New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-02-19
Corresponding Secretary

ADDRESS OF hon. THOMAS W. CONWAY.
Managers and Friends of the Orphans
Home-AS president of your society | am
pleased to meet with YOU on this anniyer-
safv occasion. and with YOU to give thanks
to Him who has promised to be the orphan )
father and friend. for surely he has. during
the year. dealt with our society in a most
bollntiful and mercitul way.
The year commenced inauspicouSlv for
us. Our treasury was depleted and our
building was both insecure and uncOmfort-
able. The rain poured down through the
roof, the wind ble~' i'll as if the cditice WAS
more of barn or shed than a habitation for
orphan children. and the prospect for the
future seemed discOuraging enough. But
faith in God and eXertiOn suited TO the
emergency soon opened up a way of relief.
Your president wrote to General Howard
the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bu-
reau, detailing the unhappy condition in
which the institution was placed and ury-
ing, as an act of humanity and necessity.
that he appropriate IA suitable sum for such
temporary repair of the edifce as would
enable it to shield the hundred children
committed to our care from the peculiar
hardships endured by them at the time,
resulting mostly from exposure to inclemcnt
weather.
This noble, Christian man. whose kind
tctuS were IllntlLitIdDlt, anu TO
whose devotion the freedmen owe a debt
second only to that due to Abraham Lin
coin, responded promptly and gave into
our treasury the sum of three thousand dol
lars. This sum was sufficient only for
mOmentary necessity, and the managers
were compelled to exert themselves with
more than ordinary earnestness in order to
secure funds sufficient to put the editice in
thorough state Of repair 1t seemed almost
lp,{. ra1V- %l~r, Il
building and begin anew; but. after con
siderable effort in gaining information from
parties sufficiently conversant with such
matters, it was resolved that suitable repair
of the old editice would put it in con
ditiOn for every needed use.
There was no means of securing the neces-
sary funds except by application to the
General Assembly of the State. Accord
ingly a suitable bill was drawn up. offered.
passed by both Houses and signed by the
Governor. This bill gave the society twenty
thousand dollars in State warrants. With
this the board proceeded with the dctcrml-
nation that the editice should be made
durable. comfortable and pleasant to the
eye. 1t was thoroughly slated, plastered,
cemented on the outside and painted, and it
now presents an appearance. and is. i'll most
essential respects, the equal of any similar
institution in the South.
Our State may be proud of having made
this provision for the cOlored orphan,
though the society is not organized with any
spirit of exclusion of any orphan because
of his race. color or previous status in so
cicty. but finding colored orphans kept
from other asylums, it became great
matter of practical Christian charity and
human duty to provide especially for this
excluded class. and so we have built on the
banks of the Teche a homo to which they
can come-One where they can be clothed,
fed, instructed and fitted for the activities
and responsibilities of the present lite and
for the enjoyments Of that higher life
which is to come.
1t is our purpose to make our 'Orphans
Home a model institution, especially IN the
matter of rendering it selt-supporting. Its
hoped that after the present year we Will
be able to support ourselves. We have
seventeen hundred acres of land Of which
four hundred are under cultivation, mostly
IN sugar and corn. Small tracts have been
rented to certain freedmen who live on the
plantation with their families. and who give
one-third of their crops for rent. Enough
cane has been raised the present year to
enable us to secure large crop the ensuing
year by planting and cldtivating it. BY
building sugar mill at cost of about six
thousand dollars considerable machinery
being already in our hands and available
for that purpOse), we can consider our
seives fully able not only to cure for the
number Of orphans already in our charge,
but to increase it considerably.
We do not propose to make our asylum