ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.
The thirty-sixth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association was held in Plymouth Church, Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October 24th to 26th, 1882.
Promptly at three o’clock Tuesday afternoon, the meeting of the Association was called to order by the President, Hon. William B. Washburn, of Massachusetts. Devotional services were conducted by Prof. John Morgan, of Oberlin, after which Gov. Washburn, on assuming the chair for the first time, said:
“I appear before you on this occasion with feelings of a mixed character; partly painful, partly pleasing—painful when I reflect that your expectations in regard to the presiding officer whom you have lately selected probably never will be realized; pleasing—doubly pleasing—to remember that I have received the support of so distinguished an organization as has invited me to preside over its deliberations.
“Let me, then, first of all, thank you for the honor conferred, and assure you that no effort of mine shall be wanting to meet the demands of the occasion.
“I know full well the many trials and difficulties which this Society has been called upon to pass through in the past. Your labors have been for the most part among the neglected and despised races of our country. Society rests upon selfish principles. Men respect the honored and the elevated, not the despised and the down-trodden. Hence a great portion of the labors of this organization has been unknown and uncared-for by the great majority of mankind; and yet it is in the midst of such degradation that we get the brightest glimpses of Christianity, the widest and broadest views of humanity. The aspect to-day which we witness of endeavoring to raise even the lowest masses of mankind into intellectual, moral and spiritual dignity, never was broader than at the present hour. Take courage, then, and feel that your labors have not been in vain. The success which has attended your efforts during the past year, the wonderful increase of the means which have been provided this organization by an enlarged constituency, the bright aspect of the future, ought to strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of all who are interested in this organization to make greater sacrifices, if need be, in the future than have ever been made in the past.
“Every true citizen, every real patriot ought to feel to-day a special interest in the prosperity and the success of this Society.
“It has been well said that essential to the perpetuity of our republican institutions are two conditions: Popular intelligence and popular morality. In other words, in order that free institutions may be preserved, there must be general intelligence and sound morals. Hence, two institutions are essential—schools and Christian churches. Free institutions without intelligence can exist only in name. It is moral, not physical ills which we have to fear. While the people themselves remain pure no human force can prevail against them.
“When four millions of slaves were suddenly set free the great problem to solve was, what shall we do with them? To-day each vote of those individuals counts as much in the ballot-box as the vote of the most distinguished and intelligent citizen in the land. Would we preserve, therefore, and hand down to our children those institutions which were entrusted to our charge by our fathers, and which have been shedding on us blessings to which all other nations are perfect strangers, then we must educate and Christianize these millions of new-born citizens. I honor this organization especially to-day because it has done more than all other instrumentalities, perhaps, combined to bring about this grand result. Let no one, then, be discouraged or falter at the magnitude of the work; for, if we rise to the level of our opportunity, if we are true to ourselves, victory will sooner or later be ours.”