Ulisstflttcirg ^ssnriatiori.
An Appeal by a Colored Man
for His Own Race.
BY
SECRETARY M. C. B. MASON, D.D.
CONGREGATIONAL ROOMS,
FOURTH AVENUE AND TWENTY-SECOND STREET,
NEW YORK.
AN APPEAL BY A COLORED MAN FOR
HIS OWN RACE.
BY SECRETARY M. C. B. MASON, D.D.
The most remarkable movement of all the cen¬
turies for the uplifting of any people was that
movement, begun more than thirty years ago, for
the uplifting and enlightenment of the newly
emancipated freedmen Never before in the his¬
tory of the Christian church had there been such
a remarkable movement—the expansion, as it
were, of the mind and spirit of Christ through
human hands and human hearts. And this move¬
ment, my friends, was remarkable, not only be¬
cause of the breadth and depth and earnestness of
that Christian spirit which borned it, and which
during all these years has maintained and sup¬
ported it in its unselfish devotion for the uplifting
of the poor and the oppressed, but it was remark¬
able also because it came as an immediate response
to the sore and distressed condition of the people,
the earnest and pressing demands of the nation,
and the urgent call of Almighty God. For
scarcely had the dark and dismal clouds of a
nation's war passed away, scarcely had the roar of
cannon, and the din of musketry been hushed,
when another army mightier, in its responsibilities
and in the task assumed, than the victorious army
of the Potomac, turned toward the South with the
spelling book and the Bible in the name of Jesus
of Nazareth.
4
These early beginnings were dark days, neces¬
sarily so. The conditions which for more than
250 years prevailed in the South made them so, it
would have been a veritable miracle had the
South, blinded by the misconceptions of the past,
been ready or willing to receive these new evan¬
gels of peace. Consequently our work was mis¬
understood, our motives questioned, our teachers
ostracised, hissed, insulted, mobbed. But these
men and women—the avant coureurs of our
educational work in the South, believing that their
call to work and labor in this section of our coun¬
try was not simply a call of the church, but be¬
lieving, which was infinitely greater, that their call
to work and labor in this section of the country
was a call of Almighty God, stood to their post.
Consequently, to-day, after more than a quarter
of a century of hard, heroic, successful work, our
schools and academies are dotted all over the
South, and many a spot where the boys in blue
and the boys in gray met in deadly conflict, has
been reconsecrated by Christian philanthropy,
dedicated to the cause of Christian education,
and many buildings lifting their heads to the
skies, speak for a new day, a new era, and promise
better things.
And now I ask what was the condition of these
people as we found them thirty years ago, when
this work was begun. I call the attention of the
audience, Mr. Chairman, to study with me briefly
this fact, not for the purpose of bringing forward
the unpleasantnesses of the past—God forbid. God
forbid that any man of whatever race or color, in
church or state, should bring one discordant note
to mar the harmony and good feeling now, more
than ever, existing between the North and South.
5
But I call attention to this fact in order that we
may see and seeing appreciate, and appreciating
and understanding come to some comprehensive
idea of the task we assumed, of the success already
achieved, and of the great work yet to be done.
What then, I ask, was the condition of these
people as we found them thirty years ago, when
this work was begun. And now in the very be¬
ginning of this discussion I make this proposition,
viz.: that never before in the history of the world
had there been such a spectacle as was witnessed
in the condition of the emancipated freedmen
thirty years ago, when this work was begun. And
I follow up that proposition by one like unto it,
viz.; that never before in the history of the world
had any nation treated her emancipated freedmen
as our nation treated hers a generation ago, after
the surrender at Appomattox. Our Bible tells us
that about three thousand years ago, when Israel
went out of Egypt she took with her the earrings,
breastpins, the finger-rings and other pieces of
gold of her former masters to be at least some
compensation for the more than four hundred
years of service which she had rendered to Pha¬
raoh and his people. More recently, only a few
years ago, when Russia, barbarous Russia, turned
her serfs loose, she gave every one of them three
acres of land—some compensation for their ser¬
vices—three acres of land—a tangible means of
preparation, as it were, to get them ready for the
inexperienced duties of life just before them.
More recently still, only a few years ago, when
Brazil turned her slaves loose she gave every one
of them something—something for their services—
something, I repeat it, as a morning star of hope
with which to prepare them for the new, inexperi-
6
enced duties of life just before them. But, my
friends, it remained for Christian America, after
two hundred and fifty years of the most successful
slavery the world has ever seen, viewed from the
standpoint of the master, two hundred and fifty
years during which all over that Southland the
strong arm of my fathers cleared its forests, dis¬
emboweled its hills and tunneled its mountains,
two hundred and fifty years even when the nation
did not count him as a man, when the nation had
upon his limbs, his ankles, yea, upon his very
soul itself, bars of iron and chains of siteel, yet he
took time enough to throw off his shackles and
chains long enough to go into every war of the
nation's life to fight for the nation's supremacy,
for be it ever remembered that yonder, more than
a hundred years ago, when the British redcoats
came to bring us into subjection to taxation with¬
out representation, the first patriot band that
marched across Boston Common was led by a
Negro, and his blood was the first that was shed
in that great struggle for freedom and independ¬
ence. Two hundred and fifty years, when in the
most critical period of his history, tested and tried
as no man has been tested and tried as far as I
have been able to read the world's history,- tested
and tried as to whether or not when the opportunity
was given him he would wreak vengeance upon
inoffensive women and children left in his care,
while his master was in the war fighting to make
slavery the corner-stone of this republic. But in
that critical moment he stood an example for all
the world. He stood with one hand on the door'
knob of his master's mansion for the protection of
his master's wife and child, while, I repeat it, his
master was in the war fighting to rivet the chains
7
of slavery more closely about him, one hand on
the door knob of his master's mansion and the
other with welcome to the Union soldier. And if
there is a Union soldier in this audience he will
bear me out in the assertion that a black face was
always a friend to the boys who wore the blue.
And yet after two hundred and fifty years of such
loyalty to the nation, devotion to God, submission
to the powers that be, the nation turned him loose
without a cent for his two hundred and fifty years
of service with no tangible means of preparation
by which to get himself ready for the stern and
responsible duties of citizenship so suddenly thrust
upon him. Poor, ignorant, demoralized, degraded,
slavery left him without a home, without a foot of
land, without a name, without the true sense of
manhood, with ragged clothes, destitute.
Such was his condition when this work was
begun—begun, I believe, and the more I study it
the more I believe it—begun not because the Negro
had so suddenly become so popular, but because
the Christian church—certainly that part of the
Christian church whose eyes had not been blinded
by the misconceptions of the past, came to the con¬
clusion that so long as she made any pretension
to being the visible representative of Jesus Christ
upon the earth, so long as she claimed to be the
city on the hill giving light to all the inhabitants
around, so long as she claimed to be the follower
of Him concerning whom it was said, He went
about doing good, so long as this was her claim,
then she must of necessity do the very work the
Master would have done had He been here in per¬
son in the world. The Christian patriots, I be¬
lieve, also, Mr. Chairman, had a hand in this
work. They had come to study this work as never
8
before, and they said, see here, here is a man put
down, down into the life and thought of the nation,
who has made for himself and for us a history
unique in the development of our national life.
Unlike the Indian smarting under his wrongs, he
went into every war of the nation's life, sand¬
wiched between his white brothers with his gun on
his shoulder, fighting for a nation in which there
was not enough of genuine manliness to place
upon his humble brow that of its most humble
citizen—in every war save the war of 1845, which,
as you will remember, was gotten up not for the
purpose, not so much of extending our national
domain, but by the slave oligarchy of our country
to secure more territory upon which to carry on
the nefarious business of buying and selling human
beings, and the N egro showed his good sense by
not going into that war to make more territory
upon which to enslave himself and his children.
Ah, said the Christian patriot, we had need of him
in the past, and he has always helped us, we may
have need of him in the future. Let's give him a
chance. Instead of discussing questions of superi¬
ority and inferiority, the superiority of the one,
and the inferiority of the other, without having
given the so-called inferior even an opportunity to
show his inferiority—let's give him a chance ; let's
put him in the race, and let him run, and if by
some act of creation, or, if you please, by the lack
of it, he is unable to keep up with the crowd, let
him run anyhow, for the very running will do him
good. And so out of these two fundamental ideas
this work had its origin and its beginning.
Now, after all these years of struggle and sacri¬
fice and endeavor what has been done? What
are the results? What is the accrued interest?
9
What has been accomplished, not merely in the
erection of buildings, but what has been done in
the permanent uplift of the people ? Can any good
come out of Nazareth? There was never a time
in the development of this work when this ques¬
tion of what has been done has a more important
bearing than to-day, and to my mind it is perti¬
nent to the whole subject under consideration.
Fortunately for us, Mr. Chairman, some things
that were regarded as empty experiments thirty
years ago are now settled and settled forever, and
all questions concerning the mental ability of the
Negro have actually become ancient history.
In the first place, the combined efforts of these
great benevolent institutions have during these
years gathered into the schoolhouse more than
four hundred thousand young men and women,
and the dollars and dimes put into their lives and
characters have been multiplied a thousand times
over and over again and again. For this four
hundred thousand touched, uplifted, transformed,
have gone out to touch, uplift and transform
another four hundred thousand, and they in
turn have gone out to touch, uplift and trans¬
form another 400,000. So that this blessed
influence, ever widening and ever increasing,
has gone on, on, on ad infinitum in the great
work of uplifting the South, of saving our nation
and bringing America so near the heart of our
blessed Christ until she shall become, as I verily
believe God wills her to become, the avant coureur
for sending the Gospel to all the nations of the
earth.
In the second place we have sent out nearly
thirty thousand Christian teachers—what a mighty
factor this—thirty thousand young men and
xo
women, all of whose parents were born in slavery
themselves, an army thirty thousand strong, not
only intellectually, but, thank God, morally pre¬
pared to help in the uplift of their fellows from
the moral degradation into which the conditions
of the past had plunged them. My friends, if you
were to ask me to single out any one thing as the
greatest thing that has been accomplished by
these schools, I would pass by our industrial work,
important as it is, and as prominent a place as we
have given it in all these schools—I would pass it
by and stop here and point to the Christian teach¬
er—the Christian teacher coming out of schools
where the Bible is a text-book, this, my friends,
is the greatest creation of our work. For what
the South needs more than anything else is moral
education, and I do not believe, Mr. Chairman,
that a little more of it would hurt the North.
What effect this kind of work has had and will
continue to have upon the social and moral life of
the people, is apparent. And in this connection,
let it be said, let it be said as if from the house¬
tops, that during all these years not a single
student or graduate from any of these schools has
ever even been charged with that un nam able
crime against womanhood and virtue. And this
fact, my friends, without regard to the guilt or in¬
nocence of the people who have been accused, is
a more eloquent appeal for larger and continued
giving to this work than any words of mine could
possibly be. Notwithstanding the marvelous suc¬
cess that has come to us, it must be admitted that
we have reached a critical period in the develop¬
ment of this work. At no time since emancipa¬
tion have we been confronted with such peculiar
conditions as there are to-day, The determined
II
efforts at disfranchisement by the South are met
by apparent indifference in the North. And if
the riot in New York is to be taken as an indica¬
tion, the North is really trying to outdo the South.
Amid these doubts and mistrusts on the one
hand and the wild ravings of the mob on the
other, there is but one thing for the Church of
Christ to do. We must follow closely in the foot¬
steps of the Master, and count ourselves honored
as His representatives among men. Inspired with
the great success that has come to us in the mold¬
ing and building of men and women, let us stand
by our work without wavering, evasion or apology.
On the other hand, the Negro must demean him¬
self carefully. Upon him more and more respon¬
sibility is shifting. Yesterday his friends could
answer for him. To-day he must answer for him¬
self. Personal purity and individual worth must
by him be regarded as of greater moment than the
mere claiming of rights and privileges. The
question now is not what shall be done with the
Negro ; nor, if you please, what will the Negro do
with us, but rather what will the Negro do with
himself, his opportunities and obligations growing
out of them. And upon his answer to this ques¬
tion depends in a marked degree the place he is to
occupy in the future life and thought of the nation,
and the strength and permanence of our work in
the South.
But, Mr. Chairman, I do not despair. I believe
in the Negro, and I believe in the justice and fair
play of the American people. The answer already
given by those whom we have touched and up¬
lifted in the purity of their lives, and in the
unselfish devotion to the work of helping to uplift
others, is encouraging, reassuring, yea, inspiring.
12
Justice and tolerance on the one hand, individual
worth and character on the other, this will settle
our questions and settle them right. And I be¬
lieve it will be done. I believe in America. I
believe that here on this soil to which all races
and colors and nationalities and kindreds and
tongues have come —the versatile and unconquer¬
able Anglo-Saxon, the fiery and intrepid French,
the broad-minded and liberty-loving German, the
silent, yet indomitable Italian, the tender-hearted
and forgiving Negro—they are here, the best of
them, the worst of them—God sent them here,
except my people, and you hurriedly sent for
them. I believe that here on this virgin soil, dedi¬
cated to the immortal declaration that all men are
created equal, and endowed with certain inalien¬
able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness—I believe that here we shall
develop an ideal type of manhood, broad and
deep, cultured and refined, thoroughly unselfish,
altruistic, magnanimous, living and breathing the
spirit of Christ, imbued and saturated with his
life. When this grand consummation shall come,
and I know of nothing that is helping more to
bring it to pass than is this work of Christian edu¬
cation in the South—when that grand consumma¬
tion shall come, and may God hasten the day
when that grand consummation shall come, we
shall have peace, permanent peace, and a claim
to that righteousness which exalteth the nation.