CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

INCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1849.

Art. I. This Society shall be called “The American Missionary Association.”

Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.

Art. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and, by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have not professed their faith may be constituted life members without the privilege of voting.

Art. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of September, October or November, for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, at such time and place as shall be designated by the Executive Committee.

Art. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting, and of delegates from churches, local missionary societies, and other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one representative.

Art. VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer, two Auditors and an Executive Committee of not less than twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be advisory and the Treasurer ex-officio members.

Art. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining and dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and agents; the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the transaction of all such business as usually appertains to the executive committees of missionary and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings to be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which shall, by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the complaints of any aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision of such reference shall be final.

The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings; to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call, in all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and general conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the diffusion of the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous promotion of the missionary work.

Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for transacting business.

Art. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves.

Art. IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to the principles of this Society, and wishing to appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.

ART. X. No amendment shall be made to this Constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the meeting.

FOOTNOTE:

[A] By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a belief in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a Saviour; the Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous.


THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION.

Article I. This Society shall be called “The American Missionary Association.”

Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations.

Art. III. Members may be constituted for life by the payment of fifty dollars into the treasury of the Association, with the written declaration, at the time or times of payment, that the sum is to be applied to constitute a designated person a Life member; and such membership shall begin sixty days after the payment shall have been completed.

Churches, which have within a year contributed to the funds of the Association, and State Associations or Conferences of Churches, may appoint delegates to the Annual Meeting of the Association, each of such Churches and Associations or Conferences to be entitled to two delegates; such delegates, duly attested by credentials, shall be members of the Association for the year for which they were thus appointed.

Art. IV. Members shall be entitled to vote by ballot in the election of President, five Vice-Presidents, the Board of Directors, and on Amendments to the Constitution; and they shall be entitled to be present at all meetings of the Board of Directors, and to take part in the proceedings, but not to vote.

Art. V. The Annual Meeting of the Association and of the Board of Directors shall be held in the month of October or November, at such time and place as may be designated by the Executive Committee.

Art. VI. The Board of Directors shall consist of fifty persons, of whom fifteen shall constitute a quorum. They shall be chosen by ballot, the votes of absent members being receivable under such safeguards as may be prescribed in the By-Laws of the Association. At the first election of this Board, ten persons shall be elected for the term of one year, and a like number for terms of two, three, four, and five years respectively; and each year thereafter ten persons shall be elected for the full term of five years, and such others as may be needed to fill vacancies.

If any Director shall fail to attend two annual meetings in succession, and to report the reason for such non-attendance, his place on the Board shall be regarded as vacant.

Art. VII. The Board of Directors shall elect Secretaries of the Association, Treasurer, Auditors, and an Executive Committee of fifteen members, shall ordain By-Laws, and in general shall direct and control the operations of the Association.

Art. VIII. The powers and functions of the several officers shall be prescribed in the By-Laws.

Art. IX. No person shall be made a Director or officer of this Association who is not a member of some evangelical church.

Art. X. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to the principles of this society, and wishing to appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.

Art. XI. Proposals for the amendment of this Constitution, sustained by the signatures of not less than fifty members of the Association, shall be published for not less than three months in the official periodicals of the Association, and shall thereafter be submitted to the vote of the members, by ballot, at the annual meeting, under such conditions as shall be prescribed in the By-Laws; and if the proposed amendment shall be sustained by two-thirds of the ballots cast, it shall be declared adopted.











THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.


AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America, and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy toward the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa.

STATISTICS.

Churches: In the South—In District of Columbia, 1; Virginia, 1; North Carolina, 6; South Carolina, 2; Georgia, 13; Kentucky, 7; Tennessee, 4; Alabama, 14; Kansas, 1; Arkansas, 1; Louisiana, 18; Mississippi, 4; Texas, 6. Africa, 3. Among the Indians, 1. Total, 82.

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Tex.—8. Graded or Normal Schools: Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S.C.; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn.—11. Other Schools, 35. Total, 54.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 319; among the Chinese, 28; among the Indians, 9; in Africa, 13. Total, 369. Students.—In theology, 104; law, 20; in college course, 91; in other studies, 8,884. Total, 9,108. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches, the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses for the new churches we are organizing; more Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.

Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A. office as directed on second page cover.

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

We are anxious to put the American Missionary on a paying basis. We intend to make it worth its price, and we ask our patrons to aid us:

1. More of our readers can take pains to send us either the moderate subscription price (50 cents), or $1.00, naming a friend to whom we may send a second copy.

2. A special friend in each church can secure subscribers at club-rates (12 copies for $5 or 25 copies for $10).

3. Business men can benefit themselves by advertising in a periodical that has a circulation of 20,000 copies monthly and that goes to many of the best men and families in the land. Will not our friends aid us to make this plan a success?

We nevertheless renew the offer hitherto made, that the Missionary will be sent gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all Clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath-schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.

Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade street, New York, N.Y.

Atkin & Prout, Printers, 12 Barclay St., N.Y.


Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious printer’s punctuation errors and omissions corrected. Ditto marks replaced by text they represent.

Corrected table of Contents, which incorrectly included the monthly section The Freedmen on the line for the General Notes article.

“Steet” changed to “Street” on the inside cover in the CORRESPONDING SECRETARY listing.

“brethern” changed to “brethren” on page 324. (the calling in of these brethern)

“evenning” changed to “evening” on page 340. (the evening, till a late hour)

The amount in the Mukwanago entry on page 347 is not printed clearly. Best estimate used.