REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_. REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._ H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, EDWARD BEECHER, GEO. M. BOYNTON, WM. B. BROWN, CLINTON B. FISK, A. P. FOSTER, E. A. GRAVES, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAM’L HOLMES, S. S. JOCELYN, ANDREW LESTER, CHAS. L. MEAD, JOHN H. WASHBURN, G. B. WILLCOX.
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his order as _Assistant Treasurer_.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.
The review of our last year’s work has been so recently and so fully given in connection with the annual meeting of the Association, that it is scarcely needful for us to ask our readers to join us in another survey of what has already been accomplished. It is more fitting, as we stand upon the threshold of the new year, to ask what are the signs of the times, and what the demands of the work before us.
There are still dark clouds in the Southern sky. A mere granting of civil and political rights by formal enactment is of small importance unless the rights themselves are honestly allowed and faithfully accepted. The adjustment of alleged wrongs we must leave to politicians if not to statesmen, and to courts of law if not of justice. Our work, obscure and remote as it may seem, is more fundamental and important than that of either Congresses or courts. For by whatever defences the Freedman may or may not be surrounded, the only safeguard of his rights must be in his fitness to exercise and his ability to maintain them. It is for us, through all the changes of the year, to keep steadily to our work. It is not checked because the winter is upon us; nor will it be over when the summer comes. It is not for this year’s harvesting alone that we are working; we are sub-soiling and so laboring for the permanent reclamation of these vast fields. We believe that more depends upon the moral and intellectual elevation of the Freedmen of our land, not only in regard to their welfare, but in regard to the great questions of which they are only a factor, than upon anything which can be done for them by legislative enactment or military power. We purpose, then, to press on with the school and the church. Intelligence and virtue are the Jachin and Boaz, the two great pillars of the porch of the Temple of American citizenship and liberty. While it rests on anything else, it is uncertain and unsafe.