Rev. Peter J. Gulick, a veteran missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., died at Kobe, Japan, Dec. 8th, 1877. We record his death with affectionate regret, remembering his annual contributions sent to us for many years, accompanied with expressions of his deep interest, in the uplifting to Christian citizenship of the destitute and despised people of his native land.
The Council Fire is the title of a new Monthly Journal, of 16 pages, devoted to the history, character, social life, religious traditions, government, current legends, etc., of the American Indian, including also discussions of our relations to him as a people and a Government. The fact that it is under the editorial management of Col. A. B. Meacham, formerly Indian Superintendent and Peace Commissioner, is a guarantee of its character and value. It gives the current history of Indian affairs in all parts of the country.
NEGROLOGY.[A]
The political calm in the Southern States has apparently given leisure for a somewhat wide discussion of the negro: what he is in himself, and what he may be in the State. It is largely a discussion by Southern men, and from a more or less distinctively Southern standpoint.
Mr. Stetson gives a series of answers to questions, representing the negro as he is, morally, socially and politically: the sum of it all being, what might be anticipated for a race of tropical origin, held for generations in slavery, and suddenly endowed with political equality. Sensual and emotional by nature, lazy and thievish by training, clannish and easily misled as a voter, his salvation will depend on his receiving education, but not by a forcing process, and on his coming gradually to the independent exercise of his civil rights.
The South Carolinian gives an apparently frank representation of the situation as it appears to the native people of that State. The present shows more honesty and less crime, a renewed interest of the whites, and the banishment of the blacks from politics. No party will be tolerated “which aggressively, and in real earnest, advocates negro rights.” He says: “The whites regard the negro as an inferior animal, admirably adapted to work and to wait, and look on him, ‘in his proper place,’ with a curious mixture of amusement, contempt and affection. It is when he aspires to participate in politics, or otherwise claim privileges, that their hatred becomes intense.” In regard to Education, he writes: “There is great prejudice in this State against free schools for any color; nor have the airs put on by colored-school children contributed to remove it. Policy, however, and past promises will probably impel the maintenance of a free-school system for some time, at least, but on a less extensive scale. It is proper to add that some cultured Southerners are in favor of educating and elevating the negro, as the best way to solve our race difficulties. But it is doubtful if their views will prevail against inherited prejudice.”