THANKSGIVING ADDRESS AT ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.
BY. PROF. W. A. CROGMAN.
If I were asked to-day what one thing since the close of the war has contributed most to the permanent prosperity of the South, I should unhesitatingly answer, Christian charity—that charity which has exhibited itself not only in the giving of gifts, not only in the lavish expenditure of immense sums for the elevation of the degraded masses; but by its prayers, by its sentiments promptly and fearlessly expressed against wrong, by its patient endurance, and by its individual sacrifices made in a field which could promise but little more to the laborer than the reward of conscience for having served at a critical period his country and his kind. It is just nineteen years since the surrender at Appomattox, nineteen short years. But what events have crowded into that brief period! What stupendous changes have been wrought within that time in American society, especially in Southern society!—changes as radical in their nature as they will be far-reaching in their consequences. It is true that these changes have not always been accompanied by peace and quiet and good feeling. This was hardly to be expected. There have been bloodshed and murders. There have been individual sufferings. Thousands have perished by violence and privation. But what, after all, are the sufferings of the thousands compared with the freedom of the millions, and all the possibilities which that freedom grants? And whatever may have been the sufferings, it is safe, I think, to say that they would have been multiplied many times, had it not been for the tireless energies of the Christian churches.
The victories of peace are more glorious than those of war, it is said. I believe it; for they are generally more difficult to achieve. It is easier by far to kill a man than to change his opinions. It is easier by far to overrun a country than to root out of the hearts of its inhabitants their long cherished hatreds and prejudices. This requires time. This requires patience. This requires sacrifice. This requires forbearance and love. Hence it has ever been the lot of Christianity to follow in the track of armies, and reconquer that which was said to be conquered. Cæsar with invincible legions may carry Roman eagles into the very heart of Britain; but the proper subjugation of that island dates from the time when Pope Gregory the First sent St. Augustine and forty monks to preach the gospel to those fierce, wild, uncouth barbarians. And so, when the victorious army of the North was passing in review before President Johnson in the streets of Washington, another army vastly inferior in numbers, imbued with a different spirit, and armed with no other weapons than the Bible and the spelling book, was marching under the eye of God down into this very field from which Grant and Sherman had but recently withdrawn. Silently came they into the field. There was no heralding of their approach, no display. Hopefully came they into the field, notwithstanding they knew that to the majority of the people their presence would be obnoxious. They came with faith in God and love for man. They came impelled by Christian duty and patriotism to wage a new war against the more deadly enemies of the republic—ignorance and vice.
It is not necessary; nor is it desirable to dwell here on the state of the South at that time. It could but present a picture dark and confused at the best. It is not necessary to remind you here of the bitter opposition which existed then to negro education, an opposition which only too often manifested itself in acts of violence and brutality. Nor need I remind you here of the hatred and contempt that was heaped upon the so called "nigger teacher." This is history, known and read of all men. Pleasanter by far will it be, and certainly appropriate on this good Thanksgiving Day, to revert for a few moments to the splendid achievements, under God, of these faithful, Christian workers.
Their work, as we have said, was begun in confusion; but out of chaos they have brought order, out of darkness light. Previous to the emancipation not more than 30,000 colored persons in all these United States could read and write. To-day, according to the statement of Commissioner Orr, of this State, a statement verified by statistics, fully 1,000,000 colored children are in the schools. I say, previous to the emancipation, not more than 30,000 colored persons could read and write. To-day, according to the last report of the society under whose auspices I have been laboring for many years, that society alone has given instruction to 80,000 persons, and these in turn to tens of thousands more. This number could, of course, be greatly swelled by the figures which could be shown by the Congregationalists, Baptists and Presbyterians, who for these many years have been laboring with equal patience, zeal and love, for the advancement of mankind.
There are some, however, who think that there has not been enough accomplished in these years, for the time, the money and the energy spent. Well, perhaps there has not. But suppose these various societies had accomplished, up to this time, nothing more than the teaching of these thousands simply how to read and write, who could estimate the value of the achievement? Who could measure the scope of its influence and tell where that influence will end! When you have once taught a man to read you have placed in his hands the key with which he may—if he be industrious—unlock all the stores of knowledge in his own language. When you have once taught a man to read you have opened up to him unlimited possibilities, and laid the foundations for a broad and liberal culture. When you have once taught a man to read you have introduced him into the best society of all the ages; you have made him the companion of Shakespeare, Milton and Bunyan; of Bacon and of Burke; of Tennyson, Longfellow, Bryant and Emerson; and you have quite unfitted him for slavery. When years ago a kind mistress, in the State of Maryland, undertook to teach a little slave boy to read, little did she think that she was awakening aspirations never again to be quenched; little did she dream that she was unchaining extraordinary powers, and kindling the first fires of eloquence in the soul of a Douglass. The alphabet was made for freemen. It is the weapon most dreaded by tyrants. When Martin Luther would break most effectually and for all time the papal yoke from the neck of Germany, he translated the Bible and set the people to reading. I am thankful to-day for the pen of Lincoln and for the sword of Grant; but more thankful by far for the patient "school ma'am" who taught the negro his letters, and set a million of us to reading.