American Missionary Association.

This year the Fourth of July is on Monday. Last year, being on Sunday, Dr. Dana’s suggestion to take up a contribution to help the A. M. A. out of debt was acted upon by many of the churches. The result was a large increase to our receipts. Why not repeat the effort this year? It is certainly in order that patriotic sermons should be preached July 3d. It is just as certain that a contribution taken in connection with such a service in behalf of the A. M. A. would be neither burdensome nor inappropriate. It would be an easy matter certainly for that $5,000 deficiency that we carry from last year to be provided for. We throw out the suggestion.

One other thought. Vacation days are now upon us. We make the request that our friends will bear our work in mind as they visit the country churches. A little effort to circulate the American Missionary and to make the people acquainted with our work, would go a great way to help us.

In the June Missionary we mentioned a watch sent us by a widow. It was a cherished memento. Not being able to make an offering of money, she gave us that which represented to her more than money. A reader of the Missionary, noticing the gift, has kindly sent us more than double its market value in redemption.

We are pained to record the death of Mrs. J. H. Parr, which occurred in Chicago, April 3d. Mrs. Parr first went South under appointment of the A. M. A., in November, 1884, to take charge of the musical department at Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas. At the close of that school year, with her husband she went to Quitman, Ga. The trying experiences in connection with the persecution of our missionaries, and especially the incendiary burning of our school-house at Quitman, gave her nerves such a shock that she never fully recovered from it. The last six months of her life she seemed to be improving. They were months marked by special Christian activity, aiding her husband in his work as a pastor. But death came suddenly, and it was clearly manifest that her nervous forces, so fearfully overtaxed and shattered by the experience of that terrible night in Quitman, were very far from being restored. We commend the bereaved husband to the benediction of the loving Father who sympathizes with all his children in the day of their affliction.

The Herald, of Greenville, Miss., is responsible for the statement that a Negro who was serving out a small fine on the chain-gang at Vicksburg, for refusing to work had $100 added to his fine. The same paper also states that George Young (white), convicted of forgery and confined in Kemper Co. jail, was taken from prison and set at liberty by a party of masked men. This may be taken as a sample of the difference between the way justice is meted out to white and black criminals in Mississippi. The color line is certainly drawn. A good thing for Justice that her eyes are blinded. The hand in which she holds her sword would certainly move to smite the discriminators, could she have a sight at the outrage.

A committee of the U.S. Senate, consisting of Senators Platt, Blackburn and Cullom, have been investigating Indian matters. A long telegram, every point of which tells against the Indians, professing to be based on the investigations of this committee, has been sent out all over the country. Depend upon it, when so lengthy a telegram is sent over the wires of the Associated Press, there is an agency behind it that has an axe to grind. The dispatch was so one-sided that any careful reader could not help seeing that in so far as it stated facts, they were but partially stated. It said the committee had witnessed a dance among the Osages, and that “it was especially sad to learn that two of the sprightliest of the dancers, covered almost all over with little looking-glasses, sleigh-bells, rings, feathers and ribbons, were graduates of the Carlisle Indian School, who have relapsed into shameless savagery.” If this language, taken in connection with its setting, means anything, it means a slur at Indian education. But suppose the telegram had said that there had been connected with the Carlisle School, in all, eighty-four Osages; that none of them stayed in the school over three years; that more than a half of them remained less than a year, and that there have been no Osages at the school since August, 1885; had the telegram made that statement, there would be nothing “particularly sad” in the discovery that two out of the eighty-four had yielded to the tremendous temptation to fall back into ways out of which they had never been lifted. It is sad, of course, that these people are savages, but the spirit that lurks behind this telegram is far sadder. It is absurd to talk of these youth as lapsing. Indian education is not to be judged by the conduct of those who have been in school from less than one year up to three years at most; nor, even had they been in school for ten or fifteen years, is it to be condemned should it be proved that two out of eighty-four, yielding to temptation, had fallen.

It will interest the readers of the Missionary to learn that the Act of Congress for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians provides that every head of an Indian family shall be settled on 160 acres; every unmarried person over eighteen years of age, and every orphan, shall have 80 acres; and every single person under eighteen born before the President issues the order making allotments, 40 acres. The allotments so made are to be inalienable for 25 years, and the lands remaining over are to be bought of the Indians by the Government and opened to homestead settlement only; such homesteads in tracts of 160 acres to be inalienable also for five years. When the allotments have been made, all the Indians are declared to be citizens of the United States, entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of such citizens.

THE JOHN BROWN SONG.

The claim has been made that the melody of the John Brown song was the product of the colored people. Our readers will see from the following article, which we take great pleasure in publishing, that Mr. Frank E. Jerome, of Russell, Kansas, is the author of this famous war song. He has written the article, at our request, for the Missionary, and in a private letter he says that at the time he composed the song he was only thirteen years of age.

Ed.

On the first day of February, 1861, I arrived in Leavenworth, Kansas, from St. Louis, Mo., and took an engagement in a theatre there. Leavenworth at that time was under the greatest excitement. All sorts of rumors of war were coming in, and the soldiers seemed to be concentrating from all sides. Bonfires and stump speeches were the nightly occurrences, and stirred up the patriotism of the people to fever heat. As a boy, I naturally fell into the excitement, and every chance I had I would attend these public meetings. At one of them I heard an impassioned orator thunder out:

“For Freedom and Right will surely win the day!”

This sentence remained with me. I pondered over it, and finally got to singing it in different ways in several songs. Some time after, I heard a prominent citizen say that “John Brown was dead, but the rebels would find that his soul would roll on and crush them!” Before either of these occurrences, I heard a number of soldiers on a South-bound steamer singing, as they swept by:

This tune I had picked up and learned thoroughly. One gift of nature to me has been the art of combining two tunes of different kinds and thereby producing a new one. I had combined this tune of “Go tell Aunt Susey” with the old Sunday-school hymn, “I love to go to Sunday-school,” and the union of these two tunes produced the air of “John Brown’s Body,” as sung everywhere since that time. I sang this tune long before I put any words to it. But when I heard “Freedom and Right will surely win the day,” and that John Brown’s soul “would roll on and crush them,” I found with delight that I could fit them neatly into my tune.

The play in which I gave “John Brown’s Body” was designated as “Jeff. Davis in the Camp.” It represented a number of Northern Negroes going down to capture Jeff. Davis, and during the march southward they build a camp fire, and while the bean soup is boiling the sentinel sings a song, and the rest of the “soldiers” on the stage join in the chorus. I was the sentinel, and gave the song at this time. A company of soldiers was present in the audience, and I was quite startled at the reception my song received. They hurrahed, yelled, laughed, stamped, and called me out time and again, until the proprietor of the theatre interposed and quieted the excitement. But that night, every time I appeared on the stage another storm of applause would greet me.

After the show was over, the soldiers cheered and went out singing “John Brown’s Body” in all sorts of ways, and for several days after I heard it on the street in many different ways. The tune has always remained as I first composed it, but the soldiers changed the words to suit their own convenience and ideas. The song as I sang it was as follows:

This was all the song—but two verses. A short time after this a little newsboy stopped me and told me that he had made up a new verse for my song; and upon asking him to sing it, he sang:

repeating the same line three times. I laughed, and told him I would think it over.

In the theatre when I gave the song was a Frenchman named C. Francois, well known to the early settlers of Leavenworth, who was the leader of a glee club, composed of the actors, who sang nicely many national airs and ballads. Mr. Francois, about the time I sang the song, went to New York, and, I learn, returned by way of Massachusetts, and I am led to believe that it was through his means that the song reached the Eastern States as quickly as it did; and I also have good reason for believing that the Seventh Kansas and Fiftieth Illinois regiments carried the song South a little later.

These are the facts as they occurred; and I may say, in closing, that I am pleased to note that the little acorn has developed into the mighty oak, and John Brown’s name is one of the imperishable monuments that now adorn a free and united country; and the colored people of the South and North can unite under the glorious banner of Liberty in preserving the name and love for him who freely gave his life for their liberty and freedom.

I have heard severe criticism on the part of Southerners regarding the illustrious dead, but I often remember the olden story, in the Holy Book, of similar criticism made by the enemies of Christ, and I also read that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

So, in our homes, in our workshops, in the fields, in the churches and schools, through the pages of history, and within our own hearts, we will never forget the boys in blue who saved the Union, and the glorious hero who laid down his life willingly and freely, that the curse of slavery should be forever extinguished from the bright, fair pages of our history. And while we strew bright flowers over the graves of the departed heroes, we shall always remember, with swelling heart and deep affection, the great work accomplished by old John Brown of Ossawatomie.

Russell, Kansas.

FRANK E. JEROME.

AT THE MONUMENT OF LINCOLN.

The General Association of Illinois, at its recent meeting in Springfield, as it had done once before, went in a body to that shrine of patriotism, the monument to Abraham Lincoln. That patriotic song, now turned to a Christian psalm, “My country, ’tis of thee,” was sung by the people, and a prayer of thanksgiving was offered by Dr. G. S. F. Savage, who has now come to be one of the veteran ministers of the State.

Words of welcome were offered by the Attorney-General of Illinois, Mr. Geo. H. Hunt, and these were gracefully responded to by the Moderator, Rev. W. F. Day. Addresses were also made by Rev. E. K. Alden, D.D., Hon. Wm. H. Collins, and Rev. Jos. E. Roy.

At the former visit of this body, the Jubilee Singers were present to voice the gratitude of the emancipated race.

The colored troops, after their muster-out, gave for the monument more than $50,000, one-fourth of the whole.

The scroll held in the left hand of the bronze statue of Mr. Lincoln bears on it, in large letters, the word “Emancipation,” and the pen in his right hand indicates the signing of that talismanic instrument, while the coat-of-arms, set into the pedestal, represents the eagle as holding in his beak the broken chain of slaves.

Of the 178,000 colored soldiers, 80,000 had, with their great Liberator, laid down their lives for the life of the nation. And so it seemed well that one who was identified with the work of supplementing that edict of freedom should stand there to recount their deeds of valor and to relate with what enthusiasm they celebrate all over the South not only Emancipation Day and the Fourth of July, but Decoration Day itself. Who in that Southland shall be found to offer psalms and prayers, and scatter flowers over the graves of the 321,369 soldiers buried in the eighty-two national cemeteries there? As God would have it, the people are found there, numbered by millions, who delight to render this service of gratitude and of love—a people whose patriotism has never been tarnished with a breath of disloyalty.

What shall be done for a people who have been so true to the nation? Let them be confirmed in all the rights and emoluments of our Christian citizenship.

THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO. 2.

The Want: Nothing so nearly concerns the welfare of this land, and of all lands, as the thorough merging and assimilating of all the races here into one Christian commonwealth. This is needed for the unity and strength of our own nation, and for an example and influence upon the nations abroad. The despised races, in particular, need to be thus fused and absorbed, in order that they may be inoculated and empowered with the spirit of the Republic to carry its freedom, its learning and light, to the lands in darkness. They are part and parcel of our people, fused or not, and the character of the nation will be affected by their presence and influence. The measure with which we mete to them shall be measured to us again. We are in a partnership which involves common gains and common losses. What we put into them of intelligence, piety and moral power, we put into the nation not only, but we put into the mightiest of the unbaptized races of men. We have little conception, indeed, of the immense inertia of the heathen races; or how much sympathy, money and labor, will be needed to move them into new lines of thought, or of moral action. But it is a work to which we are specially called, and for which we have special facilities. It may tax all our patience and charity, and then we shall barely touch the necessities of the case. The churches, the school-houses, the intelligence and the character that will be needed for the uplift of these races, we have only begun to supply. Indeed it is a question as to whether we have yet formed any adequate idea of a work, as for races, in distinction from a work which deals merely with individuals. But if we could bear in mind, in dealing with the Chinaman, the Indian and the Negro, that it is the races we are after, the turning of single souls to God would not seem the small thing that it does. We should then comprehend, perhaps, how much more favorable was a Christian land for the conversion of men, and for the raising up of broad, intelligent, and thoroughly equipped teachers and preachers for the benighted and perishing, than were heathen lands. The activities of our daily life, the forces of our liberty, learning, piety, government, must do immensely more for a man in America than the feeble pulses of gospel life and light can do for him in China and Africa. How much easier, then, the conversion of heathen under the blaze of our Christian sky, and how much stronger and better men can we make of them to undertake the salvation of their own lands!

The great want is the means—both men and money—to throw upon the Pacific slopes, upon the Indian reservations, the Southern savannas, a Christian force large enough to put these races under thorough Christian culture. Anything less than this will fail of the end. It is an opportunity to lay hold of the unsaved races, such as is likely never to come again; which it would not only be unwise to neglect, but deeply criminal not to improve. God sets before us this open door, and not to enter in is to peril their future as well as our own. A responsibility greater than this could hardly be given to men, and an eye to see it and a soul to feel it are what, beyond all things, our people need.

C. L. WOODWORTH

THE IMPRESSIONS OF TEN YEARS.

BY PRESIDENT PATTON OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

The present educational year completes the tenth of my connection with Howard University, and thus with the work of educating the Negro race. An “Abolitionist” since the spring of the year 1837, I have ever felt a deep interest in the welfare of this oppressed people, and the fact of their present freedom has only changed the direction of my anxiety and effort. For I know that the brightness of their future depends upon industry, education, morality and religion. And to this end they must have Christian schools and churches, and an industrial training in shop and store as well as in garden and farm. My experience as president of an institution which in its seven departments—industrial, normal, preparatory, collegiate, legal, medical and theological—covers well the entire range of instruction, except the primary branches, has given opportunity to observe the capacity and the actual progress of the Negro, and to study the wants of the race in this country.

The result is encouragement not uncoupled with anxiety. A great work has been accomplished, beyond question—great in immediate effect, though more so in its prospective bearing. It is rather a great seed sowing than a great harvest. Thousands have been taught the rudiments of knowledge, and a select few have received a higher training. Some ambition has been roused in the masses, and a little progress has been made in supplying them with more intelligent leaders in church and in state. No doubt remains that the Negro may be rendered capable of filling all the stations in life which are occupied by white men. Ordinary acquirements are made with creditable ease. The higher education can also be acquired by the proper proportion of students, but this effort is only partially successful as yet. Poor material is too commonly offered, not only as to native talent, but especially as regards thorough drill in primary studies and the commencement of genuine mental discipline. With an imperfect drill in the lower schools, we can do no perfect work in the higher branches, and we find it difficult to develop and sustain in the mind the idea of a true scholarship, and of the lofty aims of a liberal education. It is but slowly that such an intellectual atmosphere can be made to pervade the colored colleges of the South as is found in the white colleges of the New England States. But the work must be pushed till such a result shall be secured.

Progress always entails added labor and expense. What has been already accomplished by the A. M. A. must not be lost, and the vantage ground must be used to gain new results. When students graduate, their places are more than occupied by others, who have been moved by their example to seek for knowledge. As the spirit of caste is overcome, and places of honor and profit begin to open to colored men, fully qualified persons must be ready to embrace the new opportunities. Every educated and earnest Christian minister sent forth from our institutions will not only supply his immediate church, but will probably organize in the outlying neighborhood one or two others, requiring similar pastors in a short time. And he will also inspire the uneducated preachers of that region to aim at higher work, and to seek school privileges. It is a frequent remark, that the theological department of Howard University has, by direct and indirect influence, revolutionized the preaching in the colored churches of all denominations in Washington, which number about eighty, it is said. Thus the A. M. A. is a leaven hidden in the Southern meal, and destined, with similar influences, to leaven the entire mass.

And this ought to be appreciated by the intelligent Congregationalists of the North, who will rejoice in two obvious results of the operations of the A. M. A. One is, the gradual increase of their own churches and educational institutions, which are becoming respectable in number and great in influence; the other is, the modifying effect upon other denominations, which are thus inspired and toned up to our standard of education, morals and religion. This is secured not only by our example and competition, but also by the enlightening and liberalizing influence exerted upon their own men, who, as teachers and preachers, have been trained in our schools. These are not false to their own sects; they labor faithfully and successfully in their respective charges, but they have gained enlargement of view and a wider charity, and they will be found always on the side of progress in thought and in action, and ready for Christian co-operation.

The movement in progress in both political parties, to obliterate the race-line at the polls, is significant in many respects. It points to a decrease of prejudice, but it also renders imperative increased efforts to furnish the Negroes with intelligent, well-principled leaders, of their own race, to save them from being made tools of by wily politicians among the whites, and by corrupt vote-mongers among themselves. In a section so rapidly developing as is the South, great changes may soon be expected. It is our American Japan. Let us not be backward in supplying the formative influences. The work of the American Missionary Association was never more needed, or more certain to be successful, than at this very moment.