Is the A. M. A. devoting a proper share of its work to the extension of Congregational Churches in the South? The question is a fair one, and deserves a frank answer. But the answer, to be just to all interests concerned, must take a broad view of the whole subject. The paramount duty of the nation, and especially of the churches, to the emancipated slaves, is to fit them for their new position as citizens, and their true destiny as men and Christians in America, and as missionaries to Africa. Anything short of this is less than our whole duty. The blacks are all religious in their way, and nearly all are connected with churches. In the matter of outward profession and inward emotion, the _quantity_ is all that could be asked. It is in the _quality_ alone that a change is needed. No Christian Church can discharge its duty to them by merely denominationalizing them into its ranks, leaving the essentials of character and Christian manhood unchanged. The Congregational Churches of this country certainly will not be satisfied with this low aim. But these Congregational Churches are, by the nature of the case, compelled to work in methods differing from those of other denominations. Methodists, Baptists, and, to some extent, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, pre-occupy the ground. Congregationalists were almost unknown among the blacks before the war, and their efforts must naturally meet with sectarian prejudice, somewhat in proportion to the ignorance of the people. But, nevertheless, Congregationalism has a great responsibility in regard to this people, in laying foundations on which to build the essentials of character in civil and Christian life. It is with this aim that the Association has, from the beginning, sought to do its work—moving, with the progress of the colored people, from the common-school to the more effective normal, collegiate and theological teaching. The wisdom of its efforts is attested by the commendations of those, both in the South and North, who are most competent to judge, and also by the more convincing fact, that it can point to 100,000 scholars in schools taught by its former pupils, to the education it has given to many colored ministers, and to the missionaries, born in slavery, trained in its schools, and now sent to Africa.