Short addresses were then made by Rev. F.B. Perkins, of the Second Church, and by District Secretary Roy—the former declaring that that meeting alone was enough to repay all effort in that line; enough to remove all prejudice. Indeed, only this week, a former pastor of that church, Rev. J.B. Silcox, now of the East Oakland Church, told me that a similar anniversary held in that same Tabernacle a year ago, had melted down all prejudice. Indeed, it is now, as in the days of the primitive Christians: wheresoever it is seen that people of the despised classes have received the Holy Ghost, that is the end of caste distinction. "Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us who had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I should withstand God?"
A Colored Man Speaks For His Race.
Address at the Annual Meeting in Chicago,
By The Rev. Geo. M. McClellan.
About eleven years ago, out in the country, near Louisville, there was born a little colored girl. She was her father's first child, and he was justly proud of her, and calculated that there must be some fitting name for her somewhere, and that he must get it out of a book. He could not read, but he could spell a little, and therefore he got him a copy of Webster's blue-backed speller, and spelled the book half way through until he found the word "heterogeneous;" therefore that little girl was christened "Heterogeneous." This morning this programme was handed to me, and I saw on it "Chinese, Indian, Negro, White;" and I couldn't help thinking of Heterogeneous. As I looked over the subjects, and thought that I would have to speak about something, I thought that "Chinese, Indian, White man and Negro," was quite a subject for a speech. But I was inclined to be fair, like a certain minister, who was always preaching on infant baptism. He preached on infant baptism, no matter what the text was. The deacons and the people of the church got tired of it, and they concluded to give him some text that would relate to facts, before there were any infants. So they turned to the Book of Genesis, and found the text "Adam, where art thou?" And when the minister came to the pulpit Sunday morning, the deacons gave this text to him and told him, "Here is a text we want you to preach upon." He demurred a little and wondered why they had not given him more time, but finally concluded to preach on this text. He got up and said: "There are three points in this text: First, that men are always somewhere; second, that they are very often where they ought not to be; third, the text is dead set against infant baptism; and as the time is short, I will speak on point third." Now, I said to myself that either of these themes was a worthy one; but as Chinese comes first, Indian second, and Negro third, and, as the time is brief, I will speak on point third.
Not long ago I saw in an illustrated paper President Harrison with his Cabinet, represented as all lolling over asleep; and in the group there stood a Negro, his mouth open, his collar open, his teeth showing, and with a large scroll in his hand. Beneath this picture was this remark: "Wake up to the question of the day," and on that scroll which the Negro had in his hand were the words: "What are you gwine to do with the black man?"
Now, that question has been asked here indirectly to-day: and, my friends, do you know that sometimes, as we have heard this question discussed, we wonder just exactly how people do consider us in this country. There have been some who have advocated colonization. Some have said that we would have to be sent back to Africa or out West, or to South [a] America. One man thinks that extermination will be the final thing to be resorted to. It may be a fault in my education, it may be that this American Missionary Association has not educated me all right—for I am a product of the Association,—but I have been taught to suppose that we Negroes were free, independent, American citizens, at liberty to choose where we will stay and how long we will stay. It seems that very eminent men are discussing the feasibility of sending us to Africa, and whether it is wise to go to the expense if it is thought best to send us there. Now, my friends, it does not seem to me that there is any question about it so far as we are concerned. The whites may go if they want to, but we are not going to budge! So long as this is a free country we are going to stay here; it satisfies us. It seems to me God has so settled it.
The question is not, what are you going to do with the colored man, but what are you going to do for him? A great deal has been done, and it has been said that more has been done for the Negroes than for any other people. That is true: and the Negro has done more in these last twenty-five years than any other people on whom money and time and labor has been expended. The American Missionary Association found out long ago what the Negro problem was. They established schools and sent teachers among us, and when they came to us, they came at once, assuming—not as Senator Eustis has done, that the Negroes have an inherent sense of inferiority, and that they should take an assigned place; not as Governor Lee has insisted, that the all-important thing for the white man to do is to keep the Negro down; and not as Senator Gibbs of Georgia, who a few weeks ago insisted that the white people are in imminent peril, and even went so far as to bring a bill before the Legislature as to whether the Negroes should be driven out of that State. That is not the way these teachers have come down to us. They have assumed that we are as capable as other people, that we have the same needs; and because they have come to us with this assumption to begin with, because they have received us in this way, we have made the progress that we have.
Now, of all things that are most needed to be done for us, we need a good theological seminary in the South, where the ministry can be educated among us. It is only an elevated Christian citizenship that will save us, and make us what other people are; and we must have a theological seminary to aid us toward that end. You have given us colleges, normal schools, industrial training schools, and schools of common branches, and we have now young men and young women filling all the schools through the South. We can get good teachers for our schools in the remotest places, in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi, or anywhere else. So it is not a question as to what kind of teachers we will have. But the churches have not in their pulpits ministers well prepared to preach the gospel of Christ. They have not kept up with the young people in the work done by the schools. In the North, one of the pleasant things we find wherever [a] we go, is that in all your churches there is something for the young people to do. You have Christian Endeavor Societies, and various organizations by which the young people may be reached. Therefore, you gather them in from the beginning and have them trained so that they can take your places as soon as you are ready to step out of the work. It is not so with our churches. Our ministers have not advanced to that degree where they can take up such work. In these little Congregational churches that have been planted, we have educated ministers, who are able thus to work, especially among young people. We do not have people at our hand as other churches have, but we are trying to get hold of them. In Fisk University there were last year, I believe, 510 students, of whom, perhaps, there were 100 Congregationalists. So, after all, it is Methodists and Baptists that you are educating there. This is all right, because the great masses of the people are found in those churches. If we had a Congregational Theological School we could reach these people just as well through the pulpit as we reach them in the schools.