3 to 126,938,
changing the relative percentage from 52.3 per cent. who could read
and write, and 47.7 per cent. who could not read and write--in
1880--to 49.2 per cent. who can read and write and 50.8 per cent. who
cannot read and write in 1888. During that period, of the new white
voters a majority were illiterate (7.502 : 7.609); of the new negro
voters ten out of eleven were illiterate (1.588 : 16.387). Facts such
as these call for great enlargement in the direction of common school
education, and the number of teachers; make imperative demands upon
State Governments; and lead many to appeal to the National Government
for relief. They certainly justify the efforts of this Association
and necessitate a great increase of the yearly contributions from
churches and individuals. Measures should be taken to supplant the
notion that by moderate annual contributions to ordinary schools for
a few years the great task can be accomplished of lifting up a race
that had been held in bondage for centuries, that started in its
career of freedom in absolute destitution and that pursues its course
here under many disabilities; and preparing liberators, missionaries,
guides and saviours for the Dark Continent.

At the same time, it is the belief of your committee that the
pressing need of the hour is the fuller development of the leading
institutions already established and larger equipment for the arduous
work set before the American people in our Southern States. For this
end, steps should be taken towards securing their permanent
endowment. While in every way the general work of reaching the masses
and saving them from their illiteracy is to be pressed, the time has
come to place these leading schools upon a firmer foundation and to
make them more conspicuous as centres. For this they need to be amply
endowed and maintained with steadily advancing educational courses,
suited to giving those who are to become the leaders of a great
people a broad and comprehensive education, abreast with the best in
the times in which they are to do their work.

It is time to take comprehensive views and to plan for years to come.
Neither this generation nor the next is to see the end of the special
work to be done to fit the freedmen successfully to meet the
conditions of their freedom. It has required centuries to qualify the
Anglo-Saxon people for freedom; and we must expect that generation
after generation will pass, even with the benefits of