CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



143 



London Missionary Society. The annual 

 meeting of the London Missionary Society was 

 held May 13. The annual report showed that the 

 gross income for the year had been 172,309, 

 while the net income had been 148,203. Of the 

 latter sum, 11,450 were for special purposes, 

 leaving only 130,700 available for general use, 

 while the expenditure had been 150,800. By this 

 means the gross deficiency had been increased to 

 30,008. This deficiency was mentioned as the 

 weak point in the society's position. The churches 

 had never provided it with the amount required 

 for the maintenance of the 70 additional mission- 

 aries sent out on the Forward Movement. Al- 

 though the directors had kept grants and pay- 

 ments down to the lowest point, the deficiency was 

 increasing from year to year. 



Scottish Congregational Union. The an- 

 nual business meetings of the Scottish Congrega- 

 tional Union were held in Glasgow, beginning May 

 7, Mr. John Leith presiding, w r ho was succeeded in 

 the chair by the Rev. W. Hamilton. Reports of' 

 the Widows' fund, the Ministers' Provident fund, 

 and the Theological Hall were considered. The 

 Committee on Applications for Aid reported that 

 51 churches had received aid during the year; that 

 17 aided churches returned an increase amounting 

 to 80 members, and 27 a decrease of 199. Grants 

 of 1,345 were voted to 48 churches. The Care 

 of Youth Committee reported that 900 children 

 had entered for the examination, compared with 

 500 in the previous year. The report on foreign 

 missions, it was explained, did not exactly re- 

 flect the attitude of the churches of Scotland, as 

 many of the contributions were sent direct to 

 London. Thankfulness was expressed that the 

 churches of the union, with but few exceptions, 

 used unfermented wine at communion services. 



South African Congregational Union. The 

 Annual Assembly of the South African Congrega- 

 tional Union was held at Cape Town, Oct 23 to 

 31, the Rev. Walter Friend presiding. Three new 

 churches were received into fellowship. The 

 offices of the union were ordered transferred from 

 Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. 



CONGRESS. The second session of the Fifty- 

 sixth Congress began Monday, Dec. 3, 1900; and 

 after the usual official notification of the fact, the 

 President sent in his annual message, as follows: 



To the Senate and House of Representatives : 



At the outgoing of the old and the incoming of 

 the new century you begin the last session of the 

 Fifty-sixth Congress with evidences on every hand 

 of individual and national prosperity and with 

 proof of the growing strength and increasing power 

 for good of republican institutions. Your country- 

 men will join with you in felicitation that Ameri- 

 can liberty is more firmly established than ever 

 before, and that love for it and the determination 

 to preserve it are more universal than at any for- 

 mer period of our history. 



The republic was never so strong, because 

 never so strongly entrenched in the hearts of the 

 people as now. The Constitution, with few amend- 

 ments, exists as it left the hands of its authors. 

 The additions which have been made to it pro- 

 claim larger freedom and more extended citizen- 

 ship. Popular government has demonstrated in 

 its one hundred and twenty-four years of trial here 

 its stability and security, and its efficiency as the 

 best instrument of national development and the 

 best safeguard to human rights. 



When the Sixth Congress assembled in Novem- 

 ber, 1800, the population of the' United States was 

 5,308,483. It is now 76,304,799. Then we had 16 

 States. Now we have 45. Then our territory con- 



sisted of 909,050 square miles. H HI >\v 3,846,595 

 square miles. Education, religion, ; n I morality 

 have kept pace with our advancr-m i 1 in other 

 directions, and while extending i1> \,<> \ r the Gov- 

 ernment has adhered to its fonndati >i principles, 

 and abated none of them in dealing ' i h (jur ne\v 

 peoples and possessions. A nation >< pic-crved 

 and blessed gives reverent thanks to < <,d ;md in- 

 vokes his guidance and the continuance ol hi.s care 

 and favor. 



In our foreign intercourse the dominant ques- 

 tion has been the treatment of the Chinese prob- 

 lem. Apart from this our relations with the: 

 powers have been happy. 



The recent troubles in China spring from the 

 antiforeign agitation which for the past three 

 years has gained strength in the northern prov- 

 inces. Their origin lies deep in the character of 

 the Chinese races and in the traditions of their 

 Government. The Taiping rebellion and the open- 

 ing of Chinese ports to foreign trade and settle- 

 ment disturbed alike the homogeneity and the 

 seclusion of China. 



Meanwhile foreign activity made itself felt in 

 all quarters, not alone on the coast, but along the 

 great river arteries and in the remoter districts, 

 carrying new ideas and introducing new associa- 

 tions among a primitive people which had pursued 

 for centuries a national policy of isolation. 



The telegraph and the railway spreading over 

 their land, the steamers plying on their waterways, 

 the merchant and the missionary penetrating year 

 by year farther to the interior, became to the Chi- 

 nese mind types of an alien invasion, changing 

 the course of their national life and fraught with 

 vague forebodings of disaster to their beliefs and 

 their self-control. 



For several years before the present troubles 

 all the resources of foreign diplomacy, backed by 

 moral demonstrations of the physical force of fleets 

 and arms, have been needed to secure due respect 

 for the treaty rights of foreigners and to obtain 

 satisfaction from the responsible authorities for 

 the sporadic outrages upon the persons and prop- 

 erty of unoffending sojourners, which from time 

 to time occurred at widely separated points in the 

 northern provinces, as in the case of the outbreaks 

 in Szechuen and Shantung. 



Posting of antiforeign placards became a daily 

 occurrence, which the repeated reprobation of the 

 imperial power failed to check or punish. These 

 inflammatory appeals to the ignorance and super- 

 stition of the masses, mendacious and absurd in 

 their accusations and deeply hostile in their spirit, 

 could not but work cumulative harm. They aimed 

 at no particular class of foreigners; they were im- 

 partial in attacking everything foreign. 



An outbreak in Shantung, in which German mis- 

 sionaries were slain, was the too natural result of 

 these malevolent teachings. The posting of se- 

 ditious placards, exhorting to the utter destruc- 

 tion of foreigners and of every foreign thing^ 

 continued unrebuked. Hostile demonstrations to- 

 ward the stranger gained strength by organization. 



The sect commonly styled the Boxers developed 

 greatly in the provinces north of the Yang-Tse, 

 and with the collusion of many notable officials, 

 including some in the immediate councils of the 

 Throne itself, became alarmingly aggressive. No 

 foreigner's life outside of the protected treaty ports 

 was safe. No foreign interest was secure from 

 spoliation. 



The diplomatic representatives of the powers in 

 Pekin strove in vain to check this movement. 

 Protest was followed by demand, and demand by 

 renewed protest, to be met with perfunctory edict* 

 from the Palace and evasive and futile assurances 



