This institution has a colored president and I think that he has demonstrated the ability of the colored man to govern. I regard Rev. D. J. Sanders, D. D., as a very able man, and I think he has done as well at Biddle as any other man could have done, considering the period through which the institution has just passed.
No institution in the care of the Presbyterian Church has a wider field or greater opportunities. Its students are gathered from all the South Atlantic States, and are scattered in their school and church work through all this vast region, and as far west as Texas.
It is the only institution of its kind maintained by our Presbyterian Church in the South; and it certainly is one of the most important agencies in the hands of the Church for the accomplishment of good among 8,000,000 of colored people. It commends itself to the prayers and gifts of all good men.
The importance in the eyes of the Church, of the interests which Biddle University represents, is forcibly put in the language of a recent circular addressed to churches on its behalf by the Board of Missions for Freedmen:
"What is done," say they, "for Biddle University, will, in a great measure, determine the success of our whole work among the Freedmen."
FERGUSON ACADEMY.
Ferguson Academy is situated at Abbeville, S. C. The property was acquired by the Freedmen's Board of the Presbyterian Church in 1891. In 1892 Rev. Thomas H. Amos, A. M., then pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, was elected principal to succeed Rev. E. W. Williams. The enrolment then consisted of sixty-two students, which have grown from that number to 210.
The property consists of three buildings valued at $7,000 or $8,000, free of debt.
REV. THOMAS H. AMOS, A. M.