SECOND NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSEMBLY.
This Assembly, to which reference was made in our July Missionary, was held at Ocean Grove, Aug. 9, 10, 11 and 12, for the purpose of bringing together prominent persons to awaken public sentiment in favor of aid for the education of the illiterate masses in our country.
The meetings were conducted by Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D.D., and the topics discussed embraced nearly every phase of educational work, relating more especially, however, to the negroes, the poor whites and the Indians. In our limited space, we can give simply two or three leading features of the discussion.
The subject of National Aid to Education deservedly received large attention and found its way into addresses other than those on that particular topic. Secretary Strieby presided during the session when it was considered, and the time was occupied by Prof. Painter, Hon. J. P. Wickersham, Senator H. W. Blair and others. Mr. Wickersham gave a comprehensive résumé of the aid provided by foreign nations for schools, pointing out its benefits and also its evils. He argued that, although it generally was the wisest and the only successful way for the people to provide education for themselves, yet under conditions like those in a portion of our country, help should be given by the government. True patriotism, he said, requires us to keep an army of schoolmasters in the South now as much as it did to maintain an army of soldiers to put down the rebellion. The urgency of national aid to education at once was emphasized by Judge Tourgee in the expression that ten million dollars for this purpose to-day would be worth more than ten thousand millions twenty years hence. Senator Blair, who recognizes fully the value of aggressive and thorough methods of reform, declared, and we think truly, that if every leading newspaper would give one strong editorial urging the importance of national aid, if every popular lecturer would devote one hour to public discussion of the subject, and if every minister would preach one sermon in its advocacy, the next Congress would pass a bill for an appropriation for the purpose among its earliest acts, and the people of the nation would applaud with hearty commendations.
The Negro in America came up for a full share of attention at a morning session. A goodly number of colored bishops, doctors of divinity and professors in educational institutions were present. Their zeal for bringing about reform had been heightened by the fact, that in so good and moral a community as Ocean Grove, they were requested to occupy a dining-room by themselves, near the kitchen, in the house where they were entertained. There was no color-line drawn, however, at the meeting. Dr. Rust, who presided, claimed that as the Africans came to this country as invited guests, that as we even sent our ships for them, they were entitled to more respect than ordinary foreigners. That respect was certainly accorded them on this occasion. Dr. Ward, of the Independent, led off with a clear-cut address on the Danger-Line in Negro Education, setting forth the folly of those who hold that education unfits men for useful labor. The gist of this topic he gave in a sentence: “We must educate or we perish.” Rev. J. C. Price (colored) of North Carolina, urged that the Negro must solve his problem by his own impressibility. So fitting and eloquent were his words, that when his limited time had expired, the audience, with prolonged applause, refused to allow the next speaker to be called, and it was only when the Chairman assured them that Mr. Price was but one colored orator among the many he had to bring forward and announced Bishop Campbell that the speakers were allowed to proceed. Dr. Tanner, also colored, read a paper on “The Color-Line,” taking the ground that in this country there must be no class distinction, but that we must be one people. A new code of ethics, he said, was proposed, a code not known in any other nation. It was that equals may associate with equals, if they are of the same color. The session, which had been participated in by two white speakers, was brought to a close by Bishop Campbell, whose good-natured appearance brought freshly to mind the anecdote that had just been told by Rev. J. W. Hamilton, of Boston, the pith of which was the reply of the black man, that if the negro had no soul, religion made his body feel mighty happy.
An evening was given for a public reception of missionaries, teachers and preachers who have labored in the South from the North since the war, about 150 of whom were present. Gen. John Eaton presided over the immense gathering assembled to welcome them. Pres. Braden, of Nashville, Tenn., Sup’t Salisbury, of the A. M. A., Gen. S. C. Armstrong, and others, made addresses.
All the meetings were full of interest, and the managers will publish a report of the proceedings in pamphlet form.
The little company which met in Albany Sept. 3, 1846, to found the American Missionary Association, is rapidly passing away. Another of those original founders, Hon. Freeman Walker, of North Brookfield, Mass., at the ripe age of seventy-nine entered into rest July 11, 1883. If less conspicuous than some others, he was not less clear in his convictions nor less staunch in his defense of the liberties and rights of his fellow men. He had large official trusts in town, and State and nation, extending over many years, and was always the incorruptible citizen, as he was the humble Christian.
He inherited all the mental keenness, as well as the moral toughness and tenacity of the Puritan ancestry, in the eighth generation of which he stood in regular descent. He had hardly reached his majority before he placed himself in the ranks of the few who then stood on the side of the slave. His heart and his hand, his purse and his home were at the service of the fugitive in the days of slavery, and since the emancipation as fully at the service of the freedmen.
The Association has had no firmer friend than Mr. Walker, and few, in the measure of their means, have more liberally contributed to its treasury. He belonged to a generation of heroes and martyrs—men of daring courage and of mighty faith. They were honored of God, and are now coming to receive the homage of mankind.
Sixty Years in the Harvest Field is the title of a biographical sketch of Havilah Mowry, Jr., published by A. S. Barnes & Co. The book contains 360 pages, and is valuable by way of suggestion as to how laymen may employ their leisure even in the humble walks of life in bringing sinners to Christ. Mr. Mowry, after working as a blacksmith for a series of years in Connecticut, entered upon service as city missionary at Brooklyn, N.Y., where he labored for many years with marked success. The book is worthy of a place in Sunday-school libraries, and fitted to promote evangelistic work.