It is a matter of congratulation that this work can be entered upon by this Association at once and with vigor, without embarrassment or exciting in any quarter criticism or suspicion. It is idle for us to suppose that the social growth of generations enforced by ignorance, savage heredity and marked physical characteristics, has wasted away in less than a score of years. More vital than any political problem or the growth of any special church polity is the question whether the time can ever come in this country when the negro in debating his chances and opportunities in life shall not be made to feel that his color is a drawback to him. In working out the solution of this problem this Association has borne a part that is fast challenging the respect of the South and the admiration of the North. This is a vantage ground that it is hazardous to yield. The work of this Association is understood everywhere to mean that nothing less than the utter demolishment of every barrier in the upward progress of the negro race will satisfy it. If, therefore, the churches lay upon it this further work, we feel sure that not only by heritage will it prove true to these fundamental principles, but that the workers at present in the South will exercise an Argus-eyed vigilance that nowhere shall there be a shadow of a suspicion that the spirit of caste has influenced its action. Without rashness on one hand or neglecting its opportunities on the other, the churches at the North can thus safely gratify their present earnest and commendable, though somewhat tardy, desire to benefit the needy whites of the South by asking this Association to turn its attention specially to these mountain whites. The friends of this Association should also remember that the man whose name as a missionary has been the longest on your roll, the Rev. John G. Fee, was born at the base of these Kentucky hills. You should remember, too, that the men who made an anti-slavery church and school in a slavery State years before the war were these mountain whites. This Association nursed its firstborn on these mountain slopes. As patriots, some of whose sons sleep on that Southern soil, you should remember that this whole section was loyal in the battle for a united country unstained by slavery. West Virginia parted from the parent State under this patriotic impulse. Some mountain counties in Kentucky sent more men into the Union army than they had liable to military duty. Surely gratitude for such help in that struggle is not so dead at the North that it will not say to this Association: “If you have the opportunity by churches and schools to repay in part the debt we owe, we will see that you have the money and the men.” * * * * * REPORT ON CHURCH WORK.