Report-1840, May 4

   Since your last session a plan has been devised, with the approbation of the officers and Board of Managers of the Parent Missionary Society, to establish a central Indian Manual Labor School, with the design of collecting and teaching the native children of the several adjacent tribes. The plan has been submitted to the executive department of the national government having the superintendence of Indian affairs and has met with a favorable and encouraging consideration; and we are much indebted to the officers and agents of the civil government in, and adjacent to, the Indian country, for the extensive aid they have given in the establishment of the institution, both by employing their influence in recommending it to the Indians, and advising in its structure and organization. This school is already, to a considerable extent, in successful operation. Native children from five different tribes are collected, and men from these tribes have visited the institution, and have very generally been satisfied with its government and objects. We cannot but regard this establishment as full of promise of lasting benefits to the Indian race. But as a detailed report of its organization, designs, and prospects, will come before you, we will only add our earnest recommendation of the plan to your deliberate consideration, with regard to the present condition and wants of the Indians, and its adaptation to the great objects it is designed to accomplish—the conversion of the Indians to the Christian faith, and their improvement in all the arts and habits of civilized life. And we would further recommend an inquiry into the expediency of establishing one or more institutions at suitable locations in the Indian country, on the same plan, and for the same purposes.

[From the Address of the Bishops, General Conference Journals and Debates, 1840-1844, p. 140, 150. From the files of Baker University.]