JEFFEBSON CITY, MISSOURI.
BY
PROF. R. B. FOSTER.
- /
AND SPEECH OF
COL. DAVID BRANSON,
Upon the Dedication of the New Building,
JULY 4th, 1871.
LINCOLN INSTITUTE
JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI.
FULL HISTORY
OF ITS
jConception, Struggles,
AND
TRIUMPH.
The Dedicatory Speech of Colonel David Branson.
''To be Free in Law is not to be Free Indeed."
Gov. B. GRATZ BROWN, President.
Rev. MOSES DICKSON, Vice President.
Judge A. KREKEL, }
HOWARD BARNES, ^ Executive Committee.
GEO. E. SEYMOUR, j
Col. F. A. SEELY,. Treasurer. (708 Chesnut St., St.Louis.)
Hon. JOHN MONTEITH, State Supt. Public Schools.
Capt. R. B. FOSTER,
Rev. W. H. H. BROWN,
" WM. P. BROOKS,
jrtoNORARY yVLEMBEF^J
Colonel DAVID BRANSON, Philadelphia.
Prof. M. HENRY SMITH, Secretary.
Capt. R. B. FOSTER, Jefferson City, Mo., Genl. Agent.
EACHERS.
M. HENRY SMfTH, A.SM.. Principal,
Miss ALICE M. GORDON, First Assistant,
WILLIAM H. MILLER, A. B., Second Assistant.
Miss MATILDA BLACKMAR, Third Assistant.
Aco«
[From the Missouri State Times, July 14, 1871.]
The Fourth of July, 1871 will always be remembered as the
date of one of the great events in the history of Lincoln Instil
tute. On that day their magnificent edifice in this city was
dedicated. An immense throng, black and white,, gathered ;
and appropriate ceremonies followed.
We gave some description of the affair last week. We were
unable then to publish the interesting history of the Institute,
by Prof. Foster, its first and best friend; or the excellent speech
of Col. David Branson. We now present them to our readers:
Prof. Foster's History of Lincoln Institute.
Lincoln Institute is the child of the 62nd regiment U. S.
Colored Infantry.
That regiment was organized at Benton Barracks in December,
1863, and served in Louisiana and Texas till 1866, doing little
fighting, but doing it well, while doing much digging in trenches
under a hot sun, at Baton Rouge, at Port Hudson, at Morganza
at Brazos Santiago, and leaving 400 men in Southern graves
who died for their country as truly as though they had fallen in
battle.
The origin of the scheme which led to the Lincoln Institute
was as follows:
Time, January, 1866. Place, Fort Mcintosh, Texas, 200
miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande.
An order from the War Department to consolidate the regi¬
ment into four companies, and muster out sepernumerary officers
and non-commissioned officers.
Under this order, I was one of those who received the favor
of permission to go home.
Leiutenant Adamson was one day talking with me, as com¬
rades about to part will do, of the past and future, when, refer-
6
ring to the fact that many of the enlisted men had learned to
read and write, imperfectly of course,, while in the service, I
remarked that it was a pity these men should find no schools
when they returned to Missouri, and that the education so hap¬
pily commenced should cease. It was a casusal remark with no
thought of practical consequences. But while a thousand seeds
may be scattered on the ground and come to naught, one that
finds all favoring circumstances of soil, protection, moisture and
heat shall become a tree and produce fruit. I had thought
much, during the months that followed Lee's surrender, of the
prospect of the country. I felt that the past was dead and must
soon be buried ; that an era had commenced in which all things
should become new. "The war" I said to myself, "has given
us opportunity. It has been a grand iconoclast, breaking down
idols and clearing away rubbish. No more shall such men as
Judge Hoar be mobbed in Charleston, for seeking to protect
the rights of colored seamen, in the courts of law. No more
shall such a man as Dr. Nelson hide in Missouri swamps from
bloodhounds and slave hunters, while the inspiration, at once, of
poetry and piety leads him to compose a song of longing for the
heavenly rest."
"My days are gliding swiftly by,
And I, a pilgrim stl&ngpr,
Would not detain them as they fly,
Those hours of toil and danger."
"No more shall the auction block be mounted by human
chattels. No more shall education be forbidden and virtue be
impossible for any part of our population. The fugitive slave
law is behind us. Universal suffrage is before us."
My constant question was: Have I any special work to do,
however humble, in preparing this new time ? And my constant
prayer was, that if there were such work, Providence would
point it out and show me how to do it.
Adamson, in reply to my remark, turned so as to face me,
and said with sudden earnestness: "If our regiment will give
money enough to start a school in Missouri, will you take charge
of it ?"
"I can't say at this moment," I replied, "perhaps I would."
7
''Think of it," he said, "and you shall hear more of it shortly."
He left me and went to consult others. Dr. Allen, a man of
high character and influence, gave the scheme standing ground
by declaring that he would give $100. Both our field officers,
Col. Barrett and Lt. Col. Branson, though neither was with us
at that moment, afterwards subscribed a like amount. Others
responded in the same spirit. Officers and men entered into the
work with enthusiasm. The Lieutenants gave $50 each. Offi¬
cers of higher rank $100. First Sergeant Brown, Co. D, gave
$75. Sergeants Curd, Bergamire, Alexander and Moore each
gave $50 while the number who gave 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 dollars
apiece is too great for me to recall their names on this occasion,
but they are all preserved in our records. The total result in
62d regiment was $1,034 60, contributed by the officers, and
$3,966 50 by the colored soldiers.
The soldiers of the 65th regiment afterwards added $1,379 50
One of them, Samuel Sexton, gave $100 from his earnings as a
private soldier at $13 per month, an example of liberality that
may well challenge comparison with the acts of those rich-men
who, from their surplus, give thousands to found colleges.
But little organization, and but few conditions were made.
At fny request, a committee was appointed to divide the respon¬
sibility with me until a Board of Trustees could be organized.
But two conditions were made to the gifts: that the school
should be established in Missouri, and that it should be open to
colored people. The fundamental idea was indeed that it should
be for their special benefit; but special does not necessarily mean
exclusive, while in this case it means precisely the contrary.
It is not for the benefit of the colored people to encourage the
spirit of caste that would make one school white and another
black; that would mark the race inferior-—denying them an
equal right in those public institutions, the school, the church,
the railway carriage, which are open to all others alike, without
question of social standing.
The caste spirit is the legitimate child of slavery, reproducing
with fidelity all her temper, all the hateful lineaments of her
face.
8
We voluntarily assumed the further condition,, not imposed
by the contributors, that while the officers' donations might be
used in trying the expirement, the soldiers' gifts should be so
guarded, that in case of final failure of the school, they could be
returned.
I introduce the second chapter of our history by an extract
from my pocket diary:
"St. Louis, Monday, February 18. Dr. Allen, Capt. Parsons
and myself have to day consulted Gen. Fisk, Mr. Fishback,
Dr. Post, Dr. Eliot and Mr. Yeatman, all of whom are warmly
interested in the education of the colored race, and all seem to
think that our enterprise will fail. I don't."
I do not read this to boast of my superior sagacity, but for the
opposite reason, to show wherein I was mistaken and they were
right. They appreciated the difficulty of the undertaking. I,
supposing the same enthusiasm would be manifested elsewhere
that our regiment had shown, did not. They were right in say¬
ing that no more money could be raised from the public at that
time; but to my feelings, it was like going from a warm room
into a cold bath, to learn that fact.
It was our plan while in Texas to add one or two citizens of
St. Louis to our committee; and Mr. Yeatman and Mr. Mcln-
tyre consented to become members and assist us in our organi¬
zation, to whom later was joined Gov. Fletcher. Mr. Yeatman
was made treasurer, and continued so four years.
Fidelity to the truth of history alone induces me to narrate
an instructive incident that happened just then. Leading mem¬
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Mississippi Valley
were agitating the project of establishing at St. Louis a grand
institution of learning to be a memorial of the centennial of the
Methodist Church, and to be called the Central University. A
board of trustees had been appointed, and the plan well digested.
A meeting for consultation, initiated by one of them, was held
between that board and our committee.
It was proposed that we should lay a small offering upon their
large altar; that we should give Lincoln Institute, with its
funds, its prestige, if it had any, and whatever zeal was enlisted
9
in its behalf, to Central University, and that they should at
once commence a school open to colored pupils.
Our committee was a unit in favor of the proposition. Some
of the other yboard, particularly General Pile and Dr. Crary,
were earnestly in favor of it; but two of them opposed it—one
mildly, the other zealously. They were not ready to begin their
magnificent undertaking with the negro, and the scheme was
dropped. We were not injured thereby, but I believe in the
Providence of God, the opportunity of the Central University
was lost.
Then followed the usual and necessary details : irksome to do,
and still more irksome to tell; consultation with different per¬
sons, running about to different places, attending to those for¬
malities that enshrine the heart of things as the body holds the
soul.
Our second chapter closes at Jefferson City, June 25th, with
the organization of a board of trustees, under the general cor¬
poration act of Missouri, who suceeded to the powers and duties
of the committee.
The board consisted of Gov. Fletcher, Superintendent Parker,
Mr. Yeatman, Judge Krekel, Attorney General Wingate, State
Printer Foster, State Treasurer Bishop, Rev. Mr. Whitaker,
R. B. Foster and Sergeant Brown. The constitution adopted
was brief. It was a leading idea in framing it, to impose few
preliminary conditions, but rather leave the school free to de-
velope according to circumstances—an idea fully justified by
results.
The board commenced with a fund of $6,000, which in three
months, or by September, was increased, in possession or by
valid promise, afterwards redeemed to $8,500. $2,000 of it
being from the Freedmen's Bureau, especially designated to be
used in building.
My visit to the East during the summer satisfied me that an
endowment could not be raised at that time ; but I still felt a
strong confidence that if the school were established, and proved
worthy to live, it would find the means of life. The trustees
10
directed me to commence the school in September. My first
care was to find a house for it.
There were then as now, two colored churches in town. The
Baptist Church was already occupied by a school of the American
Missionary Association, a society which by dotting the South
with schools and churches for the colored people, has done an
immense work in transforming the freedmen into free men; in
loosing the bonds of ignorance, when the government had loosed
the bonds of slavery.
This school was taught by two faithful ladies, who were
stoned in the streets by boys of chivalric proclivities, and whose
work was not recognized as it should have been lay the other
party, tho' to Gov. Fletcher's honor be it said that he protected
them. It was their fate, as it has been of thousands before and
will be of thousands to come, to sow in tears, but not to reap in
joy, to lay foundations on which others should build.
I applied to the colored Methodist Church for their house,
promising that we would repair it and pay rent.
The trustees consented, but the minister refused, alleging as
a reason, that the teacher would be white. I applied to the
white Methodist Church, sometimes called the North Methodist,
for the basement of their house, promising that we would put
it in order and pay rent. The trustees were willing, but the
minister refused, alleging as a reason that the scholars would
be black.
That was in 1866, five years ago, but equal to five decades of
years in older communities, for the changes that have taken
place.
There was then no public school in the Capital of Missouri,
no board of education, no public school house. But there was
a shell, a wreck, a ruin of the house that before the war had
supplied, with two rooms each 22 feet square, the wants of the
free school system of Jefferson City. I obtained this ruin from
the township directors, and on the 17th of September, commenced
the active educational work of Lincoln Institute with two pupils.
I deem it not unworthy the dignity of the muse of history to
record their names, Henry Brown and Cornelius Chappell.
11
But I must pass on somewhat more rapidly. The house was
soon repaired to some extent. The school filled up until it
became crowded and an assistant was needed. Mr. Festus Reed
gave his services withont charge for about five months, but at
the close of the year, the trustees voted him $200.
In the spring of 1868, Mr. C. R. Beal of Michigan, undertood
an agency for Lincoln Institute. The precise results of his
agency will be given to you in dollars and cents by the chairman
of the Executive Committee. It is enough for me now to say,
that it has entirely paid the current expenses of the school for
more than three years.
I would not omit to mention that during the third year of its
existence, Lincoln Institute was taught by Mr. W. H. Payne,
a graduate of Adrian College, Michigan, and his sister Miss
Fannie Payne.
The new Constitution of this State of 1865, provides, that
separate colored schools may be established, and the statute law
of a later date requires that they shall be; but they both require
an equal distribution of funds. Public schools for colored
children began to be established in various parts of the State;
but it was early perceived that the principle of a fair share of
public funds would require that a portion of funds appropriated
by the State for higher : education than that of the common
school, should in some manner reach the colored people.
And believing that their interests would thereby be served
in the best possible way, our trustees were watching the signs
of the times, to get support for the Lincoln Institute by that
method.
In two successive years a bill to give us a share of the proceeds
of the Agricultural College land grant, passed one house of the
Legislature, and was lost or deferred in the other, not by hos¬
tility to the measure, but by accidents of legislation not now
necessary to explain. But our enterprise received a sudden de¬
velopment in the early part of 1870.
A convention of those interested in the education of the
colored people of this State was held in this city, commencing
January 19th. This convention was called by J. Milton Turner
2
12
now minister resident of the United States, at ^the capital of
Liberia, Mr. Turner was President of the convention, Rev.
Moses Dickson was chairman of the business committee. That
convention presented to the Legislature the draft of a bill to en¬
dow Lincoln Institute as a State Normal School for training
colored teachers.
That bill was taken up by the Legislature, passed without
amendment and approved by Gov. McClurg, February 14th,
1870. A supplementary and explanatory act was approved
March 16th. This act declared the purpose of the first some¬
what more definitely and provided for one or two matters of
detail omitted in the first. By these acts Lincoln Institute was
constituted a State Normal School for training colored teachers
for public schools, yet not so as to destroy the articles of incor¬
poration, or prevent other departments in the institution.
When the trustees should certify under oath, that they held
in trust for that purpose, buildings and grounds of a value not
less than $15,000, the sum of $5,000 per year, payable in semi¬
annual installments, was appropriated from the State Treasury
for said Normal School.
The last chapter in this history is to tell how we fulfilled the
condition of raising the $15,000 ; for we did fulfill it, and
made the required certificate, and built the $20,000 house we
are now in.
As I said before, Mr. Beal's agency had supported the school
and we had $7,000 on hand. We appointed an agent in Mis¬
souri, Mr. John Lane, and our two agents remitted during the
year fully $2,000, besides enough to pay the current expenses
of the school.
The Western Sanitary Commission generously gave us $2,000.
But the most important contribution, and the one which insured
our final success was another gift of $6,000, from the Freedmen's
Bureau, additional to the $2,000 previously given. It was not
without difficulty that Gen. Howard was able to give us this
last sum of $6,000. The funds of the Bureau were nearly
exhausted and there were to be no more. There were many
calls for assistance which must be refused. I am not in the
IB
business which the .New York Tribune does so well of revealing
State secrets, yet I will say that Gen. Howard called his most
trusted advisers to consider the question whether anything more
could be done for Lincoln Institute, and a majority said deci¬
dedly, No. Yet he promised us $5,000 of the ten we asked
for, and gave us six.
Let me pause to say a word about the Freedmen's Bureau.
Some American citizens exercise the inalienable right to grumble,
by complaining of its expense to the country.
Now, if its cost had been much more than they suppose it to
have been, the necessity of the situation and the great good
resulting would justify the expenditure, but in reality, its ex¬
pense to the government has been much less than its outlays
would seem to indicate. When, in the first years of the war,
the colored people of Virginia and Maryland flocked into Wash¬
ington, the Quatermaster's Department of the Government set
immense numbers of them to work, to preserve them from idle¬
ness and starvation. At one time not less than 20,000 men were
thus employed. Most of these men were separated from their
families; all had recently emerged from a condition of enforced
labor, and of dependence upon the care of others for the supply
of their daily wants. Then Edwin M. Stanton, a man who
made precedents- instead of following them, issued an order
retaining 10 per cent, of the wages of the contrabands for the
benefit of their families. How many women and children were
saved from suffering by this wise foresight of the war Secretary,
may never be known. But one unforeseen result took place.
In the vicissitudes of war times, there happened to be a large
residuum of this fund that was never called for. Congress,
reasoning justly that this was the product of labor of colored
men, and did not belong to the government at all, turned it over
to the Freedmen's Bureau to be used for educational purposes.
And considering that the money had been earned in Washing¬
ton, Gen. Howard did well to appropriate a larger sum of it, to
a Central University at the capital, than was used at any other
place.
14
I was appointed to sketch the successive steps by which Lin¬
coln Institute has reached its present position. My task is done.
Yet let me sum up.
The gifts of two colored regiments, $5,000 from the 62d,
$1,375 from the 65th, first gave it existence. The work of two
agents, Mr. Beal for three years, Mr. Lane for one, kept it alive
and furnished $2,000 more than that. The generosity of the
Freedmen's Bureau and Western Sanitary Commission, the for¬
mer giving $8,000, the latter $2,000, enabled us to build this
house; and built upon such foundations, the State gives us
$5,000 a year for the grand and noble work of training colored
teachers.
I have said little of the school during these five years. Let
it speak for itself. I might say much about the future, but I
refrain. Except this. In this building is collected the labor
of many hundred men. Choppers, sawyers, carpenters, miners
and manufacturers of iron and tin, brick makers and brick layers,
glass makers and, glaziers and painters, graders, furnace men,
lime burners and plasterers, not to mention carriers and dealers;
all these have done more or less of labor to produce this build¬
ing. Just so in the moral sphere, many hundred, many thou¬
sand persons have given good wishes and good deeds, prayers,
benedictions and labor to make this institution what it already
is. Let us hope that by the blessing of God, so richly given
heretofore, it may so fulfill its destiny, that not one of the donors
shall ever regret his contribution to Lincoln Institute.
15
SPEECH OF COL. DAVID BRANSON,
(Late Commander of 62d U. 8. Colored Infantry.)
My Friends : This, with one exception, has been the happi¬
est 4th of July in my life. That exception was in 1863, when
I saw the Rebel flag go down at Vicksburg. I-felt the exulta¬
tion of victory then and I feel it to-day as I look upon this
splendid building.
Looking in the faces of my old comrades of the sixty-second
here to-day, memory goes back to the past, when hundreds of
you came to me at Benton Barracks, ragged, starving and freez¬
ing—some did freeze to death—and emotions fill me that no
language can express. I can seldom think of those scenes of
suffering without almost shedding tears.
But happily those days are past. No more marching with
sluggish step and plantation gait through the streets of St. Louis,
amid the jeers of your enemies—no more crossing the Mississippi
on the ice—no more sinking steamers and consequent exposure
on the cold muddy banks of the river—no more killing labor
on fortifications at Port Hudson, Baton Rouge and Morganza—
no more voyages over the Gulf of Mexico, packed like cattle in
the hold of a vessel—no more weary marches in the burning
climate of Texas—no more death by the bullet—and no more
afternoons on the banks of the Rio-Grande, deliberating on the
future education of yourselves when discharged from the army;
but peace and prosperity here with the result of those delibera¬
tions before us.
Our enemies predicted, that upon the disbanding of our volun¬
teer army—particularly the colored portion of it—it would turn
to bands of marauding murderers and idle vagabonds, and this
Institute was our answer.
Capt. Foster does not do himself justice in his history of this 1
Institute. I very much fear that had he died previous to 1870,
this Institute would not have been built. He was for a long
time the very life and soul of it. To those persons who have
16
furnished most of the funds he was the best known person con¬
nected with.the Institute. Without his leadership not a dollar
would have been given by the officers or soldiers of either the
62d or 65th regiments, and I trust for the sake of the future
success of the Institution that he will, for many years to come?
rfemain at its head.*
If he does, or if the Institution is properly managed, as I have
no doubt it will be, I make this proposition to the former mem¬
bers of the 62d regiment, suggested by the remarkable fact that
the 400 remaining members of it gave one-tenth of all they
possessed. Not being collectively worth $50,000, they paid in to
start it, the sum of $5,000. I propose, therefore, that each of
us who may have pecuniary success in life, endow this Institute
with one-tenth of his surplus profits, above cost of living, after
he shall have become securely established in business.
The future success of this Institute also depends on our avoid¬
ing the rocks on which educational institutions generally split,
and these are chiefly prejudices arising from color, race and creed.
The first two are provided for, but I think our Constitution
should be amended so as to read: " No test founded on race,
color or creed shall be allowed in the election of trustees, teach¬
ers or other officers of said Institute, or in the admission of
scholars thereto, or for any purpose whatever."
The future peace of our country is threatened more by the
unwise zeal of religious men than by anything else, unless it be
ignorance itself; and ignorance is the tool of such unwise zealots.
Inquisitions, burnings at the stake, and hanging of the best men
and women of their time, have been their work in the past, and
will be in the future, unless prevented by just such schools as
this, managed by liberal-minded men like Prof. Foster here,
who, while holding strong religions convictions of his own, fully
recognizes the right under our glorous Constitution of theTJnited
States, of every man, be he Christian, Jew or Mahomedan, to
his own creed, untrammeled by any law whatever. And right
here I cannot refrain from denouncing those men who are trying
to insert a religious amendment in the Constitution of the United
States.
17
A well-known author and close observer of events has well
said that " It is the point of a wedge whose butt end is an estab¬
lished Church •" and an established Church in England has
produced great wars in the past, and I will venture to predict,
will deluge the British Isles in blood during the next genera¬
tion.
But some may ask. Are we to have no religion ? no morality ?
T have this to answer, on the best authority ever given us, and
it is the sum of all the commandments, based on justice, tem¬
pered with mercy, and adorned by love: " Whatsoever ye would
that men do to you, even so do ye unto them."
When we are able to live up to that law, then it will be time
to think of teaching creeds and theologies in our public schools;
and then they will not be needed or thought of. The future of
our free government depends on us who have the advantages of
education. Whether we wish it or not, we must educate the
masses pouring in-from Europe on the East and Asia on the
West, or they will destroy our free government and render des¬
potic government a necessity.
It is our destiny to lift up the races that are down, and we
need not be dragged down in the work, but rather buoyed up
to a still higher level. Let us then each and all do what lies
in our power for the elevation and happiness both of ourselves
and others; and so living we shall not, when called from this
world to the great unknown, fear to meet the spirits gone before;
but rather approach it as we do a new country, whither our
friends have preceeded us to enjoy greater happiness than in the
land of our birth.
^October 4th, 1871.
In the re-organization of the school for 1871, Prof. Foster,
needing a change for the benefit of his health, declined a re¬
election to the office of Principal, and Prof. M. Henry Smith, a
man every way worthy of the place was unanimously chosen his
successor.
18
The school opened Sept. 4, with 80 pupils, since increased to
150 and more constantly applying for admission who cannot be
received for want of funds, to employ teachers and to build a
boarding house. To meet these wants, Capt. Foster has been
appointed general agent, (besides a local agent in Missouri,)
$20,000 is needed to double the efficiency of the school. To
-obtain this, while unconditional gifts will be thankfully received,
Capt. Foster has opened a subscription, payment on which will
be due only when that sum shall have been subscribed.
His address in Philadelphia, is care of Col. D. Branson, 507
South Broad St., and in Boston, Mass. No. 9 Charter Street.
To my personal friends and to the friends of education every¬
where, I most earnestly appeal for aid to this great work, assur¬
ing you from my own knowledge of its present management, the
most careful and efficient use of whatever funds you may con¬
tribute.
David Bkanson.