New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-31
work of Outstanding and civizing the savages"
From that time his school began to lose its distinct
ya footures 10 an Indian school In 1771 he wrote.

as have been educated here after they have Ieit the
school aud into business abroad. Among tnoso
whom have educated here have boon near forty, WHO
were good readers and writer's and were lnsIrnc,eu
GENTLY masters Of English grammar ana arithmetic
less for each of them than would nave peen
necessary have supported an English youth througn
Of collegiate studies; and they nave Ieherdny
behaved well while they were WIN me-. anu ls,, inS
school with fair and unbiemlshed characters anu u
the influence OF every motive could set oeI.ie ihc
and enforce upou them to good improvement OF Inertia
and many Of them have gone Immediately from my
prev MED their being usefuly and repuiaby employed
In capacities TIL this day. but their want OIL IoI
vices which rampant among all iheI ,ri ,s
don't hear of than half who nave preserved the
Characters unsained and who ON account OF thelr
parts aud learning bade ths fairest for usefulness arr
sunk down INTO as low svnse anu onavcrs were used
with them. Aud six OF those who did preserve goou
| character are now deaO
| AN EXPERIMENT BY THE AMERICAN BOARD.
Fifty years passed away before the experiment
WAS again repeated This time IT was tried by the
| American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis-
! sions whose faithful and successful efforts In be-
half of Indian civilization during the last sixty
! wears are SO well known. school was es-
tablished bythe Board in Cornwall, Conn, IN 1871
| TO educate not only Indian youths nut heathell
Young men from foreign lands, with the design OF
| using them as instruments for the civilization ana
| Christianizaton of their own people. The plan OF
| tins school MS will be seen from the following
extract from its constitution, was substantially the
same as that of the Hampton Institute;
The education in our own country of heather youths
I'm snc monner rs with subsequent professional ustruc
non viii oualify them 20 become useful missionaries
physicians surgeons. schoomasters or Interpreters anu
in agriculture and the arts prove the means oil
promoting Christianity and civilization
Provision having been made by securing suit
able building sufficient land, ETC., and employing
competent teachers to give heather youths a thor
ough education. industrial, intellectual and moral
the school was begun with twelve pupils. Inc
number soon increased to thirty, majority OF whom
| belonged 10 the Cherokee Choctaw, Delaware and
Usage tribes. Several white youths, who lntehded
ia become missionaries were also received as pupils
for the sake of their influence Oh the Others Dur
ing the first five or six years the enterprise
promised success, and the reports of the Board
| abounded with expressions of satisfaction
But the time approached when the first
pupis who entered were to complete their
studies and return to their homes. Suddenly
misgivings began to be felt. Some OF these young
men, it was plain, could not be employed III any
missionary capacity, as teachers or anything e'Se'
and vet there seemed no other career open TO them
at home The committee, in It's report for 1873,
said
halfeducsted young man returning to ms ow a
country without such qualifications as VIII JUSTIFY ms
being attached TO mission must be exposed 10 great
| termination,
The committee recommended that they should be
persuaded to remain among civilized people ana
addict themselves to such course OF
industry as would gain them lyeli-
hood that is to expatriate themselves. From this
time the reports of the Board indicate RAPID
change of views respecting the utility OF the
schools and in 1924 the committee remarked that
"experience seems to Indicate that youth educated
upon missionary ground are more apt to be htted
! for the various circumstances OF residence among
| their countrymen than those who have been accus-
| toned to different manner OF life" In 1879 the
committee said
| There is great reason to believe that youths in
heather country can be so instructed ~ nlSslon'Iy
stations as to be very useful TO their countrymen ut an
oIS orater fbev may vel preserve large share of
their original hardihood and he able to associate with
ably than il they had spent several years IN strange
land MANY Of the young menl disarpoiHd ,ta
former habits their return home and others proved
but Ill prepared for the prvatons which they must bear
among their uncyilized cOuntrymen.
The proposition to discontinue the school was re.
! ferred to a committee, of which Jeremiah Evarts
father of the present Secretary of State, mem
ber which reported in its favor. The school was
accordingly discontinued i'll 1927 ten years after il
was begun. The excellent reasons for this ac-
ton are given at length in the report of
the Board for that year. and might be
profitable reading for those engaged in conducting
the present experiment of educating young Indians
among the whites at a remote distance from home
and cut of from all association with their people.
Among other reasons given by the committee were
the following:
There are many things which strongly indicate that
schoos colleges and other semnares should be set up
quickyas possible in where Hissos
great use of young men born heathens ana removed
for their education TO CHRISTIAN countries large
OF those whom
have died In the progress OF their educaon especially
OF those distinguished for talents and hopeful pety.
some have exrrted good influence, while others have
most painfully disappointed the expectations Of their
were the exposure of the pups] to various influences
from the surrounding population; while at tn, inc
society they learn little OF the manners habits and
modes of thinking and acting among the whites and
which they were brought Into the bosom of Christian
community They come In contact with few cultivated
minds learn little of human nature and on leaving the
institution have no confidence N themselves ana leel
helpless when they commenced their education
This experiment was III the hands OF wise
Christian men. There was no lack of means to
carry it on All the influences that surrounded il
were friendly The youths to be trained
selected with the utmost care, and generally from
those tribes where a considerable aud intelligent
sentiment in favor of civilization had been de-
velopcd. The course of instruction and training
| left nothing to be desired and yet the wisest
feature of it appears have been its early abandon
mcnt, after experience had demonstrated its in
utility as a cvizing measure
During the half century that has since elapsed
the American Board has continued with unTemit-
ting energy. and with eminent success, its faithful
labors in behalf of Indian civilization, but has
never repeated the Cornwall experiment.
Altogether It seems too much to hope that
the Hampton experiment will succeed. Al
ready there are premonitions of danger. The most
recent intelligence is that the removal of the In
dians from their unrestrained open air life
will undermine their physical constitutions
and they become prey to pulmonary
disease, to which they to be inclined at Hamp