But more seriously, the South has never enforced laws against the criminal mingling of the races that has almost bleached the negroes white. Is lawful marriage more criminal than concubinage? But who wants the intermarriage of the races to take place? Not the North, certainly. The Southern whites ought to be able to resist the temptation. Every step in the advancement of the blacks contradicts the charge that they desire it. No! the charge is fictitious, and is only paraded to give force to the plea for caste-distinction and exclusion, which is now the main hindrance to the incoming of the Brotherhood of Man.
But the Southerner pleads strongly against recognizing the political equality of the races. He says, The negro is not my equal in intelligence, property or character. Why should he cast a ballot he cannot read, elect men to make laws which they themselves cannot read, to impose taxes of which he pays almost nothing, and to squander the money for the benefit of demagogues? A most estimable Christian gentleman from South Carolina said to me not long since: “On one point the people of our State are agreed. We will not again be ruled by the negroes. We have tried it and we will not permit it to be repeated.” To all this the ready answer is: It was one thing for ignorant, degraded and unscrupulous negroes at that time to rule—nay, I may say, ruin—the State, and another and very different thing, to permit negroes that are educated, possessed of property and of established character to take their proper share in the administration of the affairs of the State; and this brings me to my final point.
3. It is the duty of the hour and of all concerned to unite in aiding the negro to acquire knowledge, property and character. In the Revolutionary struggle, the two White Brothers stood shoulder to shoulder for one object; in the last sad conflict they fought against each other to the bitter end. It is time that the enmity of the last struggle should be laid aside and the amity of the first should be imitated. Let the two White Brothers unite in directing the general government to make ample provisions on terms satisfactory to both to promote popular education in the South; let the State governments in the South vote means to second the effort. Let the North, as individuals and churches, multiply greatly its generous offerings and increase the number of its consecrated men and women to carry forward the work, and let the South respond in its measure in personal contributions and labors, and especially let its people welcome these Northern teachers, not with suspicion and ostracism, but with co-operation and the respect due to their Christian characters. Let the large religious denominations bury dead issues and unite in lifting up the negro. On what nobler or more Christian platform could they stand? Let them come to him not as the priest and the Levite, but as the Samaritan; and let the Black Brother show more alacrity than ever in responding to these efforts in his behalf. When all this is done, there will be realized the great mission of these Three Brothers in America—the founding of a great empire, the establishing of civil and religious liberty, the granting of personal freedom to all, and last and greatest of all, the crowning glory of illustrating the Brotherhood of Man!
NEED OF INTELLIGENCE IN BENEVOLENCE.
BY SECRETARY POWELL.
What should be done to increase the number of those who intelligently contribute to the support of the American Missionary Association?
Among the reasons for raising this question are the following:
1. A large number of the churches give us no contribution. Last year only 1,698, out of 4,277 total, contributed to our treasury. The State Associations every year, and the National Council every three years, recommend the Association to the churches for their support. Sixty-one per cent. of those churches reply: “We do not accept your advice.” A high estimate they must put upon the reasons which governed their representatives! Yet resolutions of commendation are necessary. The cause that cannot obtain them is doomed. But, though necessary, they are not enough. “Good words butter no parsnips.” Those who say not and do are more to be commended than those who say and do not. The resolutions of National Councils and State Associations need to be translated into the benevolent activities of all the churches. Otherwise they are dead letters.
2. Only a small proportion of those who contribute through the churches do so intelligently. Some give from impulse. When the impulse dies, the contribution dies with it. Some give only when roused by a special appeal. If no appeal is made they give nothing. Some give merely because the contribution box is passed—they are ashamed not to go through the motions of putting something in, and they would be even more ashamed to have the congregation know just what they put in. Look at the contents of the average contribution box as it returns from its excursion among the pews. Notice the exceedingly large number of pennies and nickels and quarters (given probably by as many individuals) in comparison with the gifts of larger denomination! It is often the case, even in large congregations, that one, two, three or four contributors—and they not always the most able to give—contribute more than all the rest put together. It is not forgotten that many of the small gifts are the widows’ mites—the offerings of the poor, that, in the arithmetic of heaven, count more than they all. Nevertheless, it remains true a very large proportion of those who put money into the contribution box as it is passed do not know anything about what they are giving for, care still less, and who, if not in church when the contribution is taken, give nothing. Woe to the cause whose annual contribution comes on a rainy Sunday.