Page images
PDF
EPUB

Under these circumstances your Committee are utterly unable to form any estimate of what is the value of this property taken with its embarrassments. Of accounts kept as these have been without a revisal for nine or ten years, and in such a state that an expert accountant must labour six weeks to adjust them, it is most evident that no opinion can be formed. It is at present utterly impossible to know who of the subscribers have paid, and who have not. The acknowledgments of receipts are scattered over several quires of journals, and until all are arranged, nothing can be ascertained. At any rate your Committee have no hope that any thing definite can be known before the adjournment of the Convention.

Your Committee think it proper to state that they have been informed of a flaw in the deed conveying these houses to the Convention, by which a part of the land, that on which the printing office stands, is not included.

Notwithstanding the blameable want of discretion apparent in the conduct of this business, the Committee have no evidence of any intentional wrong on the part of the Agent, or of any design to injure the Convention.

Under these circumstances it appears utterly impossible, to ascertain at present whether the property, and the office embarrassed with the unknown claims upon it, is worth any thing to the Convention, and if any thing, how much. Your Committee therefore recommend that the whole business be referred to the Board of Managers, and that they be instructed to make the best disposition of the office and other property that may be in their power. In behalf of the Committee,

FRANCIS WAYLAND, Jr. Chairman.

[D.]

CAREY AND THOMAS STATIONS.

The Committee appointed to inquire into the condition of the Carey and Thomas Stations, beg leave to report to the Convention, that your Committee have applied to Rev. I. McCoy, your missionary and superintendant at these stations, and have been by him supplied with such information as they have required. The documents which have been submitted to them are herewith presented, and from them they have derived the knowledge of many important facts, an abstract of which they now have the pleasure to submit.

It is known that in January, 1823, the Mission formerly at Fort Wayne was recommenced at Carey. At this time the school contained twenty-nine scholars. Since this period its numbers have regularly increased, and at the date of the last report to the Secretary at War a copy of which accompanies this report, the num ber upon the Books of the school was ninety-two.

Of these there had completed their course

Removed to other schools

Stricken off for irregular conduct

Expelled

Died

[ocr errors]

Belonging to the school at this time

[ocr errors]

Total

Males
Females

Total

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed]

The publick is generally informed that in the autumn of 1824, the station at Carey was blessed with a special revival of religion. In the words of your Missionary, this good work began among our hired white men; it next extended to the pupils of the school, and lastly to our rude Indian neighbours. On the 7th Nov. 1824,

[ocr errors]

D

the first baptism at Carey was administered. Between that time and the 14th of June. following there united with our church by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and baptism, nine' white persons in our employ, eleven of our Indian pupils, and three other Indians, in all twenty-three, making the whole number baptized, since the commencement of the Mission, thirty, that is, seventeen Indians and thirteen white persons.

This was a precious season. It more-yes, ten thousand times more than compensated the toils of the Mission. It has greatly encouraged our hearts, and indeed strengthened our hands. The recollection is delightful, and occasions a burst of joy and hope amidst the most dark and stormy seasons which have since assailed our affairs. It has given zeal to all our labours, health and vigor to every department of our concerns.

Our church at present, after the separation of some by dismission, by excommunication and by death, numbers twenty-seven, in good standing.

Of the thirteen white persons baptized at the Mission, one is a minister of the gospel, one is a missionary, one has apostatized, and another has merited the censure of the church.

Of the seventeen Indians baptized, one has been excommunicated for intoxication, and another has been censured by the church for the same crime. Of the residue in good standing, seven are preparing at Hamilton, N. York, for superior usefulness among their countrymen.""

The temporal concerns of the Mission have been since its removal to Carey unusually prospered, and specially so during the last year. There is now upon the

Mission farm

[blocks in formation]

The number of persons attached to this Mission is sixteen. These are

Rev. I. McCoy, superintendant and his wife.

Johnston Lykins, school Teacher and Missionary.

Robert Simmerwell, blacksmith and wife.
The rest are hired labourers.

Attached to the Mission at Thomas are several hired persons who labour under the direction of Missionaries for the benefit of the Indians.

Your Committee state with regret, that since April, 1824, (owing as they suppose to the depressed state of the funds,) no supplies have been furnished by the Board for this Station, except the remittance of those sums drawn by the Board expressly for this object from government. The Mission since that period has been supported by monies granted by the United States, by the labour of the missionaries, and the produce of their farms; and by money, clothing, and provision collected by Mr. McCoy and a few others in the pressing exigencies of the Mission.

Besides the precarious nature and amount of the last of these items of subsistence, it appears to your Committee manifestly improper, that the head and superintendant of this important Mission family, should be forced to leave the duties specially assigned to him, for others which are in no respect of kindred character.

While Mr. McCoy and others have been thus engaged in soliciting and receiving donations for this station, your Committee deem it important that their quarterly return of receipts should be as: regularly published as that of your Treasurer, and for the same reason. The past omission of the Board to publish this return, they trust needs only to be noticed. to be corrected; especially as in one instance, that of the Rev. Mr. Martin in Ohio, it is known that the inattention has produced an impression highly prejudicial to the mission.

In looking over the printed report of the Committee appointed by the last Convenon on the Carey Station, your Committee find (Lumin. Vol. IV. p. 186) “That comlaints of a serious nature are said to exist, in regard to the condition and governent of this Mission,"

Considering the importance of unsullied reputation, not only to the individual, but to the Mission, and in truth to the Convention itself, your Committee have felt the importance of giving to this part of the subject a distinct and prominent consideration. The Chairman of your Committee has been placed in circumstances pe culiarly favourable for prosecuting this investigation; and the facts by him furnished, and the documents which have now been submitted, have completely convinced your Committee that the individual implicated is a worthy and injured man, deserving, in the highest degree, the confidence of the Convention and the publick.

Your Committee here beg leave to remark, that to them it appears important, that the nature of compensation which the Board authorize their Missionaries to expect, be definitely and uniformly established. From the family rules adopted by your Missionaries at Carey, February 15th, 1822, it appears that they have devoted all their earnings to the common cause, and will receive from the Convention nothing more than a subsistence. But it will be perceived by the 10th Annual Report of the Board (Lum. Vol. V. p. 168) that in the case of Rev. Mr. Roberts and others at the Valley Towns Station, a salary has been allowed. The publick are thus left to infer that the statement of Mr. McCoy and his associates, declaring their services to be entirely gratuitous, is not correct, or that there is injustice in our arrangements. The want of timely and explicit instructions from the Board has occasioned no small embarrassment to your Missionaries on more than one occasion. Your Committee present this subject as one of immediate and deep interest to the mission.

Your Committee would recommend, that the Mission at Carey be vigorously prosecuted, but not enlarged that a school be established at Thomas-and that prospective reference be had in all our operations, to a final, but gradual removal of the Indians and our Missions to such territory as may be assigned by the govern ment for that purpose.

All which is respectfully submitted.

SPENCER H. CONE, Chairman.

[E.]

AGENT'S ACCOUNTS.

The Committee on the Agent's accounts, report that they have obtained every means, within their power, of attesting the correctness of the accounts of Rev. Mr. Rice, since the last Convention.

They have discovered nothing erroneous in any part of these accounts, except the difference of a few cents in footing up one of the items. He appears to have received and paid over the sum of twenty thousand, two hundred and thirty four dollars and forty six cents.

All which is respectfully submitted.

HOWARD MALCOM, Chairman,

[F.]

SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

Your Committee on Sunday Schools having had the subject under serious and deliberative consideration, report as follows:

They have received and read with pleasure a letter from the Corresponding Secretary of the American Sunday School Union, in pursuance to a resolution of the Board of Managers of that Union, soliciting the countenance and influence of this Convention in recommending Sunday Schools to the patronage of the Baptist community.

These interesting institutions, destined to preserve many an unwary youth from the snares of vice, to dispel the shades of ignorance, enrich the mind with useful knowledge, and as fertilizing streams to irrigate future generations, are now extending and increasing in every state in the Union, and in every part of the christian world. While your Committee regret that hitherto so little has been done in the world for the religious instruction of children, they rejoice in the opportunity of

giving their unqualified approbation to a system that is calculated to "Gather the people together, men, women and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe and do all the words of this law: and that their children which have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live." Sunday Schools, when properly conducted, and when, as should always be the case, religious instruction is the direct and paramount object, may be made the means of taking hold of every child before the seeds of error and vice become rooted in the mind, elevating, enlightening, and refining him, breaking up the soil, and casting therein the seeds of divine truth, thus guarding him from corrupting influences, and preparing him to become a virtuous, useful, and intelligent citizen.

In the increase of these institutions are we to look for increased action in missionary affairs. In the Sunday School Class, and from the books and tracts circulated as premiums, every child may be awakened to benevolent exertion, and thus a foundation may be laid broad and deep, on whicn in succeeding ages the glorious superstructure may arise, that will furnish missionaries and future contributions that will tend to fill the world with the knowledge of the Redeemer.

It has been noticed in some of the publications on Sunday Schools that of the number of Missionaries which have gone from England to heathen lands, nineteen out of twenty have received their first religious impressions either as teachers or scholars in Sabbath Schools.

All which is respectfully submitted.

THOMAS STOKES, Chairman.

[G.]

DOMESTIC MISSIONS.

Your Committee have had the subject of Domestic Missions under solemn and deliberate consideration, and beg leave to report as follows:

That the general interests of our denomination, the number of destitute churches in our Union, the situation and extent of the thinly populated settlements of our Western States and territories, the very partial and limited supply of evangelical means, which all the efforts of past years have afforded to very large sections of our country, the great importance of eliciting the talent, and combining the energies, the prayers, and the contributions of the whole body in every part of the United States in harmonious effort to extend the Redeemer's kingdom within our borders, the necessity that correct views, principles, and habits should be introduced early, that they may grow up with the new settlements, with the encouraging events of divine Providence, all show that a more enlarged system of domestic missionary operations should be commenced.

Your Committee would suggest that such a system should include not only itinerant and stationary preaching conducted systematically, but also the extensive circulation of the Scriptures in which the bible societies will afford aid, by which our denomination may be influenced to read and become thoroughly acquainted with revealed truth. The establishment of Sunday Schools, the circulation of religious tracts, the encouragement of education amongst our preachers, and the commencement of Theological Schools in some of the new States to afford facilities for the education of such preachers as cannot avail themselves of such advantages in the old States-it must be admitted that the system of operations by which these objects can be obtained the soonest, and which will furnish regular supplies of preaching to every destitute portion of our country with the smallest number of missionaries, and at the least expense of funds, is the best system, and should be recommended to the encouragement and support of the Baptist community. It is thought that such a system should be founded upon the plan of having preachers travel regularly on circuits around which they may ride at least once each month, during which time they will have opportunity to preach the gospel to thousands, visit hundreds of fami lies, look into every Sunday School, encourage and revive every mission and mite society, and return to at regular periods to travel the same field over again.

All which is respectfully submitted.

JOHN M. PECK, Chairman.

[H.]

CONDUCT OF MR. RICE.

Your Committee, according to the resolution of the Convention entered into a lengthy investigation of the conduct of the Rev. Luther Rice, and what relates thereto in regard to his private responsibilities as a man, his conduct as agent of the Convention, and as agent of the Board of Trustees of the College, and Treasurer of said Board. They had a number of witnesses upon the various charges exhibited against him, and gave him an opportunity of refuting them. After this tedious and unpleasant examination, they have come to the following conclusions.

Your Committee are happy to report, that nothing affecting the moral character of Mr. Rice, has been proved against him, unless a want of punctuality in complying with his contracts be considered of that nature; and to that he pleads inability.

Many imprudences have been laid to his charge, some of which he acknowledges, and your committee hope that a sense of past indiscretions may render him more wise in future. Your Committee however think a short history of the course he has pursued in regard to these transactions, may place the matter more fully before you.

The

Mr. Rice, upon his own responsibility, and that of a few friends, purchased a piece of land in the vicinity of Washington for the purpose of erecting a College and Theological School, and forthwith commenced the building now standing. In the year 1820, he proposed the business to the Convention assembled in Philadelphia, and requested them to accept the premises and take the College and all its future operations under their superintendence. This was accepted by the Con vention under the condition that no debts should be contracted, but that the building should proceed no faster than funds could be obtained to meet the expenses. business of the College was intrusted to the management of a Committee on education. From this time all Mr. Rice's transactions respecting the College, must neces sarily be under the inspection of this Committee. The injunction of the Convention not to increase the debt was so far disregarded, as to go on with the business upon subscriptions instead of the money in hand. As the subscriptions were not collected as fast as money was wanting, a debt of fearful amount was contracted which has since accumulated. The College having obtained a charter from Congress, went into operation in the year 1822, and its succeeding accounts, &c. were presented to the Convention in the spring of 1823. But whether they were fairly understood by the Convention is very doubtful. Since that period, various transactions have been en. tered into by Mr. Rice in conjunction with the Board of Trustees of said College, some of which appear to your Committee to be exceedingly imprudent. In all these transactions Mr. Rice seems to have been the acting man, but not to have done any thing without the final sanction of the Board. On his own private responsibility, certain houses were purchased of Col. R. M. Johnson to a large amount, and which were afterwards received by the Board of Trustees as College property, which have heretofore yielded very little profit to the College, while it has burdened it with a debt of fourteen thousand dollars. Through him a claim of Mr. McKenny against the United States government was taken up, amounting to eleven thousand dollars. This also failed in affording funds to any considerable amount, while it loaded the College with the whole debt of eleven thousand dollars. Your Committee view these transactions as great indiscretions; and although the Board of Trustees gave their sanction to them, yet as it was at the instance of Mr. Rice, he is, in our estimation, highly reprehensible. But to this he pleads the necessities of the College. In regard to the houses offered by Mr. Rice to the Convention in 1823, and accepted, your Committee have examined the matter, and can find nothing censurable in Mr. Rice, or at most, nothing worse than a want of candour in not distinctly naming to the Convention that said houses were under a mortgage to a large amount, though as far as your Committee can learn, not to their full value. In all these transactions,

however, your Committee take pleasure in stating that they can see nothing like corruption, or selfish design; and although he has fallen into imprudences of very distressing tendency, he does not seem to have had any other object in view than the prosperity of the College. In the detailed statements of Mr. Rice's conduct in his monied transactions, the committee have found it difficult to fix upon particular facts, upon which to place a censure, yet by a general view of his whole course, they must say he has been too loose in all his dealings, and that in many of his transactions, in which it was proper he should be governed by the Board and the Committee on education, he seems to have too much followed his own plans, counting upon an easy acquirement of their sanction, and thus abusing their high confidence in him. All which is respectfully submitted.

LUCIUS BOLLES, Chairman.

« PreviousContinue »