THE INDIANS.
The Indians still remain under the care of the Department of the Interior. We believe that the Administration earnestly desires the promotion of their true interests, but the grievous wrongs under which they have so long suffered still continue to be visited upon them, and will so long as an impossible policy is attempted to be carried out by an insufficient force. The question as to the legal status of the Indian is now before the courts. Until his rights there, and to hold property by a secure tenure, are established, he will be exposed to provocations which we cannot expect him to bear in silence.
To us was assigned, several years ago, the nomination of six Indian Agents, who were to report to us as well as to the United States Government. We trust that this work has been to the advantage of these tribes, as our agents have, with perhaps a single exception, maintained good character and reputation amid all the temptations of that trying life. And yet our relations to the Department are not what we could wish them to be. In four of the six agencies where we make nominations, changes have been made necessary during the past year. In two of them agents have been appointed by the Department without our nomination or approval, so that we have no longer any responsibility for the agencies at Red Lake, Minn., or Green Bay, Wis., nor have we, under these circumstances, the same motive as at first to secure good men for these places, when they may be so easily removed, or our nominations thrown aside for others backed by another kind of influence.
Our missionary at S’Kokomish, Rev. Myron Eells, is still patiently pursuing his good work. He is pastor of the church of 23 members, and has three other preaching stations. In these four the attendance upon public worship is nearly 200; 110 children are in the Sunday-schools; 128 families are under his pastoral care. Mr. Eells has travelled among the neighboring people, and diffused his influence over a wide area.
A new element in work for the Indians has been the educational work at Hampton. 77 Indian boys and 9 Indian girls have spent the year at the Institute, contented and studious, and responding to patient and skillful teaching with marked and steady progress. During the summer a number of them gained great credit to themselves by their good conduct on the farms and in the families of Massachusetts among which they were distributed. It is hoped that the number of girls allowed to enjoy these privileges may be considerably increased. Captain Pratt has obtained permission to do a similar work at Carlisle, Pa.
The great feature of the advantage in this training is the continuous influence under which these students are held. It is indispensable to the best work as Christian educators of those who are not helped by their home life. Our experience is the same among the Freedmen, the native Africans and the Indians.
It may be, in the providence of God, in this direction, that the Indian work of the Association is to be pursued and enlarged in the future. The Committee recommend, for the present at least, co-operation with General Armstrong in the work he has so well begun in this direction. The result of his experience, thus far, is his decided conviction that “there is no better way to elevate the Indians than in negro industrial schools.” An effort in this direction promises greater results, for the same expenditure of money, than the attempt to found new missions among the Indians.
THE CHINESE IN AMERICA.
The condition and numbers of the Chinese on the Pacific coast, after all the various agitations of mob, and State, and National Congress, have not been materially altered. The sand lots have still echoed with the blasphemies of Kearney and his followers, and even some of the churches, with scarcely less vigorous proclamations, that the Chinese must go. California has adopted a new Constitution, though the question whether its Chinese provisions are constitutional is yet unanswered. It discourages immigration, imposes conditions on resident Chinamen, forbids their employment by any corporation, and requires cities to remove them beyond their bounds or locate them within prescribed limits; and, finally, both houses of Congress, yielding to political pressure, in the presence of the resident Minister of the Chinese Government, ignored its solemn treaty, and declared that no ship should bring to this shore more than fifteen Chinese immigrants at any one time. We have to thank the President of the United States for the veto which alone prevented this action from becoming law.
And yet the Chinaman is, on the Pacific coast, in numbers not increasing, but not materially diminishing. He does not come, because he can do better elsewhere. He does not go, because he has not yet attained the object of his coming. Meanwhile, several Chinamen have, during the year, been naturalized in other States, and the force has thus been broken of the decision that, being neither white nor black, he cannot be allowed to vote.
Our work has not diminished in our twelve schools under the superintendency of the Rev. Wm. C. Pond. Only three less pupils (1,489) have been enrolled than the year before. 252 has been the average attendance all the year through; 21 teachers are now in the service, including 5 Chinese helpers; 84 gave evidence of conversion during the year, while 137 have renounced idolatry. Mr. Pond says: “The total number of whom we have cherished the hope that they were born of God, from the beginning of our work until now, cannot be less than 235. The Congregational Association of Christian Chinese has now 198 members, of whom 44 were received the past year.”
We believe that this work, with that of our Presbyterian and Methodist brethren on the Pacific coast, is both acceptable to God and approved of men.
FINANCES.
We come now to the statement of our financial history and condition. With profound gratitude to Him to whom the silver and the gold belong, and with renewed confidence in those to whose stewardship he has entrusted it, we make this record: (1.) The expenses of the year have been fully met; (2.) The debt of the Association is entirely extinguished; (3.) On the 1st of October the balance in our treasury amounted to $1,475.90.
It is sixteen years since the Association has been reported free from debt. The expansion of its work, which the changes effected by the war imperatively demanded, involved us in these unpaid obligations, which increased upon us almost yearly until, in 1875, our debt was over $96,000. Then came the turning point. It was diminished by a little over $3,000 during 1876; in 1877 it was reduced by about $31,000, to $62,800. Last year $25,000 more of it was liquidated, leaving, at the beginning of this year, $37,389.79. And now we are able to say that that whole amount is paid. $28,808.67 have been sent us for that express purpose. The balance has come from our general receipts from the living and the dead. And this has been paid in cash. We began to fear that our constant plea in this behalf was injuring the support of our regular work, and last year we set apart, to cover it, a residue of western lands of sufficient value; but the debt is absolutely gone now and not balanced against anything, and that property is free to be converted to other uses.
The total income of the year has been $215,431.17—nearly $20,000 more than that of the preceding year. $15,000 of this increase is, however, from bequests which have amounted to $50,034.16.
For the ability to make these cheering statements we thank God, and in the remembrance of His past goodness we take courage. It looked an almost impossible thing that that great debt of nearly $100,000 should have disappeared, and that in these “hard times.” But the way to know the goodness of God is to try some hard thing in His name. To Him be the praise.
We would not leave the false impression, however, on the minds of any, that these years of retrenchment have been easy years for us, or that the past twelve months have been free from causes for anxiety. Twice during the year we have been $10,000 behind last year’s receipts or this year’s needs. We were greatly perplexed in our unwillingness to increase the old debt or to incur a new one, when, in one case, a large gift, and in the other a large legacy, lifted us over the shallows and enabled us to set sail again rejoicing.
CONCLUSION.
And now what is the significance of our present condition? We are out of debt. We have the promise of a far better equipment for our work in the way of buildings. The Mendi Mission is fairly manned, and, we trust, on the way to a new and wide usefulness. The Freedmen call for all the aid we can supply. All motives of love for self, for country and for God conspire to urge us to increase our efforts for their Christian education. Africa is stretching out its right hand now, as well as the left, which we have been trying so long to fill, and Christian England comes to help us answer the plea. It has been demonstrated at length that our Southern schools may help to solve the Indian as well as the Negro problem, and the Chinaman is yet at our western gate.
Is not the voice of God to us like that He spoke through Moses to those who had just escaped the taskmasters of Egypt?—“Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.”