In 1846 a society was formed in the North distinguished mainly by its sympathy for the slave.  But slavery then ruled the North as well as the South, and this society was made to feel the rod of its power.  Some of its founders learned that rewards had been offered for their abduction; others suffered from the violence of mobs; and its missionaries in the South were imprisoned or banished.  When the slaves were freed, the society went swiftly and energetically to their help, and has sent to them thousands of consecrated teachers and has spent millions of money for their relief.  Its work is now so manifestly beneficial that it is welcomed by both the blacks and the whites in the South.

At the date of the founding of this society, a Northern man in the prime of life was carrying on a prosperous mercantile business in a Southern city.  He had already been in that city nearly thirty years and was honored and trusted.  When the war came his property was jeopardized, but was afterwards returned to him in full.  And now comes the Providential compensation.  That wealth earned in the South, lost and then restored, is given back to the South to educate and assist the emancipated slaves.  The giver, now in the 88th year of his age, finds it the joy and crown of his life to be thus not only a benefactor to the poor blacks, but to furnish a marked illustration of the fraternal feeling which the North cherishes towards the South.  And may we not add that Providence in guiding this noble man to select this once persecuted society as the almoner of his bounty, is giving it a token of the Divine approbation for its faithfulness to the oppressed slave.

A Message to the Colored People.

It is due to Mr. Hand to say that he is much more interested in the good that shall be done to the colored people by his gift, than he is in any public notices of himself.  His letters to us discourage such notices, but he writes most warmly urging us to press upon the colored people the all-controlling thought, that they must be the chief and most efficient agents in the great work of their own advancement in industry, temperance and civilization; that they should not become office seekers, and should abandon at once and forever, the expectation of aid for them as colored people, and that above all, that which is most vital to them for this world and the next, is love to God and man, and that the Bible is the best source of light and the foundation of their surest hopes.

These are wise counsels and we shall endeavor to press them upon all, and especially upon those whom we shall aid out of this fund.  We believe that Mr. Hand would deplore it as the greatest calamity that could befall his gift, if it should in any way pauperize the colored people or take from them their sense of the need—­the essential need of self-reliance and self-help—­if it should tempt them to an idle life, to seeking after office or to become beggars for help from Government or from any other source.  This gift, in the intention of the donor, and in that of the Association that is to administer it, is that it may be a stimulus and encouragement to personal energy and enterprise.