Chapter II: Part 2

The reports of the educational work and discipline of the
Atlanta University, by the State examiners, have invariably
been accompanied with the very highest commendation. The
comparison between the discipline of the Atlanta University
and that of the Athens University has been greatly to the
disparagement of the latter in almost every respect. This has
exasperated the authorities of the Athens University, and
set the newspapers of the State abusing the Commissioners
for making such invidious comparisons with the negro school.
Whereupon the committee were set to hedge, in order to
reinstate themselves in favor. It is at last discovered, what
has been open to everyone for a dozen years, that there were
in the Atlanta University perhaps half a dozen white children,
children of the professors, reciting in the classes along
with the 350 colored scholars. This fact was reported to
Governor Gordon forthwith. Governor Gordon makes haste to send
a special message to the Legislature. The young aspirant for
notoriety, Mr. Glenn, jumps at the chance for getting glory
from introducing his bill. The rapidity with which he got it
through and the unanimous white vote in the House, shows the
state of public sentiment. Next week the attempt will be made
to rush it through the Senate. And all this, not because of
the presence of the professors’ children, but in retaliation
for the impudence on the part of the professors and students
of Atlanta University in allowing colored youths to behave
and do so much better than pupils of the other race in Athens
University. These are the facts, facts which nobody in Georgia
will deny.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.

The infamous Glenn Education Bill, making it a crime to teach a
white child in a colored school or a colored child in a white
school, has passed the Lower House of the Georgia Legislature.
It goes without saying that it will pass the Senate and be
signed by the Governor. Practically the law will only operate
against Atlanta University, which has seven white scholars on
its roll, the children of professors in the institution who
cannot be educated elsewhere in the State without insult and
ostracism because they are the children of “nigger teachers.”
Little hope can be had that the law will be defeated. That it
will be executed with vindictive severity goes without saying
also, and, as the penalty of the chain-gang is the maximum, it
is not improbable that these white Christian teachers, if they
persist in their duty, will be fettered by the side of convicts
and subjected to the treatment which, upon the authority of its
own grand juries, has made the chain-gang system of Georgia a
reproach to common humanity and decency. And this is the New
South over which Grady bloviated so pathetically! Is there no
progress, no shame, in that section?

THE CHICAGO CONSERVATOR; (COLORED.)

The Glenn Bill has passed the House and awaits action equally
certain and deplorable in the Senate. The Governor will sign it
and thus consummate the most barbarous piece of legislation
known since the Fugitive Slave Law. There are those who have
perfect faith in the liberality, intelligence and justice
of the New South. To them the Glenn Bill is a revelation.
Having hailed the silver-tongued Grady as a leader of a higher
civilization, they are loth to believe that the very State he
represents is the first to stain its statutes with so unholy a
law.

But it is there, boastful, brazen, and hideous in deformity.
The wheels of progress are stopped and justice is appalled
while the New South brands the missionary a felon and
persecutes God’s noble men and women for daring to do right.
But the curse remains. Poisoned by prejudice, reeking with
injustice, dead to shame, and insensible to dishonor, the State
of Georgia will push on in its reckless course, indifferent
alike to reproof and counsel.

But it will not last long. The reign of injustice is sure to
fail. Though much suffering may be endured to-day, still the
time will come when Georgia will ask to blot from the book a
law so inhuman and vile. Under the circumstances the colored
race can do nothing to avert the evils of the iniquitous law.
It has suffered much in the past and can suffer still more in
the firm assurance that justice will ultimately assert itself
and right will finally triumph over wrong.

THE CONGREGATIONALIST.

The bill has been framed adroitly. By providing for the
colored race and for the white precisely the same educational
advantages, making no discrimination whatever, it is attempted
to evade those provisions of the national Constitution which
would be infringed by the least effort to deprive either
whites or blacks of any educational facilities supplied to the
other race. But the bill is so drawn that it neutralizes the
operation of this principle of equality. Whites and blacks
will not be on the equal footing plainly intended by the
Constitution unless they possess in law every privilege granted
them in the other States, among which is that of studying in
the same schools. Should this matter be carried to the United
States Supreme Court—as we have no doubt that it will be, if
necessary—there can be little question but that the bill will
be pronounced unconstitutional. However this may be, it is too
silly and unjust a measure ever to win the respect of judicious
and honorable people, in any part of our country.

It is not improbable, and is greatly to be hoped, that as soon
as the real nature of this bill becomes understood generally,
an opposition to it will spring up, perhaps even in Georgia,
which will put a quietus upon it once for all. If the bill
pass, Georgia certainly will have taken a long and significant
step back towards the dark ages, and business capital, as well
as modern ideas, will give such a State the cold shoulder for
years to come. Moreover, if any attempt should be made to
enforce the law contained in the bill, there will be such a
stir throughout the whole country as is not often witnessed.

THE CHICAGO ADVANCE.

Such a law and the execution of it is no new thing in that
State. Nor is the application of it to missionary workers
anything new in Georgia. Among the Cherokees in the northern
part of the State the American Board had a mission planted so
early as 1815, and this by 1831 had brought the people on to
a large degree of Christian civilization, so that they had
schools and churches and were living, as an old army officer
told our informant, in a more enlightened way than the white
“crackers” around them. But Georgia wanted their lands for the
toil of slaves. Of course a sham treaty was the first step.
The next was a law passed by the Legislature requiring all
white men residing on the Cherokee lands to take the oath of
allegiance to the State of Georgia, and get a license from
the Governor under penalty, if found there after the first of
March, 1831, of penitentiary imprisonment at hard labor, not
less than four years. The missionaries, well knowing that this
was in open conflict with their rights, under the constitution,
laws and treaties of the United States, remained at their post.
Rev. S. A. Worcester, D.D., and Dr. Butler, of the American
Board Mission, Rev. Mr. Trott, a Methodist Missionary, and a
Cherokee named Proctor, and seven others, mostly teachers, were
arrested. The latter was for two nights chained by the neck
to the wall of the house and by the ankle to Mr. Trott, and
was marched two days chained by the neck to a wagon; and Dr.
Butler was marched also with a chain about his neck, and part
of the time in pitch darkness, with the chain fastened to the
neck of a horse. After eleven days’ confinement in a filthy log
prison, Judge Clayton sentenced Worcester and Butler to four
years of hard labor in prison. To prison they were taken and
set at hard labor. A memorial was sent to Andrew Jackson. He
replied by Secretary-of-War Lewis Cass that the laws of Georgia
had rendered the laws of Congress “inoperative,” and he had no
power to interfere. Old Hickory, who could swear by the Eternal
that South Carolina should not nullify in a matter of tariff,
when slavery lifted its behest, had to succumb! The case
was then carried to the Supreme Court of the United States,
Chief Justice Marshall presiding, and rendering the decision
which reversed and annulled the State action, and ordered the
discharge of the prisoners. Here then came in Georgia’s great
act of nullification. It refused to obey, and Gen. Jackson
said, “Marshall may enforce his decision for himself.” Georgia
had her way, awaiting the army of Sherman.

For sixteen months those godly missionaries languished in
prison at hard labor. They refused to accept of pardon before
they were incarcerated, on condition that they would never
again reside in the Cherokee country. And when they came out
they went back there to live.

We mention these facts to show to the Governor and Legislature
of that State what manner of people are these, whom they
propose, in a repetition of history, to thrust into the same
filthy prison and chain-gang, which all the world is coming to
recognize as one of Georgia’s relics of barbarism.

THE CHRISTIAN UNION.

If this bill becomes a law, it will be possible to punish
a professor in the Atlanta University who chooses to teach
his own child in the class-room of the University, by making
him the associate of thieves and outlaws in the chain-gang
for a year. This is simply monstrous, and, in spite of
the practically unanimous vote of the lower branch of the
Legislature, we do not believe that the intelligent people
of Georgia favor any such infamous measure. If they do, then
the curse of ignorance and barbarism which once blighted and
limited the intellectual and the moral life of the South has
not yet been thrown off by that State. _The Christian Union_,
believing heartily in the Christian principle of putting
behind the things that are past, has used, and will use, all
its influence to soften sectional differences, to destroy
sectional hatred, and to make in fact as in name one nation
of a people who have shown by their unparalleled sacrifices
the vigor and the purity of their patriotism. Those who strive
to revive the bitter memories of the past, and to make issues
now settled capital for success, the _Christian Union_ has
opposed and will oppose to the utmost of its ability; regarding
all such men, whether Republicans or Democrats, as either too
ignorant to be followed or too selfish to be trusted. But the
adoption of such a measure as the bill now pending before the
Georgia Legislature will set back the movement toward unity
a decade, will put into the hands of selfish politicians
in the North the strongest possible weapons against the
South, and will discourage and cast down all intelligent and
sober-minded lovers of their country. The people of Georgia
have shown too much intelligence and good spirit to destroy
the influence which they are rapidly acquiring in national
affairs and to disgrace a record which, as a whole, has been
admirable; we cannot believe they will do it. The South does
not yet understand the inestimable service which the North
rendered it in its hour of defeat by at once setting in motion
educational agencies among the negroes. If now, in the face of
such a service as this, rendered in the utmost unselfishness
and sustained by the greatest generosity, the great State of
Georgia shall lend its name to such a piece of barbarism as
the Glenn Bill, it will be guilty of a piece of ingratitude
almost without parallel. We refuse to believe that this bill
represents the sentiment of the State.

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER.

We regard the Glenn bill as the most extraordinary
manifestation of race feeling which has been made in any part
of this country in many years. We are surprised at it because
we believed that the State of Georgia, as well as other
sections of the South, had long since passed the stage when
a law like this could be thought of seriously, either as a
necessity or as a matter of policy. The bill seems to us to be
entirely retrogressive in its action and in the highest degree
impolitic. It is an industrious attempt to make a mountain
out of a mole-hill. We observe that several Georgia papers,
the Atlanta _Constitution_ among the rest, favor the proposed
law on the ground that it obviates the danger arising from a
mixture of the races. Now, we are not in favor of a mixture of
the races, neither do we question the wisdom of the existing
law of Georgia, which provides separate schools for colored and
white children, but we do deprecate the attempt to incorporate
in the statutes of any State such a drastic and offensive
measure as the Glenn Bill. Even if such a danger existed as
that named in the _Constitution_ the proposed law would not
help the matter one iota. It will not have the slightest
influence on the question of social equality one way or the
other. So far as it affects the future of the race question a
more short-sighted, blundering, puerile piece of legislation
could not be conceived. The bill ought to be “smothered” out of
sight at once and forever.

THE CENTRAL CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

This bill is a low grade of revenge, unworthy of the
legislators of a free people. The colored people are making
the greatest sacrifices to obtain education, and by the
generosity of their Northern friends, who have established a
number of first-class schools for them in the South, they are
making rapid advancement. They are making more rapid progress
relatively than the whites. And, strange to say, these efforts
to elevate their condition have created alarm, and the cry
of social equality has been raised. Intelligent people in
the South appear to be overwhelmed with the fear that if the
Negroes are accorded the equal rights to which citizenship
entitles them, that Southern white men and women will become so
eager to marry them that they must be prevented by law.

Certainly this suspicion is unworthy of the people who
harbor it. We know that in the old slavery times there
was a deplorable amount of inter-racial association and
licentiousness in the South. Nearly every plantation and
negro quarters furnished proof of it. But we believe that the
education of the negro will promote morality, and help to
remove the evil. At all events, in a Government like ours, in
which all citizens have equal rights, social standing cannot be
regulated by law.

THE NEW YORK CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER.

It is reported that the galleries and lobbies were filled
with a fashionable audience, interested in the passage of the
measure. It reminds one of pagan civilization, when Roman
ladies attended gladiatorial combats and mercilessly ordered
death to the vanquished. It is also reported that Mr. Glenn,
the originator of the bill, posed as the champion of this
measure, with a button-hole bouquet presented him by his
lady admirers. We bespeak for his efforts at fame the frail
character of the bouquet. Already it is said that efforts are
being made to pigeon-hole the bill in the Senate. The stupidity
of the bill is manifest in the argument of its author, that
co-education meant ultimate inter-marriage. If the adherents
of this bill were as solicitous of their brains as they are
of their blood, the matter of co-education would be rightly
settled. We are told that Mr. Glenn is a young man who covets
a reputation for statesmanship. We fear that this production of
his prejudice will blast his budding hopes. He seems to be one
born out of due time, about twenty-five years behind. The fifty
prominent members who were conveniently absent indicates a
conflict between principle and prejudice, or, if not principle,
at least good politics and prejudice.

THE ST. LOUIS EVANGELIST.

It is a measure designed to legalize the color line, and
notwithstanding the guarantees of the national constitution,
to re-construct the old _caste régime_ by a tentative process.
This burning question of the old prejudice ought to have been
settled so far as individual rights are concerned long ago, but
there seems to be an ill-concealed fear of the blacks and of
their future dominant influence in the State and in the Church.
Properly educated and fairly treated the negro will be quite
sure to maintain genuine respect for others of a lighter color.
The educational work will go on and with the gospel of Christ
be the means of giving prosperity and wholesome restraint to
both races. “The New South” cannot afford such an exhibition
of fear and prejudice even as a proposition to any one of its
State Legislatures. It will take a long time and the patient
exercise of prudence to adjust these matters righteously.

THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT.

The colored people clearly saw through the brutality and
meanness of this law, and that it was aimed at their rights.
So every colored paper in Georgia denounces the law, and the
two colored members voted and spoke against it. They happen to
be illiterate men from the south of the State, and could not
speak effectively. One of them, however, did call attention to
the fact that it applies to not a few Sunday-schools which have
colored classes.

It is time for those who wish to keep the Negro down to wake
up; and they are doing so. They are none too soon. The Negro is
rising. Those who do not wish him to rise must now sit on the
safety valve; and that they will do. The unanimity with which
this bill passes the Georgia Legislature is appalling. It shows
that the white race there is given over to believe a lie, that
it may reap the consequences. We shall now not be surprised to
see this law followed by others, and enacted in other States,
and a war of races provoked. Heaven knows we deprecate it. We
pray for peace and liberty. The next thing may be to forbid
white men and women to teach in Atlanta and Clark University.
Why not? This is a crusade against Negro elevation, against
Negroes being allowed to be as good as white men or being
treated as well. But the end will come all right, even if it be
through peril. It may require great courage and patience for a
while. Our deep sympathy will go to those white teachers whose
children attend these institutions. Our prayers are with them
that they may be led in the Lord’s way. Just now the Devil’s
way is popular in Georgia; but the Lord is on the side of the
weaker battalions.

EXTRACTS FROM THE SOUTHERN PRESS.

THE AUGUSTA (GA.) CHRONICLE.

It is not new legislation to deprive the colored man of any
rights under the law. It is not either harsh or arbitrary
legislation. It is no interference with his personal or
political rights. The Glenn law merely provides for the
enforcement of the constitutional provision and statutory laws
governing the public school system of Georgia. That is all that
there is in the bill. Public sentiment justifies the enactment
and demands a rigid enforcement of the law against co-education
of the races.

Our stalwart friends bear false witness against the people of
Georgia, unintentionally, we hope, and we desire, if possible,
to remove the false impressions under which they labor. If
they respect the organic and statute laws of the State, if
they have any regard for the convictions and civilization and
settled policy of our people, which is irrevocable and firm
as the granite of our mountains, they cannot fail to see the
injustice done the State by their misrepresentation and abuse.
If our contemporaries proceed upon the higher-law theory and
have no regard for the constitutional, legal and moral rights
and customs of our people—if they have no regard for the right
of each State to legislate for and regulate its own domestic
affairs—they are advocating the claims of the socialists and
communists of the land, who assert that there is a law higher
than statutes and more imperative than the most sacred rights
of civilization.

There is no law, and there will be no law in Georgia against
the education of our brother in black, either in the primary
or intermediate department—either in the high schools or
colleges. There is a law against the co-education of the races,
and if there were no law to prohibit, our civilization would
prevent. The constitution of the State prevents co-education
of races. The Negroes do not want it. The whites will not have
it. It is the fixed policy of the State to do equal and exact
justice to the colored man. The people of Georgia will regulate
their own domestic affairs without being influenced by outside
misrepresentation, or deterred by foolish intimidation. Our
Legislature will enact such additional laws in reference to
the education of the colored and white races separately as it
may deem most conducive to the welfare of each, and secure
the enforcement of the same without any regard to the silly
ravings or foolish threats of men who know nothing about the
educational status of the Negro in Georgia, and the relations
that exist between the whites and blacks. Co-education of
the whites and blacks in the South is an impossibility, and
the reasons are so apparent that it is unnecessary either to
present or discuss them any further.

THE SAVANNAH (GA.) MORNING NEWS.

The Glenn Bill is a wise measure for several reasons, but
mainly because it will save the public school system from
destruction. In the preservation of that system both races
are interested. It can only be preserved by keeping the races
separate in the schools. If the blacks were to demand mixed
schools and were to attempt to secure them through the ballot
box, the whites would at once oppose appropriations for
schools, and the common school system would be ruined. There
are two colored institutions in Atlanta in which white children
are now taught. Co-education in these two schools will soon be
made the excuse for mixed common schools. The agitation will
be productive of much bad feeling and cannot help injuring the
common schools by arousing public sentiment against them. The
sentiment of the State is clearly against mixing the races in
any way, and the Glenn Bill is in harmony with that sentiment.

THE MACON (GA.) TELEGRAPH.

The Glenn Bill, now pending in the Georgia Legislature, is
intended to carry out a clause of the State constitution.
That the people of the State indorse this clause is shown in
the large vote by which the constitution was adopted nearly
a decade since. The framers of that instrument declared that
there should be no mixed schools in Georgia.

This clause has been openly and flagrantly violated by the
teachers of Atlanta University. In that institution social
equality has been notoriously taught and practiced, and in that
institution colored teachers are prepared for places in the
public school system of the State. It would matter but little
if only the white children of the professors of the Atlanta
University were thus taught and trained, but the example is
pernicious and is becoming pervasive. Georgia cannot and will
not permit the natural line of demarcation between blacks
and whites to be broken down. She will countenance nothing
now looking to the mixture of the races in the future, to the
misery and possible destruction of both.

The school system of the State provides equal facilities to
blacks and whites, and the Glenn Bill does not impair or
threaten any right or privilege of the Negro. He is being
educated now, by the taxes of white men, to better advantage
than these same white men were educated years ago. It is the
policy, the interest and the safety of Georgia to keep the line
of demarcation between white and black as distinctly marked
as is the Gulf Stream in the waters of the Atlantic. The most
intelligent negroes favor separate schools and teachers of
their own race. Everything is satisfactory, except to certain
fanatical philanthropists and mischievous politicians, and the
present attempt at intimidation will soon fail.

THE ATLANTA (GA.) CONSTITUTION.

It is understood on every hand that public education at the
south would be overthrown in a moment if mixed schools were to
be ordered now. This is a fact with which every one here is
familiar. This being the case, how is it that the professors
of the Atlanta University, who have presumably been among us
for some time, do not understand the situation? For all we know
they may be trying to make martyrs of themselves, but we tell
them plainly that they have struck a blow at Negro education in
the South from which it will not recover in the next quarter
of a century. If they are really the friends of the Negro they
would have waited for time to do its perfect work, but in
jumping ahead of time they are responsible for sending back the
clock. Thus the matter stands.

THE NASHVILLE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN.

The bill seems to be aimed at the Atlanta University, where
there are a few white children—mostly those of the teachers—who
have gone there as missionaries to the colored people. A
similar state of things exists in the colored schools of this
State, and particularly in this city. No harm has ever come of
this practice. No white person has ever married a Negro, and
there is not the remotest probability that such a thing will
ever occur. We think it is far better in the South at least
that the two races should be educated in separate schools,
and that they should worship in separate churches. But when
it comes to making it a crime for missionaries to teach
their own children in the schools which they are sustaining
with a self-denial that is really sublime, we enter a most
emphatic protest in the name of the Christian religion which
those people are seeking to propagate among the ignorant and
degraded blacks of the South. The author of this bill in the
Georgia Legislature attempts to justify it on the ground of
his interest in the colored people. He also says that he fears
amalgamation. When assured that no such a result is at all
probable he explains that he fears intellectual amalgamation
even more than physical. This is not even respectable nonsense.
If the contact of an inferior with a superior mind produces an
intellectual hybrid, then we are all in danger. In denouncing
this Georgia bill we do not advocate the co-education of the
two races, nor do we believe there is any sensible man in this
part of the world who does. If the Georgia legislator’s view
is to become the law of the land, then let the Church of God
recall its missionaries from heathen lands and acknowledge
Christianity a failure. The men and women, all over this land,
who have gone among the poor, unfortunate Negroes and taught
them knowledge and the way of salvation deserve special honor
and thanks at our hands. Every consideration of religion and
patriotism ought to make the friends of the Glenn Bill in the
Georgia Legislature ashamed of themselves. There is no nobler
work in this world than helping the lowly. There is no danger
that anybody will be hurt by trying to redeem the negro from
ignorance and sin.

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GEORGIA’S NEED OF TEACHERS.

B. M. ZETTLER, Supt. of Public Schools, Macon, Ga., expresses himself in favor of the Blair Bill, in the following, which we take from the _Atlanta Constitution_. It should be remembered that the colored teachers to whom Mr. Zettler refers come largely from the A. M. A. schools, and especially from the Atlanta University:

“For fifteen years Georgia has been struggling with her public school system, and owing to lack of means but little progress has been made towards efficiency and thoroughness. Outside of our principal cities and towns the people are literally without school-houses, and the State ought to spend not less than a hundred thousand dollars annually for five years in providing suitable school-houses. But with a school fund not sufficient to keep the schools open three months in the year it is utterly useless to talk about appropriating a dime for such a purpose.

“Then, too, we need at least a dozen well-equipped normal or training schools for teachers in different sections of the State, or, perhaps, which would suit our immediate needs better, fifty summer institutes to introduce modern methods of teaching, and prepare persons to teach in the schools. It is a fact, sir, to-day in Georgia, that most of the white public schools of our rural districts are taught (?) by broken-down preachers, doctors and lawyers, men who not only know little about teaching, but who are ‘worn out’ and are physically unequal to the work of teaching. And just here let me call your attention to the difference in the white and the colored schools in this respect. The latter are, almost without exception, in the hands of young men and women as teachers, and these bring to their work the enthusiasm and freshness of youth. Scores of them come, too, from the training schools, not only instructed in modern methods, but overflowing with zeal in the cause of popular education. They become, in every sense of the word, ‘missionaries of education’ to their people, and when their State association convenes in annual session they come up by the hundred to report results and compare ideas, not forgetting to send words of greeting to the score or two of white teachers assembled in the same capacity. Is the contrast a pleasant one for the white people of our State? I think not.

“But I need not go beyond the borders of our own county to prove that we need the aid offered by the Blair Bill. Right here in Bibb we ought to spend ten thousand dollars a year for five years in building and equipping school-houses. We need, right now, thirty additional school-houses in the country districts, and at least two more in the city, and with the addition to our school fund of the eight to twelve thousand dollars a year for eight years that would fall to our share under the provisions of the Blair Bill, as it passed the Senate, we could afford to spend at least five thousand dollars a year of our county appropriation in these greatly needed school buildings.”

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LE MOYNE INSTITUTE.

I know some readers of THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY, as they follow the work of the various institutions from year to year in the accounts sent from the field, wonder how each year in succession can possibly be reported “the very best in the history of the school,” and ask rather dubiously if at such a rate perfection is not near. It is a fact, however, in the history of all our well-established schools, barring accidents of unusual nature that could not be foreseen or controlled, that each year does show gratifying advancement in many respects. Beginning eighteen to twenty or more years ago with nothing but our hands and plenty of exceedingly raw material to work upon, it would be strange if room were not found for improvement and growth, and while thankful for what has been gained we see abundance of room for yet further advancement. When this ceases to be the general report from the South it may be taken as a sign that our presence is no longer needed there. Le Moyne School can again, as often heretofore, report “the best year in its whole history.” We have had trials and cares and annoyances, but most of them have, we trust, but strengthened our work and given assurance of future triumphs.

Our total enrollment during this year has been larger than ever before. The average attendance has been much better, more students remaining in school steadily through the year, and we are certain that we see a steady growth in stability of mind and character among our young people. A truer conception of what life is and the best preparation possible to meet its requirements, we try to keep constantly in mind as the aim and end of all our work.

The complete equipment of our Manual Training Department and its complete destruction by fire in April, marks both a triumph and a trial to us, and its reconstruction and re-equipment before the middle of May, in every respect more complete and thorough than before, makes it easy for us to forget the loss and doubly to rejoice over the doubly won success.

This department adds greatly to the strength of our work and influence. We feel its reaction for good in every class and exercise of the school.

The closing exercises of the year were of unusual interest. The annual sermon was preached by Prof. Austin, a recent graduate of Fisk University. His sermon, plain and full of applications to life and personal conduct, showed, with his general bearing, that his own training had not been in vain, and as coming from one of their own number who had gained his education and his success by his own effort, it was received with perhaps better effect than might have been an abler sermon by one out of their sphere of life.

The Children’s Exhibition and that of the Junior Classes of the Normal Department were well attended, and of course a source of great enjoyment and delight to the pupils and their friends, while the proceeds of admission have given us a handsome sum to be expended in new books for our growing and most useful library, containing now over 1,600 volumes, gathered during the past twelve years by such efforts. The exercises of graduation were attended by a great throng of people, numbering from two to three thousand, filling to overflowing the largest church in the city, the African M. E.

Five students were graduated from the full Normal course, with the usual accompaniments of flowers and enthusiasm on the part of admiring friends. It would be difficult to state the meaning of such occasions to these people. I leave it to be imagined. The address this year was given by Judge Greer of the city, a most able and estimable man. He spoke of the advancement of the child over the parent, showing the vast progress made in the world in the past century, and hoping for yet better things for generations of youth coming on and yet to come.

The Alumni meeting brought together nearly thirty of the graduates of the school, most of the classes being represented. Only the graduates, the faculty and a few invited guests enjoy this the last and best exercise of the year.

The addresses then given, some impromptu and some after careful preparation, brought in themselves, and with the company of self-respecting young people present, ample reward for the years of toil and sacrifice that have led to such results. A. J. STEELE.

* * * * *

THE CHINESE.

CALIFORNIA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD.

In the deeply interesting paper of Secretary Barrows, presented at the last Anniversary of the A. H. M. S., the expectation is expressed that California, and several other States, “will soon take upon themselves the whole burden of their own support and, not only so, will assist the mother society.” I venture to make this expectation my text for this month’s article in the MISSIONARY, because it represents a view of California very prevalent among our Eastern friends, and to one who looks at us through the newspapers and from a distance of from 2,000 to 4,000 miles, apparently well founded. It is not impertinent, I think, for me to remark upon this expectation; I even feel it _necessary_ that I should do so; because it suggests inevitably the query whether California—if the responsibility were thrown upon her—could not at once take care of all needed missionary work among the Chinese.

I think I may safely claim that but _one_ of my brethren is better acquainted with the condition of our churches in California than I am, and to him I have submitted the statement I am about to make. I refer to our veteran Home Missionary Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Warren. His reply is in these words: “Have read your note carefully twice; every word is true.”

There is great and rapidly increasing wealth in California; wealth, if it were held consecrate to Christ, far more than sufficient to sustain all needed religious institutions; but it is safe to say that forty-nine fiftieths (and I wrote at first, not without careful thought, ninety-nine one-hundredths,) of it is in hands of men who will not consider appeals for missionary contributions and evince no interest in any church work. There are also some strong churches in California, in connection with all the leading denominations, and we, Congregationalists, have perhaps our share of them. These churches have wealthy men in their congregations, and a few of these men are professors of religion. But what I wish noted is that _all_ such churches, so far as our own denomination is concerned, could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I name them: The First and Plymouth of San Francisco, the First in Oakland, and the First in Los Angeles.

Of course, when we speak of churches as strong or weak, we speak relatively. I have in mind what might be called the New England standard, and I say that only these four among all our churches would, if set down in Massachusetts or Connecticut, be accounted strong. The churches in Berkeley and in Sacramento would rank next to these, though in both of them the home work involves a constant struggle. There are certain other points, as Ferndale, Lockeford, Woodland, South San Juan, and especially Grass Valley, where single individuals of considerable wealth are connected more or less closely with our churches, but when I have spoken of these I have exhausted the list of those who _could_ give largely, however well disposed.

We have (say) 120 Congregational churches in the State, with (say) 8,000 members. (The last statistics, now nearly a year old, give 114 churches and 7,308 members.) More than three-eighths of this aggregate membership are to be found in five churches, leaving to the remaining 115 churches an average membership of about 40. Among these remaining churches are 15 that have an aggregate membership now of about 2,500; so that we have 100 churches with an average membership not exceeding 25. These churches are scattered over a territory nearly three times as large as all New England. A line drawn diagonally across California in either direction would reach from the northeastern point of Maine to the centre of North Carolina! It is a State of boundless possibilities, inviting and now welcoming a tremendous immigration. Opportunities abound. The demands for Christian work, in order to improve these opportunities, are imperious and almost oppressive. What might be possible if California Christians were all ideal Christians, I do not know; but taking Christian people as they average the country over, taking churches as we find them in this world and at this particular stage in the development of Christianity, it is chimerical to suppose that for a _long time_ to come the Home Missionary work that ought to be done in connection with our denomination in California will be sustained by contributions made upon the ground. Still more chimerical it would be to expect that this missionary work among the Chinese, to which we are summoned by every instinct of our faith and by a special call of Providence, but which _here_ is called to encounter special prejudices and pull a laboring oar unceasingly against both wind and tide, could be maintained without assistance from abroad. The fact is that but for the generous assistance of the American Missionary Association there would not be enough left of our Chinese mission to stir any interest or induce any giving at all in California. It is because the Association started us, and because it, and it alone, enables us to give to the work such extent as it has, and develop it into such present usefulness and gather about it such promise of larger good; it is thus, and thus only, that we have gained our vantage-ground for successful appeal. As it is, the amount contributed in California for this cause must be to every one acquainted with all the facts a grateful surprise. It reached last year a total of $2,654.05. I trust the amount will be no smaller this year. But should the Association stand aside, it would in another year be reduced almost to nothing. When effort becomes hopeless, enthusiasm dies.

* * * * *

GRADUATING ADDRESS OF YAN PHOU LEE, AT YALE COLLEGE.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHINESE QUESTION.

The torrents of hatred and abuse which have periodically swept over the Chinese industrial class in America had their sources in the early California days. They grew gradually in strength, and, uniting in one mighty stream, at last broke the barriers with which justice, humanity and the Constitution of the Republic had until then restrained their fury.

The catastrophe was too terrible, and has made too deep an impression to be easily forgotten. Even if Americans are disposed to forget, the Chinese will not fail to keep the sad record of faith unkept, of persecution permitted by an enlightened people, of rights violated without redress in a land where all are equal before the law.

Sad it is that in a Christian community only a feeble voice here and there has been raised against this public wrong; while the enemies of the Chinese laborer may be counted by the million. Yet these men, having everything their own way, are still dissatisfied and cannot rest secure until all the Chinese laborers have been driven out or killed off with the connivance of a perverted public opinion. Is it not high time for good men to —— themselves and say to the enemy of industry and order, “Halt! thus far shalt thou go, and no farther”? For be assured that after the Chinese have all departed, those men who are determined to get high wages for doing nothing will turn against other peaceful sons of toil; and who would venture to say that there will be absolute safety for the native American? Mob-rule knows no respect for persons; the Chinese were attacked first simply because they were the weakest. I do not deny that the anti-Chinese agitation has some _show_ of reason. But its strength rests on three erroneous assumptions, by proving the groundlessness of which the whole superstructure of fallacy and falsehood can be made to totter.

First, it is assumed that the work to be done and the fund for labor’s remuneration are fixed quantities, and that if the Chinese are employed so much will be taken from other laborers. It is sufficient to reply that no economist holds that view.

Secondly, it is assumed that the Pekin authorities are anxious to get rid of its redundant population. Nothing can be more absurd. They have been always, and are still, averse to the emigration of their subjects; so much so that they yielded only to the inducements and concessions offered by this Government, which are embodied in the Burlingame Treaty. Another proof is the readiness with which they consented to the limitation of Chinese immigration when the Angell Treaty was negotiated.

Thirdly, it is assumed that China’s four hundred millions are only waiting for an opening to “inundate” this country. This is soberly asserted and has the effect of the Gorgon-head; for who is not stunned at the bare mention of this appalling and impending disaster? It would be terrible if it were possible—if it could be true.

But there is no cause for apprehension. The immigration of my compatriots has been exclusively from Canton and the region around it within a radius of a hundred miles. The population of this district is estimated at 5,000,000. Not a single immigrant has hailed from any other part of the Empire. The Mongolization of America, therefore, is an event as far off as the Millennium. For after twenty-five years of unrestricted immigration, your patriotic agitators could muster up only 200,000 Chinese laborers in all the States and Territories. Now place this figure side by side with the 3,000,000 of immigrant princes from the “English Poland,” which has never had more than 8,000,000 inhabitants at any one time, and you will be struck with the contrast.

What reason can we give why so few comparatively come from China? The Chinese are by nature and from habit gregarious, but not migratory. They dislike to cut adrift from the ties of kindred, the associations of home, the traditions of fatherland. The belief that their welfare in the future life depends on the proper burial of their remains in home-soil, followed by sorrowing children and tearful widow, curbs their desire to go abroad, even with the hope of bettering their condition. But as only the poorest are tempted to lead a life of adventure, and as the good Emperor does not pay their passage money, the number that _can_ leave their native land is very small. Thus you will find that Chinese immigrants are usually poor on landing, for they bring no votes in their pockets which can immediately be turned into money, and so they must rely upon their countrymen who have preceded them for assistance. This is afforded by the Six Companies, who accordingly have a lien on their prospective wages. From this practice of advancing money arises the terrible accusation that Chinese labor is contract labor—is slave labor. We know with what reluctance they first made their way to this country. Oftentimes they had to be drugged and kidnapped. It was thought necessary, for labor in those days was in great demand; the Western country was wild; its resources wanted development. Laborers were welcome irrespective of race or nationality.

But the times soon changed; California had grown rich and flourishing; the Pacific Railroad had been built; wages had fallen; the Chinese became superfluous, and the corals which constructed the reef must go or die. From being an economic question, the expulsion of the Chinese laborers was made a political question. Disinterested demagogues easily won mob-favor by advocating the cause of the sand-lot, and the Chinese workmen were sacrificed to the Moloch of political ambition. The matter was carried to the National Council, and you would suppose that Congress at least would be just and dispassionate, but it, too, was borne along the waves of prejudice.

In every such conflict might is right; the weakest goes to the wall. Two parties were bidding for the Pacific vote—that of great moral principles as well as that of no principles. The Chinese came in like cloth between the blades of the scissors, like Mr. Pickwick between the infuriated rival editors of Eatanswill. When 80,000 offices were at stake, and the hoodlums of California had to be petted, it was not hard to make the Chinese out to be _undesirable_ immigrants and to hoodwink the public with charges against them which are false, or which may be preferred against all immigrants.

Sand-lotters were scandalized by the alleged immoral practices of the Asiatics; were in trembling and fear lest their Christianity should suffer by contact with Chinese paganism. I believe the cesspool once complained of the influx of muddy water. Californians prohibited the Chinese from becoming citizens and then accused them of failure to become naturalized. People in general were staggered at the imminent danger of the Mongolization of America and at the same time found fault with the Chinese for not making the United States their home. “Consistency, thou art a jewel.”

Those who make America a catspaw to secure home-rule chestnuts proved most conclusively the non-assimilability of the Chinese race—said they came simply to make money which eventually found its way to the old country. I admit both points: I admit that they do not come to America for the good of _their_ fatherland and mother church, and that they _do_ come to make money. So do Americans in China. They are wicked enough to send money home to support wife and children, but they give an equivalent in work. Gold and silver are things you can most conveniently spare; but if you must keep them at home, why then make a law forbidding their export.

I also admit that the Chinese laborer does not assimilate with your enlightened Hibernian citizens. Thank God for that! If he did, he would not be compelled to do menial work through fear of starvation. If he did he might have become a saloon statesman by this time, or even a much-envied “boodler.” If he did, he might be even now luxuriating in Sing Sing at the public expense.

But why pursue this theme further? The bill was passed which excludes both skilled as well as unskilled Chinese laborers, though the Court of Pekin diplomatically understood that the restriction was to affect common workmen alone. Natives of China are forbidden to become citizens of this Republic, which takes to its bosom the off-scouring, the garbage, and the dynamite of Europe. Never had there been seen such pandering to the worst passion of an insignificant faction!

Were it not for the tragic events which trod on the heels of the Chinese Immigration Bill, one might be inclined to laugh at the absurdities in the bill itself. If the law is faithfully executed (and to be worth anything it must be), all Americans born in China are disfranchised, and all Chinese natives of British colonies, like Hong Kong and India, have free access to this country. But who could laugh in the midst of indignant tears? By passing a discriminating law against an already persecuted class, the Central Government yielded to the demands of the mob, and to that extent countenanced its violence and lawlessness. The Anti-Chinese Act is a cause of all the outrages and massacres that have been since committed in Rock Springs and Denver, in Portland, San Francisco and other parts, which, if they had been perpetrated in China against Americans, would have resounded from Bedloe’s Island (whereon stands the Statue of Liberty) to the Golden Gate. But the criminals in these cases were not punished, and even the pitiful indemnity was voted down until Congress could not withhold it from very shame.

I have stated facts which are well known. It is not necessary to exaggerate. I now ask you Christian people of America whether you have not failed in your duties as lovers of justice and fatherland, in _not_ enforcing your opinions in public and in private, as well in church as in State. I ask those who gallantly sided with the strong against the weak, whether they do not think they have done enough for glory and personal ambition?

If there is an avenging Deity, (and we believe there is), ought you not to beware of the retribution which is sure to overtake a nation that permits the cold-blooded murder of innocent strangers within its gates to go unpunished?

* * * * *

RECEIPTS FOR JULY, 1887.

* * * * *

MAINE, $358.65.

Andover. “A Friend,” _for Williamsburg, Ky._ $10.00
Auburn. Sixth St. Cong. Ch. 9.04
Bangor. Madam Coe. _for Oahe Ind’l Sch._ 5.00
Cumberland Mills. Warren Ch. 8.70
Garland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.00
Machias. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch. 10.00
Monson. Cong. Ch. 5.05
Portland. State St. Cong. Ch., 150; Williston
Ch., 40 190.00
Saco. First Parish Cong. Ch. 7.86
South Berwick. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., _for
Kreutzer Marie Adlof Sch’p._ 100.00
South Berwick. Mrs. Lewis’ S. S. Class, _for
Wilmington, N.C._ 2.00
West Brooksville. Cong. Ch. 2.00
Winterport. Cong. Ch. 2.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $376.32.

Claremont. “Friend” 1.00
Concord. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 46.00
Derry. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 70.00
Fitzwilliam. Mrs. L. Hill 10.00
Great Falls. Cong. Ch. 20.00
Hopkinton. First Cong. Ch. 25.06
Manchester. Hanover St. Cong. Ch. and Soc.,
69.01; C. B. Southworth, 25 94.01
Monroe. Mrs. Emeline H. Chase 4.00
Nashua. Fist Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.55
Rochester. “Friends” 20.00
Union. Ladies of Cong. Ch., 17.38; “Do Good
Soc. of Children,” 2.62, _for Storrs Sch.,
Atlanta, Ga._ 20.00
Warner. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.20
Winchester. A. L. Jewell, 5; Sab. Sch. of
Cong. Ch., 2.68 7.68
—————
$343.50

LEGACIES.

Cornish. Estate of Mrs. Sarah W. Westgate, by
Geo. H. Ayers, Chairman of Trustees 25.82
Concord. Estate of G. B. Wardwell 7.00
—————
$376.32

VERMONT, $245.72.