"Extracts from a Letter of Judge Bond," The Freedmen's Record, April 4, 1868 · Freedmen's Bureau Project

Title

"Extracts from a Letter of Judge Bond," The Freedmen's Record, April 4, 1868

Date

04-04-1868

Creator

Hugh Lennox Bond

Description

Includes an excerpt of a letter by Judge Hugh Bond that rebukes churches led by Northern pastors for lack of support for freedpeople, mentions the possible creation of a monument for teachers in Baltimore, and praises the women who teach in the schools for freedpeople. Also includes the concluding remarks from the Third Annual Report of the Baltimore Association, which connects the education of freedpeople to a better, larger labor force.

Related Financial Supporters

Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People

Source

Internet Archive

Transcript

BALTIMORE, April 4, 1868.

MY DEAR FRIEND,—The interest New England has taken in our effort will always be gratefully remembered, and the material assistance we have received from you has been almost our entire capital.

While the State was under loyal control we had every prospect that, after we had by experience demonstrated the value of education and its possibility among the colored people, the State would assume the burden of their public instruction. But with the defection of Johnson and Swan came a new influence over the people.

Now only think of it! With the exception of two or three churches in Baltimore City , the pastors of which are Northern men, there has not been a word said since the day of Emancipation, in behalf of the colored people in Maryland, from any pulpit!

Against the patronage of the United States and that of Maryland, with no friends but our Northern Associations, we have struggled along, and are going to keep at it as long as we think it is honest. When we are in debt as much as we think we out of our private funds can pay, we must stop. If we could tide it over the next three months, till vacation, I think we could get along. I think, under Elliott’s bill, Gen. Howard could help us, and I think, with Johnson convicted, Federal patronage here would help us amazingly.

I am going to erect a monument to the teachers in Baltimore City who have remained under all their persecutions without any compensation, so soon as I get rich.

If it had not been for these self-sacrificing women, the schools would have been dispersed. The Rebels would have said, the question is not whether we should take care of schools now in operation by the act of a former Board, but whether we shall establish them de novo . They never would have done the latter. We knew the city was liable for the salary of these teachers , and persuaded them to try to keep up the negro school organization. We shall triumph within a week, and the City Council will not only pay their back salaries, but will adopt the schools over again. We owe it all to the self-sacrifice these teachers have made, who have endured obloquy, reproach, and rebuff, and poverty, for seven long months in this unequal contest.

Meantime, I hope that, sooner or later, God will raise up people here among Christian congregations who will find out that though forms and services, ordinances and rituals, may be useful, that a good part of Christianity relates to Lazarus at the gate.

Excuse my necessarily hurried letter, and believe me

Yours truly,

HUGH L. BOND.

In connection with this letter from Judge Bond, we give the concluding remarks of the Third Annual Report of the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People.

“The education of the colored people has no political end or aim. It is a measure demanded by every interest in our State, in which all are interested. The farmer should encourage it, because his fields will be better tilled by intelligent than by ignorant laborers. The merchant should encourage it, for knowledge brings wants and desire for comforts, and his trade will prosper. The manufacturer should aid us, for it enlarges the number of those able to perform the duties demanded by his pursuits. The lawyer ought to assist, because with intelligence will come acquisition and desire for legal counsel and aid. The doctor is interested, because learning will drive out superstition, and in sickness the colored people will forsake charms and quacks, and take advantage of professional skill and scientific prescriptions. Most of all, should the minister preach for us, pray for us, urge our claims in season and out of season, for there are over 280,000 souls to be won as seals of his ministry; there are over 280,000 men and women made in the image of the God he serves, and for whom his Saviour died, for whom he must answer when the account of his ministry is handed in . If God made, and Christ died for colored people, it would seem as if God’s servants and Christ’s ministers ought not to let pass unimproved any means of educating and improving them.”

THE following was sent us as a specimen of composition from one of the pupils of Miss Canedy’s school:—