence—a life-long resident of Philadelphia—was invited by Mrs. Hayes to “be seated and talk on the political situation,” when the following conversation took place: “It is very quiet now at the South, we learn?”[72] “Yes, madam; it is the quietness of death to the colored people. My son is in jail for the crime of aiding in carrying the State of South Carolina for the President.”
—Senator Blaine, in a speech at Hot Springs, Ark., put the Southern question aptly thus: “Perfect peace in the South will everywhere follow perfect justice. There is no man in the country who desires strife for the sake of strife, but there will always be strife so long as there is wrong.”
—There is a quaint, straightforward way of putting things sometimes that strikes right at the root of things, an art which our colored friends of the South seem especially to understand. And here is what was sung recently at one of their meetings in Jacksonville:
Kase de night befo’ he was up so late,
You needn’t ’spect, with your load ob sin,
Dat you’ll slip past him and steal right in:
De angels always acts on de squar’;
Dey know you here, an’ dey’ll know you dar.
Such singing would not be in order in our churches. But, after all, isn’t there a bit of truth right here, and may not these lines be reflected on with considerable profit?
—A colored man, who very sensibly consulted President Hayes, before migrating to San Domingo, received a letter in reply, from which the following is extracted: “I have given some consideration to your question as to the emigration of colored people from Florida to San Domingo. I am not well informed as to the advantages offered by San Domingo to immigrants, but my impression is that your people should not be hasty in deciding to leave this country. The mere difference in climate is a very serious objection to removal. The first generation, in all such removals, suffer greatly. It is my opinion, also, that the evils which now affect you are likely steadily, and I hope rapidly, to diminish. My advice is, therefore, against the proposed emigration.”
—Stanley’s African expedition cost $115,000, and he discovered 15,000,000 uncovered Africans. The Worcester Press says six heathen for five cents is very reasonable.
—The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society to Lake Victoria Nyanza have been cordially received by King Mtesa. When the passage was read in the Society’s letter, in which a reference is made to our Lord, the king ordered a salute to be fired, which was explained to be for joy at the mention of the name of Jesus. The king wished especially to know if the missionaries had brought the book—the Bible. He has himself since acted as interpreter to his people at the Sunday services.
—It is not often that the report of a minority of one is invested with so much importance or interest as that found, in an unfinished condition, among the papers of the late Senator Morton. We give a very brief synopsis of its main points:
A cardinal principle in our government is its openness to immigrants from all parts of the world; it is not limited in its statement by color, character or creed. While the Oriental nations have come on to our ground, it is proposed that we should go back to that which they have abandoned, and for the same reasons which they have given up—interference with trade and labor, and corruption of morals and religion.
The security of our nation depends not on material wealth nor general intelligence, but in devotion to the doctrines upon which the government was founded,[73] “And the profound conviction in the minds of the people that the rights of man are not conferred by constitutions or written enactments, which may be altered or abolished, but are God-given to every human being born into the world, and cannot be violated by constitutions, enactments, or governments, without trampling upon natural and inalienable rights.” Growing out of these doctrines is the policy of free immigration, which we are at liberty to regulate, but not proscribe, as we may lay down the conditions of citizenship, but not consistently forbid it. Having given political rights to the negro, it is inconsistent to renew race prejudices, and exclude the Asiatics on the ground of color, civilization and religion. These are the actual grounds of the prejudice. But the question is not one of naturalization, but of permission to come into our country to work, to trade, and to acquire property, though the senator deemed it impossible that they should be protected, save as they should be allowed to become citizens, to vote and to be represented in the government. He refers to the fact that the Chinese take ship from a British port, and that our dealing in regard to their importation must be with the English Government. He brings important testimony to demonstrate the value of their labor in the construction of railroads and in the harvesting of crops. In these especially, by their freedom from combinations to control the price of labor, and as having brought wages to a level, which, though still higher than in other States, makes it possible for Californian manufacturers to compete with those of other States and countries. But for Chinese labor, he says, California would not have more than one-half or two-thirds of her present white population; it is indispensable to farming operations; their labor is as free as any other.
The majority report, in its concluding paragraphs, says that the question that now arises on the Pacific Coast will probably have to be met upon the banks of the Mississippi, and, perhaps, on the Ohio and Hudson. It is a standing menace to republican institutions and Christian civilization. Free institutions, founded upon free schools and intelligence, can only be maintained when based on intelligent and adequately paid labor. Adequate wages are needed to give self-respect to the laborer, and the means of education to his children. Family life is a great safeguard to our political institutions. Chinese immigration involves sordid wages, no public schools, and the absence of the family. They show few of the characteristics of a desirable population, and many to be deprecated by any patriot. This problem is too important to be treated with indifference. Congress should solve it, having due regard to any rights already accrued under existing treaties, and to humanity; but it must be solved, in the judgment of the committee, unless our Pacific possessions are to be ultimately given over to a race alien in all its tendencies, which will make of it practically provinces of China, rather than States of the Union. The committee recommend that measures be taken by the Executive, looking toward a modification of the existing treaty with China, confining it to strictly commercial purposes, and that Congress legislate to restrain the great influx of Asiatics to this country.
—The San Francisco “Workingmen” (?) have, under the lead of professional agitators, become more than ever threatening and incendiary in their language. It was given out that the Chinese passengers of the steamer Tokio would be attacked on their arrival. At this point the authorities interfered. The mayor appointed special police, and the two ringleaders were arrested for conspiracy and misdemeanor, and put under heavy bail. General McComb ordered the entire military force of the city to assemble at the armories, and General McDowell gave assurance that the United States troops would come to their aid if required. Under these conditions the city scum ceased coming to the surface, but settled quickly to the bottom, where it belongs.
—Mr. Luttrell, a democratic member from California, has moved in the House to amend the Steamboat Bill, so as to provide that no American vessel shall employ, in any capacity whatever, a Chinese or Mongolian.
—Treasury statistics show arrivals from China of 160,979 up to 1875. In 1875 the arrivals were 19,033; but in 1876 the immigration fell off to 16,879, owing to the April disturbance in that year in California. For the first quarter of 1877 the number was only 965, but it soon began to rise again, and on June 31 the total immigration was figured at 284,547.
—The figures of the Custom House in San Francisco have been collated to show that, out of a total of $6,692,000 paid for duties on imports of foreign goods introduced during the past year, the Chinese merchants paid $1,756,505, or over twenty-five per cent. During the same time the Chinese paid for rent and water privileges $223,000; for fire insurance, $96,000, and for marine insurance, $86,000; they also paid $100,000 in taxes into the city treasury.
—In 1875, of 7,643 arrests for drunkenness, not one was a Chinaman; of 3,263 paupers admitted to the almshouse, only six were Chinamen; of 83 murderers hanged during the last year in the United States only one was a Chinaman.
—Our antipathy is balanced to some extent by the appetite of Peru, which has 60,000 Chinamen now within its borders, and so eagerly desires more that an agent of the Peruvian Government is visiting San Francisco with inducements to divert Chinese immigration to that country.
REV. A. K. SPENCE, FISK UNIVERSITY.
The occasion of the accompanying lines was this: While President
Hayes’ Peace Policy was being applauded through the land, a young
colored student, on his way to Fisk University, was detained
overnight at a station, as the trains did not make connection. A
hotel was near by, but he could not gain admission. He asked the
privilege of remaining in the depot, but that was not granted; so
he spent the whole night in the open air, pacing up and down to
keep warm and pass the time away.
Ought there not to be in every hotel some comfortable place where
a colored man can get food and shelter?
And others from the east climbed up the zenith’s crest,
And chill winds smote him, shivering in the gloomy night.
Turning his wistful gaze to catch the morning light,
There, wrapped in sleep, on couches soft and warm,
The slumberers dream sweet dreams, nor think of fear or harm.
What has he done, with guilty hand and soul of sin,
That thus he stalks about, nor seeks the cheerful inn?
A tripple sea of gloom, whose waters o’er him roll!
And faith in man and God is low within his breast;
With many a bitter thought his heart is sore oppressed.
Like outlawed villain, stealing from the sight of men,
He crouches down, as if to sleep, nor slumbers then!
Athwart the darkness to his darker soul within,
The tantalizing light comes from the inn!
’Mid cannon’s boom and beat of drum and bugle’s notes,
And banners waved, and flowers were scattered by the fair,
And songs of peace and joy were in the quivering air;
And brothers, long estranged, clasped brothers once again,
And swore eternal peace and equal rights to men—
For him, though wrapped in clean attire, but sable skin,
No hospitable room is offered at the inn!
[75]
Grasp hands of greeting, pour your pæans forth!
And ne’er by brother’s hand may brother’s blood be shed,
With burning towns and trampled fields and mangled dead!
Forget the past, nor let it rankle in your breast;
Rejoice together of one glorious land possessed!
But, oh! forget not him who, not for any sin,
But for the thing God made him, is debarred the inn!
All thanks for thy good words for old fraternity!
Thy name shall be inscribed in gold on history’s page,
And read by countless multitudes from age to age,
If thou shalt teach a people, long in strife and feud,
To dwell in unity and seek each other’s good;
From prejudice of section, creed and race shalt win,
So all of every name and hue shall share the inn!
The night is dark and long, and yet the sun shall shine;
Patience be thine, and God-like charity and love,
And eye of faith and hope that looks to One above.
For scorn give benediction, and for insult prayer;
And go to Bethlehem’s manger, and remember there
Another was like thee, who, sinless, bore our sin!
And there shall yet be room for Christ, and thee, within the inn!
