AFRICA.REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.The Committee, to whom was referred those portions of the Report of the Executive Committee relating to the work of the Association in Africa, beg leave to submit the following report:We stand at the opening of a new era in the history of African missions. No real cause for discouragement in the present aspect of affairs presents itself. There is, on the contrary, abundant reason for gratitude to God, that through the darker experiences of the past, in which He has revealed to us more clearly what are His plans, He is leading us to the brighter issues of the future. The logic of events is irresistible. We, of this Association, are driven to certain hopeful conclusions.1st. Africans for Africa. This is the evident teaching of God’s providence. It is the great lesson of the Mendi mission. The long list of the heroic dead, martyrs for the Gospel in Africa; the vast expenditure of resources necessary in supporting white missionaries; the peculiar dealings of God’s providence with the negro in this country, especially fitting him for this work—all point in this direction. This is the fact which gives peculiar significance to the work of this Association, both in this land and in Africa, and we hail it with encouragement and hope as one element of the new and happier era of lasting success, which we believe will, in the future, attend, under God, the missionary work of that waiting continent.2d. Need of careful supervision. In view of the facts laid before us, and in view, also, of the important enlargement of the work contemplated, we most heartily commend the determination of the Executive Committee to appoint a general superintendent of the work of this Association in Africa. Such a superintendent appears to us to be a necessity. We believe that he would have more than he could conveniently do in devoting himself to systematizing the work in its various phases, providing a suitable literature for the people, supervising educational and industrial enterprises, keeping account of the financial matters of the missions, giving character and direction to the counsels of the missionaries, studying new regions for advance movements, reporting needs and plans, and thus enlisting interest at home and abroad. We urgently hope, therefore, that the appointment of such a superintendent, residing at some healthful point, easily accessible to the missions, will be made at the earliest practicable moment.3d. The subject of the Arthington Mission is no longer an open question. You have already determined, upon conditions believed to be practicable, that you will occupy that land for Christ. The money, we have some reason to hope, is coming, the men are coming, the Association is only waiting to begin wisely. In an enterprise of such vast moment to all concerned, care is better than cure. Your Committee believe that they only give voice to the earnest desire of the churches, when they express the hope that, as soon as the necessary funds are received, you will go forward with the same judicious care as in the past, and take the proper steps to ascertain more fully the best ways of entering this open door for enlarged work and greater results.4th. In view of the events of the year, so full of sadness in the history of many African missions, your Committee recognize the fact more clearly than ever before, that the call of God rests, in an especial manner, upon this Association, to maintain and enlarge this African work in the way of His own appointment. The great results it is achieving for the negro of the South have received a new meaning and impetus in the light of African missions. The whole problem of the negro in America is finding its solution slowly but surely. In the providence of God this Association, in the two-fold relation which it holds to the Freedmen of America on the one hand, and to the pagans of their fatherland on the other, more truly than any other, we believe, holds the key to the evangelization of Africa.Your Committee, therefore, feel warranted in suggesting that the true attitude of this Association, in view of the report of its missions in Africa, should be one of thankfulness for the experience of the past, encouragement in the work of the present, and earnest expectation for the future.Henry M. Ladd,Chairman.
The Committee, to whom was referred those portions of the Report of the Executive Committee relating to the work of the Association in Africa, beg leave to submit the following report:
We stand at the opening of a new era in the history of African missions. No real cause for discouragement in the present aspect of affairs presents itself. There is, on the contrary, abundant reason for gratitude to God, that through the darker experiences of the past, in which He has revealed to us more clearly what are His plans, He is leading us to the brighter issues of the future. The logic of events is irresistible. We, of this Association, are driven to certain hopeful conclusions.
1st. Africans for Africa. This is the evident teaching of God’s providence. It is the great lesson of the Mendi mission. The long list of the heroic dead, martyrs for the Gospel in Africa; the vast expenditure of resources necessary in supporting white missionaries; the peculiar dealings of God’s providence with the negro in this country, especially fitting him for this work—all point in this direction. This is the fact which gives peculiar significance to the work of this Association, both in this land and in Africa, and we hail it with encouragement and hope as one element of the new and happier era of lasting success, which we believe will, in the future, attend, under God, the missionary work of that waiting continent.
2d. Need of careful supervision. In view of the facts laid before us, and in view, also, of the important enlargement of the work contemplated, we most heartily commend the determination of the Executive Committee to appoint a general superintendent of the work of this Association in Africa. Such a superintendent appears to us to be a necessity. We believe that he would have more than he could conveniently do in devoting himself to systematizing the work in its various phases, providing a suitable literature for the people, supervising educational and industrial enterprises, keeping account of the financial matters of the missions, giving character and direction to the counsels of the missionaries, studying new regions for advance movements, reporting needs and plans, and thus enlisting interest at home and abroad. We urgently hope, therefore, that the appointment of such a superintendent, residing at some healthful point, easily accessible to the missions, will be made at the earliest practicable moment.
3d. The subject of the Arthington Mission is no longer an open question. You have already determined, upon conditions believed to be practicable, that you will occupy that land for Christ. The money, we have some reason to hope, is coming, the men are coming, the Association is only waiting to begin wisely. In an enterprise of such vast moment to all concerned, care is better than cure. Your Committee believe that they only give voice to the earnest desire of the churches, when they express the hope that, as soon as the necessary funds are received, you will go forward with the same judicious care as in the past, and take the proper steps to ascertain more fully the best ways of entering this open door for enlarged work and greater results.
4th. In view of the events of the year, so full of sadness in the history of many African missions, your Committee recognize the fact more clearly than ever before, that the call of God rests, in an especial manner, upon this Association, to maintain and enlarge this African work in the way of His own appointment. The great results it is achieving for the negro of the South have received a new meaning and impetus in the light of African missions. The whole problem of the negro in America is finding its solution slowly but surely. In the providence of God this Association, in the two-fold relation which it holds to the Freedmen of America on the one hand, and to the pagans of their fatherland on the other, more truly than any other, we believe, holds the key to the evangelization of Africa.
Your Committee, therefore, feel warranted in suggesting that the true attitude of this Association, in view of the report of its missions in Africa, should be one of thankfulness for the experience of the past, encouragement in the work of the present, and earnest expectation for the future.
Henry M. Ladd,Chairman.
THE MENDI MISSION.PROF. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.In November last, I received a letter from Secretary Strieby, asking me to visit the Mendi Mission in West Africa, which invitation, after consultation with my family, from whom I was separated, was accepted, and on the 6th of December I sailed for that land.My instructions required me to make such changes in the force of missionaries and their respective duties as seemed best, and to obtain information, and report, upon the following topics, viz.: The health of the missionaries; the church, school, and industrial work; finances and accounts; the removal or retention of Good Hope station; extension of the work into the interior, and the use of the Mendi language.Upon all these topics, and some others, I reported as well as I could to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and some extracts have been embodied in their Annual Report of the work of the Association. Most of the information and reflections in this paper will be supplementary to that report.Between Liverpool and Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a weekly line of steamers, one of which we took; and, after touching at Madeira, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Bathurst, we landed, on the twenty-second day of our voyage, at Freetown. Thence a small steamer conveyed us to Bonthe, where is the Good Hope station of the Mendi mission. The Sherbro river runs between the main land and Sherbro Island, being quite like Long Island Sound; and into it flow several branches that penetrate the Mendi country. On the inside of Sherbro Island, about fifty miles from its northern extremity, where is the mouth of the river, and ten miles from its southern point, is Good Hope, with its church, school and home. The buildings are on the bank of the stream, and the peaceful river, several miles in width, studded with green islands, presents a beautiful view. On the Sherbro Island a few miles south of Good Hope, is Debia, and thirty or forty miles up the Small Boom, a branch of the Sherbro, is Kaw Mendi, which has been described in a recent number of theMissionary.Starting from Good Hope, and sailing north, down the Sherbro twenty miles, and then east up the Bahgroo twenty miles more, we come to Avery. For most of the way the banks of the river are lined with mangrove trees—appearing at high tide to stand in the water—whose trunks rest, at several feet above the ground, upon pyramids of stems or roots, and whose outspread branches send down to the earth numberless rope-like twigs of various sizes, altogether forming an almost impenetrable jungle. But about a mile below Avery the scene changes. The mangroves disappear, the low banks give way to quite high bluffs, and for a long distance stretches a rolling surface, with a soil of partially decomposed iron-stone. In a bend of the river, on a conspicuous bluff, stand the buildings of Avery, the component parts of the station being a home, a church, a school, a saw-mill, a garden, a coffee-farm, and a fakir.The home is beautiful for situation, being so nicely located as to command a view of both banks of the river for half a mile in each direction; water, rocks and foliage being blended most charmingly. In this home dwell the pastor of the church with his wife, the superintendent of industrial work, and ten little native boys and girls, whose voices cheer the heart of one who loves children, as the little fellows nearly exhaust their stock of English words in saying “amen,” and the end of grace at meals, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, and saying, “Good night,sir,” at their hour for retiring. Some of these buds of promise have such illustrious names as Robt. Arthington, Wm. E. Gladstone, A. K. Spence, Jennie Pike and M. E. Strieby.It was our privilege to attend church twice, and prayer meeting several times. The dress of the congregation, so far as it went, was novel, these people having never submitted to the cruel tyranny of fashion, but in most cases the amount of apparel met the requirements of decency. Milliners, however, would have a dry time in this region, for I noticed but one hat or bonnet, and I could not tell which. In other cases the head was bare, or surmounted by a turban made from a handkerchief ingeniously twisted and tied. Some of the men had full suits, others only a country cloth wrapped about them, and a few seemed satisfied with simply a large handkerchief about their loins. But, notwithstanding their lack in style and quantity of clothing, they were good listeners, and doubtless carried away much that was said; at least, the writer of this paper found great pleasure in preaching a lay sermon from the text, “God so loved the world,” &c. The tithing master, who paces up and down the aisles, has as little to do in keeping drowsy persons awake as he would in many New England churches. Some entries in the agent’s ledger seem to indicate that attendance upon church and other religious services is not altogether voluntary. One entry reads, “Cut (docked) for staying away from church, one shilling;” and another, “Being late to morning prayers, one shilling.” And in estimating the rigor of this discipline, one need to know that a shilling pays the wages of a common hand a day and a half. They have no trade-unions there.The school at Avery is taught by Mr. Jowett, a native, who speaks English correctly and fluently. The pupils appeared very much like other children. Some read and spelled well, and some had to “get their lessons over.” Little John Bull showed that he had some surplus energy by thrusting his fist into the mouth of his drowsy neighbor.The sawmill is said to have been erected by Mr. D. W. Burton, with the assistance of natives alone, and is a monument to his ingenuity, energy and perseverance. Small logs are sawed by a circular, but most of the work is done by an up-and-down, which allows the logs to drag their slow length along sufficiently fast to make the mill pay its way under careful management, with sawyers at fifteen dollars a month, and lumber at forty-five dollars a thousand. Other entries in the ledger show a high state of discipline inthisdepartment of mission work. “Neglecting to tie a canoe, one shilling.” “Smoking in the mill, four shillings.” “Neglect of duty, one shilling.” “Not obeying, two shillings.”The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long, narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for a Fulton or Quincy market.The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high, set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk.To keep down the rapid and rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already, and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry and enterprise.The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material, mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an intelligent and stable Christianity.And now those who have become interested in the experiment of manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa, two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved. And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude, from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment also.Fisk University graduated its first college class in 1875, and Atlanta hers in 1876, so that from these Institutions have come only five or six small classes that have completed a collegiate education, and the first one of these students to graduate from a full theological course has just received his diploma. And then the officers of the Association have not had their pick from the graduates of their schools. Some of those best qualified for mission work abroad are fully persuaded in their own minds that their field of labor is at home.So the experiment at the Mendi mission has not been tried under the most favorable circumstances. The officers of the Association have not had, like those of the American Board foritswork, a large number of fully educated, mature and consecrated men and women from which to select candidates for their African mission.But what is the actual outcome of this brief experiment? The colored missionaries have kept alive the churches and schools, have well cared for the buildings and grounds of the stations, have cultivated the coffee-farm, have bought logs, manufactured and sold lumber, have organized a new church of considerable promise, and all but one of them have kept unbroken the brittle thread of life.[After granting that the mission has as a whole met with serious drawbacks, and suffered from the lack of character and wisdom on the part of some of those to whom it was entrusted, Mr. Chase refers at some length to the following as reasons why mission work in Africa is, and must be, slow: 1. Polygamy; 2. Mohammedanism; 3. The superstitions of the people; 4. The rum trade; 5. The unhealthfulness of the climate; 6. The pernicious influence of traders; 7. Theinability of the natives to procure the equipments of Christian civilization. The paper concludes as follows]:Now, in view of this rather gloomy presentation, does any one say, “Let us abandon the Mendi Mission; money enough has been spent, lives enough have been sacrificed”? I have not written with any such object in view. My purpose has been to state plain facts as they exist, for the consideration of wise men, believing that if there is any lack of tangible results, it is not all the fault of management or workers, and that great things ought not to be expected in the immediate future.But there are grounds for hope as well as for despondency. The mission has a good name. The labors of Raymond, Thompson and others, are fragrant in the memories of natives and foreigners, so that even the British colonists in Sierra Leone are loud in their praise. The industrial work, instituted and carried on by the wonderful ingenuity and energy of Mr. Burton, has secured the good will of traders and foreign residents. I heard many encomiums upon the mission, especially upon its early history.The Mendians are a numerous people, occupying a belt of territory of some hundred miles upon the sea, and reaching far back into the interior, all of which region is drained by the Sherbro river, near the mouth of which is located our Good Hope station. Our mission was established among them many years before those of other societies, and its work is far ahead of that of the Wesleyans and Church of England, and if these should greatly increase their efforts there would still be room for us.By the assiduous labor of Mr. Claflin, the language of the Mendi people has been reduced to writing, an elementary grammar and small vocabulary have been published, and portions of the New Testament translated, so that the acquisition of the native tongue is comparatively easy.The land and buildings of the mission constitute a valuable property; the Good Hope station, with its regular steamboat communication with Freetown, furnishes a needed base of operations, and the sawmill at Avery will provide lumber for future buildings.The fact that this mission is right in the heart of the old slave grounds, ought to furnish inspiration for its support. Between it and Freetown on the Bomana Islands were the old slave pens of the infamous and afterward illustrious John Newton. Kaw Mendi is supposed to be the centre of the region from which the Amistad captives were dragged from their homes to be sold into slavery, and is the point at which they settled after their return from these Connecticut shores, through what might be called a series of special providences. At Kaw Mendi it was my privilege to see and converse with two surviving members of that slave cargo. Special interest in such a field as this is something more than mere sentiment. It is the breath of the God of Love sweeping across the chords of the soul.Then too, in addition to the name and history of the mission, its valuable property, its large field, its written language, and its providential beginning, it has living material that can be utilized in its future extension. The station at Debia, where the lamented Barnabas Root labored for a time, is well carried on by a native educated at the mission; and another efficient helper of the same training is employed at Good Hope. And there are several traders and carpenters, mission-educated, who could render good service in penetrating the interior.The great call at present is for two or three men of ability and culture, of broad views, of practical sense, of considerable business experience, and of deepconsecration, who are ready to enlist for a long term of service, and take the lead in this enterprise.The foundations have been laid, the material for the structure is at hand and the work is waiting for a wise master-builder.Let a disciple of the Lord see those people there in their degradation, superstition, and poverty, and then let him visit some of our communities in the South, and see those of the same color, features, and form, living in comfortable houses, clad in decent garments, cultivating large fields of their own, and supporting the school and the church, and let him realize that these pictures present the same race and perhaps the same tribe of people, and that he can be instrumental under Providence, even in an ordinary life-time, in bringing about a repetition of this wonderful transformation, and he ought to need no stronger inspiration.
PROF. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.
In November last, I received a letter from Secretary Strieby, asking me to visit the Mendi Mission in West Africa, which invitation, after consultation with my family, from whom I was separated, was accepted, and on the 6th of December I sailed for that land.
My instructions required me to make such changes in the force of missionaries and their respective duties as seemed best, and to obtain information, and report, upon the following topics, viz.: The health of the missionaries; the church, school, and industrial work; finances and accounts; the removal or retention of Good Hope station; extension of the work into the interior, and the use of the Mendi language.
Upon all these topics, and some others, I reported as well as I could to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and some extracts have been embodied in their Annual Report of the work of the Association. Most of the information and reflections in this paper will be supplementary to that report.
Between Liverpool and Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a weekly line of steamers, one of which we took; and, after touching at Madeira, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Bathurst, we landed, on the twenty-second day of our voyage, at Freetown. Thence a small steamer conveyed us to Bonthe, where is the Good Hope station of the Mendi mission. The Sherbro river runs between the main land and Sherbro Island, being quite like Long Island Sound; and into it flow several branches that penetrate the Mendi country. On the inside of Sherbro Island, about fifty miles from its northern extremity, where is the mouth of the river, and ten miles from its southern point, is Good Hope, with its church, school and home. The buildings are on the bank of the stream, and the peaceful river, several miles in width, studded with green islands, presents a beautiful view. On the Sherbro Island a few miles south of Good Hope, is Debia, and thirty or forty miles up the Small Boom, a branch of the Sherbro, is Kaw Mendi, which has been described in a recent number of theMissionary.
Starting from Good Hope, and sailing north, down the Sherbro twenty miles, and then east up the Bahgroo twenty miles more, we come to Avery. For most of the way the banks of the river are lined with mangrove trees—appearing at high tide to stand in the water—whose trunks rest, at several feet above the ground, upon pyramids of stems or roots, and whose outspread branches send down to the earth numberless rope-like twigs of various sizes, altogether forming an almost impenetrable jungle. But about a mile below Avery the scene changes. The mangroves disappear, the low banks give way to quite high bluffs, and for a long distance stretches a rolling surface, with a soil of partially decomposed iron-stone. In a bend of the river, on a conspicuous bluff, stand the buildings of Avery, the component parts of the station being a home, a church, a school, a saw-mill, a garden, a coffee-farm, and a fakir.
The home is beautiful for situation, being so nicely located as to command a view of both banks of the river for half a mile in each direction; water, rocks and foliage being blended most charmingly. In this home dwell the pastor of the church with his wife, the superintendent of industrial work, and ten little native boys and girls, whose voices cheer the heart of one who loves children, as the little fellows nearly exhaust their stock of English words in saying “amen,” and the end of grace at meals, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, and saying, “Good night,sir,” at their hour for retiring. Some of these buds of promise have such illustrious names as Robt. Arthington, Wm. E. Gladstone, A. K. Spence, Jennie Pike and M. E. Strieby.
It was our privilege to attend church twice, and prayer meeting several times. The dress of the congregation, so far as it went, was novel, these people having never submitted to the cruel tyranny of fashion, but in most cases the amount of apparel met the requirements of decency. Milliners, however, would have a dry time in this region, for I noticed but one hat or bonnet, and I could not tell which. In other cases the head was bare, or surmounted by a turban made from a handkerchief ingeniously twisted and tied. Some of the men had full suits, others only a country cloth wrapped about them, and a few seemed satisfied with simply a large handkerchief about their loins. But, notwithstanding their lack in style and quantity of clothing, they were good listeners, and doubtless carried away much that was said; at least, the writer of this paper found great pleasure in preaching a lay sermon from the text, “God so loved the world,” &c. The tithing master, who paces up and down the aisles, has as little to do in keeping drowsy persons awake as he would in many New England churches. Some entries in the agent’s ledger seem to indicate that attendance upon church and other religious services is not altogether voluntary. One entry reads, “Cut (docked) for staying away from church, one shilling;” and another, “Being late to morning prayers, one shilling.” And in estimating the rigor of this discipline, one need to know that a shilling pays the wages of a common hand a day and a half. They have no trade-unions there.
The school at Avery is taught by Mr. Jowett, a native, who speaks English correctly and fluently. The pupils appeared very much like other children. Some read and spelled well, and some had to “get their lessons over.” Little John Bull showed that he had some surplus energy by thrusting his fist into the mouth of his drowsy neighbor.
The sawmill is said to have been erected by Mr. D. W. Burton, with the assistance of natives alone, and is a monument to his ingenuity, energy and perseverance. Small logs are sawed by a circular, but most of the work is done by an up-and-down, which allows the logs to drag their slow length along sufficiently fast to make the mill pay its way under careful management, with sawyers at fifteen dollars a month, and lumber at forty-five dollars a thousand. Other entries in the ledger show a high state of discipline inthisdepartment of mission work. “Neglecting to tie a canoe, one shilling.” “Smoking in the mill, four shillings.” “Neglect of duty, one shilling.” “Not obeying, two shillings.”
The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long, narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for a Fulton or Quincy market.
The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high, set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk.To keep down the rapid and rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already, and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry and enterprise.
The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material, mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an intelligent and stable Christianity.
And now those who have become interested in the experiment of manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa, two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved. And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude, from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment also.
Fisk University graduated its first college class in 1875, and Atlanta hers in 1876, so that from these Institutions have come only five or six small classes that have completed a collegiate education, and the first one of these students to graduate from a full theological course has just received his diploma. And then the officers of the Association have not had their pick from the graduates of their schools. Some of those best qualified for mission work abroad are fully persuaded in their own minds that their field of labor is at home.
So the experiment at the Mendi mission has not been tried under the most favorable circumstances. The officers of the Association have not had, like those of the American Board foritswork, a large number of fully educated, mature and consecrated men and women from which to select candidates for their African mission.
But what is the actual outcome of this brief experiment? The colored missionaries have kept alive the churches and schools, have well cared for the buildings and grounds of the stations, have cultivated the coffee-farm, have bought logs, manufactured and sold lumber, have organized a new church of considerable promise, and all but one of them have kept unbroken the brittle thread of life.
[After granting that the mission has as a whole met with serious drawbacks, and suffered from the lack of character and wisdom on the part of some of those to whom it was entrusted, Mr. Chase refers at some length to the following as reasons why mission work in Africa is, and must be, slow: 1. Polygamy; 2. Mohammedanism; 3. The superstitions of the people; 4. The rum trade; 5. The unhealthfulness of the climate; 6. The pernicious influence of traders; 7. Theinability of the natives to procure the equipments of Christian civilization. The paper concludes as follows]:
Now, in view of this rather gloomy presentation, does any one say, “Let us abandon the Mendi Mission; money enough has been spent, lives enough have been sacrificed”? I have not written with any such object in view. My purpose has been to state plain facts as they exist, for the consideration of wise men, believing that if there is any lack of tangible results, it is not all the fault of management or workers, and that great things ought not to be expected in the immediate future.
But there are grounds for hope as well as for despondency. The mission has a good name. The labors of Raymond, Thompson and others, are fragrant in the memories of natives and foreigners, so that even the British colonists in Sierra Leone are loud in their praise. The industrial work, instituted and carried on by the wonderful ingenuity and energy of Mr. Burton, has secured the good will of traders and foreign residents. I heard many encomiums upon the mission, especially upon its early history.
The Mendians are a numerous people, occupying a belt of territory of some hundred miles upon the sea, and reaching far back into the interior, all of which region is drained by the Sherbro river, near the mouth of which is located our Good Hope station. Our mission was established among them many years before those of other societies, and its work is far ahead of that of the Wesleyans and Church of England, and if these should greatly increase their efforts there would still be room for us.
By the assiduous labor of Mr. Claflin, the language of the Mendi people has been reduced to writing, an elementary grammar and small vocabulary have been published, and portions of the New Testament translated, so that the acquisition of the native tongue is comparatively easy.
The land and buildings of the mission constitute a valuable property; the Good Hope station, with its regular steamboat communication with Freetown, furnishes a needed base of operations, and the sawmill at Avery will provide lumber for future buildings.
The fact that this mission is right in the heart of the old slave grounds, ought to furnish inspiration for its support. Between it and Freetown on the Bomana Islands were the old slave pens of the infamous and afterward illustrious John Newton. Kaw Mendi is supposed to be the centre of the region from which the Amistad captives were dragged from their homes to be sold into slavery, and is the point at which they settled after their return from these Connecticut shores, through what might be called a series of special providences. At Kaw Mendi it was my privilege to see and converse with two surviving members of that slave cargo. Special interest in such a field as this is something more than mere sentiment. It is the breath of the God of Love sweeping across the chords of the soul.
Then too, in addition to the name and history of the mission, its valuable property, its large field, its written language, and its providential beginning, it has living material that can be utilized in its future extension. The station at Debia, where the lamented Barnabas Root labored for a time, is well carried on by a native educated at the mission; and another efficient helper of the same training is employed at Good Hope. And there are several traders and carpenters, mission-educated, who could render good service in penetrating the interior.
The great call at present is for two or three men of ability and culture, of broad views, of practical sense, of considerable business experience, and of deepconsecration, who are ready to enlist for a long term of service, and take the lead in this enterprise.
The foundations have been laid, the material for the structure is at hand and the work is waiting for a wise master-builder.
Let a disciple of the Lord see those people there in their degradation, superstition, and poverty, and then let him visit some of our communities in the South, and see those of the same color, features, and form, living in comfortable houses, clad in decent garments, cultivating large fields of their own, and supporting the school and the church, and let him realize that these pictures present the same race and perhaps the same tribe of people, and that he can be instrumental under Providence, even in an ordinary life-time, in bringing about a repetition of this wonderful transformation, and he ought to need no stronger inspiration.
THE CALL TO THE ASSOCIATION.REV. H. M. LADD, WALTON, N. Y.One need not be a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, to be able to predict that the world’s great enterprises of the next century will take hold upon Africa. Already the earnest gaze of the civilized world is fixed upon that opening continent. The spirit of discovery and of commerce have pushed their way into the very heart of its mysterious jungles. Its borders are all alive with the enterprise of nations. Vast preparations are making to open up its wonderful resources, and to find a mart for the products of civilized industry. Truly, as the great French poet has said, “In the nineteenth century the white has made a man out of the black. In the twentieth century Europe will make a world out of Africa.”The great question is, Shall Christianity keep abreast of this advancing host? Shall the seeds of the Gospel of light be sown broadcast through this dark continent, before the tramping feet of commerce have trodden down its soil into the hardened footpaths of sin? The call of God is emphatic. He has opened a door which no man can shut. That call rests in a peculiar manner upon this Association. It has not been optional with you whether you should enter Africa. The hand of God, manifested in the peculiar circumstances attending the Amistad capture, sent you to Africa. That hand has kept you there; and to-day you are not seeking for yourselves a way up the Nile and into the heart of Central Africa; you are invited there, you are urged there, you are sent there. It will be a great undertaking to go, but it will be a greater mistake not to go. The generous offer of Mr. Arthington, the importance of the field, its unoccupied condition, its easy accessibility, the pledge of needed funds, the fact that it lies right in the very heart of that region cursed by the slave-trade not yet abolished, make it obligatory upon this Association to accept the responsibility and speed forward the work.But this is not all. Not only do we hear the call of God resting in a peculiar manner upon this Association, heard especially in its earlier and later history, but this Association is peculiarly fitted for the work. It holds in its hands, as the gift of God, a peculiar power. We in this country are just beginning to spell out the true lessons, the real meaning of slavery on our soil. This Association, more than any other under God, has been our teacher. It has shown us what the educated black man, with even his limited facilities, can do; and now it has grasped, and proposes to carry out, a distinctive idea—negroes for negro land. Mr. President, is it too much to say, that, in this distinctive idea, so satisfactorily demonstratedalready in the history of African missions, we recognize the star of hope for Africa? Is it not the solution of many a difficulty? We need not refer here to the stimulating reflex influence of this new policy upon the Christian colored people of the South. That it will be great, no one can doubt. But what is to be the future of Africa, as it is dotted over here and there where no white man can live, with these abiding centres of a Christian civilization? What is to prevent the establishment of these points of light throughout that benighted region, until, like the stars of Heaven, they shall flood the dark continent with a galaxy of light, growing brighter and brighter until the day dawn and the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings?To this end we are called of God to sacrifice, to labor and to pray. The wise plans which this Association have devised give every assurance of success. Not at once, perhaps. We must not expect too much at once, but in the fullness of time. To say that there are not great obstacles in the way, would be to close our eyes to the truth. There are obstacles; but what are obstacles when God is with us? He has not forgotten Africa. That continent, which holds nearly one-sixth of the human race and is equal in area to all Europe and North America combined, was surely included in that great command, “Go ye into all the world and disciple all nations.” The promises—are they not ours? Will He not be with us alway, yes, even unto the end of the world? Is not the final victory assured, even that victory that overcometh the world—our faith? Are we not taught to pray, “Thy kingdom come”? Surely God’s will is yet to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and these nations are yet to become the nations whose God is the Lord. The day shall come. It may be ages from this time—but to the thought of God, and to the life of humanity, ages are but days—when Ethiopia shall not stretch out her hands in vain.Let us, then, go confidently forward in the line which God has marked out for us. Let us help the Freedman of the South to fulfil his destiny. His bondage over, having safely passed through the Red Sea of blood, and been brought forward by the pillars of cloud and of fire, let us now open to him the land of his fathers, and bid him enter it to drive out the strange gods, and to proclaim the unsearchable love of our God.Oh, then, speak unto this children of Israel that they go forward, and songs of thanksgiving shall arise from the groaning heart of Africa.
REV. H. M. LADD, WALTON, N. Y.
One need not be a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, to be able to predict that the world’s great enterprises of the next century will take hold upon Africa. Already the earnest gaze of the civilized world is fixed upon that opening continent. The spirit of discovery and of commerce have pushed their way into the very heart of its mysterious jungles. Its borders are all alive with the enterprise of nations. Vast preparations are making to open up its wonderful resources, and to find a mart for the products of civilized industry. Truly, as the great French poet has said, “In the nineteenth century the white has made a man out of the black. In the twentieth century Europe will make a world out of Africa.”
The great question is, Shall Christianity keep abreast of this advancing host? Shall the seeds of the Gospel of light be sown broadcast through this dark continent, before the tramping feet of commerce have trodden down its soil into the hardened footpaths of sin? The call of God is emphatic. He has opened a door which no man can shut. That call rests in a peculiar manner upon this Association. It has not been optional with you whether you should enter Africa. The hand of God, manifested in the peculiar circumstances attending the Amistad capture, sent you to Africa. That hand has kept you there; and to-day you are not seeking for yourselves a way up the Nile and into the heart of Central Africa; you are invited there, you are urged there, you are sent there. It will be a great undertaking to go, but it will be a greater mistake not to go. The generous offer of Mr. Arthington, the importance of the field, its unoccupied condition, its easy accessibility, the pledge of needed funds, the fact that it lies right in the very heart of that region cursed by the slave-trade not yet abolished, make it obligatory upon this Association to accept the responsibility and speed forward the work.
But this is not all. Not only do we hear the call of God resting in a peculiar manner upon this Association, heard especially in its earlier and later history, but this Association is peculiarly fitted for the work. It holds in its hands, as the gift of God, a peculiar power. We in this country are just beginning to spell out the true lessons, the real meaning of slavery on our soil. This Association, more than any other under God, has been our teacher. It has shown us what the educated black man, with even his limited facilities, can do; and now it has grasped, and proposes to carry out, a distinctive idea—negroes for negro land. Mr. President, is it too much to say, that, in this distinctive idea, so satisfactorily demonstratedalready in the history of African missions, we recognize the star of hope for Africa? Is it not the solution of many a difficulty? We need not refer here to the stimulating reflex influence of this new policy upon the Christian colored people of the South. That it will be great, no one can doubt. But what is to be the future of Africa, as it is dotted over here and there where no white man can live, with these abiding centres of a Christian civilization? What is to prevent the establishment of these points of light throughout that benighted region, until, like the stars of Heaven, they shall flood the dark continent with a galaxy of light, growing brighter and brighter until the day dawn and the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings?
To this end we are called of God to sacrifice, to labor and to pray. The wise plans which this Association have devised give every assurance of success. Not at once, perhaps. We must not expect too much at once, but in the fullness of time. To say that there are not great obstacles in the way, would be to close our eyes to the truth. There are obstacles; but what are obstacles when God is with us? He has not forgotten Africa. That continent, which holds nearly one-sixth of the human race and is equal in area to all Europe and North America combined, was surely included in that great command, “Go ye into all the world and disciple all nations.” The promises—are they not ours? Will He not be with us alway, yes, even unto the end of the world? Is not the final victory assured, even that victory that overcometh the world—our faith? Are we not taught to pray, “Thy kingdom come”? Surely God’s will is yet to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and these nations are yet to become the nations whose God is the Lord. The day shall come. It may be ages from this time—but to the thought of God, and to the life of humanity, ages are but days—when Ethiopia shall not stretch out her hands in vain.
Let us, then, go confidently forward in the line which God has marked out for us. Let us help the Freedman of the South to fulfil his destiny. His bondage over, having safely passed through the Red Sea of blood, and been brought forward by the pillars of cloud and of fire, let us now open to him the land of his fathers, and bid him enter it to drive out the strange gods, and to proclaim the unsearchable love of our God.
Oh, then, speak unto this children of Israel that they go forward, and songs of thanksgiving shall arise from the groaning heart of Africa.
THE INDIANS.REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.Your Committee, to whom has been referred that part of the Report of the Executive Committee which concerns the American Indians, beg leave to report as follows:We recognize with gratitude the work which has been accomplished by the American Missionary Association, in behalf of the Indians, in its missionary and educational departments.We especially recognize and commend the success of the experiment of bringing youth from the tribes, and educating them at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and at Carlisle Barracks; and, at the same time, we record ourdecided opinion that the schools on the reservations, while the reservations are continued, must be relied upon as among the most efficient agencies for improving the condition of the Indians.We believe that the possibility of civilizing the Indians is no longer an open question, as is proven by what has already been realized at the Fort Berthold, Lake Superior, S’Kokomish, and all the agencies.But your Committee desire emphatically to express the opinion that all attempts to civilize and Christianize the Indians must be slow and unsatisfactory until there is a radical change in the relation between the Indians and the United States Government. The Committee, therefore, desire to reaffirm two resolutions adopted at the last Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association, as follows:Res. 1. That the aim of this Association shall be, as far as possible, and as rapidly as possible, to secure for the Indians—(1.) A legalized standing in the courts of the United States.(2.) Ownership of land in severalty.(3.) The full rights of American citizenship.These three things, we believe, are essential, if the Indian is to be either civilized or made a Christian.Res. 2. That to this end the members of this Association will do all in their power to make the Indian question a pressing question, until the attention of Congress is so secured, and held to it, that the legislative enactment necessary to bring about these changes be completely accomplished.Amory H. Bradford,Chairman.
Your Committee, to whom has been referred that part of the Report of the Executive Committee which concerns the American Indians, beg leave to report as follows:
We recognize with gratitude the work which has been accomplished by the American Missionary Association, in behalf of the Indians, in its missionary and educational departments.
We especially recognize and commend the success of the experiment of bringing youth from the tribes, and educating them at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and at Carlisle Barracks; and, at the same time, we record ourdecided opinion that the schools on the reservations, while the reservations are continued, must be relied upon as among the most efficient agencies for improving the condition of the Indians.
We believe that the possibility of civilizing the Indians is no longer an open question, as is proven by what has already been realized at the Fort Berthold, Lake Superior, S’Kokomish, and all the agencies.
But your Committee desire emphatically to express the opinion that all attempts to civilize and Christianize the Indians must be slow and unsatisfactory until there is a radical change in the relation between the Indians and the United States Government. The Committee, therefore, desire to reaffirm two resolutions adopted at the last Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association, as follows:
Res. 1. That the aim of this Association shall be, as far as possible, and as rapidly as possible, to secure for the Indians—
(1.) A legalized standing in the courts of the United States.
(2.) Ownership of land in severalty.
(3.) The full rights of American citizenship.
These three things, we believe, are essential, if the Indian is to be either civilized or made a Christian.
Res. 2. That to this end the members of this Association will do all in their power to make the Indian question a pressing question, until the attention of Congress is so secured, and held to it, that the legislative enactment necessary to bring about these changes be completely accomplished.
Amory H. Bradford,Chairman.
CAUSES OF THE MISMANAGEMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.REV. A. H. BRADFORD, MONTCLAIR, N. J.In the management of Indian affairs there has been little, if any, progress since colonial days.I. The New World was supposed to belong to its discoverers, and the Indians also, because they belonged to the land. When England transferred her colonies to the new Republic, it was without any mention of the aboriginal inhabitants, or their rights. Trees and stones could not have been more completely ignored. With the single exception of the Treaty of 1803, by which Louisiana was obtained, all the Indian population was unconditionally transferred with the land. “In our first treaty of peace with Great Britain, by which the latter yielded all claims to the country as far as the Mississippi River, not a single stipulation appears in regard to the aboriginal inhabitants, and when they were received they were considered to be in the same situation,—as far as their legal status was concerned,—as the nation by which they were surrendered had placed them.” (The Indian Question, Otis, p. 51.) What was that status? The Indians were many; the colonists were weak. The stronger compelled the weaker to treat with them as sovereign tribes. The weaker became stronger. The same method was pursued then because of jealousy of the French. Treaties were made, and what the colonists could not compel by force they accomplished by intrigue. In the wars between England, Spain and France, the aborigines held the balance of power, and thus compelled their own recognition. When the war for independence came,the same was true. Both British and colonists sought their friendship, and paid for it. Thus, in a word, grew up the recognition of the sovereignty of the tribal and national organizations. Thus commenced the atrocious policy of quietly, by treaty and gifts, removing the Indians westward, as lands were required for settlement. Since the revolution, until 1871, when the treaty system was abolished, the same general plan has been followed.In everything else, there has been progress. In the management of our Indian affairs, we are hardly a step in advance of those who, in 1753, in forming a unity of action against the savages, organized the germ of our Union of States.II. The Reservation system seems to have had its birth in the administration of Jefferson. The object was to make conflict impossible until the natives could be civilized by isolating them. Education was to be provided, missionaries sent, protection guaranteed until they should become new men. Did the plan succeed? It had hardly been commenced before its failure was recognized. It has been continued, and the longer it has lasted the worse it has failed.The removal to reservations was commenced in earnest under President Jackson, who advised Congress to set apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any state or territory, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they should occupy it; each tribe having the management of its own portion of the district, and being “subject to no other control from the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier, and between the several tribes. There the benevolent may teach, and an interesting commonwealth may be raised up, destined to perpetuate the race and attest the humanity and justice of this Government.” (Otis, p. 96.) President Van Buren was not less sanguine than President Jackson. Never were golden dreams more ruthlessly shattered. As well might our representatives have attempted to tame a herd of buffaloes by corraling them at the base of Mt. Hood, as to attempt to civilize the Indians by separating them from all civilizing influences. As well might you plant a keg of nails and expect it to come up a piano, as to seclude such wild natures on the prairies, or between mountains, and expect peace and harmony to result. The policy of removal did not benefit the Indian, and has brought but temporary relief to the country, by “the elimination of a troublesome element in society.” It has not been pursued to any great extent during the last twenty-five years, but still the massing of the Indians in two or three great reservations seems to be the ideal of our legislators, an ideal which has not a single support either in reason or experience.Then the reservations have been such only in name. The Black Hills territory belonged to the Dakotas only a few years ago. You remember the story. Reports of mineral wealth reached the outside world. Emigration commenced. But that country had been set apart by treaty to the Dakotas. “Yet,” say Felix R. Brunot, “every step from the moment of making that peace with the Indians, has been in the direction of depriving them of the very land which the Peace Commission gave them.” Though there were wealth in the Black Hills, our nation should have said, and stood by the declaration—“Gentlemen, that Black Hills country belongs to the Indians. If those mountains were built of solid gold, and those river beds were paved with diamonds, not one of you should be allowed there, unless in honorable trade you had purchased the right.” But adventurers crowded in, and, because they had white skins, the sacred covenants of the nation were broken. What wonder that when the land was assigned them they eagerly asked, “How long will it be that the President will keep his promise?” Whyshould they be loyal to the Government? The Rev. Mr. Sherrill, of Omaha, writing in theAdvance, says, “The commonly accepted report is, that when Commissioner Hayt visited Spotted Tail on the Upper Missouri, and attempted to misinterpret his promise to the tribe, Spot shook the written document with Mr. Hayt’s name at the foot of it in the Commissioner’s face, called him a ‘bald-headed liar,’ and walked out of the tent indignantly refusing to have anything more to do with such a forked tongue.”The reservation system has not secured to the Indians permanent homes; it has not preserved them from molestation; it has not improved them either morally or physically; it has not relieved the Government of care or expense; from beginning to end, it has been a stupendous fraud and failure.III. I turn now to the Indian treaty system of the United States, one of the most fearfully and wonderfully concocted systems that human stupidity ever devised. It was in operation until 1871. More than three hundred and sixty-six treaties with native tribes are recorded in the statute books since the adoption of the Constitution. If it is remembered that in many of these covenants several tribes were united, the actual number of treaties is multiplied to nearly one thousand. It would puzzle a philosopher to get at the true inwardness of this system. The fact is, that in colonial days, and almost ever since, the Indians have been treated with as if they were independent and sovereign States. As such, they were distinct from United States subjects, and could only be reached under the forms of international law. In the language of Justice McLean of the Supreme Bench, “The President and Senate, except under the treaty-making power, cannot enter into compacts with the Indians or with foreign nations.” That is plain; and if the Indians had always been treated according to that decision, there would have been less trouble. But Congress has claimed jurisdiction over them, and while the President and Senate were making treaties, has held each member of the tribes individually amenable to such laws as it might choose to enact. The Court decides that they are to be treated with as independent tribes, and Congress proceeds to manage them as a portion of our dependent population.Two illustrations. The Wyandotte Treaty of 1855 declared the Indians of that band to be citizens of the United States. The treaty with the Pottawatomies in 1862 placed it in the power of the President to confer citizenship upon the members of that tribe. Now, if the Indians were foreigners, they could become citizens only by naturalization, according to rules prescribed by Congress. The treaties with them imply that they are foreigners; but the courts have decided that naturalization laws do not apply to them; therefore it is evident that it is competent for Congress, and no other power, to confer upon them political rights. Yet, in the instances cited, the treaty-making power assumed these rights. The Executive and Senate abandoned, at length, the process of making citizens by simple declaration. In 1866, they compelled the Delawares who wished to become citizens, to appear in the United States District Court, and take out naturalization papers the same as aliens. They first made them foreigners in order to make them citizens. But that was of doubtful legal validity. Then, to crown this wonderful achievement, it was decided that the children of those thus naturalized were still foreigners, and must choose for themselves whether they would enter the tribal relation, or seek citizenship by naturalization. A white man who could unravel this snarl would be a genius; to an Indian, it must have been transparent as the waters of the Missouri. I give this instance to illustrate the utter confusion which has characterized the administration of ourIndian affairs, and the absolute impossibility for any one to be elevated by such stupidity.My second illustration is the Indian Territory itself. A civil government exists there, subject to Congressional dictation. Yet Congress never had anything to do with it, and never authorized it. Its powers have never been defined or controlled by statute. It was a scheme of the treaty-making power of government alone. It is an organization devised between tribes, recognized as independent, and is to take cognizance of matters “relating to the intercourse and relations of the Indian tribes and nations resident in said territory and represented, but can pass no act inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, the laws of Congress, or existing treaties; or any act affecting the tribal organizations, laws, or usages.” Each tribe is independent of this so-called legislature in all its own affairs. Each tribe has its own laws; and its own courts, both civil and criminal, are the last resort; and by treaty, Congress is denied the right to interfere with, or annul, their present tribal organizations, rights, laws, privileges and customs. Thus, if an Indian commits murder in his own tribe, he can be brought to justice only by his own tribe. “The non-treaty Indians can freely rob, murder, trade with each other, without incurring responsibility to United States authority.” (Otis, page 115.) If a white man joins an Indian tribe and commits murder, who tries him, the United States courts or the tribal? Exactly that issue has arisen. A United States marshal was condemned because he attempted to take forcible possession of a United States citizen, who was also a citizen of the Cherokee nation, and who was accused of the murder of a Cherokee squaw. Other inconsistencies might be enumerated. Treaties have guaranteed privileges that only Congress had the right to grant. When the United States court comes in conflict with the treaty, then confusion and bloodshed follow, and the absurd clumsiness of official action is hidden beneath the cry of shocking cruelties by Indians, when they are only defending rights guaranteed by solemn covenant.Two other facts may be barely mentioned. Treaties have been repeatedly solemnized which both parties knew perfectly well could not be kept; as in the case of the covenant with the Mississippi and other bands of Chippewas in 1855, when the treaty included a thousand little details of moral conduct; or the treaties of 1855 and 1865 with the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory, where all sacredly promised to take a temperance pledge.The other fact is that, when Congress has ratified Indian treaties, the prerogative has been repeatedly asserted of changing the treaty without consultation with the Indians. In the Cheyenne Treaty of 1861, the Senate struck out article eleven, one of the most important articles, and then held the tribe to the treaty as it chose to amend it.IV. Two changes must be wrought in our Government before these wrongs can be permanently righted.1. The people must be aroused. In 1862, Secretary Stanton said to a committee who went to him demanding justice for the Indians: “If you come to Washington to tell us that our Indian system is a sink of iniquity, and a disgrace to the nation, we all know it. This Government never reforms an evil until the people demand it. When the hearts of the people are touched, these evils will be reformed, and the Indians will be saved.” When the people demand justice to the Indian, and officers know that swift retribution will be meted to those who longer trifle with his interests, Indian Commissioners will no longer dare to condone corruption, and Interior Secretaries will cease to stand in the way of righteousness.2. There must be a reform in our system of civil service. In British Columbia, for the last hundred years, there has been spent not one dollar for Indian wars, and not one life has been lost. In the United States, thousands of lives have been lost, and more than $500,000,000 expended. What do these facts signify? That in British Columbia they have had able and honest men in the civil service; and in this Republic, imbecile and corrupt men. Contrast parts of the two systems. With us the Indians are under the control of the Secretary of the Interior, and the Indian Department is but one of numerous important and complex departments under the supervision of that officer—each one enough to tax to the full the ability of a trained statesman. With us, the Indian Department must take its chances with others, and he who ought to give it his entire attention is “Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.” In British Columbia, the Minister of the Interior is the actual superintendent of Indian affairs, and directly responsible for them as the most important part of his official duties. With us, in our Indian, as in our civil, service, which is as vicious as any system can be, officers are continued only during party supremacy.In the Dominion, officers are continued for life or good behavior, with the obvious benefit, in matters requiring special skill and experience, produced by a civil service well established, on a correct system of selection, which with us has only recently been attempted.The trouble with us has been, we have not chosen our best men to do our most difficult work. We have had two vast problems to solve in our history—the problem of Reconstruction and this Indian problem. “In both cases, where France, England, Russia, would have used the flower of their educated youth, their most honored soldiers, their wisest lawyers and scientific men, we collected a large horde of broken-down men of all trades and callings, and men of none, the riff-raff of caucuses and nominating conventions, in fact, the very refuse of our busy and prosperous society,” and gave to them to solve, the most difficult and delicate questions of public policy which statesmen have ever faced on this continent. The failure was inevitable in the one case as in the other.V. In the light of the experience of the last century, I think we may safely make the following affirmations.All tribal distinctions ought, as soon as possible, to be abolished by the Government, and the Indian treated the same as any other man.The Reservation system should be given up, and Indians be allowed to go and come whenever and wherever they may choose. Land should be allotted in severalty. If the Indian has a hard time, the discipline will probably educate him.Education should be compulsory, and for a reasonable time, under patronage of the Government.All the rights and penalties of citizenship should be accorded to the Indian, as to the Italian, Irishman, and Negro.The Indian should understand that this is a final settlement of his case, and that now he must shift for himself as other citizens have to do. With justice, and the protection and penalties of law awarded to him, let the Indian take his chances in the struggle of life. The germ of civilization is obedience to law. Put him under state and national law. The fittest will probably survive, Darwin or no Darwin.So much for the Government. Then let Christianity, through its voluntary agencies, do the rest, as it well knows how to do, and is so grandly doing through the American Missionary Association. There are difficulties attending the executionof these suggestions. This consideration would require time that I have not at my disposal. They are not insuperable to a wise statesmanship.When Dr. Riggs was visiting and preaching in the Indian Territory, one day there sat before him an old chief, nearly a hundred years of age, listening attentively. It was the missionary’s last sermon before leaving. When the service was over, the old man went up to Dr. Riggs, and reaching out his scrawny hand to the missionary’s snow-white beard, grasped it firmly, and turning him to the full sun-light gazed intently into his face for a long time. “What do you do that for?” at length said the Doctor. “Because I want to know you in the resurrection,” the old chief slowly replied. His people had been scattered, his children killed, his horses stolen, he had been driven from the home of his childhood to a strange land. While he waited to die, this noble old apostle, in whom Christ dwelt, crossed his pathway. The speech and tenderness were so strange, coming from a white man, that he wanted to be sure of recognizing him after death. “I want to know you in the resurrection.” How many white men will the Indians want to meet in the resurrection? It is time these awful wrongs were righted. It is time we learned with the wise fool inA Fool’s Errand, “The remedy for darkness is light; for ignorance, knowledge; for wrong, righteousness.” It is time the people were roused. It is time a tide of public opinion, demanding justice for the Indian, was rolled in upon our rulers, too strong to be longer resisted. If the Government never reforms until the people demand it, let us be sure that we voice our part of that demand, loud and clear, at once and unmistakably.
REV. A. H. BRADFORD, MONTCLAIR, N. J.
In the management of Indian affairs there has been little, if any, progress since colonial days.
I. The New World was supposed to belong to its discoverers, and the Indians also, because they belonged to the land. When England transferred her colonies to the new Republic, it was without any mention of the aboriginal inhabitants, or their rights. Trees and stones could not have been more completely ignored. With the single exception of the Treaty of 1803, by which Louisiana was obtained, all the Indian population was unconditionally transferred with the land. “In our first treaty of peace with Great Britain, by which the latter yielded all claims to the country as far as the Mississippi River, not a single stipulation appears in regard to the aboriginal inhabitants, and when they were received they were considered to be in the same situation,—as far as their legal status was concerned,—as the nation by which they were surrendered had placed them.” (The Indian Question, Otis, p. 51.) What was that status? The Indians were many; the colonists were weak. The stronger compelled the weaker to treat with them as sovereign tribes. The weaker became stronger. The same method was pursued then because of jealousy of the French. Treaties were made, and what the colonists could not compel by force they accomplished by intrigue. In the wars between England, Spain and France, the aborigines held the balance of power, and thus compelled their own recognition. When the war for independence came,the same was true. Both British and colonists sought their friendship, and paid for it. Thus, in a word, grew up the recognition of the sovereignty of the tribal and national organizations. Thus commenced the atrocious policy of quietly, by treaty and gifts, removing the Indians westward, as lands were required for settlement. Since the revolution, until 1871, when the treaty system was abolished, the same general plan has been followed.
In everything else, there has been progress. In the management of our Indian affairs, we are hardly a step in advance of those who, in 1753, in forming a unity of action against the savages, organized the germ of our Union of States.
II. The Reservation system seems to have had its birth in the administration of Jefferson. The object was to make conflict impossible until the natives could be civilized by isolating them. Education was to be provided, missionaries sent, protection guaranteed until they should become new men. Did the plan succeed? It had hardly been commenced before its failure was recognized. It has been continued, and the longer it has lasted the worse it has failed.
The removal to reservations was commenced in earnest under President Jackson, who advised Congress to set apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any state or territory, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they should occupy it; each tribe having the management of its own portion of the district, and being “subject to no other control from the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier, and between the several tribes. There the benevolent may teach, and an interesting commonwealth may be raised up, destined to perpetuate the race and attest the humanity and justice of this Government.” (Otis, p. 96.) President Van Buren was not less sanguine than President Jackson. Never were golden dreams more ruthlessly shattered. As well might our representatives have attempted to tame a herd of buffaloes by corraling them at the base of Mt. Hood, as to attempt to civilize the Indians by separating them from all civilizing influences. As well might you plant a keg of nails and expect it to come up a piano, as to seclude such wild natures on the prairies, or between mountains, and expect peace and harmony to result. The policy of removal did not benefit the Indian, and has brought but temporary relief to the country, by “the elimination of a troublesome element in society.” It has not been pursued to any great extent during the last twenty-five years, but still the massing of the Indians in two or three great reservations seems to be the ideal of our legislators, an ideal which has not a single support either in reason or experience.
Then the reservations have been such only in name. The Black Hills territory belonged to the Dakotas only a few years ago. You remember the story. Reports of mineral wealth reached the outside world. Emigration commenced. But that country had been set apart by treaty to the Dakotas. “Yet,” say Felix R. Brunot, “every step from the moment of making that peace with the Indians, has been in the direction of depriving them of the very land which the Peace Commission gave them.” Though there were wealth in the Black Hills, our nation should have said, and stood by the declaration—“Gentlemen, that Black Hills country belongs to the Indians. If those mountains were built of solid gold, and those river beds were paved with diamonds, not one of you should be allowed there, unless in honorable trade you had purchased the right.” But adventurers crowded in, and, because they had white skins, the sacred covenants of the nation were broken. What wonder that when the land was assigned them they eagerly asked, “How long will it be that the President will keep his promise?” Whyshould they be loyal to the Government? The Rev. Mr. Sherrill, of Omaha, writing in theAdvance, says, “The commonly accepted report is, that when Commissioner Hayt visited Spotted Tail on the Upper Missouri, and attempted to misinterpret his promise to the tribe, Spot shook the written document with Mr. Hayt’s name at the foot of it in the Commissioner’s face, called him a ‘bald-headed liar,’ and walked out of the tent indignantly refusing to have anything more to do with such a forked tongue.”
The reservation system has not secured to the Indians permanent homes; it has not preserved them from molestation; it has not improved them either morally or physically; it has not relieved the Government of care or expense; from beginning to end, it has been a stupendous fraud and failure.
III. I turn now to the Indian treaty system of the United States, one of the most fearfully and wonderfully concocted systems that human stupidity ever devised. It was in operation until 1871. More than three hundred and sixty-six treaties with native tribes are recorded in the statute books since the adoption of the Constitution. If it is remembered that in many of these covenants several tribes were united, the actual number of treaties is multiplied to nearly one thousand. It would puzzle a philosopher to get at the true inwardness of this system. The fact is, that in colonial days, and almost ever since, the Indians have been treated with as if they were independent and sovereign States. As such, they were distinct from United States subjects, and could only be reached under the forms of international law. In the language of Justice McLean of the Supreme Bench, “The President and Senate, except under the treaty-making power, cannot enter into compacts with the Indians or with foreign nations.” That is plain; and if the Indians had always been treated according to that decision, there would have been less trouble. But Congress has claimed jurisdiction over them, and while the President and Senate were making treaties, has held each member of the tribes individually amenable to such laws as it might choose to enact. The Court decides that they are to be treated with as independent tribes, and Congress proceeds to manage them as a portion of our dependent population.
Two illustrations. The Wyandotte Treaty of 1855 declared the Indians of that band to be citizens of the United States. The treaty with the Pottawatomies in 1862 placed it in the power of the President to confer citizenship upon the members of that tribe. Now, if the Indians were foreigners, they could become citizens only by naturalization, according to rules prescribed by Congress. The treaties with them imply that they are foreigners; but the courts have decided that naturalization laws do not apply to them; therefore it is evident that it is competent for Congress, and no other power, to confer upon them political rights. Yet, in the instances cited, the treaty-making power assumed these rights. The Executive and Senate abandoned, at length, the process of making citizens by simple declaration. In 1866, they compelled the Delawares who wished to become citizens, to appear in the United States District Court, and take out naturalization papers the same as aliens. They first made them foreigners in order to make them citizens. But that was of doubtful legal validity. Then, to crown this wonderful achievement, it was decided that the children of those thus naturalized were still foreigners, and must choose for themselves whether they would enter the tribal relation, or seek citizenship by naturalization. A white man who could unravel this snarl would be a genius; to an Indian, it must have been transparent as the waters of the Missouri. I give this instance to illustrate the utter confusion which has characterized the administration of ourIndian affairs, and the absolute impossibility for any one to be elevated by such stupidity.
My second illustration is the Indian Territory itself. A civil government exists there, subject to Congressional dictation. Yet Congress never had anything to do with it, and never authorized it. Its powers have never been defined or controlled by statute. It was a scheme of the treaty-making power of government alone. It is an organization devised between tribes, recognized as independent, and is to take cognizance of matters “relating to the intercourse and relations of the Indian tribes and nations resident in said territory and represented, but can pass no act inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, the laws of Congress, or existing treaties; or any act affecting the tribal organizations, laws, or usages.” Each tribe is independent of this so-called legislature in all its own affairs. Each tribe has its own laws; and its own courts, both civil and criminal, are the last resort; and by treaty, Congress is denied the right to interfere with, or annul, their present tribal organizations, rights, laws, privileges and customs. Thus, if an Indian commits murder in his own tribe, he can be brought to justice only by his own tribe. “The non-treaty Indians can freely rob, murder, trade with each other, without incurring responsibility to United States authority.” (Otis, page 115.) If a white man joins an Indian tribe and commits murder, who tries him, the United States courts or the tribal? Exactly that issue has arisen. A United States marshal was condemned because he attempted to take forcible possession of a United States citizen, who was also a citizen of the Cherokee nation, and who was accused of the murder of a Cherokee squaw. Other inconsistencies might be enumerated. Treaties have guaranteed privileges that only Congress had the right to grant. When the United States court comes in conflict with the treaty, then confusion and bloodshed follow, and the absurd clumsiness of official action is hidden beneath the cry of shocking cruelties by Indians, when they are only defending rights guaranteed by solemn covenant.
Two other facts may be barely mentioned. Treaties have been repeatedly solemnized which both parties knew perfectly well could not be kept; as in the case of the covenant with the Mississippi and other bands of Chippewas in 1855, when the treaty included a thousand little details of moral conduct; or the treaties of 1855 and 1865 with the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory, where all sacredly promised to take a temperance pledge.
The other fact is that, when Congress has ratified Indian treaties, the prerogative has been repeatedly asserted of changing the treaty without consultation with the Indians. In the Cheyenne Treaty of 1861, the Senate struck out article eleven, one of the most important articles, and then held the tribe to the treaty as it chose to amend it.
IV. Two changes must be wrought in our Government before these wrongs can be permanently righted.
1. The people must be aroused. In 1862, Secretary Stanton said to a committee who went to him demanding justice for the Indians: “If you come to Washington to tell us that our Indian system is a sink of iniquity, and a disgrace to the nation, we all know it. This Government never reforms an evil until the people demand it. When the hearts of the people are touched, these evils will be reformed, and the Indians will be saved.” When the people demand justice to the Indian, and officers know that swift retribution will be meted to those who longer trifle with his interests, Indian Commissioners will no longer dare to condone corruption, and Interior Secretaries will cease to stand in the way of righteousness.
2. There must be a reform in our system of civil service. In British Columbia, for the last hundred years, there has been spent not one dollar for Indian wars, and not one life has been lost. In the United States, thousands of lives have been lost, and more than $500,000,000 expended. What do these facts signify? That in British Columbia they have had able and honest men in the civil service; and in this Republic, imbecile and corrupt men. Contrast parts of the two systems. With us the Indians are under the control of the Secretary of the Interior, and the Indian Department is but one of numerous important and complex departments under the supervision of that officer—each one enough to tax to the full the ability of a trained statesman. With us, the Indian Department must take its chances with others, and he who ought to give it his entire attention is “Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.” In British Columbia, the Minister of the Interior is the actual superintendent of Indian affairs, and directly responsible for them as the most important part of his official duties. With us, in our Indian, as in our civil, service, which is as vicious as any system can be, officers are continued only during party supremacy.
In the Dominion, officers are continued for life or good behavior, with the obvious benefit, in matters requiring special skill and experience, produced by a civil service well established, on a correct system of selection, which with us has only recently been attempted.
The trouble with us has been, we have not chosen our best men to do our most difficult work. We have had two vast problems to solve in our history—the problem of Reconstruction and this Indian problem. “In both cases, where France, England, Russia, would have used the flower of their educated youth, their most honored soldiers, their wisest lawyers and scientific men, we collected a large horde of broken-down men of all trades and callings, and men of none, the riff-raff of caucuses and nominating conventions, in fact, the very refuse of our busy and prosperous society,” and gave to them to solve, the most difficult and delicate questions of public policy which statesmen have ever faced on this continent. The failure was inevitable in the one case as in the other.
V. In the light of the experience of the last century, I think we may safely make the following affirmations.
All tribal distinctions ought, as soon as possible, to be abolished by the Government, and the Indian treated the same as any other man.
The Reservation system should be given up, and Indians be allowed to go and come whenever and wherever they may choose. Land should be allotted in severalty. If the Indian has a hard time, the discipline will probably educate him.
Education should be compulsory, and for a reasonable time, under patronage of the Government.
All the rights and penalties of citizenship should be accorded to the Indian, as to the Italian, Irishman, and Negro.
The Indian should understand that this is a final settlement of his case, and that now he must shift for himself as other citizens have to do. With justice, and the protection and penalties of law awarded to him, let the Indian take his chances in the struggle of life. The germ of civilization is obedience to law. Put him under state and national law. The fittest will probably survive, Darwin or no Darwin.
So much for the Government. Then let Christianity, through its voluntary agencies, do the rest, as it well knows how to do, and is so grandly doing through the American Missionary Association. There are difficulties attending the executionof these suggestions. This consideration would require time that I have not at my disposal. They are not insuperable to a wise statesmanship.
When Dr. Riggs was visiting and preaching in the Indian Territory, one day there sat before him an old chief, nearly a hundred years of age, listening attentively. It was the missionary’s last sermon before leaving. When the service was over, the old man went up to Dr. Riggs, and reaching out his scrawny hand to the missionary’s snow-white beard, grasped it firmly, and turning him to the full sun-light gazed intently into his face for a long time. “What do you do that for?” at length said the Doctor. “Because I want to know you in the resurrection,” the old chief slowly replied. His people had been scattered, his children killed, his horses stolen, he had been driven from the home of his childhood to a strange land. While he waited to die, this noble old apostle, in whom Christ dwelt, crossed his pathway. The speech and tenderness were so strange, coming from a white man, that he wanted to be sure of recognizing him after death. “I want to know you in the resurrection.” How many white men will the Indians want to meet in the resurrection? It is time these awful wrongs were righted. It is time we learned with the wise fool inA Fool’s Errand, “The remedy for darkness is light; for ignorance, knowledge; for wrong, righteousness.” It is time the people were roused. It is time a tide of public opinion, demanding justice for the Indian, was rolled in upon our rulers, too strong to be longer resisted. If the Government never reforms until the people demand it, let us be sure that we voice our part of that demand, loud and clear, at once and unmistakably.
LETTER FROM GENERAL FISK.[It was anticipated up to a late day by the committee of arrangements that General Fisk would be present at the meeting and would make an address upon the Indian Report. In his unexpected and compelled absence he kindly sent the following letter:]It is almost two hundred and fifty years since Captain John Mason, at the head of ninety men, more than half of the fighting force of the Connecticut Colony, marched against Sassacus, and almost within bow-shot of where your Annual Meeting is to be held, fought the Pequods. It was the first Indian war in New England. Thomas Hooker, “the light of the Western Churches,” famed as “a son of thunder,” delivered to Mason the staff of command. The very learned and godly Stone spent nearly the whole night in importunate prayer for success to crown the expedition, which on the morrow sailed past the Thames, hoping by strategy to reach the Pequod fort unobserved. Under cover of night, the soldiers of Connecticut made the attack upon the Indians. “We must burn them,” shouted Mason, who himself cast a firebrand to the windward among the light mats of their cabins. The helpless natives climbed the palisades as their blazing encampment assisted the English marksmen in taking good aim. Six hundred Indians, men, women and children, perished, most of them in the hideous conflagration. Capt. Miles Standish had twenty years earlier slaughtered Witawamo and others of the Massachusetts tribe, the knowledge of which, as it reached the gentle spirited Robinson in Leyden, caused the pastor to write to Bradford, “concerning the killing of those poor Indians, of which we heard at first by report and since by more certain relation. Oh, how happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you killed any.”“The principle and foundation of the charter of Massachusetts,” wrote CharlesII. at a time when he had Clarendon for his adviser, “was the freedom of liberty and conscience, not only for the Puritan but for the natives, whom the ministers might win to the Christian faith.” The instructions to Endicott as to the rights of the Indians on the far-away Atlantic coast, and their duty to them, were clear and emphatic. “If any of the savages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our patent, endeavor to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion. Particularly publish that no wrong or injury be offered to the natives.” The colony seal was a wandering Indian with arrows in his right hand, with the motto, “Come and help me.” For more than two hundred and fifty years, from our Indian tribes, as they have been steadily driven before the surging tide of civilization from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has there been the constant cry of the weaker to the stronger forces of the continent, “come and help me.” Many who will be in attendance upon your Annual Meeting have seen “Standing Bear” of the Poncas, who was wantonly and wickedly driven from his home on the banks of the Missouri by the Government, and heard him tell his simple story of wrong endured, and heard his appeal, “Come and help me.” With sublime faith that God intended all men to be free and equal, all men without restriction, without qualification, without limit, let us listen to their appeal, and respond with the best help in our power to contribute.Never before in the history of this country has there been such an awakening in behalf of the Indian. Never before such healthy sentiment for justice and fair play for the original owners of the soil over which our fifty millions of prosperous people unfurl the flag of the free. The Indian question, like the Ghost of Banquo, is at every banquet. It will not down until “Birnam wood do come to Dunsinane.” Hundreds of years of broken faith, during which ambuscades, massacres, fired Indian camps, blazing wigwams and smouldering embers of burned villages, have strewn the pathway of our march of empire, until now upon every lip is the interrogatory, What shall be done with the Indian? All the Indian asks, all his friends ask for him, is afair chance.It has been well said that in good faith and good feeling we must take up this work of Indian civilization, and at whatever cost do our whole duty in the premises. We owe them protection of the property they own, endowments of money, forbearance, patience, care, education,citizenship.Let not another Indian be removed from his home, except as he removes himself by his own volition.Let every acre of land now occupied under treaty, or by any other document by which the United States have “ceded and relinquished” the same, be held sacredly theirs forever, unless the citizen Indian chooses to sell it.Let there be no more the policy of seclusion, but rather that of absorption.Let all covenants between the Government and the Indian be executed as promptly and faithfully as with any other person.Let the Indian citizen have his own home with all the protection of National and State Governments.Let the Indian citizen have the same protection of law, and require from him the same obedience to law as governs in the case of the white man and the black man, and then the Indian will work out his own destiny.Let us say with that quaint philosopher, Hosea Bigelow, that“This is the one great American idee,To make a mana man, and then to let him be.”Trusting that the American Missionary Association will keep its standard on the Indian question “full high and advancing,” I remain,With very great respect,Your obedient servant,Clinton B. Fisk.
[It was anticipated up to a late day by the committee of arrangements that General Fisk would be present at the meeting and would make an address upon the Indian Report. In his unexpected and compelled absence he kindly sent the following letter:]
It is almost two hundred and fifty years since Captain John Mason, at the head of ninety men, more than half of the fighting force of the Connecticut Colony, marched against Sassacus, and almost within bow-shot of where your Annual Meeting is to be held, fought the Pequods. It was the first Indian war in New England. Thomas Hooker, “the light of the Western Churches,” famed as “a son of thunder,” delivered to Mason the staff of command. The very learned and godly Stone spent nearly the whole night in importunate prayer for success to crown the expedition, which on the morrow sailed past the Thames, hoping by strategy to reach the Pequod fort unobserved. Under cover of night, the soldiers of Connecticut made the attack upon the Indians. “We must burn them,” shouted Mason, who himself cast a firebrand to the windward among the light mats of their cabins. The helpless natives climbed the palisades as their blazing encampment assisted the English marksmen in taking good aim. Six hundred Indians, men, women and children, perished, most of them in the hideous conflagration. Capt. Miles Standish had twenty years earlier slaughtered Witawamo and others of the Massachusetts tribe, the knowledge of which, as it reached the gentle spirited Robinson in Leyden, caused the pastor to write to Bradford, “concerning the killing of those poor Indians, of which we heard at first by report and since by more certain relation. Oh, how happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you killed any.”
“The principle and foundation of the charter of Massachusetts,” wrote CharlesII. at a time when he had Clarendon for his adviser, “was the freedom of liberty and conscience, not only for the Puritan but for the natives, whom the ministers might win to the Christian faith.” The instructions to Endicott as to the rights of the Indians on the far-away Atlantic coast, and their duty to them, were clear and emphatic. “If any of the savages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our patent, endeavor to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion. Particularly publish that no wrong or injury be offered to the natives.” The colony seal was a wandering Indian with arrows in his right hand, with the motto, “Come and help me.” For more than two hundred and fifty years, from our Indian tribes, as they have been steadily driven before the surging tide of civilization from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has there been the constant cry of the weaker to the stronger forces of the continent, “come and help me.” Many who will be in attendance upon your Annual Meeting have seen “Standing Bear” of the Poncas, who was wantonly and wickedly driven from his home on the banks of the Missouri by the Government, and heard him tell his simple story of wrong endured, and heard his appeal, “Come and help me.” With sublime faith that God intended all men to be free and equal, all men without restriction, without qualification, without limit, let us listen to their appeal, and respond with the best help in our power to contribute.
Never before in the history of this country has there been such an awakening in behalf of the Indian. Never before such healthy sentiment for justice and fair play for the original owners of the soil over which our fifty millions of prosperous people unfurl the flag of the free. The Indian question, like the Ghost of Banquo, is at every banquet. It will not down until “Birnam wood do come to Dunsinane.” Hundreds of years of broken faith, during which ambuscades, massacres, fired Indian camps, blazing wigwams and smouldering embers of burned villages, have strewn the pathway of our march of empire, until now upon every lip is the interrogatory, What shall be done with the Indian? All the Indian asks, all his friends ask for him, is afair chance.
It has been well said that in good faith and good feeling we must take up this work of Indian civilization, and at whatever cost do our whole duty in the premises. We owe them protection of the property they own, endowments of money, forbearance, patience, care, education,citizenship.
Let not another Indian be removed from his home, except as he removes himself by his own volition.
Let every acre of land now occupied under treaty, or by any other document by which the United States have “ceded and relinquished” the same, be held sacredly theirs forever, unless the citizen Indian chooses to sell it.
Let there be no more the policy of seclusion, but rather that of absorption.
Let all covenants between the Government and the Indian be executed as promptly and faithfully as with any other person.
Let the Indian citizen have his own home with all the protection of National and State Governments.
Let the Indian citizen have the same protection of law, and require from him the same obedience to law as governs in the case of the white man and the black man, and then the Indian will work out his own destiny.
Let us say with that quaint philosopher, Hosea Bigelow, that
“This is the one great American idee,To make a mana man, and then to let him be.”
“This is the one great American idee,To make a mana man, and then to let him be.”
Trusting that the American Missionary Association will keep its standard on the Indian question “full high and advancing,” I remain,
With very great respect,
Your obedient servant,
Clinton B. Fisk.