The American Missionary | Page 3

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There are those who object to the constitutional rights of the Negro,
and some who object to his Christian privileges, lest his recognition as
a man shall lead to "social equality," whatever this may mean. The
following from a leading Negro paper, _i.e._, edited by a Negro for a
Negro constituency, is a testimony as to what is and what is not the
Negro's idea of "recognition":
"That the Negroes in recognizing constitutional rights are at the same
time seeking an arbitrary social equality with any other race is
erroneous. From the time of emancipation, the colored people have had
no disposition to force a social alliance with the whites. The colored
citizens have all their civil and political rights, and these rights they
demand. When honored colored men or women enter a first-class hotel

or restaurant, or seek a decent stateroom on a steamer, they do not enter
these places because they are seeking social contact with the whites,
but because they demand their just privileges for their personal
protection and comfort."
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HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
Of the illustrious ones who laid the foundations for the liberation of the
slave, the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe leads all the rest.
What America's greatest woman did towards making freedom possible,
our devoted and consecrated women teachers have been carrying out
these thirty years to the full Christian conclusion. Those who read the
records of the closing days of our schools in this present August
number of THE MISSIONARY will be reminded how these faithful
teachers are still engaged completing the unfinished work of their
greater sister.
Next to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," perhaps the book which has the truest
stamp of the genius of Mrs. Stowe is her "Old Town Folks." In her
incomparable description of "School Days in Cloudland," in which she
shows how her sympathies went out to the people of every nation and
tongue who are oppressed, she compares the influences of education in
New England with a country without schoolhouses, saying: "Look at
Spain at this hour and look back at New England at the time of which I
write, and compare the Spanish peasantry with the yeomen of New
England. If Spain had had not a single cathedral, if her Murillos had all
been sunk in the sea, and if she had had, for a hundred years past, a set
of schoolmasters and ministers working together as I have described
Mr. Avery and Mr. Rossiter as working, would not Spain be infinitely
better off for this life at least? That is the point that I humbly present to
the consideration of the public."
This point which Mrs. Stowe presents to the consideration of the public,
is the one to which her younger sisters are faithfully directing their faith
and their works among a people who up to Mrs. Stowe's day never saw
a schoolhouse.
We make our tribute to the gracious memory of her whose words went
out into all the world and extended to the ends of the earth: and we ask
remembrance of those who under the same inspiration are living among
the children of these liberated ones and are taking with them the love

and wisdom of Him who was "anointed to preach the gospel to the poor,
the recovery of sight to the blind, and to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord."
We are sometimes asked how this work of education, which Mrs.
Stowe did more than any other person to inaugurate, is regarded by the
intelligent white people of the South. We can gladly say that we have
too much recognition and appreciation of our work among good people
of the South to be otherwise than thankful for it, and for the fact that
these good people are increasing every year in numbers and in
readiness to encourage us. We have never united in more earnest
prayers for our work, and for those who carry it on, even in our annual
meetings than in our worship in the South with many Southern pastors,
and nowhere have we heard more appreciative words respecting our
work than from good people of the South who have acquainted
themselves with what we are doing and how we are doing it. That
multitudes are still unable to see and unready to prophesy does not
count. The day of appreciative recognition has not fully come, but it
has dawned, and will come by and by.
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THE HISTORIES OF OUR CHURCHES.
We have asked the pastors of some of our churches to give to us
sketches of the histories of those churches--their location, pastors and
membership, the condition of their members financially and otherwise,
how many have homes of their own, and what are their employments.