The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-04-02
THE NEGRO IN AMERICA
Intentionally and RalisiOuily, Their
Qualities Are Discussed.
A PAPER BY REV. VAUGHAN
Give the Sons of Ham the Desired
Opportunisy-Creat strides In
Progress-Now and Thirty
Years Ago.

Butte, April 1.-The Butte Ministerial
association met to-day at the Baptist
church and elected the following officers
for the ensuing year:
President-Rev. III. L, Shepard of the
Plymouth Congregational church.
Vice President-Rev. II. n. Melby of the
scandinavian NJ. L. church.
Secretary and Treasurer-Rev. L. f. st.
Claire of the NJ. +. church South.
Rev. L. IL. Vaughan of the A. Nj. +.
church read an interesting paper on the
subject of 1.-The Negro in America, Edu-
cntionally and Religiously." The paper
was approved by the meeting and its
publication requested. 1t is as follows:
While cons idering other matters relat-
ing TO our ecclesiastical Office, we, in adj
dition to-day are to consider the American
negro educationally and religiously.
Since the topic resolves itself into such
enormity we have deemed It best to ex-
hibit the negro's qualities, in this paper,
educationally. The primary significance
of the term would imply that we are to
note what progress he has made intel
lectually-what are .the developments of
his mental capacities. To deal fairly with
him then, we must retrospect the past,
learn his condition when he first en-
braced the opportunity of acquiring
knowledge, and follow the may labyrinth
of progress-if such it may be termed
after "a thorough Observation-Disclosures he
has made up TO the present. To use
brevity and at the same time to be eX-
plicit, 80 years ago he was gwen his free
dom-turned loose in the world to pad
die his own canoe, "ewlthout letter and
without dollar and among those who
opposed his educational progress IN the
main. Thus envroned he starts out on
life's tempestuous sea, TO make Tor him
self a nation among the most ambitious
and aspiring people of the globe. But the
two leading factors in tho progress of a
people are wanting in him, viz: education
and money aside from these, the marital
ties and domestic affairs in. general ha d
been reduced to such low proportion
that they amounted practically to nothing.
For n nation to achieve greatness in the
sciences aud arts requires hundreds of
years. To establish proof of this we have
only TO take cursory glance over the
pages of history. While the Greeks alb
sorbed Assyrian arts, Egyptian science
and the phoenician alphabet, they we're
centuries producing Homer, n Scion, n
Socrates and n Neniphone. True they
passed through a legendary or mythical
period when Hercules Numbered and the
Argon Archie expedition searched for the
''Golden Fleece But true greatness was
not hers To command till poets, orators
and scholars we're produced. Tho same
may be said of Rome. Five hundred years
passed away before she produced a single
author But among the authors preced-
ing the Christian era, whose names have
come laundering down the ages, none
among the Romans are more illustrious
than Virgil. Horace, Cicero, Iivy and
Sallust; and TO include other nations
could this be extended. In the face of the
fact that the negro's right had been taken
from him and that for 2i0 years he had
been in bondage, which for curtailing
privileges TO become enlightened was
without a parallel in the annals of the
worlds records, lac did not set down and
bemoan his fate after freedom. lilo raven
ously grasped the opportunity to gain
knowledge and pored over his old "blue
back constantly. SO eager were they 10
learn TO read that thousands of old. de-
crepit and grayhaired mothers and faith
crs learned tnelr letters and then learned
10 read the Bible and tho hymn book.
Those who owned the land which he had
developed and made what it was would
give him little or no intellectual assist
ance, save now and then when IAN angel
of light as the old people called them,
would render assistance in this line. This
was natural enough when ono considers
the manner in which things relating to
Ham had been operating so long south OF
the 40 degree parallel. The North which
had SO often read. I'VE hold these truths
10 be self evident, that all men are crea-
ted equal, and are endowed by their
creator with certain cnalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness pushed thousands
of her young men and young women into
the southland as educational mission
aries TO educate the negro, log school,
houses were constructed and thousands OF
negro boys and girls were there, often
with father and mother all in search for
light.
A cry was heralded, "The negro is in