1.  The Association recognizes the control of its constituents.  That recognition was one of the corner-stones on which it was founded.  It sought its members and its funds from persons of evangelical faith and practical morality.  Of such, it offered membership to any one who contributed to its funds.  Thus broadly was it placed on a popular basis.

At length, however, it began to be felt by many of its supporters that there were evils in this method—­that the acts of the society were liable to be regulated by the local attendance at each annual meeting, and that such meetings might easily be “packed” to carry out a purpose.  The officers of the Association, true to the cardinal principles of its founders of control by its constituents, welcomed the discussion and cheerfully accepted the present constitution, which was adopted after due deliberation.  That constitution designates as voters, life members and delegates from the churches, local conferences and state associations.  The Executive Committee believe that we have now reached a satisfactory basis, but if it shall be the will of the constituents to make further modifications hereafter, the fundamental principle of the Association will dictate a ready acceptance of any change that will not set aside the evangelical, missionary, and philanthropic basis on which the Association was founded, and that will not impair contracts or endanger invested funds.  The Association belongs, under Christ, to its constituents.

2.  The work of the Association embraces all forms of effort in both the church and the school.  It was organized and chartered as a missionary society.  This was its fundamental aim.  It was not till 1869, twenty-three years after its organization, that the word “educational” was put into its charter.  But this change did not alter the character of its work—­the school is missionary, the church an educator—­and this church and school work are inseparably blended.  The people among whom it labors are children in knowledge, and will remain so for a long time, for there are millions of blacks, mountain whites, Indians, and Chinese in our country who cannot read and write.  In Northern communities where the children grow up in Christian homes and are environed in cultured society, with the best of common schools, the church finds the material for its membership, so far forth, prepared to its hand, but among these millions of unlettered peoples the church, if it is to be pure and intelligent, must be the outgrowth of the Christian school; and the branches of the tree might as well be expected to grow up without the roots, as such churches without these schools.  The work among them begins in the primary school, and follows them through all departments of industrial, normal, collegiate and theological instruction.