igently
interested in the Indians; but within that limit there is the freest
range--men and women of all political parties and of all religious
denominations being included. The acts of the Conference, like the
utterances of a Congregational Council, have only the authority of the
reason that is in them; yet it is wonderful what an influence this
peculiar body has had on public sentiment. Its utterances have been
discussed and have had their weight in the pulpit, the press, in
Congress and in the White House. The Indian and the Nation owe much to
the Mohonk Conference.

The Sixth Annual Conference, which closed September 28th, sustained
the interest of past years in the importance of the topics discussed,
in the divergency of opinion at first, and in the complete harmony at
the end. The points agreed upon in the platform were arranged under
five heads. The first relates to the establishment of Courts of
Justice in the Reservations and accessible to the Indians; the second
to the important need of education, demanding that the Government
shall undertake at once the entire task of providing primary and
secular education for all Indian children; the third urges that this
education shall be compulsory, under proper limitations; the fourth
emphasizes the duty of the churches to furnish religious instruction
to the Indians, and the immunity of their work from all governmental
interference where sustained wholly by missionary funds; the fifth
approves of the co-operation of the Government with the missionary
societies in contract schools during the present transitional
condition of the Indians. We append the last two items of the report.

4. In view of the great work which the Christian Churches have
done in the past in inaugurating and maintaining schools
among the Indians, and of the essential importance of
religious as distinguished from secular education, for
their civil, political and moral well-being, an element
of education which, in the nature of the case, the
National Government cannot afford, the churches should be
allowed the largest liberty, not, indeed, to take away
the responsibility from the Government in its legitimate
sphere of educational work, but to supplement it to the
fullest extent in their power, by such schools, whether
primary, normal or theological, as are at the sole cost
of the benevolent or missionary societies. And it is the
d