PRINCIPLES AND PLANS.
—This Association does not affirm that races, any more than individuals, are equal in physical or mental fibre and development. Some races, as well as individuals, are manifestly below others in some respects. All that we claim is, that all men shall be regarded as equal before God and the Law; and that hence, in all churches of Christ, no distinction be made, on account of race or color; and also that, in the enactment and administration of the laws of the land, all races be equally protected in person and property, and that whatever immunities or privileges are granted to one, be extended to all.
—This Association does not found exclusively colored churches. They are only exclusive because they are not exclusive. They are open to all races, and hence but few white persons unite with them. But, while the work of the Association has been principally among the colored people in the South, as being at present most accessible, yet it has always favored the establishment of churches, mainly white, where the distribution of population calls for them, and which allow colored persons freely to unite with them. Thus, the early efforts of John G. Fee, its first missionary in the South, was in the formation of white churches in Kentucky. So, also, the counsel of its officers was sought and given in the organization of the Second (or white) Congregational Church in Chattanooga, Tenn. Its first minister was Rev. J. A. Thome, a life-long friend of the A. M. A., and at one time its agent in Great Britain. The Congregational Church in Jacksonville, Fla., was organized, and its house dedicated, under the auspices of Rev. C. L. Woodworth, its Boston Secretary, who spent a month in Jacksonville preaching and laboring for that purpose. Not long since, the Association appointed a missionary in Kentucky, who has surveyed the field in the vicinity of Berea College, and expects to organize five or six churches, to which he will preach in turn until each can sustain a minister. These will be mainly white churches, but open to colored people. In like manner, the Association has promised missionary aid to a church, of similar character, about to be organized in San Antonio, Texas.
—The educational institutions of the A. M. A. in the South are in order to its religious work in America and Africa. Its best and most promising churches are established near the schools and colleges, and receive intelligence and strength from them. These schools furnish hundreds of Christian teachers, who instruct thousands of pupils in day and Sunday-schools, and carry a salutary influence into the homes, churches and neighborhoods where they reside. The schools and theological departments also send out many ministers and missionaries, who carry the Gospel to their people in the South and in Africa.
—The work of the Association is a providential growth, each part having a relation to the whole, and its plans, while at present embracing mainly the “Despised Races,” as they have been called, are restricted in principle to no race or continent.