RANDOM SUGGESTIONS.
Will the Exodus Affect the Work of the Association in the South?
I answer without hesitation, it will not. To the present time the exodus movement has been confined very largely to the disturbed parishes, or to certain exceptional cases where the conditions of labor have been oppressive. In New Orleans, while conventions and open-air meetings have been held, and the policy of emigration has been discussed, but few of the Freedmen have decided to leave the State and find a home in Kansas. There is a restless, dissatisfied feeling among the masses of the negroes, especially the poorer classes, induced by the glowing appeals made to them; but the exodus has not assumed, and I believe will not assume, large proportions. The masses will stay on Southern soil and abide in Southern homes. My opinion is based upon the supposition that their rights, social, educational and religious, and their rights also as laborers, will not be invaded or denied beyond what they are at present.
In New Orleans 45 per cent. of the population is colored, and in the State at large 55 per cent. I do not believe that this ratio will be materially changed by the exodus. And even if a few thousands of Freedmen left the South in search of warmer hospitality, an increased compensation for labor, and a more equitable recognition of their rights as citizens, it would not lessen the possibilities of good afforded to the Association. Should a half million go away, there would still be four and a half millions left to be instructed and helped in their race struggle for higher intelligence and a purer religious life. Press forward, then, the glorious work of education. Hasten the full equipment of the normal schools and colleges for the wider, grander work before them. Let new churches be planted, and the pure gospel of Christ be preached all over the beautiful and fruitful South, wherever the Freedman has his home. The work is not one of a generation, but of a century.
Student Aid.
To secure, at the earliest day, one of the chief objects of the Association—the thorough education of colored young men and women as teachers and ministers, who shall be competent to lead the masses of their race to a higher civilization—special aid must be given to those whose minds and hearts give promise of usefulness. A large number who propose to seek only an elementary education, or those who reside in the city where a school of high grade is located, do not require aid from abroad. The wise policy of the instructors in our institutions is to search for young men and women of promise, and encourage them to pursue a full course of study, and to watch over them till the benefits they receive are made a valued possession not only to themselves but to their race. What are the facts in the case? The best material is often remote from the college, and utterly lacking in pecuniary ability. Many of the brightest, the most intellectual of the children of the Freedmen, who are intensely anxious for an education, and have a praiseworthy ambition to be fitted for positions of responsibility and usefulness, are denied the privileges of the college by reason of extreme poverty. Many others are able to meet a part of the cost of an education, but without benevolent aid must stop short of a full course of study. I am just now in receipt of a letter from a worthy and talented young man near New Orleans. I quote a sentence to show its import: “I have the same mind to work in the cause of Christ and prepare to preach His word. I think I have been called to engage in this work and cannot be satisfied unless I do. Dear brother, I do now most solemnly appeal to you and the good brethren in the North to aid me to an education.”
This is one instance of hundreds which could be cited. Another fact deserves earnest consideration. We need to conserve and utilize for the general good the partial education which the graduates of our colleges have secured. At the present time this is not done as it should be, and as it might be, if special student aid were available. Many graduates go forth from the college who are lost to view. After so much patient labor has been bestowed upon them—and in some instances special pecuniary aid given—they should be encouraged in every way to devote themselves to the greatest good of their people. Take the last class in Straight University as an illustration. We graduated eight students, all bright, talented and promising, and, grandest of all, Christians. All are poor—some of them extremely poor. Their education has cost them a hard, patient struggle. They desire to become teachers of the highest rank. The young men are looking to the learned professions. In order to attain what they desire, and what we desire for them, they should take a post-graduate course. The young men, if God calls them to the work, should take a three years’ course of theological instruction.
But left alone, without outside aid, they will be compelled to work for their daily bread, and for them their school days will have forever passed. Is it not worth while to say to these young men: “Come back to the University, and the Christian benevolence of the North will see you through one, two or three years more of study, and then we shall claim you for the college, for the church, and for the work of God. Henceforth you are not your own, but must go wherever God shall call you, and stand in the forefront of every great and good movement for the elevation of your race.”
To-day, if a worthy Christian young man or woman appeals to us, “Can you not aid me to keep on in my studies?” our answer is a sorrowful one, “There is no fund that can be appropriated to that purpose.” Will not good men think of this and make a grand possibility of good a fact gloriously realized?
W. S. Alexander.