To Our Brethren in the North Who Are Sending Funds for Our Southern Work
By George Ide Butler
There has seemed to be some misunderstanding and confusion among our brethren and sisters in sending funds to this Southern field. Those of us who have to deal with such matters feel very grateful to them for taking an interest in the work here. They have shown a deep regard for the Southern cause; and we believe the Lord will reward their faithfulness in helping in a difficult field. The object of this article is to remove, as far as possible, all misunderstandings, and avoid all confusion. The Southern Union Conference is very peculiar because of the fact that its population is divided into two classes, white and colored. Once it was a free population and a slave population. Since the great Civil War the dominant white race and what was once the enslaved race present two conditions so different that many complications necessarily have arisen. In short, there has to be two sets of laborers,—one for the white and one for the colored race. Thus the objects for which funds need to be raised are doubled, and complications more easily arise in keeping the accounts. Most of the difficulty has arisen because of two different organizations in the same territory, doing business near each other. The Southern Missionary Society is a legal society organized in the State of Mississippi eight or ten years ago. Elder J. E. White and his fellow laborers conceived the plan of coming South and laboring for the colored people, using their own steamer to go from place to place, and as a home to live in, and a place in which to hold meetings, teach the people, etc. They raised up companies, established churches, built meeting-houses, had schools, and really did a grand work. Vicksburg and Yazoo City and the country round about constituted the territory they occupied. They established six or eight schools, and about the same number of churches have grown up in connection with their efforts. It is a fact to-day that nearly two thirds of the members of the Mississippi Conference are of the colored race, and they pay about half the tithe of the whole State conference. Several colored ministers have been constantly under the pay of this society. The keeping up of the schools and other objects has necessitated quite a heavy outlay of means. It may be truthfully said that about as much has been accomplished under the auspices of the Southern Missionary Society in the Southern Union Conference in missionary efforts for the colored race and in gaining numbers of that race to the cause of truth as by all other agencies put together. The Southern Union Conference was organized three or four years ago, and is composed of nine large States,—Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. All these States but South Carolina are organized into State conferences. This remains as a mission field. The union conference, or rather the States composing it, have laborers for the colored race who are not connected with the Southern Missionary Society. In all of these there are some six or eight colored churches, and some colored church-schools. The Southern Union Conference embraces, of course, all the State conference sanitariums, schools, etc., within its bounds, as departments of itself, including the Southern Missionary Society. The headquarters of the Southern Union Conference is in Nashville, Tenn.,—a city of about one hundred thousand people,—in connection with the Southern Publishing Association, 1025 Jefferson Street, where our Southern paper, the Watchman, is printed. Here are the offices of the president, the secretary, and the treasurer of the conference. The headquarters of the Southern Missionary Society has for a few months past been located at Edgefield, Tenn., about nine miles distant from Nashville. Elder J. E. White, the president of that society, and the other officers, reside there. It will thus be seen at a glance that all business connected with the union conference or the publishing association should be sent to 1025 Jefferson St., Nashville, Tenn., and nowhere else. Let all notice carefully that all business with the Southern Missionary Society should be sent to Edgefield, Tenn., and never to Nashville. To forget these directions involves confusion, extra labor, and liability to loss. To illustrate: there are certain classes of business done by the missionary society which should always be sent to Edgefield, never to Nashville. We speak of the subscriptions for the Gospel Herald, a monthly paper (price, ten cents) published by the society at Edgefield. That is the organ of that society. We speak also of business connected with the little book “Story of Joseph.” That should19always be sent to Edgefield. We also speak of the business connected with the little missionary boxes, which have recently been scattered widely. Never send this business to Nashville, but always send it to Edgefield, Tenn., to the Southern Missionary Society. And, in short, let all business of any kind, subscriptions, pledges, money, clothes, or gifts of any sort designed for the Southern Missionary Society, be sent to its headquarters, at Edgefield, Tenn. On the other hand, all subscriptions for the Watchman, all business with the Southern Publishing Association or the Southern Union Conference of any kind whatever, should be sent to 1025 Jefferson St., Nashville, Tenn. But we now notice another class of gifts, donations, etc., concerning which there has been considerable confusion, which we wish, if possible, to guard against in the future. Gifts have come to our office in Nashville, “for the Southern cause,” “for the Southern work,” or “for the Southern field.” They come from our dear brethren and sisters in the North who greatly desire to assist the cause of God in this difficult field, and really do not know what branch needs these gifts the most. They naturally suppose that those of us on the grounds will know just where that greatest need is, and so use the money where it will do the most good. Now, no one person is authorized to appropriate these funds, unless, as is sometimes the case, the money is sent to one person, and that person is requested to place it according to his personal judgment. In that case he can justly dispose of it according to the direction of the donor. But in most cases when these funds come to our offices, they are placed in a fund by themselves till the next meeting of the conference executive committee, when they are distributed by the vote of the committee. Really there is no other proper authority which is authorized to make this distribution. But it has been thought by some that some interests have not received the share that justly belonged to them. It has been said that certain calls have been sent out by certain parties, and afterward, when money was paid in by persons here and there, it was concluded that this money came because of those calls for special objects, and hence all of it should have been applied to the objects for which those calls were made. The trouble is that money, when sent South, is sent in too general terms. Those sending it must be more particular in their directions if they wish to have it appropriated to any special work. They should clearly state whether they wish their money to go to the Southern Missionary Society and its work, and therefore send it to the headquarters of that society. Or, on the other hand, send it to the publishing association or the Southern Union Conference. None of us can tell where the donor wants his money to go unless he tells us beforehand. If money is sent to Nashville “for the Southern cause,” “the Southern work,” “the Southern field,” and no other direction given, it will simply be placed in the fund for that purpose, and be appropriated when the executive committee meets. There is no other way to properly dispose of it. So let all understand this once for all. There is nothing that we feel more determined to do at the headquarters of the Southern Union Conference than to see that the money sent is used precisely as the donors desire to have it used. Please therefore be explicit in your directions, so we may know your wishes. The Southern Missionary Society is doing a good work. We wish it the most abundant success. All who wish to contribute to it should send their funds directly to Edgefield, Tenn. Their work is mainly for the colored race. The union conference also has a very large field in its territory outside of the sphere where the Southern Missionary Society carries on its work, where colored (or in some cases white) laborers are working for the colored race. These laborers are in the employ of the various State conferences, and because of the poverty of these conferences in some instances, help from our Northern friends is greatly prized. Colored church-schools are greatly needed. Poverty stands in the way in many instances. The union conference seeks to watch over and assist these schools as far as possible, and will make appropriations in needy cases if they have means with which to do it. The Huntsville Training-school for the colored people is a department of the union conference, and is under the special watch-care of that conference. So is the proposed orphanage for colored children. It is to be located on the training-school farm. Money designed for these two institutions should be sent to Nashville, Tenn., the headquarters of the union conference, with a careful statement of the object for which the money is designed. We have sought, in writing this article, to be very explicit, so that our people can tell just what to do. It would be well to lay this article aside for reference, so that when you wish to help either of these interests, you will understand just how to send your gifts. In closing, we wish to say to all interested, that the interests of the Southern Missionary Society and these of the conference are in no sense antagonistic. We are all working together for the same grand work as brethren and sisters in the cause of present truth. The Southern Missionary Society has taken a deep interest in the Huntsville school, also in the orphanage about to be erected, and has raised quite a sum to help in establishing it. Its worthy president, Elder J. E. White, is a valued member of the Huntsville Training-school Board. Elder F. R. Rogers, the president of the training-school, has for many years been an ardent laborer in the Southern Missionary Society; and it was through the kind interest of that society that his labors were secured for his present position. The executive committee of the union conference are united in their desire to see the Southern Missionary Society prosper in its work as a department of the union conference. They would not for a moment do aught to cripple its usefulness. This article, already too long, is written as carefully and as explicitly as the writer is capable of writing it, to avoid, if possible, all misunderstanding, confusion, or friction. It is written in the interest of peace, good-will, and brotherly love, to further, as far as possible, the precious cause of present truth in this great and difficult field. GEO. I. BUTLER,
Pres. Southern Union Conf.