The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 12, December, 1882

PRESIDENT HAYES’ ADDRESS.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen.—Without preface I proceed at once to state the proposition to which I ask your considerate attention.The friends of popular education believe that the time has fully come when national aid should be given wherever such aid is needed, and to the extent that it is needed, for the free education of all the citizens of the United States.The grave necessity for national aid for education is in the Southern States, and especially for the colored people.But the white people of the South also need it.The people of New Mexico and the other Territories need it.It is not improbable that by reason of immigration from countries where popular education is neglected, some of the new States and some of the large cities may need it.The Indians did need it, but happily the large appropriations recently made for their education—amounting to almost half a million of dollars for the next fiscal year, and the action of the government during the last few years in behalf of their education at Hampton, at Carlisle, in Oregon, at the Indian agencies, and at tribal schools, have at last fully committed the nation to the wise and beneficent policy of fitting the Indians, as far as practicable, and as fast as practicable, for the duties and privileges of American citizenship.

The bills pending in Congress on the subject of national aid for education are of two classes.One class seeks to establish a permanent fund by devoting to the purpose the receipts of the sales of the public lands, or from the taxes on spirituous liquors, or from other specified sources.By the other class of measures the money required is appropriated directly from the public treasury.The measure which perhaps meets with most favor is the latter class.It requires that ten or fifteen millions of dollars a year shall be distributed among the States—each State to have that proportion of this sum which its illiteracy bears to the total illiteracy of the whole country.This appropriation, it is contemplated, will be continued long enough to test the value of the measure, or until the States themselves shall become able to provide for the free education of all citizens.

And now, my friends, what are the grounds upon which these measures are supported?This question opens a wide field of discussion—a field so large that I do not hope to make even a hasty survey of the whole of it in the time limited by the proprieties of this occasion.Fortunately, it is not at all important that I should attempt it.The facts, the figures and the arguments bearing on the subject are all familiar.The embarrassment is that they have been repeated so often and presented so ably that one hesitates to spread them again before such an audience as this.But if the question is asked, why repeat what is already so familiar, the reply is cogent and near at hand.The evil we deplore and wish to remove still remains.In spite of the work of the religious denominations, and of benevolent associations and individuals, the number of ignorant men armed with ballots which control the Nation’s destiny grows larger and larger.Congress hesitates to act, has adopted no remedy, and has not even reached a test vote on the question.This leaves to the friends of free and universal education at the South no recourse, except further agitation.This is the American way to obtain from the government needed reforms. Senators and Representatives have made reports and speeches, which cover the whole ground.Voluminous and valuable writings leave nothing to be desired by the citizen who would conscientiously investigate this question.

There is another testimony in behalf of the right side of this important subject which must not be overlooked.More than seventeen years have passed since the close of the great war which consolidated the Union, gave liberty to the slaves and opened the way for free education at the South.During all of that time a stream of benevolent enterprises and efforts has been poured into the South in aid of this work by the various religious denominations and by missionary and charitable associations.Rich men have been glad to contribute to it generously out of their abundance.Many men and women from humble homes have nobly given their best years—their very lives—in the face of privations, hardships and unparalleled discouragements to uplift an obscure and injured people just released from the house of bondage.The history of these voluntary organizations and voluntary individual efforts is radiant with examples of self-sacrificing devotion in doing the work of the Divine Master, which are at once touching and sublime.If one could enumerate all that has been done, contributed, sacrificed and suffered by associations and individuals for the regeneration of the South, it would go far toward demonstrating to the satisfaction of all fair-minded people that God has given to this generation of the prosperous citizens of the United States a duty and a privilege with respect to their countrymen of both races in the South of unexampled interest to the Nation and to the cause of human freedom throughout the world.

But admirable as their work has been, if we wisely consider the magnitude of the task that remains, we shall begin to apprehend that we have only picked up here and there a few pebbles on the shore, while the great ocean of ignorance stretches vast and untouched before us.

The following statistical tables are only too familiar:

Number of Males in the late Slave-holding States twenty-one Years of age and upward who could not Read and Write in 1870 and 1880:

From these tables it appears that the illiterate voters in each one of the eight Southern States having the largest proportion of emancipated slaves exceed in number the majority of votes ever cast even at the most important elections.In one of these States the ignorant voters constitute an absolute majority of the total voting population of the State.In more than one-third of the Union the ignorant voters are almost one-third of the total number of voters.Most seriously important of all, these tables show that the illiterate voters of the South have increased in the last ten years, from 1870 to 1880, almost two hundred thousand.This increase of ignorant voters in the last decade exceeds the number of votes cast in any one of more than twenty of the States of the Union at the last Presidential election.Adopting a phraseology that was very familiar in the political debates of a generation ago, it may be truly said that ignorance at the ballot box has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.

In the electoral colleges which choose the President, in both Houses of Congress, in all the departments of the national government, ignorance at the South is as efficient for evil—as mischievous and dangerous—as if it was in New England or New York, or here in the Western Reserve.It was settled by the war for the Union beyond recall that the United States constitute one people and have one national life, one interest and one destiny.

Recognizing this to be one of the legitimate results of the war, the people of the Nation by constitutional amendments entered into every State and defined and regulated those vital elements of free government—citizenship and suffrage.In pursuance of these amendments the lately-emancipated slaves by the most solemn expression of the national will became citizens and voters.In the presence of these facts, how can a statesman say that under this Constitution there is no duty and no power to give national aid to fit by education these freedmen for the responsible positions in which the Nation has placed them?

Under the Constitution as it was before these vital amendments were made, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and other great men of the early days of the Republic, whom we are accustomed to call the “Fathers,” by significant and solemn enactments and recommendations fully affirmed the principle that the general government could and ought to give encouragement and aid to the education of the people. They placed in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, as the corner stone of the institutions they wished to build, this article: “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”Under every administration from the origin of the government to the present time, appropriations of money or land for education in the States and Territories have been made by the general government, and it is now too late to question the constitutional power of Congress to make such grants.

The exercise of this authority by Congress is in strict accordance with the distribution of the governmental powers, which is one of the distinguishing features of our American institutions.Whatever in civilized communities individual citizens can do better than any public authority is wisely left to individuals.Whatever local organizations, such as counties, towns and cities, can more efficiently accomplish than individuals, or the State, or national government, belongs to the local authorities.The extensive range of powers which State governments can most beneficially exercise should be confided to the States.The aim of the framers of the national Constitution, and of the people who have amended the original instrument, has been to confer on the national government those supreme powers which would enable it to secure to the people of the United States, “union,” “justice,” “tranquillity,” “the common defense,” “the general welfare,” and “the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity.”

The history of education in this country and in Europe abundantly proves that individuals and communities never have and never can provide universal education.Government alone is adequate to the task.

In the free States, in many cases, after a long and doubtful struggle, it has been settled that the State can and ought to provide free instruction for all its people.In almost all of the late slave-holding States, however, especially in those States in which the number of colored people is large, the efforts made since their reconstruction have conclusively shown that to establish and support an efficient system of free education without aid from the national government, in the existing condition of the South, is simply impossible.The situation of the South is so manifestly exceptional that it is needless to dwell upon it.Slavery and free schools would not dwell together.Slavery did not, could not, tolerate universal education.I do not pause to debate the question, who was responsible for slavery.It is perhaps enough to say that the Union and the Constitution breathed into this Nation the breath of life, and gave to it that glorious history of which we are so proud.To the Union and to the Constitution we are indebted for our present prosperity, power and prestige, and the still more inspiring future which lies before us.The Union and the Constitution, to which we owe all that we are, and have been, and shall be, contained and recognized slavery.All who took part in forming the Union or in framing the Constitution, all who maintained them down to the war which brought emancipation, are in some degree and in some sense responsible for slavery.The only American citizens who are in no way responsible for slavery are the sons of Africa.“They are here by the crimes of our ancestors and the misfortunes of theirs.”And it is especially these colored people who now eagerly and with uplifted hands implore the Nation for that light which education alone can give, and without which they cannot discharge the duties which the Constitution requires by making them citizens and voters.

The slaveholders of the South had their full share of educational facilities.But when the war ended, their impoverishment was more complete and disastrous than ever before befell a wealthy and civilized community.Without capital, without credit, without a labor system, and burdened with debt, they were in no condition to establish free schools.Want of means was not the only difficulty.Neither white nor colored people at the South had any knowledge or experience which would help them in establishing popular education.The colored people were eager to learn.To them education was a badge of freedom.But encumbered with we know not how many centuries of barbarism behind them, and certainly with two or three centuries of bondage, they were utterly helpless to do anything which presupposes knowledge and experience in relation to the complex methods and organizations of social life in highly civilized communities.

We need not dwell on this aspect of the subject.It has plainly come to pass that the whole question of popular education at the South must be considered and dealt with by the great body of the whole people of the Nation.The appeal must be made to the popular judgment, conscience and patriotism.War measures and political measures are no longer required to settle the controversies of the past, or for reconstruction in the South.To finish the work of uplifting the slave, and to fuse into one harmonious whole our lately divided people, we must rely upon the healing influences of time, and upon the forces which religion, business and education can furnish.Of these forces, the government can usefully employ only one.The stream of time will flow on, “The designs of Providence to fulfill.”Religion, depending under God, upon individual conscience and sense of duty, unaided by government, wins its way by the voluntary contributions and efforts of Christian men and women.Business, an agency of vast and unmeasured power in promoting the peaceful progress of mankind, results from a deeply seated and universal principle of human nature—self interest—and will most efficiently do its work when government wisely lets it alone.To complete reconstruction and regeneration in the South, the only force now left to the government is popular education.

Let national aid to this good cause be withheld no longer.Let it be given by wise measures based on sound principles, and carefully guarded.But let it be given promptly, generously and without stint, to the end that the whole American people may be reared up to the full stature of mental and moral manhood required for intelligent self-government under our American institutions.

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT A.D.WHITE.

Fellow Citizens: At that period to which our distinguished chairman has just referred at the close of the late civil war there were presented to this nation a number of great questions, appalling by their magnitude and by the dangers of a wrong decision.Among these I think one was in the hearts of all thinking men foremost: What shall be done with these millions formerly chattels, now citizens, the wards of the nation, the wards of humanity?Two answers were given to that question.Two paths were open to the triumphant nation.The first path laid out before us by many was simply confiscation.It was said: Don’t in Heaven’s name give to this country a great class of agricultural laborers divorced from the soil, with no property in the land upon which they stand, for if you do this you will but have escaped from the black sea of bondage into the red sea of pauperism and of socialism. We were told that right favored such a course. It was declared that these freedmen had a right to the soil which for ages had obtained its only value from the unpaid labor of themselves and of their forefathers for many generations. We were also told that experience favored such a course. We were pointed to Russia, where by the ukase of the despot a vast body of serfs had been set free, and had been endowed from the lands of their former masters. But, thank God, nobler counsels prevailed. The better instincts of the Anglo-Saxon race predominated. May I not say that the rising, the reviving spirit of brotherhood between North and South averted such a catastrophe. Nay, may I not go farther and still more truthfully say that that same hand of the Almighty, which every reverent and thoughtful student of history sees displayed so clearly in the history of our nation from first to last, was never more evident than when we avoided this path to new and deeper wells of bitterness. But on the other hand there was pointed out another path—a path chosen by devoted women, by earnest men, and that path was simply education. It led us at first, no doubt, through thickets of dislike; it led over chasms of hatred; nay, still worse, it led through vast deserts of indifference—but at last it became better and broader. It became better footing; it became more and more paved with the noble deeds of self-sacrificing men and women. It became more and more shaded by noble growths of human self-sacrifice until all could see it as the appointed highway and a better and nobler future for the whole nation.

My distinguished friend who has preceded me has looked at this question from a lofty point of view—the point of view of a statesman—the point of view of one who has been able to survey this and the other questions which naturally connect themselves with it over this entire nation from the highest seat which any loyal son of this Republic recognizes—the Chief Magistracy of the United States.May I be permitted to survey it from a much humbler elevation—from that of a simple instructor of young men, whose duty for years has been to show to young men, and, indeed, I am happy now to say, young women also—to show to them the indications in human history of the great hand of God leading humanity on through all that blooms and decays, through all that struggles and suffers, through all that falters or stands fast, to the great goal which Divine Providence has appointed.And in that view and from that point I do not hesitate to reiterate the assertion that in all our history there is no greater proof of a Divine intelligence which takes an interest in the affairs of this world than in that Heaven-inspired choice of the path of education rather than the path of confiscation.

You will remember, doubtless, fellow citizens, that prophecy of Thomas Jefferson—the greatest political genius whom our country has yet seen—that prophecy which used to ring in the hearts of some of us before the civil war, even into the watches of the night—that famous prophecy which seems to have come from Divine inspiration, beginning with those terrible words: “I tremble when I remember that God is just.”Had Thomas Jefferson foreseen the fulfillment of his prophecy he would have been blasted with horror at the sight of the wrath of the Almighty poured forth over this land, North and South, for, as has so well been observed, whatever sin there was, rested at the doors of the North as at the doors of the South.But had that great political genius looked over and beyond this out-pouring of God’s wrath, he would have seen an out-pouring of mercy which would have led him to kneel humbly in adoration at the blessings lavished upon the future nation.He would have seen the nation welded together into one homogeneous whole as never before.He would have seen prosperity revived as it had never been dreamed of by the most sanguine.He would have seen an enlightenment and civilization taking their roots, which he, with all his optimism, never dared dream of.

But, fellow-citizens, what is the especial question which confronts us at this moment?It has been most ably presented by the eminent gentleman who has just spoken, but you will permit a few words more upon some aspects of it which especially strike me.The question simply is, how shall this path which heaven has indicated to us, how shall this path of education be broadened into a great highway worthy of the nation, sure to bring it to a worthy future?Now, there are various agencies which will co-operate in this great work.The first to which I will allude is the munificence of public-spirited and devoted men and women.There seems to be no limit to that.The scene which some of us witnessed this morning, the giving over of an immense sum to the endowment of a college in this city, is but the token of a vast outpouring of munificence for advanced education such as this world never saw before.There is to be—mark the prophecy, fellow-citizens—great as has been the outpouring of wealth heretofore, and the statistics show in ten years, gifts to the amount of $60,000,000, we are told; there is to be in this time of revived prosperity an outpouring of wealth far greater, to which all this which we have seen is as nothing.That will go to build up the high schools and academies, the technical schools, the colleges, the universities, perhaps.We can rely on that.But there is another agency.All this mass of education must be permeated, must be informed by the spirit of morality, which is bedded in religion.That can only come from the great Christian sentiment of this country as voiced in the Christian Church, and if the Christian Church shall rise to the height of the great argument, if she shall recognize her great mission, and there are plentiful signs—many of them have been vouchsafed here within the last three days—there are plentiful signs that she is to do this; if she shall stand forth in the panoply of her Master, if she shall catch the spirit of the sermon on the mount, of the first great commandment and the second which is like unto it, of that definition of pure religion and undefiled, as given by St.James, all this mass of education can be permeated, can be informed by morality based upon religion.We hear alarm expressed in various quarters at new phases of thought, at what many, not understanding, have called the dangers of infidelity.Fellow citizens, there is never any danger of infidelity in any land where the Christian Church puts herself at the head of the great forces for right and justice and enlightenment acting upon the civilization of that country.Danger comes as it came in France, when the church forgot its mission and sided with despotism.Danger comes as it came in England two centuries ago and less when the church sided with a besotted monarchy and aristocracy.Danger comes as it came not so many years ago in our own country when the church was led, in some places at least, to make apologies for human slavery; but when she arrays herself at the head of great movements like this, and insists on doing works of self-sacrifice, of mercy, of justice, of right, tell me not of any fears of infidelity.Then I am sure will come the noblest and the grandest triumphs of Christianity.But is this sufficient?My friend has already shown you that it is not.Great as this outpouring of munificence has been and is to be, it requires even more than that for the great base part, the fundamental part of the work, and that is the work of bringing about a state of things under which every child, white and black, shall be educated suitably to his or her duties.How shall this be done?Can it be done by private munificence, great as it is?I say no.The State of New York alone pays for primary education, common school education, every year, more than ten millions of dollars.We cannot expect this steady outpouring for this fundamental part of the system. As my friend has so ably shown, that can only be undertaken by humanity organized by States, and by the Nation. Can the States do it alone? Again I say no. It must be done by the Nation acting in concert with the States. The Nation must plant in every State which has not an educational system now, or which has not an adequate educational system, a nucleus of a system around which State endeavors may crystallize, which shall encourage these Southern States which have been so discouraged, which have been, as my distinguished friend has shown, so trodden down—so broken down I will say, not trodden down—so broken down by the events of the last twenty years. Now, how shall this be accomplished? There are two ways. The first is by direct appropriation. That has already been discussed before you. Fellow citizens, if it were to take twice or thrice the sum named it would not be felt by any tax-payer in this land. It would deprive not one man, woman or child in all this national domain of one single comfort. But suppose we cannot get Congress up to the mark of making an appropriation in money. There is another method. It was a method advocated perhaps more than fifty years ago, by that sainted friend of right and humanity, William Ellery Channing. That was the consecration—that was his word, and it was a most happy word—the consecration of the national domain, all of it that has not been given since by the homestead act and by various other acts for the promotion of various commercial enterprises, the consecration of the proceeds of the sales of the national domain, sacredly, to a fund for the education of the whole people to their great duties and their great destiny.

It seems to me that this movement can still be pressed.Congress can still be made to see that something must be done by the Government of the United States to open up this great path of education in the interest of the entire nation; but, fellow citizens, I am aware that some objections are made.Let me refer to them very briefly.The first is what may be called a political objection.It is said, leave this matter to time, leave it to the people, leave it to take care of itself.I have always noticed that when a political man wants to evade a question, wants to evade any trouble in the matter, he always says leave it to time, leave it to the natural forces, leave it to itself.Now, in addition to the argument that has already been so ably presented to you, let me say that the greatest apostle of the “laissez faire” system, the system under which everything is to be left to the natural course, John Stuart Mill, has expressly and in terms made an exception as regards popular education.This, he says, must be dealt with by organized humanity.This must be planned and carried out by the comparatively small number of men who see at the first the importance of it, and by that vast force which government alone can exercise.My friends, if it is left to time and chance, what is likely to follow?You can see as well as I.There comes first indifference.The great population concerned sinks back first into indifference and then into a sort of complacency, and finally into self-congratulation that somehow they are better than communities that are educated.There is nobody after all quite so conceited, I think you will find that the world over, as the man who is ignorant.He sees that educated men make certain mistakes.He makes no such.Therefore, he at last arrives at the point, he very often does, and especially when his ignorance is shared by a great population, that somehow he is superior to those who are educated.Then comes the greatest of all dangers.Then comes the danger of despotism, the despotism of an unenlightened mob of millions; and of all despotisms, fellow citizens, this, all history proves, is the very worst.Give me an autocrat, give me a despot the worst in history, and I will take him cheerfully rather than that many-headed despot, an unenlightened, uneducated democracy. Ah! my friends, you can make one despot see that his interest lies in the interest of his country. You can bring home to a single despot a sense of shame, a sense of honor, a sense of responsibility. You can never bring that home to a mob. It was said that the old Bourbon despotism of France was a despotism tempered by epigrams; but what wit, what wisdom shall temper a mob of uneducated millions, extending over thousands and thousands of square miles of territory. There is also a not often stated, generally unavowed, but none the less strong on that account, there is what may be called a social objection. It is freely avowed in Europe; I have often heard it. It is sometimes sneakingly avowed in our own country, and that is this: Is it not after all better that this lower class should not know much? Is it not much better to keep it so that it will feel its dependence on the upper class? My friends, of all mistakes all history proves that is the most fatal, for when you pursue that policy which seems so easy at first you find that you have at last divided a nation into two strata—the upper a thin stratum of pride and arrogance sustained by terrorism, the lower a thick stratum of class ignorance which may at any moment be inflamed by fanaticism or exploded by unrest. No, fellow citizens, the only course is so to educate the whole mass that it will see that its interest is on the side of law and order, so that it will be able to understand the simple presentation of rudimentary political truths.

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

President of Emory College, Oxford, GA.

Mr. President: I never saw the day since Christ converted me that my heart did not warm toward any good cause that, in its plans and efforts, took in the whole human race.This American Missionary Association represents such a cause, and I am grateful for the privilege of taking some small part in this anniversary meeting.And I am the more glad because this meeting is held in the city where Garfield, our President, awaits the resurrection of the just.President Hayes did good work for the South, for which history will give him due credit.It was this: he let the South alone that the storm-rocked sea might calm itself.President Garfield—living, dying, and dead—awoke within the hearts of the masses of the Southern people the throbs of a profounder national sentiment than they had felt in twenty years.

It is becoming that I speak this evening of that part of your work which I understand best, your work in the Southern States; and of that part of it which I know best, your work for the negroes.Any work of importance, as to its extent, methods, or designs, done among the negroes must arouse interest in all thinking minds.The negro has been in America 260 years; there are not far from 7,000,000 of them here to-day; nearly all of them are in the Southern States.At the close of our war for independence there were in the United States about 700,000 negroes.Within a century they have multiplied ten times.How many will they be by 1982?To speak in round numbers, the increase of the total population of this country from 1870 to 1880, as the last census shows was 30 per cent; the increase of the white population, aided largely as it was by immigration, was 28 per cent.; the increase of the negro population, unaided by immigration, was 34 per cent.It is only very foolish people who can be indifferent to such facts; thoughtful men will consider them.

Visionaries and cranks may dream and declaim of solving the problem of our future and theirs by getting them somehow out of this country.But, if it were desirable or practicable to transport them, they are born faster than whole navies can move them, and it is as undesirable as it is impracticable. They are here to stay, and so far as men can see, for the most part where they now are, in the Southern States of this Union.

They are now nearly one-seventh of our population, and by the providence of God they are free men and voters.The time has about passed, Mr. President, for the North to please itself with eloquent speech concerning their emancipation and for the South to fret itself with fervent denunciation concerning their enfranchisement.It were wiser and more profitable for the people of both sections to accept the facts of a difficult question, to discuss the issues of 1882, and in a business like way, to do our best to make the most of them.As to the now dominant sentiment in the South, nobody who has good sense wants them back in slavery, and the South, you may depend upon it, will never consent for the ballot to be taken from them.

Everybody knows that when they received the ballot en masse they were utterly unprepared for it. As a class they had just three ideas concerning the ballot when it was given to them. First. They looked upon it as a symbol of their freedom; this, I believe did them good. Second. They received it as a special mark of the love borne to them by the people of the North; this made them vain of it, and alienated them from their white neighbors. Third. Their predominant notion was that it was given them to “keep the old rebels down;” this spoiled them for fair-minded politics. But as a class they lacked conscience in the use of it.

You will pardon a single illustration of their capacity for enlightened politics.For nearly eight years I have had in my employment a colored man, Daniel Martin by name.He is about my own age.I trust him fully in all matters for which he has capacity.We are much attached to each other, and, the truth is, we have been taking care of each other for a good while.He gets better wages than ordinary colored men in our community, and is much above the average of his race in character and common sense.He can read “coarse print,” and can sign his name imperfectly.You will miss the point of my illustration unless you bear in mind that he had steadily voted the Republican ticket from the beginning of his citizenship to the date of my story.And he so votes till this day.The day before the Hayes and Tilden election he was plowing in a little field near my house.One of our students quizzed him about his views and intentions: “How are you going to vote to-morrow, Uncle Daniel?”It is a peculiarity of the Southern negro that he never delivers a solemn judgment on any subject without coming to a full halt in whatever engages him.One consequence is, he comes to a great many halts in his work.Another peculiarity of at least the Southern negro is, that he thinks in metaphor and speaks in parables.So Daniel, stopping his horse and sticking his plow deeper into the ground, delivered himself as follows: “Now, Mr. Longstreet, you see I is plowin dis furrow.If I only plow dis furrow I makes dis furrow too deep and I don’t plow de balance of de patch.”Mr. Longstreet admitted the force of the statement.Daniel continued in answer to the young man’s question: “I think things is ben gwine on in one way long enough; I think dere ought to be a change.Wherefore I is gwine to vote for Mr. Hayes to-morrow—git up, Bill.”

Next day he and I went to our county town; he voted for Hayes that there might be a change; I voted for Tilden that there might be a change; he killed my vote—or possibly one of yours—and we were “equal before the law.”

But few of them are now prepared to vote intelligently, and ballots, whether cast by fair or dark hands, in the hands of ignorance are dangerous to free institutions.Are not you of the North nearly as much concerned in the quality of the negro’s ballot as we of the South are? Till recently, they voted “solid” for the Republican ticket. A few weeks ago, in Georgia, the majority of them voted for an ex-Confederate Brigadier General, who fought bravely at the first Manassas, and who ran for Governor as an Independent Democrat, receiving, however, the whole Republican vote; and thousands of them voted for the nominee of the Democratic party, the ex-Vice-President of the Confederacy. No white man running for any office in the South will refuse their votes, and, so far as I know, their votes are always sought when there is any chance to get them. I am not sure but that his ignorance makes him more dangerous as a voter when both parties seek his vote than when it is given solid to one. In your work in the South, Mr. President, I rejoice, for many reasons. The reason I now mention is this: That work is helping to prepare the negro for his duties as a citizen. I can well understand how the best and wisest people in the North feel most deeply and solemnly their obligation to do this work. For you gave him the ballot, and history will not justify that gift unless you do all that you can do to prepare him for its intelligent use. Not now, nor during the next generation, can the South do this work alone. Unless you continue to help, and to help mightily, it cannot be done. As to primary education, many in the South—and I, for one, agree with them—believe with our Senator Brown, of Georgia, that the national government should come to the rescue and help the States in this work—distributing its aid on the basis of illiteracy. This would give the South a large share of “appropriations under the old flag.” What if it does? The South is part of you, and you are part of the South—if this is a Union and a Nation. Slowly but surely, as it seems to me, we are beginning to understand our relations to each other. Some day we will, it is to be hoped, understand one another so well and agree so amicably that the phrases “the North” and “the South” shall have only geographical meaning. President Arthur, many thanks to him for this, made no allusion to “the South” in his first message to Congress.

If the general government gives this needed help, it will be in the interest of the whole country, although the Southern States may get, for once, the lion’s share.For we are a large part of this country; we are in the Union and intend to stay there—if we have to whip somebody in order to do it.But, in the nature of things, this sort of help must be temporary, and, as I suppose, should, like the educational work of the State governments, be carried on, for the most part, in the common schools.The thing that must be done, if our work is to stand, is to train up among the negroes, as well as among the whites, men and women who can teach the children of their race—teach them in homes, in school-houses and in churches.This cannot be done by the State as it should be done.For if, as one has said, the “negroes need educated Christianity,” it is also true that they must have Christianized education in order to get it.This the State does not and cannot give.To achieve this most desirable and necessary result the school-house and the church must work together.There must be Bibles in the schools that are to train teachers among this people, and there must be Christian men and women in them who both teach and practice religion.

This, as it appears to me, is what you and others like you are trying to do for the negroes.Your annual reports show that your Association is doing successfully, and on a very broad scale, this most necessary work.I do not particularize; your Secretaries have covered all that ground.

You are raising up in these schools men and women who, in the years to come, can, will and must teach the children of their people.Hundreds of them are doing it now.I say must; for Christianized education must, by its instinctive and divine impulses, perpetuate itself and diffuse itself.Christian education, whether in Christian or heathen lands, is the most aggressive and formative influence that is now shaping the destiny of the human race. When you send out from Nashville, from Berea, from Atlanta and New Orleans young men and women who are both educated and religious, you send into the very masses of these untaught millions those who must teach what they have learned both from books and from Christ. Again I say must, for the spirit that is in an educated Christian man or woman is, as the old Methodist preacher used to say, “a fire in the bones,” and it will blaze out.

The author of the Declaration of Independence wrote, it is said, in 1782, this prediction: “Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government.”

It does not surprise me that Mr. Jefferson made both of these predictions.As to the first, there was at that time in Virginia and other Southern States a strong party that favored the emancipation of the slaves.As to the second prediction, he had studied French philosophy more than he had studied Christianity.If this country were pagan Rome, or infidel France, the first prediction would have failed—they would not have been set free by the will of men.Had they been set free, the second prediction would have been fulfilled, for in a pagan or infidel country, the two races could not be equally free “and live in the same government.”They would not have been set free had this not been a Christian country; as it is a Christian country, the two races, equally free before the law, can live in the same government and the problem of their citizenship can be solved.

But this problem cannot be solved by legislation alone.Time has proved the truth of the weighty words delivered at your anniversary in 1875, by that venerable and great man who was taken to heaven last winter.At that time the Rev.Dr. Leonard Bacon wrote these words: “I come to this conclusion, legislation on the part of the national government is no longer to be invoked in aid of fundamental reconstruction.Attempts by Congress to employ force for the abolition of prejudices and antipathies in social intercourse do not help the cause in which the American Missionary Association is at work.I used the word force, because law enforced is force, and law not enforced is not law.The more completely our cause can be henceforth disentangled from all connection with political parties and agitators, the better for its progress.Doubtless there will be more legislation by the several States, especially in behalf of the great interest of public schools for all, before the consummation that we hope for shall have been attained; but the legislation, must be the effect and not the cause of that fundamental reconstruction which we desire to work for.It will exhibit and record, more than it can inspire or control, the progress of reformed opinions and better sentiments among the people.”

When the law gives equal opportunity and guarantees equal rights to all (and this it must do to be worthy of respect), it has done all it can do.Foundation work means character-building, and this goes on in individuals.Law has its educative force; but to lift up a race whether white, yellow, black, or red, there must be character-building in individual men and women, and to do this work right we must have the church and the school-house.And these two must work together and not against each other.This sort of foundation work you are trying to do and others are trying to do.It has not failed; it cannot fail; it has life in itself.

Mr. Jefferson’s second prediction will fail—it is failing now.These two races are both equally free, and they are living together in the same government with less and less difficulty and misunderstanding each year.Disturbances here and there, conflicts, acts of violence there have been, there are, and there will be for a time.The wonder is not that there was a period of disorder in the Southern States after the war. The true wonder is that there is now so little of it, and that between 1865 and 1870 the South did not rush into final and utter chaos. There was never in any country such a state of things—so provocative of universal and remediless anarchy. What is it that saved us? Not the troops; not acts of Congress. Christian schools and the church of God. It was the Protestant religion that dominated the majority—both of the negroes and the Southern white people. I grant you that the conservative influences that the churches in the South brought out of the war have been greatly aided by the work done by your society and others like it; but it is also true that, but for the work the church in the South did before your coming, you could have done next to nothing, by this time, in the experiment. As to this whole subject, full of difficulties as those know best who have personal relations to it, there is just one platform on which Christian people can stand. Our problem with these millions of negroes in our midst can be happily solved—not by force of any sort from without the States where they live; no more can it be solved by repression within those States. It can be worked out only on the basis of the Ten Commandments and of the Sermon on the Mount. On this platform we can work out any problem whatsoever—whether personal, social, political, national or ethnical—that Providence brings before us. On any lower or narrower platform we will fail, and always fail. We have learned—you of the North and we of the South—many things in the last ten years. Among other valuable discoveries, we have learned that the people of neither section are either all good or bad. As to this race question, we of the South have learned, and we are learning, that we can’t manage our problem by any mere repressive system; you have learned, and are learning, that it can’t be solved by any sort of force from without, whether force of law, force of troops, or force of denunciation. Such knowledge is precious; alas! that it cost us so much.

May I quote at this place one other paragraph from the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon?It is at the close of a letter dated “New Haven, October 22, 1875,” and is in these words: “May I be allowed to say one word concerning the future of this society?That word is conciliation—conciliation by meekness, by love, by patient continuance in well-doing.The field is wide open for schools and for the preaching of the Gospel, two great forces operating as one for fundamental reconstruction.In both these lines of effort the work of the society must be more and more a work of conciliation—conciliation of the South to the North and to the restored and beneficent Union; conciliation of races to each other, white to black and black to white; conciliation of contending sects oppressed with traditional bigotries to the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus.”Thomas Jefferson was not a prophet: Leonard Bacon was.And, thank God!so much has been done by this Association to incarnate the truth that was in his great thoughts and to fulfill his hopes and predictions as to its own future.But this work of “fundamental reconstruction” is a slow process, suggests the impatient one.That is true; character-building, whether in a man or in a nation or in a race, is always a slow process.And it must be slower in a nation or in a race than in a man.There was never any great work done in the uplifting or training of a race in a day or in a year.It takes generations.How slowly our own race has risen out of its original savagery; how unfit we still are to fulfill our mission to the world.We have small cause for boasting when white men’s votes—sometimes enough of them to turn the scale in great elections—can be bought cheap in the open streets.Lifting up a nation or a race is a slow process; wherefore the greatest necessity for zeal, for wisdom, and for patience in our work.Whenever a great and necessary work that requires a long time and much labor is to be done, we should begin at once and do our best.

You find more sympathy and more of the spirit of co-operation among Southern people than you found ten years ago.I rejoice in this change of feeling in the South, and it is easy to understand it.Time, the healer, has done his blessed work.Grace has overcome, and the grave has buried much of bitter feeling on both sides.You have learned your work better, and we have learned more perfectly its value.A good deal of your work I have seen; I believe it is good.I have looked into your school methods; they are yielding happy results.I have considered “examination papers” from some of your schools; they would have done credit to any school for any race.I have listened to speeches and essays from colored youth at your commencements; there was the evidence of sound culture and true religion in them.When I heard them I “thanked God and took courage.”

It is often asked, “Why don’t the South do more in this work of educating and lifting up the negroes?”Sometimes the question has been asked angrily—perhaps because ignorantly.

I believe the South can do more than it is doing—certainly more than it has done.But I think it likely that we have done as much as any other people in like circumstances would have done.History does not record of any people such vast, rapid and radical changes of opinion and sentiment on subjects that had been fiercely fought over on hundreds of bloody fields, as has taken place in the South during the last fifteen years on the questions that grow out of the negro’s emancipation and enfranchisement.But the Southern States have done more than most people suppose.There are nearly one million negro children in our public schools in the South.

In speaking of what the South has done and has not done in the work of educating the negroes, let it be remembered that the white people of the South have not been on beds of roses since 1865.The war and its consequences made the South poor beyond conception by those who have not had our experience.It left the North rich.The majority of our people have had a sharp struggle to live; most of them have been unable to educate their own children.

Let me tell you of a man I talked with last summer.I went with my family and a little party on what we might call a camp-fishing expedition.As we approached the place where we proposed to spend a few days in recreation, my attention was attracted by a white woman pulling fodder in a little field near a cabin.That night her husband came to our camp, offering such welcome as he could.We had a long talk together.He had been a Confederate soldier, and he had on his body the marks of seven bullet wounds.He never owned a slave, he had fought for what he had been taught to believe were the rights of the States.He is a laborer on the farm of the man who owned the land where he lived.He gets $140 a year, cabin rent, a few acres tended by his wife and little girls, and the privilege of his winter wood.He said his employer is one of the kindest of men, and does for him all he can do.The landlord himself has small margins of profit.The poor fellow has five children, the eldest a bright girl, aged fourteen.She looked dwarfed and older than her years; she had been nurse and drudge for the little ones.These children came to our camp by invitation, and the oldest promised to come one afternoon and show my own children how to fish.I had my heart set on her coming; I wanted my children to know more about such people.She did not come at the time appointed, but that night she came to tell us why.Her cotton dress was wet with the dew and her little hands were fodder-stained.She said to me: “I am sorry I could not come; mother and I had so much fodder to take up that we have just got through.”This child and I had much talk together.I asked her: “Daughter, can you read?”Her face brightened as she said: “Yes, sir; a little.” “Can you write?” The brown eyes sought the ground as she answered: “No, sir.” “If I will send you some books, will you try to teach your little sisters to read?” The glad look in her eyes I shall never forget, as she answered: “Yes, sir; I will try.” We sent her a good supply and it made them all glad. They are not beggars; the father would not take money for a fine bunch of fish he sent, with his compliments, to my wife, and when he found that we had left some money for little services by the children he flushed and could hardly be persuaded to let them keep it.

Some people call these “white trash.”I declare to you I never heard a Southern white man or woman use the expression in speaking of such persons.

Mr. President, there are tens of thousands of white people in the South as poor as my friend of the fishing camp.If you can help them, in Christ’s name do it.

As to our higher schools, some of our best colleges have died since 1865; others are dying now.Such a death is a loss, not to the South only, but to the whole country.Yours have grown rich.I do not envy you; I rejoice in your strong and well-furnished institutions.But you should be patient toward us, and, I am not ashamed to say, you should help us as God gives you opportunity.Men and brethren, it is time to have done with 1860–65.Said a Brooklyn man to me last year who, unsolicited, had helped two Southern schools: “I think my friends here approve what I have done; but if any should ask, ‘Why did you not give this money to your own people?’my answer is: ‘They also are my people—we are one people.’” On that platform we can become a Christian nation strong enough to bless the world.

Northern money has done much to “develop the South” during the last decade in pushing railroads and other great industrial enterprises.It is all welcome, and ten times as much.But I do not question that each $100 invested in Christian education in the South since the war has done more to develop it in every best sense than each $1,000 placed in railroads and factories.But enough on these lines of thought.

I must say a word or two as to the relations of your work to Africa.The first atlas I ever saw made a desert of sand cover all the wonderful lands that Livingstone, Stanley, and others have discovered, and they printed across the map of Africa 28,000,000, with an interrogation point to indicate a guess as to the population.Now we are studying the maps of interior Africa, and they tell us of great nations and a population that may reach 200,000,000!Can any man who believes in the Bible, or in God, doubt for one moment that Providence is in the history of the negroes in the United States?Can we doubt that these millions of negroes, now committed to us as the wards of the Christian church, must, some day, attempt and accomplish the evangelization of Africa?

I rejoice that your Association has its eye and heart upon Africa.I saw two photographs in the chapel of Fisk University last May that stirred my soul; they were the faces of two missionaries who had gone from that great Christian school to Africa.One Sunday evening I preached in the chapel.A youth from your Mendi Mission, a native of Africa, getting ready to be a missionary, sang for us in his home language a familiar Sunday-school song, “I Have a Father in the Promised Land.”Some day they will be singing Christian songs in every village of the Dark Continent.How the thought of the Divine fatherhood and of the brotherhood of the eternal Son has changed Europe and made America.Some day these thoughts will change Africa.What we call civilization can’t do it; the gospel of Jesus Christ can.The Christian negroes are getting ready for their work, and you and others working in the same fields, are helping them to get ready.The missionary fire is beginning to burn in their hearts.When they go forth, bearing the sacred symbol of our Lord’s love to men, every Christian man and woman in our land should help them. That movement—and it is coming—will, at no distant day give your colonization and missionary societies all they can do. Was there ever a greater need or a more hopeful field, a greater duty or a brighter promise of success? Mr. President, you may be sure that from thousands of Christian hearts all over the South the prayer goes up, “God bless the work of the American Missionary Association, with all others who are preaching the gospel to the poor.”

FROM ADDRESS OF GENERAL CLINTON B.FISK.

The American Missionary Association is one of those societies that has long been near my heart, having a large place in it.From its very beginning I watched its growth, but had no idea in the years before that I should ever have such intimate relations with it.Being in the South at the close of the war with the care of two or three millions of colored people thrown on my hands, I naturally looked about to see what was being done for schools and what for Christian culture.I found the American Missionary Association on the skirmish line.They were gathering up the broken fetters of the slaves, selling them for old iron and putting the money into spelling-books and Bibles, building school-houses and sending self-sacrificing, earnest Christian men and women to the South to teach these people; and I naturally fell very much in love with them.

I got a letter a day or two since.It was written by the Mayor of one of the chief cities of the South to myself.I picked this out of a large bundle of correspondence of the same sort.He addresses me and says: “You will doubtless be surprised at receiving a letter from me.In 1865 I was Mayor of this city, which position I now occupy.In that memorable year 1865, through your instrumentality and by order of Major-General George H.Thomas, I was suspended from office.But that is a matter of the past, and for one I favor letting ‘bygones be bygones.’The charge against me was using my official position for the oppression of the colored people and opposing their education.However true that might have been at the time, certainly such a charge cannot be made against me now.Immediately after the close of the war and upon the restoration of civil law, I was chosen one of the School Commissioners of this district, and gave active aid, amidst much opposition, in the establishment of Public Schools.I have labored earnestly in the cause ever since, and I am proud to inform you that my efforts have in a measure been crowned with success.We have now a splendid school system and a magnificent school building for the whites.We wish now to do as much for the colored people.There is much opposition in every locality in the city to the establishment of a colored school in their midst.Yet, notwithstanding this opposition, I have proffered to sell a lot of my own for the purpose on very reasonable terms.”

Now, that is a great change to come about in seventeen years.So I simply sat down and wrote him a letter which he could use as “substance of doctrine.”I said: “My dear Mr. Mayor, go on to perfection.Do the same thing for the colored people you do for the white people, and blot ‘colored’ and ‘white’ out of your memory.Make a school for the children.It is not easy to send them to the same school; I know all about that.”The colored boy is perhaps more opposed to associating with the white boy in the school than the white boy is to associating with the colored boy.It takes a long time to overcome those strong prejudices on the part of the colored people.

Just after the establishment of Fisk school, which commenced in such a halo of glory under the auspices of this Association, there came into my headquarters in Nashville an old Irish woman, bringing her two little boys with her, and she said, “Misther Gineral Fisk, ’ave you heny hobjection to my sinding these little chaps to your nigger school?” I said, “Not at all, if the ‘niggers’ haven’t any objection.” But it will take a long time before they will drift into one school. I am glad that all of ours are open. How singular it would look to write over the portals of all our schools in the South, “White children admitted here!” Let us do all we can for the education of both races. That particular class to which my friend Haygood made such admirable reference, those poor white people of the South, appeals to us as scarcely any other interest in the South does to-day. Let us remember them. I am glad, sir [addressing Dr. Haygood], that you are going to be in a position to help a great many colored young men and women to become teachers.

Now, my friend Dr. Haygood is a wonderfully modest sort of a man.They chose him only a few weeks ago to be a bishop in his church.And they did a good thing.Nearly all that great conference of Southern Methodists voted for this man to take the highest place in their church, notwithstanding all his grand utterances, his earnest words, on many a Northern platform.They indorsed him and said, “Come up higher!”He took over night to think about it, and wrote them a letter declining to take such place as that.He said, “God has called me to be an educator, and an educator I will be.”To a man who turns his back upon a bishopric of the church and then accepts the Secretaryship of a fund to promote the education of the colored people, we can all give the right hand of fellowship.Now, let us all go out of this meeting with a new covenant of love and service for the Master.

It has well been said that the world itself is a musical instrument not yet fully strung; but when every coast shall be peopled by the lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ; when every mountain barrier shall be overcome; when every abyss shall be spanned, for the uninterrupted progress of the King’s highway of holiness, and the people of the earth shall flock together, as in the prophetic vision, to the mountain of the Lord’s house; then this world shall give its sound in harmony with the infinite intelligence, and angels and men shall shout together, “Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.”Between that glad day and us there are years of toil and travail.But there shall come the triumph.Truth is marching on, steadily—slowly, sometimes, through the centuries, but ever marching on, as resistless as the tides, whose each succeeding billow washes further up the sands.It may be

Let us go forth, with our faces to the stars, and do something each day of our lives to bring the world nearer to Christ, who died for it.

FROM ADDRESS OF REV.A.J.F.BEHRENDS, D.D.

There are a few themes so great, so charged with living importance, that an earnest man never wearies of their study.Like the rays of the sun, they are invested with perpetual freshness and force.Of these themes, the very greatest is the conquest of the world to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel and by the power of the Holy Ghost. But foreign missionary societies, whose special aim it is to carry the Gospel of Christ to the millions of heathenism, are not the exclusive guardians of this great trust. They are the advance guard of the army of conquest, clearing the way and widening the field, but their very presence as the scouts and scattered outposts of Christianity proclaims the presence of a greater army of occupation, pressing close upon their leadership. Back of your foreign work is that of home missions, the religious care of the ignorant, vicious, and neglected within our own borders; back of home missions is the manly culture of our professedly Christian constituency, the care and compact handling of our local churches; back of your local church life and work are those of your separate homes—influences secret, subtle, but all-pervasive, for in the Christian homes are the primary historic sources of all great inspirations and achievements, both for personal character and for social improvement. Far out on the world’s great battle-field, separated from each other by many a league, are the pickets of the army of the Lord; its great and growing supports are in the Christian nations, the Christian churches, the Christian homes.

Reinforcements at any point of the long line must increase the efficiency of the entire body.But the law of solid progress must be from the home, as the training school of personal devotion, through the church and the nation, to the broad world.I am afraid that we have not fairly estimated the importance of the third factor in the solution of the complicated problem of the world’s Christianization.We are not lacking in an appreciation of the value of domestic piety.We are not blind to the evangelistic vocation of the church, though the energetic revival of this conviction may be said to date from the close of the last century, and it has as yet only partially leavened the great body of nominal Christendom.But we are even farther from having mastered the thought that nations are born of a divine purpose, and summoned to missionary service.

God is marching on, not simply for the salvation of individual souls, and their preparation for a future heaven, but for the moral regeneration of nations, and the conversion of the world into a kingdom of righteousness and love.In this great task nations will yet be called to take an active part.Having ceased to be obstructive, having passed beyond the line of moral indifference, they are yet to prove themselves to be among the mightiest of positive forces for the world’s regeneration.And I confess that I have wholly misread the signs of the times if the Anglo-Saxon nationalities are not summoned and destined to bear a conspicuous part in the future of the world’s moral history.For you and for me there can be no call of greater urgency than that this youngest of the nations of the world, in which we are proud to claim our citizenship, whose birth is the marvel of history, whose development is the amazement of our time, whose guidance and discipline seem as clearly providential as were those of ancient Israel, shall be Christian, in order to the assimilation of all the heterogeneous elements of our population, and the consequent use of our united forces for the good of the race.No duty crowds us more closely than that we prove ourselves worthy of our ancestry, equal to our opportunities, building up on this new continent a compact commonwealth, whose glory it shall be that its streams of beneficence gladden all lands and enrich all peoples.

We cannot render the most effective Christian service to the world until we ourselves have become thoroughly leavened with the spirit of the Gospel, and any plan involving the Christianization of the American people must provide for the solution of that great problem with which this Association deals.You have not succeeded in making the white man the Christian he ought to be until he and the black man can clasp hands in the brotherhood of Christ.National unity must remain incomplete until all antagonisms have vanished, and the reconciliation is complete; and our moral influence on the world cannot be what it may be and ought to be until we have amicably and finally settled our domestic difficulties. American patriotism and Christian philanthropy—these are the two great considerations by which the work of the American Missionary Association appeals to the prayerful and practical sympathies of the Christian public.

RELATION OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION TO CIVILIZATION.

BY REV.F.L.KENYON.

There are two civilizations in this nineteenth century that are striving for the mastery.They differ in their source; the one is from heaven, the other from earth.They differ in their objects.The one has for its object the elevation of the animal in man to the supreme place.The other has for its object the elevation of the intellectual and moral and spiritual in man to the dominant place.They differ also in their supports and instrumentalities.The superstructure of the one rests upon ignorance and vice.The other rests upon and is built up by and through the school, the church, and the home.Thus it will be seen that the higher civilization has a triangular foundation, and when we remember that the triangle represents the highest perfection, we may get a hint at least that this must be the final civilization.The school, where the mighty power of a true education dispels and destroys the threatening illiteracy of the world.The church, where the wonderful transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ incarnates itself in true manhood and womanhood.The home, where the love principle is dominant and all controlling.

The higher civilization, which is to be the ultimate civilization for humanity, must include within its bounds, as constituent factors, every portion of the human race.The defect of previous civilizations was in their omitting one or more of these great and necessary factors.

The first of these is the idea of God.And this, first, as a personal God.This is necessary so as to make God accessible to us.In the second place, the true idea of God must include righteousness.He must be a righteous God.This involves the ideas of justice and law, without which no civilization can be perfect.Eliminate these qualities from civilization and in the place of government will come anarchy, which always and naturally produces destruction.In the third place, the true idea of God includes the fact that he is a loving God.The Johannean conception on this line is the ultimate of all conceptions, viz.: God is love.It is very clear that the final civilization must have this idea of God in all the breadth which I have simply outlined.

The second great idea is the “equality of man,” an equality not of conditions but of rights.Equality before God’s law and love, before human law and institutions.From this equality of man comes the great doctrine of freedom for all.Slavery cannot exist in a final civilization, because this final civilization is built up in part on the idea of equality of man.From this equality of man comes that other great social doctrine of the brotherhood of man.Any civilization which ignores the equality of man, and these great included ideas, freedom and brotherhood of man, cannot, in the very nature of things, be the higher and the final civilization.All former civilizations failed to recognize this great fact, and this is one of the reasons why they became effete and passed away.I believe God has chosen this land, and has raised up this Association for the purpose of working out this problem.

The physical view is a low one, and really belongs to the lower civilization.In comparison with the intellectual, and moral, and spiritual, the physical sinks into insignificance.

The third great idea of the permanent civilization is “the true idea of woman.”In the earlier civilizations woman was held as inferior to man, because perhaps she could not endure the fatigues of the chase or engage in wars, and such brutalizing pursuits.The very signs of her superiority were read as evidences of her inferiority.In some her position was hardly anything but that of a slave or a toy.In that civilization which had the highest culture of any of the old civilizations, an educated woman was classed in the common thought of the people as an impure woman.Thank God such a civilization as that was not the final one.In the final civilization woman has her place alongside of man—co-equal and co-ordinate.

The fourth great idea necessary to a permanent and final civilization, is the true idea of childhood—its worth and place in the elevating forces of humanity.That civilization which holds in cheap esteem the life of a child, is a low and vanishing one.There is probably among the secondary tests of nobility no truer one than man’s regard for children.All the ancient civilizations were very low in this respect.Think of such a thing occurring in this nineteenth century, of any ruler commanding the slaughter of the innocents.No, the final civilization holds, must hold, to the sacredness of child-life.Jesus is bringing that about.He brought heaven to earth through the auroral gates of childhood.Bethlehem’s manger gave to the world a new and potent civilizing idea in the sacredness of child-life.These four constitute the elemental ideas, the living, molding, working forces of the higher civilization.The relation of the American Missionary Association to this higher civilization is now to be noticed, and so transparent is this relation that only a few words are necessary to set it forth.First.It is related in its work, in a similar way, be it spoken reverently, in which Jesus, the Son of God, is related to the children of men.He came down into humanity to its very lowest.So the A.M.A.goes down with its thousand tender hands and its five hundred beating hearts to the very bottom of the lower civilization.This is both human and divine wisdom.It is related to the higher civilization in the second place because it carries into and permeates the lower civilization with these great ideas of the higher.“No fleet can outsail its slowest vessel.”So no civilization can advance higher than the lowest elements or parts of it advance.These people to whom this Association carries these ideas are elemental factors in our civilization, and I know of no other royal road by which they can be brought into the higher civilization; and unless so brought they will drag higher civilization down, and give the victory to the lower civilization, and this nation will fall into the long procession of nations that, failing to rise to their great opportunities, have gone down in dishonor and disgrace to eternal death.To prevent this dire catastrophe, I believe God, whose favors have been manifold to our land, has raised up and commissioned this great Association.It is virtually related, therefore, to the higher civilization as its saviour, and also as the purifier and perfector of the higher by bringing the lower up to its proper place in it on these high idea lines.Incarnate these great ideas of the higher civilization into the lower, which, as I understand it, is the work of the A.M.A., and you have given the victory to the higher civilization in this the leading nation of the world; moreover, you have hastened the coming of the day of the Son of Man.

DEDICATION OF LIVINGSTONE MISSIONARY HALL.

As a fitting sequel to the earnest and efficient annual meeting exercises in Cleveland, some of the officers of this Association and other friends proceeded to Nashville, Tenn., to attend the dedication of Livingstone Hall, Oct.30.

As we published in our last issue a cut of the Hall and a statement of its history, dimensions and uses, we refer the reader to the November Missionary for information relating to such matters. The dedicatory address was delivered by Professor Cyrus Northrop, of Yale College. Bishop McTyeire, President of the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, and Dr. A. G. Haygood, President of Emory College, Georgia, and Gen. C. B. Fisk, of New York, also made addresses. The dedicatory prayer was offered by Secretary Strieby, and music furnished by the Mozart Society and by Miss Sheppard and Miss Mabel Lewis, well-known members of the original Jubilee Singers Company. The address of Professor Northrop was masterly, timely and suggestive. It was welcomed and approved by the very respectable representation of Southern men on the platform, and published in full in the Nashville Daily American

RECEIPTS FOR OCTOBER, 1882.

BRAIN AND NERVE FOOD.VITALIZED PHOS-PHITES.

It restores the energy lost by Nervousness or Indigestion; relieves Lassitude and Neuralgia; refreshes the Nerves tired by Worry, Excitement or Excessive Brain Fatigue; strengthens a Failing Memory, and gives Renewed Vigor in all Diseases of Nervous Exhaustion or Debility.It is the only PREVENTIVE of Consumption.

It gives Vitality to the Insufficient Bodily or Mental Growth of Children; gives Quiet, Rest and Sleep, as it promotes Good Health to Brain and Body.

Composed of the Nerve-Giving Principles of the Ox-Brain and Wheat-Germ.

Physicians have Prescribed 500,000 Packages.

For sale by Druggists, or by Mail, $1.

F.CROSBY CO., 664 and 666 Sixth Avenue, New York.

J.B.WILLIAMS & CO.,

GLASTONBURY, CONN.,

MANUFACTURERS OF

Shaving and Toilet Soaps.

For over 30 years this firm has made the manufacture of SHAVING SOAPS a specialty, and their Yankee Barber’s Bar, and other soaps, enjoy a reputation among Barbers, as well as those who shave themselves, unequalled by any other.

To all of our readers who are seeking for the VERY BEST SHAVING SOAP, we would say, be sure and get some of the following (carefully avoiding counterfeits):

These Soaps can be found in every State and nearly every town in the United States.

HORSFORD’S

ACID PHOSPHATE

(LIQUID.)

FOR DYSPEPSIA, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION, NERVOUSNESS, DIMINISHED VITALITY, URINARY DIFFICULTIES, ETC.

PREPARED ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTION OF

Prof. E.N.Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass.

There seems to be no difference of opinion in high medical authority of the value of phosphoric acid, and no preparation has ever been offered to the public which seems to so happily meet the general want as this.

It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste.

No danger can attend its use.

Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as are necessary to take.

It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only.

Prices reasonable.Pamphlet giving further particulars mailed free on application.

MANUFACTURED BY THE

RUMFORD CHEMICAL WORKS,

Providence, R.I.,

AND FOR SALE BY ALL DRUGGISTS.

ESTABLISHED THIRTY YEARS.

ARE THE BEST.

Catalogues Free on Application.

Address the Company either at

BOSTON, MASS., 531 Tremont Street;

LONDON, ENG., 57 Holborn Viaduct;

KANSAS CITY, Mo., 817 Main Street;

ATLANTA, GA., 27 Whitehall Street;

Or, DEFIANCE, O.

OVER 95,000 SOLD.

7 PER CENT.TO 8 PER CENT.

Interest Net to Investors

In First Mortgage Bonds

ON IMPROVED FARMS

In Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota,

SECURED BY

ORMSBY BROS.& CO.,

BANKERS, LOAN AND LAND BROKERS,

EMMETSBURG, IOWA.

References and Circulars forwarded on Application.

For beauty of gloss, for saving of toil,

For freeness from dust and slowness to soil,

And also for cheapness ’tis yet unsurpassed,

And thousands of merchants are selling it fast.

Of all imitations ’tis well to beware;

The half risen sun every package should bear;

For this is the “trade mark” the MORSE BROS.use,

And none are permitted the mark to abuse.

PAYSON’S

INDELIBLE INK,

FOR MARKING ANY FABRIC WITH A COMMON PEN, WITHOUT A PREPARATION.

It still stands unrivaled after 50 years’ test.

THE SIMPLEST AND BEST.

Sales now greater than ever before.

This Ink received the Diploma and Medal at Centennial over all rivals.

Report of Judges: “For simplicity of application and indelibility.”

INQUIRE FOR

PAYSON’S COMBINATION!!!

Sold by all Druggists, Stationers and News Agents, and by many Fancy Goods and Furnishing Houses.

Circulation Now 80,000, and Increasing.

Advocating Evangelical Religion and Temperance.

Liberty, Education and Equal Rights for all.

NEW YORK WITNESS

PUBLICATIONS for 1882

New York Weekly Witness.—Now in its 11th year; circulation, 80,000; ONE DOLLAR a year.Gratis copy for club of 10, with $10.On trial three months, 25c.

Sabbath Reading.—A very handsome, small eight-page weekly, containing in each number an excellent sermon and a choice selection of interesting matter for reading on the Lord’s Day.FIFTY CENTS a year; club of ten, $4.On trial three months, 15c.

Gems of Poetry.—A beautiful, sixteen page monthly, on fine paper, and with an excellent portrait of some eminent poet in each number.The contents are two serials, the Æneid of Virgil and Aurora Leigh by Mrs. Browning; a fine assortment of selected poetry, and a great variety of original poetry—the latter competing for two prizes each quarter.FORTY CENTS a year; club of three, $1.On trial for three months, 10c.

Specimens of the above publications sent free on application. All stop when subscription expires.

Witness, Sabbath Reading and Gems of Poetry, three months on trial for fifty cents.

JOHN DOUGALL & CO.

WITNESS OFFICE:

21 VANDEWATER STREET, NEW YORK.

We demand the Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic.

As musical culture increases it demands in musical instruments for home, church, or school, excellence in tone, tasteful workmanship, and durability.

SEND FOR ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE.

Carpets Rugs, Mattings, etc.,

FOR CASH.

$3.50—ELEGANT STYLES, LIGHT AND DARK PATTERNS, AXMINSTER, MOQUETTE AND HEARTH RUGS, 27 × 64 in.

These goods are very serviceable and are suitable for parlor or drawing room, and are sold elsewhere for $5 to $7 each.

REVERSIBLE, SMYRNA AND VELVET RUGS AND MATS, large assortment.

REVERSIBLE MATS, 75c., 90c., $1; EXTRA QUALITY, $1.50; REVERSIBLE RUGS, $1.60, $2.50, $3, $3.75, $4.50; EXTRA LARGE, $6, $6.50, $9 and $10.

INDIA BODY BRUSSELS CARPETS, 45 and 55c.per yard.

TAPESTRY BRUSSELS,

60c., 65c., 75c.and upwards.

VELVET CARPETS (fine quality),

$1.25, $1.35 per yard.

MATTINGS, OIL CLOTHS, DRUGGETS,

In numerous designs and worthy the attention of consumers and dealers.

Mail orders will receive prompt attention.

ANDREW LESTER & CO.,

511 Broadway,

St.Nicholas Hotel Block.NEW YORK, N.Y.

60,000 TONS USED IN 1881.

One ton will build two miles of staunch three-strand Barb Fence.One strand will make an old wooden fence impassable to large cattle.One strand at bottom will keep out hogs.

Washburn & Moen Man’f’g Co.,

WORCESTER, MASS.,

Manufacturers of

Patent Steel Barb Fencing.

A STEEL Thorn Hedge.No other Fencing so cheap or put up so quickly.Never rusts, stains, decays, shrinks nor warps.Unaffected by fire, wind or flood.A complete barrier to the most unruly stock.Impassable by man or beast.

No other Fence Material so easily handled by small proprietors and tenants, or large planters in the South.

Shipped on spools containing 100 pounds, or eighty rods of Fencing.Can be kept on the Reel for transient uses.

CHEAPEST, BEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE OF FENCES.

Send for Illustrative Pamphlets and Circulars, as above.

The American Missionary.

We send this number of the American Missionary to some persons whose names are not among our subscribers, with the hope that they will read it, and that their interest in the work which it represents will be deepened, and we take occasion to repeat what we have set forth and urged frequently during the year, to wit:

That we are keenly alive to the necessity of keeping this magazine abreast with the very best publications of other missionary societies, at home and abroad.We shall seek to make its appearance attractive by pictures and illustrations.The Children’s Page will contain original stories and suggestive incidents.The General Notes on Africa, the Chinese and Indians will be continued.The fullest information will be given about our work in the South, now recognized as so important to the welfare of the nation.We shall also make ample reports of our methods and work among the Indians and Chinese in America, and following the Annual Meeting publish a double number like the present issue, giving a full account of the proceedings of that occasion.

No Christian family can afford to be without missionary intelligence, and no missionary society can afford to be without readers of its publications; it had better give them to the readers without pay than to have no readers.Missionary zeal will die in the churches without missionary intelligence.

But it would be far better for both the societies and the readers if missionary news were paid for. This would give the magazine attentive perusal and the society relief from the reproach of a large expense for publication. Missionary publications should be put on a paying basisAside from a free list to life members, ministers, etc., the cost of publication should be made up by paying subscribers and advertisements.

We are anxious to put the American Missionary on this basis. We intend to make it worth its price, and we ask our patrons to aid us:

1.More of our readers can take pains to send us either the moderate subscription price (50 cents), or $1.00, naming a friend to whom we may send a second copy.

2.A special friend in each church can secure subscribers at club-rates (12 copies for $5 or 25 copies for $10).

3.Business men can benefit themselves by advertising in a periodical that has a circulation of over 20,000 copies monthly and that goes to many of the best men and families in the land.Will not our friends aid us to make this plan a success?

Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to H.W.Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade st., New York, N.Y.