GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—The school work of the Presbyterian Church among the Freedmen reports 39 schools, 4,184 scholars, 58 (or, including 16 ministers and 6 catechists engaged in teaching in addition to their other duties, 80) teachers; making in both departments, including a few assistant teachers, 140 missionaries. Five of their higher schools report 1,126 pupils, of whom 145 taught part of the year, reporting 7,513 pupils. Of the teachers from four of these schools, 77 superintended Sabbath-schools while teaching, and reported 4,043 Sabbath-school scholars. These four schools report also 51 students preparing for the Gospel ministry.
—The M. E. Church, through its Freedmen’s Aid Society, has aided in establishing and supporting 6 chartered colleges, 3 theological and one medical school, and 9 institutions not chartered. In these institutions the number of pupils taught during the year is classified as follows: Biblical, 453; law, 20; medical, 60; collegiate, 74; academic, 270; normal, 1,020; intermediate, 242; primary, 371. Total, 2,510.
—A colored lawyer was recently admitted to practice in the Court of Appeals of Virginia. He is the first colored man who has ever enjoyed this privilege in that State. The motion for his admission was made by the son of ex-Gov. Wise.
Africa.
—On the 8th of July, Mr. James Stewart, C. E., then in charge of the Nyassa Mission, wrote to the Convener from Livingstonia. After building a dwelling-house for the head of the mission at Livingstonia, he sailed north to visit the stations of Marenga and Kaningina. He found all well. The Mangoni chiefs had presented the mission with eleven cows, but insist on their being used only in the country around Kaningina. Our own cattle—most precious property—were in good condition. At Livingstonia, advancing cultivation had driven off the pestilent and fatal tsetse fly. After a fortnight’s holiday, the school-boys and girls had returned to Christian instruction. Mr. Stewart had distributed toys and handkerchiefs as prizes at the examination. Namalambi, “a fine, promising boy,” was dux of the school. Mr. Stewart had already started for Lake Tanganika before the request of the London Missionary Society was telegraphed, and was hoping to meet and, if necessary, aid Messrs. Hoare and Hutley.
The Indians.
—The Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, devotes a large portion of his annual report to the Indian question. He states that the hostile Indians at the West are few compared with the whole number of the race. He states the Indian policy of the Department to be as follows:
“The ends steadily pursued by it are: First, to set the Indians to work as agriculturists or herders, thus to break up their habits of savage life and to make them self-supporting; second, to educate their youth of both sexes, so as to introduce to the growing generation civilized ideas, wants and aspirations; third, to allot parcels of land to the Indians in severalty, and to give them individual titles to their farms in fee, inalienable for a certain period, thus to foster the pride of individual ownership of property, instead of their former dependence upon the tribe, with its territory held in common; fourth, when settlement in severalty with individual title is accomplished, to dispose, with their consent, of those lands on their reservations which are not settled and used by them, the proceeds to form a fund for their benefit which will gradually relieve the Government of the expenses at present provided for by the annual appropriations; fifth when this is accomplished, to treat the Indians like other inhabitants of the United States under the laws of the land.
“This policy, if adopted and supported by Congress, and carried out with wisdom and firmness, will in my opinion gradually bring about a solution of the Indian problem, without injustice to the Indians, and also without obstructing the development of the country. It will raise them to a level of civilization at least equal to that of the civilized tribes in the Indian Territory, and probably to a higher one, considering the stimulus of individual ownership in land. It will not take away from them by force what in justice and equity belongs to them, but induce them to part with what they cannot cultivate and use themselves for a fair compensation. It will open to progress and improvement large districts now held by Indians, which will then be of no real advantage to them and are now to nobody else.”
The Chinese.
—Last February, Congress passed the bill prohibiting Chinese immigration which was vetoed by President Hayes. The very next day the new anti-Chinese constitution was adopted by the convention in California, denying the Chinaman the right to land, to labor, to vote, or even to live in any town or city. Soon came on the other side a decision of the Federal courts, adjudging the queue-cutting ordinance to be an unconstitutional violation of personal rights; and another, asserting that the treaty with China, granting its people a right of residence, gave them also a right of labor, and forbade any State to prohibit their employment. Chinese merchants meanwhile, unwilling to give up the commercial advantages assured to them by treaty, are establishing a line of steamers from China to the Sandwich Islands, and a connecting line thence to the Pacific coast. This record of the year’s events is memorable and full of suggestiveness.