Christian Reconstruction: The American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861-1890

6. Administration and Fund Collecting

>~l Administration and Fund Collecting "r----===========l''- ! ~ HE EFFECTIVENESS of the AMA's southern work de- ~ " pended largely on the efficiency of its central administration, which collected money, hired and supervised agents, and made and implemented policy. The association's initial constitution provided for a president, five to seven vice-presidents, a corresponding secretary (two after 1853), a treasurer, and an executive committee of twelve with the corresponding secretaries and treasurer as ex-officio members. The presidents and vice-presidents were honorary, selected with a view to enhancing the AMA's prestige and fund-raising potential . The primary governing body was the annual meeting constituted ofofficers and members. It reviewed activities and policies and elected officers. In reality, however, the executive committee, which met monthly in New York, was more influential. Rarely did an annual meeting reverse an executive committee decision, and until 1883 the committee was dominated by the corresponding secretaries and the treasurer.l Although the AMA was democratic in organization, its direction and strength came from Simeon S. Jocelyn, George Whipple, and Lewis Tappan.2 Jocelyn had a long career of working with and for blacks. As pastor ofa black New Haven, Connecticut, church, he had drawn up plans for a black college which was abandoned when local officials refused to cooperate. Later he was a missionary to New York blacks and served on the executive committee of the New York Antislavery Society. It was a Jocelyn speech in 1833, Lewis Tappan claimed, which converted him to immediate emancipation. He was chairman of the Amistad Committee and helped to organize the AMA. In 1853 he became corresponding secretary of the AMA's home department. Jocelyn's gentle nature and reluctance to injure feelings made him much loved by teachers and missionaries, but also rendered him less effective than he 87 88 CHRISTIAN RECONSTR UCTION should have been. "Father Jocelyn" often gave kindly lectures when severe censure or dismissal was needed.3 Whipple had studied at Onedia Institute and at Lane Seminary and was one ofthe Lane rebels who went to Oberlin in 1835 after the seminary closed its doors to them. Although an ordained minister, he was never a pastor. Rather, he became principal of the Oberlin preparatory department upon graduation and was appointed professor of mathematics in 1838. At Oberlin, Whipple developed close friendships with black students including John Mercer Langston, who lived in his home. While at Oberlin, Whipple continued his involvement with the abolition movement, working for the American Anti-Slavery Society in Ohio and New York. He was a recognized abolitionist figure when he became corresponding secretary for the AMA in 1846. Later he became chief editor of the American Missionary and supervisor of foreign missions. When the association began to emphasize missions to freedmen, he shifted his attention to the home department. Whipple was patient with the petty conflicts among teachers and missionaries and generally won their respect and esteem. He wrote thousands of letters of encouragement and, when needed, gentle rebuke. Whipple often worked in the office until after midnight, curling up on his desk to sleep in order to take up the pen at daybreak. At his death he was referred to as "a discreet and sleepless friend of the Freedmen, a trusted counsellor in the trying time of Emancipation, of Lincoln, the Emancipator."4 Lewis Tappan, an ardent abolitionist since the early 1830s, was clearly the most influential AMA officer from 1846 until his retirement in 1866.5 His business acumen and shrewd management were influential in the association's growth and strength. As Bertram WyattBrown has shown, Tappan "scored all too well on the familiar checklist of Yankee do-gooder's grave defects: moral arrogance, obstinacy, cliquish conformity, provincial bigotry, and abrasive manners-with a streak of unpleasant opportunism when circumstances allowed." But he was also courageous, a splendid organizer, a gifted publisher, administrator , and financier ofreform causes. He had a "remarkable empathy " for blacks, "an understanding that, while paternal and rather abstract, far exceeded that of most white Americans." He spent much of his seemingly unlimited energy in forwarding the antislavery movement . He lectured, wrote letters and articles, organized societies, fi- Administration and Fund Collecting 89 nancially assisted abolitionists and black vigilance committees, and occasionally hid slave fugitives in his home. Tappan apparently relished defiance of danger and the hatred of slaveholders. Once he opened a package which contained a black person 's ear and...