National Republican., 1875-06-30
HOWARD UNIVERSITY.
A Criticism Of Rev E NJ CrsvatA, Field Sec
retsry Of me American Missionary Asso-
ciauon.

A Criticism of Rev E NJ. Crsvath, Field Sec
retary Of me American Missionary Asso-
ciaIlon.
WASHINGTON, June %, ISIS.
To the -EditO+ Of the National Republican:
SIR: The manner in which petition, numer-
ously signed by many worthy citizens of this COM
muI ity and readers Of THE NATIONAL REPUBLI-
CAN, was greeted by certain uDjustihIble Ian
guage from a per-on prominent by virtue oil MS
Office in the religious circles Of this country, rer-
ders it necessary that defense be made through
the columns of your widely circulated journal
Rev E. NJ. Cravath Field, secretary OF the edu-
eati0nal wOrk of the American Missionary As5o-
citation and trustee Of Howard University, In reply
TO some gentlemen who presented the petition
above alludc1 to, urging the election OF Prot J.
NJ. Langston as president of this Institution, In
substance said " You colored meu are failures In
the management of enterprises and institutions.
You can't run a newspaper. You had Alcorn
University, and with every opportunity tor rs
success you ruined It. In politics behold Soptn
Carolina made bankrupt, a. demonstration thSt
as legislators you are failures"
As natural inference cOlored men must be In
competent as educators, as Legislators, ana as
tion Of Mr.. Langston as president Of Howard
University have been expected or the idea even
him at once Incompetent, and because of this he
must not be afforded that opportunity 70 receive
that additional experience Mr.. Cravath demands.
There are two questions which would like to
have answered by these men who seize every op-
porunity to give expression to their bellei as 70
the field awaiting US in Africa, but VINO are oump
as to the advocacy Of our sharing in the manAgt-
ment Of existing institutions and entering ave-
nues Of success in America.
TIE FIRST QUESTION
is-and probably no one possesses the peculiar
ability and ingenuity necessary to answer II pet
ter than this same Mr.. Cravath-how long must
Oberltu, Beye3, Hampton, Straight FISK and
Atlanta 1.-THE latter four outRrOwths Of colored
coIored students before any will be deemed ft by
their Instructors to be associated with them In
work in which these Instructors claim such signal
Iuccess? Again How long before such second
rate and obscure colleges as Harvard, Yale,
Brown and MadiLon universities, and such apollo
gies for Normal schools as those Of BrtgeWater,
salem and FramirghRm can, in the persons Of
some of their most promising graduates or under
graduates, though colored, equal the average
other institutions which supOly the Instructors to
Hampton, Fisk and kindrCl missionary institu-
tiOns?
If in these colleges espe sally established for
the colored youth Of the South the spectacle is
TO be constantly presented Of colored persons as
students, never as C1ucAtors it is better by far
that these colleges be Stunned, even If this class
of students could 90 nowhere else than to such
schools as Yale, Harvard, Cornell, or Princeton,
for at such places uDon graduation and entrance
upon active life their status as alumni and can
dfdates for rofessonsl leIvice would be a little
more definitely hXed than II from these tungous
missionary institutions. (?l
WORD AS TO SOUTH CAROLINA.
true, hut mainly by men who, like Mr.. CrAVsth,
figured in the double capacity Of missionary and
teacher; but as the voters and legislators IN
that State were by large majority colored, the
whole race, If We take Mr.. Orsyath's conclusions,
must suffer for it. Although New York had her
Tammsny and Tweed, when she overthreW him
and bis c2nspirators the country applsuded.
South Carolina overthrow Scott and Moses, and
elect d such set Of officers, and their admins
tratiCn has been such that even the cynic Of the
press, the New York Tribune, speaks hopefully
Of the once pTOstTate State. But Mr.. CraVath
see3 only the South Carolina Of ~ and '7S, and
believes, no doubt, that the vote was given too
soon 10 the new citizen.
Assuming Mr. @. to be correct in throwing the
whole responsibility for this corruption on the
blacks of South Carolina, does he not lay claim
to the title Of fool or knave in expecting such
revolution as that IN South Carolina to be With
little history might enlighten him on this point.
AsTo ALcoRN UNIVERSITY,
It can only be said that its failure was owing to
its control by politicians. The slightest knOWl-
edRe OF the peculiar circumstances under which
this institution Wal started, and the antecedents
Of iome Of those appointed by Alcorn at its head
are sufficiently to account for its collapse.
In this connection, possibly, it is not out Of the
now engaged a. trustees, managers snd instruc-
tors Of these missionery Institutions were poor
few years ago. end that to-day they IoIin wealth
and cOstly houses. This is credit TO their skill,
you would say. But It is q Well-knoWn fact that
these same educational Institutions, the finances
Of which these same men have managed are not
in the same prosperous condition. Bands Of
singers populariZIng plantation music, and
agents iourneying from city to city, and handing
around the hat had to be called in requiSition to
save them from failure If not collapse. 1t is not
attempted here to justify the squandering Of
money in South Carolina, by laying stress on the
fact that the mismsua ement Of the educational
and other funds Of the Freedmen's Bureau was
done by men who to-day are trustees Of schools,
generals and professors.
p,ople will not think Howard University safer in
The hands Of men who ran the
YREEDMEN's BANK IN THE GROUND,
Ofthe poor. Is II true, because eolored men nave
no Tribune, no Independent, no AldfHs, no Yale
or Howard, exclusively their own work, that
there is man Of our race Of the present genera
tion who can run q newspaper, q school, or grow
iuto Q statesman? Let eOlOred men who respect
into the teeth CT this fatthless missionary as un
worthy of the cauLe he pretends to serve, uHwor-
thy Of the association Of which he Is an officer,
unworthy Of the school he unconscicusly is under
mining.
There is a name for the expression of such SEN
tinents by man WHO knows better, and one for
the motives which actI2te the utterance Of such
words as these Of Mr.. Cravath, but leave your
readers to apply them.
Against the president elect, Rev. Geo. Whipple,
ston, as Euch, no word is needed. Nor is this the
place. by way Of illustrating tine utter talsiy Of
Mr.. Cravath's rule of action, to name isolated
cases, as much the measure Of our race possibili-
ties as Morse, Greeley and Hamilton are Of the
possibilities Of American capacity. The only duty
The REPUBLICAN to nail TO the counter the base
metal Mr.. Cravath is endeavoring to palm of on
j. W. CROMWELL.