***

M
ENCE
ON THE

Negro Questiom
HELD AT

LAKE MOHONK, Ulster County, NEW YORK,

JUNE
4,
5,

6,

1890.

Reported and Edited by Isabel C. Barrows

BOSTON
GEO.
H.

ELLIS, PRINTER, 141

FRANKLIN STREET

1890

,*V^'

&

'

JVC*

FIRST

MOHONK CONFERENCE
ON THE

Negro Question

HELD AT

Lake Mohonk, Ulster County, New York,

June
4,
>,

6,

1890.

Reported and Edited by Isauel

C.

Barrow-.

BOSTON
GEORGE
H.

ELLIS,

PRINTER, 141 FRANKLIN STREET

1S9O

CONTENTS.
/tret SrsBioa.

Opening Address, by A. K. Smiley Address of Chairman, Hon R. B. Haves, Industrial Training, by Gen. S. C. Armstrong,
.

...
H. Allen, D.D

8
I2

Industrial Schools for the Negroes, by Rev. R.

15

Remarks by Rev. A.

F. Beard,

D.D.,
.

I9
21
. .

Miss Sarah F. Smiley, Hon. Edward L. Pierce,

...

22

Judge A.
Prof.

W.

Tourgee,

Pres. C. C. Gaines,

24 26 29
30

W.

E. Hutchison,

...
.
.

The Race Problem, by John

&ecoitfj

C. Covert,

^rsaion.
Citizen in the

The Negro American

Mayo,

New

American

Life,

by Rev. A. D.
36

Remarks by Miss Emily

L. Austin

Hon. Edward

L. Pierce,

51

Dr. E. H. Magill,

53
;

Judge A. W. Tourgee Gen. O. O. Howard, Hon. Philip C. Garrett,

Pres. F. G.

54

56
57

Woodwortb,

CbtrU Session.
Remarks
of Pres. Merrill E. Gates,

Home

Life of the Negroes, by Miss D. E.

Pres. F. G.

Emerson,
. .

59 60

Remarks by

Woodworth,
.

...

63

Gen. S. C. Armstrong, Gen. John Eaton,

Rev. A.

...

.66 .... 67
69
72
.

W.

Pitzer,

National Aid to State Education, by Hon. John Jay, Normal School Training for the Negroes, by W. T. Harris, LL.D., Remarks by Dr. Lyman Abbott,

77

32

.fourth Sefigton.
Letter from Bishop A. G. Haygood,

Se
E. Roy,

The Higher Education of the Negroes no Mistake, by Rev. Joseph Remarks by Rev. Samuel May,
Rev. James M. Buckley, D.D., The Postal-savings System, by Hon. Philip C. Garrett, Remarks by Dr. W. T. Harris,
Rev.

S6
03

94, 103

97

oo
IOI

W.

S.

Langford, D.D.,

...

Judge A. W. Tuurgee,

103

6
JFifth

^region.
.
.

The Negro's View of the Race Problem, by Albion W. Tourgee, Remarks by Hon. Andrew D. White,
John Glenn,
Gen. R. Brinkerhoff, Gen. O. O. Howard, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney,

PACK 104
117
121

123
125

126
128

Bishop E. G. Andrews,
>tFth

Erosion.

Platform,

...
Hall, D.D.,

131

Remarks by Rev. Charles H.

Mr.

133
135
B.

W. H. McElroy,
Hayes,

Closing Address by the President, Hon. Rutherford

37

MOHONK CONFERENCE ON THE

NEGRO QUESTION.
.first

Session.
4,

Wednesday Morning, June

1890.

at

women invited by Mr. A. K. Smiley met Lake Mohonk Hotel, Ulster County, New York, on Wednesday morning, June 4, 1890, and was called to order by Mr. Smiley.
Conference of men and
the

Mr. Smilf.y. Ladies and gentlemen, many of you are probably aware that for the last seven years we have held in the autumn, near the close of our season, a Conference on Indian Affairs, which has been pretty largely attended, where we have discussed the question for three days, and have arrived at certain general conclusions at the We believe that it is generally recognized close of the Conference. that the results of these deliberations have been very beneficial to the Indian; and the thought has again and again pressed itself on my mind whether we could not in the early part of our season hold another Conference upon some other subject of general interest to the country, and I have thought of a number of things worthy of attenMy first thought was whether we could not get moderate men tion. to come here from various parts of the country and devise some plan upon which they could unite on the much disputed temperance question. But that subject is already discussed by the country at large, and it would be very difficult to settle upon any platform here that would meet the approval of a very large class. I then thought of the question of arbitration, which is near to my heart and I had got so far as to invite one or two in case we should have such a meeting. But during our Conference on Indian Affairs last autumn exPresident Hayes uttered a remark which settled me in regard to the kind of a conference to call. I will read a remark which he made at " I will not attempt to say more the close of his address but so gratified am I with what I have seen of the methods and of the spirit of this Mohonk Conference that I cannot but hope that the day may soon come when that other weaker race, not of a quarter of a million, but of six millions, shall have some such annual assembly as this to consider its condition and to aid it to rise to the full stature of true
;
:

American citizenship." That remark caused the founding of this Conference. I at once accepted it as, in the providence of God, a leading in the right direcand I invited him to come to a conference on the Negro question and he agreed to do so. I extended the tion in June, and preside invitation from one part of the country to another, trying to get
;
;

those
as

who are specially interested in this subject, many as have accepted and I am gratified to
;

inviting three times see so large a num-

8
I think we have a goodly number here, and I have ber responding. great faith that we shall do something to benefit the Negro race. I would say for those who have not accepted my invitation that it is not because they are not interested, but because they are busy men. I am specially delighted to see a delegation here from the South. I tried to make the invitation broad, without reference to any kind of ism. I have no doubt that those present hold diverse views but I trust that in the discussions, we shall have the true Christian spirit of courtesy and consideration of each other's feelings; that there may be no rash words spoken that everything will be done deliberately, and that at the close of our three days' deliberations we shall be able to arrive at some general conclusions which shall command the confidence of the country. I trust that every one who is here agrees with me that it is exceedingly important for the Negroes to be elevated in every direction that it is necessary that they shouldjbe practically educated that they shall learn to be thrifty and taught industries that they shall do away with all drinking habits, shall save money, accumulate that the family relations shall be property, be law-abiding citizens I believe, if they well observed, and thus be a credit to our country. are not so educated, that they will become a dangerous element to the community, liable to be thrown at any moment into the hands of demagogues who may use them for bad purposes. I believe that our only safety is to give the Negro a Christian education. This is what we are called together to consider. I think you will agree with me that, as ex-President Hayes is the founder of this Conference, he is the proper man to preside over it. I therefore nominate him as chairman of the First Mohonk Conference
; ; ;

on Negro

Affairs.

Ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes was then unanimously elected the chairman of the Conference. On motion of Dr. M. E. Strieby, of New York, the following persons were elected Secretaries Rev. A. H. Bradford, D.D., Montclair, N.J., George P. Whittlesey, Washington, D.C., Mrs. Isabel C.
:

Barrows, Boston, Mass. On motion, Dr. L. C. Warner, of New York, was elected Treasurer. On motion of Dr. Lyman Abbott, the following persons were appointed by the Chair as an Executive Committee, to whom should be referred all resolutions without debate, and who should have Merrill E. power to increase their number, or to fill vacancies Gates, LL.D., President Rutger's College, New Brunswick, N.J., Chairman, Dr. M. E. Strieby, New York, H. O. Houghton, Boston, Rev. R. H. Allen, D.D., Pittsburg, Penn., Rev. A. W. Pitzer, D.D., Washington, D.C. The following address was then read
:
:

ADDRESS OF EX-PRESIDENT HAYES.

Ladies
in

and Gentlemen,

What was the thought, what

Mr. and Mrs. Smiley,

are the facts,

which led our good

this

friends,

to invite us to

meet

Conference, on the Negro question, at their wonderfully We do not need to go into a lengthy review of the attractive home ? Let the exact conpast to find a sufficient answer to this question.

dition of the

Negroes of the United States

our country where they are a large element of the population be fully known and thoroughly understood, and every good citizen every friend of humanity, and, of course, every Christian, will surely be persuaded that the American people have a grave and indispensable duty to perform with respect to the millions of men and women among our countrymen whose ancestors our fathers brought from Africa to be held in bondage here in America. It may be justly said in the deepest sense of the words, that we are indeed the keepers of "our brothers in black." We are responsible for their presence and condition on this continent. Having deprived them of their labor liberty, and manhood, and grown rich and strong while doincr it we have no excuse for neglecting them, if our selfishness prompted us to do so. But, in truth, their welfare and ours, if not one and the same are inseparable. These millions who have been so cruelly degraded must be lifted up, or we ourselves will be dragged down The eminent gentleman who is the general agent of the Peabody Education Fund, Dr. Curry, of Virginia, spoke wisely when he said to the legislature of Alabama " As a man, a patriot, a Christian, I have labored for the elevation of the Negro. Nor have I been entirely unselfish for I know that we are bound, hand and foot, to the lowest stratum of society. If the Negroes remain as co-occupants of the land and cocitizens of the States, and we do not lift them up, they will drag us down to industrial bankruptcy, social degradation, and political
:

especially

in that part of

action, however vital in their appropriate sphere, should in this Conference, it is believed, yield the floor to impartial investigation and earnest discussion of the best methods for uplifting the colored people in their industries, their home life, their education, their morality their religion, and, in short, in all that pertains to their personal conduct and character. What is sometimes called the social question, with its bitterness, irritations, and the ill-will which it often breeds between the children of a common Father, may well be left out of associations like this until the Golden Rule, with its enlightenment and precious tendencies, has obtained a more perfect sway than it has yet found either in our own hearts or in the lives of those we are seeking to lift up. If we can, with harmony, prudence, and good sense, adhere to this course, we may expect to do something on
this

corruption." Upon the constitution and the laws of the nation and the States and upon their administration, the welfare of the Negroes, like that of their fellow-citizens, largely depends. This wide area of 'duty and of effort belongs to the domain of practical statesmanship. It will be explored, investigated, discussed, and dealt with by those who make and those who execute the laws, State and National, by the public press, and by political parties. These agencies, guided by their sense of duty and supported by public opinion, we may hope will in the long run be adequate to the responsibilities devolved upon them. Our Mohonk Conference accepts the less conspicuous but hardly less grave and influential place of employing the forces which concern the educational, the benevolent, and the religious side of the question We seek conscientiously to avoid whatever is sectarian, or that smacks of partisanship or sectionalism. Political duties and political

IO
that public opinion which, in a land of free institutions, must be regarded as, as, in fact, the government. under Providence, the final sovereign, With this view of the general aim and purpose of this Conference, we are met at the threshold with the question, " What are the true No full condition and prospects of the Negroes of the South?" answer can be given to this inquiry without more careful and exWe hear tensive investigation than can be attempted in this paper. from various quarters statements which challenge serious and candid In the Southern States are seven millions of colored attention. and people, of whom probably one-half are unable to read and write illiteracy in their case, we are told, means far more than ignorance of It means a condition, according to a high authority, "comletters.

momentous subject toward forming and enlightening

pounded of ignorance, superstition, shiftlessness, vulgarity, and vice." There may be gross exaggerations in the tales we hear of the Voodoo paganism, which, under the name of religion, lurks, if it does not prevail, in the cotton and cane growing districts of the South known There is, however, enough of truth in these as the "black belt." statements to call for investigation and action. One of the devoted

friends of the colored people tells us that " their ignorance, indifference, indolence, shiftlessness, superstition and low tone of morality are prodigious hindrances to the development of the great low country where they swarm." It is, perhaps, safe to conclude that half of the colored population of the South still lack the thrift, the

morality, and the religion required to make a prosperous and intelligent citizenship. How is this unpromising and deplorable condition to be met ? What is the remedy ? Those who meet here do so, I assume, in the using these words in the broadest faith that education and religion, if faithfully, wisely, and persistently brought home to these sense, people, will be found in good time amply adequate to lift the African

education, the

up
I

to the full stature of

American manhood.

have referred to the most unfavorable reports as to the condition of the Southern Negro which intelligent and fair-minded people are prepared to believe. There is another and far brighter side to this A century or two ago the picture, and it is full of encouragement.
ancestors of the great majority of the present population of the United States were African barbarians and pagans of the lowest "They were simply savages practising fetichism, the very type. lowest form of idolatry. They were the slaves of the most revolting superstitions, believing in spells, charms, and incantations, and havThey had no skill in any kind of labor, no ing no moral code." industrious habits, and knew nothing of any printed or written language. This heathen people, brought from the Dark Continent, after several generations in bondage, followed by a few years of freedom, have all of them learned to understand and speak the English lanAll of them have been taught the first, the essential lesson guage. they can all earn their own living by their own labor. in civilization
:

very large number of them have been converted to Christianity. I do not include in this statement those who profess and practise a merely emotional religion, which does not purify morals, guide conDr. Storrs said a few weeks ago " And duct, nor elevate character.

then an utter divorce appears (and that is the most fearful and almost fatal thing of all) between religion and morality among them, so that the same man shall be a fervent exhorter in the pulpit an instance of and an adulterer or even a murderer outside of it, which was brought to my attention through a friend at the South very lately, where a man had been a fervent preacher, admired for his eloquence, and had turned out afterward to be at the same time a brutal murderer, and was convicted of the horrible crime. Nevertheless, he had appeared to others, perhaps to himself, to be sincere It is all summed up in the word of one man, in his exhortations. preaching to a colored congregation, himself a colored man I have to confess, my dear brethren, that I have broken every commandment of God: but I bless the Lord that I have never yet lost my Considered as a community, almost all of them are religion " After only twenty-five years peaceable, orderly, and law-abiding. perhaps more are returned in the of freedom, one-third of them Not a few of them are scholars census as able to read and write. of fair attainments and ability, and in the learned professions and in conspicuous employments are vindicating their title to the consideration and respect of the best of their fellow-men. I do not try to tell how much of this gratifying progress of the last twenty-five years is to be credited to the great fact of freedom. Liberty, it must be granted, is the most successful, the unmatched, the almost sublime educator of the human race. But other causes have been at work. A long list could easily be made, reaching possibly to even more than a hundred, of enterprises and notable efforts by religious sects, by educational and benevolent associations, by

'

'

philanthropic and patriotic individuals, having, in the words of Mr. John F. Slater, for their "general object the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States." All of them are or have been of necessity, as to methods and appliances, experimental, each independent of the others and moving on its own peculiar lines without any thorough knowledge of what others were doing or attempting to do. It may prove one of the important features of this Conference that it will furnish an opportunity and a place where all engaged in the good work may meet face to face, and freely communicate to one another their ideas, methods, successes, and failures, and that valuable instruction and much needed encouragement will thus be imparted for the advancement of the good work. At this juncture, to enlighten and create public sentiment for its support and continuance is the first necessity. This is more plainly For some years past the Trustees of to be seen now than hitherto. the Peabody Education Fund, under the distinguished leadership of their wise and venerable president, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, have looked forward with confident hope to the time when the people of the United States, through the general government, would give their powerful aid to the education of the emancipated race for the duties No doubt, during of citizenship which have been cast upon them. several years a decided majority of both Houses of Congress, without regard to section or party, would have supported the measure The recent adverse action if it could have been brought to a vote. of the Senate admonishes us, however, that we may no longer look

12 with confidence for government aid. While we may hope for and strive for a better result in the future, it is the part of wisdom to waste no time in unavailing complaint or regret, but with earnest solicitude to make every judicious effort for the education and Christianizing of the Negro, not merely for his own sake or for the sake of the South, but for the welfare of the whole country and for our common humanity. Our faith is that no sacrifice of comfort, health, and life, no humane effort, no money expended, was ever more plainly productive of large and gracious results than the money, the labor, and the sacrifices which have been devoted to the uplifting of the colored people of the South. Our wish and our prayers are that the good work may go on. Hence this Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question.

A recess was taken pending the report of the Executive Committee. At the close of the recess President Gates, Chairman of the Executive Committee, made the following report, which was voted on in sections and adopted as a whole i. This Conference shall be known as the Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question. 2. No speaker in debate shall occupy more than ten minutes or speak more than once upon the same question without unanimous consent, and it shall be within the power of the Chair and under his discretion at any time during the debate, to reduce the limit of
:

minutes for each speaker. to be assigned to any paper or address shall not exceed twenty minutes, unless there be some very exceptional reason for asking a speaker to occupy more than that time. 4. The hours of the session shall be in the morning from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. and in the evening from 7.45 p.m. until 10 p.m. President Gates announced that the subject selected for the first What it is, and what it ought to session was " Industrial Education be," and that the first speaker would be General S. C. Armstrong, of Hampton, Va.
time to
3.

five

The time

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.
BY GENERAL ARMSTRONG.

of

Labor is a great moral and educational force. Next to the grace God, hard work, in its largest sense, is the most vital thing in Subtract from any neighborhood, within a Christian civilization. radius of ten miles, all industry, and in six months, in spite of churches and schools, what would become of order and decency ? Look at the fairest civilization, and you will see that the worst lives those who are too rich and those are at the top and at the bottom, who are too worthless to work. Wherever you find industry, you find A man who knows New York well told me character and morality. that in a ward in which the people were nearly all mechanics there were almost no low houses. In the next ward, where there was a great deal of respectability, there was a great deal of organized vice and Of the Negro, I think this this is quite generally true of all places.

13

Nothing is more important than that they should see that At the close of the war we had the problem, What shall we do 'with this race thrown upon us? Under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, I was asked to take charge of the work in Hampton; and we worked the thing out, acting on principles which we have carried out ever since. The great trouble with the Nezro was not ignorance it was deficiency of character. You can feed and clothe the Negro, build his home and give him knowledge but that does not necessarily build up character. That has got to be worked out. The conditions of character and manhood and citizenship for all people are simple and clear. Our salvation is nearer to us than we suppose. The progress and uplifting of the Negro are attainable more readily than we think. On these ideas we organized our school and industrial svstem which has been written up by Miss Alice Bacon in the last Southern Workman. Those who wish the details can get them there We do not try so much to help the students as to let them help themselves We might through charity give them all they want but that is not the way to build up character. They come to us from all parts of the country; and we put these five hundred Negroes on our farms and household industries, into our workshops and gardens, and say, " Sink or swim. This method applies to the Indians and to white men as well as to the Negro. He has got to work to succeed. It was its compelling circumstances that made New England what it was It was the contrasting conditions of Plymouth Rock and of Jamestown island that made opposite civilizations, and forced the war the result
point.
:

labor doctrine is especially true. The Negroes are a laboring people. I hey do not like work, however, because they have had it forced on them, just as the Indian does not like it because he has not had enough of it. They work under pressure. The great thing is to give them an idea of the dignity of labor; that is, to change their stand-

nical education. In the technical schools of the whites, young men are able to pay board, clothing, and usually tuition. Our students come with nothing, and we have to be responsible for nearly all their

is back in the iron age the white race is in its golden and idleness is equally the curse of both. A lady once me what she could do with her well-educated boy, with money asked enough to live without work. I replied that, if he were'black, he would have to work and work would make a man of him. She did not know what to do with him, and I did not. Our five hundred students do fifty thousand dollars' worth of work ar S n0t nl payS their wa but ives them such manual y -y S a / skill and vaue as workmen that after three years they are able to -o out and make their own way in life, maintain themselves, and keep from temptation and ruin. Pressure and the resulting activity keep them and us straight. To train them to earn enough to feed and clothe themselves is to weaken the tempter's power. One-half of our industries combine instructive and productive work. The labor is paid for at about market rates. We have also a purely technical part, chiefly for Ind.ans. We cannot stop to give the Negro simple technical tra.n.ng We must combine the self-support with the tech:

we know. The Negro

;

age

Vn

'

14
personal expenses and tuition. The question of the student.

But the workshops are for the benefit not, What can the boy do for the shop? but, What can the shop do for the boy? People ask, Can we make- it pay ? We may not make both ends meet and yet it pays over
is
;

We make character. the manhood developed. The balance in our industrial accounts is often on the wrong side. do not demand that our shops shall " pay," but we expect the students' labor to bring back the price of the material and the salary It has been a mistake in manual labor schools to of the manager. must expect the money loss as expect too much in a money way. a part of the system. But our balance on the money side is not always Our friends have stood by us, appreciating that our industrial bad.
and over again,
in

We

We

system is paying in moral values. They must keep their eyes on us. We workers down there are supposed to be a little one-sided. We are not supposed to be business men and your money should be put Careful, into the careful hands of men who will look into its use. We have at Hampwise trusteeship is very hard to get. competent, ton probably the largest colored boarding-house in the world, and have elected Mr. Smiley as one of our trustees. As he is used to
;

keeping a hotel, we want him to come down and see if we are managing it wisely. We court that sort of thing. The main thing, then, in the industrial system, is to open as widely and broadly as possible opportunities for agricultural, mechanical, and household industries, which shall provide Negro students means to support themselves and
develop character. Character is the foundation. The training An able-bodied student reprethat our pupils get is an endowment. propose to treble of perhaps a thousand dollars. sents a capital When they learn a trade, they are worth threefold more in the that.
to

We

labor market. Last Saturday I gave my final words to our graduating I said to those forty-five scholars, " How many of you can go class. out into the world, and, if you cannot get a school, how many can ? work in some line of industry and so support yourselves " There was Every one said, " I can," and every one laughed. They go a roar. out into the world smiling at difficulties, happy in their pluck and purpose and skill. Granting them health, they can make their living. The schools where they teach are held from four to ten months in the When out of the school-room, they can work in the shop, the year. They pick up a great deal by observation. house, or on the farm. One of our students went to Tuskegee School as farm manager. They wanted bricks. He had seen them made at Hampton, so he went to work and built a brick-yard down there, simply from observation.

The Slater Fund I wish to recognize the value of other schools. has come in very wisely. The trustees have encouraged industrial The only fault I find is that more people do not come education. down to look after us. The trustees of the Peabody Fund are doing great good with their money ; but there ought to be more inspection, and more suggestive and comparative work done among our schools. There would be great good from this. We hope to have a gathering of workers at Hampton, to talk over these things, to study the industrial

and other questions.

of

It is only fair to say that the gift

Mr. C. P. Huntington

to

'5

Hampton of thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000) during the last few years has been one of our strongest sou:ces of success. " The Huntington Industrial Works," as we call them, not at his request, do a business of six thousand dollars a month, cutting however, Sometimes the balance over two million feet of lumber every year. has been on the wrong side but, on the whole, it has been on the

right side.

When we
"That
is

lose,

we

say,

"That

is

all

right."

When we

gain,

better." The Negroes work there all day and study two hours at night in the night school for three years. In one department of these works we bring in technical training, and the have one colored boy, students learn to work by drawings. Moses Davis, who has a genius for architecture, whose work in this department is attracting attention. Somebody ought to give him a chance, not too much of a chance, as it might spoil him, but a chance

we

say,

We

his way up. are convinced that the Negro needs physical as well as mental and Christian training. He needs the ten hours' drudgery which he He gets in the shops to put him in shape for the struggle of life. must go to his work with an appetite. Slavery taught him to labor, but gave him no respect for labor. This is fundamental. On this foundation idea character is built, men are made, and the problem is solved.

to

work

We

Rev. R. H. Allen, D.D., Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Missions for the Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church, was next
invited to speak.

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS FOR THE NEGROES.

BY REV.
I

R.

H.

ALLEN, D.D.

suppose

am

father

was a slaveholder,

asked to speak because I am from the South. My my grandfather was a slaveholder, and I

was born a slaveholder.

Although I a Negro-trader, an abolitionist, and the devil. a boy, am from the South, and was born and raised among the Negroes, when I get up here, and find these old-fashioned free-soil people, these abolitionists, I feel like taking off my hat to them. I feel a deep and earnest interest in this subject, and have in my heart a true sympathy for the Negroes. I have seen them in the cotton fields, on the sugar plantations, in their little cabins, in their school-houses and, since I have been Secretary of the Presbyterian Board, I have travelled over every Southern State, and have come face to face with thousands of the colored people, and talked with them. I therefore profess to know something of what I am talking. We speak of a Negro problem but I never could see why there should be a Negro problem more than a French, a German, or an The solution of this problem is in the education Italian problem. This will solve of the hands and heads and hearts of this people. the problem of any race on the face of God's earth. Our Presbyterian Board commenced its work twenty-five years ago in little parochial schools. We began in log cabins, wherever we
;
;

Three things

was taught

to

hate

when

i6

The first of these were Northern girls who One of these girls, came down to live among these poor people. a young woman of twenty-two, wrote me that, on the morning when
could get a teacher.
she opened her school, the fence for two hundred yards was black with little Negroes. In these parochial schools, we introduced the Bible and the Shorter Catechism. You, sir (addressing the Chair), But down there we are a Methodist, and I honor the Methodists. sometimes go into a Methodist community who do not like our Shorter Catechism. One shrewd black fellow, I remember, on one occasion, did a very 'cute thing to make the Methodists accept this catechism. He just took out all the questions, and had the answers printed together There is nothing a black child likes so much as to learn a speech; and the Methodists were so delighted with the fine speech that this catechism without any questions gave them that It was they learned it without knowing that it was a catechism
! !

over that neighborhood. At Concord, N.C., we have now a large boarding-school for colored girls. If you ever save the Negroes, you must save the girls and women. You will not elevate any race until wives and mothers can You must save the daughters teach the gospel in their families. They are to be the wives and mothers and homeof the freedmen. makers of the future. At Concord you will see two hundred and thirty-four girls in a seminary, with all the appliances for education all and the industrial arts. They do the whole work of the school, We take the washing, ironing, cooking, scrubbing, and dressmaking. We say to her, Go to work during a girl for forty-five dollars a year. the vacation and make fifteen or twenty dollars, and we will help you In such schools, by a practical to the balance of the forty-five. education of the head, hand, and heart, the girls are all well prepared We help them to make character. In to take their part in life. Texas we have another school, Mary Allen Seminary, with two hundred girls, where they do the whole domestic work of the instiI saw seventeen girls over a year ago tution from beginning to end. dressed in good plain dresses cut, fitted, and made by themselves, who, when they came to the school, did not know how to handle a Schools like this seminary are training the wives and thimble. mothers and home-makers of the coming generation. I met a little girl there who said to me, "Doctor, will you come to our cabin and take tea?" "Certainly," I said. "Will you, really, come and take supper with us black folks?" " Certainly," I said; and I went with her to her father's. The father told me that he had sold his place forty miles below, and had bought a little place near the seminary, where he was then living, that he might send his other children to school, if the school could do as much for them as it had She had been in the seminary a year and for this little daughter. When she went back to her father's house, that child' of thira half. teen and a half years of age opened a Sunday-school, and ran it all She would not let the family live as formerly, but she the summer. So I had supper with them that night, revolutionized that home. a strange thing for a Southern man to do some of you Yankees would not do so perhaps. There was a white table-cloth, and chairs around the table, and some white napkins, as she had seen these things used
introduced
all

w
seminary; for we regard such things as efficient though silent educators. At Chester, S.C., we commenced a school some twenty years ago Now we have three hundred and seventy-eight in a small cabin. young men and women there, and every house except the main building on the place was built by the young men. They are taught carpentering and practical farming in this school. I saw a threestory building put up by these boys, and the work well done. The girls also, when they leave this school, are well prepared to take care That sort of education lies at the of themselves and their homes. foundation of our work. When I gave up my church to take charge of this work, some " Give up a church to plead the cause people thought I was crazy. " Why, you can make nothing out of Negroes " of the Negro " I replied, " Mayor, the Lord has made said the mayor of the city. something out of you, and you must confess he had poor material to work with." Give these poor people a chance, give God a chance with them, and see what he will make of them. We as a race have had two thousand years the start of these people. Give the Negroes a white educate and Christianize them, man's chance, and we need not fear the future of the colored race. When one hundred and eightyeight thousand of them rallied under our flag in the darkest hour of the great Civil War, there is no need to fear for them. O friends, when at the close of the war you saw thirty-six thousand seven hundred and forty-eight of these black fellows lying dead on the battle-fields, do not tell me that they will not make citizens. You cannot find one dynamiter among them you cannot find a single socialist or anarchist among them, nor a secret society of any kind whose object is to undermine our Christian institutions. You have these classes all over your Northern country. These eight million colored men are loyal to our government. God has been with them from the beginning, and we must not leave God out of this question. I feel a great deal of interest in this people. I have given up my life-work to help them on. I have carried the prayer of an old colored man in my heart ever since I was a boy. He was a slave of my father. We children loved him much. My father had great respect for him he was a good man. When the prayer-bell was rung, all my father's house-servants could go in and worship if they chose. He never compelled them to go. This man, Joe Price, could neither read nor write but, if ever there was a child of God, I believe that man was one. I have often heard my father ask him to lead in family prayers. Late one evening I was coming through a field on my father's plantation. As I came up toward the house, I heard a strange noise that frightened me. I stopped to listen, and recognized a human voice over in the tall grass. It was Joe Price I stood still, not wishing to disturb him, and heard a part at prayer. of his prayer; and I think that I can repeat the very words of the " Now, Lor' Jesus, I am 'most at de journey's end. old man yet. Put on me de white robe of righteousness. Wash my heart all over And then I heard him say, " Now 'member de cotton in de blood."
at the
! !

fields

and de corn crop and de old people up at de house. And, O Lor\ please bless old massa's little boys, 'member old massa's little When I heard that, I felt like getting down upon my knees boys." I was beside the old man for I was sure I stood on holy ground. sure the words of that old man would reach the ears of Him up yonder who could bless " old massa's little boys." We saw him die about five months after. My father took us children into his cabin. I heard my father read to him the thirteenth chapter of John, and I heard him I heard him bless my father and bid him good-by.
;

" Now, Lor' Jesus, I heard his feeble voice say, bless us children. And then he died. help me over de river." take me by de han', and Friends, I believe that day the Lord Jesus stooped to the humble cabin of the slave, and took old Uncle Joe's hand in his, and helped him over the river and into Immanuel's land ; and, if ever I get to heaven, just as sure as I get there, I am going to hunt up old

Uncle Joe Price, and take his dusky hand in mine, and thank him for the prayer he offered for " massa's little boys." Friends, help us, and the descendants of that old slave will rise up to bless God for this great work, this work for God, for humanity, and for our country. Remember from whence these people came. They did not come " with freedom to this land as our forefathers came, seeking a place They were kidnapped, thrust into the hole of a to worship God."
slave-ship,

the

and brought here against their will and we enslaved them, North as well as the South. Beneath the very shadow of old Independence Hall, where liberty was proclaimed to all the land, we forged the chains that held them in bondage for two hundred and They asked of us bread, and we gave them a stone. sixty years. They asked for a fish, and we gave them a scorpion. And, when at what a freedom last a strange providence compelled us to free them, freedom of ignorance, degradation, and helplessness! Like it was, God's ancient people, when freed from Egyptian bondage, they entered at once an unknown wilderness, but without a Moses or Joshua to Homeless, friendless, guide them, or priest or altar to instruct them. and penniless, they took up their march through that wilderness. The sun that rose on that emancipation morning shone on them as the poorest and most penniless four millions of people on the earth. They were free, it is true but they possessed absolutely nothing. They did not own a cabin, nor a foot of ground, nor a farming utensil, not even the coarse tow-linen garment which covered their nakedness these were all owned by their masters. There was nothing left them that morning but their muscles and their simple faith in God. Slavery had dwarfed their manhood, physically and morally. There was not a legal marriage among them for two hundred and sixty years, and of course they had low ideas of marriage and the sacredness of the family relation. Darkness covered their habitations, and " gross darkness the people." comJust here these people commenced twenty-five years ago, menced on nothing, and on a path never before trod by the race, a path of freedom and citizenship, and with a race prejudice against them both in the North and South. And what has been the outcome? The census of 1880 showed they were paying taxes on
;

19

$101,000 worth of property, and are rapidly becoming land-holders. In the State of Georgia they own over 600,000 acres ; in South The present census will Carolina, over a quarter of a million acres. In intellectual pursuits and doubtless show these figures doubled. industrial arts, which have been opened to them, they are maintaining Let us open the way to a creditable position with the white race. them, and give them a man's chance, and I believe they will honor And I their race and the country in which their lot has been cast. trust, Mr. Chairman, that this Conference may blaze the way through the forest of prejudice that has surrounded the race, and enable them to come out of the wilderness and be permitted to assert their manhood and womanhood as members and citizens of our great republic. To educate and Christianize this people, God has given us the opporTrain the heads of this people tunity of the age in which we live. with intellectual learning, and their hands with industrial teaching, and their hearts with the precious gospel of Jesus Christ, and you A grander work than this, for God, will solve the Negro question. for country, and for humanity, was never before so laid on the heart and conscience of a nation and shall we for a moment hesitate to take up a work which God in his providence so manifestly lays at our
;

feet?

Rev. Dr. A. F. Beard, Corresponding Secretary of the American Missionary Association, New York, was invited to speak.

appears to be a kind of experience meeting. feature of saving the people comes first upon our programme. It came in this order when our first parents were commanded to attend to agricultural work. I quite agree with General Armstrong in the assertion that the thing to be sought for in First and last, and all the time, elevating a people is character. If we can get right character, all what is needed is character. other issues will be right. If we can settle the question of character, the question of race is settled. In the schools of the American Missionary Association scattered through the South, we have like experiences with those which have been related. To be sure, we do not teach the Shorter Catechism after the method of Dr. Allen and I presume we shall not introduce it now until after it shall have been revised, and we see what our friends the Presbyterians are going to Until then we shall do with it, in the next General Assembly. have to stick to the Bible, and especially to the New Testament. But our primary idea is Christian regeneration. We are working to make our schools instinct with Christian thought, principle, and life. The missionary idea is the emphatic idea of the schools sustained by We seek, first of all, to make Christians and we connect with us. our Christian schools industrial schools, because they are adjuncts in the building of character. I quite agree, also, with Dr. Allen in the necessity of accentuating the education for girls. We must save the girls for the homes, and for generations to come. We have, therefore, introduced industrial accompaniments in all of our schools for girls. I am sure that General Armstrong is not out of the way in the emphasis which he places upon industry as a foundation for character, for there are certain lacks in the negro which perhaps can be met only by this industrial training.
Dr. Beard.
It is well that this industrial
;
;

This

20
mention in the Negro is that of orderliness see the difference in order and thrift in the common Southern plantation and the well-kept Northern farm. I was impressed with this on my return from the South in company with some young men who were visiting the North for the first time. As we passed through the fine Pennsylvania farms, they expressed conThey had never seen anything of the kind in the way stant surprise. They admired the orderliness of the well-kept of thrifty farming. farms, the successful thrift, and said, " It surely was quite absurd in us to think we could conquer the people who do things this way." Now, this lack of orderliness, so evident on the plantations, is a part Industrial education is a long step in the of the Negro character. interest of orderliness. Another lack is that the untrained Negro has no idea of time. He The is in time when he is in his church before the benediction. Industrial training sense of time is imperfect in all untrained people. educates one in the appreciation of time. Work by the hour and by the piece has a great value in forming habits of punctuality. " Almost " and Again, the untrained Negro lacks accuracy. " " altogether " mean the same thing to the Negro. His " pretty near " It will do " is well enough for him. is the same as absolute right. He is inconsiderate in work. Industrial education helps to overcome this. For example, in the carpenter's shop, the tools must be kept in order and in place. They cannot be dropped where used,

The

first

lack which

and method.

You may

and must not be left lying around anywhere and everywhere. The untrained Negro leaves his tools all over the farm he seldom knows just where they are. In the shop he must learn and practise the principle that " there is a place for everything, and everything must Then, be in its place." This certainly helps to build character. when as a student he comes to fit and join, he learns that " pretty well " won't do ; he realizes that " pretty well " is simply bad the This joints must exactly fit the work must be accurate and true. We teach the certainly goes to the building up of the character. students to see that to be only " pretty good " is to be like a pretty good egg, and that is a bad egg. When they have not Another lack is in the sense of values. Where they made things themselves, they do not feel their cost. make things, they have an estimate of their values. The education They begin to econoin industries is an education in economies. If we mize, have a sense of property, when they work out the idea. can get them to have a right idea of property, we shall have done
:

Industrial the elevation of the masses of the race. for character also. One more great lack in the Negro is that of proper home life. Christianity has done great things for us who are here to-day, whereof we are glad. In many ways, our blessed faith has blessed us. But I question whether, after all these centuries of inheritance, Christianity has anything better to show for itself and for us than a Christian

much toward
training thus

makes

the home of home, and the influences which stream out from it, Christian faith and culture. There is all the difference in the world between a Negro cabin and a cultured home. Of real homes most Negroes know very little. They are without any of the refinements

21

worthy home life. If we can have a cabinet shop where we can teach the boys to make a table and a bureau, then, when they return to their cabins; they will be likely to put a bureau where there used to be a box, they will have a table where there was none. Repeatedly, I have seen our industrial training working in this way. The cabin improves; and, as the cabin improves, you will find entering the accompaniments of privacy and delicacy, and of a genuine Christian home. Some of the most direct paths to the building of Christian homes are through these industrial shops and in the line of industrial education. In uplifting this people, we must not lose sight of the fact that thev they need to be changed in heart and in the motives need saving, of their lives. We could build houses through the South if we could get the money. We could put in furniture, give the poor Negro a cook-book, and say, "Now be civilized, now live rightly." That, however, would not do it. The home-making quality must be in the people, the uplifting power must be in their characters and, as they shall be built up in this way, we shall have gradually better homes all through the South, and these habits and homes will go far toward the solution of this great question.
of a

Miss Sarah

F.

Smiley was invited

at

to speak.

the close of the war I gave about three years of my life to this cause and I look back upon them as those which educated me most, whatever they did for the Negro, they were so rich in experience. I went to relieve human suffering; but I soon found myself drawn into this very line of work that has come before us this morning, and which seems to me the solution of the problem. Feeling the necessity for this sort of work, we soon had a laro-e storeroom arranged and material furnished, and we set to work to solve some of the difficulties of their poverty. At Chimborazo in Richmond, through the kindness of General O. O. Brown, then in command, we got several thousand towels that were left from the Sanitary Commission. We bought soap. We told the women as soon as they had washed face and hands, at least, we would give them something else. We first gave each a piece of patchwork, and taught her From that they went on until soon they could make anv to sew. garment they pleased. had a tailor employed, and we worked entirely in that way, getting materials, making' clothes, and paying them a fair price in material. Over six hundred learned to sew, and earned clothing for themselves and families. One noticeable thing was that these clothes which they made up for themselves outlasted any clothes which were given to them. If a garment was given them, it soon went to rags ; but that which they made lasted for years. We proceeded in the same way with books. If we gave them a book, it was in tatters in a week. I made the rule that no book should ever be given away. There was a perfect howl among the teachers at this. I said, "Very well teach them from charts." But there came a time when they really needed books. I said, " Send to me the boys whose mothers are widows and who cannot afford to buy books." I cast about to find some way by which they could earn them. We had a little back-yard to our small house, which we did not want dug
;

Miss Smiley.

Just

We

22
up at all but I didn't say so. As the boys came, I would say to ? " Yes." " Go them,. " Do you wish to earn money for your primer " home, then, and come with a shovel, and there is a place where you can dig. I will give you ten cents an hour, and in two hours you will
;

I do not know whether I am glad or sorry earn your spelling-book." it but the shovel never went into that ground, but the money always came for the books. About that time I went to Philadelphia, and some kind gentleman asked me what I thought, from my two years of observation, was the "Very I replied at once, "Tubs and brooms." greatest need. and, when I reached Richmond, well," he said, " I will think of that " I found one hundred and forty-four wash-tubs and five hundred brooms. So a grand visitation took place to see who had brooms and tubs. It was almost impossible to find the real owner of a tub. One borrowed from another, and it seemed sometimes as if we should We gave a big really need the police officer to find the real owner. tub to the big families and a small tub to the small families, and every one had a broom. About that time we had some very nice English things sent to us to give away, quite too nice for the purpose ; but a bright idea struck me, and I had them all strung up, and the whole camp summoned to the exhibition of the things. I think there were thirteen. There were beautiful shawls, one carpet, and two or Then I said three quilts, each of the value of ten or twenty dollars. " These are things that we are going to give as prizes to the women We have not decided on the to those who have the nicest homes. time it may be to morrow or it may be any time up to the last of March. Any time that it may happen, six of us will go round the camp, and choose the twelve houses which are nicest, and give these We left it till nearly the end of March, and it was wonderful prizes." what the tubs and brooms were meantime doing. One fine day we and, in comparing notes, we started out, and made our inspection found thirteen that seemed to be about on a level. I called these thirteen women together, and had the pleasure of giving out the I don't think that anything we ever did prizes in the presence of all. educated these people like the tubs and brooms and the giving of

to say

those prizes.

Hon. Edward L. Pierce asked

speak.

to

have Miss Elizabeth H. Botume

perience, that

so long, and I have had so much exIn 1864 I went to Port to begin. Rovai, and found the people in a condition that I doubt if our all the children of the family on Northern friends can understand, the floor, eating from the hominy pot with their fingers, and sleeping on the floor. My first difficulty in the school-room was in getting

Miss Botume.
I

My story

is

hardly

know where

names. I had received a message from General Saxton before went down, saying that there was a large number of refugees at Port Royal, and he wished I would come and take care of them. My heart was in the work, and I went down. My first scholars were these refugee children, nearly all of them living in camps. The first time that I went into school I wanted to enroll the I found they would change their children and ask their names.
their
I

^3
as often as they chose, often having what they called "a basket or nickname. The second day no one answered to the name by which he had been enrolled the first; and, as I could not tell one face from another, I found it very difficult to keep my roll. I then decided, as I had reading-books to give out, that I would write the names in these books, and in that way I gave them the idea of their names, so that I may be said to have truly named the children with
title,"
I began work. Then I would try to seat them but, as soon back was turned, they were rolling over on the floor. These were some of the minor difficulties in beginning. I accept every word that General Armstrong has said, and yet I have refused entirely to make my school an industrial school. Why ? Because there is so much to be taught before that. I have sewing and cutting taught. Boys and girls both learn this. I think it has a refining influence upon our boys to have them in the sewing-room, and they enjoy it as much as the girls. I find so much else to be taught that I have no time for an industrial school. They are all day schools; and I try to teach them something that they can carry home, about order, about neatness, and care of the house. Every ni^ht when they go home they repeat to their parents what they have learned in school. A few years ago I built myself a new house, and I invited all my neighbors to come in and see what a new house was. " You could have this I said to them for it is very plain and simple, and it is convenient. Here is a closet with hooks to hang things on," and these hooks were a great admiration to them all. I gave them the price of everything. I showed them that I did not have anything lying round, that my broom was hung up and they would say, " That is a great thing," which is their common expression. There is no lack of desire on the part of these children to go to school: their parents desire- it, too; but we have to teach them what going to school means. I have to explain this to them by very simple illustrations. They seem to think a lesson is something they can send and get, as they would get something from the store. They will say, "Please give my children a lesson quick; for I'se hasty, and I want them at home." I explain to them something like this When you are going to plant something, don't you plough the land, and then plant it, and then wait, sometimes till Christmas, for the crop? Well, education is the same you have got to toil and wait. When I give the children a lesson, it is like planting the seed: you must wait for it to grow, as you wait for your crop. By and by you will gather in the crop. These simple things are what we are trying to do. We have had trouble lately in our school attendance on account of an old superstition. We have been going through a singular experience; for most of the children are "seekers of religion," seeking to get into the church, and they speak of it as "travelling through the wilderness." I speak of this with great respect. I am glad to have my children go into the church. The deacons and preachers have a great influence over them. If one is accused of anything wrong, the church takes it up and deals with it, and it is an excellent thing. But this method of going into a church means breaking up the school. Up to the first of March, my school was in a very excellent condition. I had an examination which was very satisfactory. I gave out prizes,
;
:

names

whom as my

24
and the children were delighted. But soon I found all the life and I could no longer get them to sing spirit had gone out of the school. Finally, I was at my wits' end to or to read any pieces with any life. know what to do. Visitors came one day, and I asked the children and no one responded. to sing; but they put their heads on the benches, Then i' went to the parents and asked what it meant. "Oh," they nothing but come there. said, "they are 'seeking': they can do They have to get up every night, and wander through the night, prayThey can do nothing else, ing that is the way we did in old times.
:

because thev are seeking. They have meetings which last from dark Then I went to the minister of the church, and asked till daylight." him what to do about it. He said, "You can do nothing: the old how to get habits of slavery are on this people, and they do not know "Do you hold," I asked, "that it is a good thing for rid of them." children of ten years of age to be wandering about and praying all " but it is an old habit of slavery." " No," he said night? " At the same time they are working out of this, they are becoming more enlightened bv degrees, and they are forming for themselves new homes. In Beaufort, three-fourths of the land is owned by colored people. I was told by one of the town officers that they never mortgaged their property, they never endangered their homes, they always pay their taxes, no matter what their other indebtedness may The homes are almost invariably held by the women. The rule be. Then often without .a chimney. is to put up a shanty of a house, in a chimney, then ceil the house, and then put in glass they put windows instead of shutters. So it goes on from year to year. Most of the houses are one-story high, but a few have put on another
;

story.

There is where civilization comes in, when homes are built. around me people are marrying and settling in the community, They no longer sit building as near the school-house as possible. on the floor and eat with their fingers, or sit in the corners with their backs to each other. They have tables and dishes and ornaments, and one family has a parlor organ. Several have "machins," as with they call them but, I am sorry to say, the machines interfere
All
;

their fine sewing. I have tried lately

an experiment

in

my

neighborhood.

Many

of

those who have married had been to school to me, and their children We now cut the children's clothes, and let the garare now going. ments be made at home ; and I am delighted with this experiment. They come back proud of their ability to do this work, and it is well

done.

Judge A. W. Tourgee, of Mayville, N.Y., was next recognized.

So much has been said this morning about the Judge Tourgee. have industrial deficiencies of the colored people of the South that I surprised at the omission of any reference to the other been greatly I have always their industrial excellences. side of the question, been less impressed with the industrial needs of the colored man From 1865 until 1880, I had a than his industrial achievements. an peculiarly good opportunity for observing his qualities both as and mechanical laborer, having first and last had some agricultural hundreds in my employ, and during much of the time each year trav-

25
elling in different parts of the State in which I then lived. As a result of constant study of their conditions since emancipation, I do

not hesitate to say that the colored people of the South have accomplished in twenty-five years, from an industrial point of view, than any people on the face of the earth ever before achieved under anything like such unfavorable conditions. The manner in which they live and the things they do not do have been alluded to here as if they were racial qualities, and not forI was much impressed with the suggestuitous, resulting conditions. tions of more than one who has spoken, as to what they should be taught to do, as if they were industrial babes. I would like to see any of their advisers give the colored man lessons in the management of a mule, or teach him to raise a crop of corn or cotton or tobacco, In those forms of industry or work a bad hillside at the South. which they have had an opportunity to acquire, they have shown an aptitude and success which are simply amazing, when we consider their previous lack of opportunity to learn management, thrift, and

more

economy.
relies

agricultural
failure.

is always prompt to criticise their methods; yet the Northern farmer who goes South and upon his own judgment and his own labor is very generally a

The Northern man

So, too, in comparison with the " poor whites " of the South, the landless cropper-class, it is unquestionable that the Negro has excelled them greatly in industrial progress since his emancipation. In five of the heaviest cotton-growing counties of five States of the South, it is estimated that from four to six per cent, of the heads of families among colored people live now under their own roof-trees. In the regions where agriculture is more varied, the proportion is much greater. Probably six per cent, is a fair average. Now, if, under the conditions prevailing in 1865, two in a thousand had housed themselves in twenty-five years, it would have been regarded, by the observant political economist, as nothing short of an industrial miracle. I have no doubt that five times as large a proportion of them have become home-owners and self-employers as of the " poor

whites," who most nearly approach them in educational and financial conditions, and with whom alone they can be justly compared. Indeed, they already stand above the average of the white race in some industrial conditions. There is only half as large a percentage of paupers among them as among the whites of the eight States of the " black belt " of the South, and the proportion of paupers among the ivhites of the South is much less than at the North. It has been claimed that the reason of this is that the old masters support the aged and infirm who have been slaves. No doubt, this is sometimes true ; but, even in slave times, it required special statutes in every Southern State to prevent the masters from abandoning such infirm slaves to live by their own devices, and it is not reasonable to suppose that the white man would support the infirm freedman and send the disabled ones of his own race to the poorhouse. It is simply a remarkable economic fact which establishes beyond controversy the remarkable economic value of the colored man as an industrial element
of

American life. Something has been said about the frequent absence of the sur-

fr

<

.*n

nm

wti-i

- m< mi

26
In " Bricks without Straw," the Negroes of the South. cause and character of this, to us of the North, I fully discussed the It is a terrible unconsingular feature of the freedman's character. testimony against the treatment American Christianity has scious accorded our "brother in black." It was natural that the freedman never should be a little lax in the matter of names. The slave had surname, could not have one, indeed, because he been allowed a had no father. The law expressly forbade it. He was always a nulsimply as Jim or John. liusfilius, and was indicted, tried, and hanged And it must be remembered that indictment and trial was the only He could be hanged, but could legal privilege the slave enjoyed. his master changed his name as often as he .not be married; and Why should not this man, new-born to self-control, make chose. experiments in nomenclature ? He was a good way behind us, some

name among

fooling with our names for centuries, and have not a always gotten them entirely satisfactory even yet. This is not but an eternal testimony against injustice. At the racial peculiarity, men, women, and close of the war there were set free 5,000,000 of without a husband, a wife, a lawful father, a legitimate child, children, They were without homes, or a legal family name among them all educawithout monev/ without lands, tools, seeds, or stock, without experience, without inheritance, without the impulse of tion, without generations of thrift and intelligence. Yet, without a family name, of except one of his own selection, with wages hardly one-third those industhe agricultural laborer of the North, the Negro accomplished of facts who can lay aside trial results which must make any observer theories, utter, with profound amazement, those prejudice and forget words first of all flashed through the electric wire, "What hath

who have been

God-wrought

"

President C. next spoke

:

Gaines, of Eastman College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,

disposition to Pres. Gaines. Mr. President, although I have little intending to take part in this discussion, and came to the Conference only, yet I cannot resist the temptation to take the floor be a listener information, apparfor a few minutes, for the sake of giving certain spoken. Like Dr. ently not within the knowledge of those who have As far as I know, my people a slaveholder. Allen, I am the son of atmoshave all been slave-owners ; and, as I have been reared in this things which seem, to say the least, singular to those phere, many unacquainted with slave life on a Southern plantation may be ex-

plained as

common

incidents of the institution.

allusion has Let me speak first as to the matter of names, to which never been made. In our section of Virginia, plantation negroes name. They were only a few generations removed from had but one civilization. absolute savagery, and as such knew nothing of Christian were soon as they became the slaves of a particular master, they As Christian name as he might choose to give, as listed under such their ages and other distinguishJim, Tom, Harry, or George, and

If they had a surname at all, this was ing characteristics set down. master supposed to be that of their master. So, if the surname of the happened to be Bruce, the slave would be Jim or Tom Bruce. Excep-

27
tions to this rule occasionally occurred through the repetition of the plantation, when some mark peculiar to the per-

same name on one

cially

son or incident to his history would be given as a surname. Espewas this true where slaves were sold, when they often were known by the surname of an original master who might then be dead. Thus you will find many Negroes to-day who do not retain the surname of their last owner, but are known by that of a remote ancestor who years ago came out of another estate for, when they were freed, they chose such names as they pleased, and many of them observed such reasonable rules as to ancestry as naturally apply. A word as to Negro children not knowing their names and a-es. My own observation is that many white children, when very young, are much perplexed by similar questions. I have often stood in a company of Negro children and asked one of them his name, and had him answer the name of every other child on the place before a suggestion seemed to come of his true name. He knew all the other children by their names, but it had never occurred to him that his own name was thus and so. This is not so much a matter of memory or intelligence it is a lack of proper teaching, probably of a
;

correct association of ideas. The same might be said of their ignorance of their ages. It has been my observation that very few Negroes can give correctly their own ages. Even to this day there hardly passes a month that one of our former slaves does not come to the house with the familiar in" quiry, " Marster (or Mistis), how old is I ? Such facts, I see, occasion some surprise among you, who are more or less strangers to these unfortunate people ; but allow me to ask that you keep in mind constantly, in discussing their present condition, how greatly improved it is compared with what it was when they first landed. It is related of a cargo of slaves who had lately arrived that, when after debarkation they had been fed with a good supper, they fell upon the carcass of a dead horse which had been left in the neighborhood of the landing-place, and fed again. I have often heard it said by old men in Virginia, who remembered Negroes of recent importation, that they had known such to go out and catch snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, the vilest reptiles of any kind, and devour them raw instead of living on such good rations as were provided for them, for which they seemed to have little appetite. In fact, as to diet, and in many other respects, they differed very little from our Indians on the frontier. Upon such conditions, they now show splendid improvements ; and I cannot but agree with the last speaker, when he says they have made the greatest strides the world has ever known. I go back for a visit to Virginia frequently, and thus keep informed as to what is doing there, and am not a little surprised at the changes taking place. Many of the reptile-eaters of a generation or two ago are accumulating a little property and getting on well. Some have bought good holdings, and cultivate their own land. I asked a county treasurer, who, as he is collector of taxes, is in a position to know, how many Negroes owned farms in his county. He replied that he could not undertake to answer accurately off hand, but that he was under the impression that there were about four hundred. This in

28
a population of about
of

thousand, considerably more than half a most encouraging sign. a point as to his statistics touching pauperism among them. The reason there are so few Negro paupers is that the old and infirm among them are still supported by their former masters. I know intimately not less than a dozen families in Virginia who do more charity of this kind than can be well imagined, and could give the names of half a hundred poor old colored people who are literally their dependants. Some of these have children and grandchildren very capable of caring for and supporting them but, I am sorry to say, a great weakness of the race seems to be a tendency I have always to disregard family ties, even in their holiest relation. despised slavery ; but during the existence of the institution there was no such thing as an insane asylum or poorhouse for Negroes. In fact, I have often heard it stated that there was almost no insanity among them, though there is plenty now and, as for the poor and That custom has come helpless, every man took care of his own. down to this day, and I trust you will pardon my saying that it is one in which I take no little pride. Who would have the heart to send a family servant of thirty years' standing, whose usefulness had departed with increasing age, to take her chances in a public almshouse ? So every old-time owner of a plantation, who is still able to keep his own together, is in a large sense the conductor of an eleemosynary institution, retaining at the same time his own self-respect and the friendship of a people who have heard too often that he was their worst enemy. The Negroes are citizens now, but they are not politically emanciFor ten years after the war a strenuous effort was made to pated. bring them to such a condition, but it failed through difficulties that their would-be friends had not apprehended and could not surmount. What they need most is a radical change in character. Next to that, their acquisition of some property is the chief desideratum. Much has been done for them in the way of education but they have not vet property enough to enable them to avail themselves of their that is, to use and increase it as they go through life. I learning, believe in giving to all the colored people the rudiments of an educaLet them learn the "three R's " at least, but, if possible, give tion. them in addition what General Armstrong has impressed as so importhat is, better morals, some industrial training, habits of thrift. tant Teach them, above all things, to acquire some property for, as soon as they do, they will become supporters of the public press, will buy books, will read the newspapers, and through such reading will keep and improve what they may have learned in the public schools. Otherwise, what they learn between the years of five and fifteen will lapse for I know it to be a fact that just this thing has happened The colored family takes no paper, practically in many instances. and, as a rule, has no books, few of them even as much as a Bible, prayer or hymn book, the reading of which, I am glad to say, is always listened to by them with the keenest delight. They must be educated, too, before they can be in any sense fit to govern the States where they dwell. At present they are entirely under the control of one or another set of selfish politicians. At
fifteen

whom are colored, I consider Let me give Judge Tourgee

29
elections, the majority of cents upwards for they
;

them may be bought for from twenty-five have little appreciation of the real issue on which they vote, and less understanding and knowledge of the economic value of questions. They vote for that candidate who can pav most, as this seems to be as near to their interest as they can The sin of using money in elections is not peculiar to any get. partv and I have known colored men, prominent as leaders among their people and as partisans, to lie around the polls all day without voting, waiting to be paid to vote or not to vote by the party which thev had generally opposed up to that time. The people at the North have given and are giving noble sums of money to educate these people, to endow their universities. But, while you are thus giving the interest on your millions, do not forget that the Southern people are also giving their millions in yearly Georgia alone pays a million dollars annually for this purtaxes. pose, forty-nine per cent, of which goes to support colored schools and this is exactly her percentage of Negro population. Ninety-five per cent, of these taxes are paid by the white people of the South, who are in every State awaking to the importance of assisting in the most substantial manner to educate and elevate the colored citizen. And, although this great work is still very deficient in many sections, I think we may take courage from the fact that an honest effort is being made, and that no better word can go forth from this Conference than that which carries your sympathy and countenance to those among whom this problem is a stern reality and by whom it must be solved.
;

lotte,

Professor William E. N.C., followed:

Prof.

been

I think a good many people who have not South may get a wrong idea of what colored people need. I believe in industrial education and in what General Armstrong has But, when we speak of industrial education, we should emphasaid. If there is any industry in the South, size the word "education." What they want is the education. What the Negroes have got it. They do can you teach colored women about washing clothes ? what laundry work there is to be done. The Chinaman can scarcely do it better. But how are the children of these women who do your laundry work in the most approved style dressed ? How are the women thert.^lves dressed ? They go in clothes that sadly need mending, and nave not been washed I do not know for how long. You cannot All the blacksmiths of the South, nearly, are Negroes. teach them anything on that subject. But they have no education outside of their trade. They are no better for it, they are no better for the education part has been left out. How about carcitizens You need not tell them anything about carpentry. Our penters ? big building at Biddle University was built by the labor of colored men and white men but a colored man was the master carpenter, and the best man of the lot. What we want to do is to educate them, so that they will do these things for themselves. They can build a good house for another man, but they will live in a log cabin themselves. I know a good carpenter who lives in a wretched house.

Hutchison.

Hutchison

of

Biddle

University,

Char-

3Q

He

is

no better

off

because he

is

a first-class carpenter.

Again,
at

of those who know trades well do not want to work trades. Negroes like to be together where they can have time. They would rather work for sixty cents at any sort where several of them can be together than to work alone

many

their

a good
of
at

work
such

There is no as requires skill for a dollar and a quarter a day. use in trying to help the Negro race by technical schools, or by teaching them trades, if you do not emphasize the educational part of their training. That will make them better men, better citizens, and will be the means of uplifting them in every way.

work

The following paper was then read by John C. Covert, editor of the Cleveland Leader.

THE RACE PROBLEM.

BY JOHN
C.

COVERT, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

The Negro problem is now attracting the attention of the philanthropic and thoughtful classes of the United States, and it is destined to still more completely absorb the public mind in the near future. Senator Eustis, It is a subject worthy of the most thoughtful study. of Louisiana, expresses a very common opinion in saying that it "promises to be the most serious of all problems, and is still far But some systematic and well-defined plan from being settled." must be reached for the gradual solution of this problem. As the Negro has been made an integral part of the American people, his moral, intellectual, and industrial condition is a question of vital national importance, and it should be a subject of earnest study by the American people. It is the bounden duty of the people to see that no pains are spared to make him an honest, self-supporting This work should not be left entirely citizen and a good neighbor. The to the government, either to that of the nation or the State. vital principle underlying our institutions is that the people are the government, and thus far in our history every great movement for the public good has started from and spread through the people until In it became a ruling force and an accepted principle among them. a government of the people, where the organic law proclaims an equality of rights, there must, as far as possible, be an equality of mental and moral conditions. The four million slaves, made free by an act of emancipation, clothed with rights of citizenship by legislation, must be made morally and intellectually the equals of their fellow-freemen. To secure this end, the varied civilizing agencies which have elevated the white man to his present condition must be placed within the reach of the Negro. The Negroes of the United States are increasing in number with remarkable rapidity, and the great mass of them are in the South. Private enterprise will provide them with work, develop their energy, and make them self-supporting and productive members of society but the State and the philanthropic agencies of the country must furnish the means for developing their mental and moral character. It is to the potent influences of religion, education, industry, and

3i

commerce

These that we owe our present high state of civilization. influences have lifted the Anglo-Saxons, the Latins, Celts, and Slavs from barbarism to refinement. They have wrought wonderful changes in the character of man even during the last century, giving him more exalted aims, making him better morally and intellectually. The Negro cannot enjoy the same advantages without undergoing a As sure as the sun breaks up the frozen similar improvement. earth, awakening all nature to a new and brighter life, so sure will the light of religion and education invest the mind of the Negro with all the moral and intellectual attributes which belong to exalted The present condition of the Negro, accordconditions of manhood. ing to those who have studied the subject, in the black belt of the South is most deplorable. We are told that he is ignorant, immoral, and indifferent to many of the great duties of life; that he neither understands the true spirit of the religion which he ostentatiously While professes nor conforms to its requirements in his daily life. we all know that there are many to whom this description will not apply, yet it must be correct in regard to the great mass of men and women who were born in slavery, or who born since have not enjoyed religious and educational surroundings. It would be an injustice to attempt to gauge the capacity of the Negro from conditions so near to a state of society where his intelligence was repressed by law through fear that he might learn the lessons of insurrection. The Mr. Hilary A. Herbert, of people of the South recognize this fact. Alabama, in a book recently written by fourteen eminent Southern gentlemen, says that, " when the Negro was a slave, the white men of the South made it unlawful to teach him to read," but "now these same whites are taxing themselves to fit him for freedom." There can be no doubt that the influence of education will "fit him for freedom"; and it is the duty of all classes of people, all over the country, to co-operate with the white men of the South in this noble work. The Negro population of this country now numbers nearly 8,000,By the year 1900 it is estimated 000, of whom 1,320,000 are voters. Among the present that they will be in the majority in eight States. Negro population there are 1,103,000 colored children of school age who do not attend school, purely because of the absence of schools. According to the census of 1880, there were in the sixteen old slave States 4,715,395 persons over ten years of age who could not read or write, 63 per cent, of them, or 2,961,371, being grown up men and women, far beyond the school age. The 1,103,000 boys and girls in the South now out of school were The born free, and are deprived of all educational advantages. number of children is increasing more rapidly than the facilities for education. These children will soon be voters, exerting for good or evil an influence upon the nation. They will be fathers and mothers, moulding the character of children, and charged with the performance Unless they are elevated by of social, religious, and moral duties. religion and education, they will inevitably impart to the coming generation the same defects which slavery has bred in them and their That they have shown themselves susceptible of high parents. improvement and are actuated by an earnest desire to advance will

32
not admit of dispute. Every teacher who has worked among them reports that they are hungry for education. Mr. George W. Cable, whose earnest labors in behalf of the freedmen merit the highest " Right here in our midst is the greediest people for praise, says education and the gospel on the face of the earth not counted among our white race. Why, if you knew the national value of the work, you would quadruple your offerings." One of the teachers from " Since the first of last Scotia Seminary, North Carolina, writes September until the present date, December, over 130 applicants have been refused, and almost every week, almost every day, brings us
:

more to whom we say, No When we see numbers of girls and young women going astray whom we might save, could we take them in, some of whom have begged for admittance, our hearts are sore. Sometimes the mothers come in person to plead with us to take their daughters. A girl came from a long distance, and, when told there was no room, said I have had too hard I don't want to go back. work to get here. I am willing to take half a chance, just half a chance.' But you would not like to take less than half a bed,' was the reply, I have slept three in a bed before now, and am willing to do it again, if I can only stay,' was the quick response. Two girls grown women, ignorant, but anxious to learn, walked twenty miles, and shed tears when told there was no room for them." Dr. Curry, a Southern man and the very efficient and energetic general agent of the Peabody Fund, says, " The Southern States, on whose territory the war between the States was waged, and which came out of that terrible struggle crushed and reduced to poverty, have paid nearly or quite $50,000,000 for the education of the Negroes " and General Armstrong, the able principal of the Hampton School, says " Southern tax-payers are doing more than any others for the Negro by maintaining 16,000 free colored schools, at an annual cost of over $3,000,000. Of every $100 paid in Southern taxation, $91.50 is paid by white people." The Christian Church, aided by the generous philanthropy of a few large-hearted, wealthy men, is making its beneficent influence felt, in behalf of the freedmen, though its efforts are not yet commensurate
'
!

'

'

'

'

with

or at all proportioned to the vast field of labor. of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church reported at the General Assembly May 19, 1890, as follows: "Twenty-five years ago we had no church, school, educated colored preacher or teacher while to-day finds us with 245 churches, 78
its ability

The Board

schools, 117 colored preachers, and 133 colored teachers, and not less than 500,000 freedmen are now reached by their good influence. The receipts of the board during the year were $176,000, a gain over The freedmen themselves have given toward last year of $41,000. the support of their own churches and schools, $40,000. Nine new churches have been organized in the Carolinas. "There is similar progress in Arkansas, where many of those who have left the seaboard are settling. The Negroes as a whole are multiplying far faster than the means of educating them. But in the regions where our schools are illiteracy wanes. Parochial schools are especially helpful. At Brainerd Institute nearly every new building needed, including a large three-story dormitory, for three or four
. . .

33
years has been put up by the students. During the year we have had 316 missionaries, 252 of them colored, 26 more than last year. The whole number of communicants is 16,502; of pupils in 254 SundayIn our other 78 schools are 10,169 pupils and 171 schools, ^.782.
teachers." In 1889 this mission reported that it had seventy-six schools, ten less than the preceding year. It had been compelled, through financial embarrassments, to close ten schools during the year 1889. It had nineteen applications for new schools, and by the closing of ten the board fell 29 schools short of supplying the demand. Only two new schools were started last year, where hundreds were needed. In these 78 schools, the report says, there are this year 10,169 pupils against 11,175 pupils given in the report for 1889, a falling off of 1,000 pupils in one year. The number of communicants in the report of 1890 is placed at 16,502. The report of 1889 places them at 17,480, a falling off of over 1,000 in one year. This decrease in th? school attendance and in the number of communicants is no fault of the freedmen. For the year ending April, 18S9, tne Y contributed $31,092.47 for the support of this mission work, while last year thev contributed over $40,000 for the same purpose. The last report of Presbyterian work among the Negroes shows an increase in contributions and in the number of churches contributing; but the good work is not growing in proportion to the expansion of the field of labor. It was with great propriety that Rev. Dr. R. H. Allen, the active and earnest secretary of the Board, told the General Assembly that "there was serious trouble ahead." "Six hundred Negro children born every day," he said, "and destined to be in the majority in eight States in less than ten years." Yet there are 3,773 Presbyterian churches in this country which do not contribute to this

noble mission work. At a meeting of the Protestant ministers of Cleveland, May 13, 1890, reports were read of the work of the various denominations among the freedmen. The Baptists had fifteen institutions for educating the Negro, and property valued at $763,000. In the last twenty-five years they have expended $2,000,000. In their schools are 131 teachers and 3,106 students. They have educated over The Congregationalists have invested $8,000,000 in 13,000 persons. establishing industrial, mechanical, trade, professional, and other schools for the freedmen, and have educated 6,000 male and female teachers. The Methodist Episcopal Church has established 7,678 schools for freedmen, 65 of which are institutions of the higher grade of instruction. During twenty-three years it has expended for the education of the freedmen $2,506,847. The Methodist Episcopal Church Extension Society has spent $4,000,000 in helping to build thousands of churches in the South. Among its 454,000 communicants, 226,000 are colored. The Reformed Episcopal Church reported 40 mission chapels along the Atlantic Coast. The United Presbyterian Church reported five mission stations in the South, 4 ordained colored ministers, 23 colored workers, a day-school enrolment of 1,500, and a Sunday-school enrolment of 12,000. All of these reports represented the Negro thirsting for education. The schools are powerful evangelizing

agencies.

The

individual,

the home, the

community, are

all

34
touched by their elevating influence, and the students spread the seed in receptive minds all over the country. The noble Peabody Education Fund, from October, 1888, to October, 1889, distributed $69,633 to public, normal, and training schools, scholarships, and teachers' institutes. This amount, wisely distributed through ten States, went to help young people who arc struggling to help themselves and its beneficial influence will be felt for all time throughout the South. Mr. W. H. Payne, Chancel;

lor and President of the Peabody Normal College, Nashville, Tenn., expressed the object of the directors of this fund in saying that it was " to give to the country leaders in educational thought, men and

women who
of

are able to

mould public
;

opinion.''

The

inflexible rule

Mr. Peabody, as stated by Dr. J. L. M. Curry, was "to help those who helped themselves" and this principle has been rigidly followed by those in charge of the Peabody benefaction. The fund has therefore offered aid proportionate to what a State might do in the support of normal schools. As a result of this wise offer, Virginia, in addition to Hampton, has three normal schools. $8,000 has been applied for such schools in North Carolina. Alabama has seven normal schools, West Virginia has six, Louisiana one. Texas has the Sam Houston School, with 400 pupils. Georgia and Arkansas are progressing in the good work while Tennessee has the Normal College at Nashville, in which every constituent State has representatives. The benefits of the Peabody Fund, as its generous giver required, " are being distributed among the entire population, without other distinction than their needs and the opportunities of usefulness to them." The John F. Slater Fund, originally $1,000,000, is now $1,200,000. The trustees having it in charge confine their work entirely to aiding schools already established, and by that method a wide-spread influence has been exerted for good. For the present school year amounts ranging from $200 to $5,000 will be given from this fund to
;

thirty-four schools.
at the recent

Dr. A. G. Haygood, the general agent, reported

meeting of the trustees in New York that the most gratifying results had been achieved during the past year of educational work among the freedmen. In this brief and cursory review of the field, I have necessarily failed to mention some of the institutions that are doing noble work in the South. There are the Scotia, Mary Allen, Hartstown, Benedict, Jackson, Shaw, Roger Williams, Leland, Atlanta, Straight, Fiske, Lemoyne, Lewis, Tillotson, Tougaloo, Biddle, and others quietly, industriously, and perseveringly engaged in sowing the seed that will yield a rich religious and intellectual harvest. They are threading their way to the mind of the freedman, and opening it for the reception of the light of knowledge and truth. To aid in this noble work is the highest and most imperative duty before the American people. The wealth of a nation is the intelligence and the industrial capacity of
its

people. The security of a republic is the intelligence of its people. The mighty ship which rides safely at anchor may be set adrift and driven upon perilous shoals by a flaw in a single link of the chain that holds her. So the lack of intelligence and religious sentiment in the invisible links that bind patriot to patriot, in love

35
of country,

may cause our

drift

gallant Ship of State to break from her

upon the breakers strewn with the wrecks of the Danger is most likely to come from that portion republics of old. of our population where the moral and religious sentiments are It is there where the future historian will find the least developed.
moorings and
our republic, should it ever be subjected to a strain resist. As the chain can only be made secure by its weakest link, so our Ship of State can only be trusted to buffet and resist the storms that may some day beset her by interweaving the sentiments of morality and religion throughout our whole population and lifting all to a higher plane of life.
fatal defect in

that

cannot strengthening
it

The Conference adjourned

at

p.m.

S>econD S>efi0ion.

Wednesday

Night, June

4.

The Conference was

p.m.

called to order by President Hayes, at 7.45 paper was read by Rev. A. D. Mayo, LL.D.

THE NEGRO AMERICAN CITIZEN AMERICAN LIFE.

BY REV.
A.
D.

IN

THE NEW

MAY O,

A.

M.

During the past ten years of a Ministry Southern people in all the Southern States,

of
I

Education among the have been often chal:

lenged to formulate my opinion concerning the present condition and future outcome of the Negro. My invariable answer is I have come to this portion of the country as an out-and-out advocate of the universal education of the heart, the head, and the hand possible for all orders and conditions of the American people. I believe the Christian religion, as it lay in the mind and shone forth in the speech and life of the great Teacher and Saviour of man, includes this idea of education. All the progress this world has seen out of old pagan conditions of race, caste, society, and government, has been the work of this mighty regenerating influence. I hold it the deadliest treason and revolt against the Christian civilization, a backing down into paganism, or a worse lapse into the Slough of Despond of absolute atheism and secularism, to impeach the power of this divine agency to cure all
our American
I
ills.

began my present Ministry of Education ten years ago, in the Southern States, in full faith in this gospel of the reconstruction of the whole republic from " the remainder of wrath " that still vexes its progress and looms like a black despair over its least advanced portion. And, although I cannot pretend to have converted or convinced anybody, I have seen with what an uplifting of the soul the better sort of the Southern people welcome any man who, in honesty of purpose, love of country and of all his countrymen, endeavors to get down to the bottom facts of the situation, with a just appreciation of the position of all true men, and with an invincible hope and a holy obstinacy in standing by the bright side of God's providence in American affairs. The fact that one man can go through all these States, among all classes, everywhere testifying to the grandeur of the full American idea, and urging the people to live up to the vision of
the Fathers, with all but universal acceptation, so that the discords in this ministry have hardly been enough to emphasize the harmonies, is to me an assurance that the same line of work, assumed by a greater

37

man, and finally adopted by the influential classes of our people, will shape the highway out of the present complications. My only recipe for the solution of all these problems that still divide the country is the putting on of that judicial and resolute Christian attitude of mind that insists on looking at all the facts of the case, setting them in their proper relations, all the time searching It seems to for the elements of progress which are the vital centres. me that a great portion of the misunderstanding and conflict, at present, is the result of a practical inability in the masses of the people to rise to this position and the mischievous pertinacity of too many leaders of public opinion everywhere, in keeping the national mind engrossed with the temporary and unessential facts of the case. With no disposition to misrepresent or misunderstand anybody, I respond to your call to tell my experience as an observer of the Southern situation, especially as it concerns the Negro citizen in the sixteen Southern States of the Union, as I have seen him during a
virtual residence in these States for ten years past.
It would seem that thoughtful Christian people might at least endeavor to realize the simple gospel rule of "doing as they would be done by" in the judgment of each other, in an affair so momentous, where mistakes are fraught with such mournful possibilities as in this

great discussion.

>

It is

easy to see

how much

of the difficulty
his

comes

opponent. Would it not be possible for a larger number of our foremost Southern leaders, in Church, State, and society, to try to appreciate the motives and temper of the loyal people of the North in the great act of conferring full American citizenship on the Negro, after his I do not defend any injustice, emancipation, twenty-five years ago ? tyranny, reckless experimenting with government itself, that followed No thoughtful man defends such things today. But I do that act. hold that no true conception of this matter can be had by any man

from

this inability to

"put one's

self in the

place" of

believes that this exaltation of the Negro to full American citizenship was either an act of sectional revenge, a narrow and ferocious partisan policy or the reckless experiment of an excited If ever a people, in a great national emergency, sentimentalism. acted under a solemn sense of responsibility to God, humanity, patriotism, and republican institutions, I believe the conviction of the loyal Northern people, that shaped the acts of reconstruction, is entitled It was the most memoto this judgment, and will so abide in history. rable testimony of a national government, just rescued from desperate peril, solemnized by the death of its venerated leader, to its faith in popular institutions, recorded in the annals of mankind. But it must be acknowledged that the very nobility of the act that conferred the highest earthly distinction of full American citizenship on a nation of newly emancipated slaves, of an alien race, involved It was inevitable that the the penalty of great injustice to its object. nation, having committed itself to this daring experiment, would watch So, for the past twenty its success from an ideal point of observation. years, one misfortune of the Negro citizen has been that the portion of the country that won his freedom and lifted him to this proud eminence could do no otherwise than judge him out of its own lofty expectation, piecing out its almost complete ignorance of any similar

who honestly

38
people or situation by repeated drafts on a boundless hope, an almost childlike trust, and a deep religious faith, proven by the cheerful giving of fifty millions of dollars and the sacrifice of the service of noble men and women of priceless value, in the effort to realize the great expectation of the nation. Again, is it more than plain justice that the leading mind of the loyal North, that saved the Union to nationality and freedom in 1865, should endeavor to represent to itself the actual point of view of the Southern people concerning this act of reconstruction, then, and, to a I know that the most painful lesgreat extent, in the present time ? son of history is the difficulty of such comprehension of an aristocratic form of society by a people for a century trained in the school Not one educated man in a of a proud and successful democracy. thousand in the United States can put himself in the place of one of the great Tory leaders or scholars of Great Britain, or listen with anything but impatience to the account that any European government How much more difficult or the Catholic Church can give of itself. for the average New England or Western citizen to understand the attitude of mind with which an old Southern planter or a modern Southern politician must contemplate this sudden and portentous upheaving of five millions of freedmen to the complete endowment of

American citizenship
For, surely, at
first

at the close of the great war.

sight, no body of five millions of people could be imagined less qualified by its past to justify such expectations than the Negro freedmen. Three hundred years ago the Negro was a pagan savage, inhabiting a continent still dark with the shadow of an unrecorded past. A hundred years ago the ancestors perhaps of a majority of the seven millions of Negroes now in the United States were in the same condition. Of no people on the face of the earth is so little known to day as of the African ancestors of the American Negro. Of various tribes, nationalities, and characteristics, perhaps with an ancestry as varied as the present inhabitants of the European nationalities, these people were cast into a state of slavery which confounded all previous conditions, and only recognized the native ability of each man or woman in " the survival of the fittest," in the struggle for existence on the plantation and in the household. Once more it has never been realized by the loyal North, what is evident to every intelligent Southern man, what a prodigious change had been wrought in this people during its years of bondage, and how, without the schooling of this era, the subsequent elevation of the emancipated slave to full American citizenship would have been an impossibility. During this brief period of tutelage, briefest of all compared with any European race, the Negro was sheltered from the sword, pestilence, and famine, three furies of the prayer book, was brought into contact with the upper strata of the most powerful of civilized peoples, in a republic, amid the trials, sacrifices, and educating influences of a new country, in the opening years of " the grand and awful time " in which our lot is cast. In that condition, he learned the three great elements of civilization more speedily than they were ever learned before. He learned to work. He acquired the language and adopted the religion of the most progressive of peoples. Gifted with a marvellous aptitude for such schooling, he
:

was found, in 1865, further "out of the woods" of barbarism than any other people at the end of a thousand years. The American Indian, in his proud isolation, repelled all these beneficent changes; and to-day the entire philanthropy, religion, and statesmanship of the republic are wrestling with the problem of saving him from the
fate of the buffalo.
I find only in the broad-minded and most charitable leaders of our Northern affairs any real understanding of the inevitable habit of mind which the average Southern citizen brings to the contemplation of the actual condition or possibilities of the Negro American citizen. With a personal attachment to the Negro greater than is possible for with habits of forbearance and patient the people of the North waiting on the infirmities, vices, and shortcomings of this people, which to the North are unaccountable and well-nigh impossible of
;

with the general willingness to co-operate, as far as the imitation comfort and the personal prosperity of its old slaves are concerned, is it strange that this act of statesmanship should appear to him as the wildest and most reckless experiment in the annals of national Even the most intelligent and conservative parent finds it diffilife? cult to believe his beloved child is competent to the duties of manhood or womanhood, and only with a pang does he see the dear boy What, then, would or girl launch out on the stormy ocean of life. be the inevitable feeling of the dominant Southern class, to whom the Negro had only been known as a savage slowly evolving into the humbler strata of civilization, as a dependent chattel, when, at the end of a frightful war, it found itself in a state of civil subjugaNo subject race ever reveals its highest tion to its old bondmen ? aspirations and aptitudes to its master race; and it is not remarkable that only the most observing and broad-minded of the Southern peo pie, even yet, heartily believe in the capacity of the Negro for civil, social, or industrial co-operation with any of the European peoples. Now, say what we will, this obstinate inability and sometimes unwillingness to put one's self in the place of the opposition has been the most hopeless feature of the case, the real " chasm " between the leading mind of the North and the South. So to-day, while even partisan politics seems to pause in uncertainty on the steep edge of a dark abyss, when noble and humane people all over the country seem to be falling into despondency, when an ominous twilight, threatening a storm, is peopled by all the birds of ill omen, and " the hearts of men are shaken with fear," I am glad that we have been summoned here to look things squarely in the face, to bring a varied experience to bear on a new and more careful consideration of the whole matter, and by the guidance of a Christian insight endeavor to see the hopeful elements of the situation. We do not need to rehearse our separate
;

knowledge of the shadow side of the new South. The shadows we have always with us, everywhere. But, if we can locate the centre of the new " Sunny South," we may go home with the conviction that, while the shadows in human affairs are always oh the move, the sun shines on forever, and is bound to bring in God's final day of light. The pivotal question on which this vast problem turns is, Has the Negro, in his American experience, demonstrated a capacity for selfdeveloping American citizenship ? I leave out of the estimate, at

40
present, the exceptional people of the race, and look for the answer to the average Negro, as I see him in the Southern States. For I suppose nobody believes that full American citizenship is possible, as the permanent condition of any people destitute of this capacity for The child race must be self-dependent manhood and womanhood. cared for by a paternal organization of society, and that element of paternalism is just what even- good American citizen declares he will not have in his government. In lieu of that, an extemporized or permanent social public opinion, or an unwritten law, will take its

place and do
If

its

work.

the Negro, as so many Southern people believe, is only a perpetual child, capable of a great deal that is useful and interesting, but destitute of the capacity for " the one thing needful " that lifts the subject of paternal up to the citizen of a republican government, then the thing to do is to leave him to the care of his superiors in the South, who certainly know this side of him far better than the people of the North, and, whatever mistakes on the side of occasional severity may be made, will, in the end, do the best for his permanent estate. In fact, nothing seems more evident to me than the practical inability of the national government to essentially change the status of its seven millions of NegTO citizens, except through national aid to education. There is no power at Washington that can hold up, for a series of generations, any people in the permanent state of illiteracy in which the majority of the Southern Negroes are at present found. This illiteracy is simply a mixture of ignorance, superstition, shiftlessness, vulgarity, and vice. The general and State governments, aided all the while by private benevolence and missionary zeal, can surround these people with an environment of valuable opportunities. Indeed, in many respects, they are now environed with such helps and encouragements as no race, of European lineage, has enjoyed at a similar stage of its history. But the test question is, Has the Negro, on the whole, during his entire life of three hundred years on American soil, indicated his power to appreciate and use such opportunities for full American citizenship as are now vouchsafed to him by a gracious

Providence

To my mind he had
ment
in
I

in this direction

vindicated his capacity for indefinite improveeven before he received the precious boon of

citizenship of the

American republic. Remarkable as his progress, some ways, has been during the past twenty-five years of freedom,

would be content to refer to his two centuries of slavery for proof remarkable aptitude for civilization. The best evidence for such capacity is a certain unconscious tact, a habit of getting on in a tolerable way under unfavorable circumstances, the turning his sunny and adaptive side to a hard bondage, the eager adaptation to and taking on of all helps to a better state of living. Contemplate, for a moment, this people, landing from an African slave-ship on our shores. Contrast the status of the American Negro, with all his
of a

imperfections, in 1865, when he appeared, the last comer that has stepped over the threshold of the higher civilization and begun the upward career. How can that amazing progress in practical ability, in adaptation to the habits and manners of civilized life, reception of a Christian faith, be accounted for on the theory of perpetual child-


4'

Did any people, under a similar ishness, as a race characteristic ? strain, realizing, as the Negro did, the awful issues of the mighty Civil War amid which his closing years of servitude were involved,
ever bear itself with such personal fidelity to present duty, with such remarkable wisdom and tact, with such complete reliance on

Providence for the result ? Bishop Haygood says the religion of the Negro accounts for his bearing during these tremendous years, when the home life of the South was virtually in his hands. That a race, less than two centuries out of the jungle of African paganism, was found so imbued with the central element of Christianity, is evidence that it is not the perpetual child of humanity. Grant the failure of the Negro, during the fearful years that followed the war, to govern States rocking in the throes of a defeated rebellion, exasperated to the death by all the passions that wreck the souls of men and communities. Still, what
a display of ability of many sorts, the practical faculty of getting a living, often the higher faculty that has thrown up thousands of shrewd, successful people, there was Radical that he is, the Negro has shown himself the most politic of peoples in his endurance of what could not be overcome, and his tactful, even crafty, appropriation of all opportunities. He has pushed in at every open door, listened at the white man's table, hung about church and the stump, taken in the great public day, looked on when he did not vote at the election. He has been all eyes and ears, and every pore of his skin has been open to the incoming of his only possible education. Deprived of books and the ordinary apparatus of instruction, he has used all the more eagerly the agencies of God's supreme University, human life, used them so much better than several millions of "the superior race " that, in proportion to his opportunity, he has made more out of the Southern American life than any other Southern people. On the eve of the day when the great assembly of Confederate veterans at Richmond solemnly buried their old cause in the unveiling of the statue of their great military commander, I sat on a platform, before a crowded congregation of Negro citizens, in the city of Washington, gathered at the commencement exercises of Wayland Seminary. Eighteen young men and women, all from Virginia, received the diploma; and ten of them appeared in the usual way. As 1 looked over that audience of well-dressed, well-mannered, appreciative people, and listened to the speeches of those young folk, so marked by sobriety of style, soundness of thought, practical views of life, lofty consecration of purpose, and comprehensive patriotism as I read their class motto, " Not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and remembered that, only two hundred and seventy years ago, the first cargo of African pagan savages was landed on the shore of the Old Dominion, and all this was the outcome of that, I wondered where were the eyes of men that they did not behold the revelation of Divine Providence in this little less than the miraculous evolution of the new citizenship of a State destined yet to praise and magnify the ways of God in American affairs. Say that this only demonstrates his " power of imitation." But what is this mysterious faculty of "imitation," that everybody says the Negro has to the last
!

42
Ninedegree, but another name for a capacity for civilization ? tenths of our human education is imitating what a superior person does, from the child repeating its mother's words to the saint "putting on the Lord Jesus Christ." It may be granted that, in one respect, slavery was a help to this It protected the Negro from his lower self, on the side of progress. il the terrible temptation " of every people in vagrancy ; and that is He was protected against vagrancy, laziness, its rudimentary years. drunkenness, and several temptations of a semi-tropical clime which But here has been a sore are too much for thousands of his betters. A great wrong obstacle to his success in his new estate of freedom. that has been done him during these years has been the neglect to enforce order, decency, and industry, along with the observance of the common moralities of every-day life, by the people among whom he has lived. What would be the condition of New England to-day, had her people tolerated, in the multitudes of foreign-born peasants who have landed on her shores, the vagrancy, laziness, shiftlessness, dependence on common charity, with the perpetual violation of the minor morals, which confront, the observer, from every part of the civilized world, in his travels throughout the Southern Here was the place for the Anglo-Saxon to assert his States? superiority, by insisting on the common observance of the common order, decencies, and moralities of life, in and out of the houseFor lack of this, the vagrant class has been hold, by the freedman. left virtually at large, like a plague of frogs and lice over all the land,

choking up the towns and villages, making good housekeeping, for the Southern woman, the most trying human lot, and surrounding childhood, of every condition and class, with such temptations as no people can permanently resist. If the well-disposed class, the majority, could have been aided by the law of the land and public opinion to move on unhindered by this intolerable impediment, the last twenty five years would have told a far different tale. Of course, the white people of the South do not Slavery was a police that made vagrancy impossible, realize this. and the lower slave element was securely locked up under the Argus I am not here to defend any eyes of the old-time system of labor. denial of the suffrage, or social or industrial disability, inflicted on
but I give it as my deliberate conviction that all the Negro citizen these things have not been so harmful to the Negro as this strange neglect of the Anglo-Saxon South to enforce the recognized policy of all civilized lands on its vagrant colored and white class, at the very time when this race specially needed the primary lessons of sobriety, obedience to law, every day morality, and of that hard work without which " no man shall eat." Yet, spite of this drawback (and only an observer from a differently regulated community can appreciate what a drawback), the better-disposed class of the Negroes has signally vindicated its capacity for civilization within the limitations of personal and race impediments, and in the use it has made of its
;

opportunities. I observe, also, in the average Negro, an amiability, a patience and forbearance, a capacity for affectionate devotion, sacrifice, and unselfishness, that separate him decisively from the savage and the savage

43
side of civilized lubrication this
pitiless,
life.

What an element of civil, social, and industrial may become, has already become, in our grating,

ferocious Anglo-Saxon greed of power, gain, and all kinds of any man can realize who sees the working of it in a thousand ways. I can understand why the Southerner feels a certain loneliness amid the splendors and well-ordered regulations of our higher Northern life. He misses the atmosphere of kindliness, broad good-humor, real belief in human nature, that the Negro always diffuses around himself. I feel it the moment I touch a Northern city on my return from every annual visit to the South and I thank God that the Negro "man and brother," especially the woman and sister, were sent by heaven to teach our proud, restless, too often inhuman civilization some of the amenities that outlive the inhumanities and finally bring in the kingdom of God. Another quality the Negro displays, of great promise in the future, though so often turned to his disadvantage in the present, a love of approbation, self-possession, and an ability to " put his best foot foremost " and show for. all he is worth, the perpetual assertion that " Why did you sell that corn he is going to be somebody some time. you promised to me ? " said a white parson to his Negro " brother in " Well, boss, I got a bigger price for it." " But was the ministry." " No, it warn't that." " Why did you do it ? " " Bethat honest ? " cause, boss, I warn't the man I took myself to be." It is well to "take yourself to be" a man of parts and character, even at the peril of disappointment. And that persistent pushing to the front, crowding in at every open door, "claiming the earth," which now makes the life of the most sensible and considerate white citizen of the South often a weariness, sometimes a despair, in his dealing with the Negro, is the prophecy of an aspiration for better things and a loftiness of manhood and womanhood of vital importance. Along with this is the eagerness for knowledge, that is still a characteristic even of the ignorant classes, though less apparent now than in the years following the war. Spite of the neglect of the proper conditions and the means of gaining this precious boon for the children, the average Negro, in humble estate, believes in the school with a vigor that in the lower European classes is not developed, more than in the corresponding class among the Southern whites. Discontent with a low estate is the movement power of American civilization, and no class in America is less content with its own infirmities than the better sort, the majority of the freedmen. Another valuable characteristic is the good taste, love of beauty, native capacity for ornamental art, which always appear in the Negro, when suitably encouraged. The handwriting in the colored schools is often remarkable, the drawing uniformly respectable, the taste in dress, the arrangement of flowers and ornaments, above the average of any corresponding class in the country. In the Negro, the new South has its most valuable deposit of " raw material " for the best operative and mechanical class for that clime and country. Already he is domesticated in all these mechanical and operative industries, with the exception of the cotton mills, where the labor is still monopolized by the poorer white class, greatly to its own advantage. Here
superiority,
;

44
is

a great work being done by the numerous mission schools, of the higher sort, supported by the Christian people of the North, in the In this important branch of organization of industrial education. schooling, the superior class of Negro youth has, so far, enjoyed greater opportunities than the corresponding class of white youth. And, although the graduates of these schools will not be day laborers or servants, yet, as teachers, housekeepers, and general leaders of their people, they will exert a prodigious influence in the years to come. The introduction of a simple and practical annex for industrial education, for both sexes, in the school system of the South, espe-

Negro children, would be a movement of incalculable the whole people of that region, so much in need of intellivalue to gent and skilled labor in the uprising of its new industrial life. All these qualities tell in the steady progress of large numbers of these people toward a more comfortable, wholesome, and respectable way of living. This is evident especially to a regular visitor, not involved in the wear and tear of seven millions of freedmen getting
cially for the

on their
I

citizen legs, as are our Southern white brothers and sisters. everywhere, every year, a larger number of well-looking, wellOne dressed, well-churched, housed, well-mannered colored people. reason why our Southern friends are not so impressed with this upward movement is that, as soon as a colored family gets above the humble or vagrant class, it somehow disappears from the ordinaryOne inevitable result of the social boycott that shuts down on view. every Negro family that attains respectability is that its white neighbors are put out of connection with this class, and left to the tender mercies of the class beneath, where their patience is worn out, and, The estimate too often, the impression taken for the whole race. but, at the of the increasing wealth of the Negroes is often disputed most reasonable figure, it is a significant testimony to the growth of
see,
_

practical enterprise

and steady improvement

in the

upper strata of

the whole body. While the acknowledged vices of the race are still a terrible weight on the lower and a constant temptation and humiliation to the better " failings that lean class, it is not certain that any of them, save those A distinguished to virtue's side," are especially "race defects." physician of Alabama has shown that the illegitimate births among the Negro population of the black belt of that State are in the exact Certainly, the vices of the per cent, of the Kingdom of Bavaria. lower class of the south of Europe people, that are now swarming
the shores of the Gulf States, are not less common, and far more Human nature, in its lower dangerous, than those of the Negro. devilestate, especially when shot out from its barbarism into the of civilization, is fearfully deficient in its appreciation of the ten side commandments. But I believe no people of the humbler sort are making more progress in overcoming the weakness of the appetites and getting in sight of the Christian moralities than the better sort In the church, the home, and the school, I see the of the Negroes.

growth of a self-respecting manhood and womanhood that

will tell.

in

due time

Though
respect,
I

from many whose opinions and experience I not regard the temporary isolation of the Negro in the do
differing

45
Southern church, school, and society, so much an evil as a providenabsolutely tial aid in gaining the self-respect and habit of self-help Spite of the hard side of slavery, the essential togood citizenship. Negro has not had his fair share of the rough training that brings out A habit the^final results and the determination that tell in history. of dependence, even to the extent of servility, in the lower orders, is He has also been greatly still one of his most dangerous temptations. tried by being, for a generation, the romantic figure of American life, the especial object of philanthropic interest in Church, State, and It is well society, everywhere outside the sixteen Southern States. In that he should be relieved for a while from these temptations. company with the white boy, the Negro boy, on the same school bench, would all the time be 'tempted to fall into his old position of an annex to the white man, and, in the Church, would be under a Where he is, he grows strain that would sorely tax his manhood. up with a wholesome confidence in himself. His own best people are teaching him, with no hindrance, the law of responsible manhood and womanhood. The result is that, when he emerges into active position to life, if he has well appropriated his training, he is in a treat with a similar class of white people on terms that insure mutual
respect.
"

the constant I am struck with this feature of Southern society, working together for good " of the better class, especially of the men The outrage of a drunken rabble of both races in all communities. upon a Negro settlement is published to all the world; while the constant intercourse of the respectable classes of men of the two races, that prevents a thousand such outbreaks and makes Southern life, on the whole, orderly, like the progress of the seasons and the hours,

goes on

not necessary to project the social question The very transition. fold, who are digging " of social caste, away out in the wilderness, half a this " last ditch century ahead of any present emergency, may be assured that nobody people in the United States will ever be obliged to associate with disagreeable to him, and that, as Thomas Jefferson suggested, "if we educate the children of to-day, our descendants will be wiser than we,
in silence.
It is

communities in this state of zealous brethren of the press and the political
into the heart of

and many things that seem impossible to us may be easily accomAt present, the office of colored teacher and plished by them."
preacher is the noblest opportunity for general usefulness granted to an educated, righteous, and able young man or woman in any land. That teacher or preacher becomes the man or woman of all spiritual

work

instructed in indusat the assertion of some eminent people that the superior education of the Negro youth has been a failure. If the destiny of the Negro is only that of a
to a constituency singularly appreciative
;

if

trial craft, all

the

more valuable.

am amazed

child-peasant forever, this

what we

if his range of possibility is even a modified form of the secondary and higher education, with industrial accompaniments, has ever been seen in Christendom, as is evident to any man who regards this side of the life of this people with open eyes. All that I have said bears on a fundamental truth concerning the The Northern white man, uplifting of the American Negro citizen.

is

true

but,

believe,

no such

result of

46
if a philanthropist, regards the Negro as an annex to the Northern, the Southern white man regards him as an annex to the Southern white citizen but the Negro is anything but an annex to anybody. He is an original element, providentially injected into American civilization, the only man who did not come to us of his own will. It may turn out, for that reason, that he is to be the " little child that shall lead them," and finally compel a reconciliation of all Every race that has any the distracting elements of our national life. outcome finally demonstrates its capacity by throwing up a superior class by which it is led, stimulated, and gradually lifted to its own highest achievement of civilization. Tried by this test, the Negro is not behind. I have spoken so far of the average man and woman of the race. But that observer must be strangely blinded who does not see the evidence of the formation of a genuine aristocracy of intelligence, character, industry, and superior living among these millions. I do not refer to that unfortunate class who assert a superficial superiorityby separation from their people and an uneasy longing to be recogI mean the growing class that is trynized by their white superiors. ing, under a solemn sense of gratitude to God, love to the brother, and consecrated patriotism, to lift up its own race. Among the seven millions of this people in the United States, there must be They are found everywhere, several hundred thousand of this sort. They already form a all the way from Massachusetts to Texas. and the most American of all our great newspadistinct society pers, the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, has already recognized the fact by the prominent " Colored Society Column " in its Sunday morning issue. This class is becoming a distinct power, and its influence on the classes below is one of the most important elements It is already on good terms with the correof the race problem. sponding class of white people, though differing in politics and often grieved by what it regards public, social, and industrial injustice. One significant fact in this connection is that now the Negro is the most determined Southerner. The young Southern white man, re-

especially

lieved from the attractions of the old aristocratic position of slaveholder, like all American young men of parts, is on the lookout for the main chance. The South is less and less to him a name to charm with. His own State no longer seems to him a "nation" which million of these young men, it is claims his uttermost devotion. said, have left the South for the North and North-west since the war. Whole regions of these older States are as steadily drained of this important population as the older portions of the North-east. The Southern young woman will follow as soon as her call is heard. At present she is the " main-stay " of the rural South, the good angel of its coming civilization, getting more education and having more to do with the upper story of Southern life than her average male companion who stays at home. But the Negro loves the sacred soil, the old home, the climate, and its surroundings. In due time he will become the dominant occupant of large portions of the lowland South. He has no more idea of going to Africa than the Southern Jew of going into business in Jerusalem. He will move about as he becomes more intelligent and understands his own interests ; but he

47
the Southerner of to-day, and all persuasion or threats that would As the political issues of the past fade into dislodge him are vain. the distance, he will more and more act in all public affairs with the He leading race, with whom his companionship and interest belong. must be educated where he is and, as the years go on, he will rise to a great the call of his own superior class and find his own place, and beneficent place in our wonderful American family. Education is the lever that will raise this great mass of humanity to
is
:

I believe it would be a the high plane of full American citizenship. great blessing to the whole South, could the suffrage, educational, labor, and vagrant laws of Massachusetts be incorporated into the Protection to the child, suppreslegislation of every Southern State. sion of vagrancy, enforcement of industry, an educational test of suffrage, better churching, improvement in the home, reading of good books, all the influences that are so potent in any respectable Northern community, will in good time achieve the success of every For the Negro, two-thirds of class and race of the American people. this education must be, for a generation, outside the school-room, in If we only the broad university of the new Southern American life. knew it, this is one of the richest educational opportunities God has ever vouchsafed to any people. What a call is this opportunity for missionary service, in its Every broadest and loftiest aspect, to the whole American people. theory of despair on the race problem proceeds from a pagan or atheistic estimate of human nature and destiny, and leads down to despotism or anarchy. Without the blessed gospel of Christ, our American race problem would be too awful to contemplate. Thank God, it did not come to us in an age of pagan darkness, of mediaeval violence, in a land crowded with people, in a civilization cursed by It came to us in an the bitter results of a long and stormy past. opening age of light, when all the celestial forces are at an upward slant, when the Church is getting itself together to work for man while God takes care of the creeds, in a country so large and bountiful

that hundreds of millions would not crowd it, and "every sit under his own vine and fig-tree, with no one to molest
afraid."

man may
and make

As I am borne through the vast spaces of our marvellous Southern land, and stand in amazement before its revelation of resources, Is this only to become the theatre hitherto unknown, I ask myself ; of a greater greed of gain, "a hazard of new fortunes," its only outcome a semi-tropical materialism, an inevitable temptation to a dismal era of "booms" and "syndicates" and "trusts," with a new

insanity for the almighty dollar, so powerless to satisfy the deeper need of the humblest human heart ? May it not, rather, be God's summons to such an awakening of our overworked and materialized American people as will compel them, in sheer self-defence, to give mind and heart and hand to that lifting up of the lowly, and that preaching the gospel of self-help to the poor, which is the end of Christian charity ? I look for the day when the divided

churches of our three great Protestant denominations will be brought together by the growing sense of this " home mission " claim, and the whole Church and the adjacent realm of the world be polarized

48
in

one supreme effort to solve this old caste puzzle of the nations and ages, by showing that the simple gospel of Christ means peace on earth and good will to all men. But now comes the final question, on which not so much the destiny of the Negro citizen as the very existence of Southern American Will the Anglo-Saxon Southern people, at civilization depends. present nine-tenths of the entire white population, in due time appreciate this opportunity, and join hands with all good men and women, at home and abroad, in this, the grandest crusade of all the
ages
I have no doubt that the race problem will finally be solved, in the South, largely through the agency of the Southern Anglo-Saxon peonot over their heads, but with their thorough co-operation. ple, I see already, amid superficial indications to the contrary, the converging lines of this tendency, and, below hostile theories, the inevitable drift of the common life of all these great commonwealths towards

the American type of society. of opinion, I see the positive indication of this great convergence especially in what may be called the Educational Public of the South. By this, I mean that portion of the Southern people, of all classes and both races, which within the past twenty-five years, amid difficulties and complications almost unconquerable elsewhere, has quietly
laid the foundations of the American system of universal education in every State, county, city, and neighborhood in these sixteen commonwealths. The common school is so much the habit and unquestioned postulate of republican government everywhere in the North that we have never done half justice to the people of the sixteen Southern States for this, by all odds, the most significant movement of the past generaThat a people, in i860 the most aristocratic tion this side the water. in organization of its society upon earth, who fought through a bloody war and only fell in " the last ditch " of the absolute ruin of their

and persistently

old social order, should have risen up from this awful overthrow, cleared the ground of rubbish, and, with scarcely any aid that they could use, of their own will have planted on the soil the one institution that is the eternal foe of everything save republican government and democratic society, is the wonder of the age, and the complete vindiIt would cation of the essential Americanism of the Southern people.

be well for our cynical scholars and self-confident politicians, who dilate on the imperfections of this system of education, to remember what Massachusetts was, fifty years ago, when Horace Mann drew his sword, what Pennsylvania was, thirty years ago, when Wickersham took command, what even to-day some portions of the older Atlantic States are declared by the testimony of their own educaDoubtless there has been exaggeration of tional authorities to be. the achievement of the South in popular education, partly through ignorance, more in the way of home advertisement, most in the But, with all this drawback, interest of the defeat of the Blair Bill. the Southern people have taken " the first step that costs," and established the free school, for all classes and both races, unsectarian, but practically one of the most potent moral and religious forces of this section, growing all the time, already beyond the peril of destruction

49
and it " has come to or serious damage from its numerous enemies True, the educational public has not half converted the averstay." " there is age Southern politician, for whom, as General Grant said, It has not yet entirely swung too much reading and writing now.*' the Southern clergy and the Church over to its hearty support, as against the old-time Protestant parochial and private system of and, through It is still a social outsider in some regions instruction.
;
;

South, it is so poor that it seems to have hindered more than helped the better-off classes who shoulder its But it has for the first time gone down into the basement expenses. story of the Southern household, bearing that common schooling to the lower orders and the "plain people," which means modern civilization and progressive Christianity, involving the full committal to the new American order of affairs. It is a wonder that the leading the press, the political organizations, the indusclasses of the North are still so imperfectly philanthropists trial leaders, even the
vast spaces of the rural

informed concerning this, by all odds, the most vital and significant end of Southern life. The splendid mission work of our Northern churches, which, indirectly, has so greatly aided the growth of the schools for the Negroes by training their teachers, has sometimes But this, with the obscured the magnitude of the home work. remarkable rally of the whole secondary and higher education, is a demonstration that the South has no intention of remaining permanently in any second place in the great educational movement of the Imperfect as the common school is, the Negro has been the time. for. through it and all that goes along greatest gainer therefrom therewith, he is laying up a steady increase of self-respect, intelligence, and practical power, which will astonish many good people who still go on repeating the parrot cry that education has only demoralized the younger Negro generation for the industrial side of But it is not what the common schools have done, but what life. the Southern people has failed to do to re-enforce them, that still holds thousands of Negro youth in the bonds of a vagrancy, shiftlessness, and debasement that deserve all things that can be said against them. The cure for this is more and better education, re-enforced by the policy of every civilized land in the suppression of the devil-side of society, that will ruin the greatest country under the sun. But, below and beyond this open and evident work of education, I see more clearly, every year, that the logic of the new Southern life the essential is all on the side of the final elevation of the Negro to and, beyond, to rights and opportunities of American citizenship the generous co-operation with the nation in aiding him to make his own best use of that supreme opportunity. We at the North are constantly misled bvthe press, which is a very poor representative of this most important element of Southern life. We hear the superficial talk
;
;

and read

of the disorder that is the inevitable accompaniment of States in the transition from a great civil war to their final adjustment to the national life. An eminent educator of the South writes me " Ask a hundred men at the street corner what they think about
:

the education of the Negro, and seventy-five of them will demur, and some of them will swear. The next day every man of them will vote for the higher school tax that gives the Negro a better school-house

50 and the permanent establishment of his education." Our Southern friends are no more logical than other portions of the country, and
of all countries is constantly adjusting itself to the I can see, in more ways than I could explain, " even to a Northern community, that these people are "in the swim whose tide can only drift them off into regions of life which seem

the superficial
its

life

logic of

undertow.

almost impossible to them to-day.

The test of this drift is that, spite of all obstacles and embarrassments, there is, in every respectable Southern community, no real hindrance to an intelligent, moral, industrious, and prudent Negro family getting all out of American life that anybody expects, save that social and, in some localities, political recognition, that are the last achievements of long periods of social evolution in national affairs. In all essential respects, the Negro citizen is better off in the South than in any Northern State. The outward opportunities for full association with the white population in the North are, after all, of little value in comparison with the substantial opportunity for becoming the great laboring agricultural class and of capturing the field of mechanIt will be his own fault if he permits the ical and operative labor. insolent naturalized foreign element that now dominates our Northern industrial centres to elbow him off into a peasantry or a menial and
subordinate laboring population. As I look at the way in which these seven millions of people are gaining all the vital opportunities of life among the twelve millions of their Anglo-Saxon neighbors, I am amazed at the way they seem to go on, only half-conscious of what the rest of the world is saying about them, " working out their own salvation " by the power that is in them, in the only way by which an American people can finally succeed. The only fit symbol of this mighty movement is the Mississippi River after it has become "the inland sea" of the Southland.
States and their peoples, Congress and the nation, scientists and cranks, debate and experiment on the way to put the " Father of Waters " in harness, to tie up this awful creature that holds the fate But all discourse, of ten millions of people in its every-day whim. legislation, and experiment, at last run against the question What So, while the will the Mississippi River do with us next week? Southern people and the nation are wrestling with what they choose to call the "race problem," this inland, Southern human ocean, searching and spreading and pushing into every nook and corner of and every deliverance of the the low-land, is going on its way scientist, the socialist, and the statesman, brings up against some new and unexpected thing that the Negro has really done. "How are you getting on with your neighbors down here ? " said I to a deputation of fine-looking colored men, who stepped out of a carriage and presented me with a well-written address of welcome to the city of
; ;

"Well, we used to have trouble; but we have finally Vicksburg. concluded the white man has come to stay, and we adjust ourselves The white man has indeed come to stay all over the to that fact." United States of America but he will stay, not always as the white man proposes, but as God Almighty disposes. And, wherever he abides, he will finally be compelled, by the logic of American events, to stay in peace and justice, in freedom and order, in Christian co;

5i

operation with all the great elements of republican society, shaped all the peoples that a beneficent Providence has called' to abide together in this, God's morning land.

from

Miss Emily L. Austin, of the Slater Training School

Tenn., was invited to speak.

in

Knoxville,

Miss Austin. The work of our school is somewhat different from that of teachers in other places. Our idea is to engraft industrial training on the public school system, so that our work is as much with and for the white people as for the colored. We want to keep the subject before school boards and the community in general until they see the wisdom of adopting it. Dr. Haygood tells a story of an old colored man who said that industrial training "was only a white man's device to make the Negro work." As long as this view of it is prevalent, we have trouble in getting regular attendance and intelligent interest. The colored people say, " If this is such a good thing, why do they not have it in the white schools ? " And they oppose the children in carrying out in their homes what they are taught in school. A girl was asked if she took the covers from the bed and aired them in the morning. Her reply was, " Mammy says that is white folks' way, and she ain't going to have no such clutter in the house." Another child was asked by the teacher if she set the table and waited on it as she was taught in school. She replied: "Oh, no, 'deed I don't! My dad would clip me over the head mighty quick if I tuck his plate befo' he done eat his dinner." We can only make the most of manual training when it is given to all alike, and when the idea of the true dignity of labor is a fundmental one in public education. In our efforts to introduce cooking, we have twice invited the mayor, the School Commissioners, members of the School Board of Education, and others interested, to a dinner prepared and served by the children in our school house. We have also had carpentry and housekeepers' classes on public exhibition, and had the Opera House well filled with our best people, both white and colored. The work is gaining ground and our cooking teacher had a class of ladies last winter who expressed their satisfaction with the training, and their desire to have it where their children could have the benefit
;

of

it.

thing in my experience is a hopeful sign of progress. The children in school who learn the best, who are the neatest in their dress, and who give evidence of coming from good homes, are those whose parents, one or both, came to our schools when we first opened them, twenty years ago. A friend visiting the school remarked on the great difference in the scholars. I asked her to pick out those whom she considered the best, and in every case but one those whom she chose were the children whose parents had themselves been in school. These parents show their interest by insisting on regular attendance and by more or less frequent visits to the school. This is an encouragement in the line of persistent training. Hon. Edward L. Pierce, Milton, Mass. Undoubtedly, we are confronting here the greatest problem of our time and yet it is a simple one, and is working itself out. Considering the advance made

One

since 1861, there

is no occasion for being pessimistic, but rather every reason for being hopeful. We are far ahead of all that philanthropists then dreamed we should be in a generation. De Tocqueville, who looked more thoroughly into American life and character than any foreigner has ever done, except perhaps Mr. Bryce, came here in He talked with Dr. Channing in Boston; he shot birds at 1831. Memphis; he sought the wilderness at Pontiac, to see where civilized shaded off into savage life ; he went as far south as Alabama, where He was impressed with he studied slavery socially and politically. the difference between the institution here and as it was in antiquity and in other countries. There masters and slaves were of the same race, but here the indelible brand of color divided them, creating a perpetual distinction, which no intelligence, education, or law could override; and he closed his chapter in despair, with the conclusion that the two races must live together as master and slave or exterminate each other. What this philosopher thought impossible sixty The same despondent view I years ago we have accomplished. encountered twenty-eight years ago in leading the first enterprise for the education and industrial development of the freedmen. Returning from the Sea Islands in February, 1862, where 1 had been under a commission from Secretary Chase, I made a statement to the Massachusetts delegation in Congress who met to hear my report and one of them, an old abolitionist, whispered to me, " Do you think it possible to make anything of this people ? " Such was the prevailing scepticism at that time. It needs now no argument to prove that the American Negro is capable of civilization, is adapted to civilized life, and has moral and religious instincts, and that in a condition of freedom he does well as Before the Civil War it was soldier and laborer. All this is settled. said that, if the slaves were freed, there would be no cotton crop that white men could not, and the Negroes as free men would not, work it. And yet we are raising year after year the Negroes are doing it a cotton crop twice what it was under the condition of slavery. Even the Southern people knew before the war what was in It will be remembered that General Lee, just before the the Negro. end of the war, proposed to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, knowing well that they had the essential elements of manhood. So we need not spend time in proving the capacity of the Negro for civilized life, with freedom as its condition. We encounter, however, certain practical questions which this Conference should consider and they may be included in the inquiry: What are to day the difficulties which the Negro has to encounter in the Southern States, and what can be done to remove or mitigate them ? First, it will be agreed, I think, that the Negro develops best when in relations with the white man. The experiment on the coast At any rate, his of Africa, where he is by himself, proves this. fortunes in this country are bound up with the white people of the South. Now, whatever you or I at the North may think of him, the important question is, What do the Southern white people think of him ? Are they hopeful or not ? Do they think him capable of good What is in their citizenship, of being a good member of society ? minds as to his present and future ? Information on these points is very desirable.
;

53

What wages is the Negro getting ? They doubtvary greatly in localities. The other day I was in Edgefield, S.C., and a colored mechanic told me that colored carpenters, then at work on the Baptist church, which was being rebuilt, were receiving two dollars a day, which, considering the different modes of living, would equal twice that amount with us. The colored people are largely the mechanics in the South they work in the forges, though not, I believe, in the cotton mills. What do they get as laborers on cotton lands? They seem to work by shares, a system not easily understood by an outsider. Do they get a reasonably fair share for their labor? This is also an important inquiry. What does the Negro do with his money ? Living in his simple way, there must be something, often quite a sum, to be saved. What becomes of the surplus? Is he thrifty, as our Irish are, who put the ' surplus dollar into the savings-bank ? The colored people had at the beginning an unfortunate experience with the Freedmen's Savings Bank and what is their resource now in its place ? Again, are thev investing in land and becoming proprietors? Do they find any difficulty in buying land, when they have the means to buy? Are the land-owners willing to sell to them as to other purchasers? The question whether the Negro is able to save and does save, and how he invests his savings, seems to me all-important for, when he is the owner of houses and lands and stocks, and holds mortgages on white men's property, the race problem. in this country will be well nigh its solution. Dr. Edward H. Magill, President Swarthmore College. Swarthmore, Pa. We are here to consider what we may best do to elevate the colored race, not in one section, but in the whole country. We are here not so much to find fault with others as to take a lesson home to ourselves. It is a remarkable circumstance that in that part of this country where the Negro has suffered most, where he has been enslaved, his condition to-day is more favorable than in the so-called free States which we inhabit here in the North. I therefore feel it my duty to call the attention of this Conference to the condition of the colored man in the North as well as in the South. We have heard that in the South, where he is employed as a workman and overseer, he is advancing. We have heard from Dr. Mayo that the colored men in the South are making more progress than the colored men in the North. It is the cruel and ignorant prejudice of the North to which I wish to draw your attention. We have heard of colored carpenters building a church in the South, with a colored man as master mechanic. In the city of Philadelphia, a colored man may carry mortar up a ladder, but he is not allowed to lay the bricks. He cannot be a master mechanic; he cannot learn bricklaying. What is it that does this? It is not the employer: it is the cruel prejudice among the working people that keeps' them down. We ought to do something to direct our attention to this prejudice, to see if anything can be done to lessen it. In Philadelphia, if a colored man should mount a street-car and attempt to drive it, he would be mobbed. There are certain occupations from which the colored people are kept out, and this is to be seen in nearly all the States of the North. I think we ought to do something to express our judgment as to the best way to lessen this prejudice.
Another question
:

less

54

One of the phases of this quesAmen to that Judge Tourgee. with the consideration tion which has given me a deal of trouble, and American people, is of which I have been compelled to trouble the which has been presented by Dr. Magill. The people of the the view North do not seem to realize the fact that we owe an industrial exdo not give the ample in this respect to those of the South. colored man a white man's chance industrially and commercially.
!

We

Throughout the whole country we find him meeting unjust prejudice In trade In the law and letters he is fairly recognized. in business. and labor he still has to carry this weight. In the church it is not much better. We have driven him off by himself, in order that the problem of his existence may be as far from us as possible. I suppose we are willing to meet the Negro in heaven, and allow him to be white there and perhaps a majority of us may be willing to forgive But, when he goes into the Almighty for having created him black.
;

be as badly off a respectable white church in this world, he is apt to He finds no place there except it is as if he had on a ragged coat. about as far out of sight and hearing as he can be stowed. I think he generally, in our Northern city churches, gets a seat where he prayer. hears more of the machinery of the organ than of the voice of While we criticise our Southern friends for their attitude in regard to North to show a the Negro's rights, it behooves the people of the he may seek willingness to give a man a fair chance in any business even though he may have a black hide, if we expect our to pursue, We should wash our own hands before protestations to be heeded.

we undertake the

purification of others.

Island,

General O. O. Howard, Major-General of U. New York, spoke as follows

:

S.

Army, Governor's

Gen. Howard.
gelist,

the EvanI hold in my hands a clipping from It is as follows with your permission, I will read. which,
:

cirTuly i the manager of the Tradesman sent the following the managers of industries in the South cular to

"

On

"'Chattanooga,
"

July

i,

1889.

from demonstrated Gentlemen The Tradesman is endeavoring to ascertain labor has attained in Southern manufactures; facts the degree of efficiency Negro favorable to this class of laborers, and to aid in our inquiry, which, we think, if anssver the following questions must be beneficial to the South, we ask you to '" 1 How manv XegTo laborers do you employ?

'2

labor as degree of efficiency do you find in common and skilled Negro to white labor in like work? of >egro labor ? " e Do vou intend to continue the employment only being used '"Your answer will be treated as strictly confidential, the facts with a large mass of similar animpersonally and discussed generally, together
'"4.

How manv are skilled and how many common laborers? "'7 Wages paid common and skilled Negro laborers?
What

compared

swers from Southern manufacturers.

Yours,

etc.,

"Tradesman Publishing Co., "'Geo. W. Ochs, Manager.'

answers from twenty-eight conThese answers are printed the South. cerns scattered throughout subject demands. elsewhere, and we ask for them the attention the
"

We

have

in

hand

at this writing

55
Especially do we invite scrutiny by our Northern friends to this recWe here sum up briefly the general result of this inquiry
:

ord. "

The total number of Negro laborers, skilled, semi-skilled, and common, covered by these replies, is about 7,000. "2. Of these the number skilled and semi-skilled are one-quarter,
i.

say 2,000. "3. The average wages paid for skilled labor runs at about $1.75 a day, though several of our correspondents pay colored heaters, puddlers, and other high-class workmen as high as $4 and $5 a day and many furnaces pay from $1.50 to $2.50. Average wages of common labor, Si. 1 5 per day. " 4. The general tenor of the replies indicates perfect satisfaction with Negro labor, and announces a practically unanimous determination to continue its employment, and to advance Negroes into the more skilled and better paid ranks as rapidly as possible. "5. Several of the more thoughtful of our correspondents, and those of longest experience with black labor, regard the Negro in several kinds of furnace and mill work, where high temperature is encountered, superior to white labor; and the majority prefer him to
;

white, as a common laborer. " 6. No one, so far, who has given this class of labor an extended and fair trial, thinks of discontinuing its use or of diminishing the

embrace

range of Southern territory, and and logging parties, and, perhaps, some others and we may take them as thoroughly representative of the tendency towards the exclusive use of Negroes in the heavier and hotter work of Southern industries, both as common and
rolling-mills, furnaces, saw-mills,
;

number employed. "7. The answers cover

a wide

skilled labor.

careful scanning of these replies, with pretty full information shows beyond question that the Negro has greatly improved in the last fifteen years in reliability, skill, and general efficiency, and that the improvement is more and more commending him as a laborer to the most intelligent, painstaking, and successful of our Southern manufacturers. Several of our correof the various lines they cover,

"8.

spondents, speaking in general terms, say the Negro is, upon the whole, the better laborer. None who employ Negroes in any department of their works discriminate between white and black in the matter of wages. The same work commands the same pay. "The object of this inquiry and the publication of the answers of our correspondents is to lay before the manufacturers of the country the simple and reliable facts touching the present stage of the efficiency of Negro labor, and furnish a reliable basis for prognosticating the degree of skill in general the race will develop in those industries to which this labor is specially adapted in the Southern States; and it is the opinion of the Tradesman that our exhibit is thoroughly conclusive of the fact that the Southern Negro of to-day is one of the best of common laborers, and that he is rapidly advancing as a work-

man
"

in skilled lines.

disclaim all personal and political bias. Our sole aim is the ascertainment of facts of vital importance to the development of the South. The very substructure of a great industrial community is a

We

56
working element. If the South possess this, together with enormous supplies of raw materials so located as to reduce cost of handling them to the minimum, then the past achievements of the section as a manufacturer of iron, a miner of coal, and a producer of lumber, need surprise no student of economics. " A orave error concerning Negro labor has found lodgment in the minds of many Northern men, with reference to its slowness and Many Northerners will say that one white laborer in slovenliness. Ohio or Pennsylvania will accomplish as much as two Negroes in Tennessee, Virginia, or Alabama. This is wholly erroneous. The forces employed about Southern furnaces are about ninety per cent, of the whole Negroes, and they are not more numerous than the white forces at Northern furnaces. 'Under proper direction, in rolling-mills, tanneries, lumber-yards, about furnaces, in coal mines, the Negro is Upon this head, the the most efficient laborer in this country. Tradesman has the testimony of managers and superintendents, exclusive of all we have published in this and preceding issues, that Negro labor compares favorably with white labor anywhere, and is superior Our in endurance and docility to white labor in the Southern States.
reliable
its

entire range of direct information covers not less than ten thousand Negro laborers ; and the testimony of their employers is practically unanimous that they are, on the whole, preferable to white labor, whether the latter be collected here or brought from abroad."

illustrating the

After reading the foregoing, General Howard related an instance power of Christianity in reaching the Chinese in CaliHe continued fornia through the influence of Christian households. " I take it as a rule that those who love our Lord will do everything they can to open the way for these people. The Negro is kept out of We want everything for labor because of the selfishness of men. We do not want Chinamen we do not want Negroes ourselves. and, if the Indians were numerous enough, we should not want them. This is all selfishness. I do not know what we can do, but I think we ought to labor to get some genuine Christianity inside of our church edifices and into society until the time shall come when a laborer shall not be excluded because he is black." And let me add because she is a woman. Gen. John Eaton. Some years ago a few Hon. Philip C. Garrett, Philadelphia. gentlemen in the Academy of Natural Sciences were attempting to Being unable to do it, a colored decipher a Latin inscription. woman, who was washing the floor, and had overheard their conversa" Perhaps I can help you, gentlemen." She tion, looked up and said, was educated at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. And I could not help wishing, when the chairman invited the ladies to speak, that we had had with us Mrs. Fanny Jackson Coppin, the colored principal of that institution, who is one of the noble women of this country, not only as to her Christian character, her spirit of self-abnegation and generosity, but also as to her intellectual attainments. When almost a girl, immediately after graduating at Oberlin
:

institution.

at the head of the girls' department of this a remarkable school, almost a college in grade. Within a few years, Mrs. Coppin has become convinced that the really essential kind of instruction to give is industrial, not because

College, she

was placed
It
is

?7
the colored people are necessarily inferior in intelligence, but because they are obliged from circumstances to assume a lower station in society. The managers have therefore introduced there an admirable industrial school, in which they are teaching, among others, the trade of bricklaying. I think that this is the true remedy for such difficulties as Dr. Magill has mentioned. Such instances as that cited by him merely show the tyranny of trades-unions. Trades-unions prevent white boys from entering trades. The only remedy for this despotism over the boys of both races is an education in tradesschools, trades such as bricklaying, blacksmithing, carpentering, etc.. which will send the children out from school fitted to work as mechanics. Dr. Strieby. How could they get work afterwards ?

have fifty thousand colored people in Philadelphia, and their first opportunity would be with their own people. Lack of work is not the difficulty. The difficulty is in learning a
trade.

Mr. Garrett.

We

Rev.

Mississippi.

Frank G. Woodworth, Coming in contact,

parts of the States of taken pains to inquire along the lines of those questions which have been suggested as to the average wages. I think that what General Howard read is undoubtedly correct as regards those branches of which he speaks. The ordinary laborers on plantations do not often receive more than from seventy-five cents to ninety cents per day. I want to speak of the value of industrial education. Boys who come to us untrained, often able to earn only seventy-five cents a day, are sent out as carpenters, blacksmiths, or tinsmiths, able to earn from $1.25 to $2.50 a day. are having that repeated constantly. That is the bread-and-butter view of industrial education, and it is worthv of mention. The mechanics who receive $2 a day do not live in a oneroom cabin. They are getting to have good little homes of their own. The question has been asked whether they can obtain land. I think they can. I think the old unwritten law that no Negro should hold land has been so thoroughly broken up that no attention is paid to it in many parts of the South. The South is spotted as well as the North. There are spots that are bright and spots that are dark. We can make no generalization. It is impossible to say that all through the South a certain condition obtains. I can only speak of one sec-

Tougaloo University, students from all Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, I have
President
I

as

do, with

We

tion. If we each remember that, it will save us from many a hasty statement. I have been inquiring from our students about the holding of land. I find in many counties in Mississippi the colored people are acquiring farms which they are gradually paying for, some of them farms of two hundred acres or more. One man who sends his children to our school tells me that he has now 1,190 acres without encumbrance of any kind. The credit belongs to the railroad companies. They sold land to Negroes, and gave clear titles and that has compelled the selling of land in other places. The question of saving has come up. I am afraid the colored people do not save. I have one suggestion that I want to make, and that is that the postal-savings system might be indorsed by this Conference. I think it would be an excellent thing, and would do
;

58

more than anything else for the uplifting of colored people in a They would then save all the time. Their natural material way. tendency is to save after they have been educated up to it. Some one has spoken of the attitude of the white people of the South
toward the colored. I think the white people feel kindly toward the The editor of the leading paper of Mississippi said colored people. publicly at our Commencement that the best people of the State are solid in favor of the education of the Negro, and I think he knows I know, too, pretty well the state of feeling throughout Mississippi.
that a Congressman of that State said that he welcomed what had been given to Mississippi by such schools as ours, and he recognized that a helping and beneficent hand had been stretched out from the North toward the solving of this great problem. The State Superintendent of Education said last year to me: "I wish you would go North, and raise a million dollars, and establish other schools like
If the yours for the benefit they are to the colored population. colored people are to stay here, it is better for us and them that they should be educated." I believe the general tendency of the best classes is toward the education and uplifting of the colored people. There is to be a constitutional convention in Mississippi in July and August, and the whole atmosphere is full of that ; and a great many of these things which might not have been said a few months ago, are now spoken of freely, because the whole question has been thrust upon us for discussion. Does your school get aid from the State ? Dr. Strieby. Yes: it has had aid for a number of years. Prof. Woodworth. This gives us the recognition of the State. It receives $1,500 a year. All the expressions which have been used in regard to our school recently by the officials of our State have been very kind indeed. Two years ago they had a retrenching legislature, and the House cut off appropriations from all institutions, even cutting down the insane asylum $16,000, and they cut us off entirely; but a conference committee arranged matters, so that we received something. This

it some of the Bourbons of the Senate, showed something of the estimation in which they held the school. I think we had over one hundred white people at our Commencement.

conference committee had on

and

it

Adjourned

at 10 p.m.

?It)irD

Session.
5.

Thursday Morning, June

The Conference was Hayes in the chair.

called to order at ten o'clock, ex-President

President Gates, Chairman of the Executive Committee, spoke as follows The committee have thought that perhaps it would possibly relieve a misapprehension existing in the minds of some if it were clearly understood that the programme of this Conference had not
:

Indeed, I am authorized by our host to been prepared in advance. say, what I supposed to be the fact, that no persons were asked to prepare set addresses on special subjects, but that a general invitation was given to be present, and to confer on these themes. The committee have had a difficult task in attempting to find persons who were willing to advance their views, under these circumstances, and Each phase of to speak on special aspects of the general subject. the subject is thrown open for general discussion. There is as pressing an invitation to all to share in the discussion as to any one. The outlines which should guide us have been clearly stated by our The programme which your committee are laying out is President. based on the phrases he used. The five special divisions which we shall consider are the industries of the Negro, his home life, his eduWe do not propose to ask for cation, his morality, and his religion. any long addresses on " what the Negro ought to be." We wish to We have faith in what God designs to consider rather what he is. bring out in the life of this race of our fellow-citizens. If we expected to bring out a type of Negro manhood after the model of the Plymouth Rock Pilgrim, we should probably be disappointed. The education of the Negro is the main theme for to-day. That will lead to a discussion of what effect this process of education has in his home, and what relation to his morality and religion. We should be very careful to follow the line indicated by the President. We want to keep that ever before to speak from a sympathetic point of view, We wish to draw from the friends of the Negro in the South us. points of view that differ from those most commonly talked about in the North. We feel that there should be a rational optimism, based on the belief that God reigns and is working out his purposes among us. The outcome of our Conference should be to make stronger throughout the nation a rational confidence in the future of this

race.
to submit first the reading of brief extracts of from invited guests who are unable to be present. This will be followed by a discussion of the home life of the Negro in the districts where the blacks outnumber the whites, what can be done to improve it. Miss Emerson, President Woodworth, and Dr. Pitzer,
letters

Your committee wish

6o The next topic will be of Washington, will speak along that line. education for the race. This will be opened by the Hon. John Jay, of New York, and Dr. W. T. Harris, of Washington.
Numerous extracts from letters were then read by Mr. H. O. Houghton, who said that he had been very much struck with the wide range of invitations which had been sent throughout the country to representative men of all sects and denominations. The general tone of these letters was regret at the inability of the writers to be present and hearty sympathy with the object of the Conference. Among others from whom such letters were received were United States Senator George F. Hoar; Colonel J. M. Keating, Memphis, Tenn. S. M. Finger, Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Carolina; Bishop J. P. Newman, Washington, D.C. Professor George L. White, Ithaca, N.Y. President W. H. Hichman, D.D., Rev. Samuel Longfellow, Cambridge Solomon Palmer, Atlanta, Ga. Superintendent of Education, Alabama Senator H. L. Dawes; PresBishop Whipple ident D. C. Gilman, Johns Hopkins Hon. Levi General William Preston P. Morton, Vice-President United States Johnson, New Orleans; General Rufus Saxton; Dr. J. L. M. Curry; Bishop Gillespie, of Michigan Simeon Gilbert, editor of Advance,
; ;
;

Chicago.

HOME

LIFE OF
D.
E.

THE NEGROES.

ADDRESS BY MISS

EMERSON, AMERICAN MISSIONARY

ASSOCIATION.
little of my own experience and observation in homes of the colored people, dating from 1869, when, in common with many others answering to the call for woman's help, I found my way to the black belt of the South.

can give only a

relation to the

My first experience was in the school. When I stood up in that school-room, with ninety or one hundred black children, youth, men, and women before me, I felt perfectly helpless, because I had no knowledge of them in their home life. I did not know how to meet them. I began by following them to their homes and, after school, many a long walk I took, sometimes through the trackless sand along the cypress swamp, up embankments where I found the clusters of cabins which they called homes. Coming, as I did, from a New England town, with Christian family training, though I had not seen wealth in my own home, yet, having felt nothing of real want, I saw in these Negro cabins only the poverty of the people, the outward lacks. I saw nothing, at first, of the lack of inward grace. But, when I came to the educational part in connection with these youth, then I found what made their home life so barren and poor. Home and woman are synonymous terms; and so, if I speak to you this morning of the women of the colored race, you will understand how that touches the life of the colored race. Taking the young people as they come into our schools, we find, first, that it is not only book knowledge that they need. The irregularity of their habits of life, their lack of knowledge of all that per;

('.I

tains to neatness in person and neatness in dress, or the proprieties of life, show that they have had no training whatever. also find It seems as if they were but their sensibilities blunted or torpid. one mass of corrupted humanity, and it is worse looking upon this in

We

Finding them thus, we must teach them at first habits of cleanliness, neatness, and order; and, to do this, we must bring the young people into our school homes or home schools. found that

women.

We

was useless to go into the homes and talk about something that they never had seen and could not understand. If we spoke of better ways, they would say, " Yes, yes " but we never saw much improvement in them from that alone. We must show them the We must be to them in everything what we would have thing itself. them to be. We must go to them, and show them in the working of our own homes what we would have them develop in their homes and We could not go and plant Christian homes all over the lives. South, so we planned to make one school home serve for many, where, bringing in the youth, we might give them the ideas that they needed. We began by requiring order and cleanliness in their rooms and persons. We especially reached out to girls, guarding, guiding, and helping them and we found great changes as a result, wonderful changes. It is one of the most marvellous things that out of that which seemed to be so corrupt there should arise so much of what gives evidence of true, pure womanhood. Let me give a few traits that I have observed. We all know their great love of music. It does seem as if a people with so much melody of voice must have melody, though untrained, in their hearts, must have something there that will work out what will be meloThen there is observable in them, and it has come to dious in life. be more apparent within a few years, a great love of the beautiful in color. They respond to everything beautiful in nature. The young people in our schools will gather wild flowers and bring them in and, in the hands even of little children, they seem to group themselves naturally into the most charming bouquets. They have taste and
it
;
;

consciousness of harmony of color that is very noticeable. Twenty years ago, when I first knew them, this appeared in a certain grotesqueness of dress and in arrangement of bright colors but, though they still retain their love of that which is bright, it is toned down, and they work out the harmony in their own way. Then they are a very sympathetic people, very kind. Possibly one reason why there is so little pauperism among them is that almost every colored family has adopted orphan children. They will always open their doors to orphans. When the mothers bring their children to school and offer to pay for their tuition, we sometimes say, " You seem to have a large family of children." " Yes," they will reply, " but
;

three or five of them are my sister's children, or a friend's children." If they have made a promise to the dead mother that they will take care of the children, it is sacred. They never break such a promise. So long as these children are dependent, they will divide their last crust with them before they will turn them away. They are also very kind to the sick. It is true that in their ignorance what they mean for kindness is really cruelty but, with a proper knowledge of physiology and hygiene, I cannot think of a
;

62

more gentle, soothing, helpful nurse than a colored woman would make. Bring that element into their home life, and you can conceive what it would be. They are very forgiving and loving in their natures. This last
Decoration Day one of the women of the town called at our school home, and brought with her the loveliest flowers in bouquets, and in She was going designs, a cross, a crown, an anchor, and others. forty miles to lay these flowers on the grave of her old mistress.
not say "Missis," she did children," she said, children are all dead, and there is no one but me to lay flowers on her grave." We found that the only thing this woman spent money for, beyond the bare necessities of life, was to pay her fare every year going these forty miles on the train, to lay flowers on the grave of " Madam." By the development of these qualities and careful training, these young people gain self-respect, and are able to stand as the leading I remember such an instance of influence in their own communities. a young girl living in one of those one-roomed cabins which have been described, without any window, with just an open fireplace, with no closet, no shelf, no table, no regular meals, no dishes of any sort, only a skillet on the hearth, from which any one ate when he was I remember such a hungry, if there happened to be anything in it. girl coming into one of our homes, such a home as a company of
"

"Madam's Madam's

Northern ladies can make. It was like heaven to her. She began to grasp, a little at a time, the different lines of domestic work and of teachings such as abound in Christian homes all over After having been there four years, and at the same time the North. having been in the school, she married a colored minister of the Together they town, one who had been educated in our schools. went out, and with the money they had earned built a little house in Twelve months ago I was in that house the outskirts of the town. and, truly, it was like one of the most charming little New England homes, but planted down there in Alabama. There was a cosey sitting-room, a pleasant kitchen, a little room for the pastor's study, and two chambers, all neat and clean. The young woman took pride
Christian

looked as if, anticipating my coming, she She, with but my visit was a surprise to her. her little three-year-old child, was at the window, watching for her husband's return. In the sitting-room was a table, and books upon I asked her the table, showing that they enjoyed such things as well. if she was not lonely, for there were not many of her own people who were her equals. She said no, that her husband spent his evenings reading aloud to her. Contrast that with what you might have found among that people only a few years ago, and note what a marvellous thing has been wrought. There are springing up all over the South such homes as that. To be sure, it seems as if it is a very little thing, as if it were a very slow It is true the work, as if it were impossible to reach the masses. work must be largely individual but it is wonderful how soon one family reached will convey to another family the help which has been received, and how constantly the elevating influence is felt. Each of these little homes sends out its ray of light toward those
in

taking

me

over

it.

It

had put

it

in readiness

63
Yet the darkness beyond is there. Go sitting in darkness beyond. out from the towns, away from the reach of these schools, and you will find in the plantations in the black belt people living almost in a When we get any young people from that class state of animalism. into our schools, as we do occasionally, we find often that they have never sat at the table in their lives, that they have never used a knife and fork, and more than once girls have come to us who had never They did not know how to get into bed, and would slept in a bed. perhaps lie on the floor under it, or on the top without opening it. We speak of the eight million blacks in the South we think of the few thousands in Christian homes, of the comparatively few that we have reached, and we must see that there is an immense work to be done among them yet. But I wanted for our encouragement to menWe are worktion these hopeful signs as pertaining to the family. ing along these lines in developing character. It is true we aim to put them in the way of independence and self-support yet I do not think so much of that as of putting them in the way of establishing The girls are not all beautiful, comfortable homes for themselves. going to be school-teachers or dressmakers or milliners. They They are to be wives and marry, and have homes and children. mothers, and what we need is to bring out all those influences But the girls must be educated, in that will be helpful in home life. order to be congenial companions. They find their husbands in the After being there, they schools where they have become acquainted. could not go out and intermarry among the lower, more ignorant classes; and we must give them the enlightenment of mind, the education, that will keep them right along with each other in their path
;

of

life.

sippi.

President Tougaloo University, Missisvery little for me to say. I suppose the reason I am asked to be here at this time is because my school is Within the four counties close to us we in the centre of Africa. there are over 100,000 colored peoare just out of Jackson, Miss. Within a radius of ple, and the farthest are not forty miles away. and, at the seventy-five miles there are 450,000 colored people present rate of increase, the State of Mississippi will probably show in the present census something like 850,000 or 900,000 colored peo-

Rev. F. G.

Miss Emerson

Woodworth,
has

left

ple in the State. In the black belt the Negroes are in an immense majority. In those counties where there are 100,000 colored people there are but

60,000 whites. One of our boys on Commencement Day had an oration on the One point that he urged in favor of it was question of emigration. That might be said of the that the colored people have no homes. mass of the colored people, for very few know what a real home is. Miss Emerson has spoken of the one-roomed cabin. I wish I had built of logs, chinked with mud, a mud power to picture it to you, chimney on the outside which goes up in any direction except and straight, sometimes a window, that is, a swinging shutter, sometimes a floor, which you can find with a hoe. In a great many there is no furniture of any kind. Sometimes a dozen people live in this one room, ten by twelve feet and you cannot imagine any home

64
in such a place as that. I honestly believe that the greatest curse of the Negro is the one-room cabin. Take away the one-room cabin, and you will have eliminated the greatest cause of immorality in the South. Can you think of moral life where there are men, women, and children by the dozen in one room, eating, living, sleeping together? One of our teachers went to visit a family where thev turned out the cow, that the teacher might come in That was within a mile of our institution ; and I suppose there are thousands of cabins unworthy to be dignified by the name of home in that region. They do not know very much about what we consider the conveniences of life. I was driving by one of these cabins the other day, with Dr. Wright and he asked me how many lived in that cabin, just such a structure as you have heard described. I told him about eight or ten. The children went to our school. " What do they have for meals ? " he asked. 1 told him that, when one of the children was hungry, he would poke around in the ashes, for the fire was always kept smouldering on the hearth, until he would find a sweet potato. He would eat that, and consider that he had had his dinner. Some come to school and stay all day without anything to eat. I have seen some of them at luncheon take out a pocket handkerchief, and tied up in a corner would be four hickory nuts for luncheon. Their ordinary fare at home is corn-bread and sweet potatoes, with sometimes a little bacon. I speak of the lower classes. If you go into the towns, you will find better living. You will also find on plantations many homes which are vastly better than these. Within the last two or three years there has been a great change in many of the homes. I remember one home of the one-roomed cabin description which was very much crowded. Within the last spring that family has built a two-roomed cabin, of boards set up endwise and battened, with a good chimney, fireplace, and windows. This house showed great enterprise j but you would pass it by here, and say that some one had simply squatted there. With us, it shows great progress. One thing that must be done is to instil in the minds of the young people an intense dissatisfaction with their ordinary home conditions. If once we can make them dissatisfied with the one-room cabin, and give them an aspiration for cleanliness, and half a chance to be moral, we shall have accomplished a good deal. You might go up to one of these homes and see nobody there. There would be a pad" Where are the people ? " you ask. lock on the door. Farther off in the fields you will see an antiquated mule, with a piece of rope harness, and a bull-tongued plough, which scratches up the ground from an inch and a half to three inches. Following the plough, you will see a man, who is the head of the cabin. Following him are the women of the establishment, for they all work in the fields in that region. The little children will all be working, too, probably, all engaged in manual toil. They are pretty well instructed in that kind of labor; but we want to give them the possibility of a better life than that, something higher than the old condition of affairs. When the boys go to school, they learn how to make better cabins, and to make tables and stools, and the girls learn how to cook, so that they can have something better than hoe-cake and bacon.
life
!
;


65

Very few of these people know the value of money. They spend what they have carelessly and the credit system, which is a great curse, is largely responsible for a good deal of their difficulty, and of
;

their failure to get along in the world.

If we could eliminate that, their homes could have more comforts. There is no elevation possible for the colored people until their

homes

the vital point. can, see that all the persons who can be reached are reached by the best influences, influences that will help to lead them into a better condition and a
is

are

made

better.

What

shall

we do about

To my mind, it ? Do all

that

that

we

nobler

life.

most useful things with us in our school is the Girls' Industrial Cottage. have regular classes in household economv. have also a little house, which we call the " Girls' Industrial Cottage," in which four at a time keep house. give them a sum of money and an account book ; and they do the housekeeping. They buy their provisions, and do everything that ought to be done in a well-regulated house. Thus they get a knowledge of how to conduct They become competent to make good wives and housea home. keepers for the boys who want them. That is the kind of girl that the better class of boys are going to demand, but the supply must be equal to the demand.
of the

One

We

We

We

Gen. Eaton. What on the home life ?

Prof.

is

the influence of the uneducated ministers

influence of

Woodworth.
is

The

a great

many uneducated
the family ? vice in the

ministers
Prof.
family.
tell

bad, wholly bad.

Gen. Eaton.

Have you known them to justify vice in Woodworth. I have known them to practise

I suppose that would be justifying it. I would not dare to you some of the things that I know. I know of a number of instances where the churches have been split along that line, where the better element withdrew because they would not countenance

such things in their minister. Dr. Striebv. How well are they acquiring homes ? Prof. Woodworth. I think that quite a number of them are doing so slowly, but surely. I think, if colored men and women would save their money and lead a respectable life, they would be able in a short time to acquire homes. I have heard that the colored people are attaining homes faster than the poor whites of the South and I suppose that is true. Pres. Gates. What means are there of keeping money ? Prof. Woodworth. Very few. If our government would establish the postal-savings system, it would be a blessing to the whole country, but especially to the Negroes. Dr. Mayo. What is the credit system ? Prof. Woodworth. It is this. These colored people work on farms, renting them and they agree to give a certain part of their crops to the man of whom they rent the land or who furnishes them with goods. They have no money whatever. He keeps an account with them, and that runs up until the time when the cotton is gathered. Then they have a grand settling up and it very often happens, in some inscrutable way, that the cotton will exactly balance the account.

66
Dr.

bears equally on the poor whites. Is the same remarkable result found in the accounts with the whites as with the Negroes? Yes I would not cast reflections on any Prof. Woodworth. and yet I heard Bishop Haygood say that one class of citizens A of the greatest curses of the colored people was the Jew store. large part of the trade down there is in the hands of a class of Jews who have brought the name of Jew into discredit and they are very As an illustration, one of our hard indeed upon the poor people. A man came into the store to settle with pupils told me this story. He asked the man how many bales of cotton he had. the Jew.
Prof.

Dr. Mayo.
Mayo.

Is not that the condition of the white planters also

Woodworth.

Yes

it

man

The Jew figured it up, and told the reply. " Are that three bales of cotton would just release the account. you sure?" said the man. ''Just three bales of cotton?" "Yes," was the reply. " Now, then, give me a receipt," said the man ; and " Now, I am glad that three bales of cotton settled the Jew did so. " my account," said the man " for I have got another bale outside
"

Three bales," was the

'Pres.

Haves.

ago I went down to the Gen. black belt of Alabama and elsewhere to inquire of the Southerners about the Negro, and I found that every one gave a similar account During the past ten years have the Negroes been improvof them. Then I ing ? They thought they were going from bad to worse. changed the question, and asked whether the Negroes' chickens and pigs had been increasing, and they were buying more land, getting homes. Yes, they said. Is the way of the transgressor harder than it was before ? They thought it was. Are law and order better estabWell, then, are Yes, they thought so. lished than ten years ago ? they getting better or worse ? They didn't know, but they thought, The habit is to say that on the whole, they were perhaps improving things with the Negroes are going badly, but my opinion is that there The then Governor of the State and the is a steady improvement. Superintendent of Education gave me the same opinion. I went to Cotton Valley, where a colored woman, cultivated and interesting, was a shining light in that region. There were about thirty Negroes
!

That man Armstrong. About

is

getting on three years

!

there with

whom I talked. Seven were free from debt. The rest were in debt from $100 to $500. They saw no way out of it. It was the result of the credit system. Three-fourths of the colored Almost all rent land. They are genpeople live in the country. erally under this terrible credit system that the- Southern newspapers denounce. It is too true that there is a low class of traders, Jews and mean men from the North and the South, who are doing the most cruel things, as cruel as anything in the days of slavery. The grind of these rapacious men, who make thirty-three per cent., is a The terrible thing for the colored people, and as bad for the whites. The law favors political trouble is bad enough, but that is worse. He has a lien on the crop, and often owns it before it the creditor. When in Tuskegee, I was introduced to a Southern gathered. is banker, who told me that he had the previous year loaned money to a hundred farmers there, white and colored, all of whom had paid him back. His advances were not in kind, but in cash. The ad-

67
orders tempts the poor man to extravagance. appeals to him in a different way, and makes him economical. This gentleman was wise, considerate, and helpful, doing a profitable business. He did not give them the monev all at once, but a few dollars every month, giving also good advice to those In the West India Islands, a few to whom he loaned the money. weeks before, I found the same credit or " truck " system, as it was called, working as mischievously there as here, and bitterly complained of by enlightened people.

vance

in

kind
is

in store

When

it

in

cash,

it

Gen. Eaton. I have heard it stated that in some parts of the South the idea of organization has taken very strong hold of the colored people. There are different organizations among them, sometimes secret, sometimes open. They receive so much monev from fees from every member, and these are kept for various purposes.

Sometimes they provide

for burials.

These

societies

among

are a corrective of immorality. Some of these societies are directed by Miss Drexel, and aided by her money. I want to ask whether any one can give information about these societies. I also want to ask, when a colored man has leased a certain portion of land, and cultivated it one season, or worked on wages for a single planter, how far he is at liberty to engage with another man another year. Prof, Woodworth. They frequently do that and they frequently find themselves thrust out another year, if the planter finds he can make better terms with another man. One of our students lost a place in this way. He had fixed up his home, so that it was almost a model home but, at the end of the year, he found he had got to give it up and go away, for some one had given more for it. There is a law in Mississippi, the gist of which is that, if a man is under contract to any farmer, or in any way under contract for his services, he cannot leave the position for a year under the penalty of imprisonment, even though he should be offered higher wages. A good many have gone to Louisiana from Mississippi because the advantages are better there.

women

tions with reference to this that could be formulated

I

intelligent agriculture,

Can General Armstrong suggest any recommendaGen. Armstrong. see nothing be done so hopeful as through the instruction given schools TuskeMr. Garrett.
?

to

in

like

gee and Tougaloo, Talladega, Claflin, and like institutions. Much can be done through the influence of the men who go out from these schools. Mr. Booker T. Washington, among the foremost of his race, in my opinion, is ahead of us all in this matter. He has sent out from Tuskegee a circular to the farmers of Alabama in his neighborhood, giving them good advice about their crafts and ways of living. The graduates of these schools not only teach day-schools, but they take up the Sunday-school and temperance work. The old-time Negro preacher is apt to be against the progressive work of the South but these young men and women, the latter as much as the former, secure the confidence and respect of both races. I have been twenty-two years in this work, and no complaint has come to me except of these old-timers. The chief remedy for many of the evils of Negro life is in industrial education. Of the Southern
;

68
I believe that only Virginia and Mississippi have done the thing in the distribution of agricultural college land scrip to Xegro schools. South Carolina, at Claflin University, and other States have also recognized the necessity of this kind of work. Agriculture is at the bottom of things. The great mass of Negroes must be farmers, and they need to be taught to farm intelligently. Grass is worth three times as much as cotton, and grass rather than cotton is king. Where these people raise their own meats, the cash they get for cotton is not gobbled by traders and they will come out all right. Pigs and cows can do more for these people than acts of Congress. Legislation is " mighty onsartain,'' and is no reliance. Salvation is through a practical Christian education. We must turn our faces that way. The more self-help, the better. The farmers everywhere are the foundation of the national prosperity. I believe that our schools can do far more in this direction, and that the Department of Agriculture at Washington could co-operate with us to great advantage. Fifteen or twenty thousand dollars a year expended by it (not a dollar of it for land, building, or salaries) in seed and cost of sample experimental crop, chiefly grass, and the results to be spread broadcast among the Negroes in little printed leaflets, by means of Negro teachers (themselves farmers in most cases), would make an impression on Southern farming. But such common-sense, economical measures are hardly to be hoped for. All this touches the home life of the people, and home is everything. Gen. Eaton. There could perhaps be a deliverance against the

States,

fair

credit system

by

this

Conference.

L. Pierce. I want to ask whether or not, aside from the contract system, the relations of employers and Negroes are, on the whole, reasonably fair. I do not ask whether they are perfect, but whether they are reasonably fair. Is the Negro getting a fair share of the cotton crop? Will some one indicate what share he does get ? Pres. Woodworth. On the whole, I should say that the thing is reasonably fair, where they are out of the grip of the credit system. If the Negro could get on a cash basis, he would get along all right. The way to get rid of the credit system is to go on a cash basis. " The way to resume is to resume." In regard to the other question, it varies in different places. Sometimes he gets one-third, sometimes one-half, on shares. As General Armstrong has said, the law is on the side of the creditor, so much so that only a little while ago a convention of white renters was held, to inquire whether they had not better move to some place out of Mississippi where the land laws bear less heavily. They bear as hard on the white renters as they do on the colored. Mississippi does give about ten thousand dollars to the Alcorn College as part of the Agricultural Fund. Gen. Eaton. Have you any instruction in nursing, in connection with your schools, or in any other in Mississippi ? Pres. Woodworth. I can only say in answer to that question that I am hunting for a person to fill the position of teacher of nursing. Dr. Strieby. In our school at Memphis we have that taught. Dr. Ellinwood. I would like to ask whether there has been any

Mr.

Edward

69
effort

have an association formed, representing the different have been struck, in listening to these details, with the but, beyond fact that, wherever there is a school, there is an oasis the limited range of its influence, you come into darkness again. Daughters of the King, This is an age of association of all sorts,
to

schools.

Christian

Endeavor

Societies, political societies,

As we hear

of these schools,

they are accomplishing. schools to have an association which should represent them all, which should project light into the darkness around them ? Again, could there not be some simple plan formulated which should give suggestions with reference to this credit system and interpose some barrier against the ubiquitous Jew? I hope Dr. Ellinwood will formulate this himself. Dr. Strieby. I gratefully acknowlRev. A. W. Pitzer, D.D., Washington, D.C. edge the kindness of this Conference in the invitation extended to me to be present and take part in its deliberations. My voice has been heard ever since I grew to manhood in behalf of the Negro. I have spoken for him in the General Assembly South, on the rloor of the Synod of Virginia, in the presbytery to which I belong, and on the platform of the churches in Washington, and through the press. I claim therefore for myself, and for myself as a representative of the South, the same earnest desire to do what is best for the Negro as a citizen, and as a man, and as a Christian, that is in the heart It is well for the of my Brother Gates or of our honored President. South and the North to come together in mutual confidence and with I hail it as an auspicious omen that at respect one for the other. this first Conference we have representatives from the North and from the South, and that we come together with perfect confidence in each other's sincerity and in our desire to do what is best for the Negro. I thought yesterday, as I heard some of the speeches, How There were speakers here who said the easy it is to be mistaken Negro had but one name in the South. One gentleman said that we never christened the Negro, baptized, I think, is a better word. In Salem, Va., there is an old family Bible with my father's name and his wife's name in it and side by side with those names is the name of Abraham Watkins, and of Harriet, his wife, both of them Negroes and slaves, and the record of the baptism of their children, These children had been baptized by our Elijah and Martha. When Mrs. Harriet Watkins presented a pastor and in our home. new daughter, Dr. Lacy, our pastor, said, when he came to baptize She replied, "The her, "What is the name of your daughter?" "You Virgin Man-." Of course Dr. Lacy looked much surprised. mean Mary, don't you ? " he asked. " No," she said, " the Virgin Mary." And so she was baptized and it is entered on the old family What was true of the servants in my Bible, " The Virgin Mary." father's family was true in scores and hundreds of other Southern households. Not only did they have two names, not only were they baptized, but hundreds and thousands of them were brought to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must remember the immense size of the Southern field, stretching from Maryland to Mexico. What may be true of the Negro in

labor unions, etc. are delighted with the results that Would it be possible for these different

we

70
one portion of this vast domain may not hold true of every other portion, what may be true in one community may not be true of every community; and, therefore, all general affirmations should be made with the utmost care and consideration. Habits, customs, manners, usages, are different in different localities. All the people of the South are not good people, just ready and waiting for transThe kingdom has not come, nor has the New Jerusalem yet lation. descended either on the James or the Mississippi River. There are both good and bad people in the South, and good and bad people in the North and the good people, the Christian people, of the two sections, must co-operate in the Christ-like work of helpI have no doubt of the unity of the ing the poor and the needy. human race, that we are all one in Adam, and that God has made of one blood all the nations of men, and hath determined the times and bounds of their habitation. And yet how marked, how mysterious, how immense, are the differ;

ences of the various races of the human family

How

great the gulf

between the Anglo-Saxon and the Negro, or the Norman and the Some races have made hisIndian, or the Roman and the Chinese! Other races have no recorded history, and have become historic. tory, and have never been factors in history. I asked two of the most accomplished members of this Conference Has the Negro race at any period of time or in any this question country of the globe been a factor in the history-making of the world ? If so, when and where ? He has no history, and has never been a history-maker. I believe there is such a thing as entailed and we sin, passing down from father to son by the law of heredity are considering to-day the condition of a people on whom have come down the inherited and accumulated sins of many past generations. The Negro of to-day is the product of his sad and dismal past. The
:

wild,

naked,

man

eating

savages of

equatorial

Africa

are

of

the

same blood and race as the Negro of this republic. We must deal We cannot shut our eyes to facts. They may be with him as he is. hard and painful things, but they are also stubborn and immovable It is not fair to judge him with the same standard of measthings. Here, then, is our brother, ure that we apply to the Anglo-Saxon. What can we do a "brother in black," it is true, but still a brother. We must remember the darkness out of which he comes, for him ? the fact that he does not belong to our historic race, and that he is
the victim of the entailed sins of many generations of vicious, wicked, must have both patience and pity; and and debased ancestors. time must be one of the factors in his elevation. His greatest need is that undefinable thing we call "character" must help and General Armstrong was clearly right when he said, " And all character-building must the negro to build up character." be a work of time. I have no theories on the Negro problem, but try each day to do all the good I can, in all the ways I can, to all the Negroes I can. And yet I make bold to assert that the seven millions of Negroes in the United States are better off to-day, in all respects, than any other equal number of Negroes have ever been at any time, in any portion of better fed, better clothed, better housed, better taught, the earth,

We

We

71
If this assertion better educated, better treated by their fellow-men. is denied, then point us to the better time and the better place. I I did not like slavery any more than General Howard did, and and yet but for the fact that these people would not have it again were compelled to labor for two hundred years they would not be Enforced labor has placed the as far advanced as they are to-day. American Negro far higher in the scale of civilization than his African
;

brother. If called

upon to point out on the missionary map of the world the most promising and fruitful field for Christian labor, I should point to the Negro of the South. You will search missionary annals in vain to find nearly two millions of people saved from heathenism, and gathered into Christian They have churches, as is the case among the Negroes of this land.
their ministers, their conferences, their schools, their worship, their literature. They are making Christian history and erelong, in the providence of God, they may have a most wonderful history in opening regions of the Dark Continent. I think I ought to say that it was under the influence of Christian men and women before the days of freedom, it was under the influence of homes where there was a Christian master or mistress, under the influence of the Christian Church where there were Christian white men to preach to white and black, that these converts were gathered. There are fourteen thousand colored Presbyterian communicants in the Assembly of which my honored friend, Dr. Allen, is secretary and the ancestors of these Christians were all brought to the knowledge of Christ through the labors of the Southern slave-owners years ago. The providence of God made us co-operate in the blessed work of elevating and Christianizing this people. I gratefully recognize that Northern Christians have sent to the South in these last twenty-five years something over $25,000,000. That is a great thing to have done, and that money has done a vast amount of good. If it had done nothing else than save one soul, I believe it would have been well spent. You have given a good deal, but there is a great deal left still to give. The way I got I want to say a word about Howard University. there was this. They did not have any money to pay for teaching and one of my good brothers came and said, " Can't you give us a There year's work ? " I thought it was my duty to go for a year. were thirty or forty young men preparing for the ministry. After I stayed a year, the work opened and broadened and the pressure of duty was so strong that I said, " I will have to stay another year." And so I have continued in the work for fifteen years. You may not know that we have in Howard University seven departments. We are a full-fledged university. In the last ten years we have had one hundred and sixty men in the theological department, and these have come from orthodox or evangelical churches. We have a strong sort of a faculty there are three Congregationalists, one Northern Presbyterian, a Southern Presbyterian, a Lutheran, with a side attachment of Episcopacy. We have never had a tangle in the faculty. Every man teaches what he believes the word of God teaches as the rule of faith and practice.
their churches,
; ;
;

72

Of the one hundred and sixty young men who have studied there, eighty have certificates of completing the three years' course, and have gone out to all parts of the land, and one to Africa. We know where nearly all these students are and what they are doing; and we believe that a smaller percentage has fallen out from the ranks of the ministry than in any white institution of which we have knowledge. I have been in their churches, and I believe that they are doing what good they can, as God opens the door for them. I care very little for an education for colored people or white people that does not put Some people think education is a panacea for Jesus Christ into it. all ills, but education apart from morality and redemption taught in the Bible is not going to do the work that its friends think it will. I wish to express my very great pleasure at being at this Conference, and at what I have heard, especially the unprejudiced and able statements made by General Armstrong and Dr. Mayo. These gentlemen have carefully gathered the facts and faithfully studied the subject; and their views will commend themselves to all candid and impartial men, both North and South. And the day is not far distant when all good men and women can cordially unite in this good work on the lines so clearly indicated. I close with the statement that I shall cheerfully co-operate in all wise methods to elevate the Negro, as man, as citizen, and as child of God.

The

following address was

made by Hon. John Jay

NATIONAL AID TO STATE EDUCATION.

BY HON. JOHN JAY, OF

NEW

YORK.

of the subject before us has been shown in the most way during these debates. Last evening, it was delightful to listen to the description of the manly and American qualities exhibited by the Negro, which afford so much hope for his advance This morning, the graceful and womanly account we in the future. have received of the devotion and successful labors of the women

The breadth

interesting

who, after the war, went into the black belt, into the centre of and ministered to the colored people, has been beautiful and encouraging. We have now to consider the facts and statistics in regard to the extent of illiteracy at the South, especially among the blacks for these show the work that confronts us, and indicate the course we must pursue to accomplish speedily their education and training. As we approach this chief branch of the subject, I regret the more the absence of Dr. Curry, whose practical experience and opportunities of observation in connection with the Peabody Fund give the greatest weight to his statements and counsel. I fortunately have a copy of his recent " Appeal to Southern Representatives in Congress and to the Friends of Free Schools in the Nation," to which I beg leave to ask your attention. Dr. Curry says, quoting the Census of 1880:
Africa,
;

71

"Of the school population of the South, nearly half are not in Over six and a quarter millions of our entire population school. could not write their names. Two millions of legal voters, of whom
900,000 were white and 1,100,000 were colored, could not write. The illiterate voters in the South were 1,363.884, or over one-third: 69.8 per cent, of illiterate voters were Negroes, and 30.2 per cent, whites. In North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, more than half the voters cannot read their ballots."
'

commends the Southern States for their educational observing that there is no discrimination in any of the States against Negroes. He quotes on this point Dr. Owen, of Nashville, and General Armstrong, the able principal of the Hampton School', who had remarked that, "of every $100 paid in Southern taxation' $91.50 are paid by white people"; and this fact has been supplemented by the late lamented Grady, who had said of Georgia that "the whites are assessed for $368,000,000 and the blacks for $10,000,000; and yet 49 per cent, of the beneficiaries are black children." And Mr. Grady had added that the Negroes in the South, paying one-thirtieth of the taxes, got nearly one-half of the fund spent
Dr. Curry
efforts,

in education.

This disproportion between the taxes paid by the colored people and the share of the taxes appropriated to their education was dwelt upon in the Senate and, in one of the last debates on the bill for
;

"national aid to State education," Senator Barbour, of Virginia, addressed some remarks to the Senators from the North which are
well worthy the attention of the country. They are specially deserving of consideration by those who have been deluded by the shallow and sophistical arguments in defiance of reason and of history, but put forth with a pretence of high philosophy, that the true plan to secure the education of the Negro race was not by giving national aid to the common-school system of the South, to build up, as in the North, normal schools, school-houses, and school appliances and district libraries, awakening educational pride and spirit, and inducing the most generous rivalry in State appropriations, but that the true plan to remove illiteracy from the Southern States would be to let them alone, to withhold all national aid, and tell them with an air of philosophic contempt for government appropriations to depend upon "self-help." Senator Barbour, after showing that both the political parties in Virginia were united in demanding the Blair bill, and exposing the pretence that the capacity for usefulness of the school system of the Southern States would be injured by benefactions, and pointing to what the South was doing for the Nezro

said

'

"I want gentlemen on the other side of this Chamber to take notice that there is a feeling getting abroad with our people that, if the National Government does not take any interest in the
education

and improvement

of the illiterate colored children, there is

reason why our white people should tax themselves to the extent they are doing to educate in their midst, in their own communities, a class of people who do not act with them, who are not homogeneous with the body of the Southern people, and who are more apt in the elec-

no good

74
tions to side against

them and vote with the man from Wisconsin

. .

Virginia. . " are aware that this class of people are not able to make any contribution to the tax fund of their respective States. ... Is it not expecting too much of us, is it not expecting more than the average humanity will bear, that we shall go on and tax ourselves to support unaided this colored class, this uneducated class, this, as it were, alien class to us, at our expense, and that you men of the North and West

than the

man from

We

should not regard it as your duty to assist ? " If you will not contribute, on part of the Federal Government, to this important subject, and the Federal Government does not care to assist in that matter, it will go far to alienate the interest which our people feel in the improvement of the illiterate colored race."
. . .

Now, what Senator Barbour meant by the remarks which he made If you of the North, so gently to Northern Senators was simply this. after all that you have done to impose this burden of illiteracy upon the South, and after all your promises to assist us in removing it,
abandon the Negroes to their fate, we shall abandon them them get their education from their proportion of the taxes paid by them and here would be their abandonment to illiterDr. Curry acy, as the outcome in their case of the self-help doctrine. says, and Senator Barbour's warning gives to his appeal new force,
choose
also,

to

and

let

that illiteracy is to be recognized, "not as local or sectional, but as a national question of paramount importance, imperilling our repreThe North may be geographically and practisentative institutions. cally severed from contact with the Negroes; but she cannot hope to be exempt from the industrial, social, moral, and political conse-

quences of their
facts,

illiteracy.
;

enfranchised the Negroes

by no means
is

logical,

The North emancipated, citizenized, and and from these three distinct, substantive legal, or civil consequents of one another,

a resulting obligation that cannot be honestly ignored or evaded to qualify them for citizenship or suffrage." Then Dr. Curry said of the South what the most distinguished educational experts have repeated again and again, that " the school demand cannot possibly be met by her resources " ; and it is an alarming

there

fact that the States school burdens "

(p.

having the smallest resources have the " heaviest Dr. Curry says again, " The only remedy 4).

" (p. 6). He for this deplorable condition of things is national aid also reminds us that among the Southern Senators recorded or paired in favor of federal aid were Senators Brown, Call, Colquitt, Garland,

George, Hampton, Jackson, Jonas, Jones, of Florida ; Kenna, Pugh, Ransom, Riddleberger, Gibson, Lamar, Vance, Berry, Blackburn, Eustis, Jones, of Alabama; Mahone, Walthall, Daniel, and Pasco. And among the historic facts cited by him in favor of national aid as the ancient, beneficial, and established policy of the government, were some in regard to which the American people have been systematically deluded and deceived, by ingenious attempts to prove that He a bill for national aid would be a bill to promote mendicancy.

showed
" Aid

that
rightly

develop

self exertion, self-reliance,

bestowed, instead of promoting mendicancy, will self-maintenance of popular educa-

75
tion, and prevent any relaxation of efforts in behalf of the indepen dent maintenance of school systems. From the ordinance of 1787 prior to the adoption of the Constitution, through every administra tion, by every party, by every statesman, down to the present period national encouragement of education in some form has been approved and sustained. Up to 1880, the Southern States had received for school purposes 5,520,504 acres of public land; for universities 122 c6o acres and for agricultural and mechanical colleges, 3,270000 acres During the same period, the Northern States and Territories received for schools 62,273,415 acres ; for universities, 842,960 acres and for agricultural and mechanical colleges, 6,330,000 acres. The enabling act of 22d of February, 1889, enlarged these land grants by gifts to the Dakotas, Montana, and Washington."
;
:

received only one-twelfth of the land grants already made and the other is the part which the nation has borne in regard to Southern illiteracy. Dunng the continuance of the slave system, illiteracy right y or wrongly, was regarded as tending to the safety of the people. It was regarded as dangerous to educate them. Then came the war; and the nation, at its close, emancipates the slaves en franchises them, and places them in a position of dignity citizenship responsibility, and power, where their education has become a matter of absolute importance to the safety of the Southern States and to the nation at large. I do not think that these plain facts have been understood by our people, who have been misinformed and I think the true plan, the only plan now open, for settling this aright
;

nificent character in developing the schools of the Northern States and that of the total grants eleven-twelfths have gone to the Northern States and only one-twelfth to the South. The concealment of those facts was certainly not a fair thing. The Southern States were told openly that they would be degrading their Statehood if they accepted that money while others said, more truly, that the aid offered by the Blair bill would be only a long-deferred instalment of a just debt There are two special incidents connected with the Southern position which seem to establish an exceptional claim in their favor to national aid. One is the fact mentioned bv Dr. Curry, that they have
;

had no authority in the Constitution that it had no historic precedent; that it would be a novelty in American legislation- that if any Southern State were to accept the aid from the government it would do it at the cost of its manhood; that the understanding on the part of all philosophic men would be that a State accepting aid would accept the position of a beggar and mendicant, leaning on the support of the national government; and, when that aid should be withdrawn, the public schools would sink, for all State educational strength would have been emasculated and would soon die away These opponents of the bill ignored the historic fact that from the year 1887 the amount of land given to the States for the public schools embraced an area larger than the area of Great Britain and Ireland, that the result of those grants has been of the most magthat
it

In the face of these historic facts, showing national aid to State education to be the settled policy of the government, it was said of the bill introduced and so ably sustained by Senator Blair that it was the bill of a crank ; that nobody else had any special interest
in
it

is

to

76
advise the American people of the situation, and their common sense will demand for the Negroes fair play and equal justice. In reference to the argument used so largely by the opponents of the Blair bill, of the demoralizing influence of national aid on the educational feeling of the States, Dr. Blackmar, late of Johns Hopkins and now of the University of Kansas, in a recent volume of great interest on " National and State Aid to Higher Education," shows that, apart from the immediate practical result of national aid to State education, its chief excellence consists in the stimulation which it gives to State and local enterprise. Such was the happy result of the division of the surplus in 1838, although that was a The money was financial rather than an educational measure. divided among the States, New York receiving the largest share, some four millions ; and in New York, as in some seventeen or eighteen other States, it was appropriated for educational purposes. Through Governor Marcey, of New York, this money was divided among the common schools, academies, and district libraries, and a and, while a large part of the principal remains to the present day amount of good was directly done by the money, the greatest advantage was in encouraging State educational pride and stimulating Dr. Curry, at the conclusion of his Appeal, State educational aid. reminds us that the common school is the basis and defence of free government, and warns us of the danger of allowing its place to be taken by parochial schools, and reminds us that the South, if true to free schools, can save representative government and our civil and religious liberties; and he closes with repeating that in national aid is our only hope, and recalls the fact that in 1888 thirty-nine Sena;

tors sustained the measure. This is the important question

now before this Conference, which, able representatives from every section, should certainly make its mark upon the country. The deliberations of this Conference ought to influence the opinion of the nation, and so, as we I beg leave to submit for your trust, secure the action of Congress. consideration and for reference to the committee the following prewith
its

amble and resolutions

Whereas popular intelligence is recognized by the nation as an essential basis of popular government and a matter of national concern, to be promoted by national grant 10 State public schools And whereas the extent of illiteracy prevailing at the South is such that, of the school population, nearly ore-half are not in school, and that, while in the Northwestern States each child receives on an average for his ) early education about $15, in the Southern States the per capita expenditure is about $3.86; and the country is assured by experts, and notably by the Hon. J. L. M. Curry, the experienced head of the Peabody Fund, in his recent Appeal, that in the South "the school demand cannot possibly be met by her resources," and, again, that "for the present, and for a few years tu come, national aid is our only hope"; And whereas the equitable claim of the Southern States to national aid in this emergency seems to be enhanced by the two historic facts: for public school, which (1) That in the distribution of national grants of land exceed in extent the land area of Great Britain and Ireland, the Northern States had received from 1787 to 1880 62,273,415 acres, and the Southern States 5,520,-

and less than one-twelfth of the whole That, while the illiteracy of the colored race in the South during the continuance of slavery was regarded by the Southern States as conducive to the public safety, the emancipation and enfranchisement of the slave by the nation converted their illiteracy into a danger both for the State and the nation, and imposed upon therefore, the honor of the nation the duty of aiding in its removal,

504,

(2)

77
Resolved, That we respectfully ask the President and Congress of the United States to take into immediate and earnest consideration the subject of the existing illiteracy; to inaugurate and carry out such measures of relief as their constitutional powers shall admit and as their wisdom shall suggest, to aid the States consenting to accept such aid in thoroughly removing the present evil, and in placing the public school system on a permanent basis, that will for the future secure to all children, native or of foreign birth, an elementary education fitted for their rights and duties as American citizens. Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and resolution be submitted by the committee of this Conference to the Senate and members of the House, to the Hon. William M. Evarts and the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, for presentation to those bodies, and that a printed copy of the same, attested by the officers of the Conference, be sent to each Senator and Representative. Resolved, .That the Conference recommend the forwarding of memorials to Congress on the subject from all parts of the republic, that Congress may be advised of the concern with which the country views the continuance of the existing illiteracy and of its judgment that so vast a scandal and danger should be at once abated, and never permitted to recur.

An
tion,

address followed by Dr. VV. T. Harris, Commissioner of Educa-

Washington, D.C.

NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING FOR THE

NEGROES.
BY W.
T.

HARRIS, LL.D.

The statistics of the seventeen States in which slavery existed previous to the Civil War show an attendance of 1,140,405 colored children in the public schools, and of 17,683 persons (colored) in private and endowed institutions, chiefly for secondary and higher education. Of these there were 5,439 in normal schools and 5,066 in colleges. Considering the small number of private and endowed schools, we see how important it is to concentrate the funds of charity on the single purpose of educating teachers in normal schools (and of religious teachers in colleges and seminaries). The normal training of these teachers ought to be exceptionally thorough, because it ought to fit them to lift up a people by a threeintellectual, religious, and industrial. means, Glancing at the statistics again, we see that for 1888 there were returned for these seventeen States 2,264,344 colored persons and 5,561,056 white persons of school age, say from six to twenty years of age. Of these the colored schools enrolled only 55.8 per cent., while the white school enrolled 62.5 per cent, of this "school population." In the State of Mississippi, of which we have heard much spoken at this Conference, out of a school population of 269,099 colored persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years, there were 143,825 in

fold

school for a longer or shorter period in the course of the year. We should not expect to find the entire population of school age in school. It is sufficient if twenty per cent, of the population attends school. But, in the seventeen States that we are considering, the enrolment is about fourteen per cent., or two-thirds what it should be. However, an attendance of even fourteen per cent, is of vast
significance.

7$
Something of the quality of these schools may be inferred from the salaries paid to their teachers. Alabama reports a monthly salary to colored teachers of $23.76 and of $24.26 to white teachers. Kentucky reports an average of $31.15 per month to colored teachers and only
$28.41 to white teachers. North Carolina paid $21.84 to colored and $26.21 to white teachers. But Louisiana reports an average of $54.80 to colored and $65.60 to white teachers. The average length of session of colored schools is as low as sixty days in some States and as high as one hundred and eighty-five days in some other States. The Peabody Fund expends over $60,000 per year in stimulating the schools to higher excellence or to the professional training of teachers. The Slater Fund expended for the stimulation of industrial education is about one-half as much. Education, intellectual and moral, is the only means yet discovered that is always sure to help people to help themselves all other aid may demoralize. It may develop a habit of dependence in the beneficiaries. But intellectual and moral education develops self:

respect, self-sacrifice, fertility of resources, of knowledge of human nature, and aspiration for a better condition in life. Education produces that divine discontent with one's lot which goads on the individual, and will not let him rest. In these Conferences we have heard the praise of industrial education sounded. It is right that we should make our education all-sided when we have to deal with the elevation of a lower race. There must be intellectual and religious education, and also education in industry and economics. When we hear the methods of industrial education described, we see that it is not so much industrial as economical education that is

meant.

The Negro, living for two hundred years in a condition of servitude, has learned much about industry, but only a little about the accumulation of property. All civilized races have learned the Roman idea of private property. By its aid, the individual develops a degree of personal independence not otherwise attainable. He can
govern himself and detach himself from his fellow-men so much that he can enjoy the right of private judgment and think for himself. Such right of private opinion is not possible in a communistic nor in The right of the individual to his own a patriarchal community. opinion, different from that of the rest of his fellow-men, is not recognized where private property in land has not become established. In the condition of slavery there is not any absolute ownership, not even of one's person. The slave shares in his master's property so far as his food and clothing are concerned. Not having separate ownership, he does not develop a delicate sense of the rights of property, and in this respect is least prepared for the condition of freedom. Right here, therefore, the education of the colored child needs to lay its emphasis. The lesson of thrift, the lesson of honesty, of independence, should be taught him. He should learn skilled industries but still more should he learn to save his earnings, and invest in what are called paying investments, such as land, houses, machinery, and stock. This is the best lesson for him
;

on

the side of practical

life.

79

The two hundred years of domestic servitude brought the Negro So close a relation as that very close to the white man, his master. between master and slave is a powerful education to a lower race. It has sufficed to convert an African race, with a savage language and a religion of fetichism, to a race thinking and speaking in EngThe African disposition has belish, and Christian in its religion. come Anglo-Saxon and the Negro in this nation feels and thinks on all subjects more like a white native than does a newly arrived immigrant from France or Italy, or even Germany. But, with the abolition of slavery and the independence that comes of free suffrage and free ownership of property, there is also coming The conto be a segregation of the colored from the white people. sequence of this is a severance of that great educative influence the personal influence of the white man upon formerly so powerful, There is no longer that community of prophis domestic servants. erty and consequent community of interest and hence there is going
;

on an emancipation

Now,
will

this result in a reversion to the

and modes of thinking. segregation of the Negro from the white man
in feelings
is

in his life

unless
ter.

some other influence

former lower stage of spiritual life, invoked to take the place of the mas-

This influence now needed is education, and especially intelWithout education, the lowest forms of superstilectual education. and Voudooism. or other forms of fetichism, will so tion will prevail
;

far destroy the rationality that be impossible to live with him

we find in the Negro mind that it will on equal terms of suffrage. We can-

not have a free government if we give the right of suffrage to people who are superstitious to the extent of fetichism. But right here we are met by the question, Does not the education Does in the "three R's" increase crime rather than diminish it? not learning how to read and write cause the lower strata of society to break away from morality and peaceable obedience to established law? In fact, what is the meaning of these statistics which have been paraded before us recently, showing that with increasing educaI reply that the tion there are increasing convictions for crime ? even a rudimenstudy of criminal statistics proves that education is preventive of crime. tary education in reading and writing We have lately investigated at the Bureau of Education the statistics of the penitentiaries of all the States that report the condition Comparing the number of their prisoners in regard to education. of illiterate prisoners with the number of illiterate in the population, we discover this interesting fact the illiterate stratum of the populaAgain, on tion furnishes nearly four times its quota of prisoners. investigating the much more numerous body of law-breakers confined in our houses of correction, we see that illiteracy marks its effects by sending eight times its quota to the jails. Take as an example the Detroit House of Correction, which recently summed up for us the statistics of its first twenty-five years There had been in the twenty-five years 40,338 comof operation. mitments. Of these, 70 per cent, could both read and write, and 30 per cent, were illiterate. At first glance, taking these numerators withSeventy per cent. out their denominators, it looks bad for the schools. But when of the prisoners have had some education in the schools.

8o
inquire further, and ascertain the denominators to these fractions, learn that in Michigan there are less than 5 per cent, of the popThis 5 per ulation over ten years of age who cannot read and write. cent of illiterates furnished 30 per cent, of the criminals, while the 95 per cent, who could both read and write furnished 70 per cent. Measured by the standard of the 95 per cent, that could write, the illiterate 5 per cent, furnished eight times its quota. This Detroit report gives us also the information that, of the 40,338 committed, 38,089 had received some religious instruction, This appears while 2,249, or on ty 5 P er cent -> na d not received any. to be a worse case for religion when we first look at it than for eduBut a census of the people of Michigan would not discover cation. over one-half of 1 per cent, who could be said to be entirely lackThat small half per cent, furnishes ten ing in religious education. If there is any influence to be counted times its quota of criminals. as against crime, it certainly is that of religion, with its doctrine of Statistics show us, thereunselfish devotion to the good of others. fore, that, with the increase of jails and prisons, it is the illiterate who are from four to eight times as apt to become criminals as those who

we we

can read and write. But a further examination of the alleged increase of criminals in jails and prisons reveals to us the fact that it is not so much an increase of crime as an increase of zeal on the part of law-abiding citizens to repress the sources of crime, and especially intemperance. In Massachusetts, for example, there were in 1850 3,351 arrests for drunkenness, while in 1885 the number had increased to 18,701. But the crimes against person and property had been and are now steadily decreasing, having fallen 44 per cent, in the twenty-five years from i860 to 1885. Such statistics prove, therefore, that real crime against the safety of person and property has decreased per capita, and that the increasing refinement of the people has moved them to add to the list of crime those vices that were formerly tolerated in a good-natured manner, as evidences of a kindly disposition or, at worst, of pardonable weakness. In the good school there goes on a twofold education, which no one can fail to see will make a better citizen. The school requires good
behavior, and this includes self-restraint, politeness, and
courtesy, regularity and punctuality, obedience to law and order. The intellectual training in reading, writing, and arithmetic, geography, grammar, and history, fits the pupil for an age in which not

kings and emperors, but Public Opinion is the supreme governing Public opinion had no organ adequate to its needs until the power. To depend on oral communicainvention of the daily newspaper. tion is to depend on neighborhood gossip, full of personalities, scanTo use the printed page implies an ascent out dals, and prejudices. of village gossip to world gossip, wherein we become interested in nations and national affairs instead of mere trivial personal affairs. the education that The greatest education that is going on to-day is, in fact, making all people sympathize with each other and each is nation heed the verdict of public opinion throughout the world Each this education that goes on by the use of the daily newspaper.

person at his breakfast-table or on his car-ride to the shop takes his survey of the entire world, and adjusts his mind to this outlook upon Public opinion means something, when each person can the world. read in his morning newspaper what he knows everybody else is reading at the same time, and when he knows how other people think and feel about it. With the printed page in the form of the newspaper, the magazine, and the book, there becomes possible a republican form of govern-

ment

of a vast extent.

In fact, there looms up before us a possible

confederacy of all nations, to settle international questions. Each section of the country by reading keeps abreast of all the rest. Each section acts and reacts on the rest, and a unity of thought and sentiment is sure to result. But an illiterate community is impervious to It slowly retrogrades towards bigotry, intolerthis public opinion. ance, and superstition. Such an element is a constant menace to a free government, and cannot be suffered to exist and hold its share in the making of laws for all.

To those who are afraid of State socialism, and who think that the nation should not aid the States in their efforts to conquer the illiteracy within their borders, it is well to say that local self-government
While is something as different from anarchy as it is from socialism. socialism would have a centralized government that does everything for its people and leaves utterly no initiative for the individual, and, on the other hand, anarchy proposes to leave everything to the individual and to allow no sphere of action to the social whole, local selfgovernment commits neither of these follies, but sustains a central power as well as a system of local powers. When you demand of it, What is it right for the nation to do? and ask further, Is not a postoffice department or a school system a step towards national socialism ? the reply is easy. Local self-government demands simply that each interested party If those shall be represented in the directive control of its affairs. affairs concern only the individual, his shall be the supreme control over them. If they concern both the individual and his neighbor, and no one else, then the two shall form a joint control. The district, the township, the county, the State, each of these shall manage exclusively the affairs that are precisely coextensive with its interests. But that which transcends all these and interests all States shall be controlled by the nation, not that the nation shall take sole and exNow, clusive charge of it, but that it shall see to its performance. in a free government which depends upon all its citizens in all the States for its perfection, there is no question that education is a na-

tional interest.

there is a citizen of New York or Massachusetts, of California Minnesota, that supposes it to be of no consequence to him whether the voters of Mississippi are illiterate and superstitious or whether they are well educated, he will perhaps decline to favor national aid to education. But I cannot do otherwise than support the resolutions just now offered by Mr. Jay in behalf of national aid to education, seeing as I do the dangers that threaten us from illiterate white people, and especially from illiterate black people.
If

or


82
Dr. Lyman Abbott. On many accounts I should have very much preferred to contribute to this Conference that silence which is golden rather than that speech which in my case, I fear, will not be silver, but a kind of greenback with some little promise, but no bullion behind it. So far as I can see, those that discuss the Southern problem may be divided into two classes, those who know the facts and therefore have no theories, and those who have theories because they do not know the facts. I belong in the latter category. All I can do is to talk in a general way respecting what seem to me to be some fundamental theories, principles applicable to the problem before us. There is another reason I think I will state it frankly why I would rather have kept silence. There is an understanding that certain branches of the subject are to be passed in silence, probably a wise understanding. But I have been so long accustomed to writing for a paper which knows no limit to absolute free discussion, and to speaking in a Christian pulpit which I count the broadest platform under God's blue sky, that I do not know how to speak with any sense of limitation. If I should mix my politics and my religion, they are always mixed, and I don't know any chemical process that will separate them, I hope you will excuse it. I look on politics as a part of religion. Last night, when I went to bed, I wondered if there really was any Negro problem. I was buoyed up with optimism, the inspiring optimism of the day. We learned then that there were no laundry women like the Negro women of the South, that there were no blacksmiths like the Negro blacksmiths, that no carpenters could build such houses as the colored carpenters, that there were no such men to shoe horses, that the Negro race had made more progress in the last twenty-five years than any people since Adam. In fact, I began to think that the Negro was the one who marched at the head of the procession, and that the Anglo-Saxon race brought up the rear. I remember hearing a lecture from Wendell Phillips on Toussaint L'Ouverture, which he closed with a magnificent rhetorical peroration, in which he depicted history writing above the names of Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington the name of Toussaint L'Ouverture in letters of burning light. I went home and slept that night. The next morning the vision of the night had faded out; and the name of Washington, in the soberer light of day, appeared above the rest. So this morning I concluded that I was not altogether sorry that I belonged to the Anglo-Saxon race. I have been accustomed to think that the Negro is a tropical man, with the vices of a tropical nature wrought into his blood and fibre that he has excessive veneration, and not excessive conscience that he has excessive ideality and emotion, and is deficient in judgment ; that he has excessive approbativeness, and is deficient in acquisitiveness that he has excessive imitation, and lack of originality, in short, with many excellent qualities, he has also many grave faults and serious defects. I have been accustomed to think that, whether it outnumbered the other races or not, the AngloSaxon race ruled the continent, and would continue to rule it, not by force of arms, not by fraud and violence, but by force of ideas and of manhood. And I still think so. But holding that opinion, and frankly confessing it, and acknowledging something that may be

3
regarded as akin to the prejudice that belongs to all races, even to the Anglo-Saxon race sometimes, there are three things, really one thing, which I am glad to say. Our problem is not how we can First, the Negro is here to stay. put him into a black belt by himself, nor how we can send him off to a Western Reservation, or to Mexico, or to Central America, or ship him back to Africa, but how shall the black man and the white man, the African and the Anglo-Saxon, live together in the commonwealth

and under a common

Next, those

civilization.

mon

together in a commonwealth and under a comand government should live on terms of industrial and political equality. Negroes are to remain here, and they are to have all avocations and all doors that are open to other men open to We cannot afford to have society in this country split up into them. separate factions and castes, because a republican and democratic organization cannot survive such a disorganizing process. We cannot

who

live

civilization

afford to divide along lines of religion or along lines of race or along And this truth, it would appear from the testimony lines of industry. we have heard here, needs to be taught in the North no less, indeed rather more, than in the South. The beam in our own eye must be taken out before we scrutinize the mote in the eye of our Southern brethren. So long as Negroes are treated as they

are in Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, we cannot wonder they are similarly treated in Southern States and communities. Judge Tourgee told us that the Negro is not welcome in Northern I wonder whether he spoke from knowledge or from imchurches. If on knowledge, I am very happy to say that I am the pression. pastor of an exceptional church in that respect. There is not a Sunday that I do not see black faces in my congregation, and I am as likely to see them in three-hundred-dollar pews as in fifty-dollar pews. There is no place in which I have not seen them there, except in the free pews, in what is called irreverently by the boys the "peanut These prejudices are passing away from the higher circles gallery." Wellesley College and Vassar receive on equal of American society. terms, in all social and collegiate ways, the colored girls who come The students of Harvard College have this year uttered their there. protest against this prejudice by electing a Negro as their class orator. Let us cast the beam out of our own eye before we talk about the mote But industrial and political equality does not in our brother's eye. The State has nothing to do with the involve social equality. question of congeniality; neither has the church; neither has the That religion requires of every man that he shall Christian religion. but it treat his fellow-men with justice, with kindness, with mercy has not a word to say on the question what individual shall be congenial with another individual or what race shall be congenial with another race. Given political liberty, given industrial equality, given educational opportunity, and the question of social relations may be left to time and taste to determine, without law from legislation or
if
;

lecturing from pulpit or platform. If the Negro is to live here, he is to live on terms of fraternity and and nothing is gained in the fellowship with his Southern brethren solution of the Negro question by stirring up directly or indirectly
;

84
animosity between whites and blacks in the Southern States. If he is on terms of mutual trust and confidence with his own neighbors, now my religion and politics are getting very close together, and we shall do nothing to promote that mutual confidence and esteem by undertaking to reverse the policy inaugurated by that pacific administration across the record of which history shall write, " Blessed is the peacemaker, for he shall be called the Son

to live there, he is to live

of

God," that act which withdrew from the South the federal trfoops, and trusted the people, trusted the Christian sentiment of the whole South, that act which was inaugurated by him who honors us here by
presiding over this Conference. If the Negro is thus to live with us on terms of industrial and political equality, with all avenues open before him, then all educational avenues are to be open before him. I do not disesteem the importance of primary education or the importance of industrial education. I wish myself that, when I was at school, I had been taught how to pound a nail without hammering my fingers. Nevertheless, I think that there is some danger lest we think the Negro is to be set off in a class by himself, and educated for a particular function, sphere, or place. We men have been trying, for I know not how many years, to define the sphere of womanhood, and tell her what she ought to do. Meantime, she has gone on and done as she pleased ; and we have followed on with our fears and cautions. It is not in the province nor in the power of one class to determine the metes and bounds of another class, nor for one section to determine the possibilities of another section. So upon white and black let God's sunlight stream, and let every man find his own place by the measure of his own striving and ability. I claim, therefore, the Negroes' right to an education from a, b, " ab," up to Syriac, from the multiplication table up to conic sections. Or, if there is anything higher than that, that higher thing, whatever it may be. Not that all are capable of taking the highest education, but no man can take the highest unless the highest is open to every man in the race. So the stimulation of free competition and the noblest prizes must come alike to all. How much longer must we go on talking about the Negro probonly the problem of humanity. lem ? There is no Negro problem, Not the problem of red man or black man, or yellow man or white man, or Jew man or Roman Catholic man, or Protestant man or man born of God, made in infidel man, or laboring man, but Man, With a free field his image, and with an immortal future before him. and an open race-course, let every man find his own place by his own The sooner we can ourselves reach courage, energy, and enterprise. that broad platform of faith in God and faith in humanity, the sooner we can put it under the whole nation and inspire with the enthusiasm of humanity every heart, the sooner we shall have solved our laboring problem, our Indian problem, our Negro problem, all of which is only the problem of human character and human development.

Adjourned

at

p.m.

ifourtb Session.

Thursday Night, June

5.

The Conference met at 8 p.m., ex-President Hayes in the chair. Letters were read from President Hickman, of Atlanta, and Dr. The following communication from Bishop HayCurry. J. M. L. good was also read
:

My
1.

dear Sir,
:

Circumstances
If it

honk Conference.
that follow

be desirable,

involving duties forbid me to attend your Molet your Secretary read the brief statements

mass

The colored population is believed is made up of pure-blood Negroes.

:

black mistake the case the larger It is absolutely the skin determines the race status of these wonderful people. Fewer settled that the tendencies against miscegenation increase in both races. mulattoes are born each year. The moral tone of the Negroes does improve. The white man recoils from amalgamation more than in former days; and law teaches all. If one should look only for the bad, he can find facts enough to satisfy him that my views are all wrong, and my hopes all delusive. 2. The Negro race in the South makes progress upwards. The barbarous moral debasement of many of them may be admitted without weakening the statement At least two millions of them can read. The American that there is a real uplift. people have too much faith in education to put a light estimate upon such facts. There are less than one million of these people are now at school. Moreover, not more than sixteen thousand common schools for Negro youth in the Southern These States, supported out of the public money for elementarv education. schools are taught by Negro teachers with hardly an exception, the teachers having been taught mostly in the higher institutions maintained by Northern benevolence, largely in normal schools aided by the State governments. These are not ideal schools but they are as good as the conditions of the case allow, and they Many of them are better than many schools for white chilsteadily grow better. dren, because their teachers are, many of them, better trained than many white teachers are trained. In law, the Negro children share equally with white children. In fact, the Negro children receive more and more benefit from the public school systems in the Much of whatever inequality there may be grows out of the condition of South. It is not strange that a race so circumstanced fails the colored people themselves. The Negroes are as determined to to secure the best results from their schools. teach their public schools as Southern white people are not to teach them. Indeed, the Negroes show so marked a desire to control the colleges built for their benefit that their best friends are anxious lest the impatience of the very people they labor for should mar their best planned efforts to help them. One proof that elementary education among the Negroes grows better is this those who apply for admission into the higher schools come better prepared each year. This should be so for the teachers of the primary schools each year show a larger number who have received training in the higher schools. And the higher One most imporschools, with improving material, do better work year by year. tant and cheering proof of the gradual betterment of the Negro population I have studies of the subject: the children of parents who had found in my long-continued Of this there can be no training a decade or two ago begin on a higher plane. doubt. 3. The present educational movement in the Southern States is towards longer terms for the public schools for both races. For nearly ten years the white people, who pay nearly all the taxes, have been contented to divide the school moneys according to population, without respect to race or previous conditions. Not every white man was content with this, but it was the universally accepted law in the At this time, while there is no concerted movement to change the method case.
; :

about seven millions. The great Those who think that all Negroes are part are brown people. The hair more than
to be

86
of distribution, there is an unmistakable tendency that way. As to the causes leading this way, I may be mistaken ; but I believe that I state it correctly: (i) This tendency manifested itself coincidently with the talk of Congressional action as to overseeing elections. (2) During the last two years particularly some prominent Negro leaders, editors and politicians have been extremely unwise in their public utterances. It is true that the relations of the two races in the South are more strained than for years past. great work has been attempted, and great results have been achieved. In 4. carrving on the higher schools. Northern benevolence has expended about sixteen millions of dollar*, and hundreds of good men and women have expended themselves. This benevolence has been magnificent, this personal consecration sublime. In carrying on the public schools and in aiding normal schools, the Southern This is a most creditable States have expended considerably over forty millions. showing. Considering the conditions that followed the war ard the poverty of the Southern people for the twenty years following the war, it is extraordinary. No poor and illiterate people ever received so much help during twenty-five years, as no such people ever made such progress before during the same length of time. Not a few worthy people seem so impatient to have done with this work that th^y cannot be grateful for the great results that have been achieved. As to the best method of helping them, experienced people gravely question whether is not mjre hurtful than direct a d as money given without any conditions beneficial. The money that most aids them is money earned. The approved method now is to give aid for work actually done. This plan secures them the money, and develops self-respect, and tends toward self-support. 5. The essential goodness of industrial training in connection with the ordinary school training is now universally admitted by experienced and practical people. In the schools aided by the Slater Fund during the school year 1889-90, as many as ten thousand young people were taught in books and in some branch of useful This sort of training is vital now. Mere book-schooling with poor and industries. illiterate people breeds wants faster than it develops the ability to provide for them The outcome is misery. Tool-craft helps to realize the aspirations that book-learning inspires. Many white people North are unduly 6. The dangers grow out of the facts. impatient. Many white people South are unduly anxious. Many colored people do not sufficiently realize how much has been done for them and achieved by them to be patient with conditions that cannot be changed at once, or to be happy in the hopes that are born of gratitude to the God who has led them.

The following resolution, presented by ex-President Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, was referred to the Executive Committee
:

Resolved, That, in view of the abundant proof afforded, both in Europe and America, of the advantage of blending elementary instruction of the eye and hand
in the

common

school education, as affording opportunities for securing self-support,

and as having an excellent moral influence, the Conference respectfully recommend to the Department of Public Instruction and the legislatures of the different States to consider the propriety of blending such instruction into that of the public schools.

ciation, read the following

Rev. Joseph E. Roy, Secretary of the American Missionary Assopaper

:

THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE NEGROES NO MISTAKE.

BY JOSEPH
I.

E.

ROY.

tion.

mistake as to the capacity of the Negroes for such educadid the Creator give these people intellects, if they were Did He not make not to be developed, some of them, to the full ? them, as all souls of men, in his own image ? If so, they have all

No

Why

87
mental capacity; and
to facts.
this capability

may be brought

out.

Now

as

Governor Joseph E. Brown (now United States Senator from Georgia), as chairman of a board of examiners in the Atlanta University, reported and printed as follows " The rigid tests to which the classes in algebra and in geometry, in Latin and Greek, were subjected, unequivocally demonstrated that, under judicious training and with persevering study, there are marly members of the African race who can attain a high grade of intellectual culture. They proved that they can master intricate problems in mathematics and fully comprehend the construction of difficult passages in the
In
187
1,
:

Many of the pupils exhibited a degree of mental culture which, considering the length of time their minds have been in train ing, would do credit to members of any race." The board also declared their opinion that the blackest of the pupils showed themselves not a whit behind the mixed bloods in scholarship. And all this against their own predilections of opinion. And so read the reports of the successive boards of examiners, coming to Atlanta from the same service in the ancient State university at Athens, for the fourteen years from 1874 to 1887 inclusive, when the Glenn bill In minor matters, exceptions are taken. episode came in. Praise is given to the industrial training, to the moral and religious culture, and to the neatness and order of the buildings and grounds but no abatement is made from that original judgment. In 1882, they say " We have found him [the colored student] quite as much at home in Latin, Greek, mathematics, ethics, mental and physical science, as in At Fisk University, that distinthe more rudimentary studies." guished Catholic scholar from Europe, M. Capel, falling into the classical recitations, and taking them in hand himself, expressed his great delight at the accuracy and the soundness of the scholarship Professor A. K. Spence, of the same institution, a few manifested. days ago wrote me as follows: "The success of the work of colored education seems to me very wonderful. After twenty years of service in it, 1 look back on what has been done with gratitude for the past and faith for the future. I came from the University of Michigan, where I had been teaching for twelve years. I asked myself two questions only. One was this, Does the colored man need an education ? To this I said, Yes. The other was, Can he take a college training? To this I said, We will try. We have tried, and he can. The working on this problem has been as delightful as a voyage of discovery. It is a daily delight for me to go to my classes. I never taught more enthusiastic students." Bishop Haygood, last week, at St. Louis, where he was a second time called to his high office, said to me, " Some of the Negroes can and do take on the higher education, and the next generation will do yet better." He was also very positive that the blackest were as smart as the mulattoes. But is there not danger of over-education on the part of the Negroes ? No better answer can be given than this of Professor Spence: "None. The danger is just the opposite, that of undereducation. A smattering of knowledge may work conceit thorough study makes men modest. The black man is a man ; apply to him all the rules of humanity. Good for white, good for black." Then the question is asked, with various tones of voice, What do
classics.
;
:

88
your graduates do ? And what have they accomplished since emanciColonel Patterson, recently named at Memphis by his pation ? county as a candidate for governor, responding in a speech which I. read in the local papers, and making boast of the white man's superiority over the black man because of the three thousand years of civilization behind the former, challenged the showing of a solitary instance of eminence attained by a black man in medicine, law, or science after these twenty-five years of universal suffrage. Though we have but slight data as to attainment in these learned professions by our ancestors at the end of their first quarter of a century of advancement two thousand nine hundred and seventy-five years ago, we have fortunately some basis of estimate as to progress in higher education made by the Afro- Americans under mountains of disability, during this stupendous era of twenty-five years. Professor S. D. Fowler, of the Normal Department of Howard University, at a recent educational convention of colored men in Washington, from partial statistics gained, gave something of answer to this question. Of law graduates, Howard counted 233 Allen University, South Carolina, 1 1 Straight University at New Orleans, well on to 200, half of whom were Fisk, 5. Of these, from Fisk I know one, Richard Morris, who white began at the bar in Nashville, and is now having a fine practice in Minneapolis ; while a brother of his, whom I know in Chicago, is acknowledged by white lawyers to be a very able attorney. T. F. Sublett, another, is about to graduate from the Harvard Law Department, having stood during the whole course among the best in his class, and having for these last two years by excellence of standing obtained one of the very best scholarships given in that department. Wilson, of Atlanta University, in Boston, is making himself respected among In Memphis a number of colored lawthe eminent men at the bar. yers are found, two of whom, T. F. Cassels and J. T. Settle, are men of prominence and of remunerative practice in all the courts of both of whom have served as Tennessee, both State and federal, Assistant General-Attorney of Shelby County, of which Memphis is Of medical graduates, The Mary of Nashville has 119; the capital. Howard, 108. Dr. Purvis, of the Howard, is an accomplished professor and practitioner, having many white families among his patrons. Dr. Dorsett, of Montgomery, according to the law of Alabama, had to undergo an examination by a board of white physicians that lasted It is said several days before being admitted to the profession there. He also that the board were amazed and delighted with the result. Dr. A. L. Strong, of Selma, is is working in among white families. True, it said to have the largest practice of any physician in the city.
;
;

among colored people; but, when it is remembered that in the old times the blacks were accustomed to have the master's family physician, it is a great gain that their patronage can be secured by the Dr. F. A. Stewart, of Fisk and of the Howard colored doctors. During the Medical, is now a very successful physician in Nashville. last two years of his course he held a scholarship of $200, gotten by examination for excellence of scholarship. I found a pair of colored physicians standing high at Austin, Tex., while there are 23 colored In Atlanta I knew a colored dentist, many of doctors in that State. whose patrons are prominent white people. In Memphis there are
is

89

not less than eight colored practising physicians and two dentists,

one

and Dr. of whom, Dr. Burchett, is a man of rising position Fields, a dentist, is a member of the regular Dental Association, and is held by the white dentists in high esteem as a workman.
;

white physician in Mobile, having occasion to secure surgical skill in behalf of his wife, telegraphed to New Orleans for the head surgeon

The answer came back "Engaged. I cannot go. Emof the city. He did so ; and a ploy that colored surgeon in your own city." splendid feat of surgery was had, that of Cesarean section, and two
:

lives

were saved.
;

Of students
Atlanta, 27

Gammon, at in theology, Howard has graduated 118 Wilberforce at Zenia. Ohio, 28 Talladega, 23, with over
;
;

Fisk, seventy in the ministry; Claflin University, South Carolina, 12 10; Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, 160; and all these besides the scores and hundreds who have gone into the ministry from these These men are taking the imporinstitutions without graduating. tant pulpits of colored churches in New Haven, Washington, and One man from Fisk, now in in the leading cities of the land. Oberlin Theological Department, is said by the professor of Hebrew to be one of the best in that language, and to be second to none of the students there in qualification to teach Hebrew and To take one institution alone, that of the Old Testament literature. besides the ten who Fisk, we find that of the classical graduates, are in the ministry, the five who are in the law, the two or three in one is a college president in the Alcorn, a State instimedicine,
;

four are college professors, fourteen are printution in Mississippi, cipals of high schools, twenty-four are teachers in such schools, three are editors while, of the graduates of the Normal Department, thirty-six are principals of advanced schools and teachers in the same. So, by only a partial report, we find at the end of this momentous quarter of a century, " with universal suffrage," of colored
;

graduates, 210 in theology, 244 in law, 225 in medicine, 26 in pharmacy, and 19 in dentistry; and we also find a total of 561 classical graduates and 2,292 normal graduates. Then into such an inventory we must bring W. E. Dubois, of Fisk, who, now in Harvard, the last year obtained the second prize, and this year the first prize, in the oratorical contest, and also a scholarship of $300, upon examination And this, be it remembered, is at for excellence in scholarship. Harvard, where the contestants are the elite students of the white Then we must bring in the race in that ancient seat of learning. 16,000 colored teachers of the South, of whom Bishop Kenner, in his response at St. Louis to the fraternal delegation of the Methodist And of these it must Episcopal Conference, seemed to be so proud. be said that ninety-eight out of every hundred were educated in the schools supported by the Northern churches. Probably the world will never know just how soon or how long ago in the alleged three thousand years of our civilization we came up to an exhibit of literary attainment equal to that but it is not very likely that we came up to that mark in our first twenty-five years. But, lest any should reasonably fear that these institutions are crowding their students along too fast into the college course, I can state that for the present year, by the catalogues of the American
;

9
leaving out Atlanta and Berea, initiated by Missionary Association, the percentage of classical the Association, but now independent, students is only three, while the adding of these two institutions would It is probable that the not more than double that and make it six. other classical schools would present about the same proportion. And so there can be no danger of pushing the classical course too much. The fact is that it takes a prodigious amount of grit and of temerity to pull one's self through that long course in the midst of

poverty that grinds all the time. as to the Negroes II. No mistake in the po /icy oi higher education themselves. own educated leaders: leaders in i. As a people, they need their in the pulpit, at the bar,' in medicine; leaders in society, in reform, It would be an anomaly if a people now numberpatriotic service. ing from seven to eight millions should not have leaders of their own are more and more It is observed by their friends that they race. drawing off to themselves. Indeed, in this rising spirit of self-consciousness and self-reliance as a race, they will come to command that
respect and consideration which are their due from their pale-faced For this they need disciplined leaders. Their own fellow-citizens. come nearer to them than those of another blood. people The oreat preacher of New Orleans told his cook that all the eduThe servant. cation her daughter needed was to make her a good differently, and put her through the Normal Departmother thought ment of the Straight University in that city. I afterwards found that young woman down in the south-west corner of Texas, a hun-

same

her dred miles from a railroad, by her day school, her Sunday-school, Band of Hope, and her Temperance Society lifting a whole commuIs it not strange that nity of colored people, herself their leader. we are finding echoes of that doctor's notion up North at this
late
2.

day

When, stimulate the mass of their people to rise in enlightenment. of the Negro question at New York, it was in a recent discussion training, suggested that the colored people did not need the advanced with a facetiousness of argument, took it as quite a compliDr. Price, ment to his people that they did not need this sort of stimulus, when period, were planting the Puritan Fathers, back in their foundation It is a matter of the commonest observatheir Harvard and Yale. with an ambition to get tion that our plainest white boys are inspired higher learning as they may by the example of the other such of the When Michel Angelo saw that fellows who are shooting ahead. sought Raphael, in a cathedral, was painting his heads too small, he Raphael took the large. his opportunity, and sketched one head The schools of higher learning draw large, hint, and followed copy. up the younger artists of knowledge to the higher and this brings
ideal.
3.
. , ,

They need among them specimens

of the higher education to

to these people, because Colonel J. M. Keating, of Memphis, protection. they need it as a said in Tenn., in his masterly discussion of the Negro question, right of the Negro to vote is necessary to the maintenance of Italics, "The Forum for May, says, his freedom:' Roger A. Pryor. of Virginia, in the

The higher education

is

no mistake as

9*
to the nation to make the Negro a voter as to Now, to protect his suffrage, in order to the a citizen." maintenance of his freedom and of his citizenship, he needs a measure of the larger discipline of education. He needs not only to be able to read the names on the several boxes into which he is to cast his several votes, and also to read and to scratch for himself the offered tickets, but he needs leaders of his own race, well educated, to discuss questions at issue and to formulate lines of policy. He needs this to command the respect of the so-called superior race. It was said in that discussion at New York that it did not make a fair impression to bring up North educated men, such as Dr. Price, as specimens of the race. But I will warrant that any contestant with him would come to a much higher respect for the black man after he had sampled the goods. It is the very essence of fairness to bring forward the specimens of the possibilities of the Negroes, as trained in our

" It

was as competent

make him

Southern institutions out of ignorance and moral deformity into the grace and virility of Christian manhood. Isaiah Rynders, in the old anti-slavery bout on the Tabernacle platform, came to a higher respect for Frederick Douglass, when made to feel the prick of " Yes, Mr. Rynders, I am a half-brother to his lance yourself." And, surely, our men of erudition, with their centuries of civilization behind them, need not be afraid of competition with these children of the tropics, with only a quarter of one century of the white man's chance behind them. III. No mistake in the higher education of the Negroes as to policy for the nation. It is too late in the history of civilization to impose any repression upon any class of people. "Only roll off the log, and see what we will do," said the philosophical old African. It will be to the advantage of the nation to have this stimulus applied to the Afro-Americans, so as to bring up the grade of general intelligence among them, and so as to secure the power of such accreted
:

wisdom. "This poor man by his wisdom saved the city." These poor people by their wisdom of deportment during the war saved the nation from complications frightful to be conjectured. In the New Orleans Exposition, their department, as an indication of the benefit to the nation of their rising intelligence, was worthy the position it occupied between the nation's educational exhibit and the white women's display. It was a surprise to everybody. It had its own gallery of paintings, its own gallery of inventions, not a few useful and ornamental, with a record in the Patent Office of twenty-five patents, such as a cotton cultivator, a printing-press, a fire-escape, a
shield
It

for infantry and artillery men, a life-saving apparatus, etc. represented extensive manufacturing establishments. It had its niche for colored authors, who presented a dozen or more bound volumes, among them Williams's profound histories of his people.

bers highly creditable. of Lexington, Va., the

and numfrom Colonel J. T. L. Preston, same who succeeded to the superintendency of Stonewall Jackson's colored Sunday-school, in which he says, " I speak advisedly, when I say that the Negro population in this locality have made surprising progress in material, intellectual, moral, and religious departments since their emancipation." Bishop Haygood
I

And

their

women had specimens

have a

of handicraft, in quality

letter

92
says, " No illiterate people have ever made such progress as these in And so there is encouragement the last two and a half decades." for the nation to help them on in this line of progress. At a late club meeting in Chicago, five hundred and fifty ladies

and gentlemen being present, Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, formerly

the president of Wellesley,

made a powerful address in favor of the higher education of our girls at the West and her great argument was that a broad, healthy culture would tend to make good, sweet homes. The same argument, with tenfold emphasis, applies to such Nothing training for making good homes among the colored people. do they need more in order to their elevation in the social and domestic scale. And nothing among them will make them more a blessing to the nation. IV. No mistake in higher education for the Negroes, when we consider their relation to foreign lands. Langston and Fred DougA missionary lass at Hayti were the right men in the right place. in the Gilbert Islands has begged for a colored missionary' physician. But their largest missionary work will be in Africa. Just now, as God is opening the Dark Continent to the gaze of Christendom, he is setting forward this process for educating our emancipated slaves It is a divinely ordained conjunc:ion to fit them for service there. They are proceeding to " spoil " us Egyptians of the best of affairs. things in our Christian civilization, that they may by and by transport the same in bulk, by colonies, to the land of their fathers. The United Brethren have always run their mission in Great Africa by educated colored men sent out from this country. These missionaries endure They are successful. Their superintendent, Rev. Mr. the climate. Gomer, is a man among men of any race. The Fisk has already sent out a half-dozen workers to that land. One of them is Rev. B. F. Born a slave to Joseph Davis, the brother of Jefferson Ousley. Davis, baptized into the Episcopal Church by requirement of his master, although his father was a Baptist, he was graduated at Fisk and at Oberlin Seminary, in both of which institutions he was one of With his wife, also a graduate the best scholars in his classes. of Fisk, he was sent out by the American Board to its new East Central African Mission six years ago. They endure the climate. He writes me that they have had no more of fever there than they had in Mississippi. Rev. Messrs. Tyler and Rood, who have been in South Africa for forty years, have both said to me that he was one of the most level-headed men ever sent out by that Board, so much
;

More so that the Board had made him treasurer of that mission. than this he has learned and helped to reduce the language he has " and selections translated and published " The Story of the Gospel " Moody and Sankey Songs " he has been engaged upon a of the and just now he has findictionary and grammar of the language the translation of the first three Gospels and of the Acts of the ished Apostles, which he has brought back to this country, and whose publication he is to supervise while receiving some necessary surgical And yet it is only six years since he struck that coast. treatment. And all of this while engaged in the ordinary service as teacher and
: ;

evangelist.

work

in

There are more of such men now being fitted for this our institutions of the several denominations. But how shall

93

we

tion

so thoroughly equip such men if we deny them the higher educaHow shall we meet Africa's great need if we discourage that ? ampler learning which is essential to the work over there. And so I conclude that the higher education of the Negroes, in any number that we may attain, is not a mistake, but a piece of the truest

wisdom.

The Chairman. We shall now have the satisfaction of seeing and hearing the most venerable delegate in attendance upon this Conference, Mr. Samuel May, of Massachusetts. Mr. May. I must disclaim the honor you assign to me, sir, of being the oldest delegate present. There sits our friend, Mr. Moses Pierce, of Connecticut, an older soldier than myself by two years, and, more than that, earlier than I in the anti-slavery movement. Still, I suppose, having passed the bound of eighty, I may be considered an old man and I was one of the old abolitionists. I am

glad of this opportunity to testify to the noble character of the men with whom I was associated in that movement. I came into the cause from a pulpit and I never knew more truly Christian men than Mr. Garrison, Charles Follen, John G. VVhittier, Samuel E. Sewall, Oliver Johnson. Wendell Phillips, and many more whom I might name. We thought the nation was the transgressor, that the North was guilty along with the South, and bound, by its duty to God and
;

man, to make amends. Mr. Jefferson reminded the men of New England of his day that, if not holders and owners of slaves themselves, they had been carriers of them to others. The rebuke was deserved, the reproach was true and it carried a duty to New England and the North. We endeavored to do something to atone for that wrong. I will not occupy much time, and I will not allude to the past except to say that this elemental warfare which is raging round us [a severe thunder storm was in progress during Mr. May's address] may seem to some of you to typify the thunder and lightning in which the abolitionists were supposed to be living much of their time. In view of our past history, how thankful to God must those departed spirits feel to know of such a Conference as this, made up of such men and women as are here now, in the spirit which has been manifested yesterday and to-day in behalf of that hardly entreated, long abused, despised, and outcast class And thanks be to God from " Now let thy servants depart in peace, for we every heart here. have seen thy salvation," we may well say. When such hearts, such minds, such earnest, energetic people, combine in the spirit of a generous humanity, in the spirit of Christ, in behalf of those long enslaved, that justice may at length be done them, a great crown has been put upon our work. As I came to this Conference, I read in the papers an extract from a speech which a member of Congress from North Carolina Mr. White had made recently to his constituents in Salisbury in that State. I hope you may see it. In a spirit such as he manifested, with a like fidelity as he showed to those whom he addressed, we should go forward to labor in this cause. From such a spirit only good results can be augured. He begged his constituents to remem;
!

94
ber the friendly and forbearing attitude of those colored men during They knew, he said, as well as the white the four years of the war. people, the nature of the war and the promise of freedom it held out and yet, while, on the one hand, they never betrayed a to them Northern prisoner fleeing from his prison, on the other they never lifted up a hand against the homes or persons of the people of the He told them that gratitude to that race is to be added to South. all other motives for giving them all their rights. The most interesting and encouraging thing, to my mind, in this Conference has been the hopefulness of Southern gentlemen, and of
;

who have lately resided at the South, in behalf of this race, their confidence in their future, and in the entire capability of the colored people to become good and worthy citizens of the republic. morning. I was much interested in what Miss Emerson told us this this It was beginning at the proper place to begin with the homes of
those
people, and to influence, in such ways as she described, the

women

and

girls.

This subject is considered on all hands to be a difficult one. It is a difficult one so long as we are not willing to look at it in the divine light, to see it as God sees it, and in the spirit of the religion we proWhen we shall do that, when we shall recognize this people as fess. God's equal children, our fellow-men, sharers with us in the life and destiny of humanity, it will cease to be a " difficult problem." That the calling is chiefly what I would say, except to thank those who had of this convention that they have given me the great pleasure of
attending it. Dr. Abbott's division of this ConRev. Dr. James M. Buckley. those who have facts and no theories, and ference into two classes If to be leaves me out. those who have theories and no facts driven by hereditary tendency to pulmonary disease to riding on horseback through every State of the South before and since the war; if to have kept my eyes open, and to have observed not only the surface of things, but more deeply, will give me theories, I cannot deny the existence of the fact of what a celebrated Englishman called a "conjectural hypothesis." In the darkest hours of slavery, many of the Negroes possessed such clearness of judgment, such reserve in expression, such marvellous powers of grasping details, that they were the advisers, the

prime ministers in the families. Many a man who had large influence and financial success owed it to the wisdom and judgment of some Negro whom he had brought up delicately as a servant, but who had become to him in a practical sense as a son or a brother. character. It is a mistake to assume that the Negro is a fixed There are Negroes and Negroes. The typical Negro is true of but So there are Negroes, two-thirds he fails utterly in the last third. with as like H. H. Garnett, the Minister to Liberia, who could speak much concentration and logic as Senator Edmunds. Dr. Abbott proposes to ignore the Negro problem, and make it one If there be no such thing of the common problems of humanity. as a Negro problem, differing much from all other problems on the But there is a Negro problem. Before globe, we should not be here. There was a slavery problem the war there was no Negro problem.
:


95
Emancipabut the slavery problem, speaking generally, is settled. There is no Irish problem in this tion made the Negro problem. country, no Scotch, nor German, nor Scandinavian problem, because the Scotch, the Irish, the German, the Scandinavian, assimilate immeIn a generation, diately with the whole population of the country. But the law and they cease to be Irish or Scotch or Scandinavian. the" sentiments of the United States prevent intermarriage between Negroes and white. And, if there be intermingling, it must be by There secret intermarriage, by concubinage, and by unblushing vice. are those who receive an admixture of Negro blood, and they are

There are, therefore, in the United classified with the African race. States 7,000,000 of men, women, and children who are far more
essentially This is the

and permanently isolated than the most clannish Jews. problem that we have to face. Prior to the late war, slavery not only held the Negroes in domestic discipline, but it held them as a wheel of government within a wheel. The prisons were not full of Negroes except on the frontiers. There were said to be no insane Negroes in those days. There were very

They knew few, certainly, in proportion to the number now existing. If the statistics had been given of nothing of the struggle of life. the large number of wandering imbeciles, a different showing would have been made. Now the prisons of the South are full of Negroes, I have visited twenty to one as compared with the white population.
nearly all the leading prisons in the South, and there are large numThe asylums are full. When slavery was abolbers in the prisons. and for a time the condition of the ished, there was terrific change Negro, taking the United States in a large view, was worse than it
;

had been.

As correspondent for an evening paper, I went through the South At Memphis, I found 30,000 immediately after the war closed. freedmen who had all gone to the city under the first impulse of freedom. They did not propose to work. They had been compelled They regarded idleness as one of the chief emoluments of to work. There they were, dying by the hundreds of small-pox. I freedom. down in one room where there were seven Negroes in the very sat worst stages of small-pox, and their condition was not much worse I met five persons with the than that of the rest of the 30,000. and small-pox who had broken loose, and were walking in delirium the chief of police said he had no power to enforce hygienic laws or This was a terrible time, and the situation was to compel isolation.
;

doleful.
It may be well to observe here that the homes of the colored people in the South are not so doleful to them as they might be. The climate does not require much shelter, and they need less food and clothing than in colder regions. The same amount that would support a man in a cold region would support a whole family in the But, Southland, and they would be better off with the simple fare. bad as these homes are in the black belt now, you can find hundreds and thousands as bad among the whites all through the South. show her I took my wife into the interior of Florida two years ago, to some of the "crackers" there; and, if I were to describe in plain I have English what I saw, it would be deemed a romantic account.

96
never seen anything worse in the darkest parts of the South than in hundreds of these houses, so let us not charge anything particular on the Negro. As for the religion of the Negro, speaking generally, he must be an earnest Christian or a drunken loafer. There are Negroes who are not Christians and are not drunken loafers but, as a rule, he must be an earnest Christian or he will be a loafer, and probably a drunkard. Reference was made by General Armstrong to the harmful influence of the "Old Timer," the old preachers. I have been familiar with them for many years, and I say that the "Old Timer" has more to do with the prejudices of the colored people than any one thing that could be named. But the "Old Timer" who was sixty years old when I was young is a very different man from the "Old Timer" who is sixty years old now. He is much modified. He still denounces education. He cannot preach as he once did. In the city of Raleigh I heard one of the " Old Timers " preach twenty-two years ago a sermon from the text, " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among men." His doctrine was that the tendency of religion was to
;

give physical health ; and, the more pious a man, the fatter and stronger he got, for " the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among men." Five years ago I was in Raleigh, and went into that church, and heard a man preach who was graduated from the Lincoln University and his sermon would have been a credit to any man in this assembly. I waited until the time of " the arousements." When he had made his case perfectly clear, he took an entirely different attitude and he very soon had the saints rising and shouting, and, to my surprise, one of them fell in that condition of catalepsy which used to be supposed in the South to be an evidence of divine power, but which has been discovered to be the result of more emotion than the human system can endure. There is no patent recipe for solving this Negro problem. One might ask, "What will be the use of all our discussion here?" No man living can tell what the effect of such an interchange of views may produce. No one can tell what the effect will be of these remarkable statistics that we have heard from Dr. Harris. Let us fix our minds on the point that education and religious training are the two things necessary. I do not suppose Dr. Harris meant to say that all the money should go to the education of teachers. I regard it true of the South, as of the North, that aid must be given. I would add to his suggestion that men who are to preach as well as those who are to teach should be encouraged. I have never been perfectly clear on this matter of national education; but I will say that Mr. Jay's two points, so modestly stated, have done more to bring me to see that probably it may be a good thing than any other argument I have ever heard. It may perhaps be a good wayxsf disposing of considerable of our surplus. I propose to look more carefully into the matter than heretofore. It is essential that we should bring the influence of the Negro churches to increase the standard of discipline. Some forty colored ministers have been either tried by the State or by their own churches for immorality, dishonesty, and a variety of things. It is essential to
;

97
bring the influence of

The all these churches up in this matter. denomination that I am connected with has 225,000 Negro members. We exercise most scrupulous discipline over them. Let us, however, wherever we have any influence, endeavor to impress the necessity, especially on those official representatives who dispense such large funds, of high regard for moral discipline. Nor must we forget prejudice. I wonder what would be the effect Negro families were to be scattered through if about seventy-five Plymouth Church. My conviction is that consternation would be the result, and that a large number of persons would pass away unless those seventy families were thrown out. Send them along, and we will see. Dr. L. Abbott. You know that I cannot do it. Therefore, you Dr. Buckley. speak with great confidence. If I had a magic wand, I would put The prejudice against the Negro them all there next Sunday. throughout the North is as strong as it is throughout the South. The denomination with which I am connected owns a publishing house in New York. We every four years elect fifteen men to sit on the management of that business. Eight years ago we elected two highly educated colored men, one a mulatto, the other a fullThese were men of eloquence and power, one blooded Negro. Next to our establishment as refined a man as is in this assembly. was a large hotel, one of the finest in New York. We had paid into the treasury of that hotel by annual dinners, by lodging there in large numbers, and by dining there, a very large sum but, when it came to receiving these two colored persons, rather than admit them, the proprietors of the hotel were willing to sacrifice all the business that we brought to them. The only compromise that was proposed was that they would allow one of our colored members if some white member should always be present and sit with them at the table. A little inquiry convinced us that the same thing was true of all the best We must keep this prejudice of the North hotels in New York. constantly in view, and endeavor to remove it, while trying to raise Then this great problem will solve the tone of genuine sympathy. If I have mixed my religion itself, and we shall be a united country. and politics on this occasion, I will allow Dr. Abbott to apologize for me.

THE POSTAL-SAVINGS SYSTEM.

BY PHILIP
C.

GARRETT, OF PHILADELPHIA.

It is hardly necessary to say, I presume, that what is known as the postal-savings system is an adaptation of the Post-office Department of the government to the receiving of small savings, so that the machinery of a great institution of that kind is economized, and its utility is spread over the whole country, and savings can be received

at

and which

The method by which this is done in England, proposed in the United States, is by the use of a small pass-book, such as is commonly used with savings-banks, on the pages of which are marked out spaces the size of a postage-stamp, so that the depositor can save so small a sum as one cent or any larger
every post-office.
is

98

sum of the denomination of any postage-stamp of the United States. By pasting it in these spaces, he receives credit in the post-office for

When these small deposits amount to a certain sum, perhaps one dollar, he begins to receive the interest. If the interest amounts to three per cent., he is entitled to receive for every dollar he so deposits three cents every year. The system is a very simple one, extremely free from machinery, and adapted to all of the counOf course, in large cities, where savings institutions try districts. but it is extremely valuable for exist, there is no necessity for it farmers and for all those who cannot have access to the existing The rich always have the means of investing their institutions. money and earning an income from it the poor have not. It is, therefore, of especial use to the farming population and to the poor. It is very easy to see that the Negroes of the South are among those who would be benefited by a system of this kind. The foundation of the difference between civilization and barbarism, I might say almost certainly between the acquisition of wealth and pauperism, is the As far as the difference between these desire for accumulation. classes of people is concerned, it begins with a desire for accumulaIt is easy to see that a system of this kind, which would place tion. in the hands of the colored people the means of saving so small a sum as one cent and up to ten cents, would be of immense value to them. It is impossible for them to possess the means of improving their condition in any respect that we may recommend to them, to improve their homes and abandon these wretched hovels and get furniture and house decorations and comforts, unless they can save money. There are other considerations besides that. There is the moral consideration, the stimulus to a sense of manliness, the stimuWe scarcely think how much lus of self-dependence and of honesty. the virtue of honesty, upon which we dwell so much, is dependent upon considerations of property. I remember a story about a Richmond Negro who said he " did not steal de turkey, he merely transDe hen-roost was massa's, and he was ferred it to his own stomach.
that sum.
;
:

massa's." These ideas of meum and tuum did not exist in slavery. I do not see how you can introduce them without something of this kind, offering a basis for the acquisition of wealth. Mr. Garrett then referred to the extreme destitution of the Negroes at Port Royal, S.C., up to the time when the landing of the slaves from the Congo River had not ceased on the coast, and also to the facts set forth by Judge Tourgee in his " Fool's Errand," showing What they needed to get them out of the condition of the Negroes. their low contentment was the stimulus of the desire for a little accumulation ; and it seemed to him that nothing would furnish this so well as an institution like the postal-savings bank, in which they It would be the first step, and could be assisted by their teachers. an effective, potent step in lifting them out of such a condition. May I ask Mr. Garrett to describe in this connecGen. Eaton. tion the school savings-banks so common in Belgium, France, and

also in this country?

I think it is almost identical with the postalMr. Garrett. The children, when they have pasted in their books a savings bank. sum equal to a dollar, receive interest on it, the teacher depositing

99
It is a simple system the aggregation of savings in a savings-bank. and might easily be carried out if the postal system is not adopted and it can also be utilized in connection with that system. Great The efforts have been made to introduce the postal-savings system. charity organization societies, a few years ago, united in a plea to Congress to adopt it. Secretary Fairchild came down to the hall in Washington, when the National Conference of Charities met there, and made a speech in favor of it. A very serious opposition has existed to it throughout the country, more especially from the officers There is also a fear that the United States of the savings-banks.
;

would not know how to handle the immense sum of money which some have estimated would be deposited, how to invest it, and how to pay interest on it. I think these are bugbears. I do not think the new system would interfere with the savings institutions nor the amount deposited prove unmanageable if the rate of interest were kept below that paid by savings-banks. I am glad to Dr. W. T. Harris, Commissioner of Education. have an opportunity to commend the plan of postal-savings banks. The fear which our private savings-banks have that it will injure The convenience of the postaltheir business is not well founded.

savings bantf will stimulate powerfully the habit of saving

among

the

The government should not weakling classes of the community. offer enough interest nor receive sums large enough to infringe on
Take the old favorite rate the business of the private savings-bank. of interest on bonds, the seven-thirty a year, which gives two cents a day on the $100. One-half of this is $3.65, which gives one cent for each of three hundred and sixty-five days. But $3.65 should be divided again, giving $1.82. At this rate of interest, $100 would yield half a cent interest per day on the one hundred dollars ; and this is what the government ought to pay on all sums from ten dollars upward
to

one hundred

dollars,

which

is

as large a

sum

as

it

should

receive from one depositor. The postal-savings bank would be everywhere accessible to the For it poor, and it would give that most essential training in thrift. and that the is the property instinct that the colored people need, poor whites need as well. To become capitalists is the best next

The low rate of the government interest would also step for them. them to look for more profitable investments. To hoard stimulate money (in a stocking or in some hiding-place) is the first stage of to profitably invest it is the second and the capitalist solution
:

completing stage.

Of course, the savings-banks

that

now

exist will

do a more

flour-

ishing business when the postal-savings facilities have doubled and For the trebled the class of people who save their surplus earnings. It postal-savings arrangement is strictly of an educative character. has been said before that the Negro needs thrift more than he needs His earnings in slavery did not accrue special training in industry.
to
ter's property, just as

a sort the child has no institution that I can think of Negro and the poor white, in this and South, as the postal savings.

him as a person.

He had

of

undivided interest

in his

masis

in the family property.

There

that promises so much for the essential matter of thrift, North

IOO
I spoke this morning of a mistake that is having its influence against the cause of popular education. It is the inability to understand the statistics regarding crime and education. There is another mistake on the subject of the increase of wealth that has worked its injury. Henry George, Mr. Bellamy, and others have assumed that the assertion of Karl Marx is true namely, that the rich are growing richer and fewer, while the poor are growing poorer and more numerous, and the middle class are disappearing ir> the poor class. In very truth, if this is the actual fact, we cannot much blame the numerous writers who are repeating it in a hysterical manner. For it would show that something is wrong at the very foundation of our economical system. But the facts are quite different. In England, for instance, there are three or four lines of statistics that converge on this point, and show that the rich people have increased in forty years to three times the number in each thousand of the population. More than this, the middle class have increased to three and one-half times the former quota ; while the poor class are a smaller proportion of the whole, and are receiving nearly twice the annual stipend they received forty years ago. I have found that the annual product of the United States for each man, woman, and child has increased sirfce 1850 from twenty-five cents per day to forty cents per day; and that the distribution of it is quite as equitable as in former years is demonstrated by Edward Atkinson in his valuable book on the " Distribution of Products." But the uncritical acceptance of the alleged fact asserted by Marx has led to the proposal of extreme doctrines for the cure of the evils of crime and pauperism. If we shall adopt the socialist's theory, we must get rid of competition. If we adopt the anarchist's idea, we shall try to destroy what central authority still remains. But, if we believe in local self-government, and in the idea of private property that has descended to us from the Romans, we shall endeavor to deal with our two weakling classes, the criminal and the pauper, so as to prevent their increase, by teaching their children industry and economy. We must never forget that these two weakling classes need nurture more than they need justice. Justice returns the deed on the doer. If the thief steals, we return the symbolical equivalent of his deed upon him by taking from him his freedom. If he murders, we complete his deed for him by returning it on him and taking his life. But we do not treat infants in the same way. We try to correct them, but do not treat them as fully responsible. Our three classes of weaklings have possibilities of development into thrift and virtue, but their growth has been arrested at some point in spiritual childhood. We cannot let them alone with impunity any more than we can let alone our children. In short, it is evident that we must have a paternal government for insane people, for paupers, and for criminals. That is just what they need, and that is just what the interests of society necessitate. But the recognition of this necessity of nurture does not imply what is called " State socialism"; for the principle of local self-government demands that the State shall do whatever it can do better than the individual, if it at the same time helps the individual to help himself. So long as
;

IOI
what the State does conduces to the greater self-activity of the individual, it is not in danger of socialism ; for socialism, as a distinctive form of government, proposes to do for the individual what will remove occasion for the higher forms of self-activity, such as involve

Socialism and anarchy both have elements in comwith local self-government, and their peculiarities are to be found only in their extremes. Anarchy proposes to do nothing for the individual, not even protect his life and property or educate him. Hence it gives no place for nurture of self- activity, and as a fact permits it to be crushed out even in its rudiments. Socialism, on the other hand, will do everything for the individual, and thereby remove all stimulus to self-help. It destroys competition altogether, and anticipates all human wants. Whatever is educative of self-help is, on the other hand, neither socialism nor anarchy, properly speaking, but legitimate to local selfgovernment. For to the true ideal of government there are both centre and circumference, both centripetal and centrifugal tendencies ; while socialism suppresses entirely the centrifugal, and anarchv suppresses as completely the centripetal tendency. The postalsavings bank, therefore, is a legitimate institution in our government, which seeks to avoid both extremes of anarchy and socialism by doing only what shall aid self-help. The poor white, both North and South, will be stimulated to thrift by it. The colored man will be helped by it directly and also indirectly, because there is no use in expecting the elevation of the colored people in the midst of an illiterate population of whites, who are and always have been the worst enemies to the progress of the colored race. In this connection, I will allude to the school savings-bank, which has for many years been successful in cultivating habits of thrift in Belgium and France. In 1879, France had 10,261 schools with these banks, and a total deposit of 3,602,621 francs. Mr. J. H. Thiry, of Long Island, has collected information on this subject; and, in the next report of the Bureau of Education, we shall print his account of the present condition of the movement. I have been told that the experiment is in process in the public schools of Brookline, Mass., with good results. This feature of education in thrift will re-enforce the postal-savings bank. Rev. W. S. Langford, D.D. I will state the conclusions which I wish to present at the beginning, lest I may not reach them in the short space allowed me to speak. I hope the Conference will adopt first a recommendation of the postal-savings system ; second, a recommendation of national aid for elementary education j and, third, I trust that the Conference will adopt a good, strong, hearty recognition of what the Southern people and States of the South have done already to aid the Negroes. The paper which Dr. Mayo read yesterday, showing the Negroes' capacity for civilization, astonished me by a story of progress during the past twenty-five years which is without parallel. I was captivated by the wholesome, brave optimism of that paper and, even after sleeping over it, I find myself still under the spell of his influence. It seems to me that the problem is being solved with as much rapidity as the most sanguine friend of the Negro can desire. He must be
directive power.

mon

102
a near-sighted person who cannot see the hand of Divine Providence We are workers together with all that is being accomplished. God and, if that be so, then we may conclude that he is doing the principal part of the work, and he will carry it forward over obstacles
;

in

It seems to me that the solution of this problem is going to help mightily in the solution of other problems which loom up before us with portentous threatenings, that the Negro is going to be an important factor in working out the highest

in the future as in the past.

The chariot of progress in this matter is destiny of this republic. moving rapidly, and the best place for every man is inside the chariot. It is of no use for any man to take hold of the wheels and cry, Whoa, We must either ride or be left behind. whoa I well remember, two years ago, when, with some who are here, I went to London to attend a conference on the subject of foreign missions, where Bishop Crowther,'then past fourscore years of When a lad, he was taken out of slavery in age, was present also. Africa, carried to England, graduated from Oxford University, and went back to his native land to preach the gospel. I recall vividly the storm of enthusiasm which greeted him when the old scarred veteran stood upon the platform in Exeter Hall, and the whole audience arose to its feet and welcomed him. The first Sunday in July, 1888, I was a guest in the same house with Bishop Crowther, within Monday morning, as he was the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral. going up to London early, I accompanied him, going an hour earlier than I intended, that the old man might lean on my arm, and that I might assist him. As we sat together, a young Englishman, sitting opposite us in the railway carriage, leaned forward, and asked me to introduce him to the Bishop of the Niger. It was Douglas McKenzie, Bishop of Zululand. He at once told Bishop Crowther that he had found his photograph and that of his son, Archdeacon Crowther, of They were pictorial illustrations great use in dealing with the Zulus. with which he pointed out to the Zulus what Christianity had done On the Saturday night that I was at Canterbury, a for Africans. reception was held, which was attended by many distinguished perThe courtesy which was shown to the black bishop was as sons. great as that shown to the most eminent person in the drawingrooms and I remarked to our hostess that the perfect ease with which she treated her black guest could hardly be practised in a New
!

York drawing-room. However we may deprecate the treatment of the race problem in the South in some of its aspects, let us exercise great patience and
forbearance towards the people of the South in dealing with a problem which has been beset by supreme difficulties, and let us cordially recognize and acknowledge all that has been done by the people and their generous State provision for education, in the division of which they have been fair and just towards the Negroes. While philanthropy provides liberally for industrial education and for higher mental culture for those who are fitted to receive it, why may we not ask that the national government shall extend the advantage of elementary education to the masses of the black race, to help them to that degree of intelligence which is necessary to a popular

government ?

103

seems to me of great importance; chief features of excellence is that the United States becomes the debtor of the people, and encourages the Negroes to Not only to the Negroes thrift and honest acquisition of property. will this svstem be of value, but to other nationalities coming here it

The matter

of the postal savings

and one of

its

will

It be one of the best of civilizing and Americanizing influences. bring the humblest into direct and sympathetic relation to the government, and stimulate self-help. When they have saved a little capital and acquired land, their self-respect and ambition will rise, and as property-holders they will become conservative members of Opposition on the part society, important factors in the body politic. of established savings institutions would be extremely short-sighted. A little consideration will show that they will be gainers, not losers, It will popularize small savings, and every savingsby the system. bank will find itself benefited and its deposits increased.

will

Judge Tourgee.

It

is

a remarkable fact that there

is

in

this

country only one " high-grade " publication in which you will find the word " Negro " spelled with a capital " N," except those published by colored men. This is a magazine of considerable literary and In this the colored man is treated with a consideraartistic merit. It tion and respect which is almost lacking in most of our literature. may be a surprise to the Conference that this is a Roman Catholic It is publication, the St. George Advocate, published at Baltimore.
expressly devoted to the work of that Church among the Negroes of the South, and occupies the same position upon the color question It claims not as that recently expressed by Archbishop Ireland. only a larger percentage of gain, but an actually larger increase of membership, among the colored people during the past decade than any other Church. Both the publication itself and the account it gives of Roman Catholic work among the Negroes will, I am sure, interest and perhaps startle other members of the Conference as it

did me. I wish to call the attention of the Conference to a Dr. Buckley. fact of great significance which has taken place within a few days, the This is a election of Dr. Haygood and Dr. Fitzgerald as bishops. Both of fact of the greatest significance to the welfare of the Negro. The fact these gentlemen have taken the most advanced position. that both Dr. Haygood and Dr. Fitzgerald had been elected bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that has a membership of 1,600,ooo, all white except a small number scattered through the South, shows that the spirit of the people is rapidly changing. Dr. Fitzgerald served one term as State SuperinGen. Eaton. tendent of Schools in California, and is a most earnest friend of edu-

cation.

Adjourned

at

p.m.

jFiftt)

>ffltft(m.
6.

Friday Morning, June

in the chair.

called to order at 10 a.m., ex-President Hayes President Gates, Chairman of the Executive Committee, read the platform and resolutions formulated by that committee, and announced that action upon them would be taken at a
later hour.

The Conference was

As the platform was afterwards changed but little, it is given on another page as finally adopted. Rev. Samuel May, of Leicester, Mass., offered the following resolution, which was referred to the Executive Committee:

Resolved, That this Conference earnestly and affectionately entreats all teachers of schools of colored children and youth, and all others engaged in any way in their education, that they give careful instruction on the subject of alcoholic drinks and especially that they enforce, upon moral and religious grounds, and with reference to the future welfare and usefulness of their pupils, the duty of entire abstinence from all intoxicants.
;

Judge Albion W. Tourgee then gave the following address

THE NEGRO'S VIEW OF THE RACE PROBLEM.

BY ALBION W. TOURGEE.
in advance if, in my remarks, my religion should become not merely " mixed," as Dr. Abbott feared that his might, but even if it should appear that my religion is mostly politics for I trust it will also become apparent that my "politics" is not altogether at odds with what we term "religion." I confess, I have never been able to distinguish between them. Without religion, politics is simply the hot-bed of iniquity, the stamping-ground of devilish impulse ; and, without politics, religion is as dead as "faith without works." When Christianity quits the field of political relation or politics discards the tenets of Christian philosophy, I have little use for either. I have sometimes thought that the Christ I worship is not the I cannot look upon him as merely a Christ whom many revere. weak, tender, pitying nature, who stood beside the seething tide of human life and tearfully dropped anaesthetics on its woes. My Christ human wofulness less is he of the knotted whipcords, who pitied than he hated the evil conditions from which it springs. I love to think of him as a man, and believe in his divinity because he neither shunned the woes of humanity nor excused its evils. I love to think that he lived in a cabin not much better than those we have heard so much about at this Conference that he probably sat upon the floor,
I

trust I

may be pardoned

and my

politics


105
ate his food with his fingers, found his friends among the poorest who pointed out the poor, and would not be patronized by the rich one golden possibility of human nature and formulated the one principle by which humanity may hope for betterment here or salvation
;

hereafter, yet would be flouted as a tramp to-day I love to think that he knew able followers.

by

his

most respectits

human woe and

causes, and based upon such knowledge the remedy he prescribed for I love to think that the sandal-strings chafed his feet, that its cure. the dust and grime besmirched his body, and the salty sweat-drops crept beneath his eyelids and dropped from off his beard, while he

strode along over the sun-parched hills of Judea, doing good, and implanting in the hearts of humble followers an undying zeal for I love to think that the seamless coat he wore was often humanity. in need of washing, and that, like the colored man when freed from bondage, he had not where on earth to lay his head. To my mind, the Christ was not more a savior than a politician, studying first the facts of human life, tracing the causes of evil, imposing on every one the duty of considering the welfare of others, and making " Do unto others as ye would that they should do to you " the golden key by which alone the gate of heaven may be unlocked. I do not believe that this divine thinker, on whose heart the burden of human anguish forever rested, meant mere sympathy when he asked the weary to come unto him because his yoke was easy, and shouted down the centuries the universal and inexorable command, " Bear ye one another's burdens." He meant not pity, but healing, and made that the sole the amelioration of human conditions, lesson of human duty, the universal principle on which collective as well as individual conduct is rightly based, the truest policy, the grandest selfishness, whereby the highest happiness is made to depend on individual effort to uplift humanity. This, to my mind, is Christianity, the kernel of civilization, the mainspring of popular governno more to be fully achieved by ment, the only "practical " politics, us than the purity of the Christ-life, yet ever to be striven for as the one pearl of price in the world's social philosophy. So far as I am concerned, therefore, religion and politics cannot be separated in the consideration of the " Negro Question." The rule of duty imposed upon us as individuals, upon the American Church, upon the American Republic, upon Christian civilization, as regards the American Negro, is simply that we shall treat him as, in reversed That is the sole measure conditions, we would desire him to treat us. of right betwixt man and man, nation and nation, race and race, class and class. It is the golden coin of righteousness, bearing the Christstamp, and issued from the mint of Truth upon the Mount of Olives. So the first All imitations or substitutes are false, hollow, spurious. thing to be learned about the Negro Question by those who would I do not mean solve it truly is the Negro's view of the race problem. by this the view which an uneducated individual Negro may entertain, nor even that which any single educated representative of the race might formulate, but the general sentiment, inherent and inevitable as the result of past events and present conditions, of the colored race in the United States, regarding their present, past, and future Such general ideas relations to the residue of the American people.

io6 and classes are very subtle in character, always hard to formulate, and frequently almost impossible to define. They are latent forces, which are often entirely incomprehensible by other peoples who have the closest No doubt Pharaoh and the more intellivisible relations with them. gent and cultivated classes of Egypt believed they fully understood the character of the degraded tribes they had held in bondage for four hundred years ; but it is doubtful if one of them dreamed of that fierce tide of theocratic nationalism which burst from Moses' lips as he gazed upon the waves that engulfed Israel's pursuers. It is not probable that one in a thousand of the Jewish people had ever uttered such scorching maledictions as centuries afterwards fell from the Hebrew prophet's tongue, when he told again the story of the bondage in Egypt. Yet they no doubt found an echo in every Israelitish heart, and these hissing curses are unquestionably the true expression
sometimes
to races, peoples, difficult to trace,

common

of the Jewish view of the period of the sojourn in Egypt. The Irishman's idea of the Irish question has required some centuries to

formulate perhaps it is not yet fully formulated ; but one can get some idea of it by tapping any average Irishman and analyzing the You will not find it in the words he uses, but in the spirit results. in what he tries to say rather than in what he says. he manifests, So the Negro's view of the race problem must be inferred from conditions and human as well as racial proclivities, even more than from individual testimony. The testimony of observers must always be construed, too, with regard to their bias and relation to the race. And the testimony of the race itself must be read in the light of its own past experience. Both these facts we have almost ignored. We have sought testimony about the Negro from his avowed friends and confessed enemies, and think we shall obtain the truth by "splitting The testimony of the Negro in the difference " between them. regard to his past and present conditions and aspirations for the future is worth more than that of all the white observers that can be packed upon the planet. The man who wears the shoe knows better He may not know how to than anybody else just where it pinches. remedy the defect but the cobbler will never fix it unless the wearer We wise white people may tells him just where and how it hurts. know more about remedies and their methods of application than he ; but the Negro owns the bunion, and his testimony is worth more than that of all the rest of mankind upon what hurts it, and his view of how and where the race question pinches him is the first prerequisite of any sensible attempt at a cure. The Southern white man almost universally asserts that he knows the colored man better than any one else, because he and his forYet, if hisbears held him for a dozen generations as a bondman. tory teaches anything, it is that the gulf between the master and the slave is the hardest of all social chasms to span, and the master's estimate of the bondman's interest, character, and rights, the farthest Thus we find the possible from the bondman's notion of the same. colored ministers of Charleston deliberately asserting in a public address, only a few years ago, that " the slave-owner knew no more about the Negro, as a man, than if he had lived on an inaccessible island in mid-ocean." With such differences, how shall I dare attempt to give the Negro view of the race problem ?
:

107
express an opinion, and have a right to I have only the right to have an opinion only because I have studied this question from this because I first particular point of view for a quarter of a century, elements from which dissected, out of actual Negro lives, the spiritual

were

constructed "Toinette," "Nimbus," "Uncle Prime," and half a dozen other characters, in which this very idea is the distinguishing quality. Any one who reads my works will perceive at once that this peculiar phase of this problem has been a matter of special study with me. For instance, "Nimbus," the leading character of " Bricks without Straw," is first introduced engaged in a disquisition upon the subject of names, which has been discussed here, and in regard to which one of our was friends pretty broadly intimated that my statement that the slave not allowed to marry or have a surname was untrue, because in his father's family Bible there was a record of the births, marriages (?), and deaths of his slaves. I do not question that man's sincerity he could not have intended to make a false impression on your minds cohabibut he forgot that marriage is something more than permitted the bearer has a tation, and" that a name is no name at all unless He knows very well, and would not dare deny, that legal right to it. such entries as he describes, even though made in a family Bible, had no more the quality of a family record, so far as the slave was conHe knows that cerned, than the pedigree of a' thoroughbred horse. was an imposin every State of the South the marriage of the slave that no slave could have a surname because he could not sibility, and
synthetically
" Pactolus

Terry,"

have a legal sire. Bastardy was forcibly entailed upon five millions by Christian laws. I do not say this to wound his feelings or cast any imputation on his ancestors. Every American citizen was responAll shared in its advantages, and all are sible for the sin of slavery. to aid in remedying its resultant ills. The Negro view morally bound however; and, the of these things is not that of the sometime master, will he farther he gets away from those conditions, the less excuse and to the find for the white Christian's relation to his nameless sire, mother whom our laws degraded to the status of a dam. My study of the Negro began when he was still a slave, but when Fleeing from a the fetters were already dropping from his hands. Confederate prison, I sought his aid with confidence, and tested not only his faithfulness, but his sagacity. As a soldier, I saw him shed and oppression his blood for the flag which had meant only bondage promise of libfor his race, though already growing radiant with the During fifteen of the early years of his freedom (1865 to 1880), erty. I was lawyer, a judge. I studied him as an employer, a citizen, a thoroughly familiar with his status in every portion of one of the Southern States, and since that time have studied it in every State of the South, keeping always uppermost in my mind his view of his past and his hope for the future. I have studied him, I will admit, with He is a new type, a new man. He has growing appreciation. sloughed off the African, and is first of all things an American, American in instinct and aspiration as well as largely in blood. In some respects, he understands the white man better than the white man understands himself. As a race he has not yet come to a full formulation of his view of the past or a complete realization of the

io8

But the elements are readily discernible to relations of the present. one who studies him as a man, not as a mere appanage of the white I have not always understood him. I am not certain that any race. one can who has not suffered with him. I have never been so sure as many of our friends what was the very best thing to be done for the colored man but I have never doubted that the most exact justice and the fullest recognition of his equality of right must be the prime elements of any successful policy which has for its purpose the elevation of the race and the development of his individual manhood. Wrong is never cured by fresh injustice, and manhood is never ennobled by being compelled to wear the brand of inferiority. I have not always been quite sure that the teaching we are giving the Negro is the very best, either for him or for ourselves. It has occurred to me that God and Mammon are queerly mixed in the ideal we commend to him. Praise God and make money seems to me a fair paraphrase of the advice given him even here. I doubt the good
;

There

the prescription. Remember, he may take us literally. danger that such an education may produce hypocrites and Men are needed, I think, more than ministers example misers. rather than exhortation. I may be wrong, but I have thought wise
results of
is
;

expenditure a more important lesson for the race to-day than rigid economy. To my mind, every rich Negro is an evidence of bad teaching. No Negro has a right to be rich while so many of his people are ignorant and unformed. But what can we expect ? They Freedom did not make them wise and are black and " inferior." perfect, as it no doubt would if they had been white. They have taken us at our word. They are better economists than we ourselves. They live with less expenditure than any equal number of white people. A larger proportion of them have become land-owners than of any equally impoverished and unprepared class of whites in a like period, a smaller proportion of them are supported by public charity, a larger number of them have become rich, and their aggregate possessions are greater than any equal number of illiterate, landless whites without inheritance or fortuitous discovery ever accumulated in twentyNot a single white teacher who preaches the gospel of five years. economy to the colored man can begin to live on what the majority of his hearers deem abundance. It is the lesson of wise and fruitful expenditure that should be most earnestly enforced. The race needs heroes and patriots and martyrs rather than millionaires. And they will have heroes and patriots men who will joyfully live and die for when they have learned to honor devotion to the their fellows

right,

and when individual

self-sacrifice

for

the collective

good

is

accounted a better thing than successful accumulation.

is

far as the peaceful and Christian solution of the race problem concerned, indeed, I am inclined to think that the only education required is that of the white race. The hate, the oppression, the injustice, are all on our side and every Negro who wins the honors of his class in a Northern college, becomes a cashier in a national bank at Topeka, writes a story which New England people read, publishes a newspaper which white people are compelled to peruse, wins a membership in the Boston Press Club, becomes a dry-goods clerk in Chicago, or so good a ball-player that a crack club has to secure

So

109
each and every one of these colshould his services lest another white people of the men is a missionary sent of God to the ored truth of Christianity. to teach them the fundamental United States problem in the United States, There are three elements of the race of the South, and the white man of the North, the white man the these itself consists chiefly of the views which The problem Neero Negro and his relation to the others. The three elements take of the He regards is easily stated. Northern white man's view of the Negro indifference or as a mere object of compashim either with complete Harris informed us we one of those "weaklings" whom Dr. sion who is to be supplied with to treat with justice were not required to suck it as peaceably as may be. a nursing-bottle, and encouraged Such a thing as duty or a only an object of charity.

He

is

bond

Some go so far as to say and sometimes, perhardly thought of. race problem, nothing to be haps even to believe, that there is no or give assurance of future done to wipe out the memory of past wrong

at best of reciprocal interest

and obligation existing between them

is

^WhhTew exceptions,

the white man of the South regards the colored governed, controlled and treated as a predestinate inferior, to be man and trained for a secondary and subordinate as such to be educated intended inThis does not necessarily imply unkindness or position' means the assertion of inherent superiority, and by It onlv fustice constitutes justice to the Negro, inference the right to prescribe what what degree of subserviprivileges shall be granted to him, and what This was the hypothesis on which of him. ency shall be demanded all our past civilization It is the view which colored slavery rested presumptions of the common law, and in the name of It overthrew the of the churches the ban of Tesus Christ pronounced, by the authority Civilization subjection against the superstitious child of Ham. eternal of those whom it can make tributary to its is rarely heedful of the rights takes on always something of the hue lusts of crreed, and Christianity Right and wrong are relative it becomes a part. of the lite of which What never reversible terms between the weak and the strong, but even sinful, for the for the strong to do, it is wrong, perhaps it is right introduction of slavery weak to contemplate. Whitefield urged the the importation of Georgia as a Christian duty, and advocated into they might be Christianized with the same Negroes in order that that they may be refervor that their deportation is now urged,

heathenized. , j , yesterday, Do not let us be too ready to blame the Christianity of generally treated Thus far Christian nations and races have either had not taught a better way. subject peoples very much as if Christ religious teaching, of ChrisProtestant civilization has been lavish of of dusky but wonderfully scant of justice to peoples tian charity, lay side by side to batter down and English ships
. .
.

skin.

into the Flowery Kingdom the Chinese forts, in order to open a way are shocked at American missionaries. for English opium and the head-waters of the the brutalities of the Arab slave-traders on Mahomet steal out ot the Nile but for every slave the followers of civilization, with arms and rum and robjungles of Africa Christian of the Dark Continent bery, is to-day sending ten of the children

American

We

no
just

beyond the reach of hope. The Christianization of Africa has only but in two hundred years how many millions of begun Africans, have suffered death at white Christian hands? Such will always be the character of our civilization as long as we try to keep as long as we try to limit the our politics and our religion apart, Golden Rule to individual relations and fly the skull and cross-bones
;

mast-head of the Ship of State. It is merely substituting a new for Christian conduct in lieu of the one Christ prescribed. Instead of treating the man of dusky skin as we know we would wish him to treat us in like conditions, we simply make it the measure of our duty that we shall treat him as well as we can afford to do, without interfering with our own comfort or prejudices, or as well as we think he ought to be treated. Even we who are met here to discuss the Negro, to deplore his infirmities, to magnify our charity, to extol our own excellences and determine what ought to be done with and for him, do not regard his opinion about the matter as at all important. We do not ask him what he thinks of his condition. Not one in all this assembly has put the question, " In his condition, how would we wish the residue of the American people to treat us ? " He is the poor patient, we are told, who is shut out of the council of the wise physicians for his own sake. He is not even allowed to detail his own symptoms. Why should he ? The physician has a theory why should he trouble himself about facts ? We do not promise justice, but are overflowing with mercy. We forget to acknowledge that every kindness done the Negro in our land has been only a scanty patch, half-hiding some hideous wrong. We congratulate ourselves on what we have contributed for his mental and religious development, but quite ignore the fact that for ever}' dollar we have given for his enlightenment he had before given a thousand for our enrichment. We boast of the public school system of the States of the South, in which so many colored children are being educated but we forget to acknowledge the fact that the public school system was planted in every Southern State by the vote of the Negro, in direct opposition to an overwhelming majority of the whites, and that two white children enjoy its benefits to one colored one. We extol the public spirit which divides the public school fund of the States of the South between the schools of both races, though the Negro pays but a small proportion of the taxes, but are as silent as the grave in regard to the equally important fact that it is the unrequited labor of the colored man which created the major part of the valuation on which the white man pays taxes. Yet we are the friends of the Negro we wish to aid, assist, develop, the race. This is our openly professed purpose in assembling here. Are we willing to apply the rule which Christ of the dusty gabardine prescribed, even to our charitable efforts, and proclaim a desire to undo the wrong of the past by justice in the future ? To the Negro in the United States the race question is one of color only. He is what he is, and all his conditions are what they are merely because a white Christian people have prescribed such conditions for him because he has more or less colored blood in his veins. That is why he was imported. That is the reason he was held to service without recompense. That is the reason he was not
at the

measure

Because of this he was prohibited allowed to marry or have a family. by law from learning to read or write. Because of this he was preBecause of this every vented from taking or holding property. obstacle was put in the way of his progress from barbarism to civiliWe do not, we cannot, realize this fact of color. We have zation. wonder if I even been told here that "there is no race problem"! the man who made the statement ever tried to apply the Christ-rule Did he ever think to the relation of the races in this Christian land. what it would mean to have in his veins even a few drops of that blood which Christianity for centuries taught was the indelible mark Did you ever think, sir, how much it would of the Divine curse ? take to hire any one in this audience to assume the burden of a black Where would have been your career of honor, skin for a lifetime ? Nay, where sir, if your cheek had shown a trace of African bronze ? and what would the pastor of Plymouth Church, who sneers at a "race question," have been if God had made him black or brown or even saddle-colored ? Did he ever think how easy it is for a white man to be good, and how much more grace it must require to save a Negro ? If offered the choice, would he not prefer Cranmer's doom Would he think there was no " race problem " then ? to such a fate ? In all the prayers that have been offered at this Conference I have I do not not heard one word of thankfulness that we are white. suppose any man here dare utter such a prayer in public; yet, excepting only life and the hope of salvation, this is the most priceless Wealth, honor, knowledge, civilization, love, blessing we enjoy. all of these are trivial things to us in comparison with the blessed What father here would not rather face a fact that we are white What childless age than see this mark upon the brow of a son ? mother would not become a murderer in heart, should she see this When you realize these stain upon the cheek of her first-born ? things, you can begin to guess how the nerves of a race must quiver at the thought of the brand our Christian civilization puts upon them. When we can realize the horror of such a metamorphosis, we can imagine the feeling of a cultured Christian woman, who has been mentioned here as a model of devoted womanhood, when she said, " I would lie down and be flayed without a murmur if I might only Not that she thought the white race superior, but rise up white!" because the sting of imputed degradation and inferiority never ceases Let us never to thrill her nerves and wring her heart with anguish.
!

forget to thank

God

that

we

are white, even

if

we

are

ashamed

to

go

before him on our knees and thank him that we are his favorite children, the pets of his mercy, and the superiors of those to whom Especially let us never forget that this is the he gave darker skins prime factor in the Negro's view' of the race question, and will continue to grow more important to him as he increases in knowledge, refinement, wealth, and sensibility, unless we make some radical improvement in our white Christianity. Another fact that must continue to affect the Negro's view of the race question and of the relations he sustains to the white man in the United States is the character of his past. It is easy for us to excuse
!

ourselves for the

harder for the colored

wrongs of slavery, but, day by day, it man to do so; and it is simply

is

growing
state

to

112
universal fact of human nature to declare that a great and lasting wrong like slavery done to a whole people because of race or creed grows blacker and darker for generations and ages as they go away from it- The educated grandchild of the slave who looks back into the black pit of slavery will find little excuse for the white Christian civilization which forbade marriage, crushed aspiration, and after two centuries and a half offered the world as the fruits of Christian endeavor five millions of bastard sons and daughters, the product of a promiscuity enforced by law and upheld by Christian teaching I Slavery will be a more terrible thing to the Negro a hundred years hence than it was to the calloused consciousness of his nameless father, and a more shameful horror to your grandchild's soul than it was to the aching heart of Garrison. say perhaps we sometimes even think that, because slavery no longer exists as a legalized form of society, we may dismiss it from our thought, and no longer consider it as a factor of our civilization. In truth, the conditions it bequeathed are far more difficult and delicate than those attending its existence. It is a living force in the white man's thought and in the colored man's life. The lessons it taught to both races are ineradicable by law, and are beyond the control of mere reason. The white man of the South thinks he would rather perish from the earth than be accounted only the equal of the colored man ; while the Negro is fast coming to an appreciation of the fact that subordination is only a longer name for subjection. He dare not yield his claim to equality of right and opportunity, even if he would. These irrepressible conflicting tendencies are the heritage of slavery, and the American people who planted and protected this upas-tree must see to it that they do not bring a still greater evil. What ought we to do ? Let us try to imagine ourselves colored men, with dusky wives and children, and then answer with the fear of God before our eyes good deal has been said here about the character and quality of the Negro's religion. I always wonder that a white Christian dare cast any imputation on the Negro's faith. For one, I am glad that he has any faith at all. To me, the fact that the American Negro is ever a Christian is the greatest of miracles that has been wrought since the grave yielded up its dead. Remember in what school he was taught Christian truth Look at his surroundings as he must view them Think that his first religious lessons were that God had created him to serve the will of his white Christian brother; that the earth and its fulness belonged to the white man, and that the Negro was added merely to promote his pleasure and advantage ; that the white man was allowed to own, occupy, and possess all he could acquire, but it was a sin for the colored man to assume control of his own body and brain that marriage was a holy ordinance to the white man, but a forbidden privilege to the Negro ; that home and family were sacred to his white brother, but forbidden by Christian law to the slave ; that the white man was expected to die in defence of the virtue of his wife and daughter, but that the Negro's cabin stood forever open to the ravisher that knowledge was the key-stone of the white man's religion, progress, and liberty, but that Christian laws forbade the colored man to learn to read the word of God Remem-

We

H3
ber that, for generations, the laws of Christian American States forbade three colored men to meet together for prayer unless a white man were present to see that they did not prejudice the Almighty

Remember these things, and think against "the superior race." what must be the Negro's view of them, and, when next you lift your heart in prayer, forget not to thank God that these five millions of
our brethren, born naked, fatherless, homeless, nameless, and ignorant out of the womb of slavery, came forth not vengeful savages, but peaceful believers, whom even their unprecedented wrongs did not

move

to strife

Christian devotion and self-sacrifice, if you wish a lesson in read the story of the African Methodist Church, every one of the half who twenty-five million members of which is the child of a slave, years ago were not worth twenty-five cents apiece outside of the clothes they wore, and see the reported aggregate of more than $2,000,000 paid by them for religious and charitable purposes in one No other church has ever begun to equal that under like conyear. Strike off half, and it still remains ditions of poverty and difficulty.

Nav,

a miracle.
well hail

Halve it again, and the Christians of the Catacombs may them across the intervening ages as their closest exemplars We have commented here, in this Conference, with that freedom which springs only from conscious rectitude on the morals of the Negro. I do not suppose that in this respect he is without fault ; but better I leave to any fair-minded man or woman to answer if he is not than we have any reason to expect to find him after the training of Remember that the white man's two centuries of Christian slavery. example has bleached not only the Negro's morals, but his skin, until one of the most prominent slave-traders of the South testified that hardly one in a thousand of the colored people in the United States is of unmixed Negro blood But even here there is room to note something to the credit of the brother in black and we ought to give even the devil his due, despite " race, color, or previous condition." For two centuries, Christian civilization encouraged and compelled mere promiscuity among the As soon as they became free, this unhallowed relation slaves. became offensive to our eyes, and men and women who had previously " taken up with each other," as the courts phrased it, were required to register themselves as man and wife, or abandon their For this registration they were also required to previous relations. pay a good round fee. In several counties embraced in my judicial those district, I investigated the proportion of those who assumed and who renounced the old relation. The former was surprisingly large, ranging from 94 to 97 per cent., according to the estimates of the 1 suppose in the whole eight counties it best informed parties. would have reached 90 per cent, at least. Let the marriage bonds be dissolved throughout the State of New York to-day, and it may be doubted if as large a proportion of her intelligent white citizens would
!

choose again their old partners.

let

we utterly condemn the Negro for incurable immorality, us ask where in all this republic can be found a white jury who would give above a sixpence damages for the seduction of a colored woman by a white man, or render a verdict in favor of a colored
But, before

114
suing a white man for breach of promise of marriage, no matter what the testimony. I must say one word in reference to what is known as the " Blair Bill," the defeat of which has been often referred to here with regret. I' suppose my views in regard to national aid to education are well known. I do not think the government of the United States deserves to exist unless it makes provision for the cure of that ignorance which it fostered in whites and blacks alike at the South, in its insane desire to perpetuate slavery. One who loves the flag for which he fought can say nothing more emphatic. I believe I was the first man who proposed the appropriation of national funds to the schools of the country, in the ratio of illiteracy. Thirteen years before the " Blair Bill " was first introduced, I had presented to Congress the Memorial of the Republicans of North Carolina, asking that such aid be ex" A Fool's Errand " and " Bricks without Straw " had been tended. written with the sole purpose of calling the attention of the American people to education as the only hopeful remedy for Southern conditions. Other volumes followed and I doubt not that many of those here present signed the petitions I afterwards circulated upon the subject, and which are yet preserved in bound volumes in the Con-

woman

gressional Library. That I am a firm believer in national aid to State schools cannot therefore be doubted. Yet I do not hesitate, in the name and on behalf of the colored people of the United States, to express here the most profound gratitude that this measure failed to become a law. Why ? Because it was the most amazing piece of injustice which ever resulted from unwise methods linked to kindly purpose. Two-thirds of the illiterates of the South are colored oneThe schools for the two races are everythird of them are white. where separate. The " Blair Bill " proposed, in effect, to pay over to
:

each State one dollar a year for eight years for every illiterate in it. Two-thirds of the funds would therefore have been paid by the United States on account of colored illiterates. But it was required to be distributed per capita; and, the schools being separate for the two races, the colored schools of the South would have received onethird and the white schools two-thirds of the fund, though the colored schools represent two-thirds of the illiteracy. A child can see that it is precisely equivalent to the United States paying four times as much for the enlightenment of a white illiterate as for the education of a colored illiterate, besides giving the whites of the South control of even that modicum of the national gratuity. I was forced to oppose this bill, despite its seductive title, both because I cannot approve injustice and because I do not believe that God ever made a people good enough to be intrusted with another people's right and interests. I regard the defeat of that measure as another evidence that God is on the side of the colored man, and has heard at length his long neglected appeal for justice, saving him in this case even from the
folly of his friends.

many warm friends of the colored man, and even colored people themselves, were sorely hurt by the failure of this measure. It is not always easy to perceive that bad methods may be just as harmful as bad purposes. But, if the measure had passed, within a year or just as soon as its working was
that

No doubt
of

many

the

'15
generally understood, every colored man would have been stirred to righteous wrath by an injustice all the more galling because unthat a people a thousand-fold better intended and it is better should suffer injustice for ages than welcome it for an hour. " Negro I have sought, in these remarks, not so much to define the View of the Race Question " as to show how it may be arrived at by any candid mind. I have confidence in the future, because I I am not one of those optimists believe in an overruling Providence. who believe that whatever is is right, nor one of the sort of "fools"
;

To do justice is believe that what is cannot be made better. to atone for wrong, the noblest the highest function of civilization When Grant lay dying on Mt. phase of Christian endeavor. McGregor, he wrote upon the margin of one of his proofs this senIf tence, " No nation can do wrong without paying the penalty."
who
;

he had done nothing more,

this

apothegm should have made

his

the perfect flower of the seed planted on God keeps account between nations and peoples as well as Olivet. between man and man. History is but a record of his judgment

name immortal.

It

is

offer the

upon them. The Negro is not only "here to stay," but is here to American Christian republic a chance to atone by justice in the future for the sin of the past, and thereby escape the wrath
It is all very of that God to whom a thousand years are but a day. but he who tries to separate it from the well to look to the future past is as foolish as one who seeks to run away from his own shadow. Yesterday, To-day, and To-morrow are an eternal repetend. To-day
;

what it is because Yesterday was what it was, and every To-morrow must be what all its Yesterdays shall make it. This is God's and man's will is as powerless to change law of human evolution Prophecy is not so it as it is to make yesterday what it was not. much a foreknowledge of what shall be as a clearer comprehension of what has been, and he who would foretell the future will look forever in the mirror which reflects the past I have not wished by these remarks to give offence or disturb the harmony of this meeting but I could not consent that he who fought with me for the land we love should be without one to speak for him in a council where the wise men of another race have met to consider his welfare, condemn his faults, and determine what duty the white Christians of America owe to eight millions of people who served faithfully for two centuries, paying in advance the tuition of their
is
;

I believe that, if the trustful, children in the school of civilization. reverent spirit of that race were here present in some perfected type, looking without malice upon the past, clearly discerning the conditions of the present, and desiring only the common welfare in the future, it would present for your consideration not only the complacently admonitory " platform " your committee have reported, but resolutions something like these, as expressive of the Negro view of this most important of all the questions confronting American civilization
:

Resolved, That this Conference recognizes with solemn and profound conviction the hand of an all-wise God in that mysterious chain of circumstances by which the African was brought to these shores, absorbed the rudiments of civilization, was miraculously freed from bondage, learned the way of salvation, was exalted

n6
to citizenship, given equality of right, and linked irrevocably with the destiny of the republic; that, as in all this He that seeth the end from the beginning has baffled human wisdom, overruled human greed, and made the wrath of man to praise him, we humbly invoke his guidance, and implore him to show the American people what there is for them to do in the further unfolding of his righteous

purpose.
Resolved, That the American nation and the Christian world have reason to be profoundly grateful that a people numbering eight millions, but recently emerging from the shadow of a wrong the wofulness of which no human mind can measure, laying aside the instincts of the savage, have crowded to the altar and the schoolroom, asking only to be shown the way of life, and to be allowed to take a man's And we desire to express our part in the world's great battle for human welfare. profound thankfulness that he has soiled his new manhood by no vengeful acts of

bloodshed or violence. Resolved, That the unrecompensed labor of the colored race during two hundred and fifty years, the proceeds of which went to swell the aggregate of our national wealth,' which cleared the lands and helped to build the churches and schools of the South, enhanced the profit of Northern industries and helped to make the American republic invincible in power and unprecedented in prosperity, constitutes the American Negro an actual and meritorious creditor of American civilization, whose claim can only be discharged by recognition of his rights as a man, and the fullest and freest opportunity to gather for h mself the fair fruits of that Christian civilization of which we boast, and which we profess to exemplify. Resolved, That we note with grateful wonder the marvellous fact that a race only twenty-five years out of bondage, from which they came naked as the child from the mother's womb, without education, without experience, without accumulations, have so well used their new opportunity that already they pay one-twentieth of the taxes of the States in which they constitute a moiety of the population; that more than one-fifth of their number over the age of ten years are able to read and write, and that from six to ten per cent, already sit beneath their own roof-trees ; that they pay a larger proportion of their incomes for charitable and religious uses than any people known to history. And, when we reflect that this has been done upon a rate of wages ranging from one-third to two-fifths of that which the Northern farm laborer receives and has been accomplished on the hot embers of civil strife, we are constrained to admit that we see in this race, new risen to the light of manhood, a people worthy of recognition as a constituent element of American life, and rivals and worthy competitors both in the worship of God and in the service of man. Resolved, That, while we recognize the wisdom and justice of the Southern States in devoting an equal proportion of their school taxes to the education of colored youth, though the colored race pays so small a portion of the same, we perceive' in it only another instance of that wise foresight by which the rich, and especially the landholder, of other States pays for the education of the poor and landless, in order that their children may be 'peaceful and self-supporting citizens rather than criminal and impoverished burdens upon society. And we feel bound to call to the attention of those of our Southern brethren who deem this burden onerous that a very large proportion of this tax is the result of a valuation created by the Negro's labor during two centuries and a half of bondage. Resoved, That, while we heartily commend the efforts of the white people of the South for the education of the Negro, we should not forget that the white youth of the South, the American people, and the Christian world owe an immense debt to the race which, in the very hour in which it crept from the chrysalis of slavery to the new estate of citizenship, planted by their voice and votes in the fundamental law of those States the free public school system, never known there before, and then opposed by three-fourths of the white voters of those States, whose blessing and beneficence twice as manv white as colored children enjoy to-day. Resolved, That the nation, whose Constitution, laws, courts, and power upheld and protected the svstem of African slavery, became thereby responsible for the wrongs it inflicted, and is to-day a trustee de son tort of the educational privileges
denied the slave. The duty of the nation to aid in curing illiteracy is therefore not merely an obligation of policy, but one having the highest moral sanction. Yet we are constrained to congratulate the colored people of the United States on the defeat of a measure so flagrantly unjust that it gave to the white schools of the South from two to five times as much for each white illiterate as it gave to colored schools for each colored illiterate.

ii7
I thank you for your kind attention, and beg to say that, in my opinion, nothing would so surely and swiftly tend to the peaceful solution of the Negro problem which to-day' afflicts us as the candid and unshrinking acknowledgment of the undeniable facts stated in these resolutions; and the cheerful recognition of the first and most needed step toward the moral, social, and religious development of the Negro which the people of the United States can take is to admit that the Negro is entitled to that first, last, simplest, grandest, and richest boon which man asks in Christ's name of his fellow-man,

justice.

Hon. Andrew D. White, ex-President of Cornell University. There is an old theory that the first thing a speaker should do is to get the sympathy of his audience. My friends, I feel that I ought to have your sympathy; for I come forward, "no orator as Brutus is," succeeding this outburst of eloquence, of wit, of humor, of pathos, with which my distinguished friend has enchained you, and which will make it, I fear, very difficult for me to bring you back into what seems to me the true line of our deliberations. Carried away, as I have been, by his eloquence, as he has depicted to us the horrors of the past, the wrongs of the black race, the crimes in which North and South have shared, I have remembered " Forgetting those things which are one great text, behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press forward toward
the mark." I trust that he will forgive me if I say that, while I recognize in his speech much which should incite us all to more earnest effort, I must still insist that the first and only question at a meeting like this should be, " What is to be done, and how can we do it ? " This is no time for crimination and recrimination. We know that we have been miserable sinners let us press forward, and see if the future cannot be made to atone for the past. Last night I looked out over the landscape, and saw all that wonderful display which none of us are likely to forget. Never have I known anything more sublime, the thunder echoing and re-echoing among these mountain peaks, the lightning flashing along the valjeys and coruscating among the forests. But, when it was over, I lighted a simple candle, and was able to read better by it than by all the lightning. So perhaps now, after this storm of oratory, some light more steady, if less brilliant, may be of use. I came to this Conference with a heavy heart. I believed then, and I believe now, that there is a great Negro problem. Though not a gTeat traveller through the South, it has been my lot at various times to go through several of the Southern States, to talk with men who are considered leaders, to visit universities, intermediate schools, primary schools, and to glean such information as could be obtained from professors, teachers, and even from the Negro scholar himself. And I have received more from the teachers than from all others, such teachers as are represented at this meeting; and I have felt' at times that I could kneel before them and kiss their feet for the noble work they are doing, for the self-sacrifices they are making. The main reason for the apprehensions with which I approached this discussion was that throughout the South I have constantly heard
:

u8
talk

white

seeming to point toward a terrible future, a struggle between men and black men for the supremacy. It cannot fail to strike us all that, under slavery, with all its evils, When there were some beautiful relations which no longer exist. our friend, Dr. Allen, brought tears to the eyes of all of us by the story of his childhood and of the prayer made by the old slave, we must all have felt that something had been lost. It is evident that the two races are for some time to separate more and more each is The old relation between the white people to stand on its own feet. and the colored is almost entirely gone. The members of the colored And race are now called upon to make good their footing as men. the simple question which confronts us is, How shall the evolution of a better future for the colored race be secured, while the peace and prosperity of the white race shall remain unharmed? I suppose that, if this nineteenth century is remembered for anything, it will be, on the whole, as the century which gave to the world I do not mean especially the idea of an evolution in human affairs. Darwinism, or the theory of Lamarck, or the theory of Mivart but
:

has certainly come into the thinking of the world that all human progress is by a process of evolution, an unfolding of good into This has been borne in upon us more and more as time has better. gone on. But have you ever thought at what fearful price this evoluThere is hardly a conquest in tion process has gone on hitherto ? civil liberty, there is hardly a conquest in civilization, which has not been gained by blood. What a price was paid for toleration on the continent of Europe, the Thirty Years' War, the great religious What a price was paid for the simwars of France and Germany plest principles of Anglo-Saxon liberty, long struggles and wars extending through hundreds of years There is, indeed, an evolution by a simple natural process, a process which is comparatively easy and peaceful, but there is far more frequent evolution by catastrophe, by cataclysm and I feel now that we are at the parting of the ways between these two. The question for the South, for the black is, In this evolution of a better future man, for the white man, for the whole country, for humanity, are we Is it to be to have progress by growth or progress by catastrophe ? races projected against each other, destroying a great cataclysm, each other, with the survival of the fittest, in the worst sense in which that phrase can be brought home to us, or a steady progress by eduit
!

cation

There are those here who will remember the proposal made by Henry Clay fifty years ago it was a large, statesman-like plan. He proposed what we may call an evolution by growth. He urged that the slave children should be bought as they were born, and that, on
:

reaching the age of twenty-five years, they should become free. The cost of such an effort was estimated at twenty-five millions of dollars. From all sides there came a howl of derision. As to the North, I remember eloquent speeches in which it was declared that no man ought to buy the blood of his fellow-man. In the South there were speeches similarly eloquent, declaring slavery to be sanctioned by the Bible and the Constitution, and that the very foundations of labor must in the long run rest upon slaves. Henry Clay's proposal was

ii 9
it would have cost us twenty-five millions by peaceful evoand not a single human life. In place of that plan came progAnd in this way emancipation ress by revolution and catastrophe. It has cost us, from first to last, nearly a million of lives, has come. and with the sacrifices of values, both North and South, hardly less than ten thousand millions of dollars. There is an example of progress by catastrophe.

rejected
lution,

Which
Here

of the great
is
I

sort of progress will our nation now have ? problem before us shall we labor for here

Which solution and now ?

It is not to be settled, and a great question to be settled. friend will pardon me for saying so, even by such magnifI believe that it is far more icent and thrilling denunciations as his. likely to be settled by these young women who have given us the Far more effective than simple story of their teaching in the South. all charges and counter-charges will be the work of the various ChrisAll peaceful agencies must tian bodies in settling these questions. be pressed into the service, individual, State, and national. Whatever minor injustice may have been involved in the Blair bill, which my friend has so eloquently denounced, I confess to a deep regret that We cannot always it or some other adequate measure did not pass. have all that we would have ; but we can at any rate press on to something that is better. I say it deliberately, Anything is better than bringing this question to a bloody issue. My friend has said that he trusts and believes that God will bring this question to a proper issue. Doubtless he will ; but God's instruments are men, and the question is, How shall men work in carrying out the Divine purpose? Humanly speaking, He leaves it to men: the question comes back, How shall men discharge this duty? History puts before us two ways, the way of peaceful growth and the way of sanguinary

trust

my

revolution.

There is one experience of mine which gives me much hope. It was once my lot to see what black men have become when they have
lost the traditions of

men who

slavery. I have stood in the midst of black never recognized themselves as inferiors of any man. I have taken them by the hand and sat with them at the table, and never for a moment did it occur to them that as men they were inferior to any others in existence. Twenty years ago I was sent as one of three commissioners to the Black Republic of Santo Domingo,

some of you will remember, of making a report with reference to the annexation proceedings then pending. For the first time I saw black men who had never known themselves as members of an inferior race, and I then realized what a black man might become. The president of that republic, a black man, had been educated in the best schools of Europe, spoke two or three languages fluently, and was trained as a soldier and a diplomatist. Though a Marshal of Spain, his whole carriage was that of a modest, quiet citizen. So it was with the Ministers of State about him. Afterward I met the President of the Haytian Republic, another man of the same stamp. Then our Commission visited Jamaica, and there we saw in exile another president of Hayti, a man in some respects superior to either of the others, a man of high character and high culture. There was great encouragement in this these were men who had
for the purpose, as

120
left

Though there were white men in Santo slavery far behind them. in Hayti, these colored men had at last asserted their manhood, and were the equals, if not the superiors, of the white men

Domingo and

whom

If it of things to come in a day. ever comes, it will be the product of long years of earnest work. All that we can do is to prepare the way for a peaceful evolution, to smooth the path toward a time when the black man shall have peaceably become what Providence determines that he may and ought to become. I am not in favor of forcing any question whatever, least Give the black man a fair chance, give of all any social question. him simple aid where he has a right to it, and then leave him to deI

they saw about them. do not expect this condition

velop a better future. One thing more. I put it forth simply as a germinal thought if it if it is good for something, is good for nothing, it will wither and die I think it was it may survive in some minds, and possibly bear fruit. Bishop Haygood, whom all of us so greatly love and respect, who put forth the idea that it would be well if the South would establish an Such a course would doubtless disfraneducational test for suffrage. chise temporarily a large proportion of the colored population, and indeed a part of the white population. The South might temporarily lose some electoral votes, but it would gain in strength and More than that, I believe that the respect throughout the Union. results of such a course would be so good that it would eventually I confess to spread to most, if not all, of the Northern States. the hope that the time will come when, not only in the North, but in the South, there will be a simple educational test for suffrage. There is no longer any excuse for ignorance of reading and writing There in the North, and shortly there will be none in the South. was a time when there was an excuse that time has now past. tremendous quesI agree with my friend, Dr. Allen, that we have We have tions at the North, quite as serious as those at the South. coming in upon us a flood of people who, by all their traditions and habits, are unfitted as yet for the high duties of a republic like this. You may say that revolutions do not go backward. Granted ; but I claim that this is a revolution which goes forward it places the reTake an example in this very State In public on a higher plane. 1847 we sank back toward mobocracy. We elected judges on small we did the same with the governors.^ We salaries for short terms have swung backward or forward, whichever you choose to call it, out We now elect men for longer terms. In many ways we of that. have returned to more conservative principles; and I believe that such a return to enlightened conservative principles is the highest
:

advance which we can make. Those of you who have read history know that the only republic which managed to save itself out of the ruin and chaos of the sixteenth for she was the only republic which century, in Italy, was Venice dared to go back to a restriction of suffrage on the basis of ascer;

All those other republics perished early in the sixtained fitness. teenth century but the republic of Venice lasted two hundred and fifty years longer, and would have remained in being until our time but for the coming of Napoleon Bonaparte.
;

121
dissertation. I can But I did not intend to run into a historical counsels here looking toward a peaceful rather than a onlv plead for evolution, in warlike solution of this great question, and a steady

which the main agency is intellectual, moral, and religious education, war. and the avoidance of everything which shall stir strife and Mr. Glenn, of Baltimore. In rising to address so distinguished which it has an audience as this, and after the eloquent addresses been my pleasure and privilege to listen to, I must confess that I feel somewhat appalled. I am no orator. I am a simple business man, and the ideas which I shall advance are only from the practical side. But first let me return my thanks to Mr. Smiley, to whose kind

courtesy, although a perfect'stranger to him, I owe my presence here. Allow me also to tender my thanks to you, ladies and gentlemen, for wisthe privilege which I have enjoyed in listening to the words of dom and Christian consideration which have characterized the utterances of the last two days. These days have to me been a revela-

speak with It is the first time that I have ever felt that I could tion. perfect freedom with Northern men, and that, notwithstanding our divergence of views, it was possible for us to interchange ideas with that mutual consideration without which the solution of any problem would be impossible. After the course which these discussions have taken, I can say, without hesitation, that, if the mind of the North and the mind of the South can be brought together outside of this
parlor as they have

be solved.
sent itself

come together within it, the Negro problem would With harmony, I do not believe that any problem can preto the consideration of the Anglo-Saxon mind which will not
;

Without harmony, you have lately tried to solve has convulsed the life of the nation to its very But, to bring about this harmony, the attitude of both the centre. South and the North must be changed. I was brought up to believe that a man who was able to hold a slave and would refuse to do so was This idea guilty of moral cowardice in rejecting the responsibility. On the other hand, you must not I cannot expect you to accept. expect me to believe that slavery was sin, and that the slaveholder was a moral reprobate, to be saved, not by grace, but only by the uncovenanted mercies of the Almighty. You will have to learn to regard the institution as a step in the hands of Providence in the progress of the race, and to look at it, not from a sentimental, but
be easy of solution.
a problem

and

it

from an historical point of view. We all know the part that the We would feudal system has played in the progress of civilization. There are many things connected with it not wish it back again. which we would not repeat to-day. But the feudal system was as far in advance of the Roman slavery which it replaced as it was behind And so the liberty of the eighteenth century, which supplanted it. with slavery: it was a step in the civilization of the race, and as far ahead of the African barbarism, whose place it took, as it was behind
the freedom for which
It
it made way. has been mentioned here that this race has made more progress It within twenty-five years than any other race known to history. has, and it has only because, as Dr. Harris has said, it has been for two hundred years so near to the Anglo-Saxon heart; and it is to the civilization of the Master and its influence that this wonderful prog-

122
ress has

been possible for which you admire the race and so properly
it.

commend

Again, what are the evils with which our civilization is struggling Pauperism, insanity, to-day, and which are trying its very soul ? drunkenness, and the great social evil. These found no place in There was at times impurity, but differing neither in degree slavery. nor kind from the impurity found among our laboring classes to-day. But the great social evil did not exist among the race, although since freedom it has grown in startling proportions. With Judge Tourgee's remarks on this question I cannot agree. Now, Mr. President, I can only say that a civilization which could absolutely control such evils with which our civilization is to-day confessing its inevils, such an institution, I say, could not have been ability to grapple, entirely the creation of the devil, but must have had its place in the Again, I have heard the evils of freegreat Providential scheme. dom alluded to. If freedom has brought with it evils, the only cure You are not applying this remedy. for these evils is more freedom. You are controlling the black man to-day by a slavery more tyrannous and cruel than was ever African slavery. You are placing him in a false position, for which he is to-day unfitted and unprepared for you are telling him that he is the social equal of the Southern man, while you are showing him by your practice that he is not the social equal of his brother from the North, and you are thus antagonizing him against those with whom he is to live, and upon his harmonious association with whom depend his elevation and civilization, and the welfare, too, of those who are naturally and by situation his best friends. One more word, and I have done ; and in this I am sure that many of you will not agree with me. This question, in my opinion, is in its essence not national, but The Indian question is a national one. It is a national herilocal. It presses upon all parts alike, and tage and a national obligation. This is not the case with the Negro probpresses upon no section. The responsibility of their presence has been placed upon the lem. I do not mean that we do not South, and they should manage it. want your help. We need your money to help us to build the schools which our insufficiency of means does not enable us to supply for on the education of the Negro depends his regeneration. For this reason I am sorry the Blair bill did not pass, although I could not Your system of education is more comindorse all of its provisions. and we want your noble women, who are willing to plete than ours sacrifice their comfort and their lives, to help us in this best of all But, when you have done your best, you have missionary work. only, as General Brinkerhoff says, touched us in spots ; while the Negro problem and the race are throughout our Southern country from one end to the other. They touch us at every point, and we touch them. We understand them better than you, and to us should be left their management. The government should never interfere in behalf of the black man where it would not and could not interfere on behalf of the white man, and should never interfere to protect the black man of South Carolina when it would not interfere for the same reason to protect the white man of Ohio. The political salva-

123

South depends much upon the solution of this problem and the easy solution of it, in my opinion, depends upon whether
tion of the
;

who are the natural friends of the Negro, who best understand him, and to whom his development and education, or the contrary, mean a people's progress or a people's decay. What I would like to see would be the Northern people helping with their men, women, and money, and the Southern people having the management of this question, as they certainly understand it That is their only hope, and they are bound to manage it better. There is nothing else for them to do. When you with efficiency. bring the colored man to believe that the Southern men are his friends, and then confer upon him the widest liberty possible, in that way, I believe, is his salvation to come. Gen. Brinkerhoff. I have not taken part in this discussion, not because I have not considered the question, not because I have not strong convictions in regard to it, but simply because I have felt in the presence of such an audience as this my incapacity to deal with it with sufficient intelligence. It is an old rule with the Senate of the United States that a new member shall keep silence for at least one session. In this greater senate, larger, more intellectual, with a higher range of intelligence than the Senate of the United States, how much more is it obligatory for a new member to keep still I am moved, however, by some things that have been said, to add a word. The outlook this morning has been in the main from the Negro standpoint. We have had during the other sessions the outlook from the standpoint of philanthropic workers who have done so much in this field. It seems to me that there is a standpoint that ought to receive attention which has not yet received it, except briefly by Mr. Glenn and that is the standpoint of the white man of the South. I am sorry that there are not representatives of the Old South on this floor to-day. I speak from their standpoint on this question. It was my fortune to commence my career early in life in a slave State. During those early years I had a large opportunity for mingling with the Old South. I spent my days and months and years upon the great plantations of the South. I think I know the civilization of the Old South, and in many respects there never was a grander civilization. I learned my hostility to slavery not from Northern abolitionists, but on the plantations, from the mouths of the men who were large slaveowners. I had my early and best teachings in opposition to the system of slavery from the owner of eight hundred slaves in Tennessee. Further on, I came in contact with the institution in the array of the Union on the soil of the old slave South and, later still, as I became interested in these questions, and I am interested in many questions on which, if brought up here, I might be more prepared to speak; that is, in the defective, dependent, and criminal classes, I had an opportunity, in travelling through the South, to mingle and talk with white men, not simply old planters, but the highest intellectual men of all the States in the South, and with those who are workers there from the North. I have therefore studied this problem. I have looked at it with all the light that I could get and the more I look, and the more I study, the more puzzled I become.
this solution is or is not left to those

124
delighted with the spirit of this convention. I agree in the but, when I look in the all the efforts that are attempted face of this problem, and know that there are eight millions of people in almost utter darkness, who have come up out of bondage without a moral sense, a mass of ignorance, and contrast with this the efforts we are making, I am conscious how limited they are. I know that we are reaching out, and must, in the nature of things, continue to reach out, from the North at arm's length to do this work ; but we Now, I want reach only small spots of the darkness of this continent. this Conference and these Northern people somehow, and in some way, to look at this question from the standpoint of the white men of the Let us remember that the white people of the South are a South. noble people, that there is nowhere in the United States a purer strain Remember that the white of American blood than in the Old South. men and women of the South are as religious apeople as we have on the American continent. More than that, they are a profoundly religious people. So far as I know them, and I know them pretty thoroughly, they believe in God, in immortality, and in the Christian In the South you find no agnosticism, no anarchism, no religion. The Southern white people are more thoroughly Christian atheism. than any similar body of people upon the continent, in my judgment. I find to-day, for instance, wherever I go in that Southern country and on the plantations a more religious tone than I find elsewhere. It was the exception, for instance, that I did not hear grace at the table and prayers in the morning. At Atlanta, where I have spent Sabbaths at different times, the streets were full of people going to church. At least one-half of the population worshipped on the Sabbath, and a quieter observance, or what we consider a Christian observance, of the day I could not ask. I want I have large charity and respect for the Southern men. the Northern people to remember that, if this question is to be It must, in the main, be solved solved, it cannot be solved by us. by the white men and women of the South. Every interest that they have is centred on the settling of this problem. They have more We must meet those people in interest in it than we have, by far. Let us remember that the Southern people charity and kindness. Have we not got far enough away from the are not criminals. struggles of the war, and the things that entered into it, to see dimly Have we not got far enough away that God's hand was in it all ? from the great struggle to see that the Southern people were as loyal Was it not a truth to their ideal as we were loyal to our ideal ? that these Southern people believed in their side of the question as Is it not true that they prayed to the strongly as we did in ours ? God of battles with as much sincerity and faith as we did ? Was there ever known upon the earth a braver set of men than those Southern men ? When you find a whole people fighting to the death and to the last dollar, even though they were fighting for a wrong idea, as we believe they did, we may be sure that it is out of such people that nations are made. I hope that we shall make a deliverance in such a tone and in such a way to these Southern people that they shall feel that we are their brothers, and look upon them as our brothers, and that another year we shall have their representatives in
I

am

main with

this Conference.

125
I am exceedingly pleased that Mr. Glenn should Gen. Howard. But I think that he and Southso frankly state his own sentiments. ern white men generally have an erroneous impression with reference to those of us in the North who are pushing the work of education. I know that I never have had any. Certainly, there is no hostility. Before the war I was stationed in Florida; and upon my conversion Between the I united, temporarily, with a Methodist Church South. brethren there and myself there was the utmost sympathy and affection ; and at West Point I had the most cordial relationship with Southern young men, both as a cadet and after the war as an instrucThere was no hostility even in the war-time. I went into it as tor. against a conspiracy, and in the fear of God, to do my duty and help prevent the destruction of the republic. After the war there was great opposition to the work of education among the Southern white people. We of the North believed that education was the remedy of all ills, I mean proper education, industrial, mental, and moral. Before suffrage was allowed, the opposition went so far as to burn churches and school-houses in some parts of the South, probably in After suffrage, this hostile work ceased fear of an educational test. almost altogether. The teachers were sent from the North in groups, many of them from our best families. They were better fitted for that teaching than the Southern white people could be. They had the object lessons of economy and frugality brought from home. They could teach the freedmen how to live under the new circumstances, always recognizing their completeness of manhood. The Bishop of Louisiana thought I was wrong. He said that the Southern whites were the natural teachers ; and I yielded to his persuasions, and a number of schools were at one time (about 1867) instructed by Southern whites of both sexes. But the experiment did not prove a good one. There was no vital interest manifested, and no proper fitness. Those schools were soon closed up. And how could we expect people who were brought up in slavery to acquire the habit of teaching children under such circumstances ? I mean that they would have peculiar disabilities to overcome, from not having any suitable standard in their minds. Yet things have changed greatly. Not long ago, at Hampton* Va., a one-armed governor, wounded in the Southern ranks, and myself stood on the same platform, and took hold of hands as brothers. The speech he made on that occasion to the colored youth was in substance the same as those I had made twenty five years before. In fact, there is now a strong sentiment in the South, probably involving a majority of the people, in favor of universal education, that is, for both the black and the white children and teachers from the South are already doing good work. The most successful are those who are raised up from our Southern schools of the higher grades.

Gen. Brinkerhoff. I fear General Howard misunderstood me. fully in sympathy with what he says in regard to extending help from the North, but we must also have the co-operation and cordial brotherly sympathy of the white men of the South in order to succeed. I give you my hand on that. General Howard replied that there were no points of difference between General Brinkerhoff and himself they were agreed as to
I

am

126
friendliness and co-operation between Northern and Southern Christian people neither the one nor the other should withdraw from the work of education. Under this statement the two generals joined
;

hands. Ex-President Hayes. I feel like mixing in here. But all I have to say is that, when we have a Democratic general and a Republican general agreeing with each other in that way, we are all in good con-

dition.

General Howard has said that he does not think are the proper persons to undertake this education of the Negro. Suppose we took the position that you take in your mission work. Do you not look upon the converted heathen as the best missionary ? Now, of course, I do not acknowledge this position ; but I cannot help looking upon the slaveholder as the best person to educate the Negro with whom he has been brought up.
that

Mr. Glenn.

we

Gen. Howard.
that will
their

work with

us,

think we want every Southern man and woman but we do not want them to exclude us from

warm sympathy. Mr. Glenn. We will not exclude you. But those men and women who believe that slavery was a misfortune, who are opposed to it as much as you are, who would not have it brought back for millions, but who were brought up with it, believe that they are the best people to educate the blacks. Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney. I came up here with the very great hope, which has been amply fulfilled, of hearing persons of experience speak on this subject, whose opportunities had been very different from, and superior in many respects, to my own, that I might be able to rectify any views that I hold by those that would be presented here by persons from all parts of the country. Of course, I cannot have sat here three days without having a great many thoughts in my mind. I would gladly, if time served, speak of many; but I shall confine myself to two or three points. A great deal has been said, and rightly said, about the prejudices

of the North.

I think the first thing in elevating the Negro race is to do away, as far as depends on us, with any such prejudices. The Negro is working for his own elevation. As they said to the general who asked what they were doing, " We are rising." I think the work is going on with them, whatever we poor, pale-faced white people do. But we ought to thank God for the opportunity of helping them. And the first thing is to do away with the prejudice in our own hearts and its expression in our own manners. I am afraid that very few of us can say that we are absolutely free from it. But I believe that we must become so; for the Negro is here, and is to be our companion forever and ever, so far as there is a mortal forever. We have got to live with him on terms of amity and equality in every respect. For that, we must do away with any prejudice against him on account of his being colored and a Negro. When we have put him on an equality with us, there will still remain the problems of labor and all other political and social questions to settle. I think we are still guilty at the North. There is not a spot that is entirely free from prejudice; but, when I look back forty years, and see how almost infinitesimal is the feeling against social equality with the colored races now as com-

I2J
pared with what it was then, in our own section, I feel that we have nothing to do but accept the situation and go ahead. I admired the speech of Dr. Mayo; but there was one point in which I differed from him, and that is as to the necessity of a division He suggests that the colored and white boys would of the schools. I think love each other better if they were kept in separate schools. a little experience shows a different result. It is forty years since we had the question of separate schools settled in Massachusetts. It It was took Charles Sumner's eloquence to win the battle for us. tried in the Supreme Court and failed, taken into the legislature and What is the result? Do not the white and the black boys carried. If you were to see their arms love each other as well as before? round each other's necks as they come out of some of our Boston schools, you would know that there is absolutely no feeling but that of friendliness and school-boy comradeship among them. I think we have no right to dictate to our Southern friends. But we have a

nght to counsel with them as friends and neighbors, and say, " If we have learned anything from our own experience, we would like to
help you."
I believe that we are bound to brush away all barriers which sepSome reference was made to arate the Negro from the white man. that question which always stirs the feelings of all deeply, the I do not know whether it is desirsexual amalgamation of the races. able. I do not know whether it is likely to come in the future. But I do believe that every law forbidding intermarriage should be swept If it is a law of nature that they should not from the statutes. mingle, leave it to nature, and nature will work it out. But every refusal to legalize marriage is to give opportunity and encouragement to illegal and irregular unions. I would like to say one word as to the religion of the Negro. A good deal has already been said, much more might be said, but this one thing I would like to say. We have been apt to recognize the religion of the Negro as the shout, the noisy prayer-meeting, ending often in a cataleptic fit, all of which you know as well as I could tell you and I agree with you that it is desirable to substitute for such methods much calmer and better habits of worship and of religious thought and feeling. But the religion of the Negroes, even expressed as it was in this wild excitement, was a most wonderful help for the situation in which they were as slaves, with no hope in this life, or almost none, but with a boundless future of glory open before them. It was the rising into that ecstasy where they could forget the troubles of this life, and find themselves one with the Eternal Life, that enabled the slaves to be the patient, even the illuminated, the joyous people they were through all the dark horrors of their suffering. But underneath this religion of emotion, in the little intercourse I have had with the Southern Negroes, I have thought that I could see another religion growing, a religion of trust and a sense of duty and

right which I never appealed to in vain. I have spoken to Southern audiences of Negroes; and, in appealing to that underlying current of the broadest, sweetest, most sacred and tender religion, I always have found an answer to it. I remember a colored woman who came irjto my house one day after the John Brown affair, and I never heard

128
anything more sublime than her utterances. She said, "God's time " Do you believe that God's time is near ? " I asked. is near." "God's time is always near," she answered. "He set the north star in the heavens, and gave me the strength in my limbs he meant I should be free." That was the way her religion had grown up in her, to a boundless trust and confidence that all would come right and true in the end, and that she was to use the means God had placed within her reach. Last night some one spoke of a sermon given by a poor, ignorant colored man, in which he took for his text, "The Word was made The old minister implied that, if one kept the word of God, flesh." he would grow stout and strong and well. As this instance was mentioned, I noticed that there was a laugh in the audience but it seemed to me that ignorant colored man had got at a very deep truth, and that the Christian doctrine of the incarnation, which has been in
:

the

Church

for all these ages,

I

taught than

had ever heard

is

truth that religion

for this

which that text expressed, was better it by any preacher. It is the great life, that it is to make us strong and
in

brave and able to do our part

this world, that these colored

men

need to-day in their upward struggle. You know the little girl was asked how she knew that she had got religion, and replied, " Because I swept under the mat this morning." That is the religion that we want to bring to the Negro, the point that we are all anxious to have him reach, to connect "his religion with daily life. I do not think that it is for us to say that it is for the South or the North to do this work. There is a stronger party with whom the division rests, the Negroes themselves. Mr. Bronson Alcott was once taking tea with me, when there was a lady present who was very much troubled about some of the " freelove " demonstrations of that time and she said, " What am I to do about it? I wish some one [mentioning the name] would tell me." Mr. Alcott said, " Perhaps he would tell you to do nothing about it." She was still anxious and troubled, and Mr. Alcott quietly remarked,

'

" Meantime there is Providence." So I think, while we are questioning whether the Southern men and women shall take care of the Negro or whether we Northern people shall do it, there is a Power that is solving the question for us. We ought all to do everything we can and we may help or hinder, but I believe he is coming out all right. Whether we do help or hinder may affect our welfare more than his. I want to say a word about the Southern women. I have never
;

heard anything from Mr. Mayo and I have heard many delightful things from him so delightful as what he tells us of the way the Southern women have gone into the colored schools as teachers, accepting the situation and the results of the war which deprived them of their support, feeling that education is the work to be done. They have gone into it with an earnestness and zeal which, I think, has hardly been surpassed even by our Northern teachers. I am looking forward to the union of the Northern and Southern women in the work of education as the best possible augury for the success of the future that we can have. Bishop E. G. Andrews, of New York. I am thankful that I am

129
here. I am rejoiced at the tone of courage and hopefulness which am looking forward to a better future I prevails in this council. than I have been accustomed to for some time past. Mr. Chairman, I was spoken of last night as likely to touch the I do not think much topic of religion among the colored people.
It has been implied all along that to be said on that head. with the head-training and hand-training we have so powerfully emphasized here must go the heart-training, which alone can give them a proper direction, and can alone be the inspiration of all great charI am glad for one to believe that it does acter and of all great life. not require a great deal of knowledge to be mighty in faith toward

needs

God and
is

If I understand what the faith large in love toward man. which saves men and transforms society, it is not necessarily based upon some large comprehension of God and his relation to men it It is rather is not chiefly a comprehension of God by the intellect. the action of the whole moral nature upon such truths as are more or It is the taking hold of these less clearly apprehended by the intellect. I suptruths by conscience, heart, and will that constitutes faith.
:

pose, therefore, it is not a strange thing that the poor, untutored colored man or woman should be led into such faith as I have described, a faith by which what they know of God has become regnant over them in all things. I suppose there has been a great deal of that religion at the South. I am sure that we intend that whatever education we establish shall somehow come thoroughly under religious auspices I will be a little more explicit, and say under Christian and guidance. I am very thankful, for one, for whatever good comes out of mere secular education. I think great good comes from it, and that a child secularly taught is likely to come to a better moral character, even if he have no religious teaching. Yet I am sure that, whatever be the effect of secular education, we need to lay the foundations of a high and noble life for the colored man, as for all men, in religion, so that his soul shall be turned heavenward ; that this present life shall be reckoned but a small part of the whole ; that there shall be wrought in him a conviction that our earthly being takes hold of the eternities, and has affinities and possibilities far reaching on every side. Only so can he have a true nurture and attain a true life and a great hereafter. Well, what was the religious character of the Southern slaves at the close of the war ? I do not know except upon the testimony of others. I presume there was defect and also a great deal of good, as the last speaker has so faithfully set forth. great deal of defect, possibly ; but I often comfort myself, in the presence of a defective Christianity, with the Epistles to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Ephesians, and by the fact that Paul could write such things to those churches, as that they must not steal any more or lie any more or defraud any more. How they I am very glad of these Epistles. The culfit in with the necessities even of our current Christianity tivation of the devotional side of our nature is a more rapid process than the cultivation of conscience. That seems indeed to be very slowly developed. great many years ago one of our bishops preached in the Mormon tabernacle at Salt Lake City. As his custom was, Brigham Young rose to exhort, and could not but remark how

130
But the the brother had complimented the Father of the faithful. Mormons, he added, were the only people that were trying to carry out the preaching of Abraham. What are the churches doing ? I wish it had been provided that some competent person had combined the statistics of the churches, and given us in this meeting a comprehensive summary. Statistics are worth something, and I wish we had a statement as to how far the open and professed religious life of the former slave population has gone on. I could speak in some degree for the Methodist Church. I could tell of the founding of our work there, of the number of those we have brought into the professed church life, of the amount of money we give, of the conferences we have formed. have seventeen annual conferences among the colored people. have perhaps twelve hundred regular ministers, besides any quantity of the local sort, many of them " old-timers," I doubt not, who were described so emphatically yesterday. The fact is that we did not start with an ideal sort of minister when we went South. We were content to take the poor material we found down there. Many seemed to be good men, though they could not read. They could not speak the king's English but, in whatever sort of English they could speak, they could tell what seemed to them to be true. I went down there to attend a conference seventeen years ago, and I remember how shocked I was at the poor style of ministerial life that was visible. There is evidence of progress. The conferences of 1890 among us Methodists are not the conferences of 1873, such as I first saw. There is a clear-eyed intelligence and a forwarding of business and an energy of purpose that we did not find in that early time. There has been a frequent development of defective religious character. This is not strange. I have heard of some white minisThe time was when it was ters thac did not turn out as they should. not easy to get a conference to take sharp action in the case of a member who was criminal. That is past. have an admirable school of theology. I do not speak of it in contrast with other schools. I honor Howard University and all the other institutions. It has a property of $100,000 and I only speak of this as a sample. an endowment of $200,000, and seventy-one pupils and three professors, able and cultivated white men. There is preparing a ministerial corps which promises better and continually advancing results. But the time does not permit me to speak of other schools, many of them of advanced grade, and of some professional schools which look to the same results. There is only one thing for us to do, and that is to go still forward in the lines thus entered.

We We

We

%>ixt\)

session.
6.

Friday Night, June

The Conference was

Hayes.

called

to

order at 8

p.m.

by ex-President

The following platform was read by President Gates, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and after some discussion was unanimously adopted, point by point, and finally as a whole
:

PLATFORM.
This meeting of persons of different opinions, from different porour country, in the friendly comparison of views and of statistics, finds a body of facts which are a rational basis for the intelligent hopefulness and enthusiasm which have characterized the Conference. Carefully gathered statistics bear witness to the value
tions of
reliability of Negro labor, skilled and unskilled. No other race ever made such industrial progress in twenty-five years. Trained for generations to forced labor, the Negro is steadily acquiring that intelligent self-control which changes the inherited habit of compulsory toil into the manly achievement of voluntary industry. most encouraging number of the Negroes, as a race entirely landless twenty-five years ago, are now land-owners. Where fathers and mothers have received something of education, their children show most hopefully the cumulative effects of Christian education. But the light thus thrown on the question reveals a dark background still. Much remains to be done. But there is steady material and mental improvement in the race. And the growing tendency to self-help on their part gives hope and uplift to all the work done for them and with them. We believe that the Negro will remain, for the most part, where he is, and as a citizen of the United States. We believe that the welfare of our country requires that he live in relations of good will and mutual confidence with his white neighbors and fellowcitizens and only on principles of justice can such relations be main-

and the

tained.
i.

To

this

end we recommend

Increased facilities for industrial training, not only in the trades, but especially in improved agriculture, and for the girls in household duties that fit for home-making and housekeeping. We believe in education which by the skilled use of the hand awakens the brain, stimulates ideas, creates a dissatisfaction with the unthrifty present, that wants thus awakened may be satisfied by the steady efforts of industry acquired. And we urge all school authorities to use industrial training, not in order to make the Negro a mere toiler, but to evoke a nobler manhood and womanhood by the discipline of
intelligent labor.
is God's unit of society. The Christian home is the Ultimately, in the homes of the colored people the problem of the colored race will be settled. The girls and the women of the Negro race must determine the character of the Negro

2.

The

family

great

civilizer.

32

homes.

All the influences which tend to the purity, the intelligence, and the beauty of the home and to the ennobling of the women of the Negro race should be systematically fostered. We believe that the one-room cabin is a social curse of the Negro race, as is the reservation tepee that of the Indian, and the overcrowded tenement-room that of our city slums. This Conference most earnestly urges the upbuilding of the wholesome, cleanly, intelligent Christian home, and the inculcation of sound temperance principles and practice, as of the greatest present importance to the race and to the upbuilding of
;

such homes all friends of the Negro, in all parts of our land, are urged to use every effort. 3. We recognize most gratefully the noble work for the education of the race already done by the people of the States where live most of our colored fellow-citizens. Nearly forty millions of dollars spent for this object by those States augurs well for the future. But this sum and the sixteen millions spent by the North for the same work make only a good beginning. The common schools should be made more effective. Greater numbers of colored teachers must be still more efficiently trained at additional normal schools. The higher education must be open to the most capable Negroes. In the name of two hundred and fifty years of unrequited labor from which all sections of our land made profit, the people of the United States should hold it a sacred duty to educate the seven millions of Negroes, who, if uneducated, must be a source of the gravest danger to the whole nation. In a thoroughly Christian education is our hope for
this race, as for all races.

true manhood and womanhood 4. To develop character is the object alike of education, of a free government, and of Christian civilization. We believe that character can be attained only by persistent self-training in morality. We especially urge it upon all who deal with the Negroes that they so deal as to promote a self-reliant morality. The "credit system," with store-pay and lien upon the crop, has so uniformly shown itself harmful that we urge its avoidance. 5. To promote those habits of thrift and productive economy which must underlie as well as advance the acquisition of property and ownership of land in civilization, we urge the establishment by the United States government of a postal-savings system. We believe that such systems would greatly increase the general savings-bank business of the country, and would benefit the poorer people of both
races.
6. For the attainment of these ends, we look to the enlightened Christian sentiment of the people of all parts of our country. The law of mastership only through the unselfish service of our fellowmen we believe to be divinely given as a law of life to all Christians. To the unselfish service of helping the Negro to help himself in education, in morality, in religion, and thus in civilization and in fitness for citizenship we fraternally invite all our fellow-citizens of whatever race who love their country and their Saviour.

On motion of Judge Tourgee, a unanimous vote of thanks was given to the Executive Committee for the faithful discharge of their
duties.

Rev. Charles H. Hall, D.D., of Brooklyn, was invited to speak.

133

He

responded
:

stract

in

a long address, of which the following

is

an ab-

I have been assigned by the committee to speak of Dr. Hall. I do not know that that subject was the religion of the colored man. entirely exhausted by the admirable words of Bishop Andrews this morning, and I shall venture to speak of it from another point of view. It is customary with the clergymen, and I presume with the laity of this section, to represent the religion of the colored people as We hear a largely made up of sentiment and gush and emotion. variety of stories like that of the minister who preached on " The Word was made flesh." In the newspapers he is often caricatured, as he is in the abominable travesties of the Negro minstrels. And a Negro never sings in the style of your minstrels. I can speak from constant living with them, having been the pastor of one of the congregations of the Sea Islands, where I was a slaveholder, one with the people then, and was compelled to see them in all conditions of life. I sometimes divorced I was their judge and executive officer. them for, if the State allows no marriage tie, I maintain that the Church can act with advisory power, and I have seen them in all conditions. Since then, when asked by Northern people what I think of the Negro, my answer is that he has a large share of human nature in him, that he is very little different as a Christian or as a sinner from white men. His religion is not merely an emotional religion. All that is what the tourist sees. He does love to sing, and he sings well. He does love religious emotion. I could spend the night telling stories of him. The tie that binds you to him is something underneath that color of which Judge Tourgee spoke, oneness at last of nature. You will never get near him to lift him up till you recognize, humbly accept that fact, and act on it. There is no record that I have ever heard of that shows the character of the colored man compared with the character of the white man that is finer than that given by Mr. Grady, when he said, " At
;

when he held up his black hands to have the fetters struck from them, they were pure from the blood of man except that shed in
last,

battle."

Religion in common speech has a good many meanings. There is only one meaning that I care to speak of. Saint Paul speaks of the Jewish religion in our common sense of the word, and James tells us that pure religion has two qualities. He there uses a word that does not mean the other sense of religion at all. True religion, he says, consists in mercy and purity as God sees them. The religion of the Negro, like the real religion of any man, is at last what the man is himself, as God sees him, what he shows in common life by his actions. It would be perfectly easy to show that he has gone beyond us in many of the things that are highest and sweetest and purest, in courage, patience, self-denial, and humble duty. I remember seeing a woman suddenly falling who was in delicate health. There was a single half-second to decide. In that time her maid-servant threw herself under her mistress, and met the fall. I remember seeing a planter's valet, his constant attendant, who nursed him in his last sickness until he became so exhausted that I found him asleep three times standing up. I tried to lay him down that he might rest, but


134
perfect devotion to his master. I holy remembrance. In their religious services there is a certain amount of demonstration that you and I do not care for ; but, take them Sunday by Sunday and year by year, we cannot find fault with them. If there is anything in me that has done good to the white man in my preaching in Washington and Brooklyn, I learned it in preaching to the Negroes. I stood before them to interpret to them the words and thoughts of I felt the tremendous responsibility of preaching to those Christ. Starting off with a hymn, two lines at a time, I have seen people. them go on till at last the music would have a power over them that you do not know anything about, unless you have been to a SouthThe very genius of the art of music was created ern camp-meeting. I have known a woman who knew nothing of the art in their souls. of music go fluttering up like a bird above the main current of the I do not singing of a thousand voices with a soprano all her own. know why the Holy Spirit may not touch their spirits then. After a baptism I would start a hymn, take the first person, and say a word I had then about to him or to her, and pass on to the next witness. I was a bishop in those days, and we called those forty deacons. We would shake hands and sing, and the deacons " witnesses." hand-shaking and the singing would go on until we all got to crying They had their I have been with them in times of trial. together. weak points, as you and I have. I have never seen a perfect man, not one man to whom I could say, " You are so entirely lovely, so altogether exactly what God wanted you to be, that you may go to the temple, and say, 'God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are " but I do say that I hope to find as many of the colored people that I have had to do with in heaven as whites, certainly in proporit

was impossible.

He showed
in

bear some of these

men

'

on these islands, and that meant that No man share with them was from six to eight hundred people. could carry on such a parish except by captains, therefore I had There was one Negro man as black as the ace these forty deacons. of spades, or, as a Negro man of Boston said of himself, " as black He wore a as the left wing of midnight," and homely to match. bandanna handkerchief on his head. He was a carpenter to the four hundred men on the plantation. I do not know that I ever heard I have known him to bring me case that man say a foolish thing. after case of sorrow and trouble, and I could always rely on the charHe did not know a great deal that coal sketch he drew of the case. He never had heard about the Nicene Creed, and I do not I did. know that it would have helped him if he had but he did know the human heart and the grace and power of God, and, without any show I do of education, he always spoke the right thing in the right place. not care whether a man is black or white or yellow or chocolate-colored, if he has in himself the idea of Christ, of doing as Christ did when he sat by the well in this low world of ours. If he has time to visit the hungry and the weary and the sad, he is good enough

tion to their entire numbers. There were sixty plantations

my

for

me. Father Preaching to the colored people on a Sunday, this man's He would see some man breathe eyes were always open. Frank

135

hard or some woman begin to have the tears run down. He would Here is a case of emotion and follow the person up assiduously. human nature as well. On some spring morning, when a woman had more emotion than her lungs and heart could endure in the preach-

was natural that she should give way to it, and, springing up, the benches behind her, without the slightest care of the benches. When this old man would see that, he would take his old Before morning he would be on his horse and follow that case up. knees beside her. I wish you Christians would do the same sort of
ing,
<yo
it

down on

work. Dr. Hall related several instances illustrating the remarkable character of this colored man, which for lack of space cannot be given in He closed these anecdotes by saying If I reach the kingdom full. With of heaven, I expect that man to be the first one to meet me. that feeling in my heart, I say that the religion of the black man, in the truest and fullest sense of the word, is as good as any man's religI recognize no difference. ion. You talk about Jews. I honor them. I am half a Jew myself in Consider the hundreds of years that he has been driven to feeling. You talk about the the wall, the long and bitter story of his woes. Jew as if you thanked the Lord that you are not like him. I have preached in their synagogues. I tried to tell them the truth there, and should be glad to do it again. I told them that they surpassed I us in everything. They are at the head of every line of thought. With them, as with told them that even in rascality they beat us No man ever gets the Negro, we have a lesson to learn ourselves. at the heart of another till he learns to love him and learns to humble himself, that God may exalt him.
:

Mr. W. H. McElroy,
tion
:

of

New

York, offered the following resolu-

The members of this Conference hereby express to our kind hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Smiley, our sincere thanks for our most cordial reception in this their beautiful mountain home and we trus.t, in the interest of the great cause for which we have been called together, that this the first Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question may be but the beginning of a series of similar conferences that shall continue until the condition of the colored people of this country shall be so much ameliorated that there shall be no longer as now a " Negro problem " demanding the special attention of the American people.
;

A newsI offer this resolution with all my heart. Mr. McElroy. paper man's lines, as a rule, fall in the unpleasant places of dissension ; and so, when he can offer a resolution like this, back of which he knows is not only a majority, but what Mr. Conkling would have called a " halcyon and vociferous " unanimity, he naturally feels I am sure I speak for all of us in tendering Mr. greatly encouraged. and Mrs. Smiley the assurance of our cordial regard. I am sure that all will agree with me when I say we never can forget this week high up in the mountains. Mr. Smiley, I have been much puzzled this week as to how propWhen I think of this Conference and of the erly to apprehend you. seven Indian Conferences which have preceded it, in all the aggressive practical Christianity which they imply, I do not know whether to regard you as the proprietor of the Lake Mohonk Mountain House,

36

whose recreation

is reform, or whether as Reformer Smiley, who has hotel-keeping for his recreation. Ladies and gentlemen, all the phases of the Negro question, I I would like think, have been discussed here this week except one. We have duly considered what the to glance at that a moment. Conference could do for the Negro let me call your attention to what the Negro has done for the Conference. The Negro, acting through Mr. Smiley, has taken us up from the noisy, dusty city to " the ampler ether and diviner air " of this lovely and varied mountain We have found here that deep, untroubled repose that comes top. in " a place of slumber and of dreams remote among the wooded The Negro, acting through Mr. Smiley, has taken us in his hills." gondola over the lake, in his wagon over the mountains, where we could see six States from one point, and it was not a very good day to see States, either. At his table, he has given us the milk and the honey which recall the Scriptural times, and besides has regaled us with that sincere and conscientious cream which kings and prophets who lived in the city waited for, but died without the sight. Again, the Negro, acting through Mr. Smiley, has done something to help us mentally. Speaking through Mr. Harris, he has assured us that the rich are not growing richer every day. So that the rest of us may indulge in the hope that we, too, may have some of the flesh-pots, the fatted calves, the gilt-edged securities, which are so handy to have in the house against a rainy day. Better still, the Negro, acting through Mr. Smiley, has summoned us to efface the black belt of selfishness by bringing to play upon it the ineffable light that streams from the Golden Rule. He has summoned us to leave the one-room cabin of intolerance and prejudice, and to come into that House Beautiful which is the habitation of brotherly love, and that rational optimism which enables cheerful faith to get the delegates away from sad experience. That is what the Negro has done for this Con:

ference. Mr. Smiley, with your permission, I will pass one criticism upon this happy week. I think some of us who are here for the first time would have had a better time if there had not seemed to be two of you. After I had been here a half-hour, I said to my wife, "Was not that stuff that I got at the drug store just as we started to come here ginger pop?" She said it was. "Then," I said, "how is it Then I that I distinctly see two Mr. Smileys standing there ? " recalled the story of a host at a dinner where prohibition rules did not prevail. He said to a guest who had been dining a little too exuberantly, " friend, when you go out from here, you will see two carriages standing at the gate. Take the first one there's only

My

one." but, remembering the tone I suppose I am overstepping my time of optimism, of healthy optimism, that has prevailed during these deliberations, and being an optimist myself by temperament and by conviction, I would like before I sit down to repeat a few optimistic verses, written by John G. Saxe
;
:

There

is a saying of the ancient sages, noble human thought. However buried in the dust of ages, Can ever come to naught.

No

*37
With kindred Beyond the
I

faith, that knows no base defection, horizon's scope see afar the shining resurrection Of every glorious hope.

see, as parcel of a The beatific hour,

new

creation,

When every bud

of lofty aspiration Shall blossom into flower.

We
The

are not

mocked

it

was not

in deri.sion

God made

our spirits free; poet's dreams are but the dim prevision
shall be,

Uf blessings that

lovingly have hoped and trusted, Despite some transient fears, Shall see life's jarring elements adjusted
all

When

who

And rounded

into spheres

resolutions were unanimously adopted. Dr. Strieby. I move that the publication of our report and everything related to it be put into the hands of a committee consisting

The

of

Mr. H. O. Houghton and Mr. Frank Wood. Voted. A resolution offered by Dr. Magill in favor of holding future Conferences of a similar character was adopted. On motion of Mr. Monroe, a unanimous vote of thanks, expressed by rising, was given to ex-President Hayes as presiding officer. Mr. Smiley replied in a few appreciative words to the vote of thanks to himself and Mrs. Smiley. He said that he did not wish the Conference to thank him. On the contrary, he thanked the members most heartily for coming to Mohonk. He had found the Conference most satisfactory, and he hoped that great good would result from it. The second Conference would be held in June, 1891. He moved that ex-President Hayes be made chairman for that session, and that all the present officers hold over till next year.
Carried.
friends, only a word in recognition of have had a good meeting. We shall all leave with the feeling that, even if the results of this meeting in promoting the welfare of the race we are interested in shall be small, nevertheless, on the whole, it was well for all of us to be here. We shall recall with pleasure our relations with Mr. and Mrs. Smiley, this inspiring and beautiful scenery, fitly emblematic of the feeling 'that has prevailed in this assembly during this meeting. All this will be remembered, and always with pleasure and gratitude. We are quite sure, I think, that what we have heard here has deepened the impression that we had when we came, that this race has much to hope for. Though it may be true, in a sense, that it has had no history there is solid ground for thinking that, if all the good people of this country shall do their duty to them, they will in the future at least have a history.

Ex-President your kindness.

Hayes. My

We

It is not needful that I should make a summary of what has been said to us. Take, for example, the speech of Dr. Roy, in which he tells us so satisfactorily and compactly, by the use of statistics, that

138
higher education has been successfully received by members of this race until now some hundreds are scholarly men of learning, men of We shall culture, having the highest and best results of civilization. not forget either, as indicating the possibilities in respect to the future of this race, what was said to us by ex-President White, a gentleman familiar with the educated men of this country, and of the countries having the most learned men abroad, having been, as our Minister at Germany, familiar with the men of that empire and of France, Italy, and Great Britain. He told us that he found in the West India Islands, in San Domingo and Hayti, specimens of humanity and culture equal to any of those in the most favored countries of the
globe.
race,

That is an encouragement. If Africans, if individuals of the can have such ability, such culture, such accomplishments, is there not reason to hope that the numbers will increase more and more, that every year and every generation more men and women will be lifted up to this noble stature ? It is something more than a capacity to learn the classics, that which is taught in schools, that belongs to this race. Within the last few weeks I have visited the Island of Bermuda. As we approached it, we found that the entrance to the harbor of the island was very dangerous. We spent some two or three hours passing through All the great vessels of the difficult channels between coral rocks. There was a flagBritish navy have to pass through these channels. ship of 6,000 tons' burden, with a crew of men numbering from 800 to This vessel and other vessels a vessel costing some millions. l5 ooo,

like this are passing in, with the British flag at the mast-head, week found that the pilots who take after week, month after month. these vessels in and out, and who for the time being are responsible

We

for all that property and those precious lives, where the most solid qualities that are supposed to belong peculiarly to our Anglo-Saxon courage, capacity to bear responsibility, steadiness, race are needed,

all high qualities of manhood, all the qualities we that are required for the navigation of vessels on the high seas, found that these pilots were black men. They told me that of the twenty-five pilots employed at Bermuda every one was a black man, whose father or grandfather was a slave. This is the stuff of which In trying to lift them up great nations and reat people are made. in trying to give them what Lincoln and trying to give them a chance, said he wanted them to have, "a fair start and an equal chance in the we are trying to do a good work. God bless you all race of life,"

promptness, judgment,

Good-night.

Adjourned

at

1 1

p.m.

APPENDIX.
The following are extracts from a few by Mr. Smiley
:

of the

many

letters received

[From General Rufus Saxton.]

The question of the relations between the white and colored races is ever present with us, and its proper solution of equal importance to both North and South, The free interchange of views between the friends of the colored race as to the best direction of efforts for their advancement cannot fail of good result. il contrabands " came by thousands into It is now twenty-eight years since the our lines at Port Roval, and greetea us as their deliverers. Their condition was The brand of slavery was burned deep into their bodies a>.bject in '.he extreme. and souls. Their condition is still bad enough, but far better than it was then .md the friends of emancipation may be encouraged by their sure progress under the sunshine of freedom. The Negro question cannot now be considered a political nor a sectional, but a national one. The fact is evident that the race shares ail the virtues and vices of other races, and is elevated or depressed by its environments, with a marked tendency to imitate their Anglo-Saxon brethren. The public sentiment needs tc be enlightened as to the necessity and expediency of dealing fairly and justly with our docile black brother. Only this, and the race problem can safely be left to its own
solution.

[From William Preston Johnson.]

take great interest in the moral, religious, and educational improvement of It alwavs the Negroes who have their part and lot in our States and communities. gives me pleasure to be of any real service to them, and I look to any effort to that end as a good work.
I

{From Bishop
I

Whipple.']

no nobler field of Christian labor. The colored race are naturally religious. They are improving wherever they have had we ail need for our better life, and in some cases their progress has the influences been marvellous.
shall

be with you

in spirit.

There

is

[From Rev. Samuel Longfellow^

The subject which you will discuss is one of great moment, and demands the most intelligent and careful consideration. The decision of the future cf the Negro lies, of course, with the South. But the South has a claim upon our help to a wise and just decision, such help as we can give at the North by suggestion, by encouragement, by the pressing of moral and humane considerations, by sympathy and by
patience.
I would urge the point of sympathy as opposed condemn, and impossible at times not to condemn

to

antagonism.

It is

easy to

injustice.

But we must not

overlook the difficulties in the way nor demand more than in the nature of things we have a right to expect. We must heartily acknowledge every effort that is nutking to better the condition of the Negro race at the South, mainly by education; and we must not be impatient if the progress seems slow, and if the public sentiment, the growth of a Hundred years of slavery, should take more than a '^iiarter of a century sensibly to change.

LIST OF

MEMBERS OF THE NEGRO CONFERENCE.

148 Willow Street, BrookN.Y. Abbott, Mrs. Lyman, 148 Willow Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. Allen, Rev. Dr. R. H., Corresponding Secretary Board of Missions for Freedmen of Presbyterian Church of U.S.A., 516 Market Street, Pittsburg, Pa. Allen, Mrs. R. H. Andrews, Bishop E. G., Methodist Book Concern, corner Fifth Avenue and Twenlyn,
tieth Street,

Abbott, Rev. Dr. Lyman, Editor Christian Union,

New

York.
Agricultural Institute,

Andrews, Mrs. E. G, New York. Armstrong, General S. C, Principal Normal and

ton,

Hamp-

Va.

Austin, Miss Emily, the Slater Training School, Knoxville, Tenn. Austin, Miss L., 891 Prospect Street, Cleveland, Ohio. Bailey, Joshua L., Philadelphia, Pa. Barrows, Rev. Samuel J., Editor Christian Register, 141 Franklin
Mass.

Street, Boston,

Barrows, Mrs. Isabel C, Boston, Mass. Botume, Miss Elizabeth H., Port Royal, S.C. Beard, Rev. Dr. A. F., Corresponding Secretary American Missionary Association,

New

York.
Montclair, N.J.
Fifth

Bradford, Rev. Dr. A. H., Pastor of Congregational church, Brinkerhoff, General R., Mansfield, Ohio. Buckley, Rev. Dr. James M., Editor Christian Advocate,

Avenue and

New York. Buckley, Mrs. James M., New York. Cheney, Mrs. Ednah D., Jamaica Plain,
Twentieth Street,

'

Mass.

Covert, Hon. John C, Editor Cleveland Leader, Cleveland, Ohio. Covert, Mrs. John C, Cleveland, Ohio. Craighead, Rev. Dr. J. G., Dean of Howard University, Washington, D.C. Craighead, Mrs. J. G., Washington, D.C. Dunham, Mr. Curtis, the World, New York. Eaton, General John, President Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio. Ellinwood, Rev. Dr. F. F., Secretary Board of Foreign Missions of Presbyterian Church of U.S.A., New York. Ellinwood, Mrs. F. F., New York. Emerson, Miss D. E., Secretary Bureau of Woman's Work of American Missionary Society, Bible House and Ninth Avenue, New York. Ferris, Rev. Dr. John M., Editor Christian Intelligencer, New York. Fisher, Captain H. T., Society for Savings Building, Cleveland, Ohio. Fisher, Mrs. H. T, Cleveland, Ohio. Frost, Hon. Rufus S., Chelsea, Mass. Frost, Mrs. Rufus S., Chelsea, Mass. Gaines, C. C, President Eastman's College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Gaines, Mrs. C. C, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

141

Garrison, Mr. Wm. Llovd, 132 Federal Street, Boston, Mass Garrison, Mrs. Wm. Lloyd, Boston, Mass. Garrett, Hon. Philip C, Philadelphia, Pa. Gates, Merrill E., LL.D., L.H.D., President Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N.J.

Glenn, Hon. John, Baltimore, Md. Glenn, Mr. J. M., Baltimore, Md. Haines, Mr. Emmor, Buffalo, N.Y.
Haines, Mrs. Emmor, Buffalo, N.Y. Hall, Rev. Dr. Chas. H., Rector Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn, N.Y. Harris, Hon. \V. T., United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D.C. Harris, Mrs. W. T., Washington, D.C. Hartshorne, Dr. Henry, Editor Friends' Review, Philadelphia, Pa. Hayes, Hon. Rutherford B., ex-President United States, Fremont, Ohio. Hkredeen, Mr. Edward, Geneva, N.Y. Heredeen, Mrs. Edward, Geneva, N.Y. Herrick, Rev. Dr. Samuel E., 10 Cedar St., Boston, Mass. Herrick, Mrs. Samuel E., 10 Cedar St., Boston, Mass. Houghton, Hon. H. O., Treasurer Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, Boston,

Mass.

Houghton, Miss Alberta M., Cambridge, Mass. Howard, General O. O., Major-General U.S. Army, Governor's Island, N.Y. Howard, Mrs. O. O., Governor's Island, N.Y. Hutchison, Prof. William E., Biddle University, Charlotte, N.C. Jay, Hon. John, New York.
Jay, Rev. Allen, Richmond, Ind.

Jay, Mrs. Martha, Richmond, Ind. Jenkins, Rev. Howard M., Editor Friends' Intelligencer and Journal, Poiladelphia, Pa.

Kendall, Rev. Dr. H., Secretary Board of Home Missions of Church of U.S.A., 73 5th Avenue, New York. Kenaston, Prof. C. A., Howard University, Washington, D.C.

the Presbyterian

Kew, George

J.,

the World,

New

York.

Kinney, Mr. J. C, the Hartford Courant, Hartford, Conn. Kinney, Mrs. Sara T., President Connecticut Indian Association, Hartford,
Conn.

Letchworth, Mr. W. P., Buffalo, N.Y. Langford, Rev. Dr. William S., Member

of

Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church

Domestic and Foreign Missionary in the U.S.A., 22 Bible House,

New

York.

Langford, Mrs. William S., New York. McElroy, Mr. W. H., the Tribune, New York. McElroy, Mrs. W. H., New York. Magill, Dr. Edward H., President Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa. Martin, W. C, hi John Street, New York. Martin, Miss L. R., 155 West 21st Street, New York. May, Rev. Samuel, Leicester, Mass. May, Mrs. Samuel, Leicester, Mass. Mayo, Rev. A. D., care Bureau of Education, Washington, D.C. Metcalf, Mr. Lorrettus S., Editor Forum, New York. Metcalf, Mrs. Lorrettus S., New York. Middleditch, R. I., Editor Christian Enquirer, 18 Temple Court, New York.

142
Monroe, Hon. Elbert Monroe, Mrs. Elbert
B., B.,

Southport, C>nn.
Southport, Conn.

NewmaN,

Rev. Dr.

S.

M., Professor of Theology,

Howard

University, 913

Rhode

Island Avenue, Washington,

Newman, Mrs.

S. M.,

DC. Washington, D.C

Pierce, Mr. Moses, Norwich, Conn.

Pierce, Mrs. Moses, Norwich, Conn. Pierce, Hon. Edward L., Milton, Mass.

Pierce, Mrs.

Edward

L.,

Milton, Mass.

Pitzer, Rev. Dr. A. W., Washington, D.C.

Reed, Professor Frederick, Talladega College, Talladega, Ala. Roy, Rev. Dr. J. E., Secretary American Missionary Association,
ton Street, Chicago,
111.

151

Washing-

Ryder, Rev. C.

J.,

Secretary American Missionary Association, 21 Congregational

House, Boston, Mass. Scudder, Rev. Doremus, M.D., 3921 Grand Boulevard Chicago, Scudder, Mrs. Doremus, Chicago, 111. Smiley, Mr. Alfred H., Lake Minnewaska, N.Y. Smiley, Mrs. Alfred H., Lake Minnewaska, N.Y. Smiley, Hon. Albert K., Lake Mohonk, N.Y.

111.

Smiley, Mrs. Albert K., Lake Mohonk, N.Y. Smiley, Miss Sarah F., Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Strieby, Rev. Dr. M. E., Corresponding Secretary American Missionary Association, New York. Steele, Professor A. J., Des Moines Normal Institute, Memphis, Tenn. Stoutenburgh, Mr. Arthur T., University Park Mission, 17 Iowa Circle, Washington,

D.C.

Taber, Mr. Augustus, West Chester, N.Y. Talcott, Mrs. James, 7 West 57th Street, New York. Thomas, Mrs. Mary F., Skaneateles, N.Y. Tourgee, Hon. A. W., 309 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C, and Mayville, N.Y. Tourgee, Mrs. A. W., Washington, D.C, and Mayville, N.Y. Ward, Rev. Dr. William Hayes, Editor Independent, 351 Broadway, New York. Warner, Dr. L. C, 359 Broadway, New York. Warner, Mrs. L. C, 359 Broadway, New York. White, Hon. Andrew D., ex-President of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Whiting, Mr. Charles G., the Republican, Springfield, Mass. Whittlesey, General E., Secretary Board of Indian Commissioners, Washington,

D.C.

Whittlesey, Mrs. E., Washington, D.C. Whittlesey, Mr. Geo. P., 1410 Eleventh Street, N.W, Washington, D.C. Whittlesey, Mrs. Geo. P., Washington, D.C. Wood, Mr. Frank, Member Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, 352 Washington Street, Boston.

Wood, Mrs. Frank, Treasurer Massachusetts Indian Association, Boston. Woodworth, Professor Frank S., President Tougaloo University, Tougaloo,
Miss.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.PACE
Agricultural Training,

68
.

American Missionary Association,

Baptist Educational
Blair Bill,

ic>

Work,

33
114, 119, 122

Chester, S.C., School, Concord, N.C., Boarding-school, Congregationalist Schools,

17

16

Committees:
Printing,

8,

33
12

Executive Committee,

Common Schools in South, Coppin, Mrs. F. J., Credit System, Evils of, Crime and Pauperism, Education and Crime, Educational Institutions, Executive Committee, Report, Familv Life, Improvement of, Fisk University,
Hampton Institute, Howard University,
Industrial Education, Letters received,

137

48 56
65, 132
'
.

ico 79

34
12

131

89
13 71

Mary Allen Seminary, Texas,

Methodist Schools National Aid to Education,

12,15,29,86,131 60, 139 16

...

33

11,72.74,114,119,122

Negro, The:

20.

of order and method, 20; lack of accuracy, 20; 60; industrial excellences, 24; absence or surnames, 26, 27, 69; present condition, 10, 31, 70; statistics of population, 31; desire for education, 32; capacity for citizenship, 39; amiabillove of beauty, 43, 61 aristocracy of intelligence, ity and patience. 42 46; his condition in the North, 53, S3, 97; social prejudice against, 53, 83, 97; as laborer, 54, 57; condition in Mississippi, 63; number in scnools, S5; graduates in the professions, 89; classical student*, 89; at New Orleans Exposition, 91 foreign missionaries, 92; "Old Timers." 67, 96; economy of, 108; religion of, 41, 112, 127, 129, 133; morals of, 64, 65, 113; progress of, 25, 27, 32, 38, 46, 131. Normal School Training,

His prospects, 10; lack

home

life,

21, 24,

Officers,

77 8
78

Peabodv Education Fund

Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth, Platform, Postal Savings System, Port Royal, S.C., Work at, Presbyterian Board of Missions, Reformed Episcopal Church Schools,

9.

n,

14, 34,

56
57.65,97,101,103,
131 1 32

22

32
^3

Resolutions Adopted:
See Platform, Of Thanks, Salaries of Teachers Scotia Seminary, N.C.,
Slater Fund Slater Training School

131
132, 135, 137

78 32

11,14,34,78
51 29, 32, 48, 132 39, 109, 121, 124, 125, 126

Southern People and Education, Southern Whites, Suffrage, Educational Test for
Teachers, Salaries of, United Presbyterian Missions,

120 78
33,