PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL FREEDMAN’S COMMISSION. OOCA SIGNAL PAPLL. JANUARY, 18GC. ^ BOSTON: Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhill. I 860 . PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL FREEDMAN’S COMMISSION. OCCASIONAL PAPER JANUAKY, 1866. BOSTON: Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhill. 1 866 . Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/protestantepiscoOOepis \ INTRODUCTION. At a meeting of the Board of Missions of the Protestant- Episcopal Church, held at St. Luke’s Church, Philadelphia, on the evening of Oct. 5, 1865, it was resolved that so much of the Report of the Domestic Committee as relates to the freedmen of the South be referred to a committee of seven. The following committee was appointed : — The Bishops of North Carolina and Illinois, the Rev. Dr. Wharton, Rev. Dr. Quintard, Rev. Dr. Mahan, and Messrs. Churchill and Huntington. •At a meeting of the Board held at St. Luke’s Church on the evening of Oct. 13, the following resolutions on the report of the Committee were unanimously adopted : — Resolved (1), That the Constitution of this Society be so amended as to authorize the appointment, during the will of this Board, of a commission, to be called the “ Protes- taxt-Episcopal Freedman’s Commission,” to whom shall be committed the religious and other instruction of the freed- men; said commission to meet quarterly, a majority to be a quorum, with authority to appoint a secretary, and gen- eral agent, and treasurer ; and to constitute, as its geueral representative, with full power to act for it during its re- cess, an executive committee, composed of such of its mem- bers as it may prescribe, not to exceed eight ; the members of said executive committee to be ex officio members of the Board of Missions, said commission to be governed in its actions by the principles laid down in the eleventh article of the Constitution of the Board. Resolved (2), Until otherwise ordered, this commission shall consist of the following persons : Rt. Rev. Bishops Williams, Potter, Odeuheimer, Stevens; Rev. Drs. Dix, A. H. Vinton, Hawks, E. Washburne, Littlejohn, Haight, Montgomery, Dyer, Rev. Edward Anthon, Rev. Drs. Diller, Eccleston, 4 INTRODUCTION. ITowland ; Messrs. H. Fish, Rufjgles, F. S. Winston, John Welsh, John Bohlen, George I). Morgan, Robert B. Minturn, George C. Collin-!, John II. Swift, Stewart Brown, W. H. Aspinwall, John Travers. Signed for Committee : On motion. Rev. Drs. Wharton and Huntington, and the Rev. John A. Aspinwall, were added to the Commission. It was then unanimously Resolved, That the first resolution connected with the re- port be approved by the Board, and transmitted to the Gen- eral Convention for their action thereon. At a meeting of the General Convention, at St. Andrew’s Church, Philadelphia, on Wednesday, Oct. 18, the proposed amendment of the Constitution of the Board of Missions was unanimously passed by each house. At a meeting of the Board of Missions, held at St. Luke’s Church, on the evening of the same day, the following pream- ble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : — Whereas The General Convention has enacted the amendment of the Constitution of this Society in reference to freed- men proposed by this Board, Resolved, That the gentlemen heretofore nominated as mem- bers of the Freedmen’s Commission be hereby appointed members of said commission. The Commission met at the rooms of the Domestic Commit- tee, New York, on Friday, Nov. 10. The following mem- bers were present : — Rt. Rev. Bishop Potter, Rt. Rev. Bishop Odenheimer, and Rt. Rev. Bishop Stevens. Rev. Drs. Dix, Dyer, Eccleston, Haight, Howland, Littlejohn, Montgomery, A. II. Vinton, Washburne, Wharton; Rev. Messi's. Anthon and Aspinwall; Messrs. S. Brown, Minturn, Morgan, Welsh, and Winston. Rev. John A. Aspinwall was elected Recording Secretary to the Commission; and Rev. Dr. Wharton, Corresponding Sec- retary. Robert B. Minturn, Esq., was elected Treasurer. Thomas Atkinson. H. J. Whitehouse. C. T. Quintard. Milo Mahan. Francis Wharton. A. II. Churchill. S. H. Huntington. INTRODUCTION. 5 The following Executive Committee was appointed : — Rev. Dr. Haight, Rev. Dr. A. H. Vinton, Rev. Dr. Little- john, Rev. Dr. Eccleston, Hamilton Fish, Esq., F. S. Winston, Esq., G. D. Morgan, Esq., and John Welsh, Esq. The following resolutions were adopted : — Resolved, That the Executive Committee be requested to open a correspondence with the Rt. Rev. the Bishops of North Carolina, Tennessee, and the South-west, and with other Southern Bishops, so soon as the way shall be open for such communications, and make of them a respectful request to be favored with such suggestions as they may be inclined to make with regard to the best methods of prosecuting the work for which this Commission was created. Resolved, That the Committee be requested to direct their attention, as their main object, to the religious and secular instruction and j)hysical relief of the froedmen of the South; it being within tlieir power incidentally to aid by pecuniary grants such clergymen as are engaged in the teaching of colored persons. At a subsequent meeting of the Executive Committee, it was resolved, — 1. — That the clergy be requested to take up a collection, in aid of the Commission, on the coming day of National Thanksgiving; or, if this interfere with diocesan regulations, at the earliest period practicable. 2. — I'hat contributions of clothing be earnestly solicited to meet the destitution among the froedmen that now exists. 3. — That this Commission heartily invites the formati(m of auxiliary societies, diocesan or parochial, to aid in its import- ant work. 4. — That the Corresponding Secretary be requested to is- sue an appeal, stating the nature and objects of the work in which the Committee is engaged. At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held in New York, on Friday, Dec. 15, the Rev. J. Brinton Smith, D.D., was elected General Agent. Hereafter, all applications from teachers, and all communications as to supplies, are to be di- rected to tlie Rev. J. Brinton Smith, D.D., at the office of the Commission, No. 10, Bible House, N.Y. Goods for Freed- men to be forwarded to the same address. The Rev. Dr. Wharton was, on the same day, elected a member of the Executive Committee, in place of Rev. Dr. Eccleston, resigned. ADDRESS BY THE REV. FRANCIS WHARTON, LL.D., PELIVKRED IN <^t. ^aul’si ^v00UIinf, auil other (Churchcsi, DUEING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER, 1805.* Br the unanimous action of the Board of Missions, sanc- tioned and authorized by the equally unanimous action of the General Convention, a commission has been instituted for the instruction and relief of the ffeedmen of the South. As this Commission now appeals to our whole Church for sympa- thy and support, it is here proposed to set forth some of the grounds by which its institution is I'equired, and some of the principles by which its action will be governed. EDUCATION OP FBEEDMEN NEEDED BY THE WHOLE NATION. First let us view the necessity of such action, as required by the condition of the freedmen themselves. Never was so large a body of men placed in a condition so critical, both as to themselves and as to the nation of which they are part. They comprise a population of four millions ; fora number of years they have been almost the sole laborers by whom our South- ern fields have been worked. Without them, cotton and su- gar, for instance, could not have been produced ; if they were not the only laborers who could have borne the climate, they were certainly the only laborers on the spot who were at hand to till the soil. No industrial class is now ready to take their place ; yet, without some competent industrial class, not * This address, though unoflieial, will be of use iu giving informahon on the important subject of which it treats. EDUCATION OF FREBDMEN NEEDED BY WHOLE NATION. 7 merely will the South be permanently desolated,* but the prosperity, the peace, the solvency of the whole country will be seriously shocked. To the full play of business reciprocity between the several distinct staple-growing sections of our diversified land must we look for the liquidation of our debt, and the restoration of our prosperity ; and, besides this, unless a system of successful labor, with its products of comfort and wealth be inaugurated in the South, that section will be sur- rendered to political discontent and disorder, which will not merely destroy our general commercial well-being, f but will change the whole character of our political institutions from a federal republic to a military centralization. Yet, in the pres- ent condition of the freedmen, these dangers are very immi- nent, unless prompt and wise remedial action be taken. They are detached from the ligatures, which, under the old system, kept them at work, and the new motives of intelligent percep- tion, of the consciousness of the necessity of labor, and of duty impelling to it, have not yet been formed. By the old system, Southern labor was like oars, by which, under the force of a superior will, the boat was clumsily propelled ; the new system is liko the steam-engine, which, when once fixed up, will apply vastly greater power, with vastly less supervi- sory efibrt. But the difficulty is that we have taken out the oars, and not yet put in the engine ; we have removed from negro labor the impetus of compulsion, and not yet applied to it the impetus of intelligence and conscientious motive ; and, unless the last impetus bo applied, we can expect nothing but wreck. PERIL OF NON-EDUCATION. Then, again, view the political danger to our land, should they remain freedmen, yet with minds and consciences thus untaught and unilluminated. A free and yet ignorant and debased race cannot exist in the vitals of the body-politic without the most fearful risks. Supposing, — if we dare con- template such a guilty catastrophe as this supposition in- volves, — supposing' that like the Indians they are ultimately to perish, under the torture of a civilization which clasps but will not incorporate or elevate. The Indians were a nomadic race, comparatively few in numbers, dwelling on our out- skirts, instinctively wandering forth to die where their deaths wrought no paroxysm in the dominant society, and their corruption spread no infection. But the negro is not nomadic ; he refuses to wander from his old homes ; there have these four millions of human beings lived, and there will ♦ See appendix A f See appendix B. 8 NEGEO CAPABLE OP EDUCATION. they die. If they die from demoralization and degradation, their death, — the death of this living organism permeating every core and fibre of our land ; the very presence of this dying, diseased mass in each point and pore of our system, — this cannot but be degradation and debasement, if not death, to ourselves. No nation can be prosperous, or healthy, or free, that palpitates with such death-throes as these, and incor- porates such a polluting, dying presence. Or, take the other alternative, and suppose that they do not die out; but that they continue to live, — live free, with the power of doing what they choose, without the motive or the capacity of self-support. No nation, Avithout social revolutions the most stupendous, can include in its bounds a population which is at once free and yet has nothing to bind it up in social sympathy and business intercommunion with the classes by which the land is controlled, and which is without the ca- pacity of intelligent industry, Avhere intelligent industry alone can secure a support. Such men, brutish through ignorance, and maddened through poverty, Avould form a constant insur- gent element, as untamable as fire, ready to be kindled by the first frantic impulse within, or the first insidious instiga- tion from without. They must be elevated to self-support and self-control, and to a wise, intelligent, and loyal citizenship, if we would protect our country, and especially our Southern country, from the constant danger of revolt. The negro, if free, intelligent, and conscientious, will contribute to restore our country to a prosperity and vigor and moral dignity here- tofore unapproaclied ; free, but uneducated, he will not only corrupt, but shatter our whole social fabric. NEGRO CAPABLE OF EDUCATION. But is the freedman capable of the cultivation here in- voked ? This grave question let us next consider. And remember, in considering it, that it is not disputed ; that centuries of barbarism, followed by centuries of slavery, have deposited over the intellectual structure of the negro a crust Avhich it may take generations wholly to remove. And it should be remembered, also, that the immediata issue is not their present homogeneousness of intellect with the white race, but simply their capacity to become intelligent, Chris- tian, self-supporting, and self-directing members of that great industrial community, of which three-fourths of our population are already composed. Nor is it disputed that there are certain characteristics of barbarism and slavery which will imprint themselves on any people on which they press. Those who are subject to arbi- trary rule, will take to lying; those who have no right to hold NEGRO CAPABLE OF EDUCATION. 9 property, will not bo particular as to property’s more refined distinctions ; those who cannot turn their labor to their own account, will not trouble themselves by working more than they are actually compelled. Nor is it disputed that it may take time to eli’ace the characteristics thus stamped ; all that is claimed is, that they are the result of a peculiar social sys- tem, and that, when that system is remov-ed, they will sooner or later disappear. But what is here asserted is, that the negro race has in it, aside from these accidents, the elements which make up an intelligent, Christian, selfdirectiug and selfelevating indus- trial class ; and to some of the grounds on which this assertion rests, let us now turn. ms CAPACITY ORDAINED BY GOD. And first, we all admit that the negro race flows from the same original source as our own; and that, as the several streams which make up human society have, under God’s providence, diverged, so they may be made to converge, under the same divine will. Nor can it be denied that it was all mankind which was originally made in the image of God, and that that image is borne by the blacks as well as by ourselves. So, in the next place, must we hold that the temporal as well as the spiritual promises of revelation apply to black as well as to white: ‘‘As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all bo made alive.” Nor is this all. “They,” — so the whole body of the redeemed are spoken of, — “ they shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” We cannot exclude the negro from the range of promises which these represent, without excluding ourselves. AND PROVED BY HISTORY. So, also, we must admit that in the fluctuations of races there have been eras in which tlie African exhibited, while our own ancesters gave no trace of, those very capacities for intelligent, self-supporting industry, to which we now appeal. Thus, among the most stupendous monuments of skilful labor which the earth retains, still reposes the bust of Memnon, regally presiding as if among its own creations, yet with its very countenance marked by those African peculiarities which we now associate with brutishness and incapacity. So among the hierogl3’phics, which first expressed thought in words, and which taught lessons to Greece and Rome when our ancestors were roaming the forests of iliddle Europe in a savage ignor- ance as brutish as that of the present African, — intertwined 10 EDUCATION A PACIFIER AND RENOVATOR, inextricably among these hieroglyphics, as if incapable of dis- sociation from them, is the profile of this same African face. And while subsequent centuries have shown that these facul- ties have become largely dormant, it is very clear that they have not become extinct. The New Testament brings to our notice, as if to classify this race among both the subjects and actors of early Christian civilization, an Ethiopian who was possessed not merely of cultivation, but of rank requiring considerable executive gifts ; and from time to time men of negro blood have been eminent as bishops, as captains, and as masters both of fiction and of the exact sciences. Even now we have a Liberian republic, which has been governed for the last twenty years with a sagacity and success which at least the South American governments cannot surpass ; and we have at this moment a negro bishop of Anglican consecra- tion, presiding with great good sense and energy over an African diocese ; and a negro clergyman, of singular elo- quence and tact, addressing the congregations of our own land. — If we see iron ore yellowing the side of a distant hill ; if by that hill-side we see majestic structures which this very iron served to knit ; if we find the same vein running, under- ground though it may be, to the spot where we stand, we cannot doubt that now, with proper care, this same ore can be worked up to the same purposes for which it was for- merly so elfcctively employed. And even though now the outcroppings of negro power be but occasional, yet here is the race, and there are its past achievements, and there, at the beginning, was its common origin with ourselves ; and here is the very hand of Providence, pointing us to the very work of restoration, for which we thus have both materials and pat- tern.* EDUCATION A PACIFIER AND RENOVATOR. Nor can we examine the condition of the freedraan now, without seeing in him a peculiar readiness for that very kind of restoration which would make him our fit co-worker in the building up both of State and Church. In the modulations of races, as of climates. Providence may welt be supposed to es- tablish such a diversity in unity as may bring out a more com- plete and healthy interchange and development of labor than, identity of occupation and temperament would produce ; and this diversity we perceive here. In our own race, we notice force of character, enterprise, stubbornness, high inventive- ness, great restlessness in the seeking out and occupation of new fields, as well as a physical inability to pursue labor under a tropical sky. In the African, we see docility, remarkable * See Appendix C. EDUCATION MUST BE PRACTICAL AND SECULAR. 11 skill in imitation and reproduction from a given type, an over- weening attachment to its old sites, a perfect content in almost monotonous perseverance in application to a particular round of pursuits, and a capacity to labor in climates which white industry cannot endure. And, in the common base from which these diverging types spring, this same feature of variety rising from unity appears. We cannot look at the schools where the children of both races are respectively taught, without seeing that the negro child, so far as concerns the reception of the primary branches of education, is not behind those of our own color, whose home advantages have been as slight. The ques- tion of the negro’s immediate capacity for high speculative thought does not here arise, and may well be deferred to future experience ; but, as far as concerns his capacity for what is necessary for his own temporal and spiritual welfare, and the temporal and spiritual welfare of our country, the record is clear. Capacity of this kind he has from God in common with ourselves ; capacity of this kind has been abundantly shown in the past ; the susceptibility for the cul- tivation of this capacity he shows now. If there be a diver- sity, as contrasted with ourselves, in the way in which this ca- pacity develops itself, such diversity only tells in favor of future prosperity and peace. It diminishes collision ; it ex- hibits each race as in part the complement of the other ; it gives to each race that in the aid of the other which it itself needs ; it tends the better to energize and refine and elevate them while at the same time strengthening and steadying us ; it is the best restorer of social sympathy and peace.* THE KIND OF EDUCATION NEEDED. What, then, is the education wo should seek to impart? is the next question to which we are to address ourselves. And I need not say that this education must be twofold : it must be secular, so as to stimulate the self-supporting and self-elevating powers ; and it must be religious, so as to give resoluteness and enlightenment to conscience, and to extend by the con- version of souls the kingdom of our Lord Je.sus Christ. No education, in the position in which the freedman now finds himself, would be adequate without embracing the first of these heads. MUST BE PRACTICAL AND SECULAR. We are apt to smile at political economy; but that form of political economy which is instinctive in the Anglo-Amer- ican, — that sort of second nature which teaches us as a * See Appendix D. 12 AND ALSO POSITIVELY CHRISTIAN. race that labor will find a market, and a market will find labor ; which enables us to seize for ourselves and impart to others that taste for the comforts of civilization which makes those comfoi'ts essential to universal social life, and thus ex- tends the domains of industry, and refines its ingenuit}" and in- tensifies its stimulus, — the home political economy which prompts us all to work each day the longer and the more skil- fully, so that a higher degree of education, and an ampler scale of comfort may be ours, — in this kind of political economy must the negro be taught. He must thus learn the need of la- bor to himself, and he must learn the misery which idleness breeds, and he must learn the modes by which labor can be most skilful and most effective, not merel}’ in the field or workshop, but in the extension of the comforts of his own home. And what we would do with our children, did we wish to make labor attractive to them, we must do to this, the nation’s child, — this child whose welfare is as essential to us as to himself. We must create refined tastes and refined intellectual cravings, so that the fruits of knowledge, as well as the burdens and grief of knowledge, may be his ; so that the new cares of labor and self-support thus opened may be bright- ened by recreation and ennobled by intellectual growth. AND HOST ALSO BE POSITIVELY CHRISTIAN. And then, as to the second form wdiich the education of the freedman should assume, as an indispensable need, must the positive truths of the gospel be imparted, and this through conservative and stable agencies. How, without illuminating the conscience, and, in the thunders of the revealed word, ex- hibiting the reh'ibutions of eternity, — how, except by uniting to those thunders the pleadings of Him who died for us on the tree, — how else can you plant among this people, now as it were without law, eitlier within or above themselves, the jirin- ciples of morality without which they cannot ever exist ? The gospel, besides the day-school, is economically needed to stim- ulate to industr}’ ; to teach that the idler is condemned by God ; but the gospel is needed for something more. Remem- ber, for instance, how essential is the sanctity of marriage to a people’s health and integrity and growth ; and remember how imperfectly regarded was this sanctity by this people in days past. Scrutinize the speculative philosophy floated down to them by the present humanitarian propagandism of our own North. Analyze this philosophy ; see whether it is not im- bued not merely with scepticism as to all divine sanctions, but with supercilious contempt of the most precious of the institutions by which we hedge in domestic lile. Misty as PERIL OF SCEPTICAL TEACHING. 13 this philosophy is, yet from it drops of poison liquefy and exude, which raa}’- corrode and sever tlie few ligatures of home fidelity by which this unhappy people are still restrained. Add to this the influence of the presence of alternate armies, — that influence which is one of the most feariul elements of war, — and you can conceive that it needs the full teaching of the revelation of God, — a revelation in the tenderness of Calvary and the terrors of Sinai, to establish the imperative- ness of that marriage sanctity to which, as a single branch of Christian ethics, I now tor illustration refer. Yet, if home, if marriage, if the nurture and tutelage of children, if the decorousness and forethought which these involve,— if those principles be not implanted with the most awful of sanctions in the negro race, what results can we expect but vagrancy, and disease, and pollution, and ruin, and death?* And then, rising from the illustration to the principle, wo ascend to contemplate the full motive power to right action which the gospel of Christ alone can supply. By neither com- pulsion nor prudence can this motive power be produced. Compulsion or prudence may plant a transient and superficial industry on our land, like those canvas villages and trees which w'ere unfurled on the roads over which the Russian empress travelled, and which, when the pageant passed on, were removed. But institutions which are real, which have an abiding base, wdiich will remain steadfast while the awful pomp of eternity marches on, — these must be founded on the resolutions of a spiritualized heart, resting on no temporary pressure or transient policy, but on a sincere reverence to an immutable God. Constraint or prudence may coerce, but can- not regenerate ; may push to the temporary eftbrt, but cannot lead to the remote end ; may insert in us a transient mechanism, but cannot inspire a selt-determining soul. But the gospel gives purpose and strength, and in the atonement of the Sa- viour, and in the sureness of his grace, supplies the stimulus and the power of vigorous and holy life. It nerves the soul,be its human accidents what they may, with a man’s vigor, and graces it with a saint’s pardon, and wdngs it with a seraph’s strength, and speeds it to God’s own home. It is a gospel which we dare not hold back from this unhappy people, if we value our country’s safely, and if we would ourselves hope to stand, without one of the most awful judgments ever pro- nounced upon a church, before the Saviour’s bar. Because thy brother was dying, and thou wouldst not relieve ; there- fore is death to come upon thee. There may be a vicarious See Appendix EL 14 THIS THE WISEST FORM OF AGENCY. spiritual death of the wrong-doer in the place of those whose misery he would not relieve ; there may be prosperity with him here, while in the wronged there may be wretchedness ; but his hereafter may be the desolation they have now. God grant that this vicarious suffering may not be ours. Yet how dare we offer this prayer, if we withhold the bread of mercy and the bread of life ? BY WHAT AGENCY? What, then, is the agency by which our Church is now in- voked to undertake this great work ? And it is with no little satisfaction that I recur to the fact that this agency is not merely churchly, and in full accordance with the analogies of an ecclesiastical structure, but that it is in conformity with the principles invoked by tlie national Government, through the appeals of that wise Christian soldier who now heads the Freedman’s Bureau.* NOT BY ONE OF SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION. No system of instruction, — so he holds, and so hold we, — can be successful, which is based on social distrust or antagonisms between the two races who now occupy tbe South. Bitter conflicts there may be, and surgings upwards of brute force, and the possible final calamity of a war of races sympathet- ically permeating the whole land, ending in the destruction of the weaker ; but not that equal, quiet, peaceful growth of the industrial and intellectual and spiritual faculties, which Chris- tianity as well as true national policy involves. No system of instruction can be so successful as that which unites the influence of the old religious instructors of the negro with that of those who now proceed thither from our own Northern shores. Nor can I refer to these, the negro’s religious in- structors of the past, without saying that their fidelity then, is the highest pledge of their fidelity now. Among them were some of the most devoted missionaries the Church ever knew ; to them now the heart of the freedman almost exclusively ap- peals when seeking consolation in sorrow, or for rites to bless the new-born child, or bury his dead. And this is the influ- ence that seeks to welcome us in our work.f • See Appendix F. t See Appendix G. MISERY AND RUIN APPEALING FOR OUR AID. 15 BUT BY ONE UNITING RELIGIOUS SANCTIONS OP NORTH AND SOUTH. By US, in the North, there is no individuality to be lost. Our teachers go forth as teachers from the North, speaking with tlie authority of the North, breathing those principles which make labor honorable, and which associate with it the right of progressive self-elevation. And as such those of our own communion in the South receive us, glad, so they tell us, to see thus summoned the several energies needed for the regen- eration of the unhappy race of which they, with us, are the trustees, and with whose welfare their own welfare is so closely combined. And so it will be that, while retaining our own distinctiveness as to the tone and mode of secular teach- ing, we will not proceed to the field as agents of social antago- nism, and of those race animosities which will turn schools into sepulchres, but as men appointed to heal and cement, as well as to instruct. Our mission is thus to teach in the only way in which teaching can be either efficient or salutary; it is, by the very sanction and organism of our teaching, to use, for the elevation of the freedmen, the religious influence of the whole land ; it is, therefcn-e, while elevating the freed- man, to establish, not distrust and hostility, but confidence and harmony between them and those of our own race with whom they are appointed to dwell. MISERY AN*D RUIN APPEALING FOR OUR AID. And so it is that our Church as a whole, as well as our na- tion as a whole, sanction us as we undertake this momentous work. We have with us addresses from the clergy of the South breathing the very spirit, and using not a few of the points, on which this argument rests ; but voices come to us still more solemn and vehement. In the trail of armies, it is not merely the stately Southern temple that has been swept down ; the little cabin in which the negro worshipped was regarded with even less reverence; and, in the common ruin, few sanctuaries now remain where this people can assemble to worship the Triune God. No interdict of papal tyranny has been more awful than the spiritual interdict uttered by this war. Bell and book, as it iverc, forbidden by the trum- pet’s peal and the cannon’s roar ; the rites of marriage unsol- emnized ; the altar profaned; the pulpit silenced ; the child unbaptized ; and unburied the dead. Nor, in the spread of material ruin, is it the once powerful and rich who have suf- 16 MISERY AND RUIN APPEALING FOR OUR AID. fered alone. It is on the slaves that the common ruin has fallen in the most devastating and sharpest power.* They have been the spoil of spoils; on them, the waifs of humanity, cast off from the protective care of all, has the full storm been spent. In a single case reported to us, among the children of a plantation, who before this dispersion numbered over fifty, it has now been ascertained that there is not one who has not since died from disease or neglect. By an official report of the Freedman’s Bureau, it is estimated, that, unless adequate relief be supplied, thirty thousand will perish in Georgia, forty thousand in Ala- bama, in the winter that now sets in. Huddled together in camps, or in the unhealthiest recesses of cities ; fevered and prostrated by the delusive expectation of a political millennium in whose solaces their broken hearts may find peace, and their weary limbs rest ; exercising no care over themselves or their young, — they are corrupting, they are perishing, they have perished in hundreds of thousands from utter misery and want; they will so perish still. These, — dying Christless, we standing by with closed hands, — we must meet before the throne ; and the living, in their wretchedness, plead and wrestle with us now. From these ruined sanctuaries, from these haunts where the race is dying before our eyes, the awful form of Him with the eyes of flame arises to ask us who will go forth on this work of mercy ? who will give them prayers and aid ? j^lillions went forth at the call of war ; and countless was the treasure by which they were supplied. Who will now be ready, by the gospel of peace, to save this per- ishing people? who to save ourselves? * See appendix H. APPENDIX Appendix A. NECESSITY OF INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY TO THE SOUTH. Gov. Parsons, at the Cooper Institute, New York, Nov. 13, 1865. It is difficult with laugnage to portray tlie devastation which war, especially civil war, produces, so as to furnisli an adequate idea of its effects. To rcaiize tliem you must witness them ; to comprehend them ftilly, you must live upon the theatre, and witness the advance and the retreat of vast armies, listen to the roar of battle, and see those who are left upon the Held after the retreat; you must see lields laid waste, farm-iiouses, cotton-presses, and gins in ruins; you must see towns and cities in flames, to form any thing like an adequate idea of wiiat war in reality is. You, whose fortune it iias been to see oniy the regiment with colors streaming, the recipients of all the kindness and watchful cure that friends could bestow, as they left for the scene of battle, can form no conception of the appearance of that regiment after the battle is over, unless, indeed, it has been your fortune to be on the scene of action, or so near it that your house has been crowded with those who have become victims of the strife. It will bo in your recollection, ladies and gentlemen, that during the last of March, and in April, the Kcbcllion suddenly collapsed. At that time pubiic attention in tiie North was doubtiess turned mainiy to tlie operations around Rich- mond, and to those whicli attended the movements of the vast armies of Gen. Sherman. But it also happened that Gen. Wilson, with a iarge force of cavalry, some seventeen thousand, I believe, in number, commenced a movement from the Tennessee River, and a point in the north-west of the State of Alabama, diagonally across the State, lie pene- trated to the centre, and then radiated from Selma in every direction through one of the most productive regions of the South. The defences of that little city of about ten tliousand inhabitants were carried by assault on one of the first Sunday evenings in last April, sun about an hour high It was thought necessary by the com- manding general to reduce and subdue the spirit of Rebellion. For one week the forces under Gen. Wilson occupied that iittie town, and night after night, and day after day, one public building after another, first the arscuai, then the foundry, each of which covered about eight or nine acres of ground, and was conducted upon a scaie commensurate with the demand that military supplies for war created; railroad depots, machine shops con- nected with them, every thing of that description whicii iiad been in any decree subser- vient to the cause of the licbellion, was iaid in ashes. Out of some sixty-odd brick stores in tiie city, forty-nine, I tliiiik, were consumed. On the line of march, you were scarcely out of siglit of some indication of its terribleconsequences. Indeed, after three weeks had elapsed, it was with dilliculty you could travel the road from I’lantersville to that city, so offensive was the atmosphere in consequence of decaying horses and mules that lay along the road-side. Every description of ruin except tlie interred dead of the human family met the eye. I witnessed it myself. The fact is that no description can equal the reality. When the Federal forces left that little town, which is built on a bluff on the Alabama River, they crossed on a pontoon bridge, .and commented in the night to cross, and their way was lighted by burning warehouses standing on the shore. All this is a part of war, a part of tliat severe discipline which nations e.xperience, and must expect to share as the fortunes of war vary, when they lay aside reason and appeal to brute force to settle what reason should settle, among Christian people certainly, and especially tliose who are born beneath the same flag. [Applause.] At the time of these great occurrences to wliich I at tirst alluded, around Richmond, and in connection with Gen. .Sherman’s army, this de- vastation was in progress in the State of Alabama. Up to that time, such had been the fortune of war, that our State had experienced very little of its baleful effects, except the occupancy of about four counties north of tlie Tennessee River, and a small skirt of the shore on the (iulf of Mexico. In the South, we knew little of the presence of the army, e.\ccpt as prisoners were brought to us to be provided for, and our own sons and brothers were marshalled and carried off to tlie held. Out of a voting population of ninety thou- sand, Alabama furnished a hiiudred and twenty-two thousand men for service in the Con- federntoarmy. Thirty-live thousand of these died on the field of battle, from wounds or from dise.ase, and a large proportion of those who returned came back broken in health and eonstitution, and disabled by wounds from which they had partially recovered, but which rendered them unfit for active service. The white population of that State w-as 525,UOU, according to the census of 18110. At the time Gen. Wilson invaded it, the State was supplying with salt and meal 139,012 women and children, and otherwise helpless per- il 18 APPENDIX, sons of the white race. Of the black race, there were 440,000, and they, being the property of those who owned them, were supplied with food and every thing necessary for their comfortable subsistence physically by their owners. Hence, tliere never was any necessity In all the States for a public assistance of the blacks. But this eleemosynary assistance to the white race was absolutely necessary. The State had appropriated, at the previous ses- sion of the Legislature, seven millions of dollars for the purpose of procuring meal and salt for their relief. .Meat was out of the question. Even those comparatively wealthy pos- sessed but little of it, and that little was generally contributed, for the most part, to the army. That was the condition of things in Alabama at the time the Confederacy collapsed. Now, at that time, the corn crop of the State was just ready to be ploughed and hoed the first time. But the black people, being informed of the presence of the Federal forces, thought the off-repeated tale of freedom was actually to be verified at last, and concluded they would test the matter, knowing no way of testing it except by quitting work, and seeing whether their masters dared order them back again to the plough-handle and the hoe. That was their only mode — simple, direct, efficacious — of testing the great proposi- tion, “ Am I free or not? ” [Applause.] The effect on the crop was, of course, most dis- astrous ; but it tended to satisfy those who made the experiment that there was at least some degree of truth in the idea that they were free. Tlie consequence was, that the crop, just at the turning point, vanished for want of cultivation ; besides, a drouth set in of un- paralleled severity, and continued all through the crop season ; and the result is, that the State, thus depleted of its working force for securing means of subsistence in the com- mencement of the season to a degree never before known, is now left with about half a crop of corn and small grain. Cotton has not been planted to any e.xtent, because, as a matter of course, material for bread must be raised before cotton. This is the actual con- dition of affairs, as given me by the delegates at the recent State Convention which as- sembled in jMontgomcry in September last. Men of intelligence, candor, fairness in all re- spects, and whose judgment can be relied on, assured me t^at it is undoubtedly true, that in that State there is not more than one-fifth of a crop of grain for breadstuffs raised. Now, if the same ratio of indigence exists among the black population that exists among the white, it is manifest that there are seven hundred and fifty thousand people in that State who may suffer for food before the month of March comes round. Our resources were completely exhausted, or nearly so, at the commencement of the last Spring. Eeiiaeks of Maj.-Gen. Meade. Gen. Meade said, — Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is hardly possible for me to express in suitable language the gratitude I feel from your reception of me this evening. It would be vanity in me to say th.at I thought my name was not well known here; but I really did not expect this flattering reception, and am deeply grateful for it. It is only right that I should explain why I am here before you to-niglit. I am no speaker, and it seems to me to be audacity only equal to that required to fight the great battle of Gettysburg to come before you after Usteniug to the flow of eloquence which you have just heard ; but I was told in Philadel- phia, that, if I came here to-night, I might do some good. I therefore said I would come and tell you briefly how heartily I endorse the plan of the Commission, and wish it success. As commander of a very large army, it has fallen to my lot to witness the ruin which has fallen on a large portion of the country. I can tell you that you cannot con- ceive the distress which exists in the Southern States. It is hardly necessary to dilate on this point. Since the Rebellion broke out the men have been engaged in war, the women in providing for their wants. They have had no means of making money. Their currency is now destroyed ; and, when you consider these things, you must see how great is their dis- tress. The question is, ought we to relieve it? I will not reason on the morality of the question, but I will tell you what we soldiers do. After fighting a battle, when the dead and wounded lay .thick around us, we did not ask any questions, but we took tender care of such as needed it. That should be your morality. The Southern people have now ceased to be enemies, and are disposed to be friends. It is your duty, as Christians and citizens, and for your material interests, to believe them. This Commission is worthy of support, for it will relieve their necessities, aud assuage the distress which we, in the course of this war, have been compelled to inflict on them. The officers of this association are among the first men in the country, and will make the very best use of all the funds that may be intrusted to their care. Thanking you for your very kind reception of me this evening, I bid you adieu Appendix B NECESSITY OF SOUTHERN INDUSTRY TO NATIONAL PROSPERITY AND PEACE. GOV. PARSONS, OF ALABAMA, AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, NOV. 1.3, 18fi6. Let me say, likewise, ladies and gentlemen, and especially to tliose of you in this vast city wlio pursue commercial avocations, scarcely one of wliom is not, in some way, directly or indirectly, connected vvitli it and affected by it, that nothing is more important to the interests of the United States of Americii now than to restore business pursuits iu ,all their old relations to e.ach other. A good cotton crop next year will do more to sustain the cur- rency of the Federal (lovcrnraent; to help Mr. McCulloch out of his troubles, if he has any, and perhaps he has ; to maintain tlie supremacy of American manufactures and commerce on sea and land in tlie future as tliey were aforetime; it wili do more to thwart the schemes and mischievous clamors of those wlio wtiisper to the Soutli, “ Free trade and free goods, and down witli the Yankee tariff!” than any thing else you can devise. [Applause.] It will put a checkmate upon tlie idea of introducing Egyptian cotton in place of American in the market. I am informed by a distinguished citizen of this State, who is recently from Alexandria, that, when he left that port, there were fifty-one vessels, steam ers, laden with cotton from the Valley of the NilCj wliicli commanded the same price in Liverpool ,as cotton from the South. Whoever is interested in that trade desires to have a high export duty placed upon American cotton, because such a duty would be equiviilent to a bounty on Egyptian cotton. The same gentleman I refer to — Mr. Field, of the Atlan- tic Telegraph — informed me that English capital by the thousands and tens of thousands is being invested in tlie construction of railroads in India ; so that the cotton cultivated and produced in the interior can be taken cheaply and rapidly to the coast, and tfius brought to market, — an inferior article to the Egyptian, but which goes in to make up tlie sum neces- sary. These things, it seems to me, are worth considering. Now, if the cotton-fields of the South, left desolate by the war, without labor, without capital to sustain a laboring force, and to procure that wliich is necessary to curry on the business of raising a new crop, — if these fields are permitted to go uncultivated another year does it not materially weaken a very great interest in the country.' I refer to this merely for the purpose of sliowing how the doctrine of compensation comes in. He who gives forth from liis abundance to tlio.se whoappe.arto-have nothing to give comes buck laden with returns wliicti lie little expected to receive. So it will be with us. It is in tliis that tlie Union will be restored in the heart ipore effectually than any bayonet can bind it togetlicr. [Eoud applause ] It is not by the bayonet, tliat the Union is to be permanently maintained: it is by good offices rather. Who live upon the extreme South have an interest in common with those wlio live upon the extreme North ; and I look forward, by the blessing of God, to the time wlien we who have been lately at bayonet-points and sword-points shall greet eacli otlier; the people of the North coming to the South, bringing their active capital there, and uniting it with those who have land and experience necessary to cultivate cotton and other crops, and spending their winters with their families in the South ; to the time, too, when new indus- try shall have given us new means and resources, enabling us to go to the North and spend our summers upon your lake-shores and your cool rivers and mountains. That will be the sort of union that will secure harmony and peace. Appendix C. CAPACITY FOR INTELLIGENT LABOR. The free colored people of Louisiana, numbering, according to the census of 1860, eighteen thousand six hundred and forty-seven, paid taxes, in the same year, on an assess- ment of thirteen millions. This gives an average for e.ach person of about seven hundred dollars of property. But those who are best informed on the subject estimate the actual free colored population in 1800, at twenty-five thousand. Adopting this estimate, we have an average for each person of five hundred and twenty dollars, ifow the average wealth of each person tliroughout the loyal free States is put at only four hundred and eighty-four dollars (National Almanac for 180:!, pp. 147, 309). The average in Great Britain and Ire- land is seven hundred and seven dollars (National Almanac, p. 140). These figures speak emphatically of the colored man’s capacity to acquire property, even in spite of serious civil disabilities. 19 20 APPENDIX. “ Near Norfolk, near Richmond, and opposite Washington, abandoned houses as well as lands are rented by coloied people tliemselves, or by the employers of such. All these means have been taken to give the freedmen the prscticai fruits of ireedom. Some may ask. Do they give these results ? In answer, 1 would say, that, wherever a fair opportuuity for their trial has been given, the success has been even greater than we could liave auiici- pated. At Davis Bend, on the Mississippi, the colored people have already laid up more than a hundred thousand dollars. It is the aim of the Bureau to encourage the different benevolent institutions. Industrial schools have been started with the best results. I saw an excellent one at Norfolk. A Quaker lady taught girls to sew and make different gar- ments. And wherever these schools have been tried they have paid their tvay.” Gen. Howard, August, 1805. United-Statks District Court, I Alexandria, V'a., July J2, lo05. j Sir, — It affords me great pleasure to bear testimony to the good conduct of our colored fellow-citizens for the last two years. In this city, we have had from eight to ten thousand contrabands, or refugees from v'irginia slavery ; about two thousand of them have enlisted into the army of the Union ; and nearly as many more have been employed in the Commis- sary and Quartermasters’ service, and in the hospitals of the city. Their sobriety, industry, and economy have far exceeded my expectations, although 1 have been supposed to be pre- judiced in tavor of the race. They have, within three years, built over a thousand dwelling-houses and provided quite comfortable furniture for tnem, at an average cost of three hundred dollars each. They have also invested over fifty thousand dollars in ground rents and purcliase of lots. They have built three churches, one of wood and two of brick, togetlier with two comfortable wooden school-houses. Within the last year I have invested for a large number of individuals in Government seven-thirty bonds, .amounting, in the aggregate, to nearly eight thousand dollars. They have now twenty teachers employed in the education of their children, and I think are, in proportion to their numbers, giving more earnest and general attention to education than the white people of this city. The colored population of the city is now nearly equal to the white; but I am sure I have seeu more than fifty drunken men among our white people to one among the colored within the last two years. Your friend, John C. Underwood. “ It must be remembered that very diverse original races are represented among the slaves. In Southern Alabama and Mississippi will be found, we might say, tribes with whom the traditions of Africa are fresh, individuals whose memories run back to days of freedom there. In the small plantations of Tennessee, on the other hand,'wiil be found men who have associated more freely with whites, — men used to act more on their indi- vidual responsibility, — many of whom would prove a fair match for any Scot or any Yankee. No general inferences, therefore, are to be received with very great confidence; but it may be asserted, certainly, that the younger scholars, at the first, attack the prob- lems of learning with a sort of zeal which brings them fully up to the white children of their age.” — '' North-American Review,” October, Iblio. Appendix D. LABOR AS A RESTORER OF SOCI.AL UNITY. “ Let me tell you my method of solving this problem, — how to rid ourselves of this prejudice. It is, get more the spirit of Christ. That will substitute love for h.ate in our prejudices. But you will say, ‘ This is not practical : the love of Christ is not so wide- spread as to render this available.’ Well, then, interest will do it. We cannot dispense with their labor. Our intercourse which we must hold with them as our employees will serve to dissipate our prejudices. This is my opinion, and I can back it up with facts. Maryland has become a free btate by her own act. In the southern part of Maryland, the slave- owners were devoted to the institution. It was of ‘divine origin.’ Slavery was ‘the normal condition of the black race.’ They hung to it as long as they could ; but fortu- nately in the northern part of the State were brave men who fought against it; and they finally triumphed. Immediately the Ibrmer owners of slaves were determined to drive off their hands from their old homes. They could live with them as slaves, but not as free men. How is it now ? They have agents, whom they send to Richmond and elsewhere, to collect freedmen to labor for them. They must have their help, and they are engaging as many as they c.an get. They are willing to pay from thirteen to fifteen dollars for ordinary hands : they want the women for house labor; and the prospect is, that there will soon be more negroes in that section than there were formerly of slaves and free people of color. They will have no trouble in living with the whites, nor the whites with them. Thus it will be everywhere.” — Gen. Howard, August, 1805. Appendix E, msTEucnoN to be not speculative and theoretical, but practi- cal AND CHRISTIAN. EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S ADDRESS TO THE COLORED TROOPS AT WASH- INGTON, OCT. 10, 1805. “ Hence let me impress upon you the importance of controlling your p-assions, develop- ing your intellect, and of applying your physical powers to the industrial interests of the country; and that is the true process by which this question can be settled. Be patient, persevering, and forbearing; and you will help to solve the problem. Make for yourselves a reputation in this cause, as you have won for yourselves a reputation in the Ciiuse in which you have been engaged. In speaking to the members of llii.s regiment, I want them to understand that, so far as I am concerned, I do not assume or [iretend that I am stronger than the laws, of course, of Nature, or that 1 am wiser than Providence itself. It is our duty to try and discover wliat tiiose great laws are which arc at the foundation of all things, and, having discovered what they are, conform our action and our conduct to them and to the will of Uod who ruleth all things. He liolds the destinies of nations in the palm of his hand, and he will solve the (question, and rescue these people froiii the dithculties that have so long surrounded them. Then let us be patient, industrious, and persevering. Let us de- velop any intellectual and moral worth. 1 trust what 1 have said may be understood and appreciated. Go to your homes, and lead peaceful, prosperous, and happy lives, in peace with all men. Give utterance to no word that would cause dissensions ; but do that winch will be creditable to yourselves and to your country.” GEN. HOWARD’S ADDRESS TO THE FREEDMEN OF LVNCHBURG, SEPTEMBER, 1SC5. He impressed upon them that work was the duty and destiny of all men ; that he himself hitd worked hard all his life from Ids boyhood up ; that lie hud still to work hard ; and that lie was liappy in work; and that the attempt on their jiart to lead any other life, wouUi surely bring them into trouble, perh.aps starvation. He advised them all to make contracts with their former masters or otliers, and, wlien they laid made them, to keep them, observe them to the letter; be faithful, industrious, obedient, and tlius to live down the predictions of many tliat they were unfit for freedom. The General cautioned them against erroneous and exaggerated ideas of what freedom was ; that it brouglit with it to them respon.-ibiti- ties and cares that they had never known before ; that they would have to work hard and constantly to provide for themselves and families ; but that they could get along very well if they would be energetic, honest, and provident. He urged upon them, with great earnest- ness, to do right ; try in all cases to find out what is right, to study and labor and pray to ascertain it, and then to do it. He warned them against lives of immorality, idleness, and dishonesty, as certain to bring them to ruin ; and to endeavor to live in accordance with tlie Christian teachings of which they had just heard. The duty of religion was very warmly inipres.sed upon them; and they were told, that, if they considered their lot a liard one in this life, they must so live as finally to attain to that higher and better life, where the sorrows incident to this will not be known. He alluded to the fallacious idea which some entertained, that the lands of the South would be parcelled among them by the Govern- ment at Cliristmas. This idea, lie told them, was utterly without foundation, and to dis. card it from tlieir minds. The Government had no lands to give ; it had no right to take them from their owners, and it would not be best if it had tlie right; and that, if bands were given them now, with their want of experience in inanitging for themselves, and lack of means, tliey would not find it to their advantage, and would, most probably, soon be cheated out of them by sharpers. The best thing now was to work for others faithfully, learn c.xperience, be industrious and economical, and try to save enough from their wages to buy tliemselves lioines alter a viiile. He urged tiH-ni to educate their children, and bring them up to correct and useful lives. The General alluded to the pernicious advice which had been given them bv mischievous persons, such as, “ If a white man pushes you off the sidewalk, push him orf too: if he strikes you, strike liim back again,” &c. “ This,” s.aid the General, “ is all wrong.” They must remember not to violate the teachings of the blessed Saviour of whom they hat been hearing, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he was smitten on one cheek, turned the other. That meek and gentle example ot the great Master was worthy of their constant imitation. Listen not to the counsels of bad men : they would only do them harm. He assured them that the Government would protect them, and that their rights would all be respected. Gen. Howard proceeded in this strain to address his attentive audience at considerable length : we give only an imperfect sketch of his remarks from memory. They were ad- mirably conceived, and judiciously adapted to the circumstances and necessities of the case, and we doubt not will result iu much good in disabusing the minds of the negroes of error, and giving them correct vievts of their real situation and duties. 21 Appendix F. POSITION OF THE FUEEDIIEN’S BUREAU. War Department, Bureau of Refugees, » Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, > Washington, D.C., May 19, 1865. > Circular No. 2. By tlie appointment of the President, I assume cliarge of the “ Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.” I. Commissioners will be at once appointed for the different insurrectionary States. To them will be intrusted the supervision of abandoned lands, and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen in their respective districts. All agents in the field, how- ever appointed, are requested to report to them the condition of their work. Refugees and freedmen not already provided for wili inform them of their wants. All applications for relief will be referred to them or their agents by post and district commanders. II. But it is not the intention of Government that tliis bureau shall supersede the vari- ous benevolent organizations in the work of administering relief. This must still be af- forded by the benevolence cf the people througli their voluntary societies, no government- al appropriations having been made for this purpose. The various Commissioners will look to the associations laboring in their respective districts to provide as heretofore for the wants of these destitute people. I invite, therefore, the continuance and co-operation of such societies. I trust they will still be generously supported by the people, and I re- quest them to send me their names, lists of their principal officers, and a brief statement of their present work. III. The demands for labor are sufficient to afford employment to nearly, if not quite, all the able-bodied refugees and freedmen. It will be the object of all Commissioners to introduce practicable systems of compensated labor; and to this end, they will endeavor to remove the prejudices of their late masters unwilling to employ their former servants; to correct tlie false impressions sometimes entertained by the freedmen that they can live without labor; and to overcome that false pride which renders some of the refugees more willing to be supported in Idleness than to support themselves. While a generous provi- sion sliould be made for the aged, intirm, and sick, the able-bodied should be encouraged, and, if necessary, compelled, to labor for their own support. 1\'. The educational and moral condition of these people will not be forgotten. The ut- most facility will be afforded to benevolent and religious organizations and State authori- ties in the maintenance of good schools (for refugees and freedraenj until a system of free schools can be supported by the reorganized local governments. Meanwhile, whenever schools are broken up by authorized agents of the Government, it is requested that the fact and attendant circumstances be reported to this Bure.iu. * l.et me repeat, that in all this work it is not my purpose to supersede the benevolent agencies already engaged in it, but to systematise and facilitate them. O. O. Howard, Major- Gen. Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. [Official.] War Departjient, Bureau of Refugees, i Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, > AVasiiington, D.C., Dec. 7, 1805. > My Dear Sir, — Your letter enclosing the Circulars came duly; but in the press of business in getting my Report ready for Congress, I have had to forego for a lew days the privilege of attending to private or semi-official correspondence. I do not think I could give any suggestions. Your printed circulars seem to embrace the objects of the Freedmen’s Aid Societies : but I am e.xceedingly glad to see the Episcopal Church come out so earnestly in favor of this work. God speed you, say I. I send you with this copies of circulars issued from this office ; and I shall always be happy to do any thing in my power, consistent with my orders, to aid you. Very truly yours, O. O. Howard, Mgjor-Gen. Rev. Dr. F. Wharton, Brookline, Mass. 22 Appendix G, SOUTHERN MEN AS CO-WORKERS. North Carolina Council and the Freedmen. On the 15th of Sept., the third day of the session, “ The Committee to wliom was referred that part of the Bishop’s address relating to the present condition and religious culture of the colored population, submitted, through its chairman, Rev. George M. Everheart, the following report; — “ WiiKREAs, by the changed relation e.xisting between the white and black races, a new, and, to some e.xteut, confused condition oti things obtains; and as this revolution in society necessarily tends to create an alienation amounting at least to indifference on the part of the former owners of slaves, and distrust and suspicion on the part of the freed- men towards their former masters, and as the religious education of the freedmen has been thereby alre;idy greatly hindered, and in some eases defeated; and as the present civil statun of the treedmeii, notwithstanding these things, for many reasons seems clearly providential, and should be accepted by us as such, — therefore. Unsolved, That the Church in this Diocese address herself, with all the energy and wis- dom at her coniinand, to reduce this confusion to order, and to elevate the colored race as fast as it may come within her sphere of action. In order to accomplish this end, be it further Jlesnloed, 1st, That this Council commend the people of color to the continued and un- abated forbearance, kindness, and good-will of the white population of this Diocese. Unsolved, 'Jd, That in view of the radical changes wrought in the colored man’s politi- c,al, and. to a large degree, social condition, it is advisable tjiat there should be radical changes also brought about in his religious and ecclesiastical relations ; that his former and subordinate place in the Sunday school, in the congregation, .and at the communion will not answer; that to reach him with the teachings and blessings of the Church it is the sense of this Council that separate houses of worship should be provided as soon as practicable (the white people in this aiding the colored); that colored vestries should be appointed, with white wardens to direct luid afford counsel ; that there should be separate bunday schools and separate congregations; that colored superintendents and catechists should be secured and appointed when practicable, or at least should be ehosen as assist- ants to head catechists or superintendents; that all colored congregations, when competent to form a parish, should h.ave power, through their vestries, of electing their own pastors, and that the pastors may be either white or colored clergymen, and, when colored, with re- lations to this Council to be determined hereafter. Unsolved, :!d. That the attention of the clergy of this Diocese be directed to the import- ance of at once seeking out suitable colored men for catechists and Sunday-school teach- ers, and to give them, as far as possible, personal instructions to fit them for these posts. Unsolved, 4th, That this Council extend an invitation to colored clergymen of the Church to conic among their own people in this Diocese, and labor in their sphere with us, in building up the kingdom of Christ. Unsolved, 5th, That this Council recommend steps to be taken, as soon as practicable, for the education of colored young men for the ministry of the Church to their own peo- ple in our midst. Unsolved, Oth, That, whenever it is practic.able, each parish should make provision for the mental training of the colored children, in such a manner and to such a degree as the condition of affairs may justify, and by every other legitimate means to impress upon the freedman’s mind the sincere interest felt in, and cherished for, him by the Church. The total change in our political and domestic relations, as regards the colored man, and the rapid and almost universal deterioration in his moral condition since his emancipation from sl.avery, demand, as it appears to your Committee, bold, decisive, and definite action in his behalf. In elevating his character, we shall make him more faithful and competent in his sphere, and discharge thereby more perfectly our religious obligations to his race. Moreover, your Committee is of the opinion that the path pointed out is the most direct way of carrying' to the colored man the blessings of our holy Christianity, through the in- strumentalities of the Church; and, as we believe the Church to be Apostolic and Catho- lic, we feel bound to do all within our power to convey its holy teachings as rapidly and as potently as possible to every soul committed to our care, whether its casket be AngUcan or African. Deeply impressed with the great importance of this matter, we respectfully submit the above report for your consideration. G. M. Everhart, Chairman, Albert Smeues, R. F. Buxton. 23 24 APPENDIX. The introduction of this report elicited an interesting discussion, at the close of which It was “ Resoloed, That, in consideration of tiie interest and importance of the subject presented in tliis report, Council postpone action npon it until its next meeting, commending in the meantime I lie temporal and religions interests of our colored population to the benevo- lence and wisdom of tlie Diocese.” Of the subseiiuent proceedings, the editor of the “ Intelligencer ” thus speaks: — “ The report elicited considerable debate; not opposition, liowever. The question dis- cussed was simply in regard to present action. A large majority of tile Council would have voted for its immediate adoption, had not the Bisliop, wno took oc '.asion to indorse the report in very decided terras, expressed the opinion that a postponement till next Council would be the safest course.” And subsequently : — “ It seems to ns no one can carefully e.x.amine the details of the report and be offended. But, be that as it may, it embodies our sentiments, .and we shall teach them not only in our sphere as a parish priest, but as a church editor. Their worth is more apparent every day. “ Why should any one be offended becau.se some plan is devising for the negro’s elevation ? To elevate him is to bless ourselves, protect society, develop our resources, and save our Southern heritage from becoming a desolation. It is singularly true that tliose who shirked service, never gave blood nor treasure to the cause of the South, .are now frequently the most rampant resistants wirli their tongues to the authority of the United States. Tlie same holds good to no small degree in regard to the negro. Those wlio never owned a slave, or whose possession of the negro lias been a recent tiling, are generally least disposed' to do .aught for his elevation now. So far as we are concerned, we have been a slaveowner all oUr life, as all our fathers were. We feel a special privilege therefore in writing all we can, in doing all we can, and in saying all we can, to educate tlie negro’s rnind and lieart. We are well assured on this depends his all, and to no small degree the future well-being of the Southern white man for a generation to come 1 ” War Department, Bureau of Refugees, i Freed.men, ANu Abanuoned Lands, > WashingtO-N, Oet.9, 18G5. ) Mr DEAR Sir, — I have just received your kind letter, and hasten to reply. By judicious effort, very miicli may be dona in the way of education in the South. The want of money, the peculiar habits of a lifetime, and the prejudices necessarily exi.sting, render the South- ern communities for the most part unprepared to educate their poor, botli wiiite and black. Education underlies every hope of success for the Ircedmau. Tnis education must, of course, extend rather to the practicable arts than to theoretical knowledge. Everything depends on tlie youth and the children being thoroughly instructed in every industrial pur- suit. Through education, embracing moral and religious training, the fearful prejudice and hostility against tlie blacks can be overcome. They themselves will bo able to demand and receive both privileges and rights that we npw have dilflculty to guarantee. Therefore, I earnestly entreat benevolent associations to leave no stone unturned to give them the op- portunities for gaining knowledge. I woulii enjoy beiii,; with you at your meeting in I’hiladelpliia, but my orders carry me in the other direction. Do every thing you possibly can for the elevation of the freedmen. My impression is that hundreds, and perliaps tliousauds, of Southern people would be ready to aid you if they were aiiproached in tlie right way. They acknowledge their ne- cessities ; and, as in Louisiana, a large number of native teachers will work for wages. I am often asked what I can do in the way of .aid. My answer is, ’• Not much ’’ I must turn to the societies now, and ask them what they can do to aid me'l What are the people willing to do to secure the blessings almost within our grasp, — the blessings of substantial freedom and enduring peace? tVdietiier in a mor.al or political point of view, 1 believe every thinking man is ready to admit th.at we will stand or fall as a nation ac 'ording as we are true to principle, — according to our fidelity to the trusts evidently committed to us. Very truly yours, O. O. IlGWARD, Major-General. The ministers of all denominations at Selma, Ala., have issued an appeal to the freedmen, of which the following is the main portion : — I. We notice that some of the papers circul.ated among you are trying to make you be- lieve that you are li.atcd and detested by the white people here. The writers of tliese pa- pers live a tlious.and miles from here; they know nothing about you or us; they care noth- ing for you e.xccpt as they can make gain of you. We cannot think why they desire to make you tliiiik we liate you, unless it is to make you look up to them. What they tell you is certainly calculated to do you no good. Its ellect is to make you look upon every white man ns your enemy ; to feel bitter and suspicious; and then to conduct yourself in such a way as to give him the same feeling towards you. This makes you feel still worse; and so it goes on. Now it is certain tliat we have got to live together; and the better the feeling between us, the happier to both parties, —for our interests in this world, because in carrying on all kinds of business, we have to depend on one another ; for our spirit ual in- terests, because the Spirit of God cannot dwell in angry and malicious hearts. lie who would throw in any thing to prevent our coming together in as much pc.ace and harmony Its we ever had, is an enemy of God and man. APPENDIX. 25 Where do yon find signs that we hate you ? It is true that there was some bad feeling at first. Some colored people thought they couldn’t show their freedom without being im- pudent and ill-mannered; some white folks, vexed at the way things turned out, were cross-grained towards the freedmen. But this was only for a little wliile, and with a few people. As a general thing, the whiles were disposed to be kind and friendly, and to give you a good start as far as they were able. If a freedman’s mind had been poisoned against his former owner, so tliat he would take no advice, but did every thing to vex and discour- age his frieinis, whose fault was that J A wom.an lately did sometliing very foolish, which may make licr unliappy for life. Her former mistress was asked how she came to let Nancy take sucli a step. “ 1 did .all I could,” was the reply; “ but slie would listen to any low- down white man sooner than to me; and now she must go lier own way. I’m sorry for her ; but site has made lier own bed.” if planters oiler tlieir freedmen a foir share of the crop, and more; .and then see that they are not doing lialf work, not'making enough to support tliemselves, is it a wonder tliey get angry 1 Hut if they turn off this set, and try to get more faitiiful hands, is it be- cause tliey iiate tliem ? No: tliey are sorry for them ; and it grieves tlicm to tlie heart to see them going to ruin. It was because they feared tliis very tiling that they were opposed to abolition. Tliey knew tliat if they could hire good, faithful hands, they could really make more off their farms tlian by keeping slaves. Now that abolition h.as come, tliey want to make tlie thing work as well as it can for both parties. They liave tlieir own interests in view as well ns yours. Your interests are tlie same with theirs. If they do well, you do; and if they suffer, you do. The freedman who does not do Ids own part honestly and faithfully hates himself. But we declare to you, as in the presence of God, that your best friends in the world before abolition were your masters, and tlie same persons are your best friends now, — tliey are indeed the only real friends you h.ave; but yon cannot reasonably e.xpect them to do every thing for you. You can’t expect them to be your friends while you are your own eneiides. llespect yourself so as to be above every tiling mean and contemptible ; respect yourself so as to be jibove associating with low-lived people, whether black or wliite; respect otlier persons, and don’t be putting on foolish airs; and you may be very sure that every body will respect you. 11. As your friends, we caution yon a&inst idleness, and the vices and follies that grow out of it. ‘‘An Idle brain is the devil’s’^worksliop ; ” tliere he manufactures all kinds of wicked tliouglits; and wicked thouglits are never long witliout opportunity for wicked deeds. ‘‘.Satan finds iniscliitd’ still for idle liaiids to do.” You are now passing tliroiigli a great trial, a trial of your characters, wliich will prove whether you are good metal worth iireserving, or wlietlier vou are mere dirt to be trampled under foot. .Many of you are as much mistaken about freedom, as tlie old .Jews were about the kinirdom of Christ. Tliey tliought tliat in tlie kingdom they were to pre- hend that much will remain undone for wantof necessary means to do it. You see at once, from wh.at I have already stated, that the means of affording relief, not only to the white people, but to the bl.ack people, are w.antiug materially. So far as the blacks are concerned, an entire system of relief is to be inaugurated from very the foundation ; and the question is. Shall that be temporary in its character, or shall it be of such a description as will insure permanency, and in the future great results to the white. Perhaps it is not necessary to call your attention at this time to it, but 1 cannot forbear hinting, at least, at the fact that, by means of this great organization, which has now the support of the powerful arm of the Government to sustain it, there is an opportunity afforded for inaugurating a sound and efficient system, simple, direct and to the purpose, which will be as lasting perhaps as the demands of the race for whom it was inaugurated. [Loud applause.] If this opportunity is permitted to pass unimproved, it will never present itself again. It is immaterial what may be the color ; when it is furnished to them by a lieart moved to sympathy on account of their necessities, they, I say, are well prepared to receive counsel in connection with it. How much can now be done which will in turn become an instrument to produce other effects, multiplied for others in future years. Aid to this Freedmen’s Bureau, therefore, is the great object. I t.ake it, which should be striven for on the part of every one who desires to render efficient aid. It matters not whether he is an individual, or whether he is an in- dividual of a body having for the objects of its organization these great objects in view. I will say also, in this connection, that it is manifest to every one that only in this way can the people of that section of the South where the war has been raging most furiously, and where its destructive effects have been made most apparent; it is in this way only that it can raise a crop aiiother year. Before they can realize the fruits of another year’s in- dustry, this class must starve, unless assistance is promptly furnished tliem.” EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM A CLERGYMAN OF SOUTH C.VROLISA TO A FRIEND IN NEW YORK, UNDER D.VTE OF NOV. 8. “ My great trouble now is the want of employment, either clerical or secular. Will you be kind enough, my dear Dr. , to use your influence in securing me .an appointment under the Board of Missions for the poor freedmen of the South ? lly ministry since ieav- ing the seminary, has been exclusively to the colored race on the coast of South Carolina, and I am glad to be able to say that my mission was regarded by the bishop as one of the most flourishing in the diocese. My church building has, I believe, escaped destruction; but it will need some repairs, as it has been left vacant since 1800. The congregation was dispersed by the near approach of the Federal army ; but since the emancipation of our shaves, thousands of freedmen h.ave congregated on the Sea Islands, where the rivers afford them cheap and easy living; and now there are thousands of the sons and daughters of Af- rica around my church, my vacant church, ready to hear the word of God; but, alas! the pastor whose voice once sounded forth the glad tidings of salvation to the poor negro is far away ; and the only sound now heard around that once favored spot is the sighing of wind througli the lofty pines. My longing desire is to return and reorganize my church for the ])oor blacks, who are not able at present to pay one cent for the gospel ; neither are their former owners. And I am literally penniless, and not able to return to my native isle. I therefore make this appeal for the poor freedmen as well as myself, that, by the help of the church, I may be able to bring order out of confusion. Believe me, my dear sir, that if the Board of Missions intend doing any thing for these poor people, who are fast declining into the grossest immorality, they cannot act too soon in this matter. There are at this time at least one hundred thousand of them without a siugle authorized teacher among them. Some of my former congregation have expressed the hope that I will return and re-establish the church for them; but here I am, unable to pay my way home, or even purchase food and clothing for my.sclf were I able to re.ich home. I am now staying with a friend whose house I assisted to save during the great conflagration. I men- tion these things to show you the true state of the case in reference to the missionaries to colored congregations.” TEACHERS. Applications of teachers are hereafter to be made to Rev. J. Brinton Smith, D.D., General Agent, No. 10 Bible Rooms, New York. REMITTANCES. All remittances of funds to be made to Robert B. Min- TDRN, Esq. (GrinneU, Minturn, & Co.), New York. SUPPLIES FOR THE FREEDMEN. As frequent communications are received by the Secretary, inquiring what kind of supplies are needed for the Freedmen, it has been thought best to answer such inquiries briefly by circular. 1. Cast off clothing, for old and young of both sexes, in- cluding hats, caps, shoes, socks, and, in fine, outer and under g-arinents of every description^ also, bedquilts, blankets, sheets, &c. 2. New clothing and bedding. The material should be plain but substantial. Garments for women and children es- pecially may be made of gray and blue flannels (such as have been used for soldiers’ shirts), denims, and heavy unbleached cotton. 3. Material for clothing and bedding, and all things required in the manutacture of the same, such as needles, thread, but- tons, hooks and eyes, knitting needles, yarn, scissors, &c. 4. Slates and pencils, school books, old Sunday school books, and books for general reading. The barrel or box (the former is preferable), used for pack- ing, should be numbered and forwarded to the Rev. J. Brin- ton Smith, D.D., Bible House, New York. A list of articles sent, as well as the number of the barrel or box containing them, should be enclosed in a letter, to the same address. It is earnestly recommended to clergymen to send an ex- press WAGON through their PARISHES TO COLLECT CAST-OFF CLOTHING, TO BE DISTRIBUTIID THROUGH THIS AGENCY. 29 , T0.ni(JfcV7, >-k W,1^ 341^ rti "T Aa . ‘ *■• . fj - TM J^^4iU ^ A1.U J3f4'^’a: #r • ' t'«yf , I «kfi • f'«W .•♦l" IfrtM '^lB?l^,V^U'^lJiUf«,^ 1/^,7 • >^» ;! ^h^^*^■x^^?•"^%*5^{lM^(rfwii»^^•t^ y#ci»'ih m , ■ ■vitl'’^ •««3i<'’-» Yf'ferfoo. f>it» {oun ’•< (^fioDOi: tiu. A^rt/f .♦ , , V . >-rfx4Jbrr» •V'^Ai r(J> h^iiiT ,r«V^M**V\ Hlifit^ K3«Vrt*it lim *.U i*><»ir drt> f^'Mr-«^<>t’f>'t# f,«v W4ffto u ‘•AibtttJ* % W?'A ,j.v4»oY /-^•i'fATi; ^ jSii ,/UU T?nf ^.IplVt/iifcVrta ♦•m rtJvi *. .in tj,n/ ;. •i; ??9