The Colored Man in the Methodist Episcopal Church

by L. M. Hagood

“We learn that the trustees of the Chattanooga University decline to comply with the request of the executive committee of the Freedmen’s Aid Society as to the removal of Professor Caulkins. We learn this with much regret, because one result will be a disturbance of the harmonious relations which should exist between the trustees and the executive committee. We do not see how the committee can possibly recede from its position. When the matter was sent back by the trustees for further consideration, and some new facts were submitted, it was the conviction of the committee that the new facts made the case against the professor stronger than before, and the request for his removal was more prompt and emphatic in the second instance than in the first. As we have already said, we are fully satisfied that Professor Caulkins means to be a gentleman; but a man who could, under any possible circumstances, say such things about the Negro as Professor Caulkins certainly has said, and act toward a colored minister as he did act toward Mr. Johnson, is not a proper person to occupy the position of teacher in a Freedmen’s Aid Society school, and the effort of the trustees to retain him can accomplish no desirable results. The professor ought to resign, and thus end the controversy over his case. That the five trustees who voted to retain him in the university are sincere in their motives we do not for one moment doubt, but they certainly do not see the case as the great mass of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church see it, and their position is clearly untenable. Professor Caulkins should not be permitted to remain in that institution. If nothing else can be done, notice should at once be given to terminate the contract between the Freedmen’s Aid Society and the trustees, and at the earliest practicable moment a new administration should be inaugurated. One mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South is to teach a better theory concerning the Negro than the South has heretofore held, and it is wholly incongruous for us to employ as teachers in the South men who hold upon this particular subject opinions which we are there to destroy. However pure the motives of the trustees may be, and we have no suspicion of them, their course is not wise, and if persisted in will lead to serious consequences. We hope they will reconsider their action before the evils are precipitated upon us which must otherwise inevitably result.

MIXED SCHOOLS—LET US BE WISE.

“It will be a very disastrous state of things if, while the Chattanooga University is under discussion, the collections for the Freedmen’s Aid Society shall be postponed. The society is in debt now, and funds must be supplied or its work will be crippled, and in the not distant future will have to be suspended. More money should be given this year than in any previous year.

“No change in the administration of the society has been inaugurated. The colored work and the white work are going on now just as they have done for years, only more successfully than ever before. There have never been any colored students in our white schools in the South, and the last General Conference knew this fact, and approved the administration of the Freedmen’s Aid Society. One of our contemporaries says that colored students can find a way into Grant Memorial University, at Athens, Tennessee; but that is certainly a mistake. We can not learn that one colored student has ever been in that school, nor do we believe that one would be admitted there. Our white schools in the South are for whites exclusively, and have been so from the beginning.

“We do not now discuss the main question at issue, but we do say that, in our judgment, those in charge of the Freedmen’s Aid Society have been administering the trust committed to them just as they administered it before the last General Conference, and as they understood the instructions given them by that General Conference. The Freedmen’s Aid Society has never excluded colored students from white schools. Certain colored persons who applied for admittance to Chattanooga University were refused by the local authorities, and only a few days ago the matter was referred to the officers of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, when a meeting of the board of managers was at once called to consider the question. So far as we know, this is the first action of the kind in the history of the society. What conclusion the board will reach we do not know, and do not now care to conjecture, although our own views upon the whole subject are entirely clear. We do not believe that under the action of the General Conference of 1884 those students can be rightfully refused admittance to the university, and whatever the results may be, the General Conference itself must bear the responsibility for them. We confess our profound conviction, and our painful fear, that if this view shall be adopted and acted upon, our entire educational work among the whites of the South will be imperiled. The prejudice against the introduction of colored students to our white schools in the South is more violent than it would be against the appointment of a colored man as pastor of Trinity Church, Chicago; or, if such a thing were possible, of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. We do not believe that mixed schools in the South, generally, are yet possible, and this fact has influenced the action of the General Conference upon this whole subject. It is barely possible that if that body had fully appreciated the gravity of the situation, the resolution of May 28, 1884, setting forth the policy of the Church, would not have been adopted. However this may be, to us the action of the Conference admits of but one interpretation, and when a student knocks at the door of any one of our schools, the opening of the door must not depend upon the color of the applicant. Whether the action of the conference be wise or unwise is a very different question; but this is our interpretation of what it did.

“For the present, however, we are anxious that the regular collections for the society shall be taken, so that its growing and glorious work may not be crippled. If the collections cease, the colored work will be destroyed. Our white people in the South can do something on educational lines for themselves, but our colored people can do little, if anything; and when the people of the North fail to send in the money, the schools for the colored people must inevitably close. Let no angry criticism of the society result in robbery of Christ’s poor.

“We trust the Church will see the case just as it is, and not rush to a conclusion which will endanger our hitherto prosperous work in the South. The board of managers of the society can be trusted to do what is right and wise. Let the collections be taken as usual, and send the money in promptly, and wait in patience for a deliverance from the board of managers. We do not need angry passion just now, but coolness, deliberation, wisdom, and the fear and love of God. Let these virtues prevail, and no disaster will befall us.”

The trustees of Chattanooga University having refused to ask Professor Caulkins to resign his position in the institution, the Western Christian Advocate reported, editorially and otherwise, the following, which we insert in full, because the editor was present during all the deliberations of the body, and was chairman of the sub-committee which prepared the statements and resolutions which were considered, amended, and adopted:

“The action of the board of managers of the Freedmen’s Aid Society will be found in another column, and will be read very widely and with much care. The editor of the Western was present during all the deliberations of the body, and was chairman of the sub-committee which prepared the statements and resolutions which were considered, amended, and adopted. He is, therefore, in a position to know how the board reached its conclusions, and the spirit of all the discussions. The work was done prayerfully and carefully, and with profound appreciation of the principles involved and of the possible results of the action taken. The board understood that it was dealing, directly or indirectly, with the entire work of our Church in the South; for, as matter of fact, the fate of our Churches in that part of the country is more closely related to the fate of our schools than most persons think. It took a broad view of the whole subject, and after many hours of deliberation on three successive days, adopted the deliverance which is now laid before the Church. What its statements and resolutions are, the reader will learn by personal examination of them. They are easily understood. No adroit play is attempted upon the word ‘policy,’ nor is the resolution of May 28, 1884, treated as a ‘barren ideality,’ The board adopted the view of the whole question which was set forth editorially in these columns some weeks ago. That the General Conference intended to continue separate schools for the two races is entirely clear to us, and that it also intended that those schools should not be absolutely exclusive as to either race, is equally clear. This is the view taken by the board of managers, and seems to us wholly correct.

“We believe it will harmonize with the thought of the Church. We do not believe there is a general disposition to destroy, or even to cripple, our work among the whites of the South; on the contrary, the remarkable success of that work is a cause of joy to the great majority of our people, and they are ready to aid and extend it. But there is a conviction that the last General Conference intended to utter a practical protest against that caste spirit which has so long trampled upon the Negro race; and there is also a conviction that the age is outgrowing that prejudice, and that in this advance toward ideal gospel fraternity the Church should lead the age. The board shared this conviction, and voiced its opinion in an interpretation of the action of the General Conference which none can misunderstand. What the effect will be upon our work in the South no one can foretell. It is possible that our schools in that section may all become schools of colored people; for it is just possible that if colored students shall be admitted to what are now called white schools, all the white students will be foolish enough to leave them. This is prophesied and desired by some who wish us evil, and is feared by some who wish us well, and some of our enemies are already standing ready to laugh at our confusion.