PETITION OF PRESIDENT E. A. WARE AND OTHERS.
REFERRED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
We, the undersigned ministers and teachers, representing the work of the American Missionary Association, mainly in the State of Georgia, respectfully petition the annual meeting of the Association about to assemble at Cleveland, Ohio, that they appoint a committee of five, more or less, who shall report at the annual meeting in 1883 with reference to the policy that should govern the Association and its representatives in matters suggested by the following questions:
First. Is it the mission of the Association to work solely among the three despised races, so called, or through its work for these races to labor for the upbuilding of other people without distinction of race as rapidly as they can be brought within the sphere of its influence?
Second. Should it or should it not be the policy of the Association to establish separate churches or schools for different races?
Third. What should be the relations of comity between the Association and our other benevolent societies when undertaking to do missionary work of the same nature in the same field?
Fourth. What light, if any, is shed upon the foregoing questions by the history of the foundation and early work of the Association?
We would suggest that the committee be instructed to invite correspondence from the officers of the Association, from the officers of our other missionary societies, from all workers in the field, and from others interested, and that the report be published in the religious press at least two months before the annual meeting of 1883.